I took my Nikon out for a stroll this morning and the results are probably terrible. I went to Salisbury Beach and even though the weather reports said the sky was clear, there was pretty heavy cloud coverage. I got there with less than 15 minutes to spare before the sunrise and I dicked around, thinking I wasn’t going to get anything, and then poof the clouds on the horizon cleared and there was the top tip of the sun. I scrambled to get back on track and I am sure I screwed it all up. On an unrelated note, the waves were the biggest I’ve ever seen in Massachusetts. There must be a storm out there somewhere.

I drove back to Methuen and decided to hit a couple of spots that I have hit in the past. I remained water-focused and went to the city boat ramp on the Merrimack. The sky was gloomy (too early in the morning combined with some clouds, I bet) and the river was dead still. Nothing special will come out of that.

Next I went to a little park on the Spicket River on Osgood Street, but the damn was closed and there was barely any water to speak of. Also, the river bank is massively overgrown and I really couldn’t get anywhere near it. I gave up and went home.

I tried using manual settings but I think everything I did was garbage. I haven’t unloaded the camera yet, but just judging by the tiny little view screen I think all of my manual stuff is crap. I tried to use a thing Larry clued me in on, the Sunny 16 Rule. You set the aperture to F/16, then set the shutter speed to the reciprocal of the ISO speed. I was set at either 400 or 200 ISO so I set the shutter speed at 1/400 or 1/200 and I got a smidge above black. Apparently the rule doesn’t apply to the light conditions I was seeing. I wish I had seen this page before I left today. I might have had better results. Next time.

Anyway, while I unload the memory card, here’s a pic I snuck in with my phone.