I had a few minutes at the ocean near Monterey, California to photograph. The weather was foggy and the light was no good. Yet, I want to shoot whenever I can. How then can I get a shot worth taking? Since there was not much light I decided to use that in an attempt to make something of the situation. A neutral density filter was used to get an even slower shutter speed. What do you think?

Now let's talk composition. As I often say, once you have your basic composition please resist taking the image. Look at your foreground (if you have one). Can you find something better? Walk around, start looking for lines, anything that stands out, or is different. Once you find something then recompose and shoot. Here I found the flow of the water intriguing as it formed two lines from the side that joined together leading into the images. The slow shutter speed evened the water out and helped to create the "white" water flow.

          Make sure that when you sharpen images like this that you do not sharpen the water as you want it blurry and sharpening it when it looks this dreamy just creates a grainy look. In PhotoShop or LIghtRoom hold down the alt key while sliding the masking slider. Black means it is not sharpening there, while it sharpens that which is white.

          The old masters did a lot to their black & white images by dodging (lightening) and burning (darkening). We can do the same with our digital tools. So I lightened the white water flow just a bit. I also darkened some of the rocks slightly to create a contrast between the rocks and the water. I am very pleased with the images given the horrible conditions.