I Can See The Light….
Started thinking about the summer and what it brings each morning while on vacation, the 59th Street Pier will surely be on the agenda.
Still At It….
Yes I’m still trying to get my new computer squared away and I can say that it’s been quite frustrating….. Right now I’m having trouble with getting my shared printer to actually share. The 2 computers that are connected through wireless are showing that the printer is offline. Hmmmm.
In any event it has allowed me to go through some old folders and discover new photos. You may say this is not a new subject and it’s certainly not but I’ve never showed a perspective from here. I like it but am wondering if the shot would be better with the top of the pier was positioned above the horizon line? I don’t know maybe I’m too picky.
I have to apologize for my lack of commenting on your blogs. It’s that time of year, the craziness has begun and won’t have much time until June. I will be lurking and still checking out your photos but maybe not commenting as much. Again I apologize.
The Smell Is In The Air…
Geez, the last few weeks have been crazy busy doing all kinds of stuff and although basketball is almost over, softball is right around the corner and that just increases the madness. But I have to say with the temperature reaching 63 today here in New Jersey the smell of spring was in the air.
With that I decided to post this shot from last summer mainly because it reminds me of the times in which we get to stop and take in scenes that this that rejuvenate the body. At least for me anyway….I am not a cold weather person and enjoy more of what the warmer weather brings compared to winter. Although the cold weather is certainly not over I do get a bit fired up when thinking about warmer weather activities. I’m sure some of you are like me in that respect and to you I hope you feel the warmth coming from this picture. her’s to warmer weather!
Another Archive Find…
I don’t know how I didn’t see this one. They seem to just keep getting better.
Have you been in your archives lately? Also do you delete questionable shots right away? Just wondering…..
Back to an Old Favorite…
If you visit my blog enough you’ve heard me say that the 59th Street Pier is truly one of my favorite subjects to photograph. It really does have quite a different feel each time I visit and this day was no exception. The lighting and this duotone effect is just perfect for this particular day.
I’m in the process of researching components for a new desktop and if any of my readers have any suggestions I’ll gladly listen. My main goal is to optimize my new computer to allow less waiting time mainly in Lightroom and other editing programs. I’m also unsure as to which processor and video card to include in the system. Any of your thoughts are greatly appreciated.
365: Art…
I’ve posted this shot before but not as a “piece of art”.
I was going through my 59th Street Pier shots and really like many of them. I decided to utilize the Topaz Simplify plug-in to give this more of an art look. I modified the biz sum preset and also added a slight texture which I also like. I’m not quite satisfied with the balance of the scene, I can’t put my finger on it but something doesn’t look right. I don’t know, do you see it? Please comment if you have any thoughts. thanks and enjoy the rest of the weekend.
After playing a bit more I think this crop might provide better balance….yes, no?
The Waiting…
I took several shots from this spot and every minute or so I could see she was looking around as if she was waiting for someone. It wasn’t till I walked up to the dunes that I saw someone arrive, she seemed relieved. I wonder if she felt as though I was “creeping”(as my kids would say) while taking this picture?
Daybreak in Blue…
…with a touch of red, orange and yellow.
The quiet ocean and deep blue skies made it quite serene this particular morning in Ocean City. I guess the sea will look much more ominous and become much more destructive over the next few days with Irene crashing the party. I wonder if it will do further damage to this wonderfully photogenic pier, my hope is that it doesn’t.
Just Another Boring Sunrise…
As you can see the sky was alive this morning in Ocean City. With a 30 second exposure you can obviously see the movement in the clouds but not enough to cover the lights of Atlantic City just above the jetty.
I was fortunate enough to meet another photographer by the name of Jeff and he and I were here every morning like clockwork. He was a nice guy and a pretty talented photographer. His version of this can be seen here. I really like his portrait version on this day.
The shot below was taken about 3/4 hour later as the sun made it’s way above the horizon, seems like a completely different day.
Not Too Bad For Day 2…
I passed this building each morning before getting to the pier and although not the most aesthetically pleasing I had to take a few brackets just because it was a perfect candidate for HDR. In the regular exposure the lights were blown out and the foreground had little to no details. Well tonemapping took care of that quite nicely. I know I can’t stay away from HDR but fear not…. 
In the next 2 shots very little was done in post so I consider them SOOC:) and it’s certainly not HDR, although I tried it with 9 bracketed shots but the results just weren’t what I was looking for. At this time of day I really like the angle of this first shot and got the bonus of a few shore birds to boot… 
If you’ve seen other shots of the 59th Street pier you know that this next shot is a common perspective and although in this series I’m trying to present the pier in as many different angles as possible sometimes you just have to go back to old faithful and allow the uniqueness of the day to present the subject in a different manner. I think the shot speaks for itself….
With quite a few shots “in the tin”, I consider day 2 a successful day.
I have other shots that I might post on Google+. You can join and check them out here. As always I’m looking to hear your thoughts and thank you again for looking and commenting.
Let the Challenge Begin…
I promised myself that I would capture 1 good shot a day of the 59th St. pier while vacationing in Ocean City. That meant getting up at 5am every morning with the intention of biking almost 40 blocks to the site. A lofty goal I might say. Well, my journey didn’t start out to well when I completed my test ride in 25 minutes. Much too long a bike ride at 5am. So plan B gets me there in 9 minutes with time to spare. I’m good to go.
Day 1 I wake up with no problem and I’m a bit excited as it’s relatively cloudy, could it be a good first day? Well…….I get to the site within 9 minutes and it’s still dark and it remained dark most of the morning as clouds filled the sky, not allowing more than an ounce of color for 99% of the morning. This was about as good as it got ……
Not exactly what I was looking for but it does fulfill my SOOC obligations. I managed to get the look of the water I was after with a 10 second exposure but the rest……pure cr….p!
It wasn’t until just before I was getting ready to leave that I managed a decent shot and even this had to be jazzed up with tonemapping….
Day 1 wraps up without a keeper in the tin (Peter Lik quote) but I have a whole week to look forward to, it can only get better right? Well………
Did You Ever get the Feeling Your not Alone….
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.
