Tonight’s sunset at Iona Beach Regional Park, just next to the Vancouver International Airport, started off looking promising, but then a bank of heavier cloud came in a few minutes beforehand, standing out darkly on the horizon.

I therefore looked for photos where I wouldn’t be looking directly into the sunset, and found this piece of driftwood quite interesting as the waves washed over it. Instead of facing west, I faced south, leaving the sunset to my right, and capturing the light on the side of the driftwood.

The water was moving quite quickly so a relatively short shutter speed of 1/3rd of a second was enough to capture the movement as the water moved around the driftwood, and also reduced the chances of splashes of water ending up on the lens. A three-stop graduated ND filter was used to control the brighter sky.