Heavy Heart
Storm passing by Port Townsend, Washington.
Storm passing by Port Townsend, Washington.
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Dec, 2015Views
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markphoto4u
March 13, 2016
Are you kidding me with these clouds? Great capture, and excellent exposure.
Same photographer See allBehind The Lens
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Behind The Lens
Location
One morning on my walk over to grab a cup of coffee from the Port Townsend Maritime Center coffee shop, I spotted this storm developing over the Admiralty Inlet. It was pretty striking, glad I had my camera!Time
If I recall, it was just about 8 in the morning, as I was just to work, and heading over for a cuppa from the coffee shop.Lighting
Ah the sunrise time light was so cool, that sun only on the lower part of the cloud. There was cloud cover over the hills, but the sun to the right side of the image, so the sunlight was sliding in under those clouds, casting its light only down low.Equipment
I had my (at the time) new Olympus E-PL3, with the Panasonic Leica 20mm f1.7 on there. Pretty much the best small package big picture combination I could have hoped for then. I didn't have a tripod (who carries a tripod to get a cup of coffee :) ) but I did have a handrail to set the camera on, so I took advantage.Inspiration
That heaviness and motion, the contrast, the expectancy of the storm, it was pretty much begging to be captured. I set the camera there, framed up the shot with the head of the cloud pushed up against the right to give a sense of motion, but not so far as to get a bunch of the harbor in the picture. I knew that the high contrast was going to be an issue, so I did a 3 shot exposure for HDR and stood there watching for a few minutes more as the sun lost itself behind the other clouds and the show was over.Editing
Absolutely, I post process all of my images pretty much. This was shot anticipating putting it through Photomatix HDR software because I could see the high amount of contrast would be too much for the little 4/3 sensor. Still, even after that, there is some noise and artifacting from the process. I don't mind too much, the effect is still there, the contrast of the scene, the color, it's as I wanted it in my head, pretty powerful.In my camera bag
Nowadays I have a primary bag consisting of a Sony A7II, the kit 28-70mm, and several Mamiya 645 lenses and an adapter for them. I LOVE shooting the Mamiya 150mm on this camera, so sharp, SO much fun! I am a very big fan of manual film lenses on mirrorless cameras. I also have an entire Fuji X system with a bunch of old manual lenses. The results off either are pretty satisfying, and worth repeating, very fun to use.Feedback
This image would be a lot easier today with my Sony, as it has the range to capture this in one go, and without the HDR software, there would be less noise and ghosting in the waves. Storms happen in coastal towns quite often, it pays to have a good weather-resistant setup handy when they roll in.
