firstlight over the sea

Gallery: LandscapePosted November 26, 201088 views5 comments

This is a shot from my last trip to the outer banks of North Carolina in October. This is on Buxton beach a couple of miles N of Cape Hatteras. The gulf stream here is only about 20 miles offshore and there is often a bank of clouds that forms over the warmer waters of the stream and can make for wonderful sunrises. This picture though was taken long before the sun came up, about 45 minutes, and is an attempt to try and do justice to the ethereal glow of dawn over the ocean.

50d, 10-22, f/10 for 25 sec. @400 iso

comments welcome and please check out the larger version

Comments

5 comments

Comment posted by Lance Warley on November 26, 2010 at 5:15 PM

Mission accomplished. Justice was certainly done to that awesome sky :)

Two suggestions, one viable, one probably not:
- Try cropping a bit off the top of the sky to accentuate those great lines even more
- If you happen to have another image of the scene at a faster ss, try blending them to get the grasses on the left sharp. Probably not realistic.

Registered on April 18, 2007, 52 Posts, 459 Comments

Comment posted by dean hebert on November 27, 2010 at 12:42 AM

I love the clouds and light! The grasses seem to trap my eyes in the corner so I might look for a comp that either has them more prominent or excluded.

Registered on August 4, 2010, 70 Posts, 1132 Comments

Comment posted by Nick Bristol on November 27, 2010 at 2:36 PM

That is a beautiful sky, Robert. Great colors! The moving grass is a distraction for me, but still very pretty to look at!

Nick Bristol
Lone Rock, WI.

Registered on February 1, 2004, 752 Posts, 14140 Comments

Comment posted by Robert Stough on November 27, 2010 at 4:00 PM

Thanks for the input. I really appreciate it. I've never been very happy with the grass either but for composing on hatteras island beaches theres not much else to choose from and it was a windy morning in an almost constantly windy place. Leaving the foreground dark was intentional as it was very dim to the eye (I had to use a flashlight to see what I was doing) and I didn't want to lighten it much. Anyway I'm posting another shot taken just a little later that is only sea and sky.

Registered on November 20, 2010, 26 Posts, 273 Comments

Comment posted by Lon Overacker on November 28, 2010 at 3:39 PM

Robert,

Certainly the "Sea and sky" version for me. Sure, it's simple, but that is almost always a good thing. Like Dean and perhaps others, the grasses on the left don't really add much for me and even block part of that beautiful horizon line.

Beautiful sky, love the lines and color. Although the blue and cyan are just slightly on the electric side for me, especially cyan. You might consider pulling that back a little. But that's minor.

I also agree that you certainly captured the "glow of dawn" over the ocean.

Lon

Registered on November 24, 2006, 521 Posts, 19147 Comments