Hurricane Katrina approached the Gulf Coast and New Orleans as the sun rose on the West End of Jones Beach on Long Island, August 28, 2005. This amazing sunrise was an element of the unusual atmospheric effects that are evidence of the power of this storm.
The featured image (heading this blog) is my print, “Katrina Sunrise”. This work is enjoyed by hundreds of my clients. Use the link, below, to acquire your own. Custom framing is available.
Click this link for Katrina Sunrise from my Memory Dreams Reflections Online gallery The following images are the rough drafts taken in the early morning hours. The beach was literally deserted as I mounted the camera and framed the view for this series. Many image captions include the file time stamp, for example 6:07:13 is 6 am and 7 minutes 13 seconds.
6:07:13 First image of the set. Below the horizon the sun lights the upper atmosphere.6:07:34 As the sun approaches the horizon the lower clouds catch light. My Camera was a Sony DSC-F828 tripod mounted with a polarizing filter.6:07:56 I panned slightly to the east. ISO was set to 64 throughout.6:08:16 Gradual brightening. The lens is 7.1 – 51.0 mm f/2.0-2.8.6:08:38 All levels are brighter. It seems those low clouds will block the horizon. That was not the case. The variable focal length is 15.6 mm.6:09:05 It is happening!!!! Exposure was set to automatic on a f stop of 8.0. It was 1/3 second for this image.6:14:34 The view is panned west. That is the Robert Moses water tower of Jones Beach State Park looking like a rocket ready to blast off.6:15:15 Will those low clouds block the sun? Looks promising.6:16:11 Clouds on the upper margin catching the sun. Horizon brightening….. Exposure 1/20 second.6:14:39 This will be a disappointment if that sun does not show. Exposure 1/25 second.6:18:27 Almost there….1/15 second exposure….6:19:07 Quick framing adjustment to bring the lighting of shore margin into the composition. The final version was created from two images captured seconds after this.As the sun rose a rainbow formed in the western sky.
One weekend my nephew Chris and I backpacked to Peaked Mountain Pond, the Adirondacks wilderness, in the rain. My son, Sean, was to meet us later. The constant rain made the easy trek into a slog. Our attitude improved after the tents setup and the fire. The skies clear to a brilliant display of the Milky Way away from light pollution.
Peaked Mountain in the light of an August dawn taken from the west pond shore. Siamese Ponds Wilderness, Adirondack Park, New York State. At 2,919 feet, Peaked Mountain is a modest height though it rises an impressive 675 feet in 0.4 mile.
Looking north across Peaked Mountain Pond from the west shore shortly after dawn.
Click the photograph to visit my Fine Art Gallery
We used the canoe as a punt, using a solid branch to push around the shallow pond for short distances, after bailing.
Click the photograph to visit my Fine Art Gallery
Mid-morning, we headed up the trail to the peak. I caught this orb-weaver spider web on the way.
Click the photograph to visit my Fine Art Gallery
…and a detail. Technically, this is a macro. Did not wait around for the owner.
Click the photograph to visit my Fine Art Gallery
Later, in the afternoon, Chris caught some Zzzzz’s in a time out from water gathering. We pumped water through a filter, this is necessary throughout New York State to avoid giardia infection.
Click the photograph to visit my Fine Art Gallery
The ultimate in peace and tranquility, though disturbing a hornet pollinator can lead to excitement. This water lily bloom was caught with a tripod mounted long lens. Look closely for the hornet at work inside the flower. HHealthy water lily leaves are the epitome of tranquility because they are always clean, giving the illusion of tranquility. Scientists study water lily leaves to learn how the leaf surface sheds dirt. Imagine self-cleaning cloths.
Correction: it is the Lotus leaf, not lily pad, that is self cleaning.
Looking for the perfect photo for your web site and blog?
Browse my reasonably priced stock photography. This blog features seven (7) photographs I published today to Getty Istock and my Fine Art gallery.
On this spring equinox morning a huge sun, filtered by morning clouds, hangs over East Hill and Cornell University. Taken from our home on West Hill, looking across the valley and Ithaca, New York.
The temperature is a balmy 18 degrees F.
Click the pic to visit my online gallery
Can you pick out these Cornell landmarks? — Jenny McGraw Tower — Lib Slope still covered in snow from last week’s storm. — the looming fortress shape of Bradford Hall.
Copyright 2021 All Rights Reserved Michael Stephen Wills
Today, enjoy two videos of shorebirds taking flight at once. Starlings can flock and swarm in clouds of birds, called murmuration. My videos of a shorebird colony taking fright, at something unknown as the beach was empty, are from my IPhone 7.
This is a still image, high resolution, similar to the view of the second video. A repeat from yesterday.
Click photograph for larger image. To do this from WordPress Reader, you need to first click the title of this post to open a new page.
With a tripod it is simpler to achieve a level horizon….
Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III
December 3, 2014 President Obama warned of the coming pandemic and passed along plans and a team to the incoming Trump administration. By December 2019, the pandemic unleashed in China, Trump gutted this capability and, while Pam and I were planning out January 10th Walt Disney World trip, hid the truth from United States Citizens.
We were keeping an eye on China, by January 10th the Chinese communist government was lying, “there is no human-to-human” transmission they told the WHO (World Health Organization). Knowing the truth, our plans for that day would be different.
One week before January 10, the dawning of the day photographed here, “the CDC Director Robert Redfield was notified by a counterpart in China that a “mysterious respiratory illness was spreading in Wuhan [China]”. Redfield notified HHS Secretary Alex Azar shortly thereafter, who shared his report with the National Security Council (NSC). According to The Washington Post, warnings about the virus were included in the President’s Daily Brief in early January, an indicator of the emphasis placed on the virus by the intelligence community.” December( and maybe October/November), 2019 through January, 2020: COVID-19 was spreading across the USA as visitors from Wuhan disembarked from planes.
The following images compare IPhone 7 to a dslr mounted on a tripod.
Click photograph for larger image. To do this from WordPress Reader, you need to first click the title of this post to open a new page.
IPhone 7
With a tripod it is simpler to achieve a level horizon….
Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III
I heard the word “shroomed” (as a verb) used in Episode 1, Season 6, of Bosch. As in “the Federal Government treats us like mushooms”: grown in excrement and kept in the dark.
One day after my “Sunrise Texture” series as the sun rose on Cocoa Beach I was waiting with the same photographic kit. It was perfect weather for a visit to Walt Disney World, planned for that day: unsettled.
This image couple demonstrates the effect of long / short exposure without using filters. I changed the ISO and F-stop to achieve these effects.
Click photograph for larger image. To do this from WordPress Reader, you need to first click the title of this post to open a new page.
ISO 50 F/32
With a tripod it is simpler to achieve a level horizon….
ISO 500 f/6.3
I turned around to observe the colonies of shore birds…..
Betelgeuse, AKA “Alpha Orionis”, was the first star disk, other than our Sun, measured. One hundred years ago the apparent size of Betelgeuse was then as now 0.003% of the sun. I bring this up because this “red” star at the end of its life cycle, is in the news, being now 40% of its brightness last year.
Betelgeuse is so far away this dimming is 700 year old news, the time it takes for light span the distance. News of our sun is more recent, sunlight informs us of the Sun’s surface from 8.33 minutes ago. Sunlight bursts from clouds to the camera in an instant of a second. In comparison my reactions to capture it are glacial. Sixteen seconds passed since the images of Series 6, time for three exposures at a slowed pace now the sun breaks free from the clouds.
Twelve minutes, fifty four seconds elapsed from the first images of this series. Seventy nine exposures taken with 16 selected moments, these last without the sand mirror.
Click photograph for larger image. To do this from WordPress Reader, you need to first click the title of this post to open a new page.
Exposure: 1/400 sec at f / 4.5, Focal Length: 24 mm, ISO 100
A Willet feeds in the new day. This is a species sandpipers, a cousin of the Sanderling of yesterday’s post.
Exposure: 1/400 sec at f / 5/0, Focal Length: 24 mm, ISO 100
All sixteen Sunrise Texture moments are presented below.. Suggestion, for this series in a larger format, open a separate browser tab for each post. At series end you will then have eight (including the very first post a few weeks ago) landscapes to compare.
Exposure: 1/6 sec at f / 22, Focal Length: 24 mm, ISO 125
Exposure: 1/250 sec at f / 4.0, Focal Length: 24 mm, ISO 125
Exposure: 1/250 sec at f / 4.0, Focal Length: 24 mm, ISO 125
Exposure: 1/10 sec at f / 22, Focal Length: 24 mm, ISO 125
Exposure: 1/250 sec at f / 4.0, Focal Length: 24 mm, ISO 125
Exposure: 1/320 sec at f / 4.5, Focal Length: 24 mm, ISO 125
Exposure: 1/400 sec at f / 5.0, Focal Length: 24 mm, ISO 250
Exposure: 1/15 sec at f / 22, Focal Length: 24 mm, ISO 250
Exposure: 1/400 sec at f / 5.0, Focal Length: 24 mm, ISO 250
Exposure: 1/400 sec at f / 5.0, Focal Length: 24 mm, ISO 250
Exposure: 1/400 sec at f / 5.0, Focal Length: 24 mm, ISO 250
Exposure: 1/500 sec at f / 5.6, Focal Length: 24 mm, ISO250
A sanderling is a species of sandpiper. Exposure: 1/320 sec at f / 4.5, Focal Length: 24 mm, ISO 100
Exposure: 1/8 sec at f / 22, Focal Length: 24 mm, ISO 50
Exposure: 1/400 sec at f / 4.5, Focal Length: 24 mm, ISO 100
Two minutes pass from Series 5, and not because I have stopped snapping. My routine is to insert a (automated) sequential number into each filename. Using this it is possible to calculate the number of exposures in a series. Since Series 5, 16 were snapped before the first I could use in Series 6. Ten exposures between the first and last of Series 6, during which a minute, twenty eight seconds elapsed..
The sun disk is above the horizon, bursting from clouds.
Ten minutes, eighteen seconds elapsed from the first images of this series. Seventy one exposures taken with 14 selected moments of shining sand mirror, a strong curving return flow.
The small bird feeding, of the first image, is a Sanderling, one of the smallest species of Sandpipers.
Click photograph for larger image. To do this from WordPress Reader, you need to first click the title of this post to open a new page.
Exposure: 1/320 sec at f / 4.5, Focal Length: 24 mm, ISO 100
In this second image, the mirror is erased as sand absorbs surf. I needed to show the developing sun burst.
Exposure: 1/8 sec at f / 22, Focal Length: 24 mm, ISO 50
A slide show of these images. This set compares short exposure with open aperture (f 4.5) to a much longer exposure driven by a narrow aperture (f 22) and the lowest film sensitivity of the camera (ISO 50). Suggestion, for this series in a larger format, open a separate browser tab for each post. At series end you will then have eight (including the very first post a few weeks ago) landscapes to compare.
Exposure: 1/320 sec at f / 4.5, Focal Length: 24 mm, ISO 100
Exposure: 1/8 sec at f / 22, Focal Length: 24 mm, ISO 50
Click photograph for larger image. To do this from WordPress Reader, you need to first click the title of this post to open a new page.
Exposure: 1/400 sec at f / 5.0, Focal Length: 24 mm, ISO 250
I selected moments of shining sand mirror, a strong curving return flow with a continuing mark of a southeast wind of seventeen miles per hour, with bursts above twenty. Wind, waves, even the rounded particles of sand all created from the energy of the celestial body I am waiting to appear.
Exposure: 1/500 sec at f / 5.6, Focal Length: 24 mm, ISO250
A slide show of these images. Suggestion, for this series in a larger format, open a separate browser tab for each post. At series end you will then have eight (including the very first post a few weeks ago) landscapes to compare.
Exposure: 1/400 sec at f / 5.0, Focal Length: 24 mm, ISO 250
Exposure: 1/500 sec at f / 5.6, Focal Length: 24 mm, ISO250
Thirty three seconds pass from Series 3, the high clouds shine less bright, the sun disk now blocked by those clouds on the horizon, the rising sun brings darkness yet a first hint of sunburst.
Seemingly, the first image foam-wave swath will erase the mirror.
Click photograph for larger image. To do this from WordPress Reader, you need to first click the title of this post to open a new page.
Exposure: 1/400 sec at f / 5.0, Focal Length: 24 mm, ISO 250
Fifty seconds later, instead of erasure the new water brings clarity.
A slide show of these images. Suggestion, for this series in a larger format, open a separate browser tab for each post. At series end you will then have eight (including the very first post a few weeks ago) landscapes to compare.
You must be logged in to post a comment.