Portland Head Lighthouse (November 28, 2009) [Experimental Gallery]

While I was shooting inside of my comfort zone during my time at Portland Head Light, I thought about trying some different compositions or trying some different processing when I got back to the digital darkroom. And that’s exactly what I did. I left my comfort zone for a bit.

For image A, I went up really close to the lighthouse (a vantage point I hadn’t really seen all that many people shoot from) with a 14-24mm at 14mm and tried to capture as much detail in the stones of the tower as I could. I knew that I would do something a little different and out there with my finishing, but I didn’t really settle on the extreme textures that you see below until I toyed around for a bit in CS4. I’m not sure that I really got the shot that I wanted (it doesn’t quite have the impact on me that the Owl’s Head shot from October does) but I’m definitely interested in trying again from this location.

Image B I took not long before I left the location and I figured that I’d get a nice vertical composition. But what ended up happening is that I didn’t use the right f/stop for the image I was trying to capture and on top of that there was a bit of camera shake. A missed shot is a missed shot, right? Well, yeah, usually. But this time I figured I would try something I’d always been curious to try, and that is to give an image a sort of ‘painting’ look. You can never turn back time and change what you did before you clicked the shutter, but you can certainly try and find the silver lining in a blown click.

I hope you enjoyed my other two galleries from the day. And even if you don’t particularly like my two experiments right up above, I hope you can appreciate the lesson that I learned: there’s nothing wrong with leaving your comfort zone. Because honestly, doesn’t one successful experiment make up for thousands of failed ones?

Bald Eagle (November 21, 2009)

My dad has seen an eagle in the same spot in the next town over at least five times in the past week and I’ve tried to shoot it four times, including yesterday. Here’s a little breakdown of my attempts:

Attempt #1 (last weekend): I scared it away and got an amazingly poor shot of its butt from a long distance.

Attempt #2 (beginning of this week): It was wicked foggy and the eagle was shrouded in branches.

Attempt #3 (middle of this week): I scared it away and got a beautiful shot of some scraggly branches.

Attempt #4 (yesterday): Below.

Bald Eagle One

Bald Eagle Two

There is still some more work to be done because if the eagle was positioned a bit differently I am pretty sure I could have gotten closer to it for a shot (there are an incredibly large amount of branches to deal with to get a shot of this bird unless I feel like taking a very chilly and disgusting dip in the Penobscot River…) That being said, the light was absolutely gorgeous yesterday morning and the bird was a bit less skittish, and I a bit more intelligent than usual. Live and learn. Sometimes it takes a few (or more) failures to get a shot you’re okay with in photography. Now to get this bird in flight, or catching prey!

Various Nature (November 7-13, 2009)

On November 7th, I went over to my grandmother’s with my dad and when he was looking at a staircase that’s been rather problematic for people I shot some birds in the late afternoon light. Unfortunately, there wasn’t a ton of light to work with so it was tough to keep those little birds sharp. After failing to get a sharp image for about twenty minutes, I decided to just stop fighting the light and try something a bit different.

 

Chickadee

On November 9th, I made the trip to Cadillac Mountain in Acadia National Park for the sunrise. I just couldn’t get to a good foreground in time for a great bit of clouds and light that lasted the entirety of forty seconds, at the most, so I just decided to shoot the sky by itself. I  really can’t think of the last time I shot just a sky, but I couldn’t waste the opportunity looking for a foreground I just wasn’t going to find in time.

 

Sunrise Sky

On November 13th, my dad, brother, and I went to Baxter State Park looking for moose. We did find moose, a pair of them, but they were far away on a dirt road with an awful background no light to speak of. But enough about the shots I didn’t get. There was some really nice light on a large number of trees in the park that I saw as we hiked around. I just had to shoot some of them at some point, it was inevitable.

 

Bark

I’m still not sure how I feel about the above image. There’s something about the colors and shadows that I love, but there’s a part of me that feels that there was a much better way to have approached this situation. I guess it doesn’t much matter, because that tree will never be found again (finding a particular tree in Maine? Ha, that’s a laugh!) and that light will never be exactly the same again. After we hiked around, we drove to a little campground to see if there were any moose there. Of course, there were not. But, as we stood there enjoying the view a flock of ducks flew nearby.

 

Ducks

So there you have it, various nature images with incredibly simple titles from November 7th to November 13th. I hope you enjoyed looking at my shots as much as I enjoyed taking them!

 

 

 

 

Portland Head Light (November 4, 2009)

Visiting Portland Head for the second time in two weeks, I was ‘treated’ to some pretty nice weather. Honestly though, the awful weather we experienced during my first visit during the workshop was a bit better for shooting than the clear skies I got on November 4th. But, one must shoot on when you’re somewhere that’s not so close to home, so shoot on I did.

 

Portland Head Light (Color)

 

Portland Head Light (Black & White)

Even though the shooting conditions in Cape Elizabeth weren’t amazing that day, I tried my best to think things through on location and know what I was gonna do to finish up the images. And to my pleasure, I finished them about how I intended to. So I’m definitely happy about that.

And to top it all off, I went to an NHL game the next night and my Montreal Canadiens beat the Boston Bruins at the TD Garden in Boston, MA in a shootout! What a game it was!

P.S. I’m looking forward to getting down to the lighthouse during a snowstorm and seeing what I can come up with there. I know the exact shot I want, now it’s just a matter of getting it.

 

 

 

 

Marshall Point (October 30, 2009)

The morning started off with a bit of panic and chaos. I woke up at 5:41 in the morning with a nice four minutes to spare before the van departed from the parking lot across the street. I managed to get dressed, gather my gear, and get over to the parking lot in an impressive two minutes. Despite being proud of myself for making it over in time, chaos isn’t a great way to start any morning. But, when we did arrive at Marshall Point, all my stress just melted away and I was treated to gorgeous light.

 

Marshall Point Light

 

 

I spent a fair amount of time trying to work with the yellow flowers in the foreground. If I could go back in time and do it all over again, I’d probably have turned more towards the left. After working that area, I moved around a bit and noticed that most everyone was shooting from the other side of the walkway. The sun was coming up and casting a gorgeous light on one side of the lighthouse and across the walkway. I took that opportunity to set up and get a shot of the walkway and light. If only I had a time machine I could get Tom Hanks to run down the walkway for me, I think it’d make the shot. :p

 

Walkway

 

 

Although the morning didn’t start in an ideal fashion, we made a great trip to yet another excellent location. There are so many different ways to approach the lighthouse and I am definitely interested in taking another trip to this location during the winter.

Andy’s Barn (October 29, 2009)

Although a little disappointed we didn’t have an early morning shoot on Thursday, I welcomed the extra little bit of sleep with open arms. After a day in the digital lab, we headed out to Hope to visit Andy’s barn. I could have honestly spent weeks and weeks shooting in the barn; there were just so many things to shoot. And actually, the variety and sheer amount of stuff to shoot was the biggest obstacle I had to overcome. There was simply too much to take in. The group spread out quite a bit, some people stayed outside shooting the various broken down vehicles that surrounded the barn and myself and others went inside to poke around. I decided to go for some long-exposure work using my 60mm f/2.8G macro and newly acquired cable release.

 

Fireaxe and Lamp

 

 

After shooting for a while inside I wandered out of the barn and found some lovely rusted textures. I opted to go with high tonal contrast and an overlayed high pass filter to achieve the textured effect on this image.

 

Rust

 

 

After shooting outside for ten minutes or so we all gathered up and went inside to get a great lesson on portraiture lighting. Moose gave us an excellent and in-depth rundown of how he sets up lighting for a portrait using SB-900s triggered by an SU-800 commander unit. I definitely feel more comfortable with the idea of using flash now. So now I just have to get out there and apply what I learned. It was a great day of shooting at Andy’s barn and it was great of him to let us come in and do what we did.

Rockland Breakwater and Portland Head Lighthouse (October 28, 2009)

The day started off with a trip to Rockland Breakwater. I had never been there, so the idea of ‘breakwater’ got me pretty excited for some shooting. But, when I got there I was honestly  a bit underwhelmed. Had I gotten there with the idea of black and white imaging in mind, I would have probably been ecstatic with what I saw before me. Unfortunately, I wasn’t the only person that hadn’t thought of black and white as a fair number of my classmates seemed a bit disappointed. In that disappointment, I just got some of the ‘traditional’ type photos out of the way and busted out the flash to try and get some water-freezing shots with the 70-200 down past the lighthouse. Oh, and by the way, to get to the lighthouse was a bit of a hike. But, my flashes were actually low on battery so my experiment turned out very poorly. However, when we got back to the digital lab, Moose said that he was thrilled with the conditions of the morning as they were great for black and white images. I wish I could say that I took this shot of the lighthouse with black and white in mind, but then I’d be lying. However, with some finishing in post, I managed to get this final image.

 

Rockland Breakwater

 

 

Later in the evening we made a much-anticipated (and rather lengthy) trip to the Portland Head Lighthouse in Cape Elizabeth. Traffic held us up a bit, so by the time we got there everyone had already been cleared out of the area. The rain was pouring down and the wind was blowing the rain right into my face and onto my gear. The rain was pouring so hard that I had to clean my lens after every shot and do my best to stabilize my tripod for 5 to 20 seconds at a time. But, as a photographer and as someone who had never been to the location before I just had to fight through the extremes and do my best to not only get a shot I could be proud of but also not blow such a unique opportunity to shoot there after sunset.

 

Portland Head Lighthouse

 

 

After we left the lighthouse we went to this awesome restaurant in Portland called The Flatbread Company (at least, I believe that’s what it was called.) Let me tell you something, it was a GREAT time! Great food, great friends, and a great way to end an evening in Portland. Thank you very much, Moose and Sharon for treating us to an excellent evening!

“The harder you work, the luckier you get.”     -Gary Player

Mt. Battie and Owl’s Head (October 27, 2009)

Well, Mt. Battie was certainly an experience. I woke up just before 5 in the morning, about the time I typically find my way to bed, and we all got packed up and piled into the van. Cramped, tired, and cold, we made our way up Mt. Battie. When we got up there, the light was already great to get the gear out and start shooting away. So that’s exactly what I did. But first I had to find the spot I wanted to shoot the sunrise. Brendan and I walked down the hill a bit and he got set up and I kept going another fifteen feet or so, settling in an area that I thought had a potentially nice foreground. For me, the colors of a sunrise just aren’t enough, I really search an area for foreground and middle ground elements. And if I can’t get those elements? I shoot anyways and just try an enjoy the sunrise. After messing around for a bit with some failed panorama attempts, I finally got the light I wanted.

Mt. Battie Sunrise

And although my hands were numb for half an hour after departing Mt. Battie, I’m glad I was out there. Even if the foreground wasn’t as interesting as I had hoped it would be, I still got the opportunity to shoot the sunrise with my classmates, insructor Moose, and T.A. Brendan, and that’s something only them and I get to say. And for all of the people that could not have possibly have been there, it’s my responsibility to do my best to bring that sunrise back with me on my compact flash card.

Later in the day, we all got our gear together again after a long morning and afternoon of learning in the digital lab and headed off for Owl’s Head. After getting there and realizing that we probably wouldn’t be able to see much color in the sunset, I tried to mix it up and approach the situation a bit differently. I busted out the macro lens, but some wind prevented me from getting anything worthwhile with that. I brought out the 70-200 and tried to shoot a very old and very creepy statue that was off in the grass near a staircase. And although neither of those ventures provided me with great shots, I still tried something a little different and didn’t let the prospect of a disappointing sunset stop me from shooting and having a good time. But when Moose threw on his 16mm fisheye and shot the lighthouse, the whole night turned into a great shooting opportunity. So, taking his cue, I threw my 14-24mm on the D3 and angled it up at the lighthouse as I stood at its base and just fired off shots, looking for some interesting clouds in the sky. At this point, the sun had already set and the sky was a deep blue. I liked the blue well enough, but wanted a bit more drama, so I pumped up my white balance to 10,000 kelvin (in hopes of graying the sky) and dialed into -1 exposure compensation and angled up to catch a very dramatic sky.

Owl's Head Light

Shooting at Owl’s Head with Moose and the gang taught me a very important lesson; not every good shot is just gonna show up, sometimes you’ve gotta dig deep within yourself and push yourself harder and harder until you see an opportunity. As Moose said, he pushes himself further and further all the time, and honestly, that’s what it takes to take capture a shot sometimes, that extra push.

Rockport Harbor (October 26, 2009)

So, on the first night out with the gang, we hit up the nearby Rockport Harbor for sunset. There wasn’t a ton of drama in the sky, but that didn’t stop me from trying to capture the great light that was present. Before the sun set I worked with my 70-200mm and graduated split ND filters (.6 and .9) to capture some of the incredibly interesting and New England-y boats in the harbor.

 

Mamosa

 

 

After the sun set, a few boats came into the harbor right in front of us. Moose suggested panning to us, and I figured, ‘Hey, yeah, that could be wicked cool!’ So, after a botched first try, I tinkered around with my settings and tried again.

 

Brittany Ann

 

 

I hope you enjoy my shots, because I definitely enjoyed taking them.

“As we sail thru life, don’t avoid rough waters, sail on because calm waters won’t make a skillful sailor”
-Anonymous

Welcome to my brand spankin’ new blog!

I just got back from The Maine Media Workshops and it was a fantastic week in coastal Maine! I will be editing my photos from the amazing workshop this weekend and will be posting some short anecdotes and images very shortly. So stay tuned!