We actually set up on the New Jersey side where we had a better angle on the fireworks. The first rule of photographing fireworks is location, location, location. It helps to know where the fireworks will be exploding in the sky and it helps to scout a good location from which to shoot them. Fortunately for me, both had already been done on prior Friday nights by Sharon and her entourage of photographers. She took us to the spot and pointed out where the fireworks would be. Heck at this point we could mail it in. Well almost. There were five of us and we had the spot to ourselves… for two hours until about five minutes before the start of the fireworks when a horde of kids and parents descended upon us. We were along a wall above the river and I am still amazed none of the kids (or parents) fell into the river. Be that as it may, I had everything set up and ready to go so once the fireworks began I started shooting.

The set up was really pretty simple. While the other folks were shooting with 24-70 mm lenses, I went with a 70-200mm. In hindsight, for this particular location, a 24-70 would probably have been a better choice. I expected to be a little farther from the fireworks than we were at this excellent location. I set up the camera and lens so that everything was manual. AF was turned off in favor of manual focus and the camera was set to manual mode. At this point, I just set the ISO to 200 (but 100 would work just as well). White Balance was left on AWB. I was on burst mode. I set the aperture to f/11 but again you could go anywhere between f/8 and f/16. I chose to land right in the middle – f/11. Shutter speed is dependent on the look you want. About 0.3 to 0.5 seconds worked well, I found. But I did go as far as 1.0 sec on a couple of occasions. I set everything ahead of time and adjusted the focus basically to infinity by focusing on the edge of a cloud.

Once the fireworks began, I made sure I had the tripod adjusted properly for where the fireworks were exploding and, using my remote shutter release, I started firing away. Now with a 70-200, I was looking to fill the frame with the fireworks. (Those using the 24-70 were getting the fireworks within the setting of the river, the bridge, town.) I was getting fireworks and black sky. Wanting to fill the frame as much as possible left very little margin for error. Many of the fireworks went a little left or a little right and weren’t framed properly. So this becomes a bit of meatball/shotgun photography. Take lots of pictures and hope some turn out. Ratio? Well I made around 150 images and kept about 50.

Here are a few of the images. I feel like I should have sound effects or at least the “1812 Overture” playing in the background!

“The Opening Salvo”

“Lighting the sky with color #1″

“Lighting the sky with color #2″ (This is a longer, one second exposure.)

“White Light” – (Well not exactly but as close as it’s going to get.)

“Abstractus” (Converted to B&W with Nik Silver Efex Pro and then Solarization filter applied and adjustments made.)

There are many more where these came from but I hope you enjoyed this small sampling. Fourth of July next weekend. Get out there and shoot the works!

What I relearned the hard way is that vertical sunrises are not necessarily easy to shoot unless you have a really full sky or something to hold the foreground. I had neither yesterday. The sky, while brilliantly colored at the horizon, ended fairly quickly as we moved up. And the foreground was just a lot of water. And this even if I zoomed in with my 70-200 mm lens. In hindsight, I would have been better off staying in the marina per se where I could have used sailboats to hold the foreground. Oh well!

So I made some verts and I made some horizontal (landscape) images and then decided to take the camera off the tripod and go for some blur abstracts using a horizontal pan/blur/sweep/swipe (whatever you want to call it). I came up with two images that I really like (and I may include one or both in the exhibit to change things up a bit). The images were made maybe 10 minutes apart and “focusing” on slightly different parts of the sky. So without further ado here is a different (blur abstract) view of sunrise.

“Pre-Sunrise Abstract #1″

“Pre-Sunrise Abstract #2″

Hope you enjoy this different view of sunrise.

The first is “Tranquility” and is the view from one of our favorite spots in Acadia – the rocks of Otter Cliffs looking toward Sand Beach. So peaceful. So tranquil. I so much wish I was there right now.

The second image is one I’ve entitled “Melancholy Morning” and is actually the view looking back toward Otter Cliffs from the Cobble Beach.

And the third image is one I’ve simply entitled “Home”. It is the village of Bar Harbor and the mountains of Acadia as seen at sunrise from Bar Island. Over the past 10 years, Bar Harbor has become our home away from home.

Once again, I decided to create 5-image HDR composites in order to pull more detail out of the early morning shadows. While I normally process my HDR images conservatively so they don’t look like HDR, I decided to turn it loose this time and push the HDR processing limits much more than I normally do.

I am reading an excellent book by David duChemin titled “Within the Frame: The Journey of Photographic Vision“. In it duChemin points out that every image is really made up of three images: there is what we see; there is what the camera captures; and there is what we ultimately produce with our post-processing. All three impact the final image as it reproduces what we see. I think I would add a fourth image or at least a “1A” to the “1B” of “what we see”. I think there are two kinds of “sight” that occur before the camera is activated. Certainly there is what we see with our eyes. But even before that, there is what we see with our mind’s eye… what is previsualized, if you will.

As I drove to the lake this morning, I was scanning the sky. I saw the lack of clouds with my eyes. And then in my mind’s eye, I saw the marina, the boats, the water and the sun rising above the horizon. But to take it one step further, I also saw the processing that it would take to create the look that I wanted. In other words, in my minds eye I knew what I would see, I knew what the camera would capture and I knew what I would do to get the final product that I wanted.

If you’re interested in reading the details of how I ultimately created these images, I will be providing it on my “Making the Ordinary Extraordinary!” blog (http://itsmynature.wordpress.com). I will probably add that post tomorrow evening around this same time. Join me then and follow the journey from beginning to end.

This first image was taken about 10 minutes before actual sunrise.

And this second image was made just as the sun started to peak above the horizon. If you look carefully into the sky you will see at least two other places that look like the rising sun but aren’t. Trust me. The true rising sun is just peaking over the horizon here.

Hope you enjoy the images.

Anyway, we were at Bowman’s Hill Wildflower Preserve back on Saturday. It was a lovely day albeit a bit cool and plenty windy. Dealing with the wind was quite the challenge and after a bit I decided to follow my own advice and “become one with the wind”. I decided to slow the shutter speed and allow the wind to create a natural blur to the images. Then I decided go beyond letting the wind take me where it wanted. I started working on some more unusual blurs.

The first image is the result of a “zoom blur”. I slowed the shutter speed (through the use of a Vari-ND filter) to 1-sec and with my 70-200 lens zoomed from 70mm to 200mm during the period the shutter was open. Just a little note here. If you compose at the widest focal length (70mm here) and zoom in (to 200mm), you have total control over what is in your frame. If you do the reverse and start tight (200mm) and zoom  out to 70mm, you can end up with extraneous stuff in the frame that you really didn’t want and didn’t consider starting with the tighter composition. Just a tip.

The second image is the result of a “radial blur”, sometimes referred to as a “twist blur”. I used the same set up as above – Canon 5D Mark II; 70-200 2.8L IS; Vari_ND and tripod. I also used loner exposures of around 1-sec. The key here is to loosen the tripod collar on the lens so that you can freely rotate the camera. How far you rotate can vary and will give different effects based on degree of rotation and speed of rotation. I find that I tend to prefer a little detail in my blurs and have found that I like about 90 degrees in one second. Here’s an example.

Let’s begin with the the outside. I felt that I wanted the bridge to be a more “incidental” feature in my composition rather than the main focus. I wanted the stream to provide equal weight and I wanted to be sure to also capture the log cabin across the way. I decided the way to accomplish all this was to set up along side the bridge… but rather than try to describe, let’s look at the picture – a 5-image HDR composite.

I continued to work the bridge looking for other unusual compositions  and came up with this one from inside the bridge showing the actual support structure in much more detail. Because of the deep shadows and bright light streaming through the openings, this was another prime candidate for HDR.

I always enjoy looking for the unusual, if not unique, composition and having the opportunity to make the ordinary extraordinary!

ADDENDUM ONE: Speaking of “making the ordinary extraordinary!”, that is the name of my new, second blog. It is not a replacement for this blog but rather a supplement to it. You can read more about “Making the Ordinary Extraordinary!” in the right-hand column where you will also find a link to the new blog. Check it out if you would and let me know what you think?

ADDENDUM TWO: Speaking of the right-hand column where I added the note about the new blog, you will note that the links are gone. I seem to have deleted them in the process of trying to add the link to my blog and the description of it. I tend to be dangerous that way. All is not lost since I have them backed up in my bookmarks in Safari. So I can still find and visit your fine blogs. And somewhere down the line, I will try to add links back in.