Crab Pot Sunset | New Bern, NC
It has been a while since I have had some free time to go out and leisurely shoot, but I had a chance to go out and do that at sunset on Monday night. I always shoot the same vantage points in New Bern, so I made it a point to venture out and find a new spot. When I arrived at this place, I totally forgot about finding a vista for the sunset and was drawn right into this pile of crab pots. The golden light hitting them from the setting sun is what pulled me right on them.
The shot: Nikon D90, Rokinon 8mm f/3.5 lens. 1/10 sec, f/16, ISO-250.
“If you build it, they will come…” | Kinston, NC
Historic Grainger Stadium stands, missing its occupant, in downtown Kinston, North Carolina. Most recently the home of the Kinston Indians, the Cleveland Indians High-A minor league affiliate, the team relocated this season. It’s currently being used for high school and community college baseball games. Regardless of who is playing on the field, it’s a great place to watch baseball and must be a bigger thrill to play on its grass.
I have only visited a handful of minor league ballparks, most of them very new, but the first game I saw at Grainger Stadium felt different. Built in 1949, The stadium has an old time charm and feel to it that is hard to describe. A lot of people’s fingers are crossed for a new team to move in. In my opinion, it would be awesome if a Pittsburgh Pirates affiliate re-joined the Carolina League and called Kinston home!
Crossing the Neuse | Bridgeton, North Carolina
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Each and every photographer has a list of shots that the dream of. This ‘Photographer’s Bucket List’ is something that helps keep us going, striving for that shot that we have planned in our head time and time again. Most, if not all, of these dream photos can only happen by being incredibly patient or just being in the right place at the right time. If they could be planned, then they wouldn’t be so special, would they?
I have two sets of Bucket List Shots. The first one contains shots of and at places that will probably not be places that I spend much time at in my life. Fog on the green mountains of New Zealand, the blue interior of a glacial cavern or a foggy sunrise at the Golden Gate Bridge…places I fully plan on shooting eventually, but not places where I anticipate I will frequent. Set two are local shots. It’s a shorter list, but easier to achieve. All I have to do is be in the spot when conditions are right.
The above image was on that list. For those of you not familiar with the New Bern, NC area, at its mouth, the Neuse River is the widest river in the United States. Just a few miles upstream, in New Bern, it is still plenty wide. There is a very long span of railroad bridge that passes just a few feet above the water’s surface. I have long wanted to shoot a train passing over, just after sunset, so that I could capture the clouds and color of the sky, the light on the engine and the reflections of it all on the calm water.
I have been to this spot numerous times in hopes of achieving my shot. I have seen trains pass, I have seen the sun set. But never at the same time. On this particular night, I set out to shoot some pretty astounding storm clouds that were passing just west of New Bern. I figured my best bet was to shoot them from the other side of the river, and capture the sun setting over downtown. Soon after the sun set, I was packing my gear up when I saw the light of a train slowy moving across the far corner of New Bern. When I saw it make its turn toward the river, I hopped in my Jeep and sped to this little spot along the tracks for my shot.
The train was coming toward me so slowly. It just seemed to be creeping along. But, as it reached the point on the tracks where I wanted to start shooting, it seemed to just blow right by. I was able to get two shots, this one and one of it closer with a lot of motion (which I like more).
In the end, sometimes the best way to plan one of your bucket list shots is to not plan at all—just hope for some good luck and timing!
The shot: Nikon D90, 18-105mm Nikkor VR lens @18mm. 3 exposures, bracketed. Tonemapped in Photomatix and then masked together with original frames in Photoshop. The water is from the middle exposure, the sky from the darkest exposure (lightened with the middle exposure) and the bridge was from the tonemapped file. Finished with a touch of contrast and glamour glow using Nik Color Efex Pro.
Spring is Springing | New Bern, North Carolina
One fun thing about really concentrating on shooting sunsets over the past year is being able to watch the seasons change as well as the sun’s path in the sky. A spot I like to get out to at least once a week is the boardwalk area behind the NC History Center in New Bern. It has been great watching the plant life go through its stages of growth, death and rebirth over the past year. Along with it, the arrival and departure of different birds is something to be noted as well. This week, I have noticed that some color is returning to the marshes. Leaves are starting to show on the trees and lily pads are staring to appear in the water.
Anatomy of a Pastel Sunset- This sunset, shot on February 29, was taken during one of my favorite conditions. Pastel sunsets are great, and I’ve found them to occur when there are low clouds on the horizon and high clouds throughout the sky. The low clouds seem to push the sun’s rays upward, while the high clouds diffuse the light and cast it over everything. With the blue sky showing through, everything takes a nice pastel hue.
The shot: Nikon D90, 8mm Rokinon lens. f/22, 1/10 second, ISO-200. Two exposures, manually blended.
It Came From Outer Space | Croatan Forest, NC
This otherworldly scene is actually the bottom of the Neuse River. High winds pushed water out of the river and left the clay bottom exposed, complete with lots of little bits of stump and driftwood. I spent a lot of time wandering around, in some places close to 200 yards offshore, and shooting just about everything in sight. It made for a really neat afternoon hike.
The shot: Nikon D90, Rokinon 8mm f/3.5 lens. f/22, 1/25 sec., ISO-100. 2 exposures, manually masked in Photoshop.
