About the time that we’re out walking every morning, Verne is out collecting empty cans and bottles from the parks along our little stretch of coast that he then redeems for cash. On Sunday morning, we met at Swanzy Beach Park in the midst of some awesome dawn colors.
I used the built-in flash on my Canon Digital Rebel XTi to put some light on Verne while keeping the lens closed down enough to capture the brilliant colors of dawn.
Canon 400D • Canon 17-85mm lens @ 17mm • f/4.0 • 1/60 second • ISO 200
Every morning is different. Some mornings are dull and gray and remain that way. Some start gray and explode into colors when the sun makes its first appearance. Others start with colors about 40 minutes before sunrise and hold those colors through a series of stages. And some, like today, feature a relatively fleeting display of color that fades within a few minutes. I think today’s spectacular colors came and went within five or six minutes.
Canon Digital Rebel XTi • Canon 17-85 mm f/4-5.6 lens @ 20 mm • f/5.0 • 1/50 sec • ISO 200
Sometimes you stumble across images.
This one showed itself while I was cooling my heels waiting outside a collectibles shop while Meda rummuged through the stuff looking for treasures.
I looked around for interesting images to pass the time. Not much luck. Then I glanced down and was struck by the pattern of shadows on the sidewalk. Out came the camera. Then, at some point, my own shadow entered the picture by accident. It seemed to complete the picture.
Canon G9 – ISO 80 – f/4.0 – 1/320 second
A short visit to Hilo, on the island of Hawaii, offered lots of photo opportunities. The light in the early morning and late afternoon, coupled with fine weather, made the camera happy.
The site of the former daily fish auction is on the waterfront just a very short walk from the main Hilo hotels. I found myself with two basic choices. There was the wide view with the small boats in the foreground and, across the bay, Hilo town with Mauna Kea rising into the sky in the background. In the larger version of the photo, you can see the snow that’s still on te summit. Somehow the mix of palm trees in the foreground and snow in the background makes for a good picture.
The second photo removes all the context and focuses on the shapes, textures, and colors as we walked alongside the boats tied up at the dock. While the first photo conveys the time and place, this one strips out everything but the essentials.
I like both images. Perhaps they need to go together to convey a sense of the moment.
Canon G9 – ISO 200 – f/4.0 – 1/640 second
Canon G9 – ISO 200 – f/2.8 – 1/50 second
Canon G9 • 28mm (in 35mm equivalents) • f/2.8 • 1/50 second • ISO 200
(As usual, click for a larger version)
I tell myself to always carry a camera, “just in case”. Recently, I’ve been trying to follow my own advice, although most days use the camera during our early morning walk but let it sit idle the rest of the day.
But we were driving home early one evening this week when Meda asked if I really had the camera, and then suggested I pull over and try to get a picture of the rapidly fading sunset. So I did. At that time, we were driving along the coast between Kaneohe and Kaaawa, just passing Waiahole & Waikane Valleys. There’s a relatively unimproved park area between the highway and the ocean.
By the time I pulled off the highway, parked, grabbed the camera, and then made my way across an open field to the ocean, the colors had already started to fade and I was worried that there wouldn’t be enough light left. I only managed a few shots before it the scene faded to gray. But it was enough.
I set the ISO to 200, trying to tread that fine line between a fast enough setting to get away with a handheld shot and the high “noise” that enters at higher ISO. I was able to shoot at 1/50 second, which with care in holding the camera (and an assist from the Canon’s image stabilization) is normally fine without a tripod. As usual, I shot in raw format and converted later in Photoshop CS3. Nothing fancy. I boosted detail in the shadows a bit and tried to pull down highlights in the sky.
