Last week I rode our Harley-Davidson Electra Glide Ultra Classic up to Grand Haven MI for some afternoon shooting. Grand Haven is a very popular location for beach and camping activity in Western Michigan. Oh did I say it is an outstanding location for beach portraiture. There are two piers the jet out into Lake Michigan a couple hundred yards. The most popular is the South pier where the two light houses are located. It is also adjacent to the swimming beach from the State Park.
I have shot the from the South pier but never from the North so this was my day. I had packed up the Canon 40D and four lenses. The EF 16-35 f/2.8L USM, the 24-105 f/4L IS USM, the 70-200 f/2.8L IS USM, and finally a Lens Baby Composer. This is my catch it all range of lenses. and was carrying them in my Tenba shoulder bag. The Enduro CF tri-pod with a Really Right Stuff ball head fits nicely in the tour pack on the Harley.
There were two challenges I had on shooting from the North pier. First is was about 1:30 in the afternoon and second, the sun is never directly overhead at 43° North. This put the sun on the other side of the South pier which had all the side facing me in shadow. Fortunately there was enough light to let the Lightroom sliders work their magic on the RAW images.
I had the images of the light houses I was looking for and was working my way back when two things happened to me. The first would remind me of the depravity of man and the other the beauty of Gods creation. I had the 70-200 on the body on the tri-pod over my shoulder when a 40-50-ish man passed me and told me I could get some really great pictures of “girls” if I had a good telephoto lens. This told me two things about this pervert. First he was a creep and second he knew nothing of photography based on what I had slung over my shoulder.
The second thing was a flock of sea gulls that were hanging around the pier. Ever since I read Richard Bachs Jonathan Livingston Seagull back in the day, I have enjoyed the movement, precision, and dexterity of seagull.
The opening image is obviously a composition of this one bird taking flight. They were all captured at 1/500th at f/8 on the high speed drive mode. Once the gull started moving I kept the bird on the center focus point while holding the shutter release down on AI Servo letting the camera maintain focus as long as I could keep the center point on the bird.
This particular image shows the confidence of this creature in its effort to gain the energy necessary for flight. While compositing the images I could see how the wings would naturally change their shape to maximized their lifting capability. The gull remained close to the water to gain speed. An airplane, or bird in this case when close to the ground rides on a cushion of air that is called ground effect and makes it easier to maintain flight. These skilled aviators have mad flying skills and they don’t even know it. They use it as a means of transport and not enjoyment. That is unless one of them is named Jonathan.
Take care all and have a great weekend... Doug
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