The bay side of the park always reveals beautiful patterns with the changing tides. This day, the overcast skies helped diffuse the mid-day sun and really highlight these patterns.
As always, you can get an 8×10 $20, 11×14 $45, but also available in custom sizes like the square crops I post here! Please post a comment or send me an e-mail if you would like prints. I appreciate your continued support as an artist!
A cursory glance through the dunes at the park can seem dull and drab: browns, grays, muted greens. Because I had all afternoon, I slowed my walk down into a meditative state so I could really experience the sights around me. The longer I lingered the more I saw and the more diversity my lens found.
As always, you can get an 8×10 $20, 11×14 $45, but also available in custom sizes like the square crops I post here! Please post a comment or send me an e-mail if you would like prints.
Somehow snow on the beach seems contradictory, smashing the idea summer fun with the harshness of winter. During the winter months, before migratory birds occupy the cape, the state park opens the outermost portion of Cape Henlopen Beach to foot traffic. On this particularly warm, sunny afternoon I captured some glimpses of nature’s elegant paradox between the snow and the sand. The patterns formed appear random, but a closer molecular study would show complex engineering of ice crystal formation. The delicate intricacies of the snow and ice slowly melting remind me of the beauty in the down cycle of life processes. The gentle shift of late winter to early spring speaks of patience and life reemerging.
Please post a comment or send me an e-mail if you would like prints. As always, you can get an 8×10 $20, 11×14 $45, but also available in custom sizes like the square crops I post here!
If you are already following my work, you’ll recognize one of these images as Beach Melts from the NAA “In the Abstract” exhibit in March.
The Cape Henlopen State Park is one of my favorite places to hike and take photographs. Forests and mountains definitely feel like home to me, but I’m learning to enjoy the coastal landscape. The next couple posts are a series of photographs taken from late winter, early spring. Please post a comment or send me an e-mail if you would like prints. As always, you can get an 8×10 $20, 11×14 $45, but also available in custom sizes like the square crops I post here!
A nice hike led me along these frames this late spring:
In addition to the “arctic” lake, I stumbled upon the Willard Chapel on a local tourism site. As I read the blurb, I knew I just absolutely had to go see the splendor!
“The Willard Chapel is an extremely rare example of the work of Louis C. Tiffany and Tiffany Glass and Decoration Co. Included in the Tiffany interior are 14 opalescent windows, a rose window, a large figure window, nine Mooresque styled chandeliers, memorial tablets of glass mosaic tile and gilt bronze, furnishings of oak inlaid with metal and glass mosaic, a ceiling with gold leaf stencils and mosaic flooring. Built in 1892-1894, the interior of the Chapel was designed and handcrafted entirely by Tiffany Glass and Decorating Company of New York City and is the only complete and unaltered Tiffany designed religion interior known to exist in the world.”
from http://www.willardchapel.org
We got a private tour of the chapel that last about an hour. It really felt like an episode on National Geographic as we got history of the building and explored techniques and design elements of Tiffany’s glass and other furnishings. The greatest part was definitely the ability to use flash photography! I can understanding some art museums and not allowing flash photography, but any that ban all types of photography are just no fun! I have a couple wide angle shots of the chapel, but these are just the detail shots. I’d recommend seeing the official page for more. And, if you are ever in the Finger Lake region of New York, it is worth the trip downtown Auburn to see this work in person!
You may recognize this photograph from a recent post. I entered it into the challenge forum I frequent with really good results!
Sitting at 7 Degrees © 2014 NATE METZ
rank: 8th
1/2000 sec, f7.1, ISO 100
pp: crop, B&W conv, curves adjustment, resize, USM, export
The below freezing temperatures were not conducive to photo-taking around the lake. As you can see, it was frozen over quite a ways out and the cloud of mist marked the end of the ice. Warm (er) water was able to evaporate and the microclimate at the water level made the clouds. It was very beautiful!
I believe this is the coldest weather I have used my dSLR, so I was very cautious to keep it in the bag to reduce exposure times to the brutest cold. And also to protect the battery and prevent condensation inside the lens! After walking about 20 minutes in one direction, my feet started to get cold and it was time to come back. Next time snow boots are definitely in order!
The other two photos are straight forward–I love looking at the blue sky through branches!
Various photographs from this spring!
I put off editing these photographs for several months because I wasn’t sure what direction to go in the post processing. I prefer to do very minimal cropping and lighting adjustments with some sharpening in the export. But, these flowers just didn’t have the right impact following my usual PP flow. I like the gloomy lighting of such a vibrant white flower, but out of the camera it lacked some shine. In Photoshop I was able to rescue these images with a black and white conversion. Instead of forcing a color image, I decided to follow the image and go monochromatic and BLOOM!
