Return to Myrtle Beach, Part IV: Clouds, light play at sundown

On our second trip to Myrtle Beach in April, I ran into some fortuitous lighting along the beach one afternoon. It gave me the dramatic contrast you see in the photo leading off the post and the first five images below this introductory text. 

And the clouds, I'd posit, present an interesting secondary element to these photos, alongside the waves and, in the last photo of the the series on dramatic lighting, the beach.  

I'd taken photographs of the Pier 14 restaurant and lounge and the adjacent pier at Myrtle Beach before, but I decided to make them, particularly the eatery, a stronger focal point of my photography on this visit. That's why you see them -- and/or portions of it -- in so many pictures after the series of dramatic lighting below. The high-vantage point shot of the pier was taken from the balcony of the place we stayed, a place we have stayed at for a few previous visits. I also used the balcony for the high-vantage shots of the sunset further down in the post. 

I used my iPhone 11 for all of the shots in this post, by the way. 

A silhouette of the Myrtle Beach downtown boardwalk area and Ferris wheel (above), a compositional subject that isn't new to me. But since I took this from the beach on the same visit as all the other images in this post, I decided to use this shot here as well. To compare, below are several other shots of the Ferris wheel as a focal point taken from the boardwalk, which got me out of the back lighting situation seen above. The shots below were taken not long after the one above.    

Back on the beach (above) for this sundown shot of the flags along the boardwalk. The cloud pattern also piqued my interest. 

Above and first four images below: Back on the boardwalk, I took a stab at some "street photography" type shots, succeeding in the classic sense only in the last two of the four below. I don't try street photography very often, but it can be rewarding at times.

Above: I might have been more pleased and better rewarded for this long-range "compression" composition of the hotels lining the beach as seen from the boardwalk if I'd have had my Canon 6D and one of my lenses with far-reaching focal range. But this gave me an idea how far I could push the iPhone in creating such compositions.  

Above and below: Shots of hotels along the beach. the one above looks northwest, so there is not quite as much dramatic backlighting as the one below, which was looking directly west.  

When I got back to the room, I still had the itch to play with the interesting clouds in some pictures, and decided to capture some of the downtown area as sunset approached. That's the story -- and the results -- behind the photos you see above and for the remainder of the post below. Some of these were shot through the glass doors on our balcony (hence the reflections), but most were taken on the balcony itself. 

Previously in this series: 

Part I: Downtown Myrtle Beach near City Hall

Part II: Atalaya Castle

Part III: Huntington Beach State Park

Myrtle Beach trek, Part III: The Beach and the Boardwalk

There is a reason "beach" is part of the name for Myrtle Beach, which is why I felt at least one post in this series of shoots at the popular South Carolina resort community should be devoted to the sand and its iconic boardwalk.

I'm getting increasingly comfortable composing backlighted photographs, and the one you see leading off the post was my favorite from all of my "beach" and "boardwalk" shots on our recent visit to Myrtle Beach.

I was pleased that the blades of grass in the foreground -- whose texture I've come to appreciate as a nifty and artistic secondary element in beach-related photos -- didn't go too far up into the frame to distract from the silhouetted subjects. While this is, indeed, a monochrome conversion, the original color isn't a whole lot different, no doubt because of the heavy contrast introduced by backlight.

I took advantage of an afternoon sun to compose another silhouette piece integrating one of the piers into the composition in the image immediately below. It, too, is a monochrome conversion.

There isn't a whole lot more to say to set up the remainder of the images in this post beyond what I convey in the captions, so before transitioning into those images, here's a repeat of something I remind all visitors (and try to repeat in every post for the benefit of any new visitors):

As always, to view a larger, sharper version of an image in this post, simply click on the image. This is particularly useful when accessing the blog using a mobile device. To see a full gallery of images from my shoot at the beach and along the boardwalk, click on the link in this sentence.

Photo geek stuff: I used my Canon 6D and Tamron 28-300mm f/3.5-6.3 Di VC PZD lens equipped with a polarizing filter and took three different exposures for each composition so I could meld them into one during post-processing using Photomatix high-dynamic range (HDR) software. The 8.0 f/stop was my constant during the shoot, which means my variable exposures were determined by the shutter speed. I used an ISO of 160 unless the full shot was in all shade.

Above and next two below: Anyone who has visited Myrtle Beach knows how the shoreline is heavily stacked with resorts. These images support that.  

Back to more relaxing visuals, I again used wild grass (above) to texturize my composition ... and to frame the beachwalker near the pier. A thin opening in an otherwise thick layer of clouds (below) gives sundown some yellow and orange coloring. 

Above and below: As the marker in the bottom right of the above photo informs, this sculpture (called "The Goddess of the Sea") by Kristen Visbal was a project of the Myrtle Beach Downtown Public Art Initiative. It was dedicated June 1, 2018, "to the people of Myrtle Beach for the enrichment of our environment." 

A look down the boardwalk (above) and through a small covered alley between buildings on the beach side of the boardwalk (below). To the naked eye, the scene below, beginning with the pale green area on the left, is completely dark until hitting the bright-colored painted objects at the end. HDR processing added shadow detail to everything between the camera and the bright blues, reds, oranges and yellows.   

Another slice of the boardwalk (above) and a closer look at the Dry Don's signage (below). 

A little beyond Dry Don's, this couple sat, intermittently enjoying the entertainment of the pigeons (liked the one below) foraging for their next handouts from humans. 

Above: Another look down the boardwalk, this time to integrate the flagpoles and lampposts into the composition.

I present the photo above (showing a section of the roof of Pier 14 restaurant and lounge) to set up the closeup shot below that juxtaposes the mannequin (shown in the above photo next to the Pier 14 sign) with a real person climbing down a ladder.

Above: It doesn't seem right to do a post about the beach and boardwalk without including at least one photo of the iconic Ferris wheel. For those of you expecting it, here you go.

Next up: Food and drink

Previously in this series: 

Part I: Broadway at the Beach: An almost-lost shoot is one to remember

Part II: Exploring The Market Common