Watercolors at 30th Street Station, Philadelphia

Trying to perfect my skills at Michael Orton’s famous style. Pretty cool effects, but taking a lot of work to get it right.

I haven’t played at all with doing this in Photoshop, as I like the unpredictable, somewhat uncontrolled results of the multiple exposures. These shots were all taken on multiple exposure mode with auto-gain, 3 shots each. The effect is rendered by taking one focused shot, then stacking two progressively less focused shots on top of it. The second and third shots require lens zoom to correct for the widening of the lens as it is defocused from the original subject.

Nikon D800, AF-S Nikkor D800
@ 24mm, f/7.1, 1/250s, ISO 100

Cambridge Marina, Under the Stars

In my experience, the marina is a difficult subject to photograph. The experience at a marina is always well remembered because of the excitement and anticipation of being out on the water. And let’s not discount the beauty of wood reflected in water, boats floating quietly, and masts slowly tilting back and forth.

Despite all the beauty, the peace and excitement of being there, it remains hard to capture. My thought is that this is because of the immense amount of detail present. You can frame up a mast, or a boat, but it becomes obvious in most compositions, that there’s too much detail, detracting from your intended subject. Now, there are typically techniques you can employ to do away with distractions: shoot wide open (minimize your DOF), shoot tele (with a long, zoomed-in lens) on an important part of your subject, or shoot wide-angle, get really close to your subject so that the viewer becomes distracted by its scale and distortion.

But none of these techniques allow you capture what you really want: the full landscape. Well, I finally got one I really like. I still get somewhat distracted by the hundred masts, but I’m more concerned with the pillars and their reflections, the sky and the stars and an impression of what’s below.

Nikon D800, AF-S Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8G ED
@ 24mm, f/2.8, 15s, ISO 400