This image was taken just last Friday, in Palmachim beach, Israel. Palmachim is a fascinating location for photographing the sea, that's probably the reason I have quite a few images from there in the Israel galleries... Problem is, photographers are familiar with this spot. You can find all sorts of images from Palmachim's rocks around the net, many of them from the same exact spot.

  So on Friday, I decided to walk along the coast to find a place to shoot from. I've actually never been to the "famous spot", but I do know where it is, so I thought of going there. It was still to early to shoot (~5PM), so I passed the time touring the coast and taking some macro shots on the rocks.

 Just before it was time to start preparing the gear, another photographer took my planned spot... So I had to find a new one. I chose  a rock that was partially covered with water to place my tripod. Its position made it unlikely for the waves to wash away my stuff, but still, I had to stand there, feet wet, watching for crabs to prevent them from eating my shoes...

 As I placed my gear, I've noticed that clouds were obscuring the horizon. Sometimes the sun appears lower in the horizon, just under them, so I decided to wait, but just then - a large cargo ship decided to anchor right under the setting sun - blocking the clear view of the ocean. So far - a great afternoon...

 Finally, the sun came out for only a minute or two. What's more, it was accompanied by an orange halo. So it seemed a good time to finally take that picture... It was the only minute, that Friday evening, when the sun came out. There it is, below (click to enlarge).

 The image appears a little HDRish. While I tend to like HDR when it's put to good use - this one is not a digital HDRI, but was caught with graduated filters (so actually this is something like "analog HDRI"...).

Sailing Away