Tag: wponthego

Bodie Island Lighthouse Observation Deck

A shot from the observation deck of the Bodie Island Lighthouse taken on the last day of a family vacation to the Outerbanks.

A shot from the observation deck of the Bodie Island Lighthouse taken on the last day of a family vacation to the Outerbanks, NC. The weather was mostly overcast the whole week, and I had capture very of the shots I had planned for the week.

I didn't have a chance to visit the Bodie Island Lighthouse during our vacation to the Outerbanks. The kids didn't think it was interesting and Bhavana didn't think her knees could handle the strain.

To be fair, the lighthouse is about a 30-minute drive from our vacation house. It was a big ask to ask them to endure a one-hour round car ride so that I could spend 30 minutes capturing some images. But on the drive out from town, I convinced them to stop and climb with me.

Of course, the weather was near perfect on the last day of the vacation. My wife was feeling sorry for me, so she didn’t complain when I asked to stop and see the lighthouse.

We arrived just in time. The wind had picked up and was so gusty that the observation deck was closing. We were the last visitors allowed up top.

I wasn't authorised to take my tripod up to the observation deck, but I captured a few images handheld with the Nikon and one with my iPhone 6. I shot this handheld in what felt like 15 mph winds and just after shooting, the lighthouse supervisor told me he was closing the observation deck. I was the last one allowed up that afternoon. The observation deck was closed.

Saturday 5 September, 2015 | Nikon D5100 | 12-24 mm f/4 | f/8.0 | ISO 100

Here's the iPhone version.

Virew from the Bodie Island Lighthouse | Saturday 5 September, 2015 | Apple iPhone 6 | iPhone 6 back camera 4.15mm f/2.2 | f/2.2 | ISO 32

Almost Sunrise

[exif id="19264"]

It's our second day here in the Outer Banks and I am already starting to losing track of which day of the week it is. It feels like Sunday -- again. Today, as we yesterday is cloudy. I was exhausted so didn't get up until around 6:30 AM. I looked out the west-facing entrance and saw the orange glow of the sunrise from the beach. I excitedly rushed to put on some shorts before running out the door with my camera. But the journey to the beach took to long. The sand between the land and the beach was too soft and got bogged down. I arrive at the beach too late to capture the glory of this mornings' sunrise.

I found a dune and set up the camera to capture the last bit of orange in the sky. While setting up the camera I notice small piercing bits of pain all over my legs. It took me a while to realise that some small black flies -- so tiny it was to even see them in the dim morning light -- had covered my legs and my pants. Ouch!

This is a three image HDR shot as a long exposure on my Nikon D5100 with a Tokina 12-24mm f/4 AT-X Pro DX-II and Hoya 77mm NDx400 HMC neutral density filter at ISO 100 f/11. The images were combined in Nik's HDR Efx Pro. I normally used Photomatix Pro. That software is installed on my iMac but I am editing with my MacBook Air and I forgot to install Photomatix Pro before the trip.

I used a filter adapter to use the 52mm Hoya on the 77mm score size of the lens. I cropped the image to reduce some shadows at the edge. The following was applied to the HDR image in Adobe Lightroom.

  • Exposure: 0.95
  • Contrast: +25
  • Whites: +44
  • Blacks: -9
  • Clarity: +17