Nikon D2H 50mm- 3.0’’ – F/1.8 – ISO 200
This is a photo that I just finished working on. I took this
yesterday evening during the blue hour in Bandon Oregon. This photo is a little noisier then I would
like it to be, but that is the price I pay for shooting with a DSLR that is 10
years old.
In this photograph I really like the wash of the waves as
they moved up and then receded back to the ocean, this effect was created in
camera by dropping the shutter speed down to a few seconds. As the image was
captured on to the sensor, the waves rolled in and changed the landscape, and
the light. So the image is left with a slow washed look where the shore is. I also like that you can see the reflection
of the edges of the rocks in the wet sand along the beach.
I have been working on ‘blue hour’ images a lot on this
trip. I learned about it around this time last year, I really like the process
of making these photographs. The idea is
that after the sun goes down, after ‘golden
hour’ passes ( the time of day that is normally the last hour of sunlight
before the sun sets below the horizon, and a time that photographers push hard
to take advantage of due to its low, warm, soft light that will make anything
look photogenic) then blue hour begins, this is a time of day where many of us
would often not bother to make a photograph, but if you do a few simple things
you can capture some very cool moody, toned images of twilight that take
advantage of the available light.
After the sun passes below the horizon the light begins to
fall off very quickly. The earth and landscape begin to appear very dim, though
still visible before twilight hours pass us by and we are left with just dark
black night skies. The trick, at least
for this image was trying to keep my tripod from sinking in the wet sand while
I was shooting exposures that lasted a few seconds. I have also been working on refining my
editing style in post production. I
would like to go in to this a bit more in a future post, but the original image
was a little bit brighter then the image you see here (unfortunately no less
noisy) In light room I was able to pull the moody-ness back and texture back
into the texture of the sky.
Today Marina and I arrived in Grants Pass Oregon; this
completes the first leg of this adventure.
So far we have been gone for 21 days.
Living on the road has its challenges, but after a few days of working
through it, the process gets easier. Things still take at least twice as long
to complete was you would hope, but that’s part of the process, an patients is
still a virtue I am learning slowly. A
few days back home to regroup, re- gear up and then its back out. We will be spending some time on the Lower
Rogue River to work on some photographs, but I think primarily to slow down and
not rush to anywhere.