RETROSPECTS 2024 - #2 - MARITIME SUBJECTS

Port of Newport, Oregon during the Blue Hour

Already in my childhood I was fascinated by anything that had to do with boats, harbors, and coastal life. Maybe no surprise for a guy who grew up in a hilly and wooded area… Well, I still get a kick out of it and whenever there is a chance to shoot in an harbor, I have no problems to find something to aim my lens at.

The Port of Newport, Oregon was the perfect playground at different times of the day. I focussed mostly on details during the days with an overcast. Going out for dinner during the blue hour to a seafood restaurant right at the harbor provided other opportunities and walking back to the car long after sunset wasn’t without charm either.

Containers full of crabs shortly after unloaded from a boat

Maritime details are a great subject for a day with an overcast sky

The port at night with hardly any wind blowing from the Pacific Ocean

NIGHT SHOT AT THE PORT

Port of Newport, Oregon, March 29, 2024

This photo is from the same night as yesterday’s sunset image, except it was shot after dinner. Ports and harbors had always a great fascination for me and I love to watch the business around ships, boats, or on the docks.

I guess it helped a little bit having a bottle of wine with our seafood dinner to handhold the camera and make a sharp picture at 1/13 of a second 😉.  And this still required an ISO setting of 12800. A few years ago this was unthinkable with any previous camera I owned, but the technology for noise reduction we have at our hands today, while shooting and in post process, is just amazing.

Nikon Z6II, Nikkor Z 24-70, f/4 S,   @ 62mm, 1/13 s, f/4, ISO 12,800

MISSISSIPPI RIVER STORIES 2020 #5 - MAKING SPEED VISIBLE

Wisconsin bridge, Mississippi River, Dubuque, Iowa

Dubuque has three bridges across the Mississippi River. The photo shows the highway bridge to the state of Wisconsin. The two other ones, connecting Iowa and Illinois, have been in my viewfinder quite often in the past. This one not so much. I went there last weekend to practice and experiment again with my graduated neutral density filters. Our vacation trip is coming up later this month and I like to be prepared for some new landscape explorations.

A lot of traffic on the river, with most boats slowly cruising and people enjoying a hot and sunny evening. We know there is always an exception and the approach of this very fast speed boat was announced by its roaring engine well before it came in sight.

I wasn’t interested in the details of the boat but wanted a long exposure to have a blurred trail, making the speed somehow visible to the viewer, while bridge and even background remain sharp. The darker part of the 3-stop GND filter was pushed all the way down in the filter holder to cover more of the frame, ISO 50 prolonged the exposure time a little more, and by using an aperture of f/20 I ended up with 1/4 of a second. Needless to say that the camera was on a tripod and focus was obtained manually by pre-focussing on the center of the bridge. The water in the foreground had some turbulences that were slightly blurred in the photo, making it a bit more interesting without distracting too much.

Nikon D750, Nikkor 24-120mm / f4, B+W F-PRO Kaesemann High Transmission Circular Polarizer MRC filter, Breakthrough X4 3-stop soft GND filter, Induro GIT 404XL tripod, RRS BH-55 ball head, Vello cable release,   @ 66 mm, 1/4 s, f/20, ISO50, manual focus

COASTAL HIKE AT NEYS

Lake Superior, Neys Provincial Park, Ontario, Canada ------------

I like to take you back to our trip around Lake Superior about a month ago and show you a couple more pictures. One of the most interesting trails we hiked along the rocky coast line was the “Under the Volcano Trail” in Neys Provincial Park. Beside being a good terrain for adventure with great photography it reveals Neys’ unique geologic, glacial, and volcanic history.

These abandoned old boats cannot be ignored for a photograph. Joan and I spent quite some time there and tried to find the best way to make the click that tells the story.

All images: Nikon D750, Nikkor 16-35mm / f4

 

SUBJECT AND AMBIENCE

Lake Superior, Silver Bay Harbor, Minnesota

Over the years I discovered that making an image of just “the ambience” of a landscape seldom leads to a reasonable, story telling result. The lack of a clear subject is usually the reason for these frustrations. Sometimes it works but more often not. Imagine the photo above without the ship. The rocky islands did not offer enough to make it interesting and the “angel rays” coming through the clouds were not strong enough to make them a good subject. No waves on the lake didn’t help either. But there was this very soft, warm light and subtle reflections on the water creating a special ambience that I liked. The “LAKE GUARDIAN” came to my rescue as it approached the islands and rocky pier of Silver Bay Harbor, Minnesota. Suddenly the picture made sense to me…

 

SAILING AND SOARING IN THE EVENING BREEZE

Nikon D750, Sigma 50-500mm / f4.5-6.3 APO DG HSM, at 85 mm

The Mississippi River is a great place for all kinds of recreation and during the summer many people use it for fishing, paddling, or just running their speed boats. Seeing a sail boat with all sails set is not an everyday occurrence and the puffy clouds on the Wisconsin side of the river made for a nice background.

Nikon D750, Sigma 50-500mm / f4.5-6.3 APO DG HSM, at 420 mm

The guy handled his boat actually very well in the evening breeze. The photos were made just below lock and dam #11 in Dubuque, IA and the river is here only about 400 meters wide.

Nikon D750, Sigma 50-500mm / f4.5-6.3 APO DG HSM, at 420 mm

The soaring pelican may explain why I had the long lens on the camera during the little walk with our dog Cooper along the river. Unfortunately this was the only one we had within shooting range. Including part of a cloud was key for this image.