Sunset Seascape Photography at Sakonnet Point Beach, Rhode Island
One of the things that I love about photography is that I can get utterly lost in the moment. I like to arrive at a location early, turn on my iPod, and take some time to walk around and observe what is there. Often I look through the viewfinder to get a sense of how a photograph might look, and I might even snap off a few frames to get an idea of how the camera is seeing things.
Often times the camera and I will disagree on the way a scene should be photographed. The camera is programmed in a lab to take an image that is 50% grey. The camera is simply going to evaluate the scene in front of it and decide how much light should be recorded. It does not know whether I am standing on a beach looking into a sunset, or if I am standing in my kitchen looking into my refrigerator. And it sure as hell does not understand what I feel. This is no shortcoming of my camera, or any camera for that matter ,it is simply the way the tool works. Fortunately, most DSLR cameras provide several manual modes that allow you to make the decisions of how you want your images to be shot. If you are interested in learning how to use your camera in manual modes it I highly suggest the book Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson. It is currently selling on Amazon for less then $20. I know of nothing that will help you improve your photography more then reading this book.
On a recent trip out to Sakonnet Point Beach in Little Compton, Rhode Island a friend and I were presented with a beautiful seascape before we even made it to the beach. As we drove towards our destination, the clouds were moving across the sky creating some really pretty patterns in the sky. At one point a gap in the clouds opened up, and beautiful rays of sunlight beamed down from the sky. Refered to as the “Rays of God”, or “Gods Fingers” these rays of sunlight can often last only a matter of moments. We scrambled to grab our gear and hustled down to the beach. As I looked to the sky I tried to find something of interest to place in the foreground of the photograph. I chose the large cluster of rocks you see in the lower right corner to help give a sense of place, and to balance the photograph with a little land to go with all the sky I intended to capture. The photograph that you see below is my favorite from that series of images. I processed this one a bit more then I normally would, but I felt that it helped to create that overwhelming feeling that I had as I stood on the beach under this sky.
The Rays of God – Sakonnet Point Beach, Little Compton Rhode Island
As the evening progressed the sun sank lower on the horizon and the colors in the sky really began to show. Pinks, reds, blues and magentas – Mother Nature was really putting on a show, and I was loving it! Normally, when I am out taking photographs I do not include any people in them. Don’t get me wrong, I love to photograph people, I just normally do not like to include them in my seascapes. As I prepared to photograph the Sakonnet Point Lighthouse, I could not help but look back over my shoulder at a fisherman on the rocks. It was not long before I picked up my tripod and headed down the beach to see if I could photograph something a little different for me, a seascape with a person in it. The phrase that kept running through my mind was “Red sky at night, sailors delight”. I know, I know, he is not a sailor, he is a fishermen but he does look pretty happy right? Content, peaceful, tranquil?
The Fisherman – Sakonnet Point Beach, Little Compton, Rhode Island
One of my favorite times for photography is often after the sun goes down. Sure, I might look a little crazy – an empty beach, flashlight strapped to my forehead, iPod turned all the way up, singing along at the top of my lungs with Garth Brooks, Kenny Chesney, and Johnny Cash, creating photographs on a pitch dark beach. But what most people don’t realize is that the camera records light in a cumulative way. The longer you leave the shutter open, the more light you record. Just like holding an empty glass under your kitchen faucet – the longer you leave that faucet on the more water ends up in the glass. Sometimes it take seconds, minutes or even hours but you can make photographs – and dramatic ones at that – in the dark. The photograph below only took 60 seconds, and it is one of my favorites. The long exposure turns the waves crashing onto the rocks into what looks like white cotton candy. In this case, it reminds me of clouds enveloping some exotic mountain top.
Silky Ocean Water at Sunset – Little Compton, Rhode Island
I hope that you have enjoyed these photographs from my recent sunset excursion.