ChasingDulcineaPhoto's photostream  

To paraphrase Galen Rowell, "Landscape photographers don't capture landscapes - they capture light...where there is no light, there is no image. I search for perfect light...then find something earthbound to match it with."

This particular shot was taken yesterday, ~30 minutes after sunset at Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge. If not for the warm and cold tones, I think this particular image would suck. But in their presence, something special happens. I can't quite put my finger on what this special thing is, but it's enough to to compel my shutter release, risking getting locked in the refuge (Bombay Hook closes at sunset).

Bird photography isn't my thing for several reasons: 1) I don't have the patience for moving objects; 2) I refuse to routinely carry a tripod larger than my Gitzo 2531; 3) I don't want to purchase a lens that costs more than my car.

That said, when I see a more or less stationary bird, I can't help but try and photography it. I blame random some photography article I read years back that described the author's slow and mind-numbingly boring approach towards some birds in equally slow and mind-numbingly boring detail.

Anywho, it took me about 15 minutes to approach this Great Blue Heron at Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge. That may not be a lot, but it felt like an eternity for me. But all in all, I was pretty content to get within 25 feet or so of such a magnificent individual.

Until this past weekend, I hadn't taken my camera out for a little under a month (darn Portal 2 and Gears of War 3!). It took two photographic outings to shake off the rust, but by my third outing, I had sufficiently relearned how to properly look through my viewfinder.

I captured this particular view of the Sandy Point Lighthouse from Sandy Point State Park. Hard to believe a place like this isn't too far outside of Washington DC. A long exposure permitted me to calm the waters of the Chesapeake Bay and a three stop ND grad helped narrow the wide exposure latitude. All in all, it was a pretty awesome sunrise.

I encountered this scene just a few minutes after sprinting from my car onto the shoreline of the bay. It was well before sunrise, but the colors of dawn were just starting to appear. This time of day is my favorite. The colors that fade in and out easily compensate for too-early alarm clock settings and initial sleepiness.

The abundance of empty space in this composition was an intentional one on my part. The vast amounts of nothing allowed me to keep focus on the colors of that dawn; in particular, I was able to compose it so the colder colors dominate much of the frame, with the Chesapeake Bay Bridge itself serving as a leading line to the warmer and brighter colors of dawn.

Growing up in New Jersey, the New York skyline was never far, both in distance and recollection. After the towers fell, the skyline was forever changed, perhaps forever incomplete - at least for me.

This particular image represents what I wanted to create in my mind's eye on this tenth anniversary of the September 11th attacks. First, like the events of that autumn-like day, I wanted the Tribute in Light memorial to represent something larger than New York City itself; secondly, I wanted to incorporate some element of moving forward in the composition, be it the fading light of evening or the dawn of a new day. Seeing as how the overcast sky precluded both of my intentions on the evening of 9/11/11, I was fortunate to be greeted by a clear sky when I stepped out of the house at 4:25 am the following morning.