Rangefinder Magazine
November 2004
Rf
Cookbook by Jake Butler
Playa Hermosa Sunset
 The color palette of the Costa Rican winter sky has no limits.
Red dawn bleeds into the new day of the Central Americas. Gold and purple ebb
and flow together at sunset. Along the western shore of Playa Hermosa, la pura
vida is ever-present. The light itself expresses it with vitality.
This strip
of coastline is beautiful. Surfers come from all over the world to ride the
hollow beach-break, known for its board- and bone-breaking power. Iguanas roam
about regally and perch in the warm sunlight. Costa Rican teak trees grow wild
along the shores, and the jungle canopy covers the mountains to the east. The
silt-like sand is as black as the metamorphic bedrock.
On this particular scene
I ended up shooting a whole roll of 220 film—32
exposures with my Pentax 645N II. The tonality change of the light shifted
so incredibly from burnt orange/red to the soft purples of this later shot
that I couldn’t take my eyes from it. The waves sent white, foamy surges
up the steep beach embankment, which would reach an apex and then plummet back
down into the ocean. The light beamed off the wet sand from the receding water
and added an appealing element to the picture. I stopped down the lens for
enough depth of field (f/11), while slowing the shutter speed (four seconds)
to allow the moving water to blur. With three stops of graduated neutral density
darkening the sky, I kept the exposure on the sand in the lower right of the
frame normal. Letting this section go black or overexposing the sky would have
taken away from the image considerably.
I came away with many good shots, but
two in particular stand out. The strange thing is how dissimilar they are.
Although facing the same direction and varying by only 15 minutes and 27mm
in focal length, it is hard to tell it is the same scene. With the thunder
clouds on the horizon, the light bends, and the colors change dramatically.
A different show is promised few minutes.
INGREDIENTS
• Camera: Pentax 645 N II
• Lens: smc P-FA 645 55–110mm f/5.6 at 107mm setting
• Exposure: 4 seconds at f/11
• Film: Kodak E100VS, pushed 1⁄3 stop
• Tripod: Manfrotto Carbon Fiber 3443 tripod
• Tripod Head: Manfrotto 3030 head
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