Four years in the journey...

I realized a few days ago that I missed the 4th anniversary of having this blog online. Not a big deal but it’s almost shocking how time flies by. I wasn’t really sure what I tried to accomplish in 2010 when I started the blog. I guess I just tried to do something different than just publishing photos on a public website like the German “fotocommunity” or pbase. There is nothing wrong with that and I still do the pbase thing. I had the feeling the time was right to do something more specific, to tell stories with my photos, and most important to share my adventures in the great outdoors, share wildlife encounters or good locations for photography. As deeper as I dived into the whole thing as more I understood that my photos can create awareness about the vulnerability of our environment and wildlife. Reading many other photography blogs and writing my own helped me to become a better photographer. It is a wonderful challenge to publish a new image that is better than the last one. It doesn’t always happen but I’m trying. The blog wouldn’t be anything without you my friends, who stop here and shave some time off to read and view my photos. I’m very thankful for that and for any comment, your messages or “thumb up” at Facebook. I like to thank my dear wife Joan, who is my best consultant and friend and helped me many times to find the right words, and to get better with my “Sauerkraut”-English. Happy Valentine's Day!

At Forest Gump's turning point

 

Last Saturday night I zapped through the programs on TV before I went to bed. Sure enough, one channel had Forest Gump with Tom Hanks playing. It seems there is always a TV channel that has this movie running on Saturday nights ;-). It happened to be that I just joined the movie where Forest Gump started running all across the United States. That includes the scene where he reached the east coast and turned around to run in the other direction. This scene was shot on the wooden bridge of Marshall Point Light in Maine, a place that we visited during our vacation tour in the fall of 2013.

This lighthouse is an iconic landmark and we were not the only people visiting as this image may imply. I don’t manipulate much in my photos but here I used “content aware fill”, a feature in Photoshop CC, to make five people disappear after only a couple minutes of work. Love it! It is a very useful tool for a situation like this.

Fine Art Gallery - "Pemaquid Point Lighthouse"

 

Back to our trip to the coast of Maine in October. Joan and I were up very early that day. We had scouted the location of Pemaquid Point Lighthouse the evening before and had already some good ideas about how to shoot the lighthouse in the morning. I have posted here before some photos of the lighthouse that were made around sunrise. The fact that there was almost no cloud in the sky forced me to rethink my ideas for some black and white photos. This building has some strong graphic elements, like the conical shape, the window, or the fence, and this is what I was going for in this image. This is my first approach but I have a lot more photos to choose from. I like to try different things before I consider to make a final print on paper. I like it but I don’t think I’m there yet…

Schneegestöber and winter light

 

Joan and I went again up to Door County, the peninsula in the northwest corner of Lake Michigan, for Thanksgiving weekend. With us came the snow and made for a beautiful white Thanksgiving. We used the holiday for a hike in the snow along the shore of the Green Bay. The weather changed constantly from plain gray sky to heavy snow showers, to short sun light breaks, and back to clouds. There were times when the camera needed to stay in the bag because of too much snow falling from the trees. And then suddenly we had some moments where the sun sent some light through the clouds and the snow seemed to glow. It was just nice to be outside and try to catch the mood of weather and landscape.

We were already at Eagle Bluff Lighthouse on Thanksgiving last year. I thought I had a decent photo already but I love today’s quality of light on the lighthouse and snow much better. Have a look on last year’s image by clicking on the link HERE and build your own opinion.

Before we went back to our cozy little cabin, where Joan finally prepared a wonderful turkey dinner, we went to Bailey Harbor on the east side of the peninsula. A nice band of clouds and the last light of the sun made for some drama over Bailey Harbor Light in the background. The clicks were made quickly, the dinner was calling… ;-)

Pemaquid Point Lighthouse - a job for the graduated ND filter

 

I wrote in my post from October 16, 2013 that I may show more from Pemaquid Point Lighthouse in Maine. It is such a magic place that allows to shoot from many different angles during sunrise and sunset. Joan and I had the place well inspected the evening before and so I knew exactly where I wanted to place my tripod for this image the next morning. Maine is in clear weather every day the first state that is hit by the morning sun in the United States. Not that it really matters but it was kind of interesting to think about that everybody at home in Iowa was still in the dark of the night, while we enjoyed the warmth of the first sun rays touching the continent. The layered rocks in the foreground are a wonderful mix of metamorphic and igneous rocks, with veins of quartz, and slabs of schist and gneiss.

I used a 3-stop graduated neutral density filter for the photo. This allows me to keep your eye on the lighthouse or maybe let it wander over the rocks in the foreground. The Schneider Optic 77 mm ND.9 SE filter became a very useful accessory during our journey along the Maine coast. I like the optical quality of this piece of glass much better than my older Cokin ND filters. They are made out of resin, which is not a problem, but I always had the feeling that they also shift the colors slightly. Finally, very little adjustments had to be made in Camera RAW for this image and this is how I want to go with my landscape and wildlife photography.

Bass Harbor Lighthouse

 

This is Bass Harbor Lighthouse in Maine and this is an image I really, really wanted to make. Joan and I scouted the place three days earlier in the evening. There is only one spot between the rocks where you can make the click with the lighthouse and its reflection in the tide pool. I arrived almost an hour before sunrise but it took me some time to climb down in the dark to the slippery rock platform where I wanted to set up the tripod. I started shooting at 5:56AM and I may post an image from the blue hour sometime here.

The inspiration came again from Moose Peterson, who had published a very detailed article about photography in Maine in his own BT Journal. The Bass Harbor Lighthouse is on the cover and since I saw this picture the first time I wanted to go to this magic place. In the iPad version of the BT Journal is another photo of the lighthouse that has a lobster boat coming into the scene. I always thought, how lucky can someone be, having this awesome morning light and in addition a boat bringing some life into the scene. As you can imagine I was really happy when the same thing happened to me. It is actually not so uncommon as I thought, because the little harbors of Bernard and Bass Harbor are right around the corner, and at this time of the day the lobster boats leave for their daily tour.

The other way to use a tide pool

 

I showed you an image of Pemaquid Lighthouse before (click HERE for the older post). This one was made the evening before the first one. This beautiful lighthouse is one of the most iconic places at the coast of Maine, great for photography at sunrise and sunset. Having enough time on hand I experimented a lot with perspectives, exposures, and depth of field. If you follow my blog regularly you may have read yesterday about the interesting role the tide pools can play at low tide for your photography. Finding a tide pool that reflects the subject, which is without any doubt the lighthouse in this image, can make for a much more interesting photo than the one that another photographer makes just three feet away from you. Well, I can promise you this will not be the last picture of Pemaquid Lighthouse I may publish here in the blog. It is way too pretty... ;-)

The early bird makes the click

 

I was hoping I can show you images from our Maine adventure on a daily basis but the weather has been gorgeous the whole time so far (some rain is in the forecast as I write this). We really started out almost every day before sunrise in order to catch the first morning light and we never returned to the campsite before it was pitch dark. This is the only way to make images like the one of Pemaquid Point Lighthouse I like to show you today. It was still half an hour before the first sun hit the American continent but I like the blue hour as much as the actual moment of sunrise. More to come, so please stay tuned....

More from Door County Peninsula

 

I like to round up my little story about our trip to Door County last week with a few more images. Thanksgiving was relatively warm but very windy. Ideal conditions to visit the shoreline along Lake Michigan on the east side of the peninsula. I haven't used my Sigma 10-20 wide angle lens for a while but here it was a good choice to capture the beautiful rocks and waves pounding against shore.

To make my series of lighthouses complete, here is an image of North Pierhead Lighthouse. This is the point where the canal that connects Lake Michigan with the Green Bay begins (or ends, depending from what direction you approach it) and where the lights helps to find the entrance into the canal. Joan was with our little dog Cooper at the end of the pier and got a very nice close up shot of the red lighthouse in "killer light". I'm not unhappy with my perspective but I like her image a lot.

While hiking into the woods along the canal and trying to find a good perspective for the nearby Sturgeon Bay Ship Canal lighthouse I heard the noise of a boat engine. There are not many vessels on the water at this time of the year and I started running down the hill towards the canal in order to get a clear view for the boat. It was actually a real nice one and I was just able to make a few clicks before it disappeared behind the surrounding trees again.

Each evening of the four nights we spent in Sturgeon Bay the sky was different. I liked the last one on Saturday night the best. The color contrast after sunset was great. What a way to end a wonderful weekend... :-)

Door County lighthouses, part 2

 

It was our third day in Door County, Wisconsin today. An almost uniform overcast made me pushing the shutter release button on the D300s much less than during the last two days before. However, here is part two of my little series of the Door County lighthouses. None of the pictures is from today's trip.

This is my favorite shot of the Cana Island Lighthouse. I really love how the light "kissed" the tower and the building.

Eagle Bluff Lighthouse was built in 1868 and became automated in 1926. The Door County Historical Society has restored this structure in Peninsula State Park and turned it into a living museum. (source: www.doorcounty.com)

On Thanksgiving Day we arrived just one hour before sunset at this lighthouse and the sun had already disappeared behind a thin layer of clouds. The clouds worked like a big diffuser in front of the sun and made for an even exposure of this wonderful landmark.

Making a photograph of Baileys Harbor Range Lights, two hours earlier than the one before, was a little more of a challenge. The white paint and strong sunlight bear the risk of blowing out the highlights on the white boards. Dialing in too much exposure compensation can make the shadows too dark in this high contrast image. I don't like either one of these effects and tried to find the balance here. It was important to me to include the building in the background, since it is an essential part of this navigation aid and contains the rear light of this system.

The Baileys Harbor Range Lights were built in 1869 and automated in 1972. For one hundred years, these lights were used to gain safe entry into Bailey's Harbor. When the upper and lower lights were lined up, sailors knew they were in safe waters. (source: www.doorcounty.com)