I am proud to be partnering with Quiet Light Publishing and The Sweetwater Seas documentary team to offer these Fine Art Posters from our film on all five of the Great Lakes. We currently have 24 Fine Art Posters for sale on the Quiet Light Publishing storefront. They are available in two sizes – 24″x36″ and 20″x24″. Each is printed on Fine Art Archival paper to our exacting standards. You can see and purchase any of them using this link: The Sweetwater Seas Fine Art Posters.
Well decisions, decision on this Friday the 13th. There is a full moon this evening…I should have shot it last night as all photographers know, but couldn’t. So now what? Shoot it tonight? Maybe. Or well I laze around and just hang with friends? Hmmm… I will be shooting the next two weeks in Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore on Lake Michigan and then up at Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore on Lake Superior. And I’ve been to Lighthouse beach often when the full moon rises…. Ahh the thought process here at Big Thoughts Pond this Friday afternoon… stay tuned!
I went to Lighthouse Beach this morning for sunrise. I wasn’t really planning on it but as I was awake at 5:15 I thought get down there! As you may know I have shot this particular area of the beach many, many times over the years as it is only a mile and a half from my home. It will certainly play a part in my book Twenty|Ninety-Five on all five of the Great Lakes. I often wonder if I can see anything new, shoot a new view or make a more compelling image having been there so many times. But as I tell folks it is all in the way you see things and you must try and change your perspective, view point and work with how the light plays out in front of you to create a compelling image. No two moments will ever look the same. Maybe similar, but certainly not the same.
This morning I wanted to get down low and use a wide angle lens to get in close to the image and let it stretch out in front of the viewer. Then as the sun cracked the horizon I realized a long lens would be a different perspective. In addition the sun was coming up where I have wanted to see the moon rise for many months so I could work it into the image with the pilings. The sun instead of the moon at this moment.
When I arrived there was a gentleman already there who is a member of a camera club and wanted to shoot for a photo contest the club was having. We talked as I set my equipment up and he asked me if he could watch and learn. Of course. He also asked me to tell him my thoughts as I choose where to place the camera. It was an interesting experience which I enjoyed. Kind of like a mini-workshop!
Here is a link to the images from this morning. Only a small amount of adjustments have been made in Lightroom so far. Hope you enjoy the images! Maybe these will become a part of my book on the Great Lakes, Twenty|Ninety-Five which I am currently continuing to work on.
https://www.mackphoto.com/BlogImages/Great_Lakes_Project/LighthouseBeachSunrise/index.html
Peace,
Richard
This August we have two full moons we can all shoot. I went on down to my favorite location which is about a mile from my house and shot the full moon coming up. I have been trying to get the perfect shot of the moon rise over this old pier. So far to no avail the way I first envisioned it. And because the rock wall blocks how far away you can get it is not possible to back off and use a long lens the way I want to. So you adjust.
There was another person who has read this blog who showed up and recognized me. I gave her some tips on equipment she might want to purchase. For me a key ingredient is the polarizing filter. And for shots like these more important are the graduated neutral density filters. A most worthy thing to have in your bag. It will bring down the exposure in the sky to make images without a blown out sky. I use the .9 neutral density filter which takes off 3 stops of light. And the later you shoot – and I go way past most folks – you really need it in order to try and keep the moon without having it just burn out. You also have to keep your exposures to less than 1 second or the moon will move during the exposure and therefore not be sharp. Some of the last images from last night were 8 seconds, and I knew the moon would just be a small white circle – well a bit oblong though but also blown out. Acceptable since I wanted the glow on the water.
Now in all honesty I was not really into making images on this night. And there was a cloud layer, as usual, out over the lake, so once I got there I had to wait. A photographer doesn’t like just sitting so I made a few images before the moon popped out of the clouds. I tried to do something a bit different than anything done before. Sometimes you have to reach back and look at things in a very different perspective especially when the location is very familiar.
Not sure how successful these were, I will need to ruminate on them a while longer before deciding whether they might be worthy for inclusion in the book I am currently working on Twenty / Ninety-Five: The Great Lakes Landscapes. It covers all five of the Great Lakes. You can see more about it at Quiet Light Publishing. www.quietlightpublishing.com/GLP.php
You can also see more of the images from this shoot here: Moon Rise
The second full moon is on August 29 – known as the Blue Moon – a semi rare occurrence. And where the phrase “Once in a blue moon” came from. Wonder if I shoot that one as well. And where?
Cheers,
Richard
RMPblog