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Title: Heron and Mount Rainier
Location: Double Bluff Beach, Whidbey Island, Washington, USA
Settings:
| ISO | 100 |
| Focal Length | 190mm |
| Shutter Speed | 2.5 seconds |
| Aperture | f/40 |
| Exp Comp | +1 stop |
| Camera | Canon T1i |
| Lens | Canon 28-300mm L |
| Time Of Day | 3:57pm 13 minutes before sunset |
This shot took some experimenting and a fair bit of post processing, which I tend to avoid but I had a certain picture in mind. Shots of the heron at a ‘regular’ shutter speed of 1/8th and f/8 just weren’t working for me. As you can see the water is fairly calm but there was that one small shore break behind the heron. With a faster shutter speed, that wave was frozen and looked out of place. So I decided to blur things a little. Pushing my 28-300mm lens to its smallest aperture of f/40 gave me a shutter speed of 2.5 seconds. It took me about 6 shots to get one where the heron was still enough for that long. I also jockeyed back and forth, hurriedly, to frame the shot in a decent manner.
In post-production I removed some sensor spots made apparent by the small aperture. I then leveled the horizon and made a copy of the background in Photoshop. I masked the water from shoreline to the bottom. Bumping up the contrast a bit, I removed a bit of blue saturation after upping the overall saturation. I also brought the white point way in to darken things a bit. Masking the top section from shoreline to sky, I increased saturation until it appeared as I remembered for just an hour before. The sun was pretty intense as it was setting over the Olympic Mountains to my right, shining brightly on Mount Rainier and the coast. I also fiddled with the contrast to create a bit more distinction between the mountain and sky (the slow shutter speed had reduced that somewhat).
In the end, this isn’t my normal type of shot. But I wanted to play with something way softer than I’m used to and more pastel. This bird and I were alone on the beach that night and I wanted to convey some of that solitude. I hope you enjoy it.
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Photograph Copyright Peter West Carey
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Lovely! And you were so lucky to get a clear day in the winter.
I just showed my husband, and we’re both quite nostalgic now (we’re from Seattle, but have been in Peru for the past 3 months).
Cheers for that,
Jessie
This shot looks more like a painting than a photo. Absolutely gorgeous. I love Mt Rainer.
What a hauntingly beautiful shot! I enjoyed my own visit to Mt. Rainier so much, this photo makes me feel peaceful and relaxed remembering it. Thank you!
Great shot! I’m surprised the heron stayed still long enough for it (looking at the shutter speed).
Excellent photo. I like how the mountain is very faint, almost like and illusion.