This is a well known spot in the Big Sur area of California at Pfeiffer Beach.

BACKGROUND

I was traveling through the area and decided to take some shots at sunset and then stayed for a few extra hours to get the stars. To be honest photographing the sunset shot was much more difficult because it's next to impossible to get it nicely lit up you pretty much have to go with a silhouette. Specially for someone like me who doesn't even own photoshop.

LIGHT PAINTING

The night shot isn't too hard. Set up your exposure to make the sky the way you like it and then use a flash or flashlight and light up the foreground feature. Usually walk away from the camera and try to light from the sides. You can see I didn't get too far from the camera and that's why the shadows on the arch are minimal... you actually want a bit more shadows to give it texture and depth. But still turned out great.

SIDE STORY ("Lost")

I lost my new awesome phone that night. I guess it fell out of my pocket into the ocean (not waterproof back then). I searched for hours... it sucked because my insurance would cover damage but didn't cover loss if I couldn't even produce the phone for them and fancy phones weren't too cheap for me back then. In any case i looked and looked and even prayed about it... and then it was there... washed back up on the shore sticking out of the dirt. Anyway whatever the case it was a memorable night mostly because of that. Sometimes I forget that I've even been to the arch because it's been 5 years since I have been there. I need to go back soon.

NIGHT SHOT

If you wanna compare both of the shots.

METADATA	RESULT
CAMERA	Nikon NIKON D800
LENS	AF-S Zoom-Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8G ED
ISO	4000
FOCAL LENGTH	14.0 mm (14.0 mm in 35mm)
APERTURE	f/5
EXPOSURE TIME	45s (45)
SIZE	7198 x 4557
FILE SIZE	35.85 MB
DATE TAKEN	2013-01-07 23:59:12

SUNSET SHOT

METADATA	RESULT
CAMERA	Nikon NIKON D800
LENS	AF-S Zoom-Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8G ED
ISO	64
FOCAL LENGTH	15.0 mm (15.0 mm in 35mm)
APERTURE	f/8
EXPOSURE TIME	6s (6)
SIZE	7360 x 4912
FILE SIZE	20.30 MB
DATE TAKEN	2013-01-07 21:42:05