Maine Winter Coast - Sea Smoke
knapph
Registered Users Posts: 142 Major grins
During the past few days winter has returned to Maine giving us some sub-zero temperature mornings. This means it is time to make sea smoke photos. All these shots were made on the Maine coast near Portland. The images include ones made with longer exposures, a few seconds, some camera movement and one that is an in-camera multiple exposure - basically what ever seemed to make sense at the time. All the photos were made just before, at or just after sunrise (burrrrrrrr, cold).
This photo of a ledge south of Portland Head Lighthouse is a combination of a longer exposure used to bring the the sea smoke and an in-camera multiple exposure to show the wave action across the ledge. The multiple exposure adds back in a bit of texture to the smoothness created by the long exposure. The image was made just after sunrise.
This image was shot with a 400mm lens. I wanted to show the height of the plumes of sea smoke rising in front of a fog bank that was several miles off shore from Portland Head. I waited for the sun to rise a bit so that the low angle light would bring out the sea smoke.
I made this abstract as the sunrise started to add some color to the horizon. I had an ND filter on the camera to increase the exposure time so that I could pan the camera.
The rising sun highlights the sea smoke in the southern channel entering into Portland Harbor. I wanted to break a few "rules" with this one. Don't like rules very much.
The early morning sun lights a dory surrounded by sea smoke moored off Willard Beach in South Portland, Maine. I used a 400mm lens to build up the sea smoke in front of the boat.
The sea smoke obscures the land under a fishing shack at the southern end of Willard Beach in South Portland, Maine. When I looked at the exif data for this shot I was surprised how short the exposure was, 2 sec; I thought it was longer. I was shooting just to the right of a rising sun and it was hard to get the exposure any longer (forgot to bring the 10 stop ND that morning). Again I used a long lens so I could shoot through a thicker layer of sea smoke.
A late January sun rises over an off shore fog bank with Portland Head Lighthouse in the foreground. Single shot, not HDR, I used a reverse grad ND filter to hold back the sun and the sky.
A fishing boat, surrounded by gulls and sea smoke, heads out to sea passing by Portland Head Lighthouse in Cape Elizabeth, Maine. I had to wait a bit for this boat to get into position. They were wandering all over the place. It was like they were checking lobster traps as they went out to sea.
This navigation marker rises above the sea smoke off the southern end of House Island in Casco Bay, Maine. Whithead Passage lies behind the marker. I used the luminosity and saturation sliders in the HSL module of Lightroom to bring out the orange triangles on the marker.
Its warming up now, that means it is back above 0 deg F, so that is probably the end of sea smoke photos for the year around here.
This photo of a ledge south of Portland Head Lighthouse is a combination of a longer exposure used to bring the the sea smoke and an in-camera multiple exposure to show the wave action across the ledge. The multiple exposure adds back in a bit of texture to the smoothness created by the long exposure. The image was made just after sunrise.
This image was shot with a 400mm lens. I wanted to show the height of the plumes of sea smoke rising in front of a fog bank that was several miles off shore from Portland Head. I waited for the sun to rise a bit so that the low angle light would bring out the sea smoke.
I made this abstract as the sunrise started to add some color to the horizon. I had an ND filter on the camera to increase the exposure time so that I could pan the camera.
The rising sun highlights the sea smoke in the southern channel entering into Portland Harbor. I wanted to break a few "rules" with this one. Don't like rules very much.
The early morning sun lights a dory surrounded by sea smoke moored off Willard Beach in South Portland, Maine. I used a 400mm lens to build up the sea smoke in front of the boat.
The sea smoke obscures the land under a fishing shack at the southern end of Willard Beach in South Portland, Maine. When I looked at the exif data for this shot I was surprised how short the exposure was, 2 sec; I thought it was longer. I was shooting just to the right of a rising sun and it was hard to get the exposure any longer (forgot to bring the 10 stop ND that morning). Again I used a long lens so I could shoot through a thicker layer of sea smoke.
A late January sun rises over an off shore fog bank with Portland Head Lighthouse in the foreground. Single shot, not HDR, I used a reverse grad ND filter to hold back the sun and the sky.
A fishing boat, surrounded by gulls and sea smoke, heads out to sea passing by Portland Head Lighthouse in Cape Elizabeth, Maine. I had to wait a bit for this boat to get into position. They were wandering all over the place. It was like they were checking lobster traps as they went out to sea.
This navigation marker rises above the sea smoke off the southern end of House Island in Casco Bay, Maine. Whithead Passage lies behind the marker. I used the luminosity and saturation sliders in the HSL module of Lightroom to bring out the orange triangles on the marker.
Its warming up now, that means it is back above 0 deg F, so that is probably the end of sea smoke photos for the year around here.
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Comments
Link to my Smugmug site
A very nice series indeed.
Bob
"You miss 100% of the shots you don't take" - Wayne Gretzky
Thanks for sharing some new to me -never seen or heard of this before.
Cool images too
Jase // www.stonesque.com
Thanks to all of you for your comments. Sea smoke photos are worth getting up early in the cold to shoot. When it temperature gets to -20F (-29C) the sea smoke is really great. However, I have trouble staying outside for long when it is that cold. I have seen the same smoke over open fresh water when it is very cold. The trick there is finding fresh water that has not frozen - it needs to be moving a bit but not too much.
We have a friend who has some great fishing boat in the sea smoke photos on her Facebook pages http://www.facebook.com/kim.stone.3701. You need to scroll down a bit to see them. She also has some great photos on Facebook taken at the Alvord Ranch where she works during the summer. Do a search for Kim Stone and Alvord Ranch to see more of her work.
Stone Coast Photography Facebook
Lauren
Lauren Blackwell
www.redleashphoto.com
Thanks for the complements.
The sunrise photo was shot from the small hill to the left of the parking lot as you face the lighthouse. It is the hill to the left you drive past coming to the lighthouse. The brush on the edge of the hill was cleared this past summer an you can now get a good view of the lighthouse from there. A local AP photographer made a shot from there that was published in the Portland paper a few weeks ago and it reminded me I wanted to do some shooting from that location.
Next time you are here, walk to the north of the lighthouse on the path along the cliffs (to the left as you face the lighthouse). There are some great shooting locations along the path. This is a good location to get early sun on the lighthouse in the summer.
Hope to see you on your next trip up this way.
Knapp
Stone Coast Photography Facebook
Wow, that is an interesting phenomenon. Loved all your shots!
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100003085685580
Lauren Blackwell
www.redleashphoto.com
If you are moving the camera it will blur out stationary object in the frame, if you are panning fast enough. If you are using a neutral density filter, the stationary objects will be visible.
Go experiment and see what you get.
[mod edit: Emily was an SEO spammer and her post was deleted. But this post is interesting so let's keep it around.]
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