It's My Nature » Sandy Hook

Scouting Out a Workshop Location – Sandy Hook, NJ

Ed — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 21:55:47 +0000

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.

On the Rocks

Ed — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 12:28:08 +0000

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.

Sandy Hook (NJ) Back Bay Wetlands (Horizontal Pan)

Ed — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 02:08:08 +0000

(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.

Sunrise, Sandy Hook, NJ – 01/16/10

Ed — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 16:45:33 +0000

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.

Sunrise at Sandy Hook (NJ)

Ed — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 11:06:21 +0000

(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.

Twin Lights at Navesink – The Old Postcard Look

Ed — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 02:01:25 +0000

(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?

Shell Game

Ed — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 11:46:02 +0000

(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.

One More From Sandy Hook (Juvenile Semipalmated Plover)

Ed — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 20:58:03 +0000

(1/4000 sec @ f/7.1; ISO 640 (I could have dropped this down); 0 EV; Sunny WB; natural light)

The title sort of says it all. This is a juvenile Semipalmated Plover, one of many I watched racing back and forth along North Beach. The hard part was keeping any one of them in focus while getting a decent pose. I mentioned a little while back that I am finding myself making fewer images these days but getting what I think are better images. Yesterday, I returned with just 25 images on the memory card but almost all were keepers.

This image was made with my Canon 50D and 300mm f/2.8L IS w/ 2x TC; tripod-mounted.

American Oystercatcher (Sandy Hook, NJ)

Ed — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 21:54:11 +0000

(1/2500 sec @ f/5.6; ISO 640; 0 EV; Sunny WB; natural light)

It seems these days that I’ve got to get up pretty early in the morning to be able to get out and do some photography. Today we were up at 0345 and on our way by 0445. We arrived at Sandy Hook (NJ) at 0615, about 15 minutes before sunrise. I hoped that I would be able to make some pretty “sunrise over the ocean” images but conditions didn’t really cooperate. Oh it was a beautiful morning but the clouds and the water just didn’t seem to have the radiant color I was looking for. So I gave up on that idea and we began to look for birds. We spent about five hours there and were heading out and back home by 1045 as the beach bums and bunnies were just arriving.

This is one of the images from this morning made with my Canon 50D and 300mm f/2.8L IS lens w/ 2x TC, tripod-mounted.

Sandy Hook Lighthouse

Ed — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 08:54:36 +0000

(1/100 sec @ f/13; ISO 200; +1 2/3 EV; Focal Length 28mm)

Some subjects just seem to lend themselves very well to infrared imagery. So far, I have found lighthouses to be one of those subjects. I base this not only on my limited experiences but also on IR lighthouse images that I have seen from other photographers.

This particular image was made on our trip to Sandy Hook (NJ) a little over a week ago. The primary purpose of that trip was birding and bird photography but I decided to take my IR-converted Rebel XT along as well. When we found ourselves in close proximity to the lighthouse, I just knew I had to break out the IR camera and make some images. The hardest part was getting images without people wandering through the scene.

This image was made with my IR-converted Canon Rebel XT and a Canon 24-70mm f/2.8L lens, handheld.

Hope you like it.