Posts in Category: reflections
1/9/2012: Moody on the Beach, Kennebunk ME
I almost did not go out for a photoprowl yesterday, though my stock of recent material for Pic 4 Today is getting low. The day started out with promise, but by the time I got out of church, the sun had gone and banks of heavy cloud had come over. Still, when my wife announced that she was going for a walk on the beach, I decided to break away from the computer and join her. Good choice.
It was indeed gloomy, moody, and atmospheric on the beach, but there was light along the horizon for contrast and interesting reflections of the cloud mass in the wet beach. This is looking a bit west of south, out over Wells and Ogunquit. That little bump on the right is Mount Agamenticus (in case you thought I was kidding yesterday when I said tall hills in Southern Maine are called mountains). It is a low angle shot, taken from about 6 inches above the sand…I am ever thankful for the flip out lcd on today’s superzooms.
Canon SX40HS at 24mm equivalent field of view. f4 @ 1/640th @ ISO 125. Program with iContrast and –1/3EV exposure compensation. Metered on the horizon.
Processed in Lightroom for Intensity and Sharpness. I used a Graduated Filter effect to lighten both the foreground and the sky. The frame was added in Picasa, something I next to never do, but the tone of the image was just too close to the tone of the background here for effective display.
11/27/2011: First Sun at Bosque del Apache, Happy Sunday
This is another shot from the delayed sunrise last Sunday at Bosque del Apache. Clouds closed the eastern horizon and it took the sun an hour or more to make its way up behind them before there was any direct sun on the ponds and fields. While the Geese were up and away at first light, many of the Cranes remained in the overnight ponds well past their normal departure for the feeding fields. The combination of subtle indirect light with a touch of dawn color made the morning unique.
Canon SX40HS. 1) 107mm equivalent, f4.5 @ 1/1000th @ ISO 200. 2) 246mm equivalent, f5 @ 1/250 @ ISO 200. 3) 717mm equivalent, f5.8 @ 1/200th @ ISO 125. Programed Auto with iContrast. –1/3EV exposure compensation.
Processed in Lightroom for Intensity, light balance, and Sharpness.
And for the Sunday thought: Too often we think that clouds on the horizon spoil the dawn…and they certainly mute the sunrise and delay full light…but there is a beauty in that more subtle light, and you have much longer to appreciate it…to study the effect…to absorb the wonder of it. This is good, or can be if we we can see the delay for what it is and let go of our impatience. Taking it as a metaphor, of course, clouds on the horizon delaying our dawns are all too common in our lives…both our worldly lives and our spiritual lives (for those still making that distinction). When we commit to living with eyes wide open and full of wonder, we let go of our expectations of speedy dawns every day…we commit to giving the sun time to climb up behind the clouds, and we commit to enjoying every moment of the wait. In fact, we commit to not waiting at all. We commit to being in the moment and appreciating each one for what it is. That’s not waiting for anything. That is the life of the creator in us through spirit of his son, enabling us to be as we are intended to be. A long slow dawn, below the mountains, with majestic birds walking on reflected light…makes it easy to be wide eyed in wonder and belief…but that’s call for each day…no matter what shape the dawn takes.
Now if I could only remember that!
10/17/2011: Again the Water Meadow
This is one of my favorite views along the Kennebunk Bridle Path. Yesterday was the highest tide I have seen this year and the meadow was brim full…standing water under much of the grass…shore birds taking refuge in the highest pools. Fall foliage is just about past, but there is still a touch of color. But of course it is the sky and the reflection in the stream that makes the image.
Canon SX40HS at 24mm equivalent field of view, f4 @ 1/1250th @ ISO 160. Program with iContrast. –1/3 EV exposure compensation.
Processed in Lightroom for Intensity and Sharpness.
10/14/2011: Mousam run in Fall Foliage
This is the run of the Mousam above Old Falls at this year’s leaf-peak this past Monday. Gotta celebrate it while it is here. By the time I get back to Maine on Sunday, this show will have packed its tents and moved on south.
Shots like this, if you are not going to get very wet and muddy, require the flip out LCD on some of today’s superzoom and advanced P&S cameras, so you can hold the camera right down on the ground to frame. I will never willingly buy another camera for my landscape efforts that does not have a good articulated LCD. For one thing I am well past the age when it is easy to get up, once you get down in the mud. 🙂
Canon SX40HS at 24mm equivalent field of view. f4 @ 1/400th @ ISO 160. Program with iContrast (dynamic range enhancement).
Processed in Lightroom for Clarity and Sharpness.
10/12/2011: Old Falls Pond, West Kennebunk ME
I have quite a few images of this pond, mostly in the fall when it really comes to life. I would have preferred some clouds in the sky…but I took this on my last day home before a week away, and by the time I see it again, the leaves may be completely off the trees. We shall see, but for now this is my Old Falls Pond pic of the year. The UFO above the tree line on the left is actually, if you look closely, a leaf.
Canon SX40HS at 24mm equivalent field of view. f7.1 @ 1/160th @ ISO 125. Program with program shift for the smaller aperture, and iContrast.
Processed in Lightroom for Clarity and Sharpness.
9/26/2011: Just a touch of fall on the marsh…
Another shot from Saturday’s fotoprowl®…just to prove I did eventually get out of the yard (see yesterday’s post). The trees, as of Saturday, had just been touched with the earliest color of fall. Things will progress rapidly now, and indeed, by Sunday morning the color had advanced far enough to leave no doubt that the season is upon us. In this shot, an in-camera HDR, I tried to catch the marsh at this delicate balance between the seasons, with maybe the last of the Beach Rose among the Asters and Goldenrod in the foreground, the unique fall greeny-yellow-brown of the marsh grass, and the few red maples in the background. As you see, it was fully overcast, so I also worked to bring out at least a little detail in the clouds. If I were a purist I would edit out the dead branches obtruding from the left…but I am a realist…and I actually prefer to leave them in.
Nikon Coolpix P500 in Backlight/HDR mode. 23mm equivalent field of view. Nominal exposure f3.4 @ 1/800th @ ISO 160 (nominal because an in-camera HDR is the sum of several very rapid exposures with different settings).
Before uploading to my laptop, I also used the in-camera Quick Retouch, which, when applied to an in-camera HDR, restores some of the contrast, brightens the foreground, and sharpens the whole image. The combination, while not as good as a three exposure HDR processed in Photomatix, is pretty satisfying. Final processing in Lightroom for Clarity and Sharpness. Cropped slightly at the right to eliminate a half post leaning out of the frame.
7/27/2011: Down the creek, v 2.0
So my theory is, when you have a great scene…great sky…great view…why stop at just one image? With digital there is no penalty for taking lots of angles. This shot was taken 30 feet to the left of Saturday’s Down the Creek shot, and just across the road from Monday’s Up the creek.
While both Up the Creek and Down the Creek had only sky and water for a foreground, so the images floated free (so to speak) this shot is firmly anchored by the rocks on the left and right so that the ripples in the water catch the eye. The boat dock and the house draw the eye to the middle distance before it wanders back, down the right shore, between the sky and its reflection, to the buildings of Kennebunkport. My eye, as least, then continues around so that the whole image fills my view. This sweep of attention, I think, lends a dynamic and a tension to this image that Saturday’s lacked…not to say it is better for that…just a totally different feel. Not so serene. Not so peaceful. A bit edgier.
Nikon Coopix P500 at 23mm equivalent field of view, f3.4 @ 1/300th @ ISO 160. Program with Active D-Lighting.
Processed for Clarity, Sharpness, and impact in Lightroom.
7/25/2011: Up the creek behind the beach
If you remember Saturday’s Down the creek post, this shot is the same evening, from the same bridge, only looking up the creek, where it passes behind the houses that face Gooch’s Beach. Here again it is the quality of the light, and the reflections of the sky in the water that form the foundation of the composition. (This is a tidal creek and we are seeing it here brim full of tidal backflow…it shrinks to creek size at low tide.)
Because the low sun was right there, just out of view in this shot, the only way to capture anything like the naked eye view this was HDR. I used the camera’s built in Backlight/HDR mode (which takes multiple exposures and stacks them for extended range), and adjusted the result in Lightroom. Though at first I dismissed the way too flat results of the in-camera processing, I am finding that with experience in processing them in Lighroom, it actually works pretty well…at least in some situations.
Nikon Coolpix P500 at 22mm equivalent, nominal exposure f3.4 @ 1/1000th @ ISO 160. Backlight/HDR mode.
Processed for intensity, Clarity, and Sharpness in Lightoom.
7/23/2011: Down the creek toward Kennebunkport
Though I have checked all my maps, including Google Earth, I can not find a name for this tidal creek that flows under Beach Avenue in Kennebunk and into the Kennebunk River near its mouth in Kennebunkport. Here, about an hour before sunset on a summer evening, the light, the clouds, the reflections in the water, and the expansive perspective of the 23mm equivalent zoom combine for an image that draws you in (imho) and invites you to stay a while. There is a lot going on here within the classic rule of thirds and leading lines composition.
Nikon Coolpix P500 at 23mm equivalent field of view, f3.4 @ 1/320th @ ISO 160. Program with Active D-Lighting (and it is in a shot like this that the ADL really shows its value).
Processed for Clarity and Sharpness in Lightroom. Some Recovery for the sky and clouds, some Fill Light to bring up the trees along the sides.
7/16/2011: Pool of Clouds in Evening Sun
The pool behind the bridge on Back Creek near where it flows into the Mousam River in Kennebunk, on a summer evening with the late sun across the marsh and the clouds caught.
Nikon Coolpix P500 at 31mm equivalent field of view. Backlight/HDR mode. Nominal exposure f3.7 @ 1/1000th @ ISO 160. Quick Retouch applied in camera.
Processed for Clarity, Sharpness, and Contrast in Lightroom.