Sunday, February 9, 2025
Welcome back! It seems like only yesterday that we were here talking about a trek. Oh wait a minute….it was only yesterday. You might recall that the day started out less than great, but after getting things settled down I ended up with a very successful trek with subjects that will no longer be there in the coming days. That was a day that I had planned on going out because of the clouds, so it really isn’t that much of a shock that I ended up working the camera for at least a little bit yesterday. Today is another story though because the weather forecast has been saying sunny and warm through the day. That usually means a little ride in the Miata to stretch its legs a bit. Clear skies are not usually something that calls out to me for photos, but you all knew that.
Well, yesterday, when I was heading back after escorting Toni to work, I spotted a little A-frame cottage that was off of the road where she works. I’ve seen this spot several times now, but the way that the morning light was catching it really got my creative wheels turning. I was wishing that I had my camera with me so that I could have captured the scene right then and there, but having almost left without my contacts in my eyes, having the camera was just too much to hope for. However, I was planning on taking Toni to work since it made no sense to push the damaged vehicle any more than needed until it can be fully evaluated. Knowing that was going to be the plan for the morning, started to look at the weather for Dobson which was where this little house was situated. There had been some passing showers in the early morning hours, but the clouds were looking to linger until about 8am or so. That would give me some interest in the sky right around sunrise, and if I was lucky, there might be some color in the clouds to go along with the theme.
I was going to be out there anyway, so might as well take the camera just in case things would work out this morning. We left well before the sun even thought about coming up, and before we cleared our front yard, we watched as four deer ran across the road right in front of me. Fortunately, I was still going very slow and had been able to stop until they were completely across and looked to be committed to their heading. With that little obstacle avoided, we continued on down the road to get Toni to work. It reminded me all too much of going to a first shift lineup when I was a police officer. Those were always very early drives and I didn’t much care for them.
As we got closer to Dobson, there was no light in the sky and I started to think that I should have looked to see when sunrise was going to happen to have an idea of how the light was going to play out. I didn’t really want to wait for a very long time because I hadn’t really considered where I was going to park and didn’t want to be in anyone’s way while I waited on the light over the course of a long time. The sky was just starting to show some light when I dropped Toni off and I figured that it wouldn’t be too long from now that the color would hit if it was going to, so I made my way over to the old house and looked at it critically to see what the background was looking like.
I could see already that I was going to have to shoot under power lines to avoid those in the composition, but I was pretty sure that I was going to be able to avoid the different buildings and other houses that peppered the background. I also had to deal with the neighboring house which was to the left of the A-frame. This kind of limited my compositional options, but I thought that I would be able to get a pleasing angle on the structure while being able to avoid distractions all around it.
I think it was about 6:40 when I parked the truck on the low shoulder to the road. I got out and looked at things to determine what gear I was going to need. I had been really hoping for the wide-angle lens, but I didn’t have enough background to work with to make that choice feasible. It was looking like my standard zoom would be the lens of choice here. It felt like a defeat because after the better part of last year routinely shooting with my telephoto lens, I was starting to go back to the 24-70mm as my workhorse. That is the lens that I have used more often than not thus far this year. Who knows how the year will turn out, but I’ve made the decision that I’m not going to sweat the gear choices and will let the location and situation dictate what I am going to use more than anything else.
Speaking of gear, I also considered using a polarizer here for a bit of glare reduction on the window and possibly some extra contrast in the sky, but with the lens racked out pretty wide, I was concerned that at this angle I would see an unnatural darkening in the corners of the frame due to the extreme polarization from the sun directly to the left. I did look through the filter to confirm and felt that the effect would be too much for the scene and would not net me enough benefit to justify the time spent working the sky when I got the image home.
This was pretty much the easiest setup imaginable. A camera on a tripod, with a standard zoom lens and no filters. I was ready to shoot by 6:45 and made my first 30 second test exposure which turned out pretty nice, but the clouds were just starting to move into position so, it was the next frame that turned out even better at 25 seconds. You see that frame right here in the blog. It was still a half hour before sunrise and blue hour was just starting to transition into golden hour.
My plan was to take advantage of the even light of blue hour and create an image with some deep purples and blues to it. It was looking like I had the right image to get that idea off to a great start. However, within just a few more minutes, the breeze started to come into play which started moving the sapling next to the house as well as the trees in the background. I started to play with the exposure settings to speed up the shutter as much as I could, but there was no way to freeze the motion. One of the biggest violators was a vine on the front of the house that would swing when nothing else was moving. This problem just kept getting more and more intrusive the longer I was shooting.
I was also seeing the clouds settling down to just a thin strip above the trees which seemed very stagnant and boring to me. I would have rather there been no clouds than to have this little strip of darkness in the background. I did keep making exposures though as the relationship between the sky and the house would change. I would end up taking my exposures all the way to where I was starting to clip the brightest parts of the sky and then riding the shutter to keep it manageable based on how much I knew I could recover in post. I didn’t want to lose the highlights, but at the same time, I needed to maintain as much detail in the house as I could to keep the digital noise at bay when I brought up the shadows. I know it sounds like I was planning to fix it in post, but the reality of it was, I was shooting for how I intended on editing which I really think is a completely different thing. All the choices I was making in the field were designed to support how I wanted the final image to appear.
When the sun finally did come up there wasn’t much drama at all. Things just got brighter in the background leaving the little house in the shadows. The clouds really didn’t pick up that much color either, but I decided to stick it out. Seeing where the sun was, I could tell that there was a good chance that it was going to touch the front of the house at some point if the little strips of clouds didn’t block it. It did seem that the light was getting better the higher the sun crept into the sky which kept me planted right where I was. Since the clouds were looking good to the left now, and were able to fill some interest, I opened up the composition a little bit and moved the house to the right of the frame. This left plenty of room for what I was hoping would be some colorful clouds. Keep in mind that the first blush was non-existent and there was really no color at all. When the sun started to become visible, there was just a little skimming of color on the clouds. Most of the time, this is an indication that the clouds are just too low to catch the color and with the sun rising, there really should be no more color at all.
I was still hopeful though, and one the 46th frame of the morning, I got that magical time when the clouds turned a warm yellow and the light from the sun finally kissed the front of the cottage as well as the grass leading up to the door. This was what I had been hoping for, and I was just beyond excited to see it happening. The clouds to the rear of the house had slowly worked their way over from the right while I had been shooting that thin strip of clouds right over the trees. I had hoped that the larger section of clouds would move into place at some point, but I couldn’t have asked for a better intersection of clouds and light.
I continued shooting another six frames in rapid succession as the light continued to change in how it illuminated the front of the house and the clouds. After that last frame, the sun dipped behind a cloud for a moment and when it returned the light was no longer that brilliant yellow. Golden hour was no more, and the light was gone. I had been out here for right at an hour by this point and had 54 frames of the same basic composition on the memory cards. I was only planning on getting a single keeper out of this, but thanks to the huge difference lighting, I was able to find two that I really liked and wanted to see through the processing stages.
I picked the best from the blue hour and the best from golden hour for the processing. I knew that I wanted to do one as black and white while keeping color in the other. Since I had that wonderful warm lighting on the latter frame, that was the one that got the full color treatment. I think that it turned out beyond amazing and looking back, it was well worth the time spent waiting on the light. The blue hour black and white photo was impressive, but for a different set of reasons. There is something about that one which brings about a much more somber mood. I love the dichotomy between the two images which are of the same subject, on the same morning. Just to look at them will bring about two completely different reactions. I can’t ask for better than that.
With the light gone, I decided it was time to head home and start processing these photos to see how they turned out. I remember thinking how sleepy I was on the way home and was ready to crawl back into the nice warm bed. There was no time for that though, there were pictures to be processed and a blog to be written. If time allowed, I was also going to take the Miata out for a little spin with the temperatures above 60 and sunny skies. There is snow in the forecast for the middle of next week, so I might as well enjoy the warmth while its here.
Thank you for joining me on this short trek. I really hope that you enjoy both of these photos. Remember, there is no better way to enjoy a photograph than in a physical form. I would love to match you up with a print of your favorite one here, or possibly both since they each say something completely different. You can order my standard sizes directly through the website, or you can contact me for special sizes and media. Print sales help to fund these treks as well as showing support for what am doing through photography. It is also a great way to decorate using images that are unique to your own tastes rather than the bulk produced wall art that is available at the box stores.
Until the next time….
