Wave Action

Some of the most fun I had during our recent trip to Maine was taking long-exposure (multiple seconds) pictures of waves.

While Annette was participating in the Photography Workshop, I went out near Thunder Hole with the wife of another workshop participant.  No sense in sitting in the room!!!

I went out on the rocks to the left of the Thunder Hole observation area and searched for a composition that I liked.  It wasn't hard!

I had envisioned swirling waves on the rocks.  I was not looking to freeze the sprays of water that happen when the waves crash into the rocks.  Therefore, I had to get the length of the shutter opening up to several seconds so that the waves were not frozen in place.

Unfortunately, it was still in the afternoon and, although it was foggy, the sun was still above the horizon.

So I started with ISO and turned it down to the lowest ISO possible in my camera (100 ISO).  Then I chose the smallest aperture available (F22).  Being on Aperture priority mode, the camera chose the shutter speed.  But at that time of day, it was still less than a second.  Too short for my purposes!

So I put on a 4-stop neutral density filter.  Now we were getting close, but I still wanted a longer shutter speed.  So, I put on the circular polarizer and adjusted it until the scene looked the darkest.

Finally, I had a shutter opening of several seconds!

I took a couple of pictures and checked the back of the camera.  Oh, wow!  I think I might get something here!

I shot a lot of pictures because you can never predict how the waves will look in the image.  Every one is different.

I would probably stayed there until dark, but my companion was not a photographer and after a short time, wanted to move on.

See what you think of these images.  I would love to see your comments!

Annette was intrigued by these images and had to have some of her own.  So after the workshop, she and I went out to the same place and took some more pictures.  However, the tide was much further out when we arrived there.  So the rocks that were catching the waves when I was there earlier, were completely exposed and nearly dry!

So...Take the picture when you see it.  You never know if it will be there when you get back!

Washington at Night

Annette and I have not been very active with our photography since the big trip to Death Valley at the beginning of December.  But in January we took two trips to Washington, DC.

The first trip we were showing some of the mall to some friends.  We went to the National Air and Space Museum on the mall.  We didn't think that we would have and opportunity to go anywhere else, so we didn't bring our big cameras.  The only cameras that we had were our cell phone cameras.  What were we thinking!!!

After the Air and Space museum, we stopped to see Albert Einstein and then walked over to the Lincoln Memorial.  It was dark out and we saw some great shots, but cell phones cannot do the shots justice.  We decided to come back the next  weekend better prepared.

When we arrived we found parking on Constitution Avenue near the Lincoln Memorial.  The plan was to go over to the Jefferson Memorial and then make our way back past the Lincoln Memorial.  It didn't quite work out that way.

By the time we got to the Jefferson Memorial, the sun was down and the light was almost gone.  We didn't get many shots with color in the sky.  So we went to work on night time shots.

For this first shot, I was over on the side of the building and included some of the front entrance columns.  I din't know how much trouble I would be in if I moved the little sign.  There were a couple of Park Rangers patrolling the memorial.  But in retrospect, I should have moved it.

Can you see the silhouette of the couple?

For these next two pictures, I was shooting for symmetry.  

I had to wait a few minutes for people to get out of the first shot.  You can still see a partial person beside the column.  Hey, they have just a much of a right to be there as we did!  This is another one where the sign needs moved.  Next time I'll send Annette up to put the sign behind the column and then put it back when we are done.

It's amazing how the architects also like symmetry.  I moved to the center and found that the seam in the concrete was right in the center.  I didn't have enough time to wait for all the people to leave, so I had to accept them in the picture.  See the flash going off?  Was that guy taking a picture of me?  I wonder if I cluttering up his shot.

At our camera club, the next competition has the theme of "Reflections".  So Annette and I were conscious of the reflections in the Tidal Pool.  Annette has a very similar image that I think she is going to use for the competition.  Notice how clear the air is and how still the water is.

From the time that we took the picture above and walked around the Tidal Pool to the Washington Monument, the air went from seemingly clear to very foggy.  See the image below.

You don't get much opportunity to take foggy pictures, especially at a location two hours from home.  So we decided to experiment with the fog.  We got a couple of pictures of the Washington Monument and then moved to the World War II Memorial.

By the time we were done with these shots it was 9:00 p.m. and we still had a two hour drive to get home.  So we decided to leave the Lincoln Memorial for another day.  

Death Valley - Badwater

Annette and I participated in a Photography Workshop in Death Valley this past week.  In fact, we just got home today after taking the red-eye flight back east.

The workshop was good.  They pushed you to expand your vision.  In fact, part of their tag line is to, "Seek your vision."

Each day we were out before daybreak so that we could be in location by the time the sweet, warm, morning light hit the subject.

Each mid-day was spent putting the images on the computer and processing them.  I learned a lot about processing B&W images.  None in this blog, but you will see them in future blogs.

Each evening we were in location before sunset and we stayed until long after dark.  We were trying for the sunset colors and the stars in the sky.

Our first evening, we went to Badwater, the lowest point on the continent.  Badwater is the site of an immense salt fat.  It stretched to the horizon in the North and the South and was bounded by mountains on the East and the West.

We must have walked more than a mile out onto the flats.  It sure seemed like a long way when we had to trudge back to the cars in the dark! We went that far because we just had to get to the point where the patterns in the salt had not been disturbed by human footprints.

Here are a couple of pictures from that shoot.  Let me know what you think of them.

I wanted to show how the salt stretched out into the distant mountains.

The salt and the sky stretched forever!

The sunset sky was so full of color and texture!

I light painted the foreground to give the image an Otherworldly feeling.

The salt was not what Annette and I expected.  I expected that the salt would be soft and would crumble easily.  That was not the case!

When I knelt down on the salt to get a lower perspective, the salt was very hard on my knees.  It did not crumble easily!  You could pick up a chunk of the salt and actually have to put some effort into  breaking it!

Annette loves low perspectives and she has the injuries to prove it.  She has scratches on her knees and shins.  Salt in an open wound is no fun!

One of our fellow students thought ahead.  He brought knee pads with him.  I also saw another photo workshop group there and every one of the students had knee pads.  Oh well, if there is a next time, I will know to bring the pads!

The Ravenel / Cooper River Bridge

If you ever go to Charleston, you will not miss the Cooper River Bridge.
It's huge.
It's unique.
And, it's in a very visible location.

Underneath the bridge is a very nice, well-maintained Memorial Park.  It has playground equipment for the kids and a beautiful setting for the adults.

One evening, Annette and I went to the park and hung out until dark.  We saw families, couples and an exercise class that was sitting on their butts, lifting their feet off of the ground and using both hands to swing a weight back and forth.  That should help the abdominal muscles!

Anyway, we waited until the sun set and the lights on the bridge came on.  These are some of my favorite pictures from the trip.

The Ravenel Bridge (a.k.a. the Cooper River Bridge) at Sunset 

The Ravenel Bridge (a.k.a. the Cooper River Bridge) at Sunset 

The Ravenel Bridge (a.k.a. the Cooper River Bridge) at Sunset

The Ravenel Bridge (a.k.a. the Cooper River Bridge) at Sunset

Oh, yeah, by the way, we also walked the bridge during the daylight hours.  I had read somewhere that the bridge deck was 195 feet above the water surface!  I was OK until we got to the first tower.  At that point I could feel the bridge move with every car that went by.  I don't know much about the fatigue life of concrete on steel beams, so I was starting to freak out.  We turned around and went back!

The Ravenel Bridge (a.k.a. the Cooper River Bridge)

The Ravenel Bridge (a.k.a. the Cooper River Bridge)

The Ravenel Bridge (a.k.a. the Cooper River Bridge)

The Ravenel Bridge (a.k.a. the Cooper River Bridge)

The Ravenel Bridge (a.k.a. the Cooper River Bridge)

The Ravenel Bridge (a.k.a. the Cooper River Bridge)

The National Mall at Night.

Normally, I am a big chicken!  When I go to a large city, like Washington, DC, I want to get out of town before night falls.

But last night, Annette and I tried and experiment.  We left after work and went in to Washington, DC.

DC is only 1 1/2 hours from Hagerstown, where I work.  So, my thoughts were,  if we left at 5:00, we could be on the mall by 6:30 and try to capture the great evening light through sunset and into the twilight.

Unfortunately, the best laid plans of mice and men sometimes go astray.

We had to stop and get gas and something to eat.  So that took time.

We were going to eat in the car, but we were in our little, two-seat convertible and the limited room would make eating a feat.  So we stopped at the rest area and had a little picnic.  That took time.

Last night was right in the middle of the Cherry Blossom Festival, so we figured that there would be a lot of people downtown and that there would not be a lot of parking, so we dicided to take the Metro.  We got off of the highway at Shady Grove and some how missed the turn to the Metro.  So that took time.

Then we go back on the highway and went to Rockville.  At the Rockville Metro station, I pulled into the drop off area and had to circle around again to get to the correct parking lot.  So that took time.

Then the Metro is slower than driving a car at 70 mph, so that took time.

Last night the sun set at 7:24.  We came up out of the Smithsonian Metro stop at just a few minutes before 8:00!  I remember coming up the escalator into the open and looking up.  The sky was such a deep, rich blue!  Unfortunately, that meant that the sunset was gone.

But we did our best.  We got some shots of the capital and of the Washington monument.  But we did not go to the tidal basin, where the most abundant cherry blossoms are.

We briefly talked to another photographer, with his camera on a tripod and he said to make sure we got the two planets in the picture.  I don't know where the two planets were, but his camera was pointed towards the Washington Monument with only two "lights" in the sky.  So I assume that they are the planets.  (I hope you astronomy buffs can forgive my ignorance!)

Washington Monument with the planets

Annette recently got an early birthday present for me; an 11-22mm lens.  So I had to try it out.  I used the lens in this next picture and, even though I was quite close to the monument, I was able to get it all in the frame.  Oh!  And I got the planets, too!

Wide angle shot of the Washington Monument

 Photographer's trade-off:  To get the exposure I had to choose between two choices:
1.  Using a high ISO, which would allow a faster shutter speed to freeze the flags, but would also add noise/grain to the image.
2.  Using a lower ISO and a longer shutter speed, which would reduce the noise but would show the flags as blurry.
Obviously, I chose the latter.  Another photographer may choose differently.

These next two pictures are very similar, so you have a choice.  Let me know which one you like best.

The first one tells a little bit more of a story.  You will notice that there is a large truck coming up the dirt walking path on the mall.  That seemed unusual to me.  As I watched his progress, I found out that he was delivering supplies for the set up of an installation for the crowds that are still coming to the Cherry Blossom Festival.

The second one is a little tighter shot and keeps most of the people out of the frame.

We didn't leave the mall until 10:00.  Because we had to take the Metro (at the same time that a Capitals hockey game let out) and had to stop and pick up my car at work, we didn't get home until nearly 1:00 a.m.!  I'm getting too old for late nights!

Carlisle at Night

Looking back through my catalog of images, I see that the last time that Annette and I were out shooting was the beginning of November.  That's three months of photographic inactivity!  Wow!

Last night we finally decided to shoot and it felt good.

The Harrisburg Camera Club is trying a themed competition for the March event.  The them is outside night photography.  Fortunately, they set up a photo shoot to give an opportunity to get out with fellow shooters and get a night shot.

The venue was downtown Carlisle.  It makes an impact when 12 or so tripod toting people wander through the town pointing their cameras at everything in sight.  Some guys asked some of the group who we were and what we were doing.  He said we were the talk of the town!

Here are a couple of the shots that I took.  They are vastly different!

Speaking of different, no wonder they say that two photographers shooting side by side will come up with very different shots of the same subject, when I go three very different shots and I am only one photographer.

Downtown Carlisle on the Square

I had to wait a while to get this shot.  I did not want any cars coming toward me.  Their lights would have been way too bright!  But I did want cars going away or crossing in front of me so that I could capture the streaks.

Abstract Neon at Night

The abstract pictures that I took last night were actually the most fun! I need to do more!

Bar Light

I usually do not do photojournalistic type of stuff.  But I liked the light fixture and the lettering is an indicator of the times.  You know...It wasn't that long ago that a person could smoke in any bar or restaurant.  Restaurants had Smoking and Non-Smoking sections.  Now it is a selling point that you can smoke in this bar.

Shadows and Light in Harrisburg

This past Sunday, Annette and I joined a group from the Harrisburg Camera Club on a photo shoot in downtown Harrisburg.  Annette and I were running behind so we joined the group after they had made their way up State Street and were moving toward North Street.

It is difficult for me to see pictures of the city.  I guess I can't see the forest for the trees?!?!?!  So I choose to concentrate on details.  You'll see what I mean in some of the photos below.

We were lucky on Sunday in that we were on North Street at the right time of the day at the right time of the year so that the sun was in line with the street and raked across the front facade of the buildings.

Here are some pictures from the outing.

In the picture above I was trying to capture the shadows of the vines and the tenement appearance of the building (my apologies to the owner of the building!).

 In this picture, the sunlight was almost parallel to the surface of the grate.  The damaged part that was pushed out, caught the light and created a shadow.  With the light raking along the surface, even the small flakes of paint cast a shadow.

Can you imagine what this is???  It's a mundane object.  But isn't it cool the way the light rakes across the object and the little bumps cast long shadows?

I think everybody at the photo shoot took a picture similar to this!  But the light was so fascinating!  I liked that the sun was just hidden by the wall and created a glow around the edge of the building.  I like the way the sun was almost parallel to the ceiling and painted it with a special light.  I liked the way the texture of the stones in the column cast shadows.

I hope you enjoyed the pictures.

Until next time...