Saturday, February 12, 2011

Why go to Dewey Beach?

This is why...

A woman walks her two greys along the beach

...if for nothing else than to have the opportunity to photograph people and their greyhounds walking on the beach, especially at, or just after, sunrise.

The weather last Columbus Day weekend (when the people and their greyhounds gather) was perfect. But the sunrises on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday were devoid of clouds, and I wanted some. When clouds appeared from the west Sunday evening, I was hopeful that they would still be around the following morning before I left for home. The weather cooperated.

This is the only shot I took of this woman walking her two greyhounds. I was waiting for a perfect greyhound silhouette but the hound in the lead wouldn't look forward, so I ended up almost losing the shot altogether.

I put the sun in the middle of the frame and metered on it, knowing that the woman and the greyhounds would turn into silhouettes. The ISO was set at 200 but I knew I was still going to get a high shutter speed (1/640 sec) and a small aperture (f/13) anyway, and having the 18-200mm zoom set at 18mm meant everything would be in focus. An added plus for me was the clouds throwing shadows towards the zenith.

(Shot with the Nikon D300; 18-200mm zoom at 18mm; 1/640 sec @ f/13; program auto; matrix-metered; auto white balance.)

3 comments:

  1. I notice you didn't mention that you missed the first sunrises! :)

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  2. @adrienne: that is all true; after waking up, i got down to the beach within 30 minutes after sunrise. but monday was the only morning with clouds and i'm glad i caught it.

    @rachel: thanks! i'll get to sandy paws one time and photograph down there, too. i've had a number of people tell i need to go.

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