Pin It
‘Reach Out’ | Atlantic Beach, NC As the days get longer and warmer, there are times when it feels as if we are closer to the sun than ever. On occasion, that can look a bit more literal than just saying it. On this particular evening, the sun dropped out from below the clouds and seemed to  hover momentarily just above the horizon. Before it dropped below the ocean, it almost felt like you could just reach out and grab the sun in the palm of your hand. The shot: Nikon D90, Nikkor 18-105mm VR lens. f/22, 1/6 sec., ISO 200.
Pop-upView Separately

‘Reach Out’ | Atlantic Beach, NC


As the days get longer and warmer, there are times when it feels as if we are closer to the sun than ever. On occasion, that can look a bit more literal than just saying it. On this particular evening, the sun dropped out from below the clouds and seemed to  hover momentarily just above the horizon. Before it dropped below the ocean, it almost felt like you could just reach out and grab the sun in the palm of your hand.

The shot: Nikon D90, Nikkor 18-105mm VR lens. f/22, 1/6 sec., ISO 200.

Golden Hour Bridge Passing | New Bern, NC This shot was taken just as the sun was beginning to set to my back. A really, really great golden light was cast across the bridge, which opened to let a sailboat through at the same time!  A little back story is as follows. My buddy Brad came to town to shoot the sunset with me. We met up at the park next to the drawbridge with plans to shoot the sunset from the observation deck of the bridge. I have never shot a sunset up there, but it has a high, unobstructed view of the Trent River with the sun setting right smack-dab in the middle of it. So we made our way up on to the bridge, at least an hour and a half before the sun would actually be setting. Brad brought an extra body and was going to set up for a timelapse of the setting sun. Cool! After over an hour of shooting (it was now literally 10-15 minutes before the sun would set), the bridge operator got on the intercom. “All pedestrians need to vacate the bridge, ESPECIALLY THE TWO PHOTOGRAPHERS.” Now what was this all about? He returned to the intercom to tell us a boat was coming and no one could be on the bridge while a boat was passing. This is not true. There are cars stopped on the bridge when it’s open and I have been walking on the bridge when it is open. You just have to stop at the gate. Still, he adamantly motioned and told us to get off the bridge, “NOW.” We returned the ‘thumbs up’ sign, but he continued to gesture (to put it lightly) toward the end of the bridge. Maybe he thought we were giving him a different finger? I just figure we over stayed our welcome. We are, after all, photographers- we had to have been up to something….groan. So we gathered up our stuff, Brad’s timelapse was mere minutes away from being cinematic gold, and left the bridge. As soon as we passed the last set of gates, the alarm sounded and the deck began to raise. It was about then that a friend of my Facebook page, Jared, arrived to shoot. We passed him on the bridge and the three of us hustled around the river walk and down to the area behind the New Bern Riverfront Convention Center just in time to catch this boat passing under the open bridge.  The last bit of day light was great, as you can see here. So maybe it was a blessing in disguise that we were kicked off the bridge. There is no way we would have caught that great golden reflection from up there! The shot: Nikon D90, 8mm Rokinon lens, f/22, ISO-100. 2 exposures manually blended in Photoshop CS4. Finished with Nik Viveza and Nik Color Efex Pro.
Pop-upView Separately

Golden Hour Bridge Passing | New Bern, NC

This shot was taken just as the sun was beginning to set to my back. A really, really great golden light was cast across the bridge, which opened to let a sailboat through at the same time! 

A little back story is as follows. My buddy Brad came to town to shoot the sunset with me. We met up at the park next to the drawbridge with plans to shoot the sunset from the observation deck of the bridge. I have never shot a sunset up there, but it has a high, unobstructed view of the Trent River with the sun setting right smack-dab in the middle of it. So we made our way up on to the bridge, at least an hour and a half before the sun would actually be setting. Brad brought an extra body and was going to set up for a timelapse of the setting sun. Cool!

After over an hour of shooting (it was now literally 10-15 minutes before the sun would set), the bridge operator got on the intercom. “All pedestrians need to vacate the bridge, ESPECIALLY THE TWO PHOTOGRAPHERS.” Now what was this all about? He returned to the intercom to tell us a boat was coming and no one could be on the bridge while a boat was passing. This is not true. There are cars stopped on the bridge when it’s open and I have been walking on the bridge when it is open. You just have to stop at the gate. Still, he adamantly motioned and told us to get off the bridge, “NOW.” We returned the ‘thumbs up’ sign, but he continued to gesture (to put it lightly) toward the end of the bridge. Maybe he thought we were giving him a different finger? I just figure we over stayed our welcome. We are, after all, photographers- we had to have been up to something….groan.

So we gathered up our stuff, Brad’s timelapse was mere minutes away from being cinematic gold, and left the bridge. As soon as we passed the last set of gates, the alarm sounded and the deck began to raise. It was about then that a friend of my Facebook page, Jared, arrived to shoot. We passed him on the bridge and the three of us hustled around the river walk and down to the area behind the New Bern Riverfront Convention Center just in time to catch this boat passing under the open bridge. 

The last bit of day light was great, as you can see here. So maybe it was a blessing in disguise that we were kicked off the bridge. There is no way we would have caught that great golden reflection from up there!

The shot: Nikon D90, 8mm Rokinon lens, f/22, ISO-100. 2 exposures manually blended in Photoshop CS4. Finished with Nik Viveza and Nik Color Efex Pro.

Off Season in the Marina | New Bern, NC I caught this scene at the sun set on February 13 from the Bridgepointe Hotel and Marina in New Bern. The marina is not so busy in these off-season month, but will surely start to ‘heat up’ as the weather likewise does. I liked how the yacht and sailboat to the right filled the negative space opposite of the clouds and reflections to balance this photo out. It really leads the eye across the frame, which I like. I bracketed three exposures for this scene, but standing on a floating dock, things didn’t line up very well. I auto-aligned the frames with Nik’s HDR Efex Pro (a program I actually use very little) and then masked the reflection on the boat’s window, the water and some of the clouds back in from the original layers. The shot: Nikon D90, 18-105mm Nikkor VR lens, tripod held (while bobbing up and down on a floating dock). Nik HDR Efex for merging of three exposures, original layers masked back in using Photoshop CS4. Nik Color Efex and Viveza for finishing.
Pop-upView Separately

Off Season in the Marina | New Bern, NC

I caught this scene at the sun set on February 13 from the Bridgepointe Hotel and Marina in New Bern. The marina is not so busy in these off-season month, but will surely start to ‘heat up’ as the weather likewise does. I liked how the yacht and sailboat to the right filled the negative space opposite of the clouds and reflections to balance this photo out. It really leads the eye across the frame, which I like.

I bracketed three exposures for this scene, but standing on a floating dock, things didn’t line up very well. I auto-aligned the frames with Nik’s HDR Efex Pro (a program I actually use very little) and then masked the reflection on the boat’s window, the water and some of the clouds back in from the original layers.

The shot: Nikon D90, 18-105mm Nikkor VR lens, tripod held (while bobbing up and down on a floating dock). Nik HDR Efex for merging of three exposures, original layers masked back in using Photoshop CS4. Nik Color Efex and Viveza for finishing.

Splash! | Emerald Isle, NC Playing with the Nikkor 70-200 2.8 around the legs of the Bogue Inlet Pier. The lens may have just climbed right to the top of my wish list! The shot: Nikon D90, Nikkor 70-200 f/2.8 lens, 1/1250th second, f/5, ISO 200 ©2012 Zach Frailey
Pop-upView Separately

Splash! | Emerald Isle, NC

Playing with the Nikkor 70-200 2.8 around the legs of the Bogue Inlet Pier. The lens may have just climbed right to the top of my wish list!

The shot: Nikon D90, Nikkor 70-200 f/2.8 lens, 1/1250th second, f/5, ISO 200

©2012 Zach Frailey

Cliffs of Emerald Isle | Emerald Isle, North Carolina These ‘cliffs’ actually stand five or six feet high in parts and are a product of beach erosion on Emerald Isle. I have seen a few other local photographers sharing images of the beach’s condition in the past few weeks and thought I should head out and see it for myself. It’s certainly a different look for the beaches of this area! I headed down the beach for a sunset photo excursion with Brad Styron and spent the better part of an hour canvassing these sand formations with my camera. (This is a the same shoot that my ‘Behind the Scenes’ photo came from.) Facebook | Twitter | Flickr | 500px | Google+ The shot: Nikon D90, 8mm Rokinon lens. 1/80 sec., ISO 200, f22. 3 bracketed exposure. With my three exposures, I made a tonemapped file to use for the portion of the sky with the sun. I then masked in the ‘cliffs’ and blue sky of the middle exposure and the foreground sand and water of the lowest exposure. The brightest exposure was discarded. ©2011 Zach Frailey, do not use without permission
Pop-upView Separately

Cliffs of Emerald Isle | Emerald Isle, North Carolina

These ‘cliffs’ actually stand five or six feet high in parts and are a product of beach erosion on Emerald Isle. I have seen a few other local photographers sharing images of the beach’s condition in the past few weeks and thought I should head out and see it for myself. It’s certainly a different look for the beaches of this area!

I headed down the beach for a sunset photo excursion with Brad Styron and spent the better part of an hour canvassing these sand formations with my camera. (This is a the same shoot that my ‘Behind the Scenes’ photo came from.)

Facebook | Twitter | Flickr | 500px | Google+

The shot: Nikon D90, 8mm Rokinon lens. 1/80 sec., ISO 200, f22. 3 bracketed exposure. With my three exposures, I made a tonemapped file to use for the portion of the sky with the sun. I then masked in the ‘cliffs’ and blue sky of the middle exposure and the foreground sand and water of the lowest exposure. The brightest exposure was discarded.

©2011 Zach Frailey, do not use without permission