wide angle photography Archives - Page 3 of 5

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.

Seascape Photography – Cape Hedge Rocks

August 13, 2019 by Kirk

Earlier this week I ventured over to Cape Hedge Beach here in Rockport to photograph some rocks that are part of the beach. Interestingly this is not the case for the rest of the beach as there are no rocks bursting through the sand anywhere else. I loved the way they seemed to point to an outcropping of rocks further off in the distance and chose to use a slow shutter speed as the waves rolled in while the tide came in.

Cape Hedge rocks — A series of rocks at Cape Hedge Beach in Rockport seem to point out to the end of the beach. ISO 160 1/10s f18

I started using my Breakthrough Photography six stop dark cpl which is a six stop neutral density filter with a polarizer in the same filter. I toned down the cpl and was able to use shutter speeds of one or two seconds. I prefer this one which was at 1/10 sec. at f18. The 2 sec. exposure covered the rocks with water and did not show the rocks pointing or leading the eye up in the frame to the spit of land in the distance. As far as images go it’s not the best but I kind of like it. I made a video of the experience on my YouTube channel which you can see below.

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.