Sunrise - Spring Lake, New Jersey
Disclaimer: I mention a local hotel and some equipment in the following blog post. This post is not endorsed by them in any way nor am I being paid for writing this or mentioning them. If you purchase something, I receive absolutely nothing.
My wife and I went away for a long weekend with our good friends, Danny & Debbie. We stayed at the
Hewitt Wellington Hotel in Spring Lake. I had photographed the hotel one night - I was there to photograph St. Catharine and the park across the street but after the sun went down I was drawn to the hotel reflecting in the lake. You can view that image on my Instagram feed
in black & white and
in color. I posted a couple of the images on Facebook and a friend commented on how nice the hotel was. When we were looking for a place to stay for the weekend, I suggested we check it out. It is quite nice and I would recommend it to anyone looking to stay in the Spring Lake area. The hotel was booked solid for the weekend - in February! - so I would think it might be wise to book well in advance if you plan to stay when the weather is nice. The hotel is about two (2) blocks from the beach so I planned to catch the sunrise on Sunday, if I was awake. I knew it was going to be cold and the weather forecast was "iffy" so I wasn't going to set an alarm and wake up my wife. As luck would have it, I barely slept all night and at 6:00 decided to get dressed and walk to the beach. The Weather Channel said it was 27°F with 18°F windchill but they weren't at the beach! I swear the windchill was more like 0°F standing at the edge of the ocean.
I no longer own a pair of gloves, I lost mine (driving gloves) a couple years ago while out on a hike and just never bought another pair. The winters in New Jersey have been somewhat mild with occasional "arctic blasts" so I haven't been able to justify spending $70 or more for a good pair of photographer's gloves. This sunrise excursion had me questioning my decision.... Fortunately I have a Canon cable release for my camera (a Canon Rebel EOS T3i) and I was able to keep my hands in my jacket pocket much of the time; even with this, my hands were bright red and barely functional when I was putting my gear away after about an hour. I think I might break down and buy a pair of
Vallerret photography gloves next fall and a good balaclava to keep my head and neck warm. If you own Vallerret gloves - how do you like them? Are they really as good as they say they are? If you have other gloves, which ones and would you recommend them? I am also open to recommendations for a balaclava - I've never owned one.
Now on to the sunrise! The official sunrise time was 6:45 and I arrived at the beach just before 6:15, plenty of time to find a composition and set up. I had the added advantage of having been to this exact spot on the beach a week or two earlier so I had a composition in mind before I got there. I wanted to use the jetty as a mid-ground and the scattered rocks on the beach as foreground. The tide was coming in and much higher than the last time I was there - the foreground rocks were almost entirely swallowed up by the incoming waves. You can see the clouds in the first image - those were the only clouds in the sky that morning and they never moved. Well.... later that morning the clouds rolled in - plenty of high, wispy clouds with a nice mix of low, puffy clouds. Had they come a few hours earlier the story would have been a whole lot different. I guess if the conditions were always the way you wanted them to be, landscape photography would get pretty boring - huh? 😉
I set up the tripod about as close to the water as I dared and fired off a couple test shots. I wanted to get a fairly long exposure to help smooth out the water and stopping down to f/11 gave me a 10 second exposure for the first image. I would like to have gone with a 25 or 30 second exposure but didn't want to stop down any more than f/11 or f/13 and the thought of fooling around with ND filters in the cold was not appealing to me. If the conditions were better, sure, but not this day. Overall I'm happy with the first image but I may have been able to add a stop or so to the exposure and open up the shadows a little more; maybe even a little "light painting" with my headlamp or flashlight.
As I was waiting for the sun to rise, I turned the camera south and made an image of the beach before turning the camera to the north and doing the same. The second image shown here is the north-pointing image. I stopped down to f/13 to get a 30 second exposure. When I checked this shot on the back of the camera I was quite happy with this image - the lamps on the boardwalk gave me a nice star and the water looked nice; it wasn't until I got home on Monday and started processing it did I notice the Belmar Fishing Pier in the distance. I think it adds a great touch, what do you think?
Lastly, once the sun started peeking over the clouds I grabbed a few more of the jetty but the sun was too harsh and I wasn't thrilled. I was about to put the camera away when I looked down and saw the sun starting to creep into the reflection on the wet sand. I liked the way the water was reflecting the sun and color in the sky so I composed the frame and starting shooting. I wanted to make sure I got it right - not too much water but enough. The exposure for the image I settled on was 1/25th @ f/11. It was taken within 8 or 10 minutes of sunrise. Once I thought I had what I needed I headed up to the boardwalk to put my gear away. There is a pavilion to provide at least some relief from the wind. By this time my hands were bright red and I was barely able to work the clips on my backpack to get it open but there was no way I was carrying the camera on the tripod all the way back to the hotel. I got everything put away, put the pack on my back and headed for the hotel and coffee maker! It took about an hour before I was completely warm....
I hope you enjoyed this post and the images. I would love to hear what you think and also hear about your experiences shooting sunrise. What were the most difficult conditions you have had to fight? This past Sunday weren't the worst I have endured but they are in the Top Ten. Until next time - get out and enjoy what Mother Nature has to offer while we still have a chance!
All photos are copyright Joseph S. Valencia All Rights Reserved They may not be used in any way without express written permission of the photographer. If you wish to use any of the photos you may contact the photographer at valencia32photo@gmail.com
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