On the same voyage aboard the Ardelle that I made the image in the blog post that precedes this one, this magnificent rainbow appeared all over the North Shore. Since I was out on the water in Gloucester Harbor the opportunities were endless for some really cool photos. I could not resist shooting the rainbow ending at Eastern Point Light. This shot was made with the Canon 7D and the 70-200.

A couple of weeks ago I was invited to sail in a schooner challenge out in Gloucester Harbor. If you know me at all you know I said yes before the invitee finished his sentence. The schooners Thomas E. Lannon and Ardelle were going to have a fun race around Gloucester Harbor in the late afternoon, early evening. I grabbed my trusty Canon 1D Mk2 with the 16-35 and the Canon 7D with the 70-200 and headed to Gloucester. The weather was kind of iffy with thunder storms coming through but I figured, hey, we are sailors, we sail in anything. We waited inside until the worst of the weather passed and headed out for the contest with a dark sky but with no thunderstorms coming in. A light sprinkle was present during the first leg of the race but the sun burst through underneath the dark clouds at just the right moment for the photograph above. The light rain added some spots on my lens when I shot into the sun but I think they add to it. This was made with the 16-35 at 16mm with the exposure at 1000 of a sec at f10 at ISO 1000.

This morning I was down on the waterfront at Rose's Marine in Gloucester for the launch of the city's new launch. As I was walking down to the event I  couldn't help but notice this welder working on the hull of a fishing boat up on dry dock after two years in the water. This image has a nice simplicity about it that drew me to it. I have been looking for images with strong design elements and this fits the bill. The white line leads you into the bright light of the torch or the other way around the torch draws you in and the white line takes you out. But it's fun also to look at all the other details in the image. The bait buckets, the lift etc.

I made this shot using my Canon 7D with the 70-200 f2.8 at ISO 400. The exposure was 1/400 sec at 6.3.

This past week I was up at the Maine Media College MFA retreat auditing the course. It was a great experience that changed my whole way of looking at my photography. As a photojournalist only a few feature photographs are classified in my mind as art so making the distinction between just a photograph and art (my art) was a transition I needed to make. I am now prepared to explore my photographic art to a whole new level and am willing to make the commitment to an MFA program. At this point in my career I need to go to another level with my photography and discover more about myself. It will be an interesting journey.

The shot above was made in Bermuda with my G15. While in Bermuda I started to look at things differently and we walked by this scene every morning while we were there. I had to lay down on the pavement in the driveway to make this shot but it was worth it. I have a number of shots that I like from this trip but this has to be one of my favorite shots.

Today the seacoast was awash with fog that moved in during the early evening. As I sat in traffic watching the fog slowly slide in I hoped for an opportunity to make a great shot. I headed over to East Gloucester where I thought I might be able to find some contrast for a really cool shot involving the fog. What I found was this - I was blown away by the contrast of the nearly black old pilings and the white sky filled with fog. The sun would peek through once and a while and I waited for it to come out enough to give me a near white foreground. As I made this shot I just loved the way the water looked with all sorts of different shades of gray. I never ever considered this as a color image and this is exactly how I envisioned it. I can't wait to print it on some Epson Exhibition Fiber paper. This one is headed for the Rockport Art Association summer show in June. The shot was made with the Canon 5D Mark 3 with the 200 f2.8 and set at 1/320 sec at f16 at ISO 400.

These are just a couple of images from St. George's before the camera died and we had to go into Hamilton and find a charger for he battery.

I made this shot from our balcony at sunrise with the PL filter on and this is just a little saturated with auto correct.

Sunset was kind of disappointing but I managed to get something out of it.

The light was really interesting on this plant and the posts.

This is the view from just down the hill from our room at the Pompano Beach Club in Bermuda. The water is such an incredible site. Taken with the Canon G15.

Dancing Boats The other day I got the urge to try out a time lapse video with my Canon G15. I am going on a trip and wanted to try a couple of these before I did so in a far off location. For the most part it worked well except that I needed a graduated neutral density filter to knock down the sky. It probably could have used a .6 or .9 to take the sky down so it would have been close to what was in the foreground. When I start doing these with my larger cameras I will be sure to use a GND to knock down the sky. Even a colored GND would help a bit. So here are the specifics as to how I made this video. Everything on the camera was set to manual - WB, focus, exp. I did not want any flickering going on at all which would have happened if the white balance or exposure was on auto. The video was made over a period of 30 minutes and the external interval timer was set to make a shot every 3 sec. The exposure was 1/40 sec at f8. If you look real close you can see a white streak go across the sky at the end of the video. This is the contrail of a plane going by.