Tall Ships Baltimore "The Great Schooner Race"

The Great Schooner Race, sets sail just south of Baltimore and Races to Portsmouth, Va. in October. The tall ships gather for a "Parade of Sails" into the Baltimore harbor the night before the race begins. I had a photography workshop sponsored by Capital Photography Center, for the "Parade of Sails" and made a few images while working with participants. The sky was a bit dreary so we didn't have any special evening light, but we were happy to see and capture images of these grand sailing vessels and crew! Seeing these tall ships in the harbor makes you think about the times when the harbor was indeed filled with sailing ships like this as sea merchants trading and delivering goods for sale. They are truly a vision of our collective maritime history.

 

I spotted this crew member on watch high above deck and fixed to the mast as if he was a part of the ship. I wondered, how it felt to fly above the sea like this. I could only imagine, but it looks awesome!

Working the sails requires cat like balance, strength and climbing skills...as well as fearlessness!
It was a super evening looking at these grand ships and the folks that sail them, while helping participants capture images and use their cameras!

Fun shooting and processing! Alien Skin Snapart3

This weekend was was the fall Crusin' Ocean City Weekend and I had a photo workshop. The weather was a bit dreary and one evening we spent some time processing. One of the software programs I enjoy using is, Snapart3, by Alien Skin. I usually apply their painterly effects but this time I also demonstrated the "Stylize" filter as it seemed just right for these old cars! It cleaned up some background clutter and delivered a fun graphic art image. I like to smile and these images made me do just that. I don't always take my work so seriously, demanding only the finest pure photographic image. I enjoy playing with different options to create new looks, it is fun! I made some unorthodox comps with fun cars that lent themselves to fun processing. One of the workshop participants who knows me pretty well said she saw a blog post coming when I was working on these and she was right!! Here are a few....I am anxiously awaiting the release of Alien Skin Snapart 4 in November!
Stay tuned for more fun processing software!

Beach Play...

Nikon D4 ISO 400 F-16 Shutter 1/100 sec Lens 28-300mm at 44mm 6:26 pm

Been here for a couple days now, and the weather has been like summer! My mission this trip was to work with members of The Photography Club of Cape May for a morning shoot by the ocean in Cape May and to get new drapes installed at the beach house.
Shooting at sundown and sunrise can be a little tricky to get the exposure right for the bright areas in the scene. I tend to use my spot meter and meter the bright area of the sky and set exposure accordingly.
Keeping horizons level and managing where the horizon line intersects the image is important when capturing images by the ocean or bay. The opening image I shot the night before I left for Cape May. I captured it before the sun went down. I was happy with the shot but waited to see what else was going to happen. Those of you who have watched a sunset know some of the best color is a full 20 minutes after the sun has set..and so it was...the next shot was also made that same evening. I switched lenses for the second shot here, so I could get more of the sky in the image.

Nikon D4 ISO 100 f-16 .6 sec Lens 17-35mm at 17mm 6:52 pm

The image below is the first shot of the morning I made to demonstrate how to use bulb mode in early morning light. That is when you can get that dreamy sea look and boy the ocean was flat so today, it was a glass like rendering at a minute and 50 second exposure. The colors were soft pastel and shortly faded out until after the sun rose through the low clouds, then we got some rays! It was a fun morning with some great folks!

Nikon D4 ISO 100 f-11 1minute and 50 seconds (Bulb mode) Lens 28-300mm at 28mm 6:27 am

Nikon D4 ISO 80 f-25 1/8 sec Lens 28-300mm at 62mm 7:17 am

Dottie brought a family shell to the beach so the group could try their hand at capturing a shell by the sea in the draw of ocean water. It was a fun morning. Thanks to The Photography Club of Cape May. If you belong to a club and would like to work out a shoot for your members shoot me an e-mail and lets see what we can work out!