One Photo: Night becoming Day

After publishing yesterday's post, I noticed this image in my Lightroom catalog.  It was taken seven minutes before the photo "Off to Work" in yesterday's post, and four minutes before official sunrise on a day last month.

As the sun approached its actual sunrise position on the horizon (6:42 a.m.), I watched the clouds above me turn pink. I looked up and a little behind me to see just a wisp of the moon. After a quick "whoa", I aimed the camera upwards and autofocused on the moon.

 I was pleased with the photo because of the transition it captures of night becoming day. I was also happy that I actually saw the moon, as my attention was focused east toward the horizon.

"Night becoming Day"

Olympus E-M1 with 12-100 F4 zoom @ 100mm (200mm-e)

Aperture priority @ F4. Auto ISO 200. 1/200 sec.

Processed in Lightroom Classic

One Photo: Off to Work

My wife and I really enjoy our mornings in Maine.  Part of that is because when we are there, we are *not* going off to work. We are on vacation. Part of it is also due to the peace and quiet we experience, especially in the morning.

We like to get up before sunrise and get a pot of coffee going.  We set ourselves up on the screen porch (the mosquitos can be bad at dawn, unless there is an onshore breeze), sip our coffee, and watch the morning unfold until we decide it is time for breakfast. [We feel that this is a great "living in the moment" experience.]

During our sunrise routine, my camera is always at the ready, as periodically I'll walk down to the shoreline to take sunrise photos. The photo below is one such image.  It was taken on a day last month at 6:45 a.m. According to the PhotoPills app on my iPhone, that was two minutes after official sunrise.  I'm facing south.

We are so remote at this location that there are only two morning sounds: gulls and lobster boats. There are a lot of gulls, but just a few lobster boats.  We see maybe four boats each morning.  We love the sound of their engines as they pass in front of us, going out early to check their traps.

"Off to Work"

Olympus E-M1 with 12-100 F4 zoom @ 100mm (200mm-e)

Aperture priority @ F4. Auto ISO 200. 1/800 sec.

Processed in Lightroom Classic

One Photo: Maine Sunrise

I'm so grateful that I am an early riser!

"Maine Sunrise"

Olympus E-M1 plus 12-100 F4 zoom @ 66mm (132mm equivalent)

1/6400sec, F4, ISO800

(I don't know why this was not taken at ISO 200, which would be my preference)

Processed in Lightroom

One Photo: Out For The Morning Run

This lobster boat is heading out for its morning run.  It makes sense to get an early start while the sea is calm and the day hauling traps can be long.  This photo was taken in August at 5:15 a.m.

The main subject looks better when seen on a big monitor.  Here unfortunately I can only display at 800 pixels wide and very compressed (downsizing from about 5,000 pixels wide).

"Lobster Boat"
Olympus E-M1 plus 12-100mm zoom at 100mm
(I could have used something longer)
1/250 sec, F4, ISO 1000

Pastel Colors At Sunrise

A 6:00 a.m photo at the edge of Penobscot Bay, Maine, moments before sunrise.

I generally like sunrises with a bit of drama, such as cloud formations that pick up the morning colors.  But I nevertheless found this more subtle sunrise to bring to me a certain calmness and tranquility.  I think it's all about the range of colors here, and the gentle gradients created by the shifting colors and tones.  It makes me think of pastels... and orange sherbet.

Olympus E-M1 with 12-100 F4 zoom @ 54mm
1/10, F4, ISO 400

After this image, the colors began to fade and I thought the show was all over.  It was my time for a second cup of coffee and I put a couple of more logs on the fire in the cabin.  But 45 minutes after this shot, I looked out on the water again, this time just to the right of the small sail boat, and saw the scene below, with the starboard side of the lobster boat facing east into the sun.

Panasonic GX80/85 with 100-300mm zoom @ 162mm
1/200sec, F5.6, ISO300

Photo Story: Sea Smoke on Penobscot Bay

I don’t claim to be an expert on fog, smoke or steam.  My prior post called “Fog on Penobscott Bay” was about a photo I took one early morning in August.  I did a bit of research online and found that there are several kinds of fog.  My conclusion based on the definitions given, was that the summer fog we experience along the Maine coast is “advection fog”. It requires warm air over cold water.Well, today I explored online the concept of “sea smoke”. I had seen a number of photos of sea smoke, though mostly they were taken along the Maine coast in the winter.  Nevertheless, I was pretty sure that is what I saw one cold morning last October.

Sea smoke can occur when cold air moves over warm water.  (It seems this is the opposite of the conditions that lead to fog.) I think this is what happened in the image shown below. 


This image was taken on a cold October morning.  I am presuming that the air temperature was colder than the water surface temperature.  It was about 6:45 a.m. and the sun had just begun to show itself.  I’m thinking this created the required layer of moisture-saturated air above the water that then cools and condenses. 


Of course I could be wrong about this, but it nevertheless was a pretty picture.

Olympus E-M1

Panasonic 14-140 F3.5-F5.6 

@ 140mm (280mm fffl)

1/2500s

F5.6

ISO 200

Sunrise and a photogenic lobster boat

Over the past year I have printed several of my favorite Maine coast sunrise photos. Below are a six of my sunrise favorites.

No. 4 was printed for a photo club contest last month, no. 2 was printed 18" wide and mounted and framed for a colleague entering retirement, and no. 5 was printed 20" x 30" and framed for my office.

Let me explain why all the images have the same boat it them.

My wife and I spend a couple of weeks each summer in a cabin on the edge of Maine's Penobscot Bay. The cabin faces east, which is perfect for sunrises. We're on a cove that has one photogenic boat in it. It's the "Sea Keeper", a classic Maine lobster boat. And I seem to find a place for it in many of my images, not just sunrises.

I suppose I should spend more time roaming the coast looking for other sunrise viewpoints, but at that hour in the morning I think I'm doing pretty well just grabbing my camera backpack, a fold-up chair, and a big travel mug of coffee... and making my way down to the rocks at water's edge or to the fisherman's wharf a hundred feet away, and fighting off mosquitoes as I await the sunrise. 

This richly saturated sunrise is printed 20" x 30" and is framed in my office:

This final image was taken from a slightly different perspective.  As I recall it was low tide and I was able to walk along the rocks.  I was intending to take pictures facing east, but when I looked north I saw this scene and was quite pleased:

Seeking Sunrises on the Maine Coast (Mornings 4, 5 and 6)

As a follow up to my post yesterday showing sunrises from mornings 1, 2 and 3, I have uploaded here three more images.  These are from mornings 4, 5 and 6.  It makes me tired just looking at all these sunrises!

For those interested in those sort of things, the first two were taken with an Olympus E-M1 with 14-54mm zoom lens, and the third image was taken with a Sony NEX-6 with a 30-year old 35-70mm manual Minolta zoom lens.

Morning 4

Morning 5

Morning 6

Seeking Sunrises on the Maine Coast (Mornings 1, 2 and 3)

We were recently up in Maine for a few days along the coast near Blue Hill.  The weather was beautiful.  Though technically autumn, except for the leaves changing colors it felt like summer.  Shorts and sandals were the order of the day.

I like pursuing sunrises in autumn because the sunrise actually comes at a reasonable hour.  In the summer, sunrise on the Maine coast (when we've been there) is about 5:30.  And because some of the best color comes at twilight, I like to get to my "spot" 30 minutes before sunrise.  Argh, that's hard to do.  But in late September sunrise is at 6:30.  This is great news for me.  The biggest problem turned out to be the mosquitoes, even though temperatures were in the 40s and 50's at that hour.

Below is my favorite shot from morning #1.  Not exactly a sunrise shot, as this was taken about 7 a.m.  The actual sunrise, though beautiful, was rather lackluster for a photograph.  But as I returned to our cabin I spotted this.  The sun was still low in the east and gave some nice color on the starboard side of this lobster boat.  I like the overall soft colors of the background.

Morning #2 was just to opposite.  Instead of an uninteresting cloudless horizon, there was a thick layer of clouds which resulted in now sunrise.  However, again around 7 a.m.  the sun did rise above the cloudy horizon and provided this shot looking south.

A Touch of Autumn

Morning #3 was totally awesome.  I took a lot of pictures over a 10 minute period and don't at this point know which one is best.  But the following is representative.  The scene was absolutely gorgeous.

[Photos from mornings 4, 5 and 6 will follow, in tomorrow's blog post... I'm still deciding which ones I like best.]

First good sunrise in Maine

It wasn't until our second morning in Maine that we had a nice sunrise.  It wasn't your classic red sky.  But since it had been raining all day and night, I was shocked to see the clouds start to blow over revealing blue sky.

I got a late start to the beach.  I like to get there about 30 minutes before sunrise (sunrise is about 6:30) and to stay for another 30 minutes after the sunrise.  That to me is a very magic hour.  I love watching the colors develop.

This image was taken about 7 a.m.  But with that bank of clouds, the sun really wasn't visible until a few minutes after this shot was taken.  But I did like watching the suns rays melt right through the clouds in the middle of the picture.  And the clouds above were picking up some of the golden light.

 



Images from coastal Maine: The golden hour

The "golden hour" is often viewed as the best time to take photographs.  Typically it's one hour after sunrise and one hour before sunset.  But I believe this has to be taken loosely, as it depends on your location.  Technically, according to Wikipedia, the golden hour is created when the sun is at an altitude of 10-12 degrees.  In the Arctic circle I think this could last most of the day.

The golden hour is known for its soft and warm light.  There are no harsh shadows or bright highlights, such as occur during the middle of the day, and which are hard for a camera to record.

During a two week vacation in Maine, I took a few images during the golden hour.  However, with the sunrise so early in the morning (twilight around 4:45, as I recall) it was pretty hard to motivate ourselves to wake up, grab coffee, and go out and meet the morning mosquitoes.

The first three were taken with a point and shoot camera.  I'm a big fan of small cameras.  In the first instance, I took shots with both a point and shoot and a dSLR.  Though technically the dSLR had better results (but not that much better), the lighting and composition was just a little better with the point and shoot.  It goes to show me that lighting and composition are far more important than the camera you are using.

In the second and third scenes a point and shoot was I had with me at the time.  And the final shot was taken with an Olympus dSLR with my best lens.  I tried this final scene with my point and shoot, but it just didn't get as much detail out of the clouds as did the dSLR.

Two mornings:

Two evenings: