Seascape Alignment
Seascape Alignment
While hunting for my image-making location in the murky, smelly low water tidal zone, I happened upon this “V” formation in the barrier boulders. I set up my tripod and waited out the incoming tide hoping for a seascape alignment of the sunrise, lobster boat, sea reflection, and body within the V structure. Unfortunately, the alignment factor went up a notch as a set of ducks swam thru the image almost on cue.
Original Post Feb 02,2017
The Technical Layer
To read additional technical and location content, please click on the tabs below.
Technical: Camera Settings
Technical: How & Gear
With experience and repeated returns, gear selection for this location has become easier. You will grab some great images with my lens of choice, the Nikon 80-400, with a Muriumi polarizer. You will need a very stable tripod because of the sand and muck. There is so much action going on that I typically will also use a gimbal head.
Technical: Location & Inspiration
This harbor is a secret location. I have been shooting here for over five years, and rarely are there any other photographers. Therefore, I have never taken anything for granted at this spot. I come prepared with sea tide, weather, and sunrise data, to work hard and improve my image-making. The location is positively inspirational due to the sights, smells, and sounds of a working lobster harbor. If the tides are right, you can be eye level with the ocean as the locals headed out to sea with the morning sun illuminating thru the quintessential mid-coastal Maine treeline.
Technical: Craft
One of my favorite quotes is from Vincent Versace, ‘the impossible is just an opinion, and Photoshop is not a verb. The verb is you.’ As I waited for all four sub-factors to move into their place as the princess light entered, I made sure to captures images during the three-minute timeline. The most significant issue was to make sure I had clean, sharp edges on the silhouetted barrier rocks. I was shooting at f/18 to help provide an in-focus depth of field at infinity, but just to be sure, I made some purposeful images of just the rock line in perfect focus using Live view. In post-processing, I took the best from three images to provide the sense of what I witnessed and then worked on the fragile color tones of the early morning transition from Blue hour to Golden hour.
