Sunrise on Boneyard Beach on Bull Island National Wildlife Refuge near Charleston, SC.
Sunrise on Boneyard Beach on Bull Island National Wildlife Refuge near Charleston, SC.
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Fall Award 2020
Superb Composition
Outstanding Creativity
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Behind The Lens
Location
This image was taken on Boneyard Beach on Bull Island Wildlife Refuge near Charleston, South Carolina.Time
I was on a photography expedition to the barrier islands of South Carolina with eleven other photogs. Our guides had us up at 4AM to meet the ferry that took us to the beach in time to catch the early morning light. I had been capturing images all over the beach for about 2 hours when one of our guides made the last call to catch the ferry back to the mainland. I turned around and there was my image. I quickly moved my tripod in position, composed and fired off some shots. Didn't realize what I had until I downloaded the image to my laptop. At the time I felt extremely tired and just thought it was because of the lack of sleep. When I got home the next day I had a fever of 103. When I told my doctor what I had done, he said that I was lucky I didn't collapse during my time on the beach. I guess that says a lot about what photography will do to a person.Lighting
The day and night before we had tremendous wind and rain storms and knew the front was moving east and out to sea. Sure enough when the first light shone through the clouds in the distance it made for a great morning of shooting with dramatic lighting.Equipment
I used a Canon EOS 6D mounted on a Manfrotto tripod with a Giotto head. The lens was a Canon EF 17-40mm f/4L and I attached a ND4 graduated filter.Inspiration
I had been taking photographs all over the beach the whole morning and when they issued the last call for the ferry back to the mainland I turned around and the scene just jumped at me. There was the tree bowing down to the rising sun! I quickly shot the scene.Editing
This was a bracketed seven-image exposure taken into Photomatix Pro for tone mapping. I then brought it back to Adobe Light Room for adjustments for exposure and white and black levels. I then took it to Adobe Photoshop for levels adjustment and then to Topaz DeNoise for slight noise adjustment.In my camera bag
Canon EOS 6D camera with several Canon wide to normal zoom lenses. I have an ND graduated filter system and several regular ND filters of varying strengths for long exposures. I have a Promote Control auto-bracketing device that helps with bracketed exposure times that exceed the 30 second exposure limit of the camera.Feedback
Make sure you are aware of your surroundings. I just happened to see this at the last minute!