Salisbury Beach on Film

Zoom Lens Sunrise

Sunrise

I made it to Salisbury Beach this morning. I took a bunch of pics and I don’t like any of them. I had the ISO set way too high because I set it high when I’m at home and I always forget to lower it when I go outside. It ruined all of my long exposures. Blah.

I think I prefer the 40mm lens to the 28mm lens for the sun itself, but the 28mm is better for the beach as a whole. That makes sense, right?

I had the ND filter on for a lot of these. Not sure which pic is the first one after I took it off.

From here on the ISO is set to 100 instead of 1600.

Sunrise Pics

Success! The cloud cover was non-existent and the weather came through for me! This is Salisbury Beach in Salisbury, Massachusetts. Sunrise was at 5:27am. The first few were before the sun came up. The waves were pretty high for this spot. The tide was pretty high too. I was hoping to be able to go over to the other side of the pier, but I didn’t bother.

To quote Jimi Hendrix, the first rays of the new rising sun

There were film shots too but it could be decades before I get them developed. I used my ebay Nikon with Dad’s zoom lens. That lens really is a piece of shit, but I kinda want to have one full roll shot with it. We’ll see if anything comes out recognizable as sunrise at the ocean pics. I definitely got to get myself a new lens for that camera.

Right then, I have finally done a photo-trip this summer! There were two more quick stops, but you’ll see those in the next post. You might say I have the bug again. There will be more morning photo-jaunts before the weather goes bad. I promise. Sunlight be damned, I am doing more of this!

Long Exposures

I’m back from my beach photo stop. I took my first long exposures with my new camera and lens! They are all 30 seconds, and they are all the same view as I didn’t bother moving the tripod much. Enjoy!

More photos coming soon!

4:15AM

Good morning sunshine.

It’s quarter past four in the morning. I am up and at ’em. My cameras are packed in a backpack (I don’t have an actual camera bag big enough to fit three camera), the cats’ food bowl has been topped off, I have a full water bottle and a protein bar in a lunch bag, I am finishing off my morning vitamins as I type this, I’ve checked the weather forecast for both Hampton Beach and Salisbury Beach and it’s the same partly sunny for both.

I guess the only thing left to do is decide which beach to drive to and hope the horizon is clear there. Fingers crossed. Also, where do I want to stop for more pictures on the way home? I’m thinking of the Plumb Island lighthouse again. It’s not very impressive as a lighthouse or as a lighthouse setting, but it is a lighthouse and there are some interesting places to stop on the way there and back.

Okay then… I am making the call. We’re going to Salisbury Beach. Time to load up the car and head out. Wish me sunrise luck!

Notes

Sunrise at Salisbury Beach tomorrow is at 6:14 AM.

The temperature around sunrise will be 29-30 degrees. Brrr.

The sky is forecast to be mostly clear.

Are those conditions good enough to go take some sunrise pictures? The time and the sky look good. 29-30 degrees is a little off putting, but if I wear a warm jacket and take gloves with me… it’s doable.

I remain undecided though. We’ll see.

If I go I will take my Z5 and the 40mm lens, and Dad’s K1000 with the 50mm lens. I would bring a second roll of film in case I get into it and crank out the last 20 shots in the current roll and still want to shoot more. The current roll is color (Fuji Superia 400 at box speed) and a potential second roll would be black and white (Kentmere 100? Or should I try a roll of 400 instead?).

In the immortal words of Commander Data in The Best of Both Worlds Part II, “processing… processing…”.

Disappointing Sunrise Pics

I guess we can call this an upside of digital vs film. I don’t have to wait to see that this morning’s sunrise pics look like shit. I’m not sure what the deal was, meteorologically/atmospherically speaking.

The sky was super hazy. Everything looked like it took a bath in white out. I was expecting that the sun wouldn’t break through. I took a couple of long exposures and ended up with blank white images. I don’t know. I’m just glad I didn’t waste any film. If I had a film camera with me I wouldn’t have used it. I knew these were going to suck.

The good part was that the waves were much bigger than I usually see. The additional bad news was that there were WAY more people than I usually see. The metal detector dudes kept getting in the shots.

Fortunately the sun did break through the haze, even if nothing else did.

I kept fighting the urge to switch back to Auto mode to see if it made any difference. I also kept turning around and shooting stuff behind me and to the sides.

I said I was going to take a couple of pics of the surrounding area, and given the number of people I tried to take a weird, winding, stealthy route back to the car.

After I left the beach I went to Lowell and spent half an hour or so walking around Market Street. Those pics are coming soon. I think I’ll have some breakfast first though.