Misty mornings

Some mornings are just magical; the light on visible moisture can be lovely. Last night a cold front came through, making this an incredibly picturesque dawn...the sunlight on the mist was absolutely amazing. Although I was walking Ralph and didn't go back for the 5D, these shots from the G9 are still interesting...it is hard while walking a dog to stop to compose an image.

The lichens are really fascinating this year, too..the first image shows the variety of colors on one rock.

Canon G9 at the beach

Finally have a chance to write; the weather here today is in the 70s: that is a very good thing.

After the vicious winter we had, it is a welcome sight to see the skunk cabbage coming up...I will try to get some shots near the brook this week..

All of these images were shot with the Canon G9 at Second Beach in Newport a week or so ago; at the far right of the shore, there are some fascinating rock formations...the advantage of a good quality point and shoot is portability and fun. I stress the fun part because the camera is relatively small and light, and on the whole takes excellent images without hauling around a tripod. It is my scouting camera, used to take shots when I don't have the slr with me or just to practice composition. It will shoot in Raw but that is seldom used: if there is something truly remarkable, the 5D and tripod will come out...

David Middleton Workshop

David Middleton, the well-known nature photographer based in Vermont, came to Rhode Island to conduct a workshop for PSRI...I was fortunate to have attended with other enthusiastic photographers from our Photographic Society...it was an intense three day workshop, one in which David was able to take us from our comfort zones and challenge our creativity. His patience and humor in the review sessions never wavered.

Since I am primarily a landscape photographer, it was a challenge for me to shoot the docks at Galilee; we were not allowed to use our comfort lenses (for me it is the Canon f4 17-40mm wide angle); this lens and the 70-200mm are my favorites...I shot a lot of the images for the workshop, and all of the ones here in blog, with my f2.8 24-70mm street zoom...and they were all hand-held with higher ISO's then I usually would use..for these it was 400..for most landscapes on tripod, my ISO is usually 50 or 100...

I have never had so much fun being creative, looking at lobster boats and trawlers; things I would have dismissed in the past as not worth photographing. It was an eye opener, to say the least; there were some images that surprised me with their graphic beauty. I recommend him highly as a workshop leader; this is the first time I have been challenged to exit my comfort zone and just have fun creating images.