Dylan on the beach

Late afternoon is a personal favorite time of day for me to photograph. The light turns golden and gives a warmth to everything it touches, unlike at mid-day when colors are at their brightest and the shadows are deepest.

Late Sunday afternoon the group of us that rented a vacation house at Dewey Beach for the Columbus Day weekend were enjoying our last full day on the beach before heading for home. I spied Dylan sitting on the beach and looking over his shoulder. I took several snaps and hoped I got something decent. This is one of those pictures:

 

After I got home it sat unprocessed for a couple of months. When I finally got around and worked on it I straightened the horizon, cloned away his leash, added a graduated filter along the top to darken the sky a bit, and upped the vibrance and clarity. It wasn't until I looked closer afterwards that I noticed I hadn't even gotten his face in focus. Although this is a wide-angle shot and he isn't too blurry as opposed to the waves behind him, I'm annoyed that I thought I had him in focus but apparently I didn't.

I will get a better picture of you, Dylan. I promise.

(Shot with the Nikon D300 using the 18-200mm zoom at 31mm; shutter-priority with shutter speed set at 1/1000 second; camera set aperture to f/5.6 at ISO 400; matrix-metered; daylight white balance; normal JPG.)