And sometimes the bear eats you

[Clovishound]

The Pup and I decided to try going back to Boneyard beach this morning. Got up at 4:00 and drove well over an hour to find that the gate doesn't open at 6:00AM now, it is 1/2 hour before sunrise. It takes a good half hour to drive to the beach parking lot and walk the trail over to the beach and then there is setting up. The very best time is often a little while before the sun pokes over the horizon. Anyway, we got to the beach and set up, and 3 minutes later we were swarmed with biting gnats. It was bad enough that I had to spot out about a dozen of them from the image because the little buggers were in front of/on the lens. It was very difficult to concentrate on what we were doing. It didn't help that the driftwood trees had shifted and were more crowded making for a too busy field of view. The gnats drove us back to the car after a rather short session. We both agreed to wait til the colder weather at the end of the year.

Managed one halfway decent image, but not the high hopes we had.

 

[Needa]

The Pup and I decided to try going back to Boneyard beach this morning. Got up at 4:00 and drove well over an hour to find that the gate doesn't open at 6:00AM now, it is 1/2 hour before sunrise. It takes a good half hour to drive to the beach parking lot and walk the trail over to the beach and then there is setting up. The very best time is often a little while before the sun pokes over the horizon. Anyway, we got to the beach and set up, and 3 minutes later we were swarmed with biting gnats. It was bad enough that I had to spot out about a dozen of them from the image because the little buggers were in front of/on the lens. It was very difficult to concentrate on what we were doing. It didn't help that the driftwood trees had shifted and were more crowded making for a too busy field of view. The gnats drove us back to the car after a rather short session. We both agreed to wait til the colder weather at the end of the year.

Managed one halfway decent image, but not the high hopes we had.

View attachment 390269

Nice picture! Have similar issues here with times and parking.

 

[fltsfshr]

Skin So Soft is your friend. It's a good no see um repellant

 

[Clovishound]

I would have brought our Thermacells, but I didn't foresee it as an issue. The mosquitos are just barely starting to show up right now and the temps were in the 50s, low 60s early this morning. I've not used a Thermacell for gnats, but the advertisements say they work well on them. They really work extremely well for mosquitos. Around here, a Thermacell is necessary equipment for hunting in Oct and early Nov.

 

[BF Hammer]

I certainly know the feeling of a photo that does not meet my expectations. But those are both wonderful photos. Only you know how you imagined this to work out. Rest of us just see the result.

 

[Bikerbrent]

I would have brought our Thermacells, but I didn't foresee it as an issue. The mosquitos are just barely starting to show up right now and the temps were in the 50s, low 60s early this morning. I've not used a Thermacell for gnats, but the advertisements say they work well on them. They really work extremely well for mosquitos. Around here, a Thermacell is necessary equipment for hunting in Oct and early Nov.

View attachment 390272

Nice photos Clovishound.

 

[Clovishound]

This seems to be the one tree and angle on that tree that I keep coming back to at this locaton. Nothing else seems to work for me there. I would probably have been very happy with the last photo posted, if I had gotten it a year ago. Now I am moderately happy with it. I guess as time goes on your opinion what is good work changes. I know when I first started woodturning, I would be really happy with something I'd just made. A couple years later, I would just shake my head looking at it.

 

[fltsfshr]

I have a rechargeable thermacell on my deck. Works well and has a camp light on it. My major skeeter defense however is a school of mosquito fish in my pond. No larvae no skeeters.

 

[Clovishound]

In my area there is enough breeding area to completely populate the landscape regardless of what I do on my property.

 

[fltsfshr]

I understand it's the same way here. I live between Everglades and the sea. Our county raises mosquito fish and turns them loose throughout the fresh water swamp where there is stagnant water. It has reduced the necessity of spraying and pellet dropping considerably.

 

[Clovishound]

Well, the second one I posted was a salvage operation. I must have bumped the camera during the exposure, as it was a little soft. I ran it through Topaz Sharpen, which took care of the softness, but introduced some artifacts in the surf. You can probably only see them at higher magnification, but they bothered me. I looked at the rest of the auto bracket set and found one that was a little lower exposure, but everything in the tree was sharp. I edited that one and it is definitely a better image overall. It looks a little different due to the wave being all the way out, vs all the way in.

 

[Fred Kingston_RIP]

I like it... The surf lines give it a sense of motion at the bottom 1/3 of the image... it also grounds the image... Trees grow out of the ground...there's something distracting in the previous image with no ground to hold the tree...

 

[Clovishound]

Gnats aside, this is a difficult location to get an image you want, despite being a very impressive landscape. One issue is the extreme dynamic range between the sky and the backlit trees. That can be dealt with in most images with post processing. The biggest problem is that many views are just too busy, with dead trees everywhere. Here's one of the rejects that shows how many trees are in the surf here. It can make a decent composition very difficult. You also have to juggle tide times and sunrise times. That can be difficult if you don't go often, or keep careful records. Storms can also radically change the landscape. I was very surprised to see the above scene to be basically the same as last year, with only a root and trunk section moving in on the left hand side of the standing tree. I wanted to include the grass in the lower right corner that is seen in the first picture, but in order to remove the distracting root ball, I had to move in closer, past the grass, and zoom out.

Still, I have seen some EXTREMELY good images taken on one of the driftwood beaches along the coast here. Last year we were lucky enough to arrive with an extremely colorful display of light on the clouds. It was a moving experience that almost seemed marred by focusing on getting some decent shots. I was tempted to just sit and watch the light show.

 

[Bikerbrent]

Gnats aside, this is a difficult location to get an image you want, despite being a very impressive landscape. One issue is the extreme dynamic range between the sky and the backlit trees. That can be dealt with in most images with post processing. The biggest problem is that many views are just too busy, with dead trees everywhere. Here's one of the rejects that shows how many trees are in the surf here. It can make a decent composition very difficult. You also have to juggle tide times and sunrise times. That can be difficult if you don't go often, or keep careful records. Storms can also radically change the landscape. I was very surprised to see the above scene to be basically the same as last year, with only a root and trunk section moving in on the left hand side of the standing tree. I wanted to include the grass in the lower right corner that is seen in the first picture, but in order to remove the distracting root ball, I had to move in closer, past the grass, and zoom out.

Still, I have seen some EXTREMELY good images taken on one of the driftwood beaches along the coast here. Last year we were lucky enough to arrive with an extremely colorful display of light on the clouds. It was a moving experience that almost seemed marred by focusing on getting some decent shots. I was tempted to just sit and watch the light show.

View attachment 390480

Nice photo Colvishound!! This is one EXTREMELY good image. Congratulations!!

 

[Clovishound]

I appreciate the kind words from all. However, I am under no illusion that it represents great photography. I have seen some stunning work done in this genre. That doesn't mean I'm not proud of this and a few other examples of my work, but I'm realistic about the quality of my work. Bottom line is that I am enjoying the ride, and I believe I'm getting better. That works for me.

 

[Roy1961]

great images