Incoming Tide
As you can probably tell, a lot of my jobs lately have put me near the water. I’ve been happy to take advantage of some photo ops for myself after the shooting for clients is over with.
Shiny Shoreline
A bonus effect happens when you get down at a really low angle on wet sand – the sand becomes highly reflective. If it’s wet enough it becomes a virtual mirror.
Driftwood
low angle is one of my favorite perspectives to incorporate into a composition. Presenting a subject in a very different way than from eye-level helps give it more visual impact.
Chain Lightning
I was driving home from a location shoot through this storm the other evening and just after sunset the rain eased up enough for me to decide to pull off the highway, jump out of the truck, and snap a few shots. I managed to get a few decent shots and then all at once just as if it had been synchronized in some way, it got dark, the lightning diminished greatly in frequency signalling the end of the storm, and the mosquitoes discovered me. I called it quits and hit the highway for home. This is actually the very last frame I shot before I left.
Ramblin’ Man
Yesterday I talked about keeping a point and shoot camera handy in the vehicle. Sometimes though when I’m traveling and I know I’m likely to shoot while on the road I do prep a DSLR and keep it handy. The prep is the important part. I just want to grab and shoot, not fiddle with anything on the camera. First off that means considering the lens. No variable focal length lenses, that takes two hands to adjust and it could be tempting to try and adjust it. I use a 24mm prime lens. Its just right to show a full windshield view without catching too much interior. It’s also a manual focus lens and that has a few more benefits for quick shooting. If the selected focus point of an autofocus lens is positioned on empty sky valuable time can be lost while the lens hunts back and forth in search of detail to lock focus on. Just keeping an autofocus lens switched in manual mode has issues too. The moving parts in the lens are designed to move freely and quickly while being being driven by a very small motor. That also means that the slightest touch or vehicle vibration can move the focus meaning that pre-focusing the lens isn’t a viable option. A lens like the one I prefer that is manual focus only is deliberately designed to have a lot of friction in the focus mechanism with the intent of keeping it where you set it. When it comes to pre-focusing that type of lens there is also the added benefit of having a distance scale coupled with a depth-of-field scale, a combination that rarely exists in an autofocus lens. With my old-school prime lens I am able to choose a reasonable aperture, usually between f/5.6 and f/8 depending on conditions, and preset the focus at the hyperfocal point using the scales on the lens. With aperture and focus preset, the camera operating in aperture priority mode, EV compensation set to -1/2 to account for bright sky, and metering set to matrix mode, I essentially have a big, high quality point and shoot rig. I can pick it up, hold it up over the dashboard and push the button. The image above was taken with this exact setup.
The Artist’s Beach Cottage
I was photographing a beach cottage last night that is owned by an artist who is well known for his glass and ceramic works. A thunderstorm positioned itself in front of the cottage as night fell so I went out onto the dunes to capture the scene. This is the resulting image.
Blast From the Past
I ran across this image while digging through some old material for a project this past weekend and set it aside to post here. I haven’t processed many lightning images in black and white but this looked like it had the right inherent contrast to make it work.
Two States of Water
It has been miserably hot lately so I wasn’t shy about getting good and wet in this cool, refreshing fountain the other afternoon in order to create this composition composed of repetitive elements. It’s nice to be able to rely on weatherproof cameras and lenses once in a while.
Storms
It has been so long it has rained around here. Yesterday the skies finally clouded up and storms rolled through all day and night. As you probably know by now I love to shoot in the rain so I took some time for myself between appointments to do just that. I got totally drenched and enjoyed every minute of it.
Watercolor Sky
I was in a bit of an artistic mood this weekend and this image provided a nice canvas for me to work with. The image was dark and moody with storm clouds to begin with so I simply built upon what was there as I worked with it.
Florida Prairie Sunset
I just got back from spending some time in the wilderness away from everything including cell phone service, the internet, electricity, plumbing, etc. Nothing but nature and my cameras to amuse myself with. The first evening there I hiked out into a large prairie area at sunset and captured this lovely subdued sky scene before returning to camp.
A Ship on the Horizon
I stayed at the beach until it was dark but I kept taking lengthy time exposures that gave a surreal, dreamy look to the scene.