Surf

Before sitting down for dinner, I strolled around the harbor looking for an less traveled spot with some possible Image opportunities.  The sun was kind of yucky, no brilliance, so I had in my mind a black and white.  I set up my D3s with my 200mm f2 and the tce-3, I needed some extra reach to get to the lobster boats just offshore, and there were also some fancy waterfront homes.

I took a lot of shots and thought they were sharp until I returned to the DD. Here I found out I made the same mistake again with the TC20.  It will give you 2X the reach, it’ll cost you 2 stops of light and it will also 1/2 your DOF (per Moose and Nikon manual).  This DOF debate rages on at various forums, but I’m going to embed in my memory Moose’s comment as the last word……anyway…

As I was shooting the other scenes , I kept glancing over at this nearish boat house, with its strange construction patterns reflecting the water. It soon had me intrigued enough that I was framing and shooting at various combinations of windows. I wanted to reap what I felt was an appealing composition that tied everything together, with the added knowledge I’d be developing in the DD as a B&W…

Most early birds know that a core first step in the morning is to grab a cup of coffee as soon as possible.  So before I was to head over to the Lighthouse, that was my first order of business.  The only problem, was this hugh patch of just blooming red sea roses (rosa rugosas), spread over a 1/4 acre in an empty lot adjacent to the coffee shop.

I could smell the rich rose fragrance on the air and was lulled over to start my morning off, by starting to frame up some of these wonderful flowers.  The lens is the 24mm f/1.4, and to shoot flowers, you need to look for your lone subject and pattern in amongst all the flowers… this is the most creative part, because you are looking for something unique to your vision of the location and the light, it can be challenging but that is why you are here !

You can get your isolation by using a lower aperture, f/1.4 and then use a quick shutter speed to eliminate motion due to wind….You can further isolate the subject by reducing light which will fall off in the background just by increasing shutter speed or lowering ISO.

Nothing comes as easy as I explained it above, I think I was in that rose patch for an hour plus… but it was uplifting and wonderful to be totally surrounded by the colors and scents of the roses and nearby surf…..

It is infrequent that you get a chance to do a close walk up on a lighthouse. There is one at Owl Nest in Camden, ME area, but for the most part the walk ups are rare. Here in Scituate Harbor, Massachusetts you can move around this 1800′s era structure for about 270 degrees.  This is a working lighthouse and is heavily vistited due to its close proximity to some heavily populated cities, a working harbor, and a wonderful long breakwater rock walk.

For this Image, some special gear was used for the first time.  I still chuckle as I laid almost prone, framing the 16mm fish, when a visitor asked what I was doing.  Most have not been obvious, as I laid sprawled out on the visitor trail, with my DLSR and tri-pod inches hanging vertically inches from my face.

In any event, the wonderful, sea-blue sky, had some interesting wisps of clouds which swirled around the peak of the light house.  Blue and white are two very strong colors, which really work well together in this vertical Image.

There is a sign posted at the entrance of the Lighthouse, about a true story of two young girls who, during a British invasion of the harbor in 1812  , had the fortitude to play the drums and fife which convinced the British to rethink the incursion which left the harbor and area unscathed.  The girls have written themselves into local history as the Lighthouse Army of Two.

The meeting place was supposed to be at a restaurant that (unknown to me) is named the same name as another restaurant across the street, but that fiasco was played out later. As I headed down the busy street, I caught a glimpse of this harbor sunset, and in another 300′, I swung the car around and headed back to the harbor.  The harbor reflections were stunning, with the foreground lit up, then going to black.  I recalled from my lessons in Maine with Moose, a lot of pointers on these sea shots and made my way around the dock to find my subject.

The problem was that the sun, was a massive ball of orange, and no amount of filtering was going to stop down the light, so  I framed up the shot with the sun off to the left, out of the frame. I was thinking starburst could be a possibility because I was stopped down at F/22 with my 105mm f/2.8, but I was not convinced that it could be done using only the far edge of the lens.

The harbor was cluttered with ‘stuff’ that took away from the image, so they were dispersed in the digital darkroom, I also added some Glamor glow from NIK, and brushed in some tonal contrast in the foreground to sharpen the image to lead your eye into the sail boat mast and boat. Some modest amount of sharpening was added to the back black tree line to keep the black just a bit cleaner.

I just spoke with a Hingham native about the Image, she loved the colors and to my surprise, she didn’t recognize it as Her Haabor…and immediately hit the download file button……geeze .

Most of us have been part of a special unique sunset or sunrise that is the standard bearer against all other sunsets/sunrises.  You could have been in a distance place, it could have signaled a coming of age all nighter with some friends, it could have been a moment of romance, love or music, maybe it was just a solitude moment when all things in your life just clicked together.

Whatever it was, we all connect to the sun (red-hot) and sky (blue-cool), John Paul Capanigro, speaks of these colors universality and commonality of meaning, the only two colors that worldwide and thru the ages which have maintained their meanings and symbology in all cultures and tribes.

Last weekend,  isolated,with the ocean in front of me, sitting on a patch of sand, which was part of a peninsula of several thousand acres, with wildlife awakening, but their movements muted, this perfect orb of orange moved up from the horizon and broke through from the other side of the world and floated upward.

The sky was a neutral grey leading up to the movement in the heavens. As the sun appeared everything turned crimson orange, you could almost look direct at the sun due to the filter of grey sky in front of it.

I waited, set my exposure and watched for the sun beams to reflect and dance across the bay to my position. I thought of the rule of thirds, set my focus and gently rolled my finger across the shutter.

I had witnessed the Sun and I believe he had witnessed me.

D3s, 200 f2G Vii,  TC20 III, 400mm f5.6, 1/1500 sec

Did you ever have that sinking feeling that your unwinding is not over yet, but reality and the environment is tugging at you to pack up.  Then you look at the gear you have carried in and you lethargically pick something up to persuade yourself that you have got to get going.  D3 85mm f/16@1/60 sec -1Evv

Lighthouses are silent guardians and while we sleep they peer towards the sea maintaining their lonely important vigil.  Their importance in maritime history has waned in the 21st century, and perhaps in this crazy fast paced world a little reflection is needed and offered by these unique structures.

It was my last morning in Maine, and I missed the announced linkup time & site from the night before because I was coming down with the flu and decided to just get some sleep.  I headed over to the parking lot at 5:00 in the morning but no class.  (they did met a bit later)

Even though I wasn’t feeling good I wasn’t going to sleep. I decided to find something new and headed out with my GPS. I punched in state parks and Birch Point came up, then drove about twenty minutes to find an locked up park. I walked my gear about a quarter mile to find this magnificent opening in the rugged Maine coast line.

The shore line wraps around in a saucer shape, with points on either side of wonderful pine tree headed into the sea. Considered this a fantastic combination of landscape and seascape of quite solitude waiting for a chance wanderer to take in this wonderful glowing Image.

All four pre-twilight mornings during my Christmas trip to Florida were spent sitting one foot away from the bay shoreline, D3 on tripod, waiting for something to unveil itself as I watched with the sun rising from the east. Today is day four, yesterday I had a killer sunrise morning, (yet to be developed and shared), but this morning something else happened.  Nothing. Grey. Dark Grey. Yuck. Wind had changed and was blowing from sea to shore.  It was for a little while, a skunk of a sunrise.

However I got to thinking, that the grey black today created a backdrop of a black matte, against the water reflection and bay bridge, a complete change from yesterdays drama, but a wonderfully peacful Image.

I took my 70-200mm and set my D3 with some different setting to see if I could work on the green wire, so I switch over my white balance to, Sodium, f/3.3, 170mm, -1 EV, changed to Manual focus mode (Aperture mode was hunting due to the lack of contrast), and for 10 seconds exposed this Image…hope you enjoy it

By the way, these Images are also available for you to look at in an improved resolution and size, this photo in particular does not cut it for me at this resoution here on the site, I’d recommend you goto this link for better view : http://www.photoshelter.com/c/fritzimages/gallery-img-show/G0000_JxV6xcFcQg/I0000IiVhcrZGiRc/22

The five of us were standing around the base of the Owl Head Lighthouse waiting for twilight and the clouds to race in.  I had my 24mm @ f/4.8 for 1/20 sec and waited for some interesting clouds patterns, and this was the one shot that I was happy with.  The evening blues against a white and black of the Owl Head lighthouse was a unique moment and I hope to return there and keep on improving my craft.

There was one shot for the evening that did a great job of grabbing all the elements, taken by a young aspiring photographer that we all enjoyed viewing. We called him, Jeremy P Grey, ‘the kid’.

The visuals for the day were super. The multicolored sails were streaking by against the backdrop of a darkening sky and the bay bridge. I had my D3 mounted on the Gitzo, shooting at f/4.8 at 120mm and -1EV. I should have had the filter on, but the sun was doing a dance with the clouds and sometimes when the sun broke through everything just aligned up nicely.

The folks in Florida take their outdoor sports seriously. This shot is taken Christmas morning. The wind was coming offshore at about 10 knots, and these guys were screaming across the bay. There were about 15 parasurfers in the area, I figured it must of been a local club. What was interesting is that the next day, the wind had changed direction and the wind surfers had taken over the bay.  The sea looks deceptively deep, in reality if you would walk 20 feet off shore you would be in only four feet of water. These shots were taken with my D3 and the 270-200, AF-C focus mode, -.5 ev , at F22.  I got in quite a few shots and plan to hit the DD with a few more soon.

Margaritaville never looked so appealing…Here in Upstate NY the third day of snow advisories is finally ending. I gauge the snow by the number of times I have to brave the 8 degree weather and blow out this long driveway (three).  Still, there is a long to do list for the DD, also prepping my gear for the next adventure and getting a handle on some of the new features on the D3s.

I took this shot while in Fort Desoto, the party barge was just over the second bridge to the island, and I couldn’t resist pulling over. I mean who has such a watercraft with painted palm trees and a sun. Lots of images from that trip, still left to get out…

Putting up this website has given me an insight to a datacollection tool called Goggle Analytics. It keeps an eye on traffic for your site, and provides a map of your hits worldwide.  I had to chuckle yesterday, when the report told me that my site had it first visit from the largest country in the world (6.5m sq mi), populated by 142 million people…Russia..and that visitor was online for 20 sec ….

I headed to deSoto each morning while in St. Petes Beach, Why ?  Well the weather kept on changing so the environment presented shifting challenges. After the slow moving sunrise, came the frantic paced shorebirds and later the the powerful parasurfing all different subjects and each with their own challenges. So trying to pin down what lens, what settings, how I wanted to approach creating these Images in the DD later, kept me busy. I tried to do something different with each shot, looking for something that looked special..and as I said each morning was different,,,

This morning it was time to see what type of sunrise I could collect 1,462 miles away from yesterdays seascapes in Maine.  Traveling sure is fun.  No gloves, or cold weather gear needed today!  This is a view from St. Petersburg, Florida on the inter-coastal waterway. The boat off to the right is the Local Police Hot Rod. There is a lot of adventures to be had down here, and a lot of unique Images to capture.

After the Nubble adventure, I headed over to Short Sands in York. The beach is tucked away behind some cliffs and is no more than a half mile long…But this is one scenic beach, with stately mansions on the cliff walk….

The weather is still quite cold and windy but I decided to take on the waves with my new 70-200mm vr2.  I found myself a spot where I could take all the action in and watch as the swells ran up into the shore…..

I love this New England weather…but it is very windy and cold….My travel plans now take me to a place for a Christmas Thaw…..St. Petersburg, Florida…..

I think it is a myth that the lighthouse has a beacon that stretches miles out into the sea. I was only able to witness the beacon becoming defused and swallowed up in the light snow in a relatively short distance.   The Nubble light has  a bright sapphire red inner light and you can see the amber coloring reflecting off the ocean and in the light . I was shooting with the D3, with the PCE 24mm. The 20 mph wind bearing down from the North was blocked from my sheltered location, because I needed some time without my gear shaking to get this exposure. Note:All my Images can be double clicked on, to isolate the Image on a black background

The lighthouse is just about a stones throw off of the Maine Coast in York, ME.  I have visited it a number of times. It is the seacoast and it changes personalities by the hour. This Image is a simple silhouette, but to me it grabs your attention. Your eyes just wander around this Image looking for an explanation of what it is. When you grasp that the subject is a lighthouse, you do get a comfortable feeling. Lighthouses do that to us all.  The silhouette day, when the first major storm of the year hits, you can see how the tranquility of this first mornings light get replaced by green sea rage and tempest.  I am shooting this Image with my 85mm at f/4 for 10sec at -1 ev. And that is a thru-window in the small building on the left

The storm at Nubble lighthouse broke for about 20 minutes, before it came back with a vengeance. I was able to reset my gear to a different vantage point.  The lens for the bulk of the shooting is the NIKON PC-E 24mm, an incredibly sharp lens and I was able to shift the manual focus lens to get a good perspective of the lighthouse. It was a chore keeping the snow from covering the glass.  One tip for those in heavy weather like this is to use LensCoat it helps keep everything protected.

Currently thawing out from spending the early early morning shooting photos at the base of Nubble lighthouse in York Maine while this nor easter blows thru.  Thought I get up early and gear up to see what Images would come my way in the middle of this storm on the east coast. Shot about 8 gig, looking forward to sharing some of the Images.

From initial peek at my ingested shots, quite a few white outs…damn…but I’ll work on a the few that have some promise…All I can saw is that the wind hit 30-mph and the snow pelted my face like rice. I froze my butt, but that NIKON gear is just amazing, just amazing…keep on clicking at -10 below….more that I can say for me…I was prepared for the melee but at most I lasted was a few hours…

That red spec above is the Nubble light..To give you a scale of the morning shoot with surf and snow, I added the Fritz tri-lighthouse effect..:)

The weather for the day was just like I like it, overcast, windy, grey and cold. My setup was very low into the surf with my Gitzo, Singh-Ray Vari-Duo filter, and 18-35mm, @ f/16 2sec. The focus point on this Image is based  on the swirling ocean surf around the rocks in the center. But your eye is also led back into the center due to the right-to-left triangle theme of the foreground rocks and background tricolored clouds/sky. And if you have good eyes sight, there is Owl’s head lighthouse on the mid right with a tiny spot of a beacon light….

I have been around oceans and lakes most of my life but have rarely seen such an strange pink-magenta sunset. The location was Rockport Harbor, Maine on the first evening with Moose Peterson. I missed his setup instructions for the class because I thought we were at shooting at Camden Harbor. For the record Moose is a very punctual person. However, I soon moved away from the piers and more well traveled paths and setup my Gitzo 3541XL and started to frame up something that looked very special. Hope you enjoy…