The Shot That Almost Didn't Happen

Living very near the beach, just a mere 200 yards away from the waters edge has its privileges. Santa Barbara is known for its sunshine and warm weather but we do get an occasional storm rolling in. This past Sunday I woke up just as the sun was about to rise, looked outside my window and noticed some amazing looking clouds. With sleep still in my eyes trying to clear my mind from having just awoke, I did what most photographers would do in a situation like this...

I checked my Facebook account. 

After a bout 5 minutes, wasted on Facebook, I kicked myself and got off of my lazy butt, got dressed (unshowered!) and made the 200 yard trek to the waters edge and snapped off a bunch of frames. 

The contraption you see above, is called a dredge.It is essentially a large underwater vaccum cleaner that is used to suck sand off of the bottom of the harbor and then depost it further down the beach. This keeps the mouth of the harbor deep enough for the larger ships to pass in an out safely.

This was a standard bracketed 3 exposure shot with a base exposure and the an addition +2 stop and -2 Stop exposure. The three images were processed in Photomatix and then furhter refined in Lightroom 4.

I am still putting the D600 through it's paces and so far, I am loving what I am seeing. The detail of the image above at full resolution is just AMAZING! I was having an awesome time this eving blowing up teh shot on my 30 inch monitor to a 1 to 1 pixel ratio..All of the machinery, hoses, pipes and tools are visable ont he deck of the ship. Truly amazing stuff....

As I was looking at the picture this evening, I was reminded that it almost didn't happen.  Had I been lazy and stayed planeted in front of my computer, the light, the clouds, all of the elements that make up this shot would have been lost forever and I would have nothing to share.or enjoy.

National Geographic Photographer Joe McNally says "The most important piece of equipment in your bag, is your attitude".

Amen to that, Joe.

=BM=