Sunrise near Utica, NY
Passing By
Olympus OM-D E-M1, M. Zuiko 12-40mm f/2.8, 4s, 16mm, f/16, ISO 800
Passing By
Tag Archives: sunrise
Lock 20 Rising
Lock 20, Barge Canal
Saturday morning at the canal did not disappointment me. I knew it would be a race between the sun and the incoming clouds. I’d call this one a tie! Third place finisher would be the fog. You can see it starting up the canal if you look past the lock.
Lock 20 Rising
Olympus OM-D E-M1, M. Zuiko 12-40mm f/2.8, 6s, 25mm, f/16, ISO 200
Morning in Rome
Delta Lake Dam & Bellamy Harbor
Rome, NY
This was going to be the morning when I realized my sunrise concept from last weekend. I allowed myself to sleep in a little so as not to get to the dam too early. There were some clouds starting to move in so my hopes were high. The first image is the one I envisioned. The sun is far enough North to almost rise over the Delta Lake dam. What I discovered after grabbing this image is that the viewing angle is too low. There is more color and drama in the sky behind the dam, closer to the horizon. I wasn’t about to climb a tree to get a better view.
I didn’t let it discourage me! I packed up my camera and headed down to Bellamy Park in the South of Rome. Every morning as I drive over the barge canal bridge on my way out of Rome I get a great view of the canal and the park as the sun is throwing color into the sky. I was hoping I could get there before the sun crested the trees.
The first image is a single shot with my wide angle lens. I was able to capture the kayak launch, the park and the view East along the barge canal. And then I had another idea. I rotated the camera into a portrait orientation and grabbed five images encompassing about 150 degrees of viewing angle. This would be a very cool panoramic view. This allowed me to bring the Mohawk River with the pedestrian bridge into the same view with Bellamy Park and the barge canal.
The last image is my pano. When setting up to capture your images for a panoramic you have to remember to set your camera to manual mode. You do not want the camera refocusing or adjusting the settings while you grab each image. Once I had all five images it was an easy process job using Photoshop to merge them into my final image.
All in all I had a great morning at both ends of Rome, NY. I even managed to be back home by 6:30am so I could start my laundry. I know, not very exciting, but at least I can process images while the washing machine does all the work. Now I have to get those clothes out on the line to dry… 🙂
Dam Morning
Olympus OM-D E-M1, M. Zuiko 12-40mm f/2.8, 3.2s, 16mm, f/16, ISO 200
Bellamy Park
Olympus OM-D E-M1, M. Zuiko 12-40mm f/2.8, 1/40s, 14mm, f/16, ISO 200
Mohawk Meets Barge Canal
Olympus OM-D E-M1, M. Zuiko 12-40mm f/2.8, 1/40s, 14mm, f/16, ISO 200
Hinckley in the Morning
Hinckley Reservoir
Sunday morning was the perfect day to get up early and catch some pre-dawn images. I finished reading Below the Horizon by David Delnea (you can see more about the eBook here) and was inspired to drag my butt out of bed. This book talks about light at the edges of the day. I spend a lot of time getting photographs during this time frame but David’s book still provided me with great information. I truly enjoy the authors and books you can find on the Craft & Vision website.
The two pictures in this post were captured only 4 minutes apart. As the sun approaches the horizon the light is changing drastically. You can see this in the color tone shift between the two images. The first image is cooler in tone with blue hues being the most dominant. The second image is starting to get warmer as more of the sunlight is crossing the horizon and lighting the sky above the reservoir.
This was another chance for me to play with my filter set. Not only did I have the circular polarizer working for me but the first image also has the 2-stop ND graduated filter. It is a soft edge filter which means the transition is gradual. That zone is centered on the horizon. By using the graduated filter I was able to get a single exposure image without any areas being too dark or light.
For the second image I added a 4-stop ND filter which allowed my to get a full 1 minute exposure time. This allowed the slow moving clouds to blur as they worked their way toward the horizon. It also allowed me to show the slight breeze with the blurring of the lake grass as it swayed.
I’m going to keep my eyes open for more opportunities like this… 🙂
Hinckley Pre-Dawn
Olympus OM-D E-M1, M. Zuiko 12-40mm f/2.8, 15s, 17mm, f/16, ISO 200
Hinckley on the Move
Olympus OM-D E-M1, M. Zuiko 12-40mm f/2.8, 60s, 12mm, f/13, ISO 200
Castaway Point Park Revisit
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
Castaway Point Park
Castaway Point Park, Palm Bay, Florida
Sunday morning I decided to check out Castaway Point Park in Palm Bay. It is at the inlet for Turkey Creek and I had spotted at least one pier out into the Indian River. I didn’t think about it being Easter morning so when I pulled into the park I thought there were a lot of fisherman here! I arrived at the end of a sunrise service. I hope I didn’t interrupt.
The park was a lot nicer than I had anticipated. Plenty of locations to get to the shore and grab images right at the water. There ended up being two piers I could use in my images and plenty of opportunities for something unique. I have more images I will be posting from this new location to visit when I am in Palm Bay.
Just as the sun was rising above the horizon I grabbed this first image of some people enjoying the show from the pier. I always tell everyone that I do not photograph people. I guess I should modify that statement to be I do not capture portraits. I have found I do like to include people in my landscape images. I think it adds a sense of scale to the landscape and also brings a ‘lived in’ feel. This changes the image from a picture of a place to a picture of park enjoyed by visitors. If that makes sense?
Easter Sunrise
Olympus OM-D E-M1, M. Zuiko 12-40mm f/2.8, 1/10s, 14mm, f/16, ISO 200
The second image I grabbed from the end of the pier. The sun was creating some beautiful colors in the clouds as it was rising. I turned the camera on its side to capture the scene in portrait orientation. I also zoomed in to try and include the buildings along the horizon from Indiatlantic. This is the little town across the Indian River from Melbourne. This image is all about the colors.
Sunrise Over Indiatlantic
Olympus OM-D E-M1, M. Zuiko 12-40mm f/2.8, 1/30s, 27mm, f/16, ISO 200
Sebastian Inlet
Sebastian Inlet State Park, Florida
On Saturday I went to Sebastian Inlet State Park for the sunrise. I had looked online for places close to Melbourne that would have a pier or dock out into the water. What a good choice for the sunrise. I was not alone in the pre-dawn hours. The pier was packed with fishermen and I did spot a few other photographers.
The bridge over the inlet had a nice walkway underneath that allowed me to get an interesting view of the inlet with both piers sticking out into the Atlantic. I played with a few images with a very high ISO setting when it was still basically dark out. As the sun approached the horizon from below I managed to grab this image from the walkway.
Sebastian Inlet
Olympus OM-D E-M1, M. Zuiko 12-40mm f/2.8, 13s, 12mm, f/16, ISO 400
I walked out along the pier to grab a few images of the bridge over the inlet. The moon was still high in the sky but I was able to achieve a nice view of the lights contrasting with the deep blue of the sky and water. It was out here that I realized I was being eaten alive by these little gnats. Luckily the bait shop opened up so I could buy some insect repellent.
Moon Over
Olympus OM-D E-M1, M. Zuiko 12-40mm f/2.8, 8s, 15mm, f/16, ISO 400
It is always amazing to me to watch the colors on the sky change as the sun starts to rise. All these images were captured within an hour of each other. The blues of the pre-dawn time are replaced with the orange and yellows as the sun crosses the horizon. The time was right for the sunrise but the low clouds near the horizon kept it hidden but created a nice display in the sky.
Fishing Spot
Olympus OM-D E-M1, M. Zuiko 12-40mm f/2.8, 0.4s, 26mm, f/16, ISO 200
I was talking with a fellow photographer Laura Macky earlier this week about an image I had posted. We both tend to favor the grand landscape views with our wide-angle lenses and we always want to capture different views telling a better story. The story elements are generally best captured when you focus on specific items.
With that conversation running through my head as I was capturing images with my go-to lens (12-40mm f/2.8), I switched to the 40-150mm f/4-5.6 to grab a few of those story elements. It didn’t hurt that the sun was starting to break through the clouds and the silhouette of the pier was very dramatic.
Sunrise Fishing
Olympus OM-D E-M1, M. Zuiko 40-150mm f/4-5.6 R, 1/80s, 62mm, f/16, ISO 200
Morning Catch
Olympus OM-D E-M1, M. Zuiko 40-150mm f/4-5.6 R, 1/100s, 105mm, f/16, ISO 200
Early Morning
Mom is still unpacking but I managed to sneak down to the lake for the pre-dawn pictures. Only able to edit on the phone but wanted to show off at least one today. More to come this week… 🙂
At the Dock
MLCreations Photography 