Shots like these cause me to have a growing affinity for long exposure photography, especially at night.

Wow. Just started viewing your page about a month ago and going through some of your past work and I have just been amazed. I love this serene look, very peaceful.

This is a beautiful foto, Sam. The lights, the smooth water, and the incredible level of detail are stunning. But the overall composition is what is truly remarkable and beautiful here. What a great 1st foto for my eyes after being away 2 weeks from your work!

Absolutely Beautiful! Shows me that I really need that tripod! Stunning! Great work!

I would love to know how you decided on 89 seconds

Beautiful Pic!

1:00am does not seem correct. Do you mean 7:00am?

Wow! When and which beach did you manage to capture this shot, because I'm looking outside my window and all I can see is streetlights within the darkness. Absolutely stunning...well done Sam!
*creativity tip: maybe a little more sharpness on the sand to give the shot more texture. Just an idea, your great so don't mind me.* =)

Absolutely amazing as always!

The sky makes it look like a completely different planet.

This one is definitely wallpaper material! (wink, wink) :)

I love shots where the water is smooth like that. I wish I didn't live in such a dry environment, I want to try this myself. Very well done.

beautiful

As always, another stunning photo. I agree with raja's comment too.

gorgeous! i love this one

amazing... as usual

Sam, this one is exceptional to your blog, I hope you are proud of it, I think it is out of this world, like from a strange planet. It is teeming with emotion

WOW

Cheers

This is beautiful. It looks ethereal.

am i reading that right? 89 seconds? wow, that's amazing. looks like you might have used that flashlight technique again, is that so? i know a lot of people don't like the supersaturation of your images, but i enjoy them, i think this shot could've used it a lil bit. i'm sure you'll get a lot of requests for wallpapers with this one. if so, it would be nice if you could photoshop those star streaks out. o, and i just noticed the reflection of the rocks in the extremely still water. what an awesome capture. thanks for taking the 89 seconds to create this unique piece of art.

It´s the first time I post a comment on your site. It's just to say: CONGRATULATIONS. This photo is really moving. It`s something to be proud of.

Bye from Asturias, Spain.

unreal.

one of your best shots :)

Looks like daylight! Great Sam...

Magic. Simply magic.

nice take,more works expected

Super stuff, but why the moon so yellow?

So pretty it looks unreal.

Wow ! I love the sky with long exposure, but stars seem to have move ?!
Anyway, we wonder if the moon isn't the sun... and it's peculiar - and nice !

i agree with you raja !
is it the moon shining like this ? incredible !
very nice colors as always !

beautiful

beautifull, itlooks like a landscape on an alien planet!

Absolutely stunning. Took my breath away. You are doing a great job of promoting Canada and Toronto in particular.

I honestly thought I'd arrived at Bob's No Traces site. One word - stunning. Is that Mordor in the distance? ;o)

OMG, dude - silk! What a wonderful exposure.

So eyeblindingly beautiful!!

Is it the sun at 1:00am? Incredible shot! Those pictures with an horintal line are my personal favorites.

This is such a tranquil shot. The water is so calm... perfect for reflections. Beautiful!

wow this is amazing, ive been comming to this site for over a year now and this is great an example of why i do! this is one for the wallpaper at work!

Spectacular shot, once again. Great composition and great colours. Thanks again for sharing these.

Bello, calmo, pacifico. Eccellente!

Amazing!
Congratulations.

very neat...the sun's reflection looks like a trunk holding up the sky

this shot is so surreal! absolutely gorgeous!

This is beautiful. I'm going to have to try a nightshot.

i love it... i love the light on the rocks. Can you see much of that in the dark when you're taking the picture?

Gorgeous!!

it is a nice photo to look at, but it so un-natural. it is shot at 1am, and it looks like it's 5pm, and the moon looks more like the sun. long exposures can give some really interesting effects, but i personally like more realistic, natural images.

This photo is nuts. It looks like sunrise, except for the stars (trailing from the earth's rotation - fantastic!) and the lights of communities across the lake, in the sky on the horizon. A really cool photo. Thanks.

I really have to get a dSLR! Gorgeous.

Gorgeous. What a lovely feeling of calm!

1 am? so thats the moon? bizarre.

fantastic shot.
looks like a surreal sunrise off the coast of mars : )
I love the movement in the stars as they orbit...

great shot.

If I hadn't seen the time, I'd swear it was a composite of the sun-set with different exposure settings :-) Lovely photograph.

A shining bit of work Sam.

Thank you for creating a golden bit of time elapsed serenity - for those who need to stop and slow down but can't actually do so.

Beautiful glimpse of what quality contemplation time would be like if it could be had.

Beautiful shot, Sam.
Once again I'm especially impressed by your feeling for composition and the balancing of areas within the image. You just never miss.
I like the tranquility that the long exposure gives the scene by smoothing everything out.
Well done!

Awesome how the moon looks like the sun here....

But how long was the exposure and you mind me asking how much post-photoshop work was done with this one? Is this 2 images merged to one?

Ok, enough questions...WOW is all I can say.

Stunning!! This shot expresses the profound beauty of the night sky wonderfully. You're inspiring me to try this :-)

How long is this exposure? It's funny - I wish the sky was a little mroe contrasty or interesting, but I really like the image. I think mostly because it seems to capture that time between sunset/sunrise and darkness (no idea which this is). I especially like the streak of light across the water, and how it ends abruptly at the rocks and at the shore...nice image.

Fascinating. A question, though: what is the white balance you use? Perhaps this is just a mistaken assumption, but I would have assumed that white balance set for daylight would appear much more blue than this. The moon and its reflection has a much yellower hue than I'd expect.

wow, in long exposure, the moon is as bright as the sun! how gorgeous.

Wow.. this shot is amazing...I never knew the moon can be this bright! and the shooting stars...really nice work!

so peaceful. nice to see first thing before i start my workday.

This would make beautiful wallpaper -- please??? 1920xwhatever?? :)

what is that thing? o_O;;
the moon??? or the sun getting a snack in the middle of the night?

whatever it is, awesome shot xD

Wow... that's a very dramatic moon scene, especially the long reflection being cast on the water. Good shot!

WOW! Just WOW! It looks like a sunrise/set. Just fantastic...

1:00 Am. and the sun was on the horizon ??? Are you sure about the time ?
Also I think a wallpaper version is in order ;)

Amazing!

Wow.. if there was a point in time where it was both night and day, it would look like this.

I've been visiting for about a year now without commenting, but this shot was too amazing not to. It's so inspirational and it looks like the dawn of a new day even though it's 1 am. Your scenic shots are among the greatest I've ever seen.

The stars moved!..sort of..relatively.

absolutely gorgeous

Absolutly amazing!! wow! speechless!...

Simply beautiful!

Awesome shot.

How is your new lens treating you. I have always wanted to upgrade to an L-series lens but have yet to do so. I did pick up the canon 10-22 mm lens and think the image quality this lens takes is fantastic.

Great work. I enjoy starting my day with your widget on my dashboard.

Such a beautiful shot!

Did I read that right? 85 seconds? Wow. That's where the star blur comes from I take it. This is a fantastic shot.

could you possibly make this into desktop size?

Beautiful picture.

the coolest thing is that you can see the movement of the stars. its an awesome pic.

Your stuff is beautiful. Thanks. It really IS my daily dose of imagery.

Is it possible to get a wallpaper from this pic? :D Great pic Sam...simply great.

just... amazing!

all i can say is i need a desktop version of this!
i have to go down to the beaches to try this out myself!

When you look at the moon in this; you can understand that it is a mirror for the sun, and that moonlight is reflected sunlight.

Gorgeous! Timeless!

Wow, that is so incredibly beautiful that I am at a loss for words. Fantastic would be one. It's so surreal. I love it.

Again wonderful.
Needs a wallpaper version though!
For the last couple they haven't been so great, but shots like this keep me coming back for more.

hi this is awesome, just one question, was this taken recently? because right now we are at Waxing Crescent.... dont mind me if im making a fool out of my self...

with 83 comments to date, i can't say anything original that hasn't already been said... i'll just say this is most definitely my shot of the day.

Another wonderful night shot. Although It barely looks like night time :). Is that the moon in the left side of the shot? I really hope to see a wallpaper made from this one. Keep up the great work. This was 89 seconds very well spent.

Lucas

Wow...was this photo really taken on Earth? It's got such an other-wordly sense about it i think. How beautiful.

Please make this available as a 1280 desktop Sam, it is such a calming picture and reminds me just how beautiful the world can be.

this is awesome! the reflection in the water, the red glare on the other end of the pic, the perfect placement of the clouds! awesome!

a truly stunning image...surreal in mood, great composition; your blog has been an inspiration to me both as visual pleasure and an education re: photography. Living in Toronto's east end, I marvel at how your eye has captured the beauty of the area's various neighbourhoods; things we look at daily but don't really see because we're so busy rushing around. Great stuff! Don't stop.

dittoes to all the positive comments (88 so far)you have received today. truly remarkable and one of your best. one question,sam: with the long exosure time, i can understand how the stars appear to have moved but why don't we see the same phenomenon with the moon?? or maybe we do see it--the moon's outline is a bit blurry so perhaps it is also caught moving. also, tonight -july 6--is a new moon- so just when was this shot taken? thanks sam. keep it up.

Why is it light at 1am?
shouldn't it be dark?

Wallpaper versions, please!

Thanks...

hi guys, nice pic!! but im wondering what do u guys mean by 89s? and how do u set it to that number?

lol it's bright due to the exposure time for everyone asking

Speechless...Again, one of the great photo that imprint to my brain. Excellent work!

Beautiful!!!

Totally spiritual! Magnificent!

You're a real seeker. Some finds are more mundane but persistence pays.

Your viewers and yourself might enjoy the night photos of a 19 year old South Africaner -
http://rosshillier.my-expressions.com/ who uses film and makes many exposures at about 7 minutes that look like daylight - quite amazing.

I love the ray of light cutting through the water. Excellent!

SPECTACULAR TIMING - A BREATHTAKING PHOTO!
AMAZING TO BE ABLE TO SEE THE SUN & THE STARS
ALL AT THE SAME TIME ;o)

this picture is just absolutely great. :) i must say, pictures like this compel me to check your photoblog every day for my "daily dose of imagery." keep up the good work! :)

Thanks for the desktops of your 6 July 2005 'moon at the beaches' shot - the 1600x1200 shot is cropped top and bottom - any way to get this fixed?

it's the best shot i've seen in a long time, your phototography is amazing.

Really a wonderful pic. Just wondering though, wouldnt there be insane amounts of noise with a picture at that length of exposure time? How did you manage to clean that up so efficiently?

Ahh Sam you have restored my faith beautiful!!!

this looks like one of those surreal computer generated images on the website terradreams.de except this is actually the real thing.

awesome as always!

amazing..............

Fantastic shot! ; )

wauw.. breathtaking..

gorgeous
-no words-

best

This is such a great picture!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Man, this is such an awesome picture. I do not find the right words to describe how much i like that one.

inspiring really

wow im stunned..amazing photo. toronto looks like the most beautiful city in the world to me right now - your pictures should be published in a book.

thanks for the wallpaper! more! more!

Why are you giving us nice high resolution photos for our desktops and then making them look so bad with over compressing the JPEGs. Even the ones you show on your blog are often terribly compressed. I realize that bandwidth costs money, but I think your pictures would look a lot better if you didn't compress them quite so much.

what a great photo.
the long exposure made it look silky smooth.

GREAT PICTURE!

Each picture more WOW than the last! Thanks for these!

Wow, I am knew to photography and I can't wait to go out and try this. Thank you for the inspiration.

OMG i was just looking arround for pixs contain "Moon" and i accidently found myself infront of this pic! I thought it was computer-made and not real!

Is amazing what u can do with a banana!

Howdy. This is excellent. Makes me want to up and move to Canada.

Sorry for bother you, but, i have a question to you ^^
can i use your photo to do my own wallpaper?? (for the background being serious ^^)
That's all, thank you for your time :D
YouKaiS

Nem parece real!

its really perdy i like it lots

It's so beautiful.

Just thought you'd like to know that the name for the strip of moonlight on the water is "moonglade" - and your photo is beautiful.

Hi I am Austrian living in South Africa moving to Vancouver soon. Am absolutely amazed of your night shots!
I love taking flowers shots by night. Your work is superb. Toronto was the place I set foot on Americas continent first in my life. I have an Olympus 8080 and am still battling with night exposure . is is amazing what a digital cam can see at night. May I ask did you use a digital or film camera?
Thanks I guess I will try in Vancouver near the sea to learn more ..about night Exposure. Thanks a TRUE PLEASURE to have discovered your ART. bye4now Vic

Hi...
Firstly, I'm only 18 and I just look around [so in terms of photography, I don't think I can understand the 'photo' significance of it...
I was just looking for 'beach' photos for my sister and I found this one. It's absolutely lovely, totally amazing, and a real attractive, must visit way of showing it, the night and the moon and the stars are beautiful. My dad loves photography so this was a feast for his eyes!!

WoOoOoW ........ really beautiful shot

No way thats the moon! This is a wind up isn't it? Its computer generated i bet!