Sunrise, Sunset

Cape Elizabeth Light

Yesterday, as the song from Fiddler on the Roof, sunrise, sunset swiftly flows the day describes the day perfectly.  I met John Slonina and his group at Elizabeth headlight at 6:30 AM, where we all were hoping to get the sunrise over the lighthouse.  However, the sky to the east was a cloudy marble sky and the sky was clearing from the Northwest down.  The only problem we had was the temperature in the 30s with a brisk wind dropping the wind chill down into the 20s.  We had a watch our cameras so they would not get blown over.

A little technical information, I had sent both my Nikon D7100 and my D800 back to Nikon for cleaning and re-calibration, since my trip to Costa Rica.  As a NPS member I was able to obtain a Nikon D750 to use and try out.  All pictures were taken at a ISO 100, except the ones that I handheld where I boost my ISO up to 400.  All pictures, except those taken at Nubble Light were taken with the Tamron 28-75 mm lens.  At Nubble Light, I utilized the Nikon 70-200 F/2.8 lens.  All the pictures were processed in Lightroom and Photoshop.

John Slonina has a number of day programs in the New England area that are worth taking.  He knows the areas extremely well.  You can find these programs at his website.

After photographing Cape Elizabeth light, we convoy down to the East Bay, Maine Audubon sanctuary in Biddeford, Maine, where we photographed the wave action on Sacco Bay.

Concentric Circle of Stones

Waves Crashing on the Rock at East Bay

Run off of the Wave Action

The next stop was Cape Porpoise, a town in Kennebunkport, Maine, where we photographed around the harbor.  There was many different objects to do close-ups.  After we finished photographing at Cape Porpoise, we went right across the street and had a superb lunch at the Pier 77.

The outside Lounge Area of the Bar at Pier 77

Lobster Trap

What I liked about this lobster trap was the different colors that were intermingled.

Sign at Cape Porpoise

We did a quick stop in Kennebunkport at the President Bush compound, afterwards we traveled down to Wells, where we try to find a snowy owl, but it was absent.

Next major stop was Perkins Cove in Ogunquit, Maine, again, where we did scenic and landscape views.

Harbor at Perkins Cove

Decorated Boat at Perkin Cove

A final stop was Nubble Light in Wells, Maine, so that we could capture the lighthouse at sunset.  The waves were crashing on the rocks giving interesting pictures.  And after the sun had set, the sky lit up with the nicest pink color.

Waves crashing on the rocks At Nubble Light

The Sky after Sunset at Nubble Light

Clouds Lit up after Sunset. Looking toward the Northwest.

Because my back was starting to give me more problems I did not stay as late as I want to, hopefully to get the moonrise of the full moon behind the lighthouse.  I needed to use my post processing skills to obtain the image that I imagined.  I superimposed a full moon behind Nubble Light.

Composite Picture of the Full Moon and Nubble Light

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White Mountains and the "MMT" Photo Tour

Foliage with Reflections at Lilly Pond

I have just returned from the White Mountains and the "MMT" photo tour.  First you gone to ask what is "MMT"?  This is the name the group gave to the tour, it means Missing Moose Tour.  Why, despite all our efforts in looking at many moose wallows from early morning to late in the evening, on the tour, we did not see any moose.  We however saw a number of signs of moose.

Anyway, I joined John Slonina http://www.sphotography.com and five other people as we traveled all over the white mountain area photographing the beautiful autumn foliage and other scenics of the area.  What was interesting was the big variation in the foliage.  A number of areas were passed peak and other areas even close by, and not even started to change.  He would see this in the space of a few miles, but just changes in the elevation.  We had a number of places off the usual sites that most people do not go to plus a good number of the usual sites.  We woke up early, to Chase The Light and finished up after sunset.  Sometimes, we got great light, and other times we struck out.  Mother nature and the weather always plays a factor.  Late morning, was our brunch break and supper was after we finished photographing in the evening.  At that time was back to the hotel, download pictures, quickly look at him, I selected one to post on Facebook and then went to sleep since I had a be up ready to leave at 5:15 AM.  John has been photographing in the white mountains for 20 to 30 years and knows all the back roads so that we could miss the traffic jams around North Conway on Route 16.  In fact, I came up early on the first day to photograph along the Kancamangus Highway, since we did not have to meet at the hotel to 3 o'clock, and when I got to the end of the Kancamangus where it intersects with Route 16, the traffic was backed up, way down Route 16.  So, I did a U-turn and went back up the Kancamangus and crossed over the Bear Notch Road, so I can get around the traffic and get to the hotel.

If you are thinking to go up toward the White Mountain Area, this coming week to photograph the foliage, keep your plans loose and even think of photographing further South around the Lake area, or even up Sunapee New Hampshire.

One of the nice things, about John's tour/workshop was his ability to get us to think out of the box.  He had us changing lenses, positions, wide views, close-ups and other ways to improve our pictures.

Our group was great and we had a good time and it was sad leaving the beautiful area of the White Mountains.

The first set of pictures will be those that I took on the Kancamangus Highway in the White Mountains National Forest, on my way up to the tour.

Sugar Hill Overlook

 

 

Sabbaday Brook

Sabbaday Falls

Flowers along the Trail to Sabbaday Falls

Foliage at Rocky Gorge

Foliage along Bear Notch Road

Foliage along the Trail at Sabbaday Falls

Nighttime Snow Event

The weather forecast for Tuesday evening and night was for snow with accumulations of the 3 to 7 inches depending on your location. When it was all over, only a couple inches fell, due to the storm staying offshore. Reading a weather forecasting blog the reason for this is this was a very small system and did not follow any of the normal computer models.

It did make for some nice photographs. I took a series from my front landing of my condo complex. The first picture shows what apparently is the snow coming down extremely fast and hard, but, this is due to a slow shutter speed. The snow was actually coming down very light and fluffy and there was really no wind.

The next picture is a composite which shows a car going by with its lights as a blur, overlaid with soft snowflakes falling.

Tuesday night, was when looking in the sky Jupiter will be the closest to the moon until 2026. The moon did show through the clouds, but no Jupiter.

The last picture is the peaceful night scene after the snow stopped.

Late Afternoon Sky on January 17

This afternoon the sky in front of my house was filled with nice fluffy clouds, so I felt that it probably would be a good evening for some sunset pictures. So my grandson and I started out to drive down toward Westport, but as we approached more toward Fall River the sky was turning completely gray. Oh well, Westport is out, we turned around and traveled into Lakeville, down to Tamarac Park and looking over the marsh the clouds still had breaks in it. We set up and took some photographs of the changes in the sky just prior to sunset.

Snowy Morning in Southeastern Massachusetts

Before I went to sleep yesterday, the weather forecast was just for some light snow. This morning when I woke up, there was a winter weather advisory in place and looking out the window it was snowing. So soon as it became light, my grandson and I set up our cameras, he used a storm-jacket on his and I used the LensCoat RS medium Raincoat on mine to protect them from the weather. We then went and cleaned off the car and drove slowly first to Lake Rico where we took our first set of pictures of the snow falling and then as it stopped how the scenery looked with snow cover. We then drove to Oliver Mills Park in Middleborough (very slowly, the roads were still tough and there was a lot of traffic) where we composed our next set of photographs.

I converted some of my pictures to black and white and left the rest in color.

Grandson in the snow photographing Lake Rico with a flock of geese approaching

Lake Rico, in this picture I decrease the highlights are hundred percent and pushed the vibrance up to 76%

Lake Rico, same picture as above but converted to a selective black and white, I wanted the red bench to stand out.

Remnants of the old mill at Oliver Mill Park

Water flowing over the dam at Oliver Mill Park after the snow

A different view of the remnants of the old mill with the water flowing down over a small dam

Overview at Oliver Mill Park after the snow

Sunday Foggy Morning

Field In the Fog

This Sunday morning, I woke up again to fog. No wind, temperature in the low 40s and the humidity is high. So, first I made my coffee read my email and then went to see what the landscapes would look like in the fog. I checked out some fields, Lake Rico, Ocean Spray headquarters with its cranberry bogs, and Tamarac Park. The fog range from light to heavy depending where I was. I think after you see the photographs you agree it was worth the trip.

Lake Rico

Cranberry Bog

Marsh in Bleached Black and White

Marsh in the Fog

Province Land Beaches Cape Cod National Seashore

Thursday on Cape Cod was more than just birding, there was scenics and landscapes to obtain. When we arrived at Herring Cove Beach, in the Province Lands of the Cape Cod National Seashore, the waves were really crashing onto the beach. I utilized my 500 mm lens with a 1.4 convertor on it, giving me a 700 mm lens, and photographed the waves. I used a low f-stop and a low ISO, which in the bright sun gave me a high shutter speed and created "frozen water drops". Utilizing a single picture, I converted the picture to an HDR in NIK HDR Pro and utilized a Jason Odell preset for a black and white conversion with selenium and adjusted it to my taste. I then utilized NIK color Efex Pro 2 and utilized detail extractor the finish up the picture.

Black and white conversion

Waves crashing

I then utilize my wide-angle lens to capture gulls hunkered down on the beach, with the waves crashing behind them.

Panoramic of gulls hunkering down and waves crashing

We then visited Race Point Beach. What surprised me about my visit there was for the first time, there were no footprints in the sand. So, more pictures were obtained. All we left behind were footprints.

The Sand

Beach, Sea and Sky

"Only Leave Footprints"