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First Light on Bandon Beach – Oregon Coastline, Oregon

 Bandon Beach, Landscape, Landscape Photography, Oregon, Oregon Coast, Pacific Ocean, Photography Technique, Photography Trips, Reflections, Robert H Clark Photography, sunrise, Twilight Photography  No Responses »
Jul 122012
 

First Light on Bandon Beach • Oregon Coastline, Oregon

Hi everyone and welcome to today’s post. This image of complete calm and relaxation was taken at Bandon Beach along the Oregon Coastline. Bandon is a frequent stop over for many photographers because of the beautiful wide beaches and wonderful sea stacks. But the light here can also be amazing. To be quite honest I was hoping for some clouds with open horizons so I could shoot for color and reflections in the left over pools of water. But alas that was not to be. But in the landscape photographers world we have to take what Mother Nature gives us and feel blessed to be in such a beautiful location.

What I got when I arrived was a massive amount of wind. It was really blowing a gale and it made my afternoon scouting trip a little difficult. If this continued the evening shoot would not go well. While back at the hotel the clerk assured me the daily pattern had been calm in the mornings, lots of wind during the day, and calmer by the early evening. So I took him at his word. After all if you want to know the weather it pays to go to the local sources. The evening shoot went off without a hitch and I awoke in the early morning to some very calm conditions. This image was made just before the sun broke the horizon. Fog particulates over the ocean glowed with the yellow tones of the sun and the beach reflected the blue light of the morning sky. This formation is known as the Witches Hat though its shape is not quite as evident from my shooting location. To frame the shot I positioned the Witches Hat in the left third of the frame and used a strong leading line of water to help bring the eye into the shot. The image was made from one exposure and processed in Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Bob

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The Witches Hat – Bandon Beach, Oregon

 Coastal Photography, Landscape, Landscape Photography, Oregon, Oregon Coast, Pacific Ocean, Photography Trips, sunset, Twilight Photography  4 Responses »
May 082012
 

The Witches Hat • Bandon Beach, Oregon

Hi everyone and welcome to today’s post. I freely admit that I have been absent from my usual, and consistent, blog posts. Several things in my schedule have conspired to keep from my regular postings. Some of you know that as a side activity I coach pole vault at our local high school. For the past four years I have had the pleasure to coach my daughter in this difficult event and this is now her senior year. The time I have been able to spend with her is priceless and in this last year I have concentrated most of my time to get her to the state meet. I am sure most you will understand the importance of this commitment. On top of all this is the planning and details for her graduation, prom, senior trip, preparing for college in the fall, and, well the list goes on. It is just a busy time and I am wearing many hats as the summer approaches. I have also been hard at photography for quite some time and quite frankly I needed a small break and an opportunity to recharge my batteries. As they say “to much of a good thing…..”

So for this post please enjoy a twilight shot of the Witches Hat from Bandon Beach. The shot represents the many hats I am wearing right now. I do have several photography trips lined up for the early summer including a return trip to White Sands and a visit to Carlsbad Caverns. I am really excited to visit Carlsbad as I will be able to see the twilight exodus of the Brazilian Free-Tail Bats. It promises to be a unique experience.

I hope all of you are well and I appreciate your visits to the site.

Bob

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Seastacks at Waters Edge – Bandon Beach, Oregon

 Bandon Beach, Helicon Focus, Landscape, Landscape Photography, Lightroom, Oregon, Oregon Coast, Pacific Ocean, Photography Trips, Sony α900, Split Neutral Density Filters, sunset, Wide Angle Photography  6 Responses »
Sep 062011
 

Seastacks at Waters Edge, Bandon Beach, Oregon. Shot with a Sony a900 and a Sony SAL 20mm lens. Images exposed at ISO 100 at f11 for 2 seconds.

Hi everyone and welcome to today’s post. Today’s image was shot at sunset on Bandon Beach along the Oregon coastline. I had an opportunity to shoot on the Oregon coast about a year ago and though I had dreadful weather I knew I wanted to make a return trip. It is a wild and rugged coastline with beautiful stretches of beach and incredible shoreline seastacks. Bandon Beach is but one of many accessible shorelines along the Oregon coastline. It is an intimate and intriguing beach that is very accessible and can be shot at sunrise or sunset. In this shot the late evening sun backlit a large seastack out in the ocean causing it to glow in a warm, orange light that was the perfect complement to blue hues in the sand and water. The tide was out and an impromptu river of water was flowing back towards the Pacific Ocean. There was a beautiful, crisp, clarity to the air and the light was simply stunning.

Technical Details: The image was shot in two exposures with a 3-Stop, Singh-Ray Soft Edge, Split Neutral Density Filter. The two exposures were focus brackets and the file was merged in Helicon Focus before final finishing in Photoshop. Each of the RAW files was processed with the same settings in Lightroom and saved out as TIFF files before exporting to Helicon.

If you make the trek to Bandon I would recommend the Bandon Beach Motel. The hotel sits on a cliff over looking the beach and offers instant access to the shoreline via a stairway. When you get there ask for Caleb and tell him you want room 205, the one on the corner with the amazing view.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Bob

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Wave Pattern No. 1 – Waikiki Beach, Honolulu, Hawaii

 Abstracts, Hawaii, Landscape, Landscape Photography, Nikon D3x, Nikon PC Lense, Pacific Ocean, Photography Composition  No Responses »
May 012011
 

 

Wave Pattern No. 1, Waikiki, Honolulu, Hawaii. Shot with a Nikon D3x and a 24mm Nikkor PC lens. Image exposed at ISO 100 at f11 for 3-1/2 seconds.

Hi everyone and welcome to today’s post. This image is from a series of wave motion explorations I shot on my last trip to Hawaii. On an early evening stroll along the beach front in Waikiki I found myself on a quiet stretch of sand as the sun began its descent towards the western horizon. Approximately 100 yards out from the beach was a stone breakwater that broke the incoming surf and created a quiet lagoon. Some of the wave water rolled over the stonework and became a series of subtle, and continuous, rolling ripples that eventually reached the beach. Sun light illuminated the ripples of water as they passed over the sand. Behind me the hustle and bustle of downtown Honolulu continued. The din of noise, cars, shoppers was somewhat distracting. But as the waves rolled in and out I became enveloped in their motion and I completely lost track of time. It was hypnotic and I did not move from the spot for what seemed to be long time. I shot nearly 60 images all from the same camera set up and with the one lens focused only on the ripples of light.

For many of us photography is a consuming passion. I know it is for me. But this can sometimes get in the way of just being in the moment. We scout the shot, calculate the sun angles and setting times, pick the lens, and plan for contingencies if things go wrong. Already we have done a lot of work and have yet to spring the shutter. To break this habit sometimes I will go out, with camera in hand, without a purpose. No real intentions to shoot, only to explore and see what is there. I find this “walking camera in hand meditation” relaxing. I would never have stopped to watch wave patterns if I had been in my “intentional” shooting mode. Here I was not hunting for anything in particular. I was just out on a nice evening in a beautiful place. 60 images later I woke up and the light had faded. I rejoined the throngs of people on the street more awake than when I had arrived.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Hozógo nasádo (Navajo): Walk in Beauty

Bob

 

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Point Bonita Lighthouse – Marin Headlands, San Francisco

 California, Coastal Photography, Landscape, Landscape Photography, Marin Headlands, Nikon D300, Pacific Ocean, Photography Trips, sunset, Water  No Responses »
Mar 222011
 

Fog rolls in on Point Bonita Lighthouse, Marin Headlands, San Francisco. Shot with a Nikon D300 and a Nikkor 28-70mm lens at 35mm. Image exposed at ISO 100 at f16 for 1/30th of a second.

Hi everyone and welcome to today’s post. The coastline along California is one of the most beautiful in the world. I have had the opportunity and pleasure to shoot there on several occasions. What fascinates me about this coastline is the distinct edge that occurs between land and water. Today’s image will give you some idea how severe this edge can be. This is the Point Bonita Lighthouse located in the Marin Headlands, just across the bay from San Francisco. The lighthouse sits at the end of the Headlands and guards the entrance into the bay.

On this day I went to shoot more intimate shots of the lighthouse but found it was closed for the day. Undeterred I hiked up to an overlook point that gave me a different perspective that I had not seen before. I really liked the relationship between the small lighthouse rooted in the rocks and the massive cliff. The wind was quite brisk from my vantage point so I lowered my tripod to get the camera closer to the ground to block some of the wind. I also positioned my body between the camera and the wind direction to create a wind break. And then I just waited for the light to change. The afternoon fog began to roll in and soon enveloped the lighthouse. At one point I could barely make out the point and the lighthouse. With this image I waited for the fog to clear slightly and for the lighthouse light to come into position. A tiny bit of subtle sunlight filtered by the fog just hit the cliff as I fired the shutter.

Processing of this image was kept to a minimum to maintain the atmospheric nature of the shot. After RAW processing in Lightroom the image was finished in Photoshop but setting a White and Black Point and a Luminosity Curve adjustment for the shadows and the lighthouse. I also added a mid-tone contrast mask before adding a little dodge and burn work.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Hozógo nasádo (Navajo): Walk in Beauty

Bob

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Turtle Beach Sunset, No. 2 – North Shore of Oahu, Hawai’i

 Hawaii, Landscape, Landscape Photography, Lightroom, North Shore, Pacific Ocean, Photography Technique, Photography Trips, Singh-Ray Filters, Sony α900, Split Neutral Density Filters, sunset, Twilight Photography, Zeiss Lenses  1 Response »
Nov 262010
 

Turtle Beach Sunset No. 2, North Shore of Oahu, Hawai'i. Shot with a Sony α900 and a Zeiss 24-70mm lens. Image exposed at ISO 100 at f13 for 5 seconds.

Hi everyone and welcome to todays post. I have been away for a week and have returned to wild, wonderful, and cold West Virginia. Cloudy, with a cold drizzle of rain to be specific. In honor of this tacky weather todays post is a recent image from one of my shoots on the North Shore of Hawai’i. This was shot at Turtle Beach which is ideally located to take advantage of beautiful side-lighting during sunset. There are also some beautiful  beach rock formations that extend into the ocean. At the time I made this image the sun had already set and I was approximately 15 minutes into civil twilight. This is a peak time to capture the beautiful tones of sunset and the motion blur of the ocean with a longer exposure. The tide was moving in and this became a timing shot to capture the water entering into the crevice in the bottom of the image. I would wait for the crevice to fill and then time my exposure as the water was receeding. This gives you the nice lines of motion in the water as well as some of the mini swirls. I also used a Singh-Ray 3-stop, soft, split neutral density filter to balance the sky and foreground. The filter was dropped in to the holder and extended just below the horizon line. The soft edge filter allows for a nice, even transition without creating a distinct unnatural line. The image was processed in Adobe Lightroom and finished in Photoshop.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Bob

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North Shore Twilight – Sunset Point, North Shore of Oahu

 Hawaii, Landscape, Landscape Photography, Nikon D3x, North Shore, Photography Technique, Photography Trips, Twilight Photography, Water  No Responses »
Nov 142010
 

North Shore Twilight, Sunset Point, North Shore of Oahu. Shot with a Nikon D3x and a 24mm PC lens. Image exposed at ISO 100 at f11 for 25 seconds.

Hi everyone and welcome to today’s post. This image was taken at Sunset Point on the North Shore of Oahu, Hawai’i. Recent posts on this site along with a series of comments have focused on the act of “seeing” versus “looking”. On the surface they may seem to mean the same thing but they are distinctly different. To get the point across we can “look” into a forest but not “see” the deer standing in the forests edge. Seeing in my mind is a conscious act of mindfulness. It is about slowing down and really exploring what is before you. I can tell you I am very guilty of running from one image to the next like a kid in candy store. Digital almost forces us to do this. Shoot, shoot, move on…. In my 4 x 5 days this was just not an option. I carefully considered the shot, composed, waited for the right light, and carefully took my spot readings and calculated my exposures. I felt good if I got a few good exposures in the morning and the evening. The long and short is that I had a defined process that was carefully crafted. But digital does not mean we have to abandon this notion. In fact I have returned to my roots so to speak and I am refusing to just fire the shutter at anything that strikes me. I am slowing down now to consider what is before me. I feel that the quality of the resultant images is better – that I am crafting a better photograph.

This image is a direct result of just watching. I had scouted the location several days before and I was intrigued by the spit of rock jutting into the ocean. But I also knew that the point of rock was looking directly into the setting sun so I imagined a twilight image instead. So I was looking, but at the same time seeing and imagining what could be. When I returned I shot in other parts of the beach and waited for twilight. As I set up for the shot I watched the clouds move across the horizon and I could see the potential for relating the foreground shape to that of the clouds. The upper band of clouds were vertically aligned relative to the horizon and I knew with a long exposure they would drag out and provide a repeated shape mirroring the rock formation. At a 25 second exposure, indeed they did. So what I imagined at first became something else because I allowed myself to slow down and see. It is a challenge I now put to myself and to all of you. Lets just slow down, take a deep breath, and see the potential. Beauty lies before us if we just open the door and let it enter.

Thank you for stopping by today.

Bob

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Turtle Beach Sunset – North Shore, Oahu, Hawai’i

 Adobe Lightroom, Hawaii, Landscape, Landscape Photography, Lightroom, Nikon D3x, North Shore, Pacific Ocean, Photography Technique, Photography Trips, Singh-Ray Filters, Split Neutral Density Filters, sunset, Water  4 Responses »
Nov 072010
 

Turtle Beach Sunset, North Shore of Oahu, Hawai'i. Shot with a Nikon D3X and a Nikkor 24mm PC lens. Image exposed at ISO 100 at f13 for 8 seconds.

Hi everyone a welcome to today’s post. I arrived home in West Virginia to some cold temperatures. Two weeks in the 80′s with nice ocean breezes is a far cry from lows of 26 degrees with a high somewhere around 50. So in order to keep myself mentally warm today’s post is a sunset shot from Turtle Beach on the North Shore of Oahu, Hawai’i. Driving up on 99 from Honolulu, Turtle Beach is one of the first beaches you reach, and is so named for the Green Sea Turtles that sun and swim in the shallow waters. The beach also features some interesting rocks and reefs that extend into the ocean from the shoreline. Sunset here is very nice with beautiful side lighting. On this day the tide had receded leaving water in the pockets and folds of the rocks. Mats of intense green seaweed were left exposed on the rocks providing a an opportunity to play with a triad of colors: the red rocks, the green seaweed, and the blues of the ocean, sky, and clouds.

I used two Singh-Ray filters for this shot: A Daryl Benson 3-stop Reverse Graduated Neutral Density filter, and a 4-stop Neutral Density. The Daryl Benson was used to hold back the brighter sky to balance the exposure with the foreground and the Neutral Density was used to slow down the shutter speed to allow the ocean waves to blur in motion. The exposure was long enough to allow the ocean to roll in and out leaving the ghost silhouette of the reefs beyond the rocks.

The image was processed in Adobe Lightroom and finished in Photoshop.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Bob

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Coastal Sunset – Kaloko-Honokōhau National Historical Park

 Hawaii, Kaloko-Honokohau National Historical Park, Landscape, Landscape Photography, Lava, Nikon D3x, Pacific Ocean, Photography Technique, Singh-Ray Filters, Split Neutral Density Filters, sunset  4 Responses »
Sep 262010
 

Coastal Sunset, Kaloko-Honokohau National Historical Park, Hawaii. Shot with a Nikon D3x and a Nikkor 24mm PC lens. Image exposed at ISO 100 at f13 for 1 second.

Hi everyone and welcome to today’s post. This image was shot along the volcanic shoreline of Kaloko-Honokohau National Historical Park just after the sun set. This is just at the beginning of Civil Twilight which lasts approximately 30 minutes after the sun has set (or for the morning, 30 minutes before the sun rises). It is a beautiful time to shoot as details are still available and the light is wonderful. I want to use this image to talk about my use of split neutral density filters. I carry a collection of Singh-Ray split neutral density filters and never leave home without them. Other than my cameras and lenses, these filters are one off my single most used pieces of equipment. They help the exposure by holding back a bright sky to balance it against the foreground. This is a fairly simple operation for human eyes but camera sensors are not so sophisticated. Though it does not look like it in the photo above, the sky and clouds were just about 3-stops brighter. In fact the brightest condition was right at the horizon line and extended up to the first dark cloud. From there up it was about 2-stops brighter.

My camera was set to manual mode with evaluative metering. Though it is reading the whole scene there are simply too many stops of light for the sensor to capture. If I expose for the foreground the sky will blow out. If I expose for the sky the foreground will be too dark. There are several solutions to the dilemma. We could shoot a two bracket set exposing one for the sky and one for the foreground and combine in Photoshop. We could shoot a bracketed set and process in HDR. Or we could try to balance the light by using split neutral density filters. this is what I prefer. It is a matter of my practice and vision. All the other options are viable and I do employ them at various times. I don’t want to get into an argument over which is better. In fact I would rather watch paint peel. It just is not important. What is important is learning to see what the light is doing and being able to respond with an appropriate strategy.

Part of my process is to evaluate the scene. Aside from seeking some kind of compositional solution I am also trying to determine what the light is doing. In my early 4 x 5 days I would take a series of spot meter readings and make a rough diagram of the scene. The spot meter reads the light in terms of EV’s or exposure values. I would then place these EV’s into zones and from there I got a quick sense of what the light was doing. With digital I don’t so this anymore. But that early practice with a spot meter made me better at reading the light. Today I can look at most scenes and determine if , and what kind, of split neutral density filter I will need. I use two types of splits; graduated neutral density and reverse graduated neutral density. The graduated filters come in soft step and hard step. The soft steps are good when there is no defined boundary, such as an horizon line, between the light and dark zones. The hard steps work great for defined boundaries such as the shot above. However, hold the phone. The image above actually has another issue in that the horizon is actually brighter than the rest of the sky. A soft or hard step filter would work but it is not the optimum solution. But a reverse neutral grad is. These filters concentrate the darker portion off the neutral density in the middle and fades it up. I used a 3-stop, reverse split neutral density on the image. this filter has 3-stops of neutral density in the middle which fades up to 2-stops. While looking through the viewfinder I dropped the filter into place and positioned it just above the horizon line. I metered off the rocks and under exposed by 1/2 stop to put them in the correct zone and the shot was done.

I carry 1, 2, and 3-stop soft edge graduated neutral density filters and a 3-stop reverse graduated neutral density. I find that these work in most of the kinds of shooting I do. My filter holder of choice is made by Hitech. I also will hand hold the filter when I need to work fast.

For more information or to order Singh-Ray Filters just clink on the links in this post or the logo. They also have a great blog which you can get to in my BlogRoll listing.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Bob

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Kona Coast, Hawaii – Volcanic Rocks and Ocean

 Hawaii, Heliopan Filters, Landscape, Landscape Photography, Lava, Nikon D3x, Pacific Ocean, Photography Technique, sunset, Volcano, Water  5 Responses »
Sep 122010
 

Volcanic Rocks and Ocean, Kona Coast, big island of Hawaii. Shot with a Nikon D3x and a Nikkor 24mm PC lens. Image exposed at ISO 100 at f13 for 4 seconds.

Hi everyone and welcome to today’s post. I am heading out to Philadelphia for the next four days and will be “out of pocket” as the saying goes. So until my next post here is another image shot along the Kona Coast on the big island of Hawaii. I found this grouping of colorful rocks jutting out into the ocean. They were at the end of a finger of black volcanic flow and were more than likely carried there during the last eruption. The image was made in the late evening after the sun had set but with enough ambient light to bring out the colors of the rocks and swirling ocean. The subtle, complementary colors were beautiful and in my mind could only be conceived by nature. Water washing over the rocks brought out the iridescent blues and purples which complemented the aqua tones of the shallow shoreline.

To capture this shot I used a Heliopan Warming Circular Polarizer and a 3-stop Singh-Ray Split Neutral Density filter. The polarizer allowed me to dial in some of the rich tones and helped to slow down the shutter speed for motion blur. The neutral density filter allowed me to balance the bright sky with the foreground. RAW processing was through Adobe Lightroom 3.2 with final finishing in Photoshop.

Thanks for stopping by today. I will be back in about a week with a new post.

Bob

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