Running water And the Sea

Water over a Dam with Ice

I normally don't publish to blogs on the same day, but Friday my son who was working in Washington DC flew up to visit, and since he is been for 15 years stationed overseas and hasn't seen the amount the snow we got.  He grew up in Massachusetts and remembers the blizzard of 76.  Anyway, we drove around and visited difference locations.

I photographed two different water scenes.  The first was water coming over a dam and there was ice in different locations.  For these pictures, I decided to use a high shutter speed to show the force of the water.  The second picture was of the tide coming in and receding and did a long exposure, utilizing a polarizing filter, and a sing-ray variable neutral density filter, set at 10 so that I could smooth out the water.

Water over a Dam with Ice

Incoming and Outgoing Tide

My next project is for the upcoming Tuesday after the storm and I am hoping for waves at the beach to photograph them both and shot and long exposures.  I will be using a welding glass which is equivalent to a 10+ neutral density filter.  If you buy the right size, they will fit into a Conkin P filter holder.  I purchased mine on eBay.

Sanderlings and Slipper Shells at Third Beach Middletown Rhode Island

In an earlier blog I talked about the dunlins and the gulls at Gooseberry feeding on slipper shells. I was down at Third Beach in Middletown Rhode Island where the Sanderlings were running up and down the beach feeding. I sat down on the sand with my tripod between my legs and photographed the activities of the Sanderlings. When a sanderling would find a slipper shell with the gastropod inside it, it would grab it and start running to a clear area on this beach so it could start eating, a number of times another sanderling would start chasing the sanderling that had the slipper shell to try to get it away from so it could eat the meat itself. One of the series of events that I documented was when one sanderling was starting to eat from the slipper shell and another sanderling was just watching, a third sanderling started running up, then at one point all three were feeding from the slipper shell until finally the last sanderling to arrive drove all the other sanderlings away. Such as the events that go on all the time, you just have to observe and be patient.

Again, the slipper shells are furnishing the protein nourishment that these little birds need to help them survive.

My only problem that I had was other people.. I am sitting on the beach with a tripod and a big lens photographing when a couple that was walking down the beach toward me, the gentleman passed it back to me, but the woman walked almost on the shoreline and cause the sanderlings to fly. Thank God, they came back again. Then a father with two young sons allowed his sons to chase the birds that were right in front of me. Again the birds flew but came back after the people left. Some people have no manners!

Rainstorm and Wind

The weather forecast for today was heavy rains and on the South coast, a coastal flood advisory was issued by the National Weather Service around the time of high tide.  I had to drop off some information at the sanctuary, so I plan my visit for around a high tide, so that I could capture what was happening.  When I arrived at the entrance to Gooseberry Neck (still closed off because of the damage from previous storms), I parked and got out of the car and almost was blown over, the wind was blowing at probably 20 to 30 kn/hour.  The spray was coming in off the water and the waves were crashing into the rocks.  I set up my camera and tripod, keeping the tripod, low so it would present less of its profile to the wind.  I started taking pictures and then the rains came heavy the front lens of the camera in no time at all had raindrops and even though I cleaned the lens off, I still obtain some blurry pictures.  I did not stay up long, because of the rain.  I then traveled in the car, further down to the edge of the sanctuary property and photographed the angry sea through the car window.  Even though I ran the windshield wipers I still had raindrops on the car window and therefore on the photograph.

Center of the picture is blurry due to the rain

Fuel through my car window before I turned on the windshield wipers

The beach, the sea, waves viewed through my car window

Ocean Spray (Not the cranberries)

This blog besides showing some wild water is about protecting your gear. The other day We visited Sakonnet Point located in Little Compton Rhode Island, we went there initially to see what sea ducks that were in the area. Today was sunny, temperature right around freezing and we had winds up to 25 kn. There were waves crashing onto the rocks and spraying up over the land plus spray in the air. I decided to use my Tokina 10-17 mm fish-eye to encompass all the activity. I got set up and started taking pictures and despite trying to keep the lens clean I had water spots no matter what I did. In fact, at one point the wave hit so hard that it came up in the spray will hit me and all over the camera. I use a heavy-duty microfiber cloth to pat the water drops off the camera and lens. I then clean the lens, but it it became water spotted almost immediate. After I finished taken the pictures, I again patted the water off the camera and lens and then dried it. As soon as I arrived at home I brought the camera lens inside and utilized PUROSOL sport-Marine flat-panel screen & optical cleaner was recommended by LensRental) to completely remove any traces of salt that remained on the lens and camera. Purosol may be purchased from Amazon.com (See link below).

This is where not only my lens and camera but I also got sprayed

Videos - Snowy Owl - Rough Ocean

Today's blog will be short, I decided to include 2 videos.  The first, I took a Duxbury beach of the snowy owl, and the 2nd is looking at the ocean at Breton Point State Park on Ocean Drive in Newport, Rhode Island.

The snowy owl is cleaning its claws and then gazing around and probably looking for more prey.

The day on the ocean, it was sunny and warm out, however, there was a stiff wind blowing out from the land and the seas were rough, with the white caps being blown back out to sea.