Pier to Peace

One of my favorite photography locations in my hometown. This lone pier sits behind and old fish house. The Captain Phillips Shrimping boat sits to my back left. This photo is my constant reminder to always, always, always, stick around after sunset.

I was at this location for a couple hours. Capturing pelicans during gold hour waiting for the sunset. The sunset it self was actually kind of lack luster but it just had that feel that once the sun was all the way down below the horizon, the sky was going to go off. I grew up here and I have seen it happen plenty of times. And sure enough. A few minutes after the sun was gone, below the horizon, the sky exploded with colors.

This was shot at f/11 iso50 and a 20second shutter speed. I took this in 2021, so I don't remember if I used an ND filter or not. I don't think I did as the ambient light was low enough to get the longer exposure w/o a filter. This is a single shot. No HDR. I used some selective masking in Lightroom to bring out some more detail in the pier and separate it from the background. I also used the color grading tool to bring out some of the more deep blues/purples and transition them into the soft warm glow where the sunset. I did some further selective curve/levels adjustments in photoshop but nothing crazy.