Tree Skeletons
Friday 9th April 2021
Our interest in visiting Walburg Creek and St Catherines Island was based on a recommendation from our friends Lynn and Lee who visited here back in 2012. They shared pictures of the trees on the shoreline, engulfed by the sea as the erosion cuts away at the banks. Having seen these images I knew I wanted to visit. As Gloria mentioned we spent some time ashore wandering along the beach yesterday afternoon. I scoped out some photos that I wanted to take and returned about a half hour before sunset. If it hadn’t been for careful dressing that ensured I was 95% covered I would have been in hospital requiring a blood transfusion. I have never seen so many midges (no-see-ums) in my life, but I persisted in dogged fashion. It was fortunate that high tide coincided with sunset so many of the tree skeletons were awash. I was also able to get the dinghy high up the beach, which made things easier. I though I was being smart and using good photographic technique when I used a flash gun to fill in foreground shadows, silhouetted against the evening sky. I hadn’t realized that this would pick up the midges and many of these shots had multiple white smudges on them that I had to remove in Photoshop. I worked fast and tried to ignore the bugs and overall got some of the shots that I was looking for. I am so glad I went last night as there is no visible sunset this evening.
We decided to return to the beach this afternoon to see if we could identify more shore birds. We took with us our spotting telescope but in the end we never used it. The wind today has been very light and consequently the bugs on shore were worse than they had been yesterday afternoon (but not as bad as the evening). We were struggling to focus and the same time realized that the weather was deteriorating. We kept hearing thunder and could see black clouds approaching and decided to retreat to the dinghy and take a ride up Walburg Creek instead. We had only been going ten minutes when the first drops of rain began to fall. We headed back to Cotinga and got safely aboard before we got too soaked. Although we saw some lightening and the corresponding thunder the storm passed quickly by with little impact. However, the lack of wind and high humidity just seemed to make it bug heaven outside so we spent the rest of the afternoon indoors. Tomorrow the wind is supposed to pick up and then on Sunday a front will go leading to better weather afterwards.
Mike
31 40.993 N, 81 09.415 W
These shots were all taken on a tripod, mostly with a wide angle lens. I used the minimum ISO and used a small aperture (F18-F22) in most of the shots to ensure a long exposure (5-20 seconds) and blurring out of the water. I think the photography got better after the sun went down. In some cases I used a flash gun to try and get some light into the foreground but I ran into problems with this as it tended to pick up the midges that were flying around in great numbers. I only realized this when I looked at the results later. The first shot here is my favorite, with the B&W version shown next. I think it's interesting to look at color and B&W - they can have a very different feel to them. Sometimes I prefer one, sometimes the other. If I like a shot in color but it's not so great in B&W that tells me the composition isn't that strong. I'd be interested to know your thoughts. Any favorites?
Mike:
ReplyDeleteAll great shots, but I do want to comment on the first two. I like them both, very much. The colors in version one are awesome and intriguing, but I think I like the B&W version better in the end. Its the comparison that is the problem. When you first look at the B&W version, you miss the color, especially in the sky, which is what I first thought was "wrong" with the B&W. The sky lacked contrast and detail. But, when you look at it longer, the B&W version has a really dreamy, almost abstract look to it that I really like. The lack of sky detail makes you look at the dead tree and see it as more of an abstract. I think, in the end, that even LESS sky detail (even less than the little there), perhaps just the horizon line if it had worked out, would have made the shot even better. The viewer would be then guessing whether this was a photo or an electronic drawing! The blurring of the water with a long exposure is a really neat technique. IMHO..... Rod
Hi Rod, thanks for the thoughts. I like your idea with the B&W image and I'm going to see if I can do what you suggest in Lightroom / Photoshop. One thing I love about digital photography is you can apply traditional B&W techniques in the digital work-up, such as color filters (after the shot is taken rather than on the camera) and "dodging/burning" and it's a lot more forgiving than on color shots. I'll send you a copy if it works out well.
DeleteMartin (brother) here - first one is my fave (stunning) with the fifth as my second. For me, colour is better as the subtle tones in the sky (lost in the BW pictures) add to the image. Bugs bad as Oz? XXX
ReplyDeleteThe midges were worse than I've seen anywhere!
ReplyDeleteWow, I loved them all.
ReplyDeleteThe first B&W has a power associated with it... it's as if the dead branches are actively stretching out to get back into the water. Very striking! I like the Slytherin-like feel to the 3rd color one as well
ReplyDelete