This is a shot along the path to Kingsley Plantation on St. George Island State Park in northeast Florida. This image has an Indian Summer filter giving it a totally different look. Not normally my style but at first glance I kind of liked it, but now not sure. What’s your thoughts?
Iceplant accents cliffs along the Big Sur coastline, late afternoon
This image was taken last January along the California coastline near Big Sur. Without a doubt the coastline south of Monterey and Big Sur has some of the most beautiful coast in all of California, if not the entire pacific coastline. It was getting late in the afternoon this day and it looked as though there would not be much of a sunset due to clouds and what looked like a fog bank beginning to form of the coast. This allowed for somewhat diffused lighting and I knew this would tend to help saturate colors without any harsh shadows. What appealed to me here was the patterns of Sea Fig (more commonly known as Iceplant) I found on this slope. This weed is everywhere on the trails and cliffs of the California coast. In the summer it has a small magenta colored flower, while in the winter it has red highlights on the plant, as seen here. The patterns of iceplant at this location I believed would be an effective foreground and accenting element to the composition.
I was going to do an image especially for December (Christmas theme), but time and weather conditions did not cooperate; hence, the delayed posting for December. This image was taken a couple of years ago while I was in Yosemite National Park. A winter storm was clearing at Cook’s Meadow which allowed this capture of rather quickly changing weather conditions over Half Dome. I think it might fit the season…Merry Christmas to all.
Starfish left by the low tide at Yaquina Head Lighthouse, Newport, Oregon
The starfish offered excellent foreground elements and they seemed to compliment the barnacle encrusted rocks. The mixture of a slightly more muted midground of seagrass and the shallow surf lead up to the highlighted light house. I always am on the lookout for these types compositions. I love the near-far relationships. This really adds depth to an image. Of course always plan to use a tripod as this requires small apertures (thus longer exposure times) to ensure you have adequate depth of field.
While I was shooting images one afternoon, my wife was off driving about and happened upon an access point to the beach that offered a great view of Yaquina Head. After sharing this find with me, I realized this location offered great potential for a panoramic sunset shot of Yaquina Head. I returned the next evening and walked along the beach until I found some foreground elements that would help in a final composition. As I set up I was careful to align the distant lighthouse above the center of the opening in the nearby basalt rock exposed by the low tide. This alignment of elements and their placement near the left third of the composition in this case (“rule of thirds”) were important. As you will notice your eye goes immediately through the light reflecting surf in the opening between the rocks up toward the lighthouse, and then over to the setting sun. The rock formations in the foreground provide supporting depth to the composition.
Making a panoramic image such as this is slightly more involved than a normal photograph, but not difficult as long as you adhere to a couple of considerations. In this case, while setting up my composition I aligned my camera on the tripod in a vertical orientation. Why vertical? Wouldn’t it seem logical a horizontal panoramic would be made with your camera set in the horizontal position? Of course, and it could be. But if you consider your final image is actually going to be a composite, or a stitching together of several exposures, then its often best to combine vertically oriented images to complete the composite. It will take more images to complete your composition but by doing this you will have 150% more vertical information in your digital file, and consequently more resolution. This is valuable in allowing increased options for print enlargement later.
I had to also take care that my tripod was absolutely level using the spirit leveling bubble on my tripod. Since I would want my camera level as it rotates on the vertical axis it was also important to be sure my camera and was level on the ball head. My ball head has its own spirit bubble level, but you could easily use a separate bubble level that fits in the hot shoe of your camera.
Now, another important consideration is mounting your camera on your tripod head in relation to your lens’ “nodal point”. What is a nodal point, you ask? Well consider the following definition:
…” eitherof two points on the axis of a lens or other optical system, determined by extending an incident oblique ray and the corresponding refracted ray to the axis for the pair of rays that are parallel outside the optical system.” 
Okay…don’t consider the definition. Just know that by locating the nodal point you can eliminate parallax error that would cause all kinds of headaches when trying to stitch together the final images. And finding the nodal point is not as difficult as it might sound. You will make some side-to-side adjustments (very simple) and then fore-aft adjustments. The latter are a little more involved but still not difficult. And once done, you can mark your pano/focusing rail for future reference. I use a Kirk Enterprises macro focusing rail for my panoramas, which works great (another source of good panoramic accessories is Really Right Stuff). Once your camera is mounted you will adjust its position on the rail until its point of rotation is under the camera’s nodal point. How will you know?
Position your camera close to some vertical object such as a door, pole or post. As you look through your viewfinder, locate another vertical object far away and align the far and near vertical objects. Then rotate your pan head until the objects are on the left in the viewfinder, then again until they are on the right. If you notice the near and far objects move in relation to one another, then your camera is not positioned over the nodal point. Adjust the camera’s position on the rail forward or aft and repeat the exercise until the relative movement between the near and far vertical objects is eliminated. You will then have found the nodal point for that lens and focal length. Mark the position on the rail so you will not have to repeat the exercise in the future for this lens.
You will now have your lens mounted on your focusing rail aligned with the nodal point, your tripod level, camera level and ready to make your exposures. What next? Well, for the individual image files there are just a couple of things. You will be taking as many as 5 to seven images (sometimes more) that must later be stitched together in the computer. For best results you need to allow for 20-30% overlap so there is enough information to make a seamless match in the final composite. Use the same exposure (set on manual), same focus, and same white balance. This will help ensure consistent tone and color throughout the image. Don’t use a polarizer as it can cause problems in some cases as you rotate beyond where the sun is falling on a subject at a 90% angle. I always start with taking a photo of my hand and do this again after taking the last shot to be included in the pano. This helps me quickly identify where the image series starts and stops when you are trying to locate them on a card full of images.
Hope these notes are helpful and the internet is also full of tips and advice on this subject. For something different, give it a try.
Pre-Dawn Light, Yaquina Head Lighthouse, Newport, Oregon
Fogarty Creek State Park is located 2 miles north of Depoe Bay, Oregon off of Highway 101. A trail leads under the highway to the beach, which offers basalt rock formations to complement a pacific sunset. The area purportedly has some of the best tide pooling and bird watching on the Oregon coast, but I actually had better luck with those activities a little further south. This is a nice location, nonetheless.
Depoe Bay, Oregon Coastline
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