fuji photography Archives - Page 5 of 7

Mistakes can be Frustrating – Pay attention to detail!

November 5, 2019 by Kirk

A couple of weeks ago I gave two women a morning tour in Rockport and Gloucester. We were able to come up with some outstanding images and at least two I’m really proud of. I can also say that both participants also made some outstanding images. Truly a great tour. All that being said – I am very frustrated at an image we waited 30 minutes for. The tide was on it’s way in and was not quite filling the tidal pools like we wanted. So we waited! I had my composition set but ready to move if the water did not pan out like I thought it would. No worries we were ready! Then it happened – a couple of rogue waves came in and almost got us but did just what we were looking for. I was very excited for everyone as the water finally did what we wanted it to do. I did not see the glaring error until I got home and processed the images from the day.

Waves filling tides pools on the back shore of Gloucester, MA — Waves along the back shore in Gloucester fill tidal pools in the rocks.

Everything was on target, the soft swirls in the bubbles, water flowing nicely over the rocks, everything is pin sharp – just beautiful! And then I saw it, the Twin Lights of Thacher’s Island are not centered in between the two rocks at the top of the frame. Yikes how could I miss that! Well – by not paying attention to detail is how. I was concentrating so much on the foreground I ignored where the two lighthouses were. I remember thinking about it but they were so small on the LCD I did not see where they were. Uggggh! Lesson learned, make sure all your elements are in the right place. I should have been a couple of feet to my right and both lighthouses would have been totally visible.

Landscape Photography in the Painted Hills

September 11, 2019 by Kirk

Once a year we head out to Oregon to visit our sons in Portland. So I always try to schedule in some landscape photography if I can. This year we decided on The Painted Hills . It was a long three hour drive down to Prineville (our Hotel) from Portland. We met up with some friends there and we headed out around 5pm (it’s an hour drive) to get there an hour before sunset even though it was very cloudy. When we arrived the lighting was very flat and was not a very good situation for interesting light on the hills. Plus it was dark as a thunder storm was moving in. But we soldiered on and made images anyway.

Landscape photography in the Painted Hills abstract — The Painted Hills of Eastern Oregon form an interesting abstract design on a cloudy day.

The situation steadily got worse as the thunder storms kept getting closer so the photography was a bit hurried. At the same time I was trying to shoot video as well. Really it was kind of a nightmare. The images are ok but nothing that really gets me excited.

Painted Hills Oregon — Early morning sun at the Painted Hills in Eastern Oregon.

The next morning we decided to try and get there a bit after sunrise. This time of day is not optimal for the Painted Hills as the light is coming from the wrong direction. Most of the iconic hills are facing west toward sunset. We did find some that looked fairly decent.

Painted Hills landscape — Scrub trees along the Painted Cove section of the Painted Hills in Oregon.

On the way out I decided to make a shot of the iconic hill that everyone takes around sunset to just give some contrast to what we were given in the morning light wise. I tried to old patience and persistence that I mention in this blog post but it just did not workout this time.

Overall the trip was worth it, even with the lousy light on the first day. Landscape photography is always weather dependent so we were lucky to be able to go back twice. Take a look at the video below to get a feel for the experience.

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.