Tax Day, the ubiquitous April 15, has come and gone. Now, everyone can get back to normal existence. For me, as we scout for our upcoming photo workshop in a place we know so well, it is also a time for memories.
We went into our favorite fishing village as we approached the Outer Banks. I always check in to ask permission to photograph here, even though the owner has given us a permanent, carte-blanche to go pretty much anywhere with our participants. No one needs to tell us the unstated rule. Fishermen always come first, and even if you are in the middle of a shot, you immediately get out of the way for these men and occasional women who scratch out a living from the sea they love so well.
There is an area in this village that the EPA has been cleaning up over the past several years. This is terrific, but it is with mixed blessing that we view it. Many of our old, favorite subjects are now gone. Forever. Yes, this is a good thing, but I am at the same time wistful for the textures and decay that photographers often love.
The image you see here is gone. In fact, it was removed a couple of years ago. How can one responsibly argue with a clean-up project that removes oil and toxic who-knows what from our water? One cannot.
Even though in shows, I call it Old Hull, I always refer to it as “my boat.” The boat was here for several years, but the light was never the same as that magical morning when it was a classic case of “Red skies in the morning …” The puckerbrush grew too tall and thick along the harbor shore, so I was never quite able to capture this view in subsequent years. Our participants in various workshops did a great job, but they, too, could never replicate my view, light, or angle, much as they wanted to. It was one of those once-in-a-lifetime mornings where everything came together. And I was there.
So, what’s the lesson here? It’s one you’ve heard before. Get to know the settings for different situations. We were at this location very early in the morning — pre-dawn — and the light came up so quickly that I had time for only one shot. In the time it took to change the camera to a vertical position, the light went. Poof! Yup, that quickly. The change, as you can see, was pretty dramatic.
We had also scouted, so I knew exactly where I wanted to be for the shot. Scouting is a bit hard to do in nearly pitch black. One cannot see the puckerbrush that might spoil your shot, or the angle of the line that can add to or detract from a shot.
Go out early some morning, and do tests. When you bring them into the computer, look at the metadata and see which combinations of exposure and shutter-speed were the best, then note them down in a small, 3″ x 5″ notebook that you keep in your camera bag. Have fun! And don’t forget to refer to that little notebook before you go out the next time.
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