autumn shore sunset

the park that used to be a naval base years ago is mostly grass with some trees and nice old buildings and wharfs. there are two small beaches one facing south and one facing east. the terrain rises between the beaches and there the rocky shoreline is kept natural with a number of wildflowers. this first shot and the similar following ones are taken facing east with the sea as a backdrop.

the thistles and more are taken facing south towards the island 1 km to sea. they were not so close to the water's edge. i have mixed up the order of the shots but they are all taken within 1 hour as the sun was setting

i haven't done much of this style photography with a small field of focus and a lot of bokeh so i was learning as i proceeded.

i took a number of similar shots practicing to get the manual focus just right on my phone. it is challenging when the object of focus is small with the background surface of the water. it later became an exercise in editing. even though i use just some of the parameters on the free basic windows photos program on my laptop, it quickly becomes difficult and time consuming to choose which options work best for the different shots. anyway here are the results i landed on.

this shot is more in my comfort zone. even though i was zoomed way out. the scene was already set with the last rays of the sun highlighting the diving platform all i had to do was get the shutter speed right and hold the phone still. the shot was fine in color but i like it even more in black and white