Allens Pond Sunrise

As the days get longer, in order to capture the sunrise, we need to wake up earlier, so this morning my grandson and I left before 5 AM in order to be at Allens Pond Massachusetts Audubon Sanctuary, prior to sunrise.  I knew was going to be an interesting sunrise, because we had intermittent broken clouds in the sky.
The sky, when we arrived, was different shades of blue and white with a reddish pink color at the horizon line.  The first 2 pictures below are views over the field toward the horizon, and the next was over the marsh and Allens Pond.

View across the field



View across the marsh and pond

 I then made a 3 picture stitched panorama looking over the beach toward the east, where the sun would rise.


Beach and sunrise panorama



I then obtained a series of photographs as the sun rose up over the horizon and went behind  the clouds which showed the different changes in the color and texture of the sky. 

Utilizing a 3 picture bracket,  I processed the pictures in NIK HDR Efex Pro.
If you get up early and watch the sunrise will never know what you will see, because each sunrise is different depending on the weather conditions and the clouds.

Fulton Texas Marina

The second day, we divided into 2 separate groups. One group would travel by boat to the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge to locate and photograph The Whooping Cranes, while my group would start off early in the morning and cross the street to the Fulton Marina and photograph the Bay and the Marina and hopefully if clouds would clear photograph the sunrise. However, it was a dreary morning, with some drizzle and rain, therefore no sunrise. The Marina itself lent itself to some great photographs of the shrimp and fishing boats.

There was also Boat-tailed Grackles and the ubiquitous Laughing Gulls present  at the marina.

 
Off to the side of the Marina in a grassy field was an old car, which had grass and weeds growing through it and which led itself to an HDR.

February 1, and it feels like spring

It is February 1, 2012 and here in Southeastern Massachusetts, the temperature is 50°.  When I left this morning to travel to gooseberry to take the sunrise pictures today the temperature was in the mid-30’s and when I arrived at gooseberry, the temperature already had risen to 48°.




There was some rain and showers forecasted for a little more later in the morning.  The sky was mainly covered with clouds.
Looking over the bay toward the Elizabeth Islands, which is the location that the sun will rise,on the horizon the sky was clear.
I decided this morning that I would take my pictures as sets of HDR.  I photograph the scenes with either 3 or 5 different sets with the exposures spread being one EV between each picture.  I've merged the images and processed them in NIK HDR Efex Pro.

One of the pictures, I processed both in color and in black and white in HDR Efex Pro.  Personally, I like both of them for different reasons, but you make up your own mind.

My final pictures were taken at the beginning of the Allens Pond Sanctuary beach at the corner of E. Beach Rd. and Horseneck road.

Sea Fog, Scenics at Duxbury Beach

Today I met 2 friends on Duxbury beach, to see if they could obtain better photographs of the snowy owl.  We were there at low tide, and despite numerous trips up and down the beach road the snowy owl was seen only once extremely far out over the marsh.  However, photographically wise, the day was not a loss.  The scenics were great.

First on the way to the beach, prior to sunrise, I obtained this picture on PowerPoint road, looking toward the dawn on the horizon.  Just after sunrise. 

 

This photograph was taken across the marsh grass with the clouds highlighted by the Sun. 

The final pictures were taken over the ocean, where there was sea fog over the water.  Sea fog or sea smoke occurs when cold air passes over the warmer water.  Today the temperature was 11°F with the wind bringing it down to around 0° wind-chill.

The photographs of the beach, ocean clouds and the fog were created by 3 and 5 image HDR's in NIK HDR Efex Pro and then I utilized Color Efex Pro 4, for adjustments

Morning Sunrise

There is supposed to be a big storm coming in this evening and night, the only good thing is that supposed to be rain (right now I would prefer snow :)) I went this morning Back to Gooseberry the photograph the sunrise.  The whole sky was beautiful and I created this panorama to try to capture some of the beauty that was in the sky.  Time wise, This was a approximately 20 min. prior to actual sunrise.

As usual, the sky took on various colors and changes as we got closer to and after sunrise.

On Tamron My Photo Exhibits, I created an exhibit showing previous photographs of sunrises on Gooseberry.  The URL is: Http://tamron.myphotoexhibits.com/exhibits/5066-sunrise-project

Sunrise and Post Processing utilizing NIK plug-ins

Each morning that I photograph the sunrise on Buzzards Bay is different.  This is due to the presence of clouds, the amount of moisture in the air, the amount the particulate matter that may be present in the air, and many other factors.
So, returning to the same location can give you a variety of pictures.  What else helps to increase the beauty of the pictures is post processing and the use of plug-in filters I have been utilizing NIK software, especially VIVEZA 2 and Color Efex Pro 4.  These plug-ins are available for Light Room, Photoshop, and Aperture.
Here is a 3 image stack that I processed in NIK HDR EFEX PRO and then utilize VIVEZA and Color Efex Pro 4.  So, which image do you like best.  Let me know by sending me a comment. 
Original

Processed

..

Sunrises over Buzzards Bay

Over the past week I have been waking up early and traveling out to Westport to Gooseberry and Allens Pond to photograph the sky, prior to and just after sunrise.  Each day is different, and the sky gives such different looks to the area.  I have been using my Tokina 10-17 mm fisheye on my Nikon 18-105 mm lens on a tripod, utilizing low ISO settings with a remote release or a timed release on the camera.  I processed the pictures in Lightroom and Photoshop, utilizing both Topaz and NIK plug-ins to give me the look that I wanted..

Here are view looking at 180 degrees from the sunrise.