[#7] Photographing What I See - The Tempest
Sep 20, 2020
I was standing in the surf as it rose and fell around my knees. Holding my tripod and pushing down into the sand, the three inch spikes were doing their best to stay in place. There was so much going on in front of me I just stood there for a few minutes taking it all in. Normally, I think of myself as the artist, as the one with the paintbrush. But standing in the surf, I knew nature was painting the canvas today.
The surf was not rough, but there was a lot of foam and the currents near the rocks were swirling in the breeze. The clouds were not ominous and I wasn’t worried about a storm or lighting. As I saw everything moving I began to notice lines in seemingly random places. The clouds pulled my sight down into the water. Yet, the tide was brushing against the shore and back in making a complete circuit around me. The tide swept through me like water going down a drain in oblong circles. It ended where this long cloud poked towards the ocean like a dagger.
Part of photography is visualizing what the image will look like. Even in the early days of film, the contrast and other characteristics of the film and lens changed the scene from what the eyes saw. Ansel Adams pioneered exposing and developing and image to make it what he wanted, not exactly what was in front of him. Artists have long changed reality to fit what they want to create. My photography is no different.
I knew as I watched that this scene would be surreal if I could capture the motion of the sea with the right amount of contrast. I had a wide angle lens setup and started working my exposure. I wanted one long enough to show the movement of the water, but not one too long to smooth out the tide like silky milk froth on a cup of espresso. Instead, it had to have dimension. It swirled back and forth and all around me. I took several dozen images and three or four came out with the true personality of this tide.
The sun was starting to set and had about 30 minutes to go. The clouds in the upper levels were lit brightly with just a touch of golden yellow. The lower clouds were shadowed by the height of the sun. The entire scene had some very bright highlights from those top clouds and I was worried my exposure might not capture all the details. Yet, I had to get the reflection of this perfect light on the ocean’s surface. Those highlights, mixed with the middle and dark tones in the clouds and the cresting waves would make this photograph appear like a painting.
As I began developing this digital negative, I knew I captured what I wanted. I adjusted the contrast a little, mostly using the four major sliders - highlights, shadows, whites and blacks. I adjust the white balance and color balance a little because the camera didn’t guess the way I thought it would. Adding some texture and clarity to the image helped considerably as did some saturation. Raw images, or those that come straight out of the camera need some definition applied. Film does this inherently because there are multiple layers of grain in the negative. Digital images are flat and there is no real depth in the sensor. In the end, you see what I created and you see what I saw when I stood there in the ocean, watching.