“Port Aransas Pier #1″
Canon Mark II 1DS f2.8 70-200mm zoom @95mm ISO 100 f16@ 15 seconds
Singh-Ray Vari ND (a variable neutral density filter)
Theme Week 41: Port Aransas Pier – A Study of Light and Color
Canon Mark II 1DS f2.8 70-200mm zoom @95mm ISO 100 f16@ 15 seconds
Singh-Ray Vari ND (a variable neutral density filter)
Theme Week 41: Port Aransas Pier – A Study of Light and Color
the tilt is bending my noodle. The horizon is dead flat, the uprights not so upright. Either that or its the light to dark transition across the top beam. I feel like everything is about to topple over to the left.
Lovely light, lovely colour, cool symmetry and framing. The blue/ orange back/forward gives the impression that the pier might well be poking out of the page towards me.
Light! Color! Gesture! One of the compositional elements that really makes this shot hum is the 50/50 horizon – I can’t imagine it any other way! Didn’t notice the tilt until I read the first post, but there is a bit of a lean to the left – more on the RHS than left. I suspect it doesn’t jump out as much as it could since the eye is so compellingly drawn into the light square geometries of the pilings. Having the horizon at the end of the tunnel in a more conventional ratio is brilliant. One of my favorites!
Craig, I feel like I’m looking through an old folding bellows and the symetry is great! I do think Gordon’s keen eye has picked up on a slight tilt that I might have missed? Wonderful light, colors and exposure. You should have let us know you were driving through Texas and we would have followed you like the Pidepiper or maybe that’s why you didn’t :0)
Murry
Hi Gordon, Tim, and Murry,
Thank you for being here. Shooting the pier started as a way to keep from loosing my mind over the hideous weather I have had while trying to shoot my latest (and last ever if I can help it) commercial job. Now I wish I had the time to stay here and make shooting the pier an ongoing project. I have even surprised myself at how drawn I have been to this as a subject.
One thing about personal work that is so freeing for me is that I can work with any quality of light to get images I like. Its been amazing for the last two days to see the Pier as a subject change with the changing light.
About the tilt. Its an old pier and the pilings are tilting in every possible direction. So I have been looking at and seeing the tilts for two days. In the straight on shots I leveled the camera on the horizon and I am happy with that approach. Correcting the tilt is not as easy as doing some kind of overall skew. Parts have to be individually skewed and part of what I like about this image and this approach to the leaning columns is the tension of the leaning against the perfect symmetry of the rest of the image.
Tim…thank you for the comment about the horizon at the end of the tunnel. One of the things about this subject that was so amazing was seeing how much the change of low to high camera position had an effect on all of the compositions…. over the last two days I have shot about three hundred images of the pier at all different times of day……Craig
All I can say is WOW! and Thank you so much for your continued generosity in sharing your fabulous photos and ideas!
Hi Grace,
Thank you for being here and thank you for the very kind and supportive comment….Craig
A lot of great comments have already been said about the wonderful image Craig, but, no one has said anything about the apparent covered pipe being so bright and possibly a distraction. Seems as if I am the only one in the group that finds this to be a problem. I know it is part of the scene that you have shot, but, it stands out so much. My first inclination is to head right down to the end of the tunnel formed by the beams and move out from there, but the covered pipe (or whatever it is) gets in my way as I travel forward. Is it just me? Can you explain why it is a necessary part of the image?
Thanks,
Wes
That’s insanely beautiful and inspiring. Wow…
Hi Wes,
Its funny…I never considered correcting the tilt but I did go half of the way there to patching this column under repair but ran in to the same issue of all of the columns being slightly askew which made the patching work difficult so I just let it go… its one more thing that is not perfect which for me adds a little tension and keeps the whole thing from being so balanced that it becomes monotonous….Craig
Sorry, I need to amend my comment…I don’t say this very often about any image, but this one moves to…I LOVE IT. I moves me, it really really does. My personal love of water, the ocean, PIERS, sunsets…there is hope, serenity, peace, joy, simplicity, happiness, love, movement, stillness…I LOVE it…thanks Craig…this image is making my day…
The only way it could be more special is if you can honestly tell me you got your feet wet shooting it…please, please, tell me you did!!!!!
Hi Alec,
Your big emotional response to this means a lot…. this image means a lot to me too…. more about that in the Vidcast. And you will be happy to know I went all the way in…I have the self portraits to prove it….. my general rule of thumb when shooting water is to get in the water first. The last time I tried to tip toe around water I fell off of a ledge at Sprewell Bluffs State Park and into the Flint River loosing several medium format lenses in the process ….. now a distant memory from my film days….Craig
There is something about this image that reminds me of some sort of ancient temple. It has such a peaceful feeling and calming effect on me. I love the colors and I love the way the design of the image draws me right through it to the opening at the end, but not in a rushed way.
Funny, I never even noticed the tilt. It had no effect on my enjoyment of the image at all.
hopefully don’t take my comment the wrong way – I wouldn’t fix the tilt – that’s what makes it interesting
Craig,
Awesome shot. It’s surreal. But I am stuck on one of your comments. How do you shoot 300 images of a pier in 2 days? This is not the first time that you have mentioned shooting a high volume of shots of a subject. It seems like it’s part of your process. It’s easy for me to understand it when you are shooting people as scenes of people can be quite dynamic and constantly changing. But I can’t even imagine shooting 300 shots of a pier in a 48 hour period. Even with changing times of day, light, tides, etc.
So I’d love to get more insight into your process if you could elaborate. Lately, I have really been trying to open up to new creative possibilities in my photography and for that reason I am intrigued by your comment. I am guessing that shooting a large number of frames is part of the creative process for you. Your thoughts?
Hi John,
Thank you for the question and kind words about this shot. I shot the Pier again last night and shot another hundred images or so. For this particular subject the high volume of shots is mostly about motion variations on the water. Last night when the ambient light was balanced with the mercury vapor lights on the pier I shot approximately 70 back to back images at ISO 800 F8 @ 1 second. Everyone of those images has a different look and feel based on the wave action relative to the rest of the composition. I also have done a lot of light painting and I tried many variations of where I painted with the light. In the Vidcast for this week you will see how dramatically different a lot of these variations are just based on differences in how the water was reflecting light…. Craig
Craig,
Thanks for the response regarding my question about shot volume. Now that you mention it, that makes sense with the motion of the water. I hadn’t thought of that. Two more quick questions that have been triggered by this post: 1) With the Singh-Ray Vari ND, do you have to go with the thin mount to avoid vignetting on the 16-35mm and would you normally recommend the thin over the regular? 2) What were you using to do your light painting? I just assumed that it was all mercury vapor and natural light.
Lastly, thanks for being so generous in the way that you share your work and allow us all to learn so much from the comment/feedback process! I really appreciate it and love visiting this site.
Hi John,
Thank you for being here and thank you for your question.
I do use the thin Vari ND on my 16-35mm zoom and find that it works great without vignetting down to about 24mm. I will shoot wider than that and just use PS to get rid of the problem. The Vari ND is simply an amazing tool. I stack it now with the new five stop Mor Slo ND to get up to about thirteen stops of ND… this allows me to slow things way down even in the brightest light.
To do my light painting on the Pier series I have been using a Black and Decker portable, rechargeable 2 million candle power spotlight…. Craig
With that many shots have you considered running together as a short video segment on their own ? Sounds like it might be an interesting arrangement, particularly if you aren’t making substantial camera movements between frames.
On a similar but related note, I noticed last week that Moby is giving away pieces of his music for suitable non-profit films or art projects. http://www.mobygratis.com/
When I look at this one, it’s rather easy to ’see’ the ocean and pier tilting to the left when I swing my eyes to the left, and to the right when I swing my eyes in that direction. In fact, slowly swinging my eyes from side to side makes me feel like I’m in a gently rocking boat! I also feel like I’m sitting on a throne, with the blue carpet of water and light coming up to me!
I know this is supposed to be a study in color and light – not implied motion – and you weren’t in a boat when you shot this – so I can’t figure out why I feel this strange effect!
Now to the colors – I love the way the orange you’ve added to the piers immediately draws me to the little square “window” looking out to the horizon. The soft pinks in the water and sky blend well with the orange of the pier – surprising to me. And of course the blues offer a great counterpoint to the warm colors. The soft tensions between the warm and cool colors of water and sky make this a gently dynamic capture.
The composition: smack dab centered. It’s the pier’s vagaries playing out against gravity that also help make this a dynamic shot. I’m wondering how an image of this same scene, with the light painting, done at a faster shutter speed, so that some wave motion would be evident, would compare in the feelings it would evoke.
LOL, Now I have all the rest of the pier variations to look at.
Love,
Flo
I think your pier series is awesome. What I really love about your landscapes is your ability to go beyond the obvious, you know beyond the pretty sky, the pretty colors etc…..to me that gets boring after a while. I love landscapes that hint of the mystery,the real wonder, the spiritual.