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Reflections – A powerful landscape photographers tool

Last week while on an early morning tour to Good Harbor Beach in Gloucester we were faced with a full moon low tide that seemed to go out forever. Normally this is not a great thing but in this instance it offered our group an interesting perspective on the cliche sunrise photo.

We set up looking for the sunrise over Thacher’s Island and the early morning dawn did not disappoint. It had a wonderful glow about it which started to brighten up the clouds in the south with incredible pinks, yellows, oranges and blues. I kept looking over in that direction at the clouds changing colors and could not help but think that there is a photo there. My Canon 5D Mklll was on the tripod with a longer lens but I had my Sony Nex7 with the wide zoom available. I grabbed this “little” camera and ran down to a large puddle and using the tilting LCD I made some shots at water level of the incredible colored clouds just before sunrise.

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I have shot reflections before and know that the best way to photograph using them is very low at water level. Of course this does not work in every case but in this case it works. The mounds of sand in the foreground give this scene a realistic look not just a copy of the scene above and help the viewer look over to the left following the clouds.

This image is not overdone with saturation and and is very real as the color is how I saw it. In my view it’s important not to overdue things in Lightroom or Photoshop as it takes away from the natural scene. When this image was shown to the folks in my tour we moved down to the small pond and made some great images as the sun came up.

Another successful Cape Ann Photo Tour!

Always Have a Camera

The other day while walking to my car I stumbled into one of the most beautiful sunsets we have seen around here in quite a while. It was magnificent. As I pulled my phone out of my pocket to get a quick shot it occurred to me that my trusty Canon G15 was in the car as it always is and it would give me a much better image with plenty of options. One of my mantras when teaching is to always have a camera with you (use your phone as a last resort). Most photographers I know, professional and otherwise have a second camera they can keep with them when the big heavy stuff is not an option. The Canon G15 is just such a camera. It has a great range, 28-143mm and is fast 1.8-2.8. For most things this camera is great. Sure it does not focus fast and not very good in low light but for most things is awesome! Capturing that memorable moment is all about what you have with you. Hence the image below!

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Travel Photography – looking for the details

Travel photography is pretty easy – right? How many times have you returned home and gone through an edit of your images and been disappointed? It’s happened to me, believe me. One of the basic things that people forget is that you are trying to tell a story with your images. This means looking for images everywhere that record what you did on your trip. Sometimes I forget these things when I am faced with a new area with lots of really interesting image possibilities.

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Recently when I was out with friends showing them the beauty of Rockport. I decided to shoot some details at a couple of the places we went. The Glass House on Bearskin Neck was such a place. Colored glass everywhere! So I decided to look for some interesting shots of the glassware. Not overall shots mind you but closeups.

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Treating this like I would any other shoot I also looked for the details not just the overall scene. This helps to bring those memories back of where you have been. Of course you need to have those dramatic landscapes you came for but showing the details rounds out the story of your visit.

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It’s important to remember the things you like best, like taffy from Tucks in Rockport!