Natural Vs. Artificial: New Jersey Landscape Photography

I have long been interested/obsessed with lightning. As a kid, I used to love going out to the front stoop to watch storms. Living in a neighborhood with lots of trees didn’t exactly afford the best view of lightning or the sky – so the second I could drive, I began logging hours by the shore. At first, it was the bay beach a couple of miles away from my house. After a while, I began to feel comfortable creeping over to the Ocean Gate boardwalk.


I wasn’t doing photography seriously then, but I loved to take my first 35mm film camera with me to take the same 5 photos over and over again on different days. I never even attempted to get a photo of lightning, knowing that the combination of me being a seriously unlucky individual and also a rather cautious one created a cocktail that kept me from the experience. Once I got into photography seriously, I began to love long exposures, fireworks, and essentially any ‘light painting’ photo I could get.


I had not attempted getting shots of lightning until the other night. Having just finished shooting an event, on the way home, I noticed that there was some serious storm going on. It wasn’t raining, the clouds seemed to be in the right position to be able to photograph, and all the impossible variables seemed to fall into place. I set up by Island Heights, and began a relatively frustrating hour checking exposures, getting my timing down, and trying to remember to continuously press the shutter (next on my purchase list: remote shutter). I managed to get several bolts, though the one I’m going to share was the night’s best. It was totally exciting each time I knew I ‘got one’ in my shot, and I am now waiting patiently for the next storm.


Just so you can compare, I’m going to show you nature’s fireworks vs. the ones that we shoot off on the Fourth of July. I tried a little something different with this year’s fireworks and pushed my ISO way higher than I typically do, so I could include some foreground. When I finally got to look at the frames, I was really happy at the sense of ‘awe’ that including the people watching the show included.





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The New Landscape: New Jersey Fine Art Photography

I’ve always been a believer that Mother Nature is a cruel but beautiful mistress, and that the ocean deserves the utmost respect. When disasters happen, I can’t help but often feel like the ocean gives and takes, and that the way it leaves things is often the way it wants them.

The jetty down at Island Beach State Park has long been one of my favorite spots. I remember being in middle school and walking down with some family friends for the first time. It’s a mile or so of a walk, so to get there by foot you really have to want it. I found an enormous, perfect whelk shell. It was like finding GOLD. I was awed at the time that I just happened to be passing by the spot where that beauty washed up. I have never found another. I’ve found other neat things, and I do harbor an intense love of perfect scallop shells. I used to intently search for a perfect, pure white one. Believe it or not – they’re actually insanely difficult to find. Mostly they’re black, or reddish, or an assortment of colors. Over many years of looking I only ever found one that was truly white. I display it in a velvet ring box – perhaps as a reminder that even when the ocean flings things like Super-storm Sandy at the coast, it also produces small, perfect miracles. But I digress.

The landscape of the jetty changed significantly after the storm. Oddly enough, it now makes for more beautiful photographs thanks to a lovely tide pool that is somewhat reminiscent of what it looked like many years ago. I don’t know that us humans will allow it to stay that way for long, but I can’t help but enjoy the beauty that is there now.

Without further ado…

Ortley Beach: 80 Days After Sandy

Just about 3 months after the storm, visiting Ortley Beach, NJ still feels like a different world. This post is going to be a bit photo-heavy, but it can serve as a dedication of sorts to the town that Ortley once was, and what it will be again. It’s difficult to describe what it’s like to go to a town you once knew so well that you could probably describe the streets house by house – and be met with what feels like no landmarks to identify what street you’re standing on. The rubble is extensive, the streets are buckled, and there are enormous masses of tangled rope and the fabric of people’s lives washed up on the shore. These are really the only photos I’ve taken thus far since the storm – I’ve only been back twice. Ray has been back several more times than that. The beach in Ortley is closed, and not wanting to tempt fate we didn’t try to sneak up so I could get some photos of the now-infamous fallen JetStar. In the last shot of the first grouping, Ray is feeling the water – not something we get to do every day anymore.











These photos are from the same street in happier times.

This is a favorite shot of the pier and JetStar – taken standing on the old ramp that used to lie at the end of the street.








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Long Exposure HDR

 

Every now and then I get on a jag with long exposure shooting. I don’t always find the technique applicable (I’m sure that I would use it a whole lot more if we had some waterfalls or the like around) but when I use it, I’m typically not disappointed. The last long exposure HDR shot I did was at the lighthouse, and became Deepsix Photography’s top-selling photo. I’m not sure that this most recent endeavor will climb the charts quite like that one did – but I do really like it:

 

 

 

Just for comparison – here is a similar shot (zoomed in quite a bit) that is not HDR, just long exposure. If you look at the above shot, you can see the moon just beginning to descend from the clouds. Below, you can see much more of it.

 

 

And there you have it – one shot, two similar ways. Which do you prefer?

 

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Light Show

I love doing firework photos. Unfortunately I don’t always have to opportunity to get around to doing them.

I’m typically not terribly personal on this blog, but I do want to mention that Fourth of July has always been my favorite holiday. It is unfortunate for me, that because of this – it rarely turns out well.

I didn’t get any firework photos from the fourth itself. The following snips are from the 1st.

 

A Shot in the Dark

I recently made an investment in a new lens for portraiture with a super low aperture.  I’ve been taking quite a few photos with it, so I want to share a couple. For the record – the ones I shared yesterday from the parade were taken with that camera. Though I feel that these photos show off the capabilities far better. Well the first one does.

This was really the first photo where I successfully used the clone tool in Adobe Cs5 for something useful. There was an obnoxious construction sign on the top of the bridge that I effectively removed – thus rendering the finished image cleaner and nicer. I am really quite proud of myself since Adobe Cs5 scares the crap out of me.

This is Topaz. She is my 14 year old mini schnauzer, and effectively the love of my life. She’s always there when I need her, and she’s always happy to see me. She doesn’t like posing for photos, and she really doesn’t like flash. Luckily with the new lens, the aperture can fly wide open even in low light conditions and maintain a sharp shutter speed. She didn’t mind that I was snapping away at her this morning. Well. She minded a little. But she cooperated. This is her thinking pose.

The Most Epic Beach Day. Ever.

So yesterday was one of those rare, amazing, random days.

Ray and I decided to head down to Island Beach State Park in the afternoon. It’s a little bit of a drive (which essentially means that it’s not within walking distance), especially since we wanted to go down to the jetty (which is the very tip of the island). So we packed up some subs, made some iced tea, and hit the road.

Immediately upon getting on the beach, Ray sensed that there were fish. He ended up being right. We each caught a nice striped bass.

Ok. So I can’t really lie. Ray technically hooked the fish, but I did fight it and reel it in. Please disregard that I look like death in this photo.

After my fish, Ray landed a really sweet one that made mine look pidde-ly.

Yes. Ray’s fish was indeed awesome.

At this point, you might wonder how things could get anymore awesome. Allow me to illustrate:

Yeah. So this woman comes galloping up on a horse. Ray senses that I am in desperate need of petting the horse – so he flags her down. I could not believe she actually stopped. So we ask her if we can take her picture. She says she looks like death, but that I can get up on the horse and get my own picture. I mean, I looked like death, too – but I had never been on a horse. Before I knew it – I was making friends with Montana. What a great name. To the woman who let me get on her horse: You made my life.

Anyway. By this point, you’re probably saying… ‘this day can’t get anymore awesome!’

I want to correct you and say that, yes – it can. By the time the horse shenanigans were over, it was getting towards dark and I wanted to catch sunset, so we moved on.

The photo I’m about to include may indeed be the most epic I have ever taken.

The glow! The color! The dreaminess! My little heart was just bursting when I checked this baby out.

This one wasn’t too shabby either.

I have to say, the only low point of the day was that Ray killed the bass I caught.

On the upswing, today we ate him deep fried – and he was really, really delicious!

Adventures in HDR

So for my birthday on the 1st, Ray got me a brand new tripod. I discussed earlier that my old tripod was essentially 3 toothpicks tied together with twine – so this was an exciting revelation.

I attempted taking my new tripod out for the first time last night and was wildly impressed with how easy it is to use. No longer does my camera slowly droop from the position I set it to when I attach a telephoto lens. As you can imagine, my interest in long exposure photography has been bolstered, and I also plan to use my new tripod for many of my future HDR endeavors instead of shooting handheld as I typically do. The only thing I am concerned about, is that the new tripod is quite hefty. I am going to have to build some arm strength to tote it around all the time.

Anyhow – I am going to share some exploits from last night. I’m not 100% happy with these, but I was trying out some new stuff. I typically do not do long exposure HDRs (mainly because it used to be very difficult if not impossible) – but now that I have my sweet new tripod, I wanted to give it a try. My main gripe was due to user error (it’s not the bow, it’s the Indian), and I was not diligent in making certain that my tripod was level (I was on a gravely parking lot).

This photo was taken in near dark, so I’m pretty amazed at how light it ended up looking. I went a little over the top with the processing, but I ended up running with the surreal look on the water. I wasn’t really going for composition on this shot, so that bulkhead is awfully glaring – but the look of the water that the long exposure HDR provided is pretty neat. The water was dead calm, so it ended up looking a bit foggy and mystical.

This photo is just a plain old HDR with no long exposure action. It was a poor night to be doing HDR because the sun was really just too bright. I tried to wait until it had mostly gone down to do these – but I was starting to get chilly.

Either way – I am very very excited about the possibilities my new tripod is presenting. Thanks Ray!!

Take Your Time

If photography were a race, long exposure would be endurance running. It takes a lot of patience. I like doing long exposure work, though find that it’s difficult to stumble upon the correct conditions. In the first place, my tripod is about as solid as a bundle of twigs – so I need nights that are nearly windless (or very close to it). Long exposures are about precision – the slightest breeze or shake of the camera, and you’re done. I used to have trouble shooting on the boardwalk in the summer, because the vibrations of music and people walking would cause camera shake if I was using my telephoto lens. It becomes frustrating very quickly, as I’m sure you can imagine. I’ve gotten lucky with several shots though – and last night, I felt as though I had figured out a couple new tricks to make my long exposures really take the next step.

This first shot is one of my older long exposure ventures. It’s a great shot, don’t get me wrong. The conditions were really quite nice – slight breeze. I was in a quiet spot without worry of too much activity or movement around me, it was decent.

The more I look at the shot though, the more I wish I could get it sharper. For a while I was convinced my long exposures would never have that ‘tack sharp’ look I was after.

This next photo is cool. I was trying to just do water, but a Jeep drove in front of the 20 second exposure and it created a sort of comet effect. I was happy with this shot.

But then, last night – I think I discovered the secret. It lies in live-view shooting, which I was not fond of until I discovered one of its true purposes. With nighttime long exposure, you must manually focus. My eyes are not awesome to start with, so achieving a fine focus on a dimly lit subject that is often far away is like landing a helicopter on a Ritz cracker. Live view solved my problem. In live view, you can actually zoom in on your subject using your camera’s viewing screen, and fine focus from there. Bingo! The light went off in my head.

Sharp, sharp, sharp! This is not a particularly beautiful subject – but it is sharp! To top it off, there was a bit of a breeze – to combat it, I had my tripod on its lowest legs, and sat with it instead of standing. It eliminated some of the clumsy-ness.

I’m stoked, now. Maybe I will have some epic long exposure shots.