Photo: Laura on the Dock

On our visit to Cocoa Beach this summer, we were driving back to our hotel after eating one night. I saw a sign that said, “Kiwanis Island Park,” and I quickly turned the car so that we could check it out. We went up the road a very short distance, and we saw a great view out over the water of Sykes Creek.

While I went back to the car to get my tripod for some long exposures, Laura sat down on one of the small boat docks to wait. And of course I thought that would be the perfect subject for a photo. It turned out rather well, as you can see here.

It was very peaceful out that night. There weren’t many other people around us, except for the passing cars leaving baseball games at the fields further back into the park. There were, however, quite a few mosquitoes out that evening, as you might suspect, and we hadn’t sprayed ourselves with bug spray, which we should have known to do. Besides some nice photos, I also left with a few nice sized mosquito bites. Oh well, it was worth it in the long run. The mosquito bites have long since gone away, but the photos - and the memories - will be around for a long time, I hope.

Processing this photo turned out to take longer than I thought it would, because I had a certain look that I was going for. I wanted to keep the light on the water without darkening it too much, but I also wanted a slightly darker sky. I ended up blending a few different layers created from different exposures of the same RAW file, and in the end I came up with the look I was going for.

I took several more photos that evening, so be sure to watch for them in the future.

About the photo:
A single RAW exposure, processed in Photoshop. Read more about the photo software and gear I use at the camera gear page.
Camera: Olympus OM-D E-M10
Lens: Olympus 14-42mm IIR