As time [...]]]> My familiarity with the Sandy Hook, NJ portion of Gateway National Recreational Area goes back probably a decade. It started with an interest in lighthouses that my wife and I share and a visit to the Sandy Hook Lighthouse. Originally built in 1764, Sandy Hook is the oldest lighthouse still in existence in America.

As time passed and Barb became more interested in birding and I in bird photography, we would visit Sandy Hook regularly usually between the months of October and April for shorebirds, migratory birds and wintering ducks. We haunt the Jersey shore after the sun worshippers leave and before they return.

The more I visited Sandy Hook and the more I thought about it, the more convinced I became that Sandy Hook would be a great location for one of my “Creativity, Composition and the Camera” photography workshops. But before I made a definitive decision to hold a workshop there, I needed to scout it out for more and different shooting opportunities. That was the purpose of yesterday’s visit to Sandy Hook. Yep no time like the Fourth of July weekend for a trip to the Jersey shore – Barb, me and about a million other folks! Still we had a very productive time on this narrow spit of land.

One of the subjects I want to focus a session on is lighthouses. Notice I said plural – lighthouses. There are two that I definitely want to include, Sandy Hook, of course, and Twin Lights (aka Navesink) in Highlands just outside Sandy Hook. Another session will be devoted to photographing the ruins of Fort Hancock, a decommissioned Army base with some very interesting old mortar batteries and such. And then, of course, there is the beach for sunrise and the back bay for sunset. And yes, even birds and flowers. All in all an excellent location for a workshop with more than enough to keep us busy for three days.

If you think you may be interested in this workshop, drop me a note at ed@itsmynaturephotography.com so I can be sure to keep you up-to-date as plans firm up. I am planning the workshop for sometime in the April/May 2011 timeframe. Exact dates, cost, lodging arrangements, workshop features, etc. will be posted when available but probably not before mid-October of this year. I am just asking for an indication of interest. Neither you nor I are locking in to anything at this time.

As you think, here are a few images from yesterday. And yes, I was working some of the time with my Lensbaby Composer with the fisheye optic. Most of the images are multi-image HDR composites in order to cover the dynamic range from the deep shadows to the blazing summertime sky.

Sandy Hook Lighthouse (as seen from the Mortar Battery; HDR)

Sandy Hook Lighthouse (Fisheye HDR)

Mortar Battery (Fisheye HDR)

Mortar Battery (with 21st Century Hieroglyphics; HDR)

Battery Potter

Hope you enjoyed the images and hope you will think about joining me on this Spring 2011 workshop at Sandy Hook, NJ.

(Canon 5D Mark II, 24-70mm f.2.8L lens w/ Singh-Ray Vari-ND filter, tripod; 2.0 sec @ f/22, ISO 50, 0 EV)

(Canon 5D Mark II, 70-200mm f/2.8L IS lens w/ Singh-Ray Vari-ND filter, tripod; 2.0 sec @ f/22, ISO 50, 0 EV; FL 140mm)

This was [...]]]>

“Pilings” – Belmar Fishing Club Pier, Belmar, NJ

(Canon 5D Mark II, 24-70mm f.2.8L lens w/ Singh-Ray Vari-ND filter, tripod; 2.0 sec @ f/22, ISO 50, 0 EV)

“Roiled Surf” – Sea Girt, NJ

(Canon 5D Mark II, 70-200mm f/2.8L IS lens w/ Singh-Ray Vari-ND filter, tripod; 2.0 sec @ f/22, ISO 50, 0 EV; FL 140mm)

This was a very busy weekend. Yesterday (Saturday) I was up at 0400 and out of the house before 0500 on my way to Baltimore, MD for the Brenda Tharp seminar presented by the Baltimore Camera Club which was fabulous. The seminar ran from 0800 to 1700 and I got back home around 2000. This morning we were up at 0500 and off for the North Shore of New Jersey. You remember two weeks ago when we went to Longwood Gardens and it was Kid’s Day? Well today we drove into the jaws of what is billed as the largest St. Patrick’s Day Parade along the Jersey shore in Belmar. Arrgh!! The festivities didn’t interfere with shooting, it just made getting around the North Shore in general and Belmar in particular a real pain in the backside.

And it didn’t help that the wintering ducks seemed to have checked out. So no cute duckies to photograph. Well that was okay because I really wanted to shoot with the new camera (5DMk2) and my birding set-up remains the 50D (because of the 1.6x crop factor) and the 300mm f/2.8L IS lens w/ 2x teleconverter. Put it all together and it gives me 960mm of effective reach, great for birds. But like I said, there were no birds to photograph.

So I turned to landscapes and seascapes shot with the new camera and my 24-70 and 70-200 lenses. I really enjoy long water exposures since it generally turns the water so silky and that is what I wanted to do here. But even at f/22 and dropping the ISO all the way down to 50, I couldn’t slow the shutter speed enough so I turned to my Vari-ND filter. It is without question a very expensive filter (between $400 and $500) but golly it works great. Put it on and you can adjust the ND anywhere from 2 to 8 stops. If you want to slow shutter speeds way down, you could wait until dark or slap one of these babies on. It will stop a runaway locomotive!

Anyway, here are just two of the seascape images from this morning. Hope you enjoy them!

Yet another image from last weekend’s trip to Sandy Hook, NJ. I was drawn to this scene by the way the ice had formed on the rocks. After getting home and processing the image, I found that I wasn’t really pleased with what I had. There was, believe it or not, too much blue. Blue [...]]]>

Yet another image from last weekend’s trip to Sandy Hook, NJ. I was drawn to this scene by the way the ice had formed on the rocks. After getting home and processing the image, I found that I wasn’t really pleased with what I had. There was, believe it or not, too much blue. Blue sky, blue water, it all seemed to detract from the ice on the rocks. So I decided to work on a black and white conversion and this is what I came up with.

I use Nik Viveza and Color Efex Pro to whiten the whites and brighten the brights. Then I went into Silver Efex Pro to make the conversion beginning with the “high structure” preset and making adjustments from there. Finally, I added a yellow filter to the black and white conversion with the final result what you see here.

Image made with my Canon 50D; 24-70mm f/2.8L lens; and tripod.

(0.8 sec @ f/22; ISO 100; -1/3 EV)

(0.8 sec @ f/22; ISO 100; -1EV)

These were the only blurs that I did during our recent (weekend past) trip to Sandy Hook, NJ. The layers of water/ice followed by reeds followed by more water/ice and more reeds before finally reaching the sky just seemed to beg for [...]]]>

(0.8 sec @ f/22; ISO 100; -1/3 EV)

(0.8 sec @ f/22; ISO 100; -1EV)

These were the only blurs that I did during our recent (weekend past) trip to Sandy Hook, NJ. The layers of water/ice followed by reeds followed by more water/ice and more reeds before finally reaching the sky just seemed to beg for a horizontal pan which helped eliminate some of the messiness while keeping and emphasizing the layers of color unfolding from front to back. Processing with Nik filters (Dfine, Viveza, Color Efex Pro and Sharpener Pro) brought out just enough reed detail in the reflections to accentuate the reediness.

Image made with my canon 50D and 24-70mm f/2.8L lens w/ Singh-Ray Vari-ND filter to help provide the longer exposures for the pan.

8.0 sec @ f/22; ISO 100; -1/3 EV

6.0 sec @ f/22; ISO 100; -2/3 EV

Barb and I were up at 0400 and headed off for Sandy Hook. We arrived before sunrise, actually before civil twilight, and I set up on Chokecherry Beach to photograph the sunrise. The morning was tad cloudier than I had hope [...]]]>

8.0 sec @ f/22; ISO 100; -1/3 EV

6.0 sec @ f/22; ISO 100; -2/3 EV

Barb and I were up at 0400 and headed off for Sandy Hook. We arrived before sunrise, actually before civil twilight, and I set up on Chokecherry Beach to photograph the sunrise. The morning was tad cloudier than I had hope but I was still able to capture some nice color in the early morning sky. We ended up having a very nice day at the Hook and came away with a number of nice images (at least to my eye). But the day started pre-dawn so that’s where I’ll start with the images. Additional images from Sandy Hook will follow through out the upcoming week.

Images made with a Canon 50D and 24-70 2.8L lens w/ a Singh-Ray Vari-ND filter to lengthen the exposures. Camera and lens were tripod-mounted.

What can I say? That title pretty much sums up my yesterday.

We had decided earlier in the week that, weather permitting, we would head down to the Jersey shore and visit some of our favorite lakes and ponds in search of wintering ducks and such. Yesterday’s forecast was the better of the two days, so [...]]]>

What can I say? That title pretty much sums up my yesterday.

We had decided earlier in the week that, weather permitting, we would head down to the Jersey shore and visit some of our favorite lakes and ponds in search of wintering ducks and such. Yesterday’s forecast was the better of the two days, so yesterday it was. So far, so good. Actually weather-wise, it wasn’t terrible. Cold… yes, particularly in the early morning but it did warm to the upper 20s by early afternoon. Windy… oh yeah! But it was sunny and the sunshine felt good beating down on us.

When we got there, the first thing we found was that the lakes were all about 90% frozen over. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. In years past, a frozen lake just meant the ducks were gathered into a much smaller area. It was like, dare I say, shooting ducks in a barrel. Except this time, unlike years past, there were very few ducks to shoot. It seems to be a very bad year for wintering ducks along the Jersey coast. Don’t know why.  Anyway, I did get a few images (Cormorant, Hooded Merganser, American Wigeon) before moving on in search of other non-avian subjects to photograph.

Switching cameras (to the 30D from the 50D) and lenses (to the 24-70 and 70-200 from the 300 w/ 2x TC), I was off making images for sandwiches, blurs, multiple exposures, etc. Things seemed to be progressing well.

To make a very long story a little shorter, I got home and started to import the images. The few bird images uploaded into Lightroom fine. Then I moved on to the images made with 30D and the memory card went rogue on me again, corrupted and locked up Lightroom. This was exactly what happened a month ago. Same camera, same card (I had reformatted it and it seemed to be working fine) and even the same kind of shots (multiple single images for a 10-image multiple exposure). This time, I lost most of the images on that card and had to spend most of the evening trying to get Lightroom up and running again. I did. It is. But what a pain in the backside.

Anyway, this is one of the few images that actually imported (I have since tossed the card) before the corruption set in.

As we walked through this area along Shark River Inlet (Belmar, NJ), we saw these pine cones and were really taken by their beauty and by the light at that particular time of day. I ended up doing a digital sandwich with the image as I described a little while back in this blog. Then I processed the sandwiched image using Nik Dfine for noise reduction. Nik Viveza 2 for color and brightness control. And Nik Color Efex Pro where I used the Darken/Lighten Center filter to brighten the center even more while darkening the surrounding areas and finished by adding a black vignette which further served to draw the eye to the cone’s center. The effect, I believe, is to create the appearance of a spotlight shining on the single cone.

Anyway, the image above is what I came up with. Your thoughts/comments are always appreciated.

This is another image from the past Sunday’s trip to the North Shore. Sunrise was at 0658. We left home at 0455 and it is an hour and 45 minute drive. So doing the math, you will see that we arrived in that period between civil twilight and actual sunrise. I knew exactly where I [...]]]>

This is another image from the past Sunday’s trip to the North Shore. Sunrise was at 0658. We left home at 0455 and it is an hour and 45 minute drive. So doing the math, you will see that we arrived in that period between civil twilight and actual sunrise. I knew exactly where I wanted to be… beneath the Belmar Fishing Club pier so I grabbed my gear, headed for the beach and quickly got set up before the sun actually rose. Should have been there earlier but hey, we did get up before 0400.

This particular image is a long exposure (15 sec @ f/18; ISO 100; 0 EV) made just a very few minutes after sunrise. It is my favorite of the images made that morning because of the reflection on the water. I just love the path it created from my feet to the horizon as well as the early morning sunburst.

Image was made using my Canon 30D and 24-70mm f/2.8L lens w/ a Vari-ND filter providing the long exposure; camera and lens were tripod mounted.

Processing involved some Lightroom. some CS4 and some Topaz Adjust.

(1/1250 sec @ f/7.1; ISO 400; 0 EV)

My wife and I took a trip down to the North Shore area of the New Jersey coast this morning. We covered the inland lakes from Little Silver Lake in Point Pleasant Beach up to Fletcher Lake in Bradley Beach. For those of you unfamiliar with the area [...]]]>

(1/1250 sec @ f/7.1; ISO 400; 0 EV)

My wife and I took a trip down to the North Shore area of the New Jersey coast this morning. We covered the inland lakes from Little Silver Lake in Point Pleasant Beach up to Fletcher Lake in Bradley Beach. For those of you unfamiliar with the area (which would probably be most of you), these lake are so close to the ocean that you can practically spit from one to the other. In most cases, it is ocean, beach, small boardwalk, street, lake. Anyway, these lakes are winter home to a wide variety of ducks, cormorants, herons and such.

This particular Great Blue Heron seems to have taken up residence along Fletcher Lake in Bradley Beach. I saw him there last weekend with another photographer getting close-up after close-up. Today was my turn. I was able to ease up to about 8-10 feet of him and get my shots while resting the camera on the back of a park bench. What you see here is a full frame image (no cropping) from my Canon 50D and 300mm f/2.8L IS lens with a 2x TC. I was able to get way up close and personal with this guy.

(1/160 sec @ f/11, ISO 400, -1 EV)

This image was made this past Saturday morning at Chokecherry Beach, Sandy Hook, NJ about 7 minutes after offical sunrise. The clouds really caught my attention as we drove across the bridge and on to the thin strip of land that is Sandy Hook. It was just a [...]]]>

(1/160 sec @ f/11, ISO 400, -1 EV)

This image was made this past Saturday morning at Chokecherry Beach, Sandy Hook, NJ about 7 minutes after offical sunrise. The clouds really caught my attention as we drove across the bridge and on to the thin strip of land that is Sandy Hook. It was just a few minutes before sunrise. I quickly pulled into one of the beach parking lots, headed to the beach and set up to make several sunrise images.

Image made using my Canon 30D and Canon 24-70 f/2.8L lens, tripod-mounted. I also added a 3-stop GND but pretty much slid it all the way down to essentially eliminate the gradation for this image.

(1/400 sec @ f/8.0; ISO 400; +2/3 EV; Sunny WB)

My wife and I have visited this lighthouse located in Highlands, NJ many times. During those visits, I came to the conclusion that it is almost impossible to photograph the entire structure from the grounds and come away with a good image. My last attempt involved [...]]]>

(1/400 sec @ f/8.0; ISO 400; +2/3 EV; Sunny WB)

My wife and I have visited this lighthouse located in Highlands, NJ many times. During those visits, I came to the conclusion that it is almost impossible to photograph the entire structure from the grounds and come away with a good image. My last attempt involved using my ultra-wide Sigma 10-20mm lens and resulted in images with serious distortion resulting in both towers leaning in. About the only viable possibility from the grounds would be multiple images stitched together which I may still try.

The other approach is to shoot from some distance away – in this case from down on the long spit of land known as Sandy Hook. I’ve tried that several times and never came away satisfied with the result. So this past Saturday morning it was time to try something very different. As I said in my previous post, Sandy Hook was a total bust as far as birds were concerned. And all I had with me were two bodies and two lenses (a 24-70 on a 30D and a 300/2x combo on a 50D). While standing on the boardwalk across from the Sandy Hook visitors center, I looked up at the lighthouse and thought I’d give it a shot with the 50D and 300 2.8 w/2x. That’s an effective focal length of 960mm which was fine because I was one heck of a long way from the lighthouse. How far? I don’t know for sure but well over a mile, maybe closer to two.

Anyway in PP, I ended up making some typical adjustments and cropping the image to eliminate the homes that cover the hill up to the lighthouse grounds before taking it into Topaz Adjust where I used the “Spicify” preset and made some adjustments from there. Feeling that the fortress-like appearance of this lighthouse leant itself to a monochrome look, I then desatured the image. After looking at the black and white version, decided I needed to go to sepia. I then added some selective sharpening and levels adjustment to the structure itself. And as a final touch, I added a bit of vignetting in the corners.

The result, I think, looks like an old postcard of the lighthouse. Your thoughts?