Photo Saunter of Blue contemplation, Part 1 Early Morning and the Beach

Long Branch NJ 1-15-10 - a set on Flickr

The Purpose of January 15 2009 was to try and shoot in manual mode as much as possible. I brought with me my Nikon D90 ,18-105mm f/3.5-5.6G lens , 28-80mm f/3.3-5.6G lens and my Sigma 70-300mm f/4-5.6 lens. To summarize the day 7 hours of actual photo walking , about 3 hours on trains, 500+ images taken,1 expensive but very good fresh pastrami on rye , 1 beer, 1 bad cup of coffee, 1 decent cup of coffee, cold but lots of sun and a hell of a lot of learning.

The Day started at 4:30 in the morning, I could not sleep . After gathering my stuff and watching a little tv, I caught the 6:08 train to New York. It was the fastest transfer point to the Longbranch train . When I got to New York, I had to wait about thirty Minutes for next train . So I decided to go get a *gasp non coffee drink, something specific. While I’m walking to a store all I hear I “help me help me help me“ from an old voice, behind me, an old man was falling. I got the cops (never pick up anyone in New York without permission, get a cop if you see one or call 911 ASAP) and that was the beginning of the day, rather dramatic. I got my drink then off to the train.

Anyhoo After a LONG train ride, I arrived at Longbranch, NJ . A beach town, that in the winter, seems Really quite. It was fantastic, there were 4 people on the whole beach as for as the eye could see, at any given time. The morning was a cold but highly enjoyable experience. I learned a lot using all three lenses that I brought with me.

What I focused on learning here was how to use the manual mode on the D90, it was easy, I just lacked confidence. Anyhooo I actually cheated, at first. I used auto, to give myself a base setting, to give me a path for the light I was in.. There was so much light from the sun, I had t adjust quite a lot. Taking a picture toward the direction of the sun and then in the other direction led to some dramatic changes in the Exposure and Aperture. SO basically all my pictures were practice using that. I took pictures at the beach and the train station while waiting for the train to come in. The water played nice and the wind was kind. There not much more to say on these pictures, so I’ll let them speak for themselves.

I am going to do more beach pictures in the spring, before the season starts.

After I was done in Longbranch, I decided to go to JJ Bitting for some beer pictures, but I slept past the train stop, fail. I woke up in Newark and Continued to New York From there.

Continued in Part 2

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