Still Snowy Presque Isle
Posted March 25th, 2007 @ 03:19pm by Erik J. Barzeski
Looking forward to some warmer temperatures (highs in the low 60s were predicted today), Carey and I ventured out at about 11am to Presque Isle. I threw my camera in the car with the 70-200 and the 24-70. When I get my bag, I'll likely just take everything. It was 50° in the garage, 42° outside, and about 34° at Presque Isle, which was enveloped in a massive, super-thick fog. I left the camera in the car and we began walking along the path. Just then a crew team emerged from the fog, cutting nearly silently through the still lake waters.
When we got back to the car, I got my camera out and waited for five minutes or so until the crew came back. I increased the contrast and pinched in the white and black points a little, cropped, and converted to monochrome because there was very little color anyway. Fog and haze will do a lot to "grey up" an image.
From there, we drove to Beach 6. Right as we approached the beach, I saw a bench sitting atop the entrance to the beach. Unfortunately I couldn't get an angle that didn't include a pesky tree. Contrast adjusted a little, cropped, and blue/cyan saturation bumped up just a bit, simultaneously taking down the luminance of blue and cyan.
Beyond the beach, the sand dunes (which, when covered with ice, are ice dunes of course!) loomed. I held back and took this picture of Carey walking forward. Contrast again adjusted, small crop made, and exposure bumped down a third stop (I'd forgotten to change my exposure compensation from the crew shots). The haze was thick on this side.
I passed a girl on the beach who, seeing my camera, said "I wish I had my camera. Out on the dunes it's so beautiful." I asked Carey if the girl had come from the dunes, about 70 yards from the edge of the beach, and she said yes. She pointed out a path and we started out.
I walked out, reached the end, and took a few pictures. In both, I again bumped the contrast a bit to try to get through the incredible haze. I also saturated and took down the luminance of the cyans and blues.
This shot was taken 90° to the right from the one above. The dunes will soon melt away and become the lake floor again, but for now and all winter, they reach rather impressive heights.
Posted 25 Mar 2007 at 11:59pm #
Do you make large sizes of your photos available? I'd like a couple of these for my desktop rotation (1280x1024 or 1600x1200)
Thanks, and these are great photos.
Posted 26 Mar 2007 at 8:28am #
[quote comment="40812"]Do you make large sizes of your photos available?[/quote]
No, I don't. They're for personal use only at this point.
Posted 26 Mar 2007 at 2:44pm #
Hey Erik - love the first b&w shot, very nice!
Posted 28 Mar 2007 at 8:42am #
Hi Erik, first time posting here but have been reading your blog for awhile. Wanted to say I love the first photo of the crew. It is so serene.
Posted 29 Feb 2008 at 9:37am #
[quote comment="40821"]No, I don't. They're for personal use only at this point.[/quote]
By the way, I do now.