Calendar Chronicles - Footprints In The Sand

We have made it through February and started into March.  Spring will arrive soon in East Tennessee.  It can't come soon enough for me and never lasts long enough.   There is beauty in the winter season, but after a few months of cold, gray, brown, and bare trees it is time for some color and new growth.   Next month's photo is all about spring but the March photo is all about warmth.

Nothing says warmth like a sunrise or sunset at the beach.   While visiting my family in West Palm Beach Florida June and I got up early and drove down to the beach to see what the sunrise had in store.   We started out at Lake Worth Beach hoping to get some pictures of the sunrise behind the pier.  The parking lot was closed and we couldn't get down to the beach.   We headed north up the coast stopping at a public beach access, which was also closed due to beach erosion.  After driving past the classic mansions of Palm Beach we finally stopped at the public beach in Palm Beach.  It's always a good idea to allow plenty of time for sunrise photography because you never know what obstacles you'll run into and time, tide and sunrises wait for no man.

Click on any image to see larger versions.

There is a story behind this photo.   When we arrived there was a young lady paddle boarding by.  I wanted to get a photo of her on her board with the sunrise behind her and took off running down the beach to catch up with her.   She probably wondered about the old guy on the beach chasing her.  I wasn't able to get the shot but my run did create footprints in the sand.   It's these footprints that make this photo.  They lead the viewer down the beach.

The paddle boarder did return later and I was able to take the shot I tried to get earlier.   I wasn't thinking clearly and didn't set my camera up for a fast enough shutter speed.  The 1/15 of a second exposure was way too slow and she is blurred in this photo.   This is why practice is so important.  You have to be able to quickly adjust your camera to rapidly changing conditions.   I can't go back and try this shot again but hopefully I'll remember my mistake and not make it again.

 

There is one other person in this photo that I didn't see until I got home and was editing the photo.  There was a snorkeler swimming by her when I took the photo.

We were blessed with a beautiful sunrise and interesting clouds.  It was a great way to start the day.

Let Heaven and Earth Praise Him!

The Calendar Chronicles - January 2014

It's here!  2014 has arrived.   I hope you have started the year off right and that you are blessed in 2014.

It's also time to share a little about the photo for January - Second Beach, Washington State.  If you're like me, you're thinking that is not a very creative name for a beach.  One of three beaches (yes First Second and Third Beach) just south of the village of La Push Washington.  Like the other two, Second Beach is hemmed in by dramatic bluffs and headlands. To get to Second Beach you have to hike 2/3 of a mile up and then back down a forested trail.  It was a bit confusing at first because we started out above the beach and hiked up.   After a while we made our way down to the beach.

Path to Second Beach

We were there as part of a photography workshop with Bill Fortney and  His Light Workshops.   There was at least one other photography group there that afternoon so there were plenty of photographers wandering around the beach.      We arrived at the beach at 8 PM and stayed about an hour while the sun was going down.  It sure is nice photographing sunsets on west coast beaches than sunrises on the east coast beaches.

I took 60 shots in those 60 minutes on the beach, which is less than what I usually take.  There was a lot of time waiting for something to happen, the light to change, people to move, or new ideas to pop into my head.

Sea Stack and Sea Gulls

I was fascinated by the sea stacks offshore.  We don't have anything like these where I grew up.   These forbidding landmarks are part of the Quillayute Needles National Wildlife Refuge. Inhospitable to humans, they're productive breeding grounds to thousands of seabirds, oystercatchers, murres, gulls, petrels, cormorants, and auklets among them.

You never know what you will get at sunrise or sunset.  This time we were blessed with beautiful clouds and a break in the clouds that allowed the sun to shine up and light up the under sides.  As the sun set I positioned myself at this cool rock surrounded by a pool of sea water.  I could see that the sun was going to set directly behind the headland to the right of the primary sea stack and might shine through the natural arch.  Now it was just a matter of getting ready and waiting.  I was rewarded with warm colors from the sunset and blue of the darkening skies for some nice color contrast.  The rock and reflections in the pool made interesting foreground for my photo.

For the photographers that might be interested, this was shot at a 32 mm focal length using a 24-105 mm lens with a small f/22 aperture.  The wide lens and small aperture allowed me to have the foreground rock and the trees in the distance all in focus.  This was a one second exposure so I was using my tripod.  I set the camera down low to the ground to be able to include the sand, rock and clouds.

I hope you enjoy this photo during January and it reminds you that His greatness can be seen through His creations all around us.