The background is a pier in Cayucos beach where I found myself alive, well and grateful for photo opportunities while enjoying the scenes and togetherness with family.
Around the same twilight color time zone, this is also an odd time to take portraits. But it can be rewarding if I use flash. I ain't a strobist and I certainly dislike the use of built-in flash. In traveling, I seldom find myself carrying an external flash. Whenever I come to a decision to filling a slot in my Kata bag, I always end up choosing an extra lens instead of the flash -- the flash is just too bulky and heavy. I ran into professional photog like shooting in the beach in a couple of occasions with serious flash shooting takes place after sunset while the background is the dimming twilight after sunset.
With lack of strobing gear, I used the built in flash and I normally try to dial in negative 1/3, 2/3 or even 1 stop in flash adjustment. But with the 135mm and a far distance, the flash compensation can be moot.
I wish in 2013 to make a change and bring a flash instead. At the minimal, I am trying to find a trustworthy diffuser that I can count on. I am looking to this built-in flash diffuser in Amazon. I tried film cartridge but I am not finding satisfactory results. If you have tips with a smaller flash that is easy to carry in traveling, please clue me in. I have bought this Neewer slave flash from Amazon for my use with Sony NEX and I will try it with Pentax built-in flash but I need a light blocker to shield the built-in flash as a master for the optical slave.
Similar twilight color shots happen on an earlier day on the Cayucos pier. Not as dramatic color but the blue, orange and red varies as time gets deeper into the evening.
Cayucos Beach Pier
with FA 43mm f/1.9 limited
My model on far end on the pier
with FA 43mm f/1.9 limited
And this is the parting shot where my model dodges to my right and I pan right and miss my original framing on the fishing poles on left. I did not clean up the noise, shot in 1600 straight out of K-5 and FA 43mm f/1.9 @ f/2.5.
I don't know if it is the AWB picked up by the camera, there are times that the same scene will come as more red and yellow while a slight change of angle will have all the bluish tint in the background.
Parting Scene On Cayucos Beach Pier
with FA 43mm f/1.9 limited
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