Oceanside
It was a quiet night at Oceanside Harbor the night I took this shot. The busyness of the day was just transitioning to the quieter sounds and colors of the evening. People were arriving to have dinner at local eateries on the Harbor and as I walked with my family I noticed that the light was getting just "right".
During that window of time I wanted to capture the scene that was unfolding in front of us. I always carry a camera with me. (A very good practice if you need the tools to capture those fleeting moments). Now given, sometimes the only camera I have with me is my iPhone, but tonight I had my Canon G11 and a lightweight tripod.
For this image, I bracketed 3 shots: One regularly metered, one underexposed and one overexposed. I then brought the images home and used software called Photomatix to combine the 3 images into one. It takes a little bit of tweaking, but after a while I got an image that I liked. I then imported that image into Photoshop and finished treating it until I was satisfied.
Click on the image for a larger view.