Sea Stripes

Inspired by Katherine Gendreau, these pictures was taken at Spring Lake and Belmar Beach in New Jersey. The idea is simple, just by panning your camera horizontally over the long exposure. The composition is simple too, with just a few elements - sky, sea and sand. Yet, the creativity are endless - it is the weather, time of the day, lighting condition, movement of cloud and tide that create the infinite combination of color, pattern and mood.

If you have a chance, take a look at the sea stripes series by Katherine Gendreau. Her works are magnificent! 

Pipe Creek Vista Revisit

This is definitely the most beautiful sunset I have ever seen in my life. Pipe Creek Vista at the Grand Canyon National Park offer a majestic view of the already amazing geological formation. The view is absolutely breathtaking, although the photographing and post-processing render a big challenge for me. The high contrast of the sky and canyon forced me to take two different exposures and then blended in Photoshop. Further, the hazy view of canyon and the high contrast color at dusk render another challenges for post-processing. 

This was the 5th time I processed the same photos. When I review my earlier processing, they look quite different but I felt that the current version is getting closer to what I envisioned and how I feel at that short but excited moment when I stood on the edge of canyon. Perhaps this is due to the vision change - your skill changes, your "mind eye" is evolving, your mood at the time of processing, and/or perhaps something arose your feeling on the moment when you press the shutter.

Sunrise at Sunset Beach

Sunset beach is a tourism hotspot in Cape May, New Jersey. From here, you can see the famous wreckage of a concrete ship SS Atlantus and Cape May Lighthouse. Besides, a flag raising-lowering ceremony which takes places every morning and evening from May through September. This ceremony has been taking place on Sunset beach since 1973.  

As the name implied, Sunset beach is famous for its beautiful sunset. Nevertheless, I was here to capture the beauty of Sunset beach during the sunrise. When the sun gradually climb up the horizon, upper part of the pier pilings were lit up by the warm light. This combined the cool color of the sea and sky, producing a strong contrast of color. Although this magical moment doesn't last long, I still used the 10-stops ND filter to smooth out the water.

July 4th at Manasquan Reservoir

In the morning of July 4th, I woke up at 3 a.m. and drove to the Manasquan Reservoir County Park for the sunrise shot. It is a beautiful little park in the Howell Township, Monmouth County of New Jersey. Manasquan reservoir is an important part of the water supply in Monmouth County, with a 4 billion gallon water capacity, it supply up to 30 million gallons of water a day for the resident of Central New Jersey. The reservoir is part of the larger county park of 1204 acres that include woods and wetlands, a 5-mile trail, fishing and boating areas, and a environmental center.

Other than recreational and outdoor activities, Manasquan Reservoir is a charming place for photography, thanks to the dead trees that are standing still in the water. We arrived at the reservoir half an hour before sunrise and I still had some time to scout around for good composition - the point is to have the dead trees well separated on the picture. About 10 minutes before sunrise, the color of the cloud and sky getting incredibly vibrant - it was the most dramatic dawn I have ever seen since I moved to US. The color doesn't last long and it was totally gone in just a few minutes, I was fast enough to capture the right moment. We stayed for a while and walked around the park in hope of finding another good spot for the next photography outing.