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…

Beautiful Things: New Jersey Landscape Photography

I feel like it’s always a catch-up with this blog! We have done so many great family shoots and weddings recently, that it will take a bit to get all that goodness up. For now, enjoy this sampling from last night in Ocean Gate, NJ. The iconic (to locals) boardwalk and pavilion made it through Sandy – so it’s nice to see one local landmark completely untouched. Yes – these are HDR photos!





If you’re digging all this, make sure to check out our Facebook page where there is plenty more goodness from the Summer 2013 Landscape Collection (as well as much more!).

We also have a site with plenty to see!
www.deepsixphotography.com

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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Sky’s The Limit

Before you read this  post, have you visited our site (www.deepsixphotography.com), and ‘liked’ our Facebook? If not – do these things now!

Ray and I go to a handful of ‘regular’ sunset shooting locations depending on time of year. In the summertime, one of our key spots is a little dead end, where you almost have to kind of sit on someone’s bulkhead to get the shot. We’ve never been apprehended doing this, so I assume it’s legal.

Anyhow – while getting this shot, we were approached by a duck gang. They excitedly came up to us, trolling for bread. We don’t usually carry bread when we shoot – and the ducks were incredibly persistent. Lesson learned: bring bread.

Anyway, here’s the shot.

Stormy Monday

Yesterday, the sky was doing some crazy stuff. I love multi-layered cloud cover, and there were many fantastic examples putting on quite a show. Additionally, the sky behind the heavy cloud cover was a supremely dazzling blue. I’m not sure if it’s a coincidence that these storms seem to roll through on Mondays, but this is the second instance where I’ve found that the weather was rather miserable, unseasonably cold, and generally yucky on the most hated day of the week. Lucky for me, this lends itself to some unique and wonderful sky photography.

This shot illustrates that dazzling blue that I was talking about hiding behind the clouds.

And here are the clouds covering up the dazzle on the opposite side of the island. I love all the layers and textures!

– www.deepsixphotography.com

The Creepy Man: How I ended up in Seaside Park

So the other night, Ray and I were going to see sunset at our usual spot because we were feeling lazy. Just as we pulled up, Ray totally balked and suggested we go someplace else, because ‘the creepy man’ was there.

Ray had told me about a week ago, that he’d been fishing at our favorite sunset spot, when a guy approached him and began talking out of nowhere. Ray said the man looked like a 17 year old boy in a 50 year old’s body, and had a very Of Mice and Men feel to him. After Ray had finally gotten away and escaped to the far side of the dock, he said that he could hear the man talking very loudly to himself, and seemingly becoming enraged by whatever he was saying to himself. Ray felt so uncomfortable that he left, saying he felt like the man was going to pull out a knife and stab him any second.

Anyway, when we pulled up the other night, I immediately saw a disturbing silhouette, and instinctively knew that it was the man-boy. So yeah. We went someplace else.

I’m glad we did – because I got this awesome shot:

Bonus Material

Sometimes when I’m going through a day’s pictures, I kind of have to triage and decide what I think is worth working on at the moment. Occasionally some potential photos end up slipping through the filter until months later when I really get a chance to go through my shots with a fine-toothed comb. I’ve done a little of this recently, and come up with a few that I didn’t think would work initially, but with a little love, have taken on a life of their own.

The shot below I really did not imagine working. I had gotten a bunch of really awesome shots from that day, because the sky was completely epic – so I didn’t really care much about what was going on in the other direction. However, the bike and camera bad nestled into some super golden green foliage is pretty cool.

Not bad, right?

The one above took a bit of tweaking. I had gotten a couple other nice shots from that night, and decided to try and go back and snag one more. The sky color was really dynamic and great, and I’m pretty happy with the way the ‘bonus material’ turned out.

On a whole, I’m glad that I had a chance to go back and pick out some other goodies from my heaping pile of unprocessed photos!

 

I keep on shamelessly promoting: but don’t forget to check out our site – www.deepsixphotography.weebly.com. There is a bunch more of our stuff there! Additionally, don’t forget that if you’re on the market for engagement or wedding (or graduation, event, or basically any other type of photography) we are ready to book you! Since we’re still building our portfolio, our rates are reasonable and we are ready to work! We’re New Jersey based but willing to travel.

Cloudporn.

I see the ‘cloudporn’ get tossed around quite a bit. There is also sunsetporn, and skyporn, for those with varying tastes. Frankly, I like all three. Not all sunsets meet the criteria of the -porn designation. Some of them are pretty, yes – but in order to be in the upper echelon some real magic has to be happening. The other day, even though there wasn’t any sun – I found a little magic.

This particular sunset was interesting, because I believe that it transitioned from cloudporn to skyporn over the duration of the sunset. I have a feeling that’s a rare thing.

And while we’re here, if you want to see more from DeepSix Photography, check out the newly re-vamped site I’ve been fiddling with: www.deepsixphotography.weebly.com

Smoke On the Water

New Jersey/Ocean County have been doing some controlled burning of local woods lately, so it’s been making for some interesting sunset action. The smoke has indeed been acting as a bit of a screen (filter?) and making the sunset a bit more subdued. I’ll let you decide for yourself whether you find the effect favorable.

This was Monday evening.

You can’t see it as much in this shot. However, last night:

It’s like of apocalyptic and I admit… I like it.

Personal Favorite

Every now and again I stumble upon one of my shots that I think is really awesome. Don’t get me wrong, I generally do like all my photos. It’s just that occasionally there is one that I fall absolutely in love with. It usually ends up not being the favorite of everyone else – but I typically love it all the same (and can’t understand why no one else ends up loving it like I do.)

I recently took my new favorite. It may be my favorite of all time, I’m not sure yet.

Ready? OK!

It doesn’t always happen where my vision of the photo I am taking, matches the reality. Here, the two lined up. The bird stood still. He was in the perfect place. The sunset was just understated enough.

 

So yeah. Really proud of this one.