Posts in Category: water
7/14/2009
Goat Island Light: Over Rose
Goat Island Light at Cape Porpoise ME is not as often photographed as Nubble Light or Portland Head, and, to be honest, it is not as photogenic. Still, it has its charms. For this shot, one of many taken on the first sunny day we had had in a month, I attempted to get the rose and the light equally sharp for an image with great depth. Program Shift put the aperture at F8 (smallest on the H50) and I used a bit of EV as well to keep as much detail in the white buildings as possible. I also backed off from the rose and used a moderate zoom setting (about 70mm equivalent). This put the rose in the zone of sharp focus while the light was still sharp as well. A few clouds in the sky would have made the perfect shot, but you can’t have everything (or I couldn’t on this day). To compensate I used a Graduated Filter effect in post processing to darken the sky and balance the image better.
Sony DSC H50 at about 70mm equivalent. F8.0 @ 1/320th @ ISO 100. Programed auto with -.3 EV exposure compensation.
In Lightroom, Recovery for the sky and white buildings, Fill Light to open the shadows, added Clarity and Vibrance and Landscape sharpen preset. As above, use a Graduated Filter effect from the top to darken the sky and balance the image better, and one from the bottom (while I had the dialog open) to add maximum snap to the foreground.
From Around Home, Kennebunk ME.
And as a bonus, the light up close. Taken from about the same spot, but at full telephoto.
Goat Head Light
7/13/2009
Song Frozen in Time
Continuing the theme from yesterday, here is no apology water frozen by the shutter image. I am always amazed at what gravity, rocks, and light can do with this peaty water. You could take a thousand pics, and no two would catch the same forms, the same play of light, the same energy. This, to me, is a high energy shot.
The trick with a shot like this, where you have such a wide range of light values, is, of course, to get the exposure right. I used heavy Exposure Compensation and underexposed to save the highlights, and then brought the shadow back up in Lightroom when I post-processed. The net effect is very like what I saw, and what I visualized in the field.
Sony DSC H50 at about 80mm equivalent. F5.6 @ 1/1000th @ ISO 100. Programed auto with -1.7 EV exposure compensation.
In Lightroom, heavy Recovery for the highlights. Fairly heavy Fill Light for the shadows. Added Clarity and Vibrance and Landscape sharpen preset.
7/10/2009
Abstract in Marsh Foam
Given the heavy and frequent (incessant) rains we have had this summer in Maine, it is not surprising that all the streams are running full and fast. They are also picking up a lot of sediment and organics along the way. This leads to some interesting foam where the water eddies, especially where the fresh water meets the salt and some interaction (possibly even of a chemical nature) takes place.
This was a huge patch of stream/sea foam along the shore where an unnamed tributary empties into the Mousam river, just yards from where the Mousam empties into the sea.
I was struck by the swirling patterns, and took several shots attempting to make something of them.
Sony DSC H50 at about 90mm equivalent. F5.6 @ 1/640 @ ISO 100. Programed auto.
In Lightroom, just added Vibrance, Clarity, and Landscape sharpen preset. I also increased the contrast to bring out the pattern more.
A second shot: which shows the variety of color and texture in the mass.
Marsh Foam Abstract 2
7/6/2009
High-tide in the Tidal marsh, With flowers.
The first sunny Saturday morning, after 2 weeks of steady rain, found me down at the beach before my shower. Pics to be taken.
I tried several variations of this shot, with the wildflowers blooming up out of the sea-rose hedges and clumps in the foreground, and various backgrounds. This is the tidal-marsh on a little tributary of the Mousam River which apparently has no name (not that I can find on maps anyway). The stream drains freshwater wetlands just back from the coast, across Rt. 9.
Lots for the eye to play with in this image, from the flowers in the foreground, to the lone grass head breaking the horizon, to the folded marsh covered in a pelt of grasses, to the intense blue of the tidal pond, to the tall centered stand of pines, to the clouds painting the blue of the sky. Almost too much, but, for me, the tall clump of pines anchors it enough to give the eye some ease and let it all hang together. I would prefer to have the clump of trees on one of the power lines (rule of thirds lines), but no crop with the trees there is successful, and they would not move for me.
You might want to click on the image to view it larger. What fits in the blog-space does not do it full justice.
Sony DSC H50 at full wide. F8.0 @ 1/200th @ ISO 100. Programed auto with program shift for the smaller aperture and greater depth of field.
In Lightroom, Recovery for the sky and clouds. Blackpoint slightly to the right. Added Vibrance and Clarity, and Landscape sharpen preset. This is a candidate for dual graduated filter effects, top and bottom, but it does not, considering the brilliance of the light, really need it. Cropped slightly from the bottom for composition.
7/3/2009
Fernald Book: in context
This the fullest context shot of the series. It would have taken a wider wide to get the full height of the trees, and I actually zoomed in a bit for better framing.
Sony DSC H50 at about 35mm equivalent. F4.0 @ 1/25th @ ISO 100. Programed auto.
In Lightroom, added Clarity and Vibrance, and blackpoint just to the right. Landscape sharpen preset.
7/2/2009
Sky and Trees Paint Tea-Brown Water
If nothing else this latestes series of Pics should illustrate my often repeated principal of shoot all around the subject. (Why take just one… and Lupine Lessons from Point and Shoot Landscape). All of these shots were taken from one spot. I did not move, but the camera did, and so did the zoom (for framing).
In this shot, what caught my eye was the strong reflections of the trees against the sky in the water…as well what the sun was doing with the water color and the sand on the bottom of the brook.
Sony DSC H50 at full wide. F4.0 @ 1/20th @ ISO 100. Programed Auto with program shift (to slow the shutter speed for the best reflection effect).
In Lightroom, heavy recovery for the highlights on the foliage and to cut some of the glare from the water. Added Clarity and Vibrance and the blackpoint moved just slightly to the right. Landscape sharpen preset. I also used the Local Adjustment brush to tone down the brightest highlights on the ferns and skunkcabbage leaves along the stream.
7/1/2009
Abstracts in Water and Light
Looking more closely at the brook from yesterday, playing with what the sun and shadow was doing in and on that tea brown water. Patterns.
I played with the exposure on these, attempting to catch the way it really looked, but since part of the look was the gentle motion of the water, any slice of time image misses something. I used Program Shift to choose a slow shutter speed on this one to slightly blur the reflected sky highlights on the moving water.
Sony DSC H50 at about 110mm equivalent. F7.1 @ 1/30th @ ISO 400. Programed Auto and Program Shift.
Note the high ISO. I had the camera on Auto ISO (I rarely take it off auto), and I did not fully realize just how dark it was under the forest canopy. I was paying more attention to framing. Still, the Sony held detail and color very well at ISO 400, with a good contrast range.
This is another abstract shot from the series.
Abstract Two
In this one I did not use Program Shift, and, with fewer shadows, the camera chose a higher ISO. I also dialed back the zoom for a wider framing.
Sony DSC H50 at about 50mm equivalent. F2.8 @ 1/60th @ ISO 250. Programed Auto.
For both in Lightroom, just my basic boost in Clarity and Vibrance, with a touch of blackpoint to the right (limited in these shots because I did not want the shadows to pack up). Landscape sharpen preset. The second shot was cropped to remove distractions along the right edge and emphasize the abstract nature of the patterns.
6/30/2009
Stained Glass Water: Fernald Brook, Kennebunk ME
Getting out of the house for the first time in a week with camera in hand and sun in the sky is always a treat. This day, having limited time, I decided to explore a tiny section of woodlands between our home and the railroad tracks. I knew Fernald brook crossed under the tracks a 1/4 mile from the underpass right down the road from the house, and found a way down the embankment and into the woods well short, where I could still get down the bank safely. Much to my surprise there was a well beaten path right inside the woods. Turns out some boys, some summer long past, had dragged lumber and poles out and built a major tree fort near the brook. There was even a bridge worthy of Teribithia.
The stream itself, when I continued past the fort, was a maze of loops, cutting back and forth through lush forest, running pure and clean, but a deep tannin brown. The sun slanting through the trees and reflecting off the sandy bottom of the stream caught all the color and created almost a stained glass effect. I took many shots, attempting to capture the effect.
This is the stream as I first walked up on it, a simple framing of one straight section of loop across the stream’s wider bed among the ferns and skunkcabbage. Indeed a magical place.
Sony DSC H50 at full wide. F2.7 @ 1/50th @ ISO 100. Programed auto. I was able to hand hold the shot at ISO 50 because of the Sony’s built in sensor image stabilization, and I was able to shoot straight Programed auto because I knew I could draw the green, sun on the ferns and leaves, highlights back in Lightroom with the Recovery tool when I got home. I did try a few shots with Program Shift, attempting a better overall exposure, but I could tell even on the camera’s lcd that I was loosing too much of the effect of the sun in the water. The result is a compromise, with some of the green highlights reaching saturation, but the stream bed standing out as it did while actually there.
Recovery in Lightroom, then, for the highlights. A touch of Fill Light and the blackpoint to the right just slightly. Added Clarity and Vibrance, and Landscape sharpen preset. I was still not happy with the highlights so I went in with Lightrooms Local Adjustment Brush and painted adjustment masks, heavily feathered, over most distracting highlights. Reducing exposure in those areas, and adding some saturation to retain the color, made, I think, for a more pleasing rendering (and one closer to the actual visual impact of the scene).
6/27/2009
Off Cadillac's East Shoulder: Cranberry Isles and the Atlantic
On a good day on Cadillac the views in every direction are astounding. Though the clouds over the Atlantic were of a different kind and a different quality than those over the landmass, they are no less beautiful, and the Cranberry Isles, dotting the mid-ground before the Atlantic shades off into the horizon make for an interesting vista. This is another shot I have taken on every trip, and another shot that is never the same twice.
Sony DSC H50 at about 40mm equivalent. F5.6 @ 1/250th @ ISO 100. Programed auto.
In Lightroom, Recovery for the sky and clouds, added Clarity and Vibrance and the Landscape sharpen preset. Because I wanted the foreground to pop, I used a graduated filter effect from the bottom up two thirds, and added Exposure, Clarity, and just a touch of Contrast.
6/19/2009
Overlooking Jordan Pond from the Pond House Lawn
The Jordan Pond House in Acadia National Park is justly famous for two things: its popovers (gotta be eaten to be believed) and its view. Lunch or dinner on the Jordan Pond House lawn (seating for a hundred or more at tables with individual umbrellas), on any day when it is not actually raining, is, like the popovers, an experience not to be missed. Jordan Pond stretches away below the lawn and the blueberry patch and the Bubbles (two smallish mountains by Acadia standards…big rocks by western standards), rise up behind. Weather comes down the deep valley of Eagle Lake behind the Bubbles and makes for interesting skies. Scenic or what.
I have photographed the Pond and Bubbles in just about every light, at different times of year, but this is actually the first image I have taken from the vantage of the lawn. I was actually sitting on the ground a the edge of the lawn when something about the sky and the bit of weedy grass in the foreground just caught my attention this trip and I took 10 or more exposures at various heights above the ground (between on it, and a foot off it) in an attempt to capture the depth of the view. The low angle was also necessary because there were people continuously walking down a path that runs along the trees on the left, below this near horizon, and people on the path along the lake at the foot of the hill. This shot works for me. You will see some other treatments of this view in coming days.
Sony DSC H50 at full wide. F5.6 @ 1/500th @ ISO 100. Programed auto.
In Lightroom, I used Recovery for the sky, moved the blackpoint to the right slightly, and added both Clarity and Vibrance. I added a bit of contrast, and used the Landscape sharpen preset.