157/208 + 1

with a 500mm I can snap a shot of the lighthouse from "Osprey" beach ~

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Black Crown Night Heron on the hunt.

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I played hookie from work today and on this rainy afternoon I decided to spend this found time renewing my spirit by taking drive over to the local lighthouse. I have several “challenges” to catch up on and thought of no place I would rather spend this dark, wet afternoon. With the unofficial start of the summer season, on this Memorial Day, the traffic lights will be turned back on and the cars with parade bumper to bumper down Ocean Blvd. Today maybe have been my last chance to take advantage of the empty roads and enjoy the peace of no vacationers. While I certainly have 100s if not 1000s of photos of this Lighthouse, I have none of it in the rainy droplets until now.

10/355 +1

Last year while participating in Project 365, I was inspired to visit all of the New Jersey land based Lighthouses. Phriend and I traveled the coast line making certain to stop off and, of course, photograph each of these guiding lights. I was able to check each one off my list. Phriend had been to all but one. We thought it only fitting to celebrate the start of this year’s Project 365 + 1 by concluding her list of lighthouses.

Hereford Lighthouse (circa 1874) has been guiding sailors through the waters of the Hereford Inlet, which leads from the Atlantic Ocean to the famed Intra-Coastal Waterway linking Maine to Florida.

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As we journey farther and farther into the depths of the cold, dark months of winter, comes the annual turning back of the clocks. While we do get an extra hour in the day to do with what we wish, I do not care for the sun setting at 5:00. In past years I would just cave in, put my jammies on, in what seems like the middle of the afternoon, and mope about the house turning on all the lights.

This year I decided to take a different approach and try to embrace the day instead of dreading it. I called Phriend and as always she was ready for an adventure. With cameras packed, we crossed the bridge, parked ourselves in the sand and waited for the sun to set. I can now take comfort in knowing we are one day closer to Spring.

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Part III ~ Twin Lighthouse

On our way to Sandy Hook we took the short detour up the steep road leading to the mountain top lighthouse. Over the last years I have tried, unsuccessfully, to capture this castle style Twin Lighthouse in it’s entirety. It sits high on a hill, 200 feet above sea level, and when you’re shooting with a 28mm there isn’t room to back up or move over before nearing the cliff's edge. So I have previously posted parts of this light. Last week when I purchased a 10 - 24mm, I knew I wanted to give my new lens a workout at the Twin.

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Part I ~ Sandy Hook

I did not attend the NJ Lighthouse Challenge which took place over this past weekend. But keeping in the spirit, B and I went to Sandy Hook. I have posted this lighthouse previously, most recently on 9-11 when Phriend and I made a ill faded attempt to capture the tribute lights in NYC.

Sandy Hook is the oldest U.S. operational Lighthouse. It stands at the mouth of the Hudson River, the waterway entrance to New York Harbors and is surrounded by a deactivated Army base. This coastal artillery base was commissioned in 1874 and protected the harbor for over 100 years. The gunnisons and batteries are decayed beyond repair and are fenced off making them visible but off limits to visitors.

Yesterday being a warm Autumn day and with B and Willow in tow, we took a walking tour of the area.

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Sorry for the rant today. Yesterday I tried to make light of the adventure Phriend and I were on. But seriously, we should have thought it through. We have seen no less than 1000 photos of the Barnegat Lighthouse and in our quest to capture something a little different. I suggested driving over to the barrier island across from the lighthouse and shooting across the inlet. We haven’t seen many, if any photos, from this view point.

That should have been a hint. Yesterday, we undertook the task of capturing these photos. It wasn’t easy. We had to walk a total of 3 miles through the NJ sugar sand. It’s soft and your feet sink under, making it difficult to walk on. It was high tide, so as to avoid getting the cameras wet, we were unable to walk in the cooling water and we blistered our feet walking on the burning hot sand.  To make matters worse, not realizing we would have to walk such a distance and spend that much time in the sun, we hadn’t used sunscreen. We’re fried, extra crispy.  And I will not mention the number of greenhead fly bites we have.  No wonder, we don’t see many photos from this angle.

I have spent $1000s on my camera and lenses, spent hours learning to edit and texture my photos. Viewed millions of others photos, all in the hopes of improving and learning about my photography. Than with a right click someone else steals the photo and uses it as her facebook profile photo. Really!!

So do I say something, let it go, defriend, or just remain confused as to why people think just because a photo is posted on the internet they have a right to it?

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There is a story to go along with today’s photo. It involves two women with what they thought was a really good idea and ends with two women with blistered feet from burning hot sand. It includes two sun burnt bodies and four incredible tried legs from a three mile (unexpected) walk in fore mentioned burning hot sand.

When Phriend and I discussed capturing our lighthouse from an angle not often seen, we should have taken this as some sort of sign. What were we thinking!

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Playing around with Kim Klassen's newest texture.
Harbor Refuge Lighthouse is a water base lighthouse.
It stands in the Delaware River 
and can be seen while traveling on the ferry
between Lewes, DE and Cape May, NJ. 

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Ever since Courtney posted a tutorial on creating starbursts, Phriend and I have become obsessed with been creating them. Our biggest challenge has yet to be won. We have made several attempts, in this neverending winter, at capturing a night starburst using the revolving light a top our favorite Lighthouse. When the weather warms we will be out trying again. In the meantime, we'll just have to settle for creating these fabulous bursts during daylight hours using the reflecting sun.

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When I decided to undertake Project 365, I wondered if I would be able to take a photo everyday. Well, sure I could, but would it be anything of interest?

I have lived in NJ all my life. I knew of several lighthouses, 3 in fact, but was recently surprised to discovered, we are home to 10 land based lighthouses, 2 light towers, 2 lightships, and 13 water based lighthouses. This peaked my interest. Perfect these would help to complete my 365. I made a plan to visit each of the land based. Today, with my trip to the East Point, I can say I have completed this quest.

I have been to 1 lightship and 1 of the water based, I hope to see the others. A fact which I found of interest, the Statue of Liberty is considered a Lighthouse.

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The sun was shining, the earth was warming and I rejoiced. In celebration of this glorious day Phriend and I went to explore another one of our “local” lighthouses. The Tucker's Beach Lighthouse is a recreation of the original which fell victim to a raging stormy ocean, in 1927. Non the less, it is an replication and even houses the original Frensel lens. It sits in a maritime heritage area surrounded by historical homes and shops. There are demonstrations and classes, if you are so inclined, of decoy carving and basket weaving. We found many photo opportunities and we can now check another lighthouse off our list.

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There is little color present during the cold, dark, bleak, months of winter. On occasion one can find the bright shining colors of berries. These colors, whether blue or red, stand out against the drab gray background. I just can’t seem to pass by without snapping off a few photos. They’re a hidden winter treasure.

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During our visit to Sandy Hook last month to photograph the lighthouse and 1800s Army Base, phriend and I made a quick stop by the Visitor’s Center. As we walked through the door, with cameras and lenses draped around our necks, the Park Ranger inquired as to whether we were there to photograph the migrating birds or Seals. Seals? Who know seals migrated through New Jersey, certainly not I. We ran over to the harbor side of the island it hopes of catching a glimpse of these flippered, whiskered sea mammals. Luck was not on our side and there was not a one.

This past week we made plans to revisit. Our first stop at, what we were told was their favored resting place, we did not see them. Phriend suggested we make seal noises and think “happy thoughts”. All with the hopes this would bring them out from hiding. Sadly all it brought was strange looks from other visitors. We drove to the lighthouse again, watched some snow surfers, and admired the Manhattan skyline. On our way out of the park, we made one more stop to check for the seals and there they were 60 or more lined up in a row, sunning themselves on a sandbar. I was truly amazed, that this migration has been going on for years and I did not know about it. I am glad I do now.

Sandy Hook Lighthouse

Snow Surfing

Harbor Seals

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Last evening, a photo friend and I were practicing night photography. To be more exact, we were trying to create a starburst effect from the light which sits a top our local lighthouse. We had been successfully practicing this effect with Christmas lights and the sun; and after seeing several photographs, of different lighthouses, with fabulous starburst, we knew we needed to have a photo like that of our neighboring guiding light. Off we went on a 19° F night, we set our tripods, adjusted our setting, crossed our fingers and with a remote opened the shutter.

While I am happy with the images we obtained, we were not able to capture the effect we set off after. Perhaps we were too close to the light? Do you need to be further away? Does the light need to be stationary? Ours revolves. I believe I had the correct settings as I did get a burst from the lower illumining tower light. Any suggestions??

I learned, I am getting better at night photography but just when I think I have this down ~ I really don’t!

Please critique, any and all comments are always welcome.

ISO 1600, f/5.6, .77 sec


ISO 800, f/22, 30 sec

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Friday PhotoShare ~

SkyWatch one photo down...


During this pass week, B and I continued to explore our local lighthouses. I spent most of our time clicking and snapping away from every angle while B read all about the history of the guiding lights. I practiced more with night photography resulting in some interesting photographs. However, I will share a photo I took and textured. Kim's class was fabulous, not only did she share her "secrets" of texturing, she taught many tips and tricks to use while working with photoshop.

Please critique, any and all comments are always welcome.

SkyWatch ~

The water is still as glass, the air is crisp and cool and they're coming home after a night's work.
Hopefully the catch was good.

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Blue SkyWatch ~

I knew of 3 local lighthouses. Recently after doing an internet search, to my surprise, I discovered there are actually 12 land based and 11 water based lighthouses. There are, also, 2 lightships all within an hour drive. We plan on visiting them all. I had known of the one pictured for years but had not make the trip to visit. One glorious day last week, I packed up my camera and with my husband in tow, headed up to take some photographs. We can now check this one off the list.

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Friday PhotoShare ~

My husband and I took an evening trip to our closest lighthouse the other evening. I started to photograph with the recommended ISO 200, f/11, 30 sec. I understand this was a good setting to capture the star created by the flashing light. This produced a very dark image and foolishly I bumped the f stop to f/22. Wrong! What I got was black photo with one tiny white speck. Than it dawned on me to turn the f-stop down, I turned it to f/5.6 and to my surprise there was an actual image on the screen!! I was so excited, it was a "light bulb" moment.

The most difficult thing for me was focusing, (my lens doesn't have an infinity setting). It was so dark and I could barely see the lighthouse through the eyepiece and far to dark for auto focus. Dang!

My lowest ISO is 200 and it than goes to LO 0.3, LO 0.7, LO 1, what the heck does that mean?? Guess, it means, more reading is needed. I did use a tripod and I did use the self timer. I am pleased with the outcome but there is room for improvement.

I have been looking at this light for well over 35 years, and that night I realized the light does not flash, it is a revolving light, which means I would not get the star effect I was hoping for. No worries, we have 12 land lighthouses, 10 water based lighthouses and 2 lightships in my local area. I am certain one must have a flashing light.

Heading out this evening to try my luck with night shots of my local marina. After receiving a package from Japan today I am certain I have room on the 4GB to practice. Thank you very much to our hostess ~ Courtney.

Please critique, any and all comments are always welcome.