Fujifilm XT4 + XF16mmf/1.4 R WR: 120s, f/11, ISO800

I am so frustrated right now because the long, poetic post I had composed and attempted to save as a draft a few hours ago was not saved and I lost all of my beautiful prose! I had so much to relive about yesterday’s photography experience that my anger over losing those precise words forever is filling my mind and clouding my memory! My apologies for the succinct, serviceable replacement you are about to read if you do.

Yesterday was the cusp of the passing of the latest precipitous weather system. My windshield wipers wiped most of my commute over mostly wet, empty roadways. The risk-reward propositions on mornings like these are usually worth it. The trade is being rained-out or monotone worsts, and inspiring clouds with brilliant colors when it works.

The parking lot asphalt was dry. The wind could close my driver’s side door unassisted if I let it. The sodium vapor lights towered above, polluting the area with it’s orange glow. Next to me, my car’s off-colored twin sat with it’s trunk open and a tripod, legs extended, stood unwavering. A sports utility vehicle rolled in a few spots away. The gang equipped their fisherman’s shoes and head lamps, and began exploring the rocky shoreline in the darkness.

The location was familiar. A spot chosen for it’s ability to transform depending on the tide. It was very different than my previous visits since the tide had been 1.5ft higher then. On those visits, I stopped not far from the parking area where the street light still tinted the rocks in my frame. This time I moved further East, identifying more terrain and committing them to memory like points-of-interest on a digital map. On this expedition, I came upon a canal that looked like the mouth of a river. First, I stood for a minute or two watching how the water ebbed and flowed. It surged up and in and down and out, but the surface didn’t agitate. I adjusted my tripod legs to put the platform as low as I deemed was safe. I pushed down on the platform to ensure its stability. I screwed the locking mechanism of the shutter remote receiver into my camera’s hotshoe and plugged its cable into the camera’s corresponding I/O port. I switched the camera and the receiver on, then threaded the camera through a nylon elbow-sock with drawstrings on both ends. On one side I tightened the loop around the open end of the lens, and the other I kept loose so I could reach in and access the camera’s buttons and dials from the back. I tore the velcro open along the bottom edge to free the L-bracket to quickly mount the camera onto the tripod. I attached the filter holder to the lens and flipped the camera’s screen open to compose the photo. I write all of these words so that I’ll never have to write them again in future posts. While I was doing all this, the clouds nearest the horizon began to glow an intense pink. Every minute that ticked, the color stretched. I began rushing through the next few steps… check exposure settings, check white balance settings, check manual focus. Check check check! Click! I started with a 4 minute exposure. The foreground was dark. I need a filter! 2-stop GND. It’s getting brighter. 2-minute exposure. Click! The clear water is reflecting too much. Adjust the circular polarizer. Click! Get another exposure just in-case! Click! The color faded more quickly than it came and the sky was gray again.

Fujifilm XT4 + XF16mmf/1.4 R WR: 1, 1.5s, f/4, /5.6, ISO1600

Though the sky was gray, the landscape was now bright enough to navigate without electronic assistance. I moved closer to the active water. Another surge crested and sent sea foam swiftly westward over and around the rocky shore. I set the tripod nearest the water without stepping in it. I turned the camera’s focus Westward with the flow, and dialed it in to the nearest foreground rock. I tested several different shutter speeds. I liked the foreground at 1.5, but the background looked flat. At 1, the shapes of waves were present, but the streaks showed too much detail. As I went back and forth, the sun had risen just enough to touch the higher cirrus cloud layer. These are my favorites and my reason to wake up early when the weather changes. In the end I took one of each photo and composited them together. When I was confident I had taken enough of these I turned around.

Fujifilm XT4 + XF16mmf/1.4 R WR: 1s, f/8, ISO800

Wow! Life is grand! I searched frantically for the most convenient composition and started chaos clicking like for the first photo. I liked the flow going in AND the flow going out.

Fujifilm XT4 + XF16mmf/1.4 R WR: ¼s, f/8, ISO800

I ended with so many photos that I liked that I could not procrastinate several weeks to write a new post.

02.21.2021