It is this time of the year when I like to look back and see if there was any evolution in my photography. Working with the available light in low light situations was one of the things I wanted to focus on in 2013. I’m still not done reviewing all photos in detail from our trip to Maine this fall but I'm getting there. A day with heavy overcast and nothing but dull light, like we had today, is the perfect time for sitting in front of the computer and do nothing but post-processing. I dug up a few images that I like to share with you. I hope you enjoy.
The first one was made at 8AM, just after shooting a lighthouse all morning long (see my last post). The light was about to loose its “morning quality” but still good enough to work with the reflections on the water, the fall colors in the upper left corner, and the beauty of this little wharf.
Exposing strictly for the highlights by compensating with -1EV was the key for this image. All clutter in the water or elsewhere is left behind in the black that surrounds the boats. The photo tells the story that everybody shares the same dock, the lobster man who needs his dingy to go to his lobster boat as well as the tourist, who uses his kayak or canoe for recreation.
One of my favorite things to do in Maine was to watch the lobster boats going out very early in the morning. If the harbor faces East, like New Harbor, there is a good chance to photograph the boats while the first rays of sun light strike. It doesn’t get any better than this and there is no light for the next 10 hours that comes even close to this quality.
Every lobster man can identify his lobster traps by a unique color pattern on his buoys. After they are out of service the buoys are quite often used for decoration, like here at a restaurant right beside a lobster wharf. I left my dinner alone for a couple minutes when the last sun of the day made the colors even more pop on these old buoys.