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.

(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.

(1.0 sec @ f/22; ISO 100; +1 EV)

My wife an I made an early morning jaunt down to the New Jersey shore, something we will do often between now and say, mid-April. The area we usually visit is great for wintering ducks and shorebirds because there are a series of 10 or more lakes just [...]]]>

(1.0 sec @ f/22; ISO 100; +1 EV)

My wife an I made an early morning jaunt down to the New Jersey shore, something we will do often between now and say, mid-April. The area we usually visit is great for wintering ducks and shorebirds because there are a series of 10 or more lakes just literally yards/meters from the beaches between Point Pleasant Beach to the south and Bradley Beach to the north. This trip, our first of the year, was more of a scouting trip than anything but while wandering around, I did manage a few interesting (at least to me) images.

Our first stop is always the Manasquan Inlet jetty in Point Pleasant Beach. In the colder winter months, the inlet is home to a number of wintering Loons (both Common and Red-throated), Purple Sandpipers and a variety of other shore- and sea-birds. This particular seascape was made looking along the shore just south of the jetty. Conditions were overcast, the tide near full and the time was about 30 minutes after sunrise.

The image was made using my Canon 50D; 24-70 2.8L lens; Singh-Ray Vari-ND filter; and Tripod.

In addition to normal Lightroom/CS4 processing, I made adjustments using filters in Topaz Adjust and Topaz Clean.

(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.

(1/250 sec @ f/8.0; ISO 400; +1 EV, Sunny WB)

My wife and I hit Sandy Hook (NJ) for sunrise with visions of bird photography dancing in my head. It was a total bust. I did take a single bird shot. I did run into a bird photographer friend out there on the North Beach and [...]]]>

(1/250 sec @ f/8.0; ISO 400; +1 EV, Sunny WB)

My wife and I hit Sandy Hook (NJ) for sunrise with visions of bird photography dancing in my head. It was a total bust. I did take a single bird shot. I did run into a bird photographer friend out there on the North Beach and he was heading back toward the parking area due to a lack of shorebirds.

As my wife and I were walking along the beach, I happened to see this single shell lying alone in a pretty clean (shell-less) stretch of beach. Since there were no birds to speak of, I decided I might as well photograph the shell… with my 50D and 300mm f/2.8L IS w/ 2x TC. I worked the shell from a couple of angles without touching it at all and ended up liking this angle the best. After I was done, I asked my wife if she wanted the shell. She said sure so I picked it up to hand to her. And when I did, I glanced inside and there was a hermit crab neatly tucked up in there. After a brief discussion about the merits of a pet hermit crab, I gently returned the little fella to his spot on the beach.