2014 Photography Challenge- A Moment in Time (10:00 p.m.)

At 8:00 p.m., I pretty much had a meltdown. At 9:00 p.m., I did a little bit better with a borrowed tripod (thanks sistah!). But at 10:00 p.m., is when I fell in love! Cue the Disney music with "A Whole New World" and let the unicorns dance through the sky. Am I being dramatic? Yes.

Honestly though, my 10:00 p.m. photo is also the moment in time in which I fell in love with my tripod. I knew I had to get one and I'm so, so glad that I did. There's just no way I ever would have been able to take a photo with such sharpness and clarity otherwise. And it actually made me look forward to taking photos last night.

Here's what 10:00 p.m. on the south side of the Santa Monica pier looked like:

With the anticipation of rain coming today, I decided to capture my photo one night earlier. I drove as close to the pier as I could and then got there early enough to fool around with setting up my tripod and getting my photo aligned just so. I was so happy with how the photos were turning out that it made this photo one of my most enjoyable photos to take. This photo challenge has made me a better photographer and this photo is living proof of that!

Now here's the side by side a.m./p.m. comparison (remember to click on the image to make it bigger):

Five things I noticed between the two photos:

1. No one is on the beach at night! Obviously. Although it's not like there were a ton of people on the beach at 10:00 a.m. either. 
2. You can tell it's the holiday season evident by the green and red colors of the Ferris wheel. (What you can't see out of the frame is to the right of the Ferris wheel is a Christmas tree. Check out the outtake below).
3. I love the line of lines at the base of the pier. 
4. The restaurant at the very end of the pier really shines brightly in this photo. And the reflection of it in the water adds so much.
5. The tides are different between the a.m. and p.m. photo with much more of the sand being visible at 10:00 a.m. 

Here's my outtake from last night's photo: 

It's crazy to think we only have one more hour left to document in this series. I'm really hoping the Ferris wheel is open at 11:00 p.m. like it's advertised as. Otherwise I'll have to go somewhere else!

Here is Cyrena photo:

and Sarah's: