Bay Sunset

The evening after my sunrise photos, there was a nice sunset on the opposite side of the island over the West Bay. It is not nearly as easy to find access to the bay for shooting photos as there is a lot of private property on the bay side of the island. But my daughter and I managed to find a place where we could park and walk down by the shore.

My main goals were to find a foreground and try to shoot around the refineries on the distant shore. there were a couple of trees at the shore that I thought would make nice silhouettes so I tried to frame those in against the sky.

Sunset over the West Bay
Sunset over the West Bay

The above image is an HDR merge shot at about 30mm focal length. Just to the right of the frame is a very dark heavy cloud bank and I was concerned about a storm approaching, but it blew away and we got no rain. There are some large boulders in the lower right of the frame that I suppose are part of the coastal erosion prevention plan. There were some ugly water pipes in the center of the foreground that went away in post processing.

I moved my camera to center the sidewalk more and the clouds began to turn almost red before fading to gray. I thought about moving up and mainly capturing the reflected color in the bay, but I really wanted a good foreground so I stayed behind the trees.

Sunset over the West Bay
Sunset over the West Bay

The above image is an HDR merge shot at about 16mm focal length and as you can see this tends to make the trees lean toward the center of the frame. I again removed the ugly water pipes when processing as well as a refinery flare stack on the distant horizon.

The silhouetted palm trees and the bay really give the image the island feel I was going for. You can just imagine the warm breeze in your hair as you slap mosquitoes and admire the sunset.

Thanks for reading.

26 thoughts on “Bay Sunset”

  2. I like the first one best. Clouds sure turn from pink to gray fast, when the sun is setting. There’s only a tiny window of time to get all the colors, and you seem to have had perfect timing with the first photo.

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            2. Well you obviously would need to sell more than just black coffee … Hmmm…. Ok, perhaps coffee shop isn’t the answer. I will tell you what, I talk about opening up my own bookstore, so when that happens you can display your photos in the bookstore. Just don’t hold your breath, waiting for it to happen. 🙂

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            4. Thanks! Its a fun dream, but sadly so many bookstores have closed. You never know though, there is always hope! 🙂 I do really like my Kindle and having electronic books available to download at just a click, but there still is nothing that compares to an actual book. At least for me, I will always prefer a real book!

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  3. These are delightful photos, Jason. I really like them. I do have a couple of questions. First, where is this? It’s a great location, and since I often roam the west end of the Island, it would be fun to visit. Also, have you ever crossed the bridge at San Luis pass and visited the Hamby Nature Trail (on the Gulf side, about two miles down) or the kayak access points on the bay side? The Hamby Nature trail’s especially nice, because it offers beach access via a boardwalk, and there’s even a small parking area for maybe six cars.

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    1. This is near the Pointe West condos on the far west end of the island. I just parked and walked down by the shore.

      I have never spent much time on the other side of the bridge down there. I usually come down with kids and don’t have much time for personal exploring.

      Thanks for the nice comments about my photos. My vacation is over now, but I sure like the coastal area. I lived around Beaumont-Port Arthur for a while and went to the beach and Galveston a lot, but that was before I did much photography.

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      1. I know exactly where that is. Just south of the Pointe West Condos, there’s a road that goes to a small parking area where it looks like the next development will take place. There’s a great boardwalk across the dunes and there usually aren’t too many people around. I’ve been down there a couple of times.

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