Posts in Category: ocean
4/22/2009
The Sands of Lindsfarne
These are the sands you drive across to get out to Lindsfarne. There are signs everwhere saying not to attempt them when the tide is coming in, but ever year people do, and every year they get stranded and have to be lifted off the safty tower in the middle by helicopter. I have to say that driving across the sea bottom is an other-worldly experience…it is not just knowing that twice a day where you are standing is under many feet of water…there is just a feeling to it that has no thing to do with any rational knowing. I am certain it added to the reputation of holiness the island has always had.
As you see, the storms that were sweeping over the coast that day are momentarily elsewhere, though within sight.
Sony DSC H50 at full wide. F5.6 @ 1/1000th @ ISO 100. Programed Auto.
Relatively straightforward in Lr. I did use a graduated filter effect for the sky, and another for the foreground. Clarity and less than usual Vibrance (since the blue peeking out the sky was already almost too intense without any help from me). Landscape sharpen preset.
From Scotland.
And, while we are on the subject…
warning
4/18/2009
Dunnattor Castle
Our host in Aberdeen put us on to this castle, as it would be on our way when we left, so we watched for the signs as drove down the east coast of Scotland in the morning. It was well signed but still not easy to find, being well off the main road. And, of course, when we got there it was raining. Not hard but hard enough to make it a dampish walk the quarter mile or so from the car park, protecting the camera all the way. Ah, but what a beautiful place. Dramatic. Rushing streams pouring down over moss covered cliffs. Straight drops to the gray sea, and the Castle ruins standing alone on a promontory so deeply carved it was all but an island. Add the brooding sky and a band of light along horizon where the storm broke and you had the makings of quite a scene. Unfortunately you also had a very difficult photographic challenge. The moss and turf was so dark, and the horizon so bright, with the castle pushed right up against it. Lots of water in the air (not to mention on the lens if not careful) sucking the contrast out of any distance. Still, you have to try. I took maybe thirty different shots, quick grabs when I whipped the camera out, got the shot off, and the camera back in its bag before it got too wet.
Of course, I would like to get back here with more time and better weather. I would like to spend a day, or a week, or a year photographing this scenery…but, in fact, I may never get another chance at this landscape. The pictures I took that day in the rain may be my only images of this place. If so, let it be so, and I will make the most of the shots I managed to get.
Sony DSC H50 at full wide (31mm equivalent). F4.0 @ 1/250th @ ISO 100. Programed Auto.
This shot required a lot more post processing than I normally use. I spent a good ten minutes on it. First a Graduated Filter effect from the top down to the horizon to darken the sky. 2) graduated filter effect from the bottom up to brighten the foreground and add contrast. 3) Adjustment brush applied to the two foreground castle structures, where I applied some exposure and brightness to lighten, along with some added contrast and some sharpening. 4) a second adjustment brush along the length of the low building to pull back the brightness (since at flat wall stood out too much). 5) a third adjustment brush along the bright horizon to pull back the exposure there a little. 6) general increased Vibrance and Clarity, and the Landscape sharpen preset. 6) moved the black point to the right to deepen the colors and added a bit of extra contrast to the whole image. 7)the yellow had become too bright with the exposure adjustments, so I pulled back the saturation of the yellow band in the HSL panel. 8) finally, I used the mouse selection tool in the HSL panel to select the gray of the water and darken it (luminance control).
Again, all of this manipulation is only to bring the image back to something like what I saw with my eye.
From Scotland.
4/17/2009
Making Hay by the Sea
Another picture from the long Scottish glooming. I just walked up the lane from the house we were staying at in Drum (a friend of my friend the intrepid driver on this journey). The house faces the North Sea across some agricultural fields…a truly beautiful setting. I saw these bales on the way down the lane and could not resist them. The warmth of the hay against the cold of the sea on the horizon, the shapes, the soft light. Magical stuff. There was just a touch of ocean haze, but the softness may have added to the magic.
Sony DSC H50 at about 65mm equivalent. F4.0 @ 1/125th @ ISO 100. Programed Auto.
Though I adjusted the exposure to try for a balance between sky and foreground in the camera (by tipping the camera up to read more sky than ground and then locking exposure), the sky still needed a graduated filter effect in Lightroom to bring out details in the clouds. I used to use the Recovery slider to do this, but the graduated filter effect has the advantage of leaving the highlights in the rest of the image unaffected. Recovery, if overused, can make the whole image a bit flat. I am using a reversed graduated filter from the bottom quite a bit these days, to increase brightness, but mainly to increase clarity and contrast where there is a lot of detail without adding a lot of noise to the sky. Then my usual Clarity and Vibrance settings in the Presence panel and the Landscape sharpen preset.
From Scotland.
4/5/2009
Brown Pelican in Galveston Harbor
Just down the dock from the tall ship of yesterday there were a group of Pelicans sunning and feeding. Pelicans are, of course, almost too easy. The 465mm equivalent of the Sony H50 is more than long enough for satisfying pelican shots. This handsome fellow was actively feeding along the length of a long dock.
Sony DSC H50 at full tel. F5.6 @ 1/640th @ ISO 100. Programed Auto.
In Lightroom, I pulled the highlights back with a bit of Recovery, shifted the black point slightly to the right to intensify the colors, added Clarity and Vibrance and used the Portrait sharpen preset.
From Galveston 2009.
And just for fun.
4/4/2009
J S de Elcano in Galveston Harbor
To quote from a Lighthouse Depot description of a model of this ship: Four-Masted Schooner Model…An Impressive 44″ In Length The Juan Sebastian de Elcano is a training ship for the Royal Spanish Navy. At 370 feet long, it is the third largest Tall Ship in the world. Built in 1927 in Cadiz, it is named after a 16th century explorer and captain of Magellan’s global fleet. Steel hulled and steel masted, a marvel of gilt and teak, ropework and canvas, with a crew polished to within an inch of their lives, the J S de Elcano is an impressive sight to happen on in Galveston harbor, right next to the Off-Shore Oil Rig Museum.
This shot uses the full wide end of the zoom on the H50 and shows all the distortions of the lens, compounded by the upward tilt of the camera, which placed the ship across the axis of all most all of the distortions. Still. The distortions might even add to the impression of size and the majestic sweep of this elegant vessel.
The light was just about perfect for this detailed shot.
Sony DSC H50 at full wide (31mm equivalent). F5.6 @ 1/640 @ ISO 100. Programed Auto.
In Lightroom, some Recovery for the white highlights and the sky. Added Clarity and Vibrance in the Presence panel, and the Landscape sharpen preset.
From Galveston 2009.
Masthead Detail, J S de Elcano
3/29/2009
Monumental Shell
As I have mentioned before, one of the features I like best about the H9/H50 cameras from Sony is the tilt out articulated LCD. It allows getting right down on the ground for images without actually laying down. It allows upward angles from ground level (something that is difficult even if you do lay down). In this case, laying down was not really an option unless I was willing to get wet all over.
When you combine the articulated LCD with a very close macro ability, all kinds of new photographic options open up.
Just a shell on the beach, becomes a monument to shelldom.
Sony DSC H9 at full wide (32mm equivalent). F5.0 @ 1/200 @ ISO 100. Programed Auto. Macro mode.
In Lightroom, basic processing for Presence and sharpness. Recovery and some Fill Light was used to aid the transparency of the water. I used a graduated filter effect to further darken the sky, and added a bit of saturation to the filter as well. Levels were adjusted to bright up the lights +60 and subdue the darks -20. (It is maybe important to mention again that though it sounds like a lot of manipulation in Lightroom, I spent less than 3 minutes on this image in post…Lightroom is very fast.)
From Around Home.
3/24/2009
Surf Foam
A day of particularly foamy surf, which left all kinds of interesting patterns on the beach. Each lasted only a second before it dissolved so you had to keep your wits about you and your finger on the shutter release. This particular extended line never happened again while I was there.
I cropped the image in Lightroom to place the leading line at the left corner.
Sony DSC H50 at full wide (31mm equivalent). F5.6 @ 1/1000 @ ISO 100. Programed Auto.
In Lightroom I cropped as above, and straightened the horizon slightly. Graduated filter to darken sky. Clarity and Vibrance, and a very mild sharpen. Because the sharpening routine in the camera, due I think to the angle of the lens to the plane of the image (tipped down), had already sharpened the horizon portion of the image quite a bit, I used less sharpening than normal, and applied a bit of luminance noise reduction.
From Around Home.
3/20/2009
Barra from the Erriskay Causeway
Until fairly recently the only way to get from South Uist to Erriskay was by boat across the narrow strait. Now you can drive. The view in either direction is nothing short of spectacular. To the west and south you have the sound of Barra and the island beyond. To the east and north across the blue-green water (more green than blue) you have the apparently unnamed mountains at the south end of South Uist (I am certain they have names, but they are not on any map I could find). I have found since that the color of the water, here and elsewhere it is found, is the result of a white sand bottom reflecting sunlight back.
Sony DSC H50 full wide (31mm equivalent). F6.3 @ 1/1000 @ ISO 100. Programed Auto.
In Lightroom, some Recovery for the sky, Vibrance and Clarity in the Presence panel, and Sharpen landscape preset. Recently I went back and added a graduated filter from the top, covering down just below the edge of the beach to lower the exposure of the sky…and added a touch of Fill Light to open the shadows.
From Scotland.
And the view in the other direction.
South Uist from the Erriskay Causeway
3/14/2009
Into the Sun (click image for other size views)
Shooting directly into the sun near sunset often produces interesting effects. In this case the golden look over the stark shapes at the edge of the Marina in Mission Bay California. It looks as though I toned the image, but I did not. It is simply an effect of the lighting and the tight cropping of the fairly long zoom setting.
What caught my eye was the repeating shapes of the catwalks leading down to the docks and the way the sun was catching them.
Sony DSC H50 at about 250mm equivalent. F5.6 @ 1/2000 @ ISO 100. Programed Auto.
From San Diego 2009
3/11/2009
California Poppy (click image for larger views)
Still at Sunset Cliffs Park on Point Loma in San Diego California. The poppies were in full glory along the rough trails of the park, along with a variety of other wild and semi-wild flowers.
For this shot I used about a 200mm equivalent to isolate a small patch of particularly well lit poppies. The strong side, almost back light, made the flowers appear to glow with a light of their own against the dark green backdrop. Then in Lightroom, I cropped in even tighter, to emphasize the diagonal of the flowers, and to eliminate deep shadows on the left and right. This kind of shot is difficult because there is no one center of interest, but I feel that here, the rough line of flowers across the diagonal pulls the image together.
Sony DCS H50 at 200mm equivalent. F4.0 @ 1/400 @ ISO 100. Programed Auto.
In Lightroom, besides the cropping, I used a little recovery to pull the orange highlights back, and my usual bit of Clarity and less Vibrance than normal in the Presence panel. Vibrance favors yellows and oranges, and too much would have burned out the orange highlights. Portrait sharpen preset.
From San Diego 2009.
And as a bonas: a few more wild and semi-wild flowers from Sunset Cliffs.
