Beachside Impressions
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I really couldn't think of a better image to share on this, a Friday before a gorgeous weekend than this one. WIshing you and yours a safe and wonderful weekend.
The idea behind this shot was to take a photo that I thought captured the essence of Summer on the Gulf Coast. No, one boat or person really being the focus. Just "taking in the scene".
2011ArtBeachesCoastalGulf CoastHDRJohnson BeachOrange BeachPensacola
The Pensacola Lighthouse From Bill Dodd's Pensacola Lighthouse Photo Gallery
You can download wallpapers of these shots for person use, obtain commercial use licenses or even buy prints from my Pensacola Lighthouse photo Gallery:
http://graffitilogic.smugmug.com/Other/2011-Pensacola-Lighthouse/17000286_9KmwJC
Prints now available. I've finally decided to offer prints of my work in an effort to raise funds for more ambitious photography projects. If you like this work or some of my others, please consider supporting my efforts by buying a limited edition print. The prints are handled through Bay Photo and they do great work.
Browse the Limited Edition Prints gallery or any of my other galleries hosted with Smugmug for buy options.
I pretty sure I wasn't supposed to be standing here. At least that's what the fat lady with the red face standing behind me kept saying. At any rate, I didn't disturb any visible wildlife, didn't pour out my Coke and only had my tripod in place for the 20 seconds to take this bracket. I liked the shot, though Everybit worth the friend I didn't make in Mrs. Grumpy Beach Comber.
Taking a lunch from my real job as a programmer, I snapped this in a series of pics at the Gulf State Park Pier. I'm ashamed to admit that living on the Gulf Coast for 20 years, this was only the second time I'd been there. Nice pier, I plan to come back at Sunset.
Memorial Day Weekend 2010 -- Lots of jetski riding with the inlaws. Left me some time to walk around with the D90 on Pensacola's gorgeous Johnson beach area. This is a bit of an eclectic interprertation of the HDR from that session. Grant it, not the best reproduction of what I actually saw (that shot is also in this collection) but still neat nonetheless.
Working from home this week, catching up on a long laundry list of programming tasks that I've neglected for one reason or another. I have to be "in the zone" and uninterrupted to really get coding tasks done. The uninterrupted part seems to be rare..
For my lunchtime bike ride, I was struck with just how much depth our clouds had today. It was killing me to be stuck indoors at my home, 20 miles from the Gulf of Mexico. I had set my mind that when my family got home we'd go to either Fairhope or Gulf Shores for some "Golden Hour" sunset photography.
As we were deciding our destination, a sea turtle-activist-conservation-expert, self proclaimed "turtle lady" that works with my wife called to say they'd be releasing a nest to the Gulf this evening at sundown. Our destination set, we made it down a few hours early for a pretty productive photo session.
Didn't get the best of shots of the turtles, night-time, no flashes and all -- so didn't really even try.
This, photo, however - just sort of happened while we were waiting for the "turtle people." Nope, it isn't HDR. Just some contrast enhancements on a single exposure.
This is why we love Golden Hour. ;)
I normally don't like to include the same photo processed differently but this one lended itself to this more eclectic interpretation.
Happy Memorial Day
I spent some time with the family @ Johnson Beach yesterday. Of course, it was all mid-day - sun high in the sky lighting but hopefully something from the batch will be salvageable.
Wishing everyone a safe and happy summer…
Step into my Delorean, throw some PBR into Mr. Fusion and travel back with me to May 30, 2010.
With my wife's family in town, we made our annual trip to the beaches for Memorial Day weekend. My brothers-in-law and I piled into the truck and launched my (single) Honda Jetski on Big Lagoon near Pensacola NAS in Florida. (But, um, to be clear - not exactly Pensacola Beach on Memorial Day. ;) ) However, I'm sure 1 fat-short dude (me), 1 tall-big dude (Jr.) and 1 skinny-tall dude made an adorable sight putting across the no wake zones of Big Lagoon towards Johnson Beach.
My brother in laws jetted off down the beach for some sightseeing and waves I hung back to chill-ax on the beaches with plans to meet more family who would later come by car with coolers, tents, gear, food and important to me -- my DSLR which I felt was unwise to include in a jetski ride.
The boys were gone for quite some time, apparently the sights were very good. I was enjoying the down time when I was caught unawares in a crazy summer lightning storm that often pop up in the South - especially the Gulf Coast.
I found shelter under this walkway, which runs between this solitary road on this nearly abandoned beach on the Lagoon. I rode out the storm with a pretty freaked out family from Idaho and thought enough of this makeshift shelter to snap this photo when the camera joined our little beach party.
So, why the long story for something so trivial?
I had been following this travel photography blog, pretty famous one -- http://www.stuckincustoms.com . If you've been living behind a mean web filter or under a Rock named Steve: It's this photo-a-day travel photography blog by this really talented and cool photographer, Trey Ratcliff. I'd been fascinated with his processing style for a few months but hadn't attempted following his tutorial to duplicate the method.
This photo was my first attempt at an 'HDR' photo and to resemble his processing style and it was at this moment I decided to release a photo-a-day via Flickr from my own experiences and vision of Gulf Coast life. I've since found my own style for processing but still often borrow from his brilliance. This is an actual reprocess of the original photo with some new life thanks to newly acquired photoshop skills, whilst the original still hangs in Canvas form on my living room wall. It serves as a great reminder to me of the cool experiences that await me and my camera as I take time away from my indoors software dev after-hours tendencies to get out there and explore.
It's been a cool year and I may have missed a day here and there but I think in aggregate I released and average of 3 photos a day since last Memorial Day. I'm having fun, it's not interfering with work so I see no reason to stop. In fact, I'll be stepping it up a bit, this summer.
At least two trips planned. One, a vacation to Disney and one, a quick trip to Seattle. Both will have photo opportunities, as will the coming summer. Hoping for something a little more int'l in the coming year… Longer term, the British countryside, Hong Kong, Thailand and Hawaii have been on my bucket list for some time. But I'll need to write lots of apps to get there.. ;)
Thanks for the supporting comments over this year for those who have been watching - I always enjoy feedback, nice or mean.
Happy Memorial Day Weekend. Be safe, be responsible and be courteous to others on the road and waters..ArtBeachesGulf CoastHDRJohnson BeachLEprintsPensacolapiers n such
