Friday, December 14, 2012

Red in the morning, sailor take warning

Pigeon Point sunrise king tide With the beautiful double meteor shower the night before and my new full frame sensor Nikon D600 out of the box I was a little anxious to try it out and to get some good shots. I did place my self in the same position the night before this photo was taken and tried to capture some 'shooting stars' in my new camera. The Geminid meteor shower was combining with another shower that did produce some amazing shooting stars. So while I did see some amazing star trails, I was unable to keep warm and keep shooting all night long. I also did not set it up for RAW and thus any photos I did get would not be keepers. Alas, the morning turned out to be promising as I awoke to a faint red glow on the horizon so I bundled up after fiddling all night with my new toy and walked down to 'piece of cake rock' and watched the day unfold on my mother's birthday. It also turned out to be my co-worker's b-day and one of my recently passed high school friends B-day (RIP Janelle). It was also an extreme tide flux known as the California King Tide and while I did not take this photo at the highest of tides, the swell was up and filling in nicely between the rocky inter-tidal zone with my long exposures. I used a low ISO of 50 and a small aperture of f/27 along with a neutral density 1.2 graduated filter to draw out a 30 second exposure that would create the ghostly white water around the protruding rocks. The sunrise did fill the sky and sea reflection with an bright orange glow (Giants 2012 World Champs!). As it had already turned out that fateful morning, many innocent children would unnecessarily pass on way to early in their life in Connecticut, so as the saying goes, 'Red in the morning, sailor take warning.' http://bit.ly/JPPhotoPPLHsunrise20121214

Saturday, July 14, 2012

Bolsa Night Rocks

Bolsa night rocks I shot this from Bolsa Point just north of Pigeon Point on May 6th, 2012, the day after the "Super Moon." I was really just scouting, to see where the moon would rise for the next couple of nights because I believed it would line up with the lighthouse. I was far off, because as you can see in this picture some of the rocks are silhouetted by the moon light to the left of the image as it illuminates against the white water waves washing around the jagged reef. I also used an LED flash light to "light paint" illuminate the immediate foreground. I especially like the can opener rock in the center of the image. Taken at 400 ISO, f/4.8 at 30 seconds I got a little too much light from the lighthouse and I had to dodge the horizon a bit, but other than that, I think it came out quite nice. I will continue to seek this effect out with other angles around the lighthouse I love. Catherine Steele wrote that her father described the wreck of the Carrier Pigeon on June 6th, 1853 to be at Bolsa Point and not Pigeon Point.

Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Gray Whale Migration

Gray Whale calf beyond the pickets of Pigeon Point
The California Gray Whales have been migrating north from Baja California where their birthing and mateing grounds are and swimming north to their feeding grounds past Pigeon Point Lighthouse. This new born Gray Whale surfaces to get a breath of fresh air and perhaps see what all the screaming is from the cliffs next to the 115 foot lighthouse tower. Pigeon Point use to be called Punta de los Ballina or Point of the Whales and was a Portuguese whaling station from the 1860's to the 1890's. Now a days, people shoot photos of whales thanks to their protection from the countries that are near their migration route. See more at: http://bit.ly/whalesmigrate or visit: http://jeffparryphogrphy.com