If it rains anymore this island will soon be underwater. Earlier in the day the sky just opened up and it rained and rained. Everything I see is wet and getting wetter. This is not what I wanted to occur on my days off. I had so many plans to get things done but mother nature would have none of it.
    There was a miracle between 3pm and 5pm this afternoon. It actually stopped raining! This was just what I was waiting for so I grabbed my photo bag and went out the door. I figured all this water must be backing up somewhere so I went to visit the fresh water streams on the island. Usually they are shallow, meandering and slow moving. Just as I thought today they were pretty flooded. By no means were they niagra falls but by island standards they were raging.
    Just like last week I dragged my nice camera and lens into this wet,wet weather. I will never learn my lesson but when I get caught up in a nice scene I get a photo fever and forget all else. Even the drizzle falling on my digital electronics. But I dodged another bullit and hopefully my camera will live to shoot again.

    The island is drab,drab,drab. The woods are a solid gray and the empty branches look like skeleton hands reaching into the sky. You can feel a change ready to come up, just below the surface, but not enough is showing yet.
    So when I drive by something colorful you can smell rubber as I stamp on my brakes to get a photograph. The island nurserys are just opening and showing off their goods. This flower display in West Tisbury was just what I needed. You need sunglasses just to look upon its bright colorful glow compared to everything else around me.

    Lately I have been aquiring some new toys. A couple new flashes,some stands to mount the flashes, some light diffusers and a light meter. what will I do with all these you may ask? The answer is I am not sure! Seriously I hope to try for some nice portraits and scenic creations using off camera flashes. The puzzle for me will be combining all these new toys together so the  finished photo will show no sign of them. In other words the artificial flash light will have to blend perfectly with the ambient light. I have been trying to read up on all the rules and theories of this art, but my brain cells are having trouble absorbing it all. It is time to stop studying and time to try it. So hopefully the warmer weather to come will allow me more practise time. While waiting around at my work I was able to set up my camera and two flashes, nobody was available to model for me, so down I sat.

    This is day two where I did not believe I would have a chance to go out and practise photography. The forcast was for rain all day,which it did, but there was a part of the day where the rain did not fall. The sky was a solid white and not very attractive. So on days like this I usually look down toward my feet and see what is happening.
    Surprising, for such a overcast and drab day, there was bright colors hiding down low. So out came the macro lens and I weny hunting for anything bright. The moss and pine needles in the state forest were glowing and the shells lying around menemsha showed more color than a vase of flowers.

    This is what I like about photography. Yesterday I was disappointed with my shots. I drove up island and down and could not find a nice scene that combined beautiful light and interesting composition. Today was just the opposite. I came across a nice light and good scenery on all my stops. The weather forcast for today was rain. I did not even expect to have a chance to go out. But instead of rain there was only a slight overcast and a lingering fog. This diffused the sunlight nicely.
    On days when the sky is bright I like to use a brand of filter called singh ray. Its a nuetral density filter that is 4"x6" that I can hand hold in front of my lense. Its darker on the top and gets clear toward the bottom. This allows me to effectivly darken the bright sky but leave my subject bright.
   Again the island was peaceful and quite. The temperture was pleasent and almost no wind blew. It was a nice day.

    Sunday was the first day I had time to go out and photograph. It was a beautiful day with nice light. You could feel the season really changing. I had all my gear ready to go, a big cup of coffee and a full tank of gas in the car. And you know what? I could not find anything to photograph! I came up empty, struck out, whiffed.
    Even though tempertures are rising and spring is coming, the trees are still bare and most things are still very brown. One interesting fact I observed was while I was driving up island along south road the grass was still yellow but driving back along north road all the grass along the road was green! Funny to see such a difference on such a small island.
    I missed a nice shot as I was standing outside totally  unprepared with no camera in my hand (it was still in the car) Two majestic swans flew low right over me. It would have been great to capture that moment. I did see some returning ospreys doing some house keeping in aquinnah.

    Yes it is windy, yes it is cold, but it is just a little warmer than last week, and next week will be just a little warmer than today. These times have to be my favorite time to photograph on the island. The last week of weather was just awful. Today was sunny and bright. The wind is still cold but not too bad. The thing that is so special is that there are so few people crowding you out. At Gay Head today I was the only person there!! Can you imagine not one car in the parking lot, none of the resturants open, no tourist asking what i am doing. It is so special to have these wonderful scenes in their natural state. I truely love it.
    I am trying to adjust my camera manually for all its bright colors and white balance. I have made many mistakes and it seems like I will never get better. But to sit and set up my tripod over looking Gay Head and have all the time in the world to adjust and re-adjust was a terriffic day for me.

    You would think I would have learned my lesson by now. The weather is bad but it is my day off, so I have to do my photography. The only thing I imagine that is worse for a digital camera than misty rain is salt spray! so where do you think my first stop of the day was? Katama...what was I thinking! It was windy and wet and I forgot to mention the blowing sand. And what makes it all the more frustrating is I did not walk away with many great photos. It took me about a hour to clean my stuff. I probably will do it again too!

    What a nice change to not see the ocean. Don't get me wrong, nobody loves island life more than me, but thats where I do all my photography. It was great to be on dry ground and take a walk in the woods.
    Another change for me was to go out earlier in the day and use the nice bright sunlight to brighten things up. I tend to rely on dusk and sunset to add color to my photography. My excersise in using all manual setting on my camera continues. I really enjoy the freedom and added creativity it gives you. So between the bright light and new settings I really wanted to make the photos pop.
    There is a definite change to the weather. Just last week we were living through snow storms and low low temps. Look at these scenes today. What a change!  (and if you didn't know already, just click on the photos and they will enlarge.)

    A new direction I hope to try is people photography. I do not really enjoy modeling but prefer natural settings. But I am going to try both. I knew my sister was enjoying the warmer weather and was painting outside at Owen Park. So I tagged along and snapped away.