The Pigeon Point Lighthouse Fresnel Lens assembly Time-lapse

I was fortunate enough to be able to document the historic removal of the First Order Fresnel Lens for the first time since it was installed in 1872 at the Pigeon Point Lighthouse. I was part of a documentary crew that proposed to the State Park to record the contractors from the International Chimney Corporation and their three sub-contracting lampests as they carefully removed the lens and then re-assembled it inside the historic Fog Signal Building at Pigeon Pont to be on display for the Public.

But first I was surprised after work on Friday 11/11/11 to hear at 7:30 P.M. that the crew was going to turn on the light one last time to see if it still properly worked! I quickly scrambled to get my equipment and position myself just south east of the tower on the boardwalk overlooking a big sea cove at night. It was only on for a few minutes and they did not stop the rotation so a low ISO stills were out of the question. I had to boost the ISO up to 6400 and open my 18mm up to f/4 at 2 seconds in order to capture the 24 beams of light slowly rotating around the lighthouse. I set my intervalometer to 1 second intervals and just shot untill I had a few hundred frames. The clouds were just amazing as we're the waves and a few stars. I even captured the front door opening and closing as well as a photographer trying to capture the scene with a flash (LOL)! We also witnessed a airplane streaking through the sky! I the ran down to the western point to capture the other angle of the tower as the moon was rising over the coast. I turned on my living room lights and opened my curtains to perfect the scene. The beams are somewhat washed out from the moon and the smaller f/8 aperture but the clouds roll through the scene just fantastically! In retrospect, I wish I had lowered the ISO to 3200 and kept the aperture wide open. You can see the First Order Fresnel being turned off and the automatic beacon remain on (it was never turned off) and then shortly after the tower lights go off as well as if to signify the end of an era.



I told the State Parks that I could not only document the event as a second camera assistant, but that I could record a time-lapse photography of the dis-assembly as well with my Nikon D90 camera. At first I said that I would just shoot the dramatic cambling down of the lens panels or just zoom in on the lantern room from the ground, but when the experienced company that had done many lighthouse restorations said that they have seen cameras set up inside the upper ceiling of the lantern room that I knew I had a great opportunity. I had a Sigma 15mm fisheye diagonal lens that would be able to see the whole lens from a short distance. Retrospectively, I wish I rented an even wider lens! I also had a flexible leg tripod that I could wrap around the "lantern spider" joists that support the cone shaped roof. The crew actually put a 2x4 beam between two joists and the crew secured the beam with wires. I had already introduced myself to the crew when I was asked to bring up a ladder from the hostel that I manage, and that is when I met James Dunlap, a lampest sub-contractor with his company called Lighthouse and Lens Restoration. He was very nice and he must have told the other two lampests about me because when I met them they had heard about me as I have lived here for almost 15 years. Capt. Kurt Fosburg of Superior Lighthouse Restoration was a very focused and talkative lampest who kept the crew focused on the details at hand but somehow got lots of good natured heckling from the older crew. Also, Jim "Woody" Woodward of The Lighthouse Consultant, LLC who has worked on hundreds of lighthouses and was originally trained by a United States Lighthouse Establishment serviceman! They were all very nice and helpful, but all of them had never worked with a time-lapse photography sequence, so they were not sure why the camera I had set up had been taking their photo every 18 seconds. I figured that 18 seconds was a enough time to fill up one of my 8MG SD card by the time they were done on the first day after starting at about 3:15 P.M. on Saturday, November the 12th. The sun would set at 5:00 P.M., so I had only an hour and 45 minutes to shoot that day. It turned out to be a good interval at 24 frames per second. I had to leave the tower that day, but asked to crew to tell me when they were done, so I could take down my camera but leave the tripod in place for the next day. They misunderstood and removed the whole thing and even recorded some shots on the way down. The positioning was more based on where the position of the sun was, than the area where they were going to start removing the lens panels, but it turned out to be just perfect! I had positioned the camera in the perfect spot to see the crew use the block and tackle to lift the upper catadioptric prism lens panels out of the lens one by one right in front of the camera. I had to guesstimate the approximate view of the scene by angling the camera lens to the best position I thought would capture the whole scene. I chose aperture priority at f/8 to have the best of all worlds depth of field. If, I could go back in time I would have moved the curtain in the right-hand scene, but this was the first day and I was being as respectful as possible to the State and the crew. I actually nailed the centering of the scene on my fist day, but the second day I had to guess where the tripod had been positioned and although I got the horizontal about the same as the first day, the vertical was just a bit to the left of where it had been and is a noticeable error. The second day I was able to remain in the tower all day because I was filming for the documentary with a small hand held HD video camera. I am the one in the yellow hard hat. One of the most amazing things you will notice is the shadow of the tower moving through the scene like a sundial! I did not record during the lunch break, but that would have been boring for the viewer.


The assembly in the Fog Signal Building at Pigeon Point took place the following weekend into Monday the 21st of November after the lampest had meticulously cleaned and repaired each panel with the tools of their trade. We got to see finger prints from the original manufacturers on the putty that held the hard wood shims wedged in between the prisms and the frame as well as original notes in French. The lens was built in Paris, France by the Henry-LePaute company. It was originally built for the first Cape Hatters lighthouse in the 1850s and served there for about twenty years until it was removed and shipped up to Staten Island, NY where the U.S. Lighthouse Service headquarters was located. It then was shipped around the horn of South America to San Francisco, where it was boated down to Pigeon Point by a lighthouse tender. The whole dramatic history of the lens is documented in a book titled: The lost light: the mystery of the missing Cape Hatteras Fresnel light by Kevin P. Duffus. The location of the camera position had several options, but I chose to place the tripod on top of the model lighthouse display because it afforded a different view and it was the most stable location. The Fog Signal Building was built in 1899 as a replacement for the original building built in 1871. It is built of solid redwood on a slab foundation, but it also shakes every time the front doors are opened or the wind picks up just a tad. I also knew the crew was going to be using the rafters to move around workers and the lens panels and this would contribute to shake. I probably could have placed the tripod on top of one of the old air tanks, but that would have been a bit precarious. I changed the intervals to 15 seconds and was able to change the memory cards out without removing the camera. I did remove the camera after the first day was complete, but left the tripod in place with some tape to make sure it did not move its position. At the last second, I chose ISO 200 as I had done before up in the tower, because I believed the light levels would be good enough avoid blur on people moving around. I was wrong, but you can not see this in the time-lapse. You can see it on individual photographs, so in retrospect I should have chosen ISO 400. The lens went up in two days and 3 memory cards later I was able to also change the last 60 shots to a 1 second interval so the whole crew could pose for the last 2 seconds of play. I developed it at 30 frames per second to speed it up a bit. It turned out perfect. The U.S. Coast Guard contacted me the day after an article in the San Jose Mercury mentioned my website. They want a DVD of the time-lapse for educational purposes. My time-lapse will be a part of a documentary but I may also sell a DVD to help raise funds for the restoration of the tower. The sooner we raise about 7-9 million, the sooner the tower can be restored and the quicker the lens can be returned to the tower! Go to http://www.calparks.org/PPLS to donate.

Surprise Fresnel Lens Lighting on 11/11/11

I was very surprised to end my day of work and was walking home from my office when I decided to go into the Fog Signal Building where I knew the workers were planning on taking down the First Order Fresnel Lens the very next morning. They informed me that in a few minutes they were going to go up into the tower and test the light and lens to "make sure it was working". I was able to quickly run over to my home and get my camera ready in order to get a good shot. But they did not stop the rotation of the light, in order to get a really good long exposure in low ISO to reduce noise but to be able to get the light beams during a full moon. So I had to boost up the ISO to 6400 in order to get 2 second shots at a wide open aperture f/4 at 18mm. I set up on the boardwalk just south of the tower over looking this deep cove and shot a few test shots and then decided that I need to bust out my intervalometer and get a time-lapse of the event since my high ISO created so much noise it would ruin any chance of a good still. I set the intervalometer shoot continous 2 second shots and the first ten seconds of the time-lapse shows the results! I had the moon to my back and the clouds moving swiftly through the air! The 24 beams of the First Order Fresnel Lens had dramatic contrast to the night sky, but my high ISO almost made the sky to bright and the ocean as viable as daylight. Luckily the door to the lighthouse opened and someone walked in! You can also see an airplane zoom by as well!
For some reason, I also wanted to get the shot from the other side, and although I like the effect of the moon and the clouds and the traffic on highway one, the first angle was just so much better. I did get the light turning out for the very last time and the tower lights being turned out as well as if to signify the end of an era.
The Lens, manufactured in Paris France for the first Cape Hatters Lighthouse tower, only lived there for about 20 years until it moved up to Staten Island in New York before being shipped around The Horn of South America in a Clipper Ship to San Francisco and then installed in Pigeon Point's Light Station tower in the fall of 1872. It was first lit on November 15th of that year. Who would have known that it was to last be lit almost 139 years later on the fateful day of 11/11/11?
Not to worry, it will be on display inside the Fog Signal Building until, the tower is restored and placed back in the lantern room safely. To help fund the restoration, please visit www.calparks.org/PPLS . To see in HD go to my website at: Jeff Parry Photography

Pigeon Point Lighthouse night time-lapse photography

Well I figured out how to do time-lapse photography. I got an intervalometer and was able to time the beams of light so that it would look natural in a 24 frames per second replay. I had to boost the ISO all the way up to 6400 in order to capture the beams in my 15mm fish-eye lens at f/2.8 for a 2 second duration. The lighthouse beacon is a small Fresnel lens that has 6 beams of light, but each beam goes past a point on the horizon every 10 seconds. Since the shots were 2 seconds each, I set the intervalometer to a 9 second intervals meaning the next shot would be precisely 11 seconds apart and give the effect of rotating in a steady direction. Turned out to be good, because after 700+ shots, the stars can be seen slowly moving across the sky. Actually the earth is rotating and the stars appear to be moving across the sky.
After downloading the photographs into Lightroom 3 I edited the first photo and croped it to 9:16 for the best movie format. I then synched these settings for the rest of the photographs so they all look similar. I then used the slideshow developer in LR3 and used a preset I downloaded for free on the internet for the 24 frames per second, that is the most realistic fps setting to use. I then exported it to a Quicktime .mov at 1080p for HD quality and can then upload it to YouTube or my website for purchase if you like :D http://www.jeffparryphotography.com/buy/19783160_fTGCvw/

Pigeon Point Lighthouse

Pigeon Point Sunset splash. I cought the sun dipping down between the old Fuel Bunker and the Seal House Hostel tonight. A blanket of overcast clouds sheeted over most of the afternoon, but the western horizon had gap big enough to display a good sunset. After messing around in a few different angles, I found this one by accident. Although the clouds had disspersed a little to much, I like how it came out. HDR 9 shots.

Pigeon Point Lighthouse Sunrise over the whale skull

Pigeon Point Whale Skull Sunrise. This is one of my favorite shots and done in HDR. 9 shots tonemapped into one. Taken April 21st, 2011 at 7:21 A.M. f/19 15mm lens http://bit.ly/j7bCsA Buy at: http://bit.ly/JPPhotoBuyPPLHWSS

Yosemite

Half Dome from Glacier Point, Yosemite National Park, California.
I recently visited Yosemite with my brother and was blessed with good weather, gushing waterfalls and great lessons from the Ansel Adams Gallery staff. We stayed at the Hostelling International Yosemite Bug Rustic Mountain Resort in Midpines. http://www.yosemitebug.com/.
I took a 4 hour class with Christine White-Loberg, who was entertaining, funny and informative for a wide range of photographers. Phillip Nicholas and Lucas were also very helpful.
This image is a high dynamic range image from 9 photographs tone mapped together with Photomax Pro and some adjustments in Lightroom 3. I took the photos on June 10th, 2011 from Glacier Point at 1:41 P.M. at f/32 aperture priority with each photo bracketed 1 stop apart from -5 to +3. ISO 100 and the focal length was 58mm from my Nikon D90. WB was auto. I precariously set my sturdy tripod up in the crowded corner of the viewing platform corner wall after patiently waiting for the zillion tourists to take their photo and move on. The auto bracket sequence is ->0>+ and I use the auto timer to keep the shake down as well as the moving the mirror up a few seconds before the shutter opens. the D90 will also trigger 3 shots automatically during the timer mode, but no more than 3 so I have to manually set the bracket values fairly fast before the clouds move too far. With a 1 stop bracket difference, I set up the first set of 3 shots at -4, so when the sequence fires each shot it starts off at -5 > -4 > -3. I then have to adjust the next set to -1 (-2 > -1 > 0) and the last set at +2 (+1 > +2 > +3) to get all 9 shots a stop apart.
Photomatix tone maps the 9 images together to get the HDR image with the perfect exposures and I adjust the image in Lightroom.
To see all my Yosemite pictures from this trip visit http://www.jeffparryphotography.com/Landscapes/Yosemite/17496947_SH4SFN.
Not all the photographs I shot are HDR, because as Christine said, "that's cheating." I purchased a 4 stop graduated filter and lens holder, but that's for another blog...
Jeff

HDR Hot Rods

In Capitola California I found a little gathering of hot rods showing in the parking lot across from the DMV on Capitola Ave near the Jewel district. I had my camera and gear and a few business cards so I decided to shoot a few of the cars I liked and see how they come out when I tone mapped 9 images into one high dynamic range image. I shot with my Nikon D90 with my 15mm 1:2.80 SIGMA EXDG FISHEYE. I gave my card to a few guys and then a few asked me to take pictures of their hot rod. At first, I had my settings mistakenly set to Programmed Auto mode. After a few cars I realized my mistake and set it to Aperture mode. I changed the f/stop around a few times, but kept it around f/16. White balance was auto. After I set up the image in Live View, I make sure my attached bubble level is even and then set up the bracketing sequence. Because it is Aperture mode, the speed is the variable. I bracket down to -4 and set it to auto timer and it will shoot 3 shots a stop apart -1, 0 & +1 in sequence. That way I get a -5, -4, -3 when I set it to -4. Then I dial down the auto bracket set to -1 and then finally +2 with 3 shots each equaling 9 shots all in separate brackets a stop apart. In Lightroom 3, I export them to Photomatix Pro that will tone map the 9 images into one HDRI. There are a variety of settings, but the grunge effect is the most dramatic when shooting hot rods. I was even able to get a 3 image photo of a group of Rumours The Salon employees posing in the back of a hot rod flatbed truck with beautiful wood railings. Amazing none of the models moved during the 3 shots thus messing up the final image. Anyways, I hop the owners find the images and like them enough to purchase a few or set up some new shots! http://seasurfnbird.smugmug.com/buy/17346049_2KQJmK/

Pigeon Point Lighthouse sunrise whale skull

I woke up to a nice sunrise with storm clouds and found a new angle with my Sigma 15mm diagonal fisheye lens on my Nikon D90. 9 exposures bracketed a stop apart in aperture priority in f/19 at 100 iso. Tonemaped in Photomatix Pro 3. Nice little sunburst! For sale at http://bit.ly/g3goFl © Jeffrey Daniel Parry

Stanford University Campus

A few shots of Stanford Campus in the late afternoon sunset. I decided to shoot in HDR and to try to get some of the billowing clouds as they swirled around and turned pink. All shot on my Nikon D90 with the Sigma 15mm EXDG FISHEYE lens in Manual. Each image is 6 exposures a stop apart and tonemaped in Photomatix Pro with the Painterly effect for a High Dynamic Range Image. I didn't really think that I would put them up on my website but I got a few positive responses so I figured I should blog about it. http://bit.ly/dV74y6 I really missed the best part of the sunset reflecting on the clouds but what I really missed was two joggers who decided to take a swim in the fountain in the twilight hours. I don't think I could have captured an HDR shot as they would not have been able to stay still for the long exposure shot would I have even asked them, but it was pretty amusing non the less.

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