Over the Sound and through Bainbridge, to (great) Grandmother's House We Go

It's hard to really get out and do things with a newborn! Over the past summer, Kyra and I used to go hiking or backpacking nearly every weekend.  Hell, we did Granite Mountain two weeks before Andrew was born (sorry, no pictures) and then did Annette Lake only three days before Kyra was born.

Then, came the baby, and the lack of sleep (oh lord, the lack of sleep). Going out with a newborn is tough and involves a lot more planning and flexibility than even I thought it would be. So, we really didn't do much for the first few weeks.  But we were getting cabin fever and had to get out.

We decided on Discovery Park because it is close, it has a fair amount of trails,I have never been there, and there is a lighthouse which I hoped would make for some interesting pictures. I had a goal - I wanted to grab a few shots of the lighthouse.  One with the sun "in" the lighthouse and maybe a few golden or blue hour shots.

• Baby? - Check
• Car Seat? - Check
• Baby Carrier? - Check
• Diaper Bag? - Check
• Tasha (Dog)? - Check
• Camera gear? - Check

Off we go!

I didn't know what to expect and I was pleasantly surprised.  The park is very well maintained with a great combination of open spaces and "forests".  The best part is that it is huge so it never felt very crowded--nothing like the Snow Lake trail.  Hell, for being in the city it was downright lonely.  I liked that.

Taken just inland of Sand Point Beach on the Olympic Coast (4th of July)
1/125 second f/2.8 ISO 125 (taken on my Lumix FZ1000)

I used to only like taking pictures of "big views".  You know, from a mountain peak or pass looking out across a large landscape (you will see plenty of these if/when I finally get around to publishing my Stevens to Snoqualmie story), but I have grown to appreciate other pictures, specifically ways of playing with light.  A fair amount of this new interest is owed to my good friend Jack, who has helped spur my photography interest and knowledge in several ways.  On our 4th of July trip to the Olympic Coast he taught me some things to look for when hiking through (what I thought was) a boring forest which resulted in one of my favorite all time pictures.

It was a very clear and bright day, which I'm learning means not-so-interesting pictures because there is not much color in the sky to serve as an interesting backdrop.  So, sadly none of my "big view" pictures turned out very well.  However, I was able to find a few interesting spots along the trail with the sun peaking through leaves or between trees and had a bit of fun playing with these.

Trail along Discovery Park in Seattle
1/60 second f/20 ISO 800

This first shot was hiking north along a bluff along a nicely shaded section of trail.  I had been keeping an eye out for something similar to my favorite Olympic Beach photo and this looked like a good spot.








I had red somewhere that using really high f-stops would result in star-burst type patterns.
My old Lumix FZ1000 only went to f/8 or f/9 on the high end so while it was great for taking landscape photos, I was never able to play with this effect.  So, I decided that for these "sun peaking" shots that I would stop it up to 20 and see what happened.  I liked it and in this situation it pulled off exactly what I was going for.

Trail along Discovery Park in Seattle
1/125 second f/11 ISO 800

We continued followed the trail as it veered west and dropped in elevation toward the Sound / Lighthouse.   As we dropped we entered a more heavily forested area with fairly tall and nicely spaced trees. Hoping to re-create the lovely Olympic Park shot, I stayed here for a while and took several shots.  I noticed a few things while standing
here.




There is a lot of contrast so if I would point the camera toward the sun everything else would be way underexposed.  If I pointed the camera at the trees or the ground, those would be exposed properly, but the sun and trees would be way over-exposed. I was having a tough time at getting a good exposure, and bracketing the shot really wouldn't work because I was handheld (and I'm not very good at blending layers in Photoshop as you will see below).  I was starting to get Frustrated then remembered Galen telling me that I can do an exposure lock by pressing the * button on the back of the camera.  Re-armed with this knowledge I took several shots exposing on different areas then pointing the camera at the sun and taking the shot.  Honestly, while I'm not too impressed with how it turned out, it was a fun learning exercise.

"Final" Lighthouse shot composed of 2 layered exposures

We made it do the lighthouse WELL before sunset.  I was pretty sure that we weren't going to be able to hang out until the sun went down (remember me saying going out with a newborn is difficult), so I was falling back on my idea of getting the sun "in" the lighthouse so it looked like the lighthouse was on.






Andrew had different plans.  While I was waiting for the sun to go down he managed to eat, twice, and poop. . .three times.  We were out of diapers and had a very unhappy baby. I was able to convince Kyra to give me 5 minutes so I could try taking multiple exposures and blending them in Photoshop (thanks Kyra!).

I took three exposures all at f/22, ISO 100. The first was to expose for the sun, the second for the foreground, and the third for the shadows.  In the end I only ended up using the first two.

RAW Shot exposed for the sun
1/100 second f/22 ISO 100

RAW Shot exposed for foreground
1/10 second f/22 ISO 100

Lessons Learned:

While taking and processing these pictures (RAW images below for anyone interested) I noticed a few interesting things about high f-stops.  The first is that they under-expose quite a bit you really need to lengthen the exposure time (couldn't do while handheld) or crank up the ISO which adds a bit of noise.  The second lesson is that you lose clarity/sharpness.  While that isn't too noticeable in these pictures, it was fairly noticeable in some photos that I didn't process, and can also be noticed in my yet-discussed SODO blue hour photo (to come). Also, in less-than-bright lights I ended up with a fair bit of camera shake if I didn't crank the ISO.

Exposure lock is a good tool if you are handheld and shooting in strongly contrasted lighting situations.

Luminosity masks are very helpful.There are a lot of extensions and I learned a bit about luminosity masks while trying to combine the lighthouse exposures.  The concept is pretty cool, and using luminosity masks is actually quite easy to do, but very difficult to do right and make it look good. I by no means claim I did it correctly, nor made it look good in my lighthouse shot, but it is a learning experience.  I am going to try similar shots in the future to practice.

RAW shot.
As you can see, the lower half is fairly under-exposed. It wasn't that big of a deal as I didn't really  want to capture the roots, I was more interested in the sun and the leaves. Post processing consisted of cropping and highlighting the image.

RAW shot.
Similar to the one above, even when playing with exposure lock I couldn't quite get enough light from the trees.
Additionally, even though this was f/11 instead of f/22, I still think that the sun starburst is a bit strong. Oh well
Post processing was cropping and highlighting.

Have to slip in a picture of Kyra (and Andrew, though you can't see him).
I love you Kyra!