Friday, June 22, 2018
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| By Dawn's Light |
Here we were, our last day at the beach. To get you up to speed, I've woken up at or before 5 am each day. Toni has been bed ridden since Wednesday with a terrible stomach bug, Sierra and Hannah have perfected the art of sleeping in and getting their much needed 12 hours of sleep each. As morning approached, my camera sat outside on the deck acclimating to the warm and humid conditions of the beach. I was sleeping soundly in the bed, at that perfect temperature...you know the one...where nothing will motivate you to leave the bed. Yep, I was there the minute that the alarm rang at 4:45. I looked outside and it was pitch black. The phone would not stop ringing because I no longer had the fine motor skills to operate it with precision. I was tired. I mean I was really tired. All I wanted was to stay in the bed for a little while longer. However, if I did that, I would be forfeiting my last day at the beach, and taking the route of Grumpy and Giggles (I'll lay claim to Grumpy being mine). I couldn't let them tie it up on the last day. I had to take one for the team and get up...which I did. I think I called myself some bad names though...I was tired.
I got moving and checked the weather. It was looking pretty cloudy and the chance for a good sunrise was slim. I was OK with that since I had such great luck the day before. I grabbed my gear and headed out to the sand. Every step was a strain, and my back refused to be happy about carrying the 30ish pounds of camera yet another day...but I went.
I started to look around to see what caught my interest on the beach. I could tell right away that a sunrise shot wasn't going to be in the cards. That meant I could focus on some other things. I could see a patch of interest in the clouds to the Northwest so I started to look for something that could go underneath those clouds.
What I found was a row of houses just North of where we were staying that caught my eye. There was a yellow one that had the porch lights turned on and there were matching boardwalks for that house and the neighbor. Just beyond that there was a faint dab of warm color in the sky above the clouds. This was going to be my subject for the morning. I grabbed my camera and fitted the 16-35mm lens so that I could get in close and use the grass as a foreground while still including the houses and stairs. I opted to avoid using a polarizer simply because there was not much light to work with.
I worked on several different variations of the compositions and finally settled on what you see as the opening picture here. The exposure ended up being 30 seconds so there was actually a bit of movement in the clouds. I had thought about using a 10-Stop filter, but there wasn't really enough variation in the clouds to really make that interesting. The slight movement was enough for me in this situation. The histogram showed that I had all the data in the shot that I needed in order to process it with detail in both the highlights and shadows. I'll be honest, when I got home and processed this image I was really impressed at how it came out. There was a good deal of color correcting that went into the image due to the low light, but it really stands well against the other images I had been shooting for the week.
As the sun came up though, I was losing the interest in the clouds above. I opted to see if there was another angle that I could shoot from which might provide some better images than what I was running into as the day moved on. I hunted around for a while and then ultimately came back to the same houses. The angle that I had been shooting from was no longer a viable angle, but I could see that the sun was about to clear the clouds and would be casting a great warm light very soon. The interesting clouds happened to be just opposite of the sun.
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| Coastal Residence |
I worked on a few compositions and finally decided on a horizontal approach using the stairs as a leading line up the hill and a frame for the blue house on top of it. I waited for the sun, and shot a frame here and there in case that was the best light that I would get. My waiting paid off though. The sun finally crested the clouds and a wonderful warm light hit the stairs and the houses. The sky above was a wonderful blue with some remnants of clouds scattered about. This was the image I was after. I had magic light, and wonderful clouds. This one got me excited, but only briefly. I then reminded myself just how tired I was. My creative juices had run out. While I still had some good clouds, and good light, I was done looking for interesting subjects to put in front of my camera.
I made the short walk back to the room and started the normal routine. I found Toni awake, but still in the bed. The minions were still asleep, so that left us at Old Farts: 1, and the Trunk Monkeys: 0. My streak was in tact! I got the camera cleaned up one last time and started to get ready to roll out. We finally got everyone up and moving and we were on our way back home around 10am.
This has been a very long photo expedition with a lot of ups and downs. I had started out the processing portion with 390 frames shot. of those, I had narrowed it down to 40 images that were worth a second look. By the time I was finished with the processing, that number had been whittled down to just 28 images. This isn't too bad considering that I was taking a lot of the same scene with different lighting. There was no sense in showing off the same scene with only subtle differences, so I just picked the best out of the series and went with that. There were a lot of images that I tried on days which I came back and shot again with much better conditions. I'm really happy with how the week turned out photographically. I hate that Toni wasn't able to enjoy the trip, and that, of course, impacted the Wonder Twins and their enjoyment. But hey, at least that got to sleep and jump over waves. We even saw a few dolphins in the water. memories were made, and this is definitely one of those vacations with a lot of funny stories.
Thanks for joining us on our trip, and in case you were wondering, the one kid that we picked up on the way to the beach. We did take her back and left her where we found her. She was little redder, and a little sandier than when we found her, but she still had most of her fingers and toes. As far as Sierra, she is currently catching up on her sleep and is recovering well from the week. Toni, however, is getting worse and has been occupying the couch all weekend barely able to do anything but sleep. She is one some medications that should help clear this up, but it is a long waiting game at this point.
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday <--- You are here
Thursday, June 21, 2018
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| A Rosy Outlook |
When we last left our band of vacationers Toni was sick, and the girls were waterlogged, and well rested from multiple mornings sleeping in. My camera was left outside like it had done something bad inside, and the forecast was set for a decent sunrise. I had found my beach groove sometime during the day on Wednesday and I was ready to get out and have a great morning as the sun was rising.
I got up at 4:45 so that I could be out plenty early just in case the camera decided to fog over again. I started to look for a good location to set up as I took stock of the sky. To my pleasure, there were clouds in the sky today, and it appeared as though there was only a thin strip at the horizon. This meant that there was a good chance at some good color in the sky. I had played out the tide pools already and was not wanting to go that route again so soon. I was still looking for some beach grass on the dunes to put under a great sky, and found some just North of the motel.
Now for those of you who are worried that I am trampling all over the dunes to get my shots, I assure you that I am only using access points for the boardwalks from the other houses which are cut into the dunes. I know how delicate they are and have no want to disturb them. I do really enjoy photographing them though, and that was just what I did on Thursday morning.
With my location chosen, I needed to choose a composition. I wasn't needing to go too wide here, so I chose my workhorse 24-70mm lens and decided that I would leave the polarizer off. It is of limited use shooting into, or directly away from the sun anyway. I got into position and found my composition and waited. The sky was starting to show some color, but not nearly as much as I was hoping for. I continued to shoot and eventually saw that the sun was coming over the clouds so I moved slightly to put the sun between blades of grass. I liked the idea, but the shot lacked balance, so I recomposed and moved the sun over to the negative space to the right. Right after I did that the sky erupted in color! This was the situation I had been waiting for all week long. No longer did I need to try so hard to get the color to show up, I just had to point and shoot.
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| Top Of the Morning |
As I was shooting the rising sun, I saw above me that the sky was blue. Now when shooting sunrises and sunsets it is always beneficial to get sections of blue sky for contrast an color balance. I had my opportunity here, so I flipped the camera on its side and recomposed once again. I actually really loved this shot, and could feel the adrenaline coursing through my veins as I shot a few frames while the colors faded away. I had no issue that it was a short lives sunrise, this was the best one I had seen at the beach in some time, and I was happy with it.
I walked around a little bit looking for other photographs to shoot, but with the increasing clouds I could tell that I was done. That is the thing about beach photography...completely cloudy days are not my friend at the coast. I need drama in the sky, and I just wasn't going to get that this morning, but I had a handful of really great pictures that I was excited to see processed.
When I got back to the room, Toni was still in bed, Hannah was still asleep, and Sierra jumped out of the bed and said she was ready to go to the Sea Turtle Rescue Hospital. This was at 7ish in the morning, so I will give her credit. Old Farts: 1, Curtain Climbers: 1. It was a dead tie for the day. When I informed her that they didn't open until noon, she looked quizzically at me and crawled right back into bed fully dressed to go out. I'm still giving her credit for the early rise though.
I sat down at the table and got my cleaning supplies out. It was time to do the daily wipe down of the camera and equipment that I had used. I was getting rather proficient with this part of the morning. I packed everything back up and figured that it would probably be there till tomorrow morning. I knew that there was the possibility of storms this evening and that usually means some good clouds. However, I was committed to take the girls to the Rescue Hospital and take them for min golf. There was going to be a dinner in there as well, so I wasn't really expecting to be back in time to do anything near sunset.
Well, things don't always go as planned, and sometimes that is a good thing. The Sea Turtle tour only took about an hour as opposed to the several that I was thinking it would take. With the heat of the day, Thelma and Louise only wanted to play one round of golf which was great by me. I've learned that I have no patience when it comes to getting a little ball in a hole. I'm still holding my position on golf. After you hit it as hard as you can, if you find it, you win. Simple rules, and still has a level of difficulty to make it interesting...but I digress.
It was too early for dinner at this point, and the Bobsie Twins had eaten donuts for lunch. It was vacation, so sue me! I'll make Sierra eat extra green beans this week. We went ahead and headed back to the room. They were wanting to go down to the beach and swim. I stayed on the deck to watch them and so I could be close to Toni who was still pretty much bed ridden at this point. When they returned to the room it was decided that dinner would be sandwiches that were bought for lunches so I didn't have to make the 20 minute drive into town for food. That opened things up for the possibility of a hike down to the Southern tip of the island.
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| Southern Tip of Topsail |
This was the area that Toni had run to a few days before, and the girls had walked down there the next day. It was my turn now, and I set out around 6:45 so that I could get there in plenty of time for golden hour and ultimately sunset. One thing that I noticed as I made my way South was that the wind was getting more and more powerful as there was less and less land to block it. It was very similar to the first evening on the island and I was a little hesitant to pull the camera out of the bag for fear of the sand getting into every nook and cranny. But, this was going to be my last chance to shoot a sunset over the dunes, so I continued on.
I found another tide pool that was showing at low tide, and above it was a gorgeous cloud formation. This was as good a reason as any to get the camera out and start working on some compositions. I chose to go with my 24-70mm due to its versatility and a close second reason was a little more protective lens hood over my wider angle lenses. I worked around trying to find a composition that worked that didn't include my shadow (the sun was at my back for a change). I started to find my groove with daytime beach photography and the frames started adding up.
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| Let it Wash Over Me |
I was really hoping for some more foreground interest out here, but the beach was pretty clean and unmolested. I opted to use the water as a foreground which is a little risky with the sand being pulled out from under the tripod legs at times. It is entirely possible that a camera could be knocked over, or pulled over from the current. That meant I had to be really careful with how things were progressing. The clouds were great and I was all alone in the world at what seemed like the edge of that world. It was a really nice experience, and I reveled in it.
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| Atlantic Caress |
I got progressively more and more brave about shooting in the water. Eventually I was standing in the surf and had found out just how much pressure to apply to keep the tripod grounded in the surf. This allowed me to be able to get further in the water, which was feeling pretty good on my feet. I was watching the clouds and was realizing that there was the potential for a pretty good sunset over the dunes. I decided it was time to abandon shooting the clouds over the water and start to concentrate on the dunes which were looking pretty spectacular already.
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| Topsail's Coastline |
As I started to figure out the best way to capture the dunes, I realized that the sun was still much too high up in the sky to be effectively photographed. I once again turned my attention North where the clouds were quite impressive. They were starting to take on the warm colors from the sun already. I found a patch of greenery on a small dune and worked out a few shots from there. I was still getting excited about the possibility of a phenomenal sunset and was rather preoccupied with that through much of this series of photographs.
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| Evening at the Dunes |
The time that I had been waiting for was finally here. The sun was low enough in the sky that I could start making exposures. While I would have liked to have used one of my Singh-Ray ND Grads here, I wasn't willing to expose them to the sand that was blowing so fiercely. I was counting on the lens hood to protect the front element with the polarizer attached. While setting up my first of the sunset dune pictures I gave the polarizer a twist to see just how advantageous it would be shooting directly into the sun. In a surprise twist, it did actually add some color to the sky, so I left it on.
The real trick here was to expose for the highlights which are impossible to recover after the fact. The plan was to eek out the details with Lightroom in lieu of using the filters. With the first exposure over the dunes I could see that I had enough information on the histogram that I should be able to recover the shadow details without any problem. I was getting excited about the light show that was about to begin. It is rare for me to shoot a sunset, yet they are quite easy to read since they start with a lit sky. Sunrises are all about guess work until first light hits.
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| Driftwood Ripples |
I continued to work around the dunes as the sun was dropping. When I found a composition that didn't include the sun I would take the shot. There were lots of odds and ends that made for interesting foregrounds when shooting into the dunes. With the wind howling about, the sand was getting some nice waves and patterns developing. I used those as leading lines. and repeating patterns to lead eyes into a photo. The bits of driftwood added to the scene in many cases as well. My focus was on the sky though, and I was seeing some pretty amazing stuff developing in the heavens.
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| Coastal Mohawk |
There are just some days you are living right and good things happen. This was apparently one of those days because I had several great opportunities to shoot some wonderful dunes, and the sky was getting really interesting above. I was starting to see a bunch of colors developing which indicated things were going to get interesting quickly. While I was waiting on one scene to develop, I moved my position ever so slightly and shot this interesting dune with a tuft of grass down the middle. It turned out so well that I flipped the camera and tried it again as a portrait shot.
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| Wind in Your Hair |
By this point the lighting was getting dim and the wind was still a problem. When shooting something like tall grass in the wind with dim light, motion blur becomes a tremendous issue. I knew I wasn't going to get tack sharp blades of grass in this wind, but I wanted to minimize the motion. I had already upped the ISO on the camera to 400, and was now bumping it up to 800 in order to get a relatively quick shutter. It seemed to work and allowed me to render the tall grass as slightly blurred to indicate the wind, but sharp enough to not be distracting. It was a fine balancing act for sure. The sun was steadily dropping and I was seeing my chance for the shot I had set up originally. I got the camera back in position and was still using this one mound of sand, but shooting in a different direction.
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| End of Days |
The histogram was showing me that I was getting all of the information that I was needing at this point. The sky was looking amazing with areas of blue, gold, and even red and orange. There was so much visual interest in the clouds that I could barely contain myself. I shot several frames with the hope of getting the grass to stand still since the wind was actually starting to die down. This was the way to end a day with a camera!
I was satisfied at this point. This had been a tremendous day for both sunrises and sunsets. I had been out and captured both of them successfully, which is all I can ask. Now, it was time to make the mile walk back to the room. Man, that was a long walk!
When I arrived, I found the room dark except for the television. Toni and the girls were all in bed with the lights out. Old Farts: 1, Eye Rollers: 0. I had redeemed myself from this morning! I turned on a small desk lamp and started the process of cleaning the camera for the second time in the same day. The tripod was in bad shape from where I had dropped it to the ground to get low a few times. The lever locks were all gritty with sand and I needed to get that out. That meant a trip to the tub to rinse all of the joints out to ensure smooth operation.
I got everything packed up and ready for the next morning. The freshly cleaned camera went straight outside once again to stay the night. The morning was looking less than ideal for a sunrise, but I had been out every day so far and there was no reason to skip a day.
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday <--- You are here
Friday
Monday, June 18, 2018
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| Topsail Moments |
Let's do a little something different here. I'm going to start at the end so that this format makes a little sense. It might just be something for my brain, but I'm honestly feeling a little overwhelmed here, so I'm going to boil things down a bit. I have just gotten back from a week at Topsail Beach for a family vacation. During that time, I managed to amass a total of 390 exposures, cleaned my camera completely five separate times from exposure to the sand and salt air, and got more sand in places on me than I would have cared to imagine. That being said, it has been a busy week, and the thought of going through all of the images all at once is a bit daunting. What I would like to do is break it down by the day, and share an entry for each day I was there. It should make for easier reading, and will allow a break between editing surges. Don't worry about looking through 400 images, I've already culled that number down to 40 that I am interesting in working with.
So, without further ado, lets get started with the first day. We arrived at Topsail Beach around 3pm for check-in. We stayed at the Sea Vista Motel on the South end of the island. Honestly, it was chosen because there wasn't an amusement park in the back yard, and it seemed to be...just a beach. Simplicity is what I love with photography, and if I can avoid neon lights, and mini golf, I'm much happier with my surroundings. Well, Topsail fit that bill perfectly. There was nothing but sand, surf, beach houses, and sky. There weren't even that many people around which was an added bonus.
Having two 13 year olds (ours, and another kid we picked up along the way) with us meant one thing...Once we got there, we were headed down to the water. Toni was a little hesitant since she could hear thunder in the background and the sky looked rather ominous with the deep clouds. But you know what, you only live once. Sierra and Hannah got changed and ran out the door. Toni and I did what old people do and walked slowly while keeping them in sight. Motivated kids move quickly...who would have thought?
We stayed down at the water for about an hour or so and watched the clouds do all sorts of interesting things. Toni kept telling me to get the camera and start shooting. My intention was to just soak in the atmosphere this first day so that I could get my mind right to take pictures of the coast. Being a mountain man at heart, this is more difficult than you might expect. However, as the storm moved away, the clouds were really getting great and Toni made the point that we might not have weather like this any other time. I balked and said that I wasn't going to shoot. It was windy and the sand was flying on the beach which is not good for a camera, or the lenses. I always have excuses, so if you ever need one, look me up, I'll share.
At any rate, it was time to get some dinner so we headed back to the room and the girls got showers. While they were busy, I decided to break the camera out and start to shoot the sky which was really looking excellent. In order to avoid the sand problem, I stayed on the deck of the third floor room which was well out of the sand blaster below. For this set of pictures, I used my 24-70mm lens which gave me a great deal of versatility and I added a Singh-Ray Color Combo Polarizer to help with a pop of color. I might be a mountain man, but a beautiful sky is a beautiful sky regardless of the terrain below it.
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| Clouded Vision |
As you can tell from the pictures so far, I found one cloud that I really liked a lot. I had been shooting the storm clouds, but they seemed to pale in comparison to what I saw closer to sunset. With the setting sun to my back, I was able to catch some faint color in the clouds, and this one cloud in particular really jumped out at me for the formation it was in. I had one small problem with most of the compositions. There was a guy sitting in a chair just below the bottom of the first frame. He limited my compositions until that moment that I decided that I would just clone him out.
I hate making that decision with images, but there are times that I have no choice. I've cloned trash out a few times when I couldn't get to it to remove it, some power lines from time to time, and a few little anomalies on a horizon, but somehow I felt that this would be a pretty major change to the picture, but I decided that I was fine with that possibility if the picture turned out well.
I shot several with the guy in it and as I was looking, he was actually pretty small in the image. He wouldn't be hard to clone out at all, one click and there would be nothing left of him at all. Man, I really sound cruel here don't I? I'm not that evil in real life, I promise. The more I shot compositions with the guy in them, the more I started to view the scene differently. There was a sense of scale there which I had not seen with just the waves, and with him being the last one on the beach, there was a certain emotion involved. I was actually liking him as an element, so I composed a shot around him specifically showing the magnitude of the landscape in front of me.
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| All To Myself |
What had just been a pretty scene, now took on a whole new meaning. When I finally processed the image a week later, the emotions that I felt when seeing the picture take shape in the viewfinder returned, and it made the initial and secondary cuts. I started to process the image and realized that there was not much difference with this and the other two that I had already posted. It also seemed to lack that emotional impact with all of the colors going on. I decided really quickly that I wanted to experiment with it in monochrome. I knew I would be able to do two things with relative ease losing the color. First and foremost, i would be able to isolate the young man in the chair, and secondly, I would be able to add a lot of visual pop to the cloud above by rendering the sky a bit darker.
As I was massaging the tonalities in the image, I was getting more and more excited about it. It captured everything that I was intending once I realized the importance of the lone figure. The mood that it evokes gives a sense of loneliness, but not in a sad way. I see this as an introvert's heaven, and I would be so happy in his place under that sky with all of the Atlantic Ocean for only him to view.
While I love the colors of the other images from this evening, the unintended monochrome of the unintended subject captured a moment for me that I'm still feeling deep within my soul. Because of that, this is my favorite picture of the evening, and I think is what centered me with the beach and got me ready to shoot over the next four days. Stay tuned for the next entry for my adventures on Tuesday.
Monday <--- You are here
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
February 19-21
It has been about six years since I've been to the beach. I'm not exactly what you would call a beach person, and neither is Toni. However, I do enjoy photographing some different scenery from time to time. The opportunity came up to be able to go for a quick little weekend getaway, and instead of our normal mountain excursion, we decided to head to the coast. Just to change things up, we decided to go to the Outer Banks instead of Carolina Beach where we would typically go. The weather was looking pretty decent with moderate temperatures and roughly 40-70% cloud cover for the entire weekend. That would mean very favorable conditions for photography.
Since we had to leave after I got off from work on Friday, we got to the beach much too late to do anything except for settle into the room and get ready for the next morning. The weather was still looking promising, if not a little cold in the morning. I decided that I would get up about an hour and a half before sunrise, so that I could be out on the beach in plenty of time to find some workable compositions. This is part of the dedication of a photographer, I would have much rather slept in, and enjoyed the sounds of the crashing waves as I woke up. Instead, I had an alarm blaring in my ear.
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| Holding Back the Sun |
I bundled up best I could with the clothes that I had and headed out for first light. I have always enjoyed working with the fences at the beach, and this particular Nags Head coastline had plenty to work with. I hunkered down in the sand and framed a shot that took advantage of the pickets and waited. Using my 24-70mm lens with a 3-Stop Reverse ND grad filter, I was able to capture the first hints of light from the sun which was still well below the horizon. I was really hoping for an amazing sunrise since there was a hole in the clouds right where the sun would be peeking out, with thick clouds overhead. I crossed my fingers, but worked with the existing conditions as best I could.
As the light started to change, I decided to switch to a better location that was no longer back lit from street lights. I moved over to the right about 100 feet, and set up with a slightly different composition. With the wind gusting to 20mph, I decided it was better not to bother switching lenses, so I kept my original setup on the camera and framed a different composition. I was still using the ever available fences for foreground interest, but the landscape had changed.
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| Outer Banks Reflections |
As the sun continued its trip to the edge of the water, the clouds started to come alive with color. This was going to be it! I don't do a lot of sunrises, and I was starting to think that I was going to get very lucky on this one. Just in case things changed though, I continued to work the conditions as they changed. As it turns out, Outer Banks Reflections is my favorite from this morning, and quite possibly from the entire weekend. It really did come together very nicely, and while the sun wasn't working its magic on the dense clouds above, the reflections in the water make up for it I think.
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| Morning Surf |
As the sun climbed higher and higher, the clouds never did change color, and they eventually started getting darker. With the sun at the base of the clouds, I realized that I wasn't going to get the sunrise I was hoping for. However, I was getting some great reflections in the water, and the waves were working out nicely for me as well. I don't do sunrises often, but I do enjoy capturing the moments when I can.
With the sun's direct involvement in my photographs done, I started to look around for other possibilities that might present themselves. Looking out over the water was no longer all that interesting, so I looked behind me. As it turned out, the thick clouds above me, were actually starting to get rather interesting with the back light from the sun. Fortunately, there were a few really interesting beach houses that caught my eye, and gave me a composition beneath the clouds to work with.
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| OBX Cottages |
As you can see, I really do like my fences! They provide great leading lines, as well as repeating graphical elements. I was able to incorporate them in this composition that highlighted a sand colored house. While the yellow typically would just blend in with the sandy surroundings, I felt with the blue tones in the clouds above, and the blue house to the side, I could achieve a very balanced color pallet. To add to the serenity, I had the repeating patters of the fences leading to a bookend that was a wooden walkway to the left. This composition just felt right, and was a natural shot.
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| A Commanding View |
The clouds were still rather remarkable, so I continued to find beach houses to place beneath them. On the other side of the hotel, I found this unique house that seemed to really stick out from the crowd. With the help of a wide angle composition, I was able to really emphasize that visual weight. The fences again helped me establish where the viewer's eyes should be going. The clouds even decided to make leading lines to the house I was focusing on. Yeah, this one actually composed itself it would seem.
I was having fun with the houses, but I wanted to work some with the dunes as well, so I moved off of the beach and found a nice vantage point for a dune. I'm sure this won't come as a shock, but I found a nice fence to go with the dune when I was looking. I had actually spotted this the night before from the balcony of the hotel. I wasn't sure how it would work as a picture, but I saw potential in it.
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| The Dunes |
As I was working on the composition for the dune, I realized that I would do better working this from an abstract angle more than a straight up landscape frame of mind. I looked for shapes and textures more that simply subject matter here. The hard lines of the fence played well with the cottony feel of the sky above. The fence also mimicked the grass atop the dune. The fence dropped where the dune actually rose above, and then the fence balanced itself out on the other side of the frame. For a simple picture, there is just so much going on with it! The funny thing about this is I shot it from the parking lot of the hotel, while talking to one of the guests who was visiting OBX from Virginia.
With the conversation over, the picture completed, and Toni back from her morning run, it was time for me to pack it in and go eat breakfast. It was about 8am at this point, and I was getting hungry. After breakfast, Toni and I prepared for our day which would include going out exploring to see what we could see. The clouds that had been so promising in the forecast had decided to become a featureless overcast, so I wasn't thinking too much about photography at this point, but we were going on a road trip anyway.
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| Bodie Island Lighthouse |
One of the stops that we made was to the Bodie Island Lighthouse. This was one of the primary reasons for the trip to OBX. Toni hasn't seen any of the NC lighthouses and she wanted to rectify that situation. Nags Head was within easy driving range of two different lighthouses. Bodie Island was one, and there was another located in Manteo. On our first pass on each I didn't even get the camera out, we just walked around looked at the landmarks. However, as the day moved along, the sky started to change a bit, and I decided to head back to Bodie Island once again. We got there, and I got the camera put together very quickly, using my 16-35mm lens for the perspective that I wanted. I quickly found a composition using a pair of trees to the left for scale and balance in the frame. The sky was mostly washed out, but there was still some detail left in the clouds, which I exposed for. After two initial shots, I moved to some better compositions, but the clouds had changed up, and the detail was all but lost. The temperature was dropping, and I wasn't seeing much promise in the sky, so we decided to head on back to the room and start thinking about dinner. By the way, NOTHING is open on the Outer Banks in the off season, but that is another story, for another time.
The day was done photographically. I wasn't sure what I had gotten, or if I had gotten anything at all. Looking back in the camera's LCD wasn't really telling me much since I shoot in a low contrast, low saturation format. Everything just looked blah and washed out. I was hoping that for nearly 70 frames shot, I would have something usable.
The next morning started out much the same as Saturday did. I woke up about 5:15 and checked the weather. The hourly forecast was calling for 45% cloud cover, which would be ideal for my purposes. However, looking out of the window of the hotel room, I found very little clouds in the sky. In fact, I saw not a single cloud. I wasn't going to miss out on my last day of coastal photography, so I went out anyway. Knowing that I wouldn't be able to include much of the sky...if any, I chose to fit my 70-200mm lens which would only pick out a small portion of the horizon which would have some color to it.
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| Lighting the Sky |
Pulling a trick out of my book from years ago, I really focused in on the fences this time. The idea was to have a strong visual interest in the foreground, and the compressed horizon in the distance would provide intense color in the background even though there was only a sliver of actual color to be seen. Ah, the magic of focal length! I again used various ND grad filters to control the contrast in the scene and keep the sky from blowing out. These filters have been invaluable over the years for so many of my photographs. Short of the polarizer, the ND grads are the most important accessory I carry in my camera bag.
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| Unable to Continue |
The nice thing about such a long lens is that I can pick out just about anything in the landscape and make that my focal point. I shifted just a few feet to the right for this second picture, but it changed the entire feel and focus of the image. I'm not sure which I like better, but they sure do illustrate how compositions can change dramatically with just a few steps. The fallen fence is present in both pictures, but its role is completely different.
Once the sun was up, the little bit of color was gone. I looked above me, and found that there were very little clouds to be found. This was disappointing to say the least. I wasn't ready to call it a day just yet. I hunted around in an attempt to find some different compositions.
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| The Pier |
One thing that I had found interesting the day before was the pier to the North of the hotel. The lighting had not been right on it with the cloud cover, but with the sun bathing everything in a warm morning light today, I found a much different character of the pier. Sadly, there were no clouds behind it, but the tracks from various vehicles made some nice leading lines to the main building, and the pier itself provided a nice color balance through the water. While not exactly an amazing picture, I do like the overall feel of this image.
With the sun rising ever faster in the sky, I had to work quickly because in no time at all, the sun would be too harsh to be able to do much with. I worked some more with the fences, but never really found much of interest. I did notice that there were a few light clouds moving into the area, and I worked quickly to find a composition to fit below the clouds. The problem was, they were so faint that I wasn't sure I would be able to get them. My mind went into monochrome mode, and I started shooting some frames thinking about using color filters in the conversion to add a little contrast to the sky. I wasn't sure if it would work or not, but I gave it a try.
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| Coastal Neighbors |
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| Beyond the Fence |
As it turned out, my idea worked out relatively well. I found the missing definition in the sky with the red filter, and was able to get a couple of pretty interesting monochrome images to finish out the day.
I had now shot 117 frames over two days. I wasn't sure exactly what I had, or if any of them would be usable. I had to fight with conditions that were far from what I was hoping for, or planning for. Fortunately though, I still have enough tricks up my sleeve to work alternative plans on the fly. I would have liked to have shot a lot more, but considering the weather, this was a very successful Trek to the coast!
