Castaway Point Park, Palm Bay, FL

Today we return to Castaway Point Park in Palm Bay, FL. I probably have mentioned this park is practically across US 1 from my Mother-in-law’s place. I had been looking at the docks as I drove by and finally decided to visit on Easter morning. Other than the early morning sermon and a few fishermen I had the place almost to myself. There are a lot of areas to explore in this little park and I think I managed to get to them all.

This first image is from the end of the dock you can see in the Incoming image below.  I was looking back at the beach area and the second dock.  You can see another view of the dock in this in my original post for Castaway Point.  I really liked the way the lights in the park illuminated the trees from within and the way you can see the lights on the 192 Causeway on the horizon above the dock.

Castaway Point
Olympus OM-D E-M1, M. Zuiko 12-40mm F/2.8, 13s, 22mm, f/8, ISO 800

This second image is from a little beach area that is between the two docks. There was a lot to explore and some really nice photo opportunities. I wanted to try and capture the rocks in this area as they appear to be made up of layers of sand but covered with various life from the river.  Off on the horizon you can see the taller building in Indialantic and Melbourne Beach.

Beach Break
Olympus OM-D E-M1, M. Zuiko 12-40mm F/2.8, 3.2s, 12mm, f/16, ISO 200

I found a small deck over-looking the Turkey Creek inlet and was able to get down to the shore in front of it.  This allowed me to capture some of the water’s motion as it was coming ashore.  Again it is always a balance of how much I want to blur the water versus showing the energy associated with its movement.  Any slower than 1/3 of a second and I lost the sense of movement.  For some images, like my Simplicity image, you might want to completely blur the water and capture an almost surreal look.

Incoming
Olympus OM-D E-M1, M. Zuiko 12-40mm F/2.8, 1/3s, 14mm, f/16, ISO 200

For this last image I wanted to capture the cool erosion patterns the water has cut into the rocks.  It looks like a combination of sand and sediment which has been eaten away by the tides in the river. I also wanted to capture the group of people on the dock to add a little ‘life’ to the image but they kept moving around on me.  LOL

I used three different exposures in creating this image.  Rather than use an HDR program I manually blended the images together using luminosity masks.  I attempted to explain this methodology in my Creating an Image post back in December.  I think the results I was able to achieve on this image turned out better than the one I used to explain the technique.  I realize now that the better the exposures you capture the better the resulting image will be.

Erosion Layers
Olympus OM-D E-M1, M. Zuiko 12-40mm F/2.8, {1/6, 0.5 & 1s bracket}, 14mm, f/8, ISO 200

Melbourne Beach, Florida

Last night was obviously the full moon. Sitting at my computer that particular fact became apparent as soon as the moon rose above the trees. I could not help but notice the beautiful white light streaming through the back door window. I grabbed the camera and tripod, threw on a coat and ran outside to see what I could capture. It was just too bright! I was totally unprepared to make the necessary setting adjustments to capture what I was seeing in my head. I’ll have to try again tonight after I investigate some lunar photography tips.

How does this little story bring me to today’s image? Good question! I’m not totally sure I have a good answer but it goes something like this…

The need to run outside and capture an image of the moon was powerful. It wasn’t so I could show off the image here or exclaim my prowess with my camera. It was a desire to create an image, one I have in my head, one I probably saw somewhere else and now want to create myself. It is a really cool feeling to have. It can be frustrating too.

After I reviewed what I captured of the moon and realized I didn’t have the proper exposures to create my image, I started looking through my library of images. Now I had to create something. There are a lot of images that I take that sit on my hard drive waiting for me to do something with them. Not everyone is a prize but I captured it for a reason. Sometimes that reason is just the attempt at capturing the scene before me. Sometimes it is for an image I have in my head but haven’t brought it to life yet.

I went back to the images of my December trip to Florida. I remember the morning of this image. I was on a mission this day! I wanted to capture a sunrise at the beach with glorious waves crashing to the shore as the sun broke the horizon. It is an image I have seen numerous times from photographers that I follow online and I wanted one for myself. The wind was there to create the waves, the sun was obviously going to rise that morning. I just had to contend with the clouds and the morning mist.

And then I spotted this person standing at the edge of the shore. Staring out into the ocean as the sun began to paint the clouds. It wasn’t the image I set out to capture but the moment of this solitude connected with me. I swung the camera around and composed this image.

It was then I stopped and took in where I was standing. I listened to the sounds of the ocean, I could smell the salt in the air and watched as the gulls flew over the breaking waves. What a great morning to be at the beach! I was caught up in trying to get my image but now I was caught up in just being at the beach.

I think it is time to go back already… 🙂

Solitude
Olympus OM-D E-M1, M. Zuiko 12-40mm f/2.8, 1/3s, 31mm, f/16, ISO 200

Union Station, Utica, New York

Saturday morning was a mad dash around the county for me. I wanted to get out early and find a nice sunrise image. I then was going to move some furniture I no longer needed and maybe find some time to go out for the sunset. The dashing part came in mostly in the morning.

I headed down to Lock 20 of the Barge Canal since I knew there would be open water in the canal below the lock. I could use that water to ‘catch’ the morning colors. That was successful and I am happy with what I captured. Next, I hopped over to North Utica for some gas.

As I was coming into Utica on my way to pick up the van I was borrowing, the sun just started to break the city skyline. It was a spontaneous decision to swing down to the train station and grab some images along the tracks. That worked out well for me!

I picked up the van, moved the furniture, had a great burger for lunch and went home to relax before the sunset. Just as my daughter headed to work I gathered up the camera and headed to Delta Lake for the sunset. Another good decision as the sun was reflecting off the clear portions of ice that had formed on top of the frozen lake. The recent warm weather created nice conditions for sunsets at the beach.

Selecting the image for today was tough with so many good choices. I went with the train station as it is a little different from my normal landscapes. I also really liked how it turned out with the sunburst at the end of the tracks and all the sight lines leading right to it.  I wasn’t going to complain about that sky either!

Waiting on the Arrival
Olympus OM-D E-M1, M. Zuiko 12-40mm f/2.8, 1s, 12mm, f/16, ISO 200

There was another reason for me to choose this image. I successfully used a technique I learned about from Jimmy McIntyre from Shutter Evolve. This technique can be used when capturing images that have strong light sources in the view. Typically the lens will reflect the light internally and create spots in the image. Previously I had to decide if I wanted to move my camera position to minimize or remove those spots. Sometimes that would change the composition to something less desirable.

The technique I learned, which really could be called a hack, is to capture your image then capture a second image using your thumb to cover up the light source. This will remove the spots from the image and then you can use an image editor to paint out the spots using the second image.

Here are my original two images…