Tags
59th Street Pier, Atlantic Ocean, B&W, B+B, beach, Black and White, Cape May NJ, John F. Craig House, MattaFoto, Mike Attanasio, Ocean City NJ, Outdoors, Water, waves
I have seen some great shots of the 59th Street Pier in Ocean City, NJ on flickr and when I took my wife to Cape May this weekend for her birthday I had one request, to stop in Ocean City to check out the pier and get a few shots to show y’all(huh?). I tried to find some info on the pier but google comes up with nothing as far as any history, so with lack of any information on the pier itself I’ll provide some of the backstory of my shooting process.
Having seen most of the shots on flickr I had a pretty good idea that there weren’t too many different perspectives in which to shoot this pier so I decided to work on my slow shutter technique from a fairly low angle. I’m not so sure I got anything out of the norm but I do like the lines created by the fairly slow retrieval of water. I was able to capture the motion blur of the water with a shutter speed of 3 seconds. Now since it was close to 12:30 in the afternoon on a fairly bright day I opted to utilize my B+W 6 stop ND filter coupled with a Hoya polarizer. This combination definitely slowed down the water but also seemed to take diminish any of the color in the scene so B+W seemed to be the next best option(sorry Ron). Maybe later I’ll post the color version to give you an idea of what I mean.
BTW, Cape May ended up being the perfect choice on this given weekend as the skies were partly cloudy and fairly warm(55). Just nice enough to get some decent shots. We also had our first experience at staying at a B+B. Barbara and Chip, innkeepers at the John F. Craig House, made our experience quite memorable. If you have any desire to stay at a bed and breakfast in Cape May we highly recommend it, even though it’s thought to be still occupied by a few of the original owners….if you know what I mean.
More info on the John F. Craig house can be found here.
I love the eerie quality this B&W processing gives to this scene, plus of course all the other stuff you mentioned. Do you have a ‘spookcam’ setting on your equipment?
I think B&W works really well for this – I like the motion of the water. Did you get fudge and/or taffy? Now, if only you could get a shot of the original owners. THAT would be impressive!
The water seems to be moving in this otherworldly photo.
The slow shutter speed really adds a surreal effect to the water…this is drop dead gorgeous!
You get an A for all the effort you put into this one. Wonderful angle. Great end result. Moody images float my boat. Only thing I would have done differently is darken the shadows in the rocks. Don’t worry about Ron, he doesn’t know B&W! lol
Coincidence: also in Cape May this weekend with husband WITH camera! Nice shot–I have difficulty with shutter speed photos . . .
Great shot and perfect for Black and White image.
No mistaking the direction of the water. Nice work Mike.
I’m late on this one but must say this is awesome. Definitely gallery-worthy.
Well worth the research. Awesome shot.
Reminds me of Brian Matiash’s new series.
Not knowing anything about the pier it looks a bit like a soft and dreamy graveyard.
Love the swirling water. Rather a moody photo with the falling down pier, rocks and shades of b/w.
Fantastic photo… did you have to take many shots to get “the one”… I’m considering buying a filter so I can have a go at this type of photo.
Thanks for the comments Tracey…this is a 6 stop neutral density filter from B+W. It’s the only way to get this effect in sunny situations. Think I got it at B+H. Let me know if you need any other info.