Epic Sunrise...

Popham Beach Stae Park.

Best Time To Be At The Beach.......

This is what I did on my birthday last week.

Clouds on The Move.......

This image shows why I wasn't able to get a clear photograph of the milkyway during my last visit to Popham, which would've been behind me. This is facing west and the glow on the horizon are the lights of Cape Elizabeth and Portland. Even though they're miles away the long exposure really makes them show up, the 30 second exposure also causes the clouds to streak as they head east.

A Little Later, Fire on The Coast....

This image was taken a little while after the photo I posted last week.

Pre Sunrise on The Coast...

Here’s another example of when sometimes plans don’t go according to plan. Last Sunday I drove to Popham Beach for 3 AM hoping to get photos of the milkyway over Fox Island. Well, despite clear skies when I left the house there was a thin cloud cover at the coast. I did spend a couple of hours photographing the night sky because stars were still visible, I just couldn’t clearly see the milkyway. It was almost 5 AM when I decided to call it quits on the stars but figured there might be some potential for a good sunrise. The clock sprung ahead that morning so the sun was not due to rise until almost 7 AM. I went back to the car to kill some time, I wanted to be back on the beach by 6 because on the coast, the sky starts to brighten at least an hour before the sun actually gets above the horizon (nautical twilight). This is the first image I took after walking back to the beach. It was still very dark and I could see no color in the sky with the naked eye. I exposed for 30 seconds at f/8, ISO 400 figuring I'd get a blue hour type of image but this is what showed up on my display after exposure. I knew then I made the right decision to hang around and my guess for a good sunrise was correct. I spent the next hour taking photos of the sky as it really lit up, this is one of those times where I was glad I decided to hang around.

Standing Guard...

I'm still trying to improve my night photography techniques. I took this photo a couple of weeks ago at Popham Beach. As the season progresses the milkyway slowly moves west across the night sky. The lights of Portland show up on the right of this image, if I had been in this same spot earlier in the summer the milky way would've been more south and to the left, so directly over the ocean and I would not have picked up any lights, the lights reflecting off of the haze in the distance didn't help. All I would've had to do is move my camera position to the right so the milkyway would've still lined up with the life guard tower. That's the challenge with this type of photography, finding an area there is truely dark, in this day and age it's difficult but not impossible. Maybe next month I'll go further north and away from city lights.

Daybreak....

Here's another winter beach shot. It was a different day than the last beach photos I posted and in this one you can get a better sense of how deserted the beach was. That's Fox Island the sun is rising over. I'm sure anyone that has ever been to Popham knows, you can walk out to the island during low tide.

Beach Sunrise...

I took these shots a few winters ago at Popham Beach. I like going to the beach early in the morning in the winter, I have it all to myself. On this particular morning there was not another soul in sight for as far as the eye could see in both directions.