Icy Tettegueche sunrise (II9357)
Dec, 2013Views
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Top 10 rankSame photographer See allBehind The Lens
Behind The Lens
Location
This image is taken at the shore of Lake Superior, on a rocky beach in Tettegouche State Park, just north of Silver Bay, Minnesota.Time
6:49 a.m. on a VERY cold February morning in Minnesota! There was some wind coming off the Lake that made the morning feel even colder than the air temperature, and even with several layers on this was a challenging scene to work.Lighting
The only lighting in this image is the sun just beginning to clear the horizon. The beach at Tettegouche faces south-east, and the Winter sun rises low to the south, so the colors in the sky are from the sun as it pops up to start the day. No fill-fash, no reflector bounce, just the first light of the sun.Equipment
This was shot with a Canon 5D Mark II and a Rokinon 14mm F2.8 lens. Exposure was 1/5 of a second at ISO 100, and (obviously) the camera and lens were tripod-mounted.Inspiration
I have often shot at this Tettegouche beach, which had the only lake arch on the U.S. side of Lake Superior (unfortunately, the arch fell down in August of 2010) and always presents a different aspect, depending on what the Lake is doing that day. I was astounded when I clambered down to the beach to find these giant, lily-pads of ice floating at the edge of the water. They were several feet across, and as the wind blew they rocked back and forth, clinking as they bounced off each other! This was a Lake phenomenon which I had never seen before (and have not seen since.) I abandoned my plans to shoot the lake stack and turned all my attention to these ice-pads. The best composition of the morning was this one, taking in the sweep of the frosty shoreline encirclying the pond of ice-pads. The scene represents to me the essence of the North Shore: wild and unpredictable, beautiful and severe.Editing
The only unusual processing was a bit of perspective adjustment to reduce the inherent optical distortion in the 14mm lens. I shoot in raw, so the file was sharpened and had the usual touch of contrast adjustment via a Photoshop curve layer.In my camera bag
These days my bag has my current body - a Pentax 645Z - and a mix of lenses, probably a 35mm, 55mm. 80-160mm zoom, maybe my 120mm macro. I'll have a backup body, a couple of batteries, two or three SD cards, cleaning kit, filters (graduated neutral density, 4-stop neutral density, 16-stop neutral density), external flash, Hoodman viewer, first aid kit, bag of small essentials (screwdrivers, spare lens and body caps, wrench for tripod legs, headlamp and batteries…), a lightweight rain cover for the body and lens, and a fold-up scrim/reflector. I'll also have my iPad Air 2, which I use with an Eye-Fi card in the 645Z to show me (almost) instant large-scale reviews of my images as I shoot. I have become very spoiled having that huge screen to check each shot; it gives me a much better understanding of the composition, focus, and dynamic range of the the shot than the review screen on the camera.Feedback
The adage about "f8 and be there" is amazingly accurate. I had no idea I would find this unique natural scene when I got out of bed at 4:30 that February morning. i did know that I needed to be on the beach, tripod and camera fully set up, at least 20 minutes before sunrise, to see what the sky and sun were going to present for colors that day, and I knew from previous trips how to get to the shoreline and where I probably needed to set up for good shots. That understanding of the location let me focus on the unexpected scene and work efficiently before the light changed. My advice is to scout promising locations during those mid-day hours when the light is not conducive to inspiring images, to take test shots and plan (in general) the way you intend to approach shooting in a particular location, and to give yourself plenty of time to be in location and ready to work before the light begins to be interesting. The Boy Scout motto - "Be Prepared" - is an excellent one for photographers, too: having your gear and your imagination prepared in advance for a sunrise shot tremendously increases the chances you will come back with a "keeper" image.
