Sunset Archives - Cape Ann Photo Tours

Planning your Moon shots

May 27, 2020 by Kirk

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I try to not miss an opportunity to photograph a “Super Moon” near a local lighthouse when the sunset and moonrise times line up. Back in March, when the “Buck Moon” came up right at sunset, it was the perfect time to get the shot. I used an app called “Photo Pills” to see which lighthouse on Cape Ann it lined up with. I also use a newer app called “TPE” which has less features to it. As it turned out the Straightsmouth Island light in Rockport, MA lined up perfectly with the rising moon. I used the Fujifilm XF 100-400 as it is a long reach from the Headlands in Rockport to Straightsmouth Island. Using this app I was able to figure out very closely where I needed to stand. If I had gone any lower near the water the lighthouse would have broken the horizon and it would not have looked as nice. It’s still a little close for me but I could not get any higher to lower the top of the lighthouse below the horizon. If I had been at water level the moon would have come up right behind the lighthouse which would have been pretty cool but the haze would have made it less visible.

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This particular day in March was quite warm (around 70 degrees F) which heated the land up quite a bit and as the sun went down an atmospheric shimmer appeared as the warmed land let off it’s heat. Using such a long lens compressed this heat and gave the images a slightly off sharp look. I was worried all day about the haze that was building on the horizon but the moon came through quite well. The top image is just as it broke through the haze. As the moon got higher in the sky it became clearer to see.

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I only managed to get the lighthouse light in a few shots just not in the ones I wanted. It was a good thing a sea gull flew through to make this last image more interesting. I also made a YouTube video of this photo shoot which I have embedded below.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pynzXhJVemM&w=560&h=315]

Shooting Reflected Light and Blue Hour

August 5, 2019 by Kirk

The other day I knew there was a good chance of a spectacular sunset. The problem was I did not have time to get to a good place to shoot it so I had to make other plans. This got me thinking that if the sunset was strong enough there would be some reflected light of clouds near by to give me something to shoot. It turned out that this was the case as the sunset lit up everything around me.

Sandy Bay Sunset — Clouds show off an insane sunset further off to the west over Ipswich Bay. Fuji X-T3 w/10-24

Upper Granite Pier gave me a wonderful look over Sandy Bay and all I had to do was wait and see if the the clouds would reflect the light from the sunset over Ipswich Bay. I was not disappointed. The sunset was so crazy that it was a 360 degree light show.

Straightsmouth Light Sunset — Reflected sunset over Sandy Bay and Straightsmouth Island. Fuji X-T3 w/50-140

As soon as the light started to fade I rushed over to Back Beach to catch Blue Hour and the Rockport skyline lit up with lights from the Shalin Liu and Brackets Rest.

Blue Hour Rockport — The lights along the Rockport waterfront reflect on the water as Old Sloop stands guard. Fuji X-T3 w/50-140

The Blue Hour light was beautiful and the lights from the Shalin Liu and Brackets Rest. lit up the water along the shore line with intense reflections. The newly refurbished First Congregational Church of Rockport shines bright white in the low blue light. So don’t always shoot the sunset look for the reflected light around the horizon it could give you beautiful images! Blue Hour is a wonderful time of day and can also offer some great images.

Early Evening Sail

July 30, 2019July 30, 2019 by Kirk

I love bringing my camera along when I go out sailing. My wife and I went out for a sail on the Thomas E. Lannon for a beautiful evening on Gloucester Harbor. We had a nice light breeze to off-set the heat of the day. I did not shoot a lot of images but the ones I did I like quite a bit. So often I find myself converting images around the water to B&W. I don’t know why but for some reason I love the look of B&W maritime images. The wonderful tones in the low light of early evening are such a joy to work with.

I chose to bring my Fujifilm X-T30 with the 10-24 f4 which gave me the opportunity for shots of sails and things with the ultra wide, like the shot above with the binnacle in the foreground.

In the stern of the schooner this mainsheet block and tackle with the line woven around it was an interesting subject and I was looking at it all the time. Finally near the end of the sail I made a photo of it.

The sunset never did work out great but it still added to the horizon on the eastern shore of Gloucester. It was a great sail and I’m looking forward to doing it on the Ardelle and Adventure near the end of the month.