By: John Enman
A month ago I wrote about wandering the town of Anacortes to photograph buildings.
On that day I had started walking around just after 8 p.m. when there was still some light on the walls of the buildings. My timing on that evening was perfect; I was able to see some detail in most of the shadow area and the sun was giving off a low angled orange glow. I also said that I was under exposing (just a bit) to make the sky darker while still trying to keep building outlines in the evening light.
After photographing the town I drove a short distance to an oceanside park on Fidalgo Bay. I parked, grabbed my tripod, and quickly walked out on the pier that gave me a good view of the well-lit refinery across the bay. I checked my watch. It was just about 10 p.m..
The light was going fast and still using the 24-70mm and my camera set at 400 ISO, I mounted the camera on my tripod, selected 1/30th of a second at F8 and started to shoot.
I began with some wide shots of the refinery and then changed my position to include a moored sailboat. I had to change to my exposure a couple times so the boat could be seen, but so much that I would ruin the lights coming from the refinery in the distance. (Fortunately the sailboat was white)
The night before Jo and I had wandered down the street from our hotel and through an open boat storage yard gate to look across the bay. I brought my camera to see how high I would need to increase my ISO to get some photos of the night scene. I think the couple shots I made were at ISO 5000. I hadn’t brought my tripod so I leaned against a storage shed and made several quick exposures. Surprisingly I actually got some usable images. They weren’t the sharpest, but I could see details in areas and on some buildings and boats was touched with a bit light. It was fun experimenting with the light, but I was wishing I had brought a tripod.
I like photographing along the ocean. I prefer to start before the light goes down, that way I can make my photo darker by stopping my aperture down or later with a computer program. The white sailboat was easily lightened on the computer and I also increased the vibrancy and contrast of the colourful lights from the refinery that were reflecting on the calm ocean water.
I use the tripod so I can make long exposures. On this evening I had my ISO at 400, I usually drop that to 100 or 64 so the exposure will be longer and make the water look smoother.
I have photographed that refinery many times in the past. I remember one breezy night I shot at 3 minutes to get the smoke from the stacks in a horizontal position. However, on this night there was no breeze at all so the 1/30th of a second shutter-speed was good enough.
I have always thought it would be fun to go there when it was raining. I did go one October, just a week before Halloween. That time I stayed in the town of La Conner, a mile or so from Anacortes. That was years ago before we started getting the heat we get now and the Washington news had said there was the possibility of showers. But even though I was sorta hoping - the showers never came.
Now that the fires have calmed down in my area…(I’m keeping my fingers crossed)
I might be able to go the ocean one more time this year. I’m thinking Victoria would be fun in late October.
I’ll end with the words of American photographer Annie Leibovitz,“The camera makes you forget you’re there. It’s not like you are hiding, but you forget, you are just looking so much.”
Stay safe and be creative. These are my thoughts for this week. Contact me at www.enmanscamera.com or emcam@telus.net.
