Benched Again

Lonely benches bathed in beautiful evening light

Boy, I am lagging a bit behind here as I have recently been shooting a lot, despite the rather unfriendly temperatures. One of the things I most appreciate about Long Island is the often unique and beautiful light and here's one of my favorite photos from the past week. Two lonesome benches sitting somewhat forlorn in the middle of Short Beach on Long Island's north shore. They probably don't look familiar, but I have posted them here once before. Check out my entry from November 20, 2007 if you really want to see how much photography is all about the light!

Smoked

Lone cloud system moving past "Short Beach" by Smithtown, NY

Do you guys know the feeling? Sometimes there's just nothing to photograph. You haven't been anywhere interesting, the weather has been blah for days and the sky is white whenever you have some time to spare. That's how it's been for me lately, but today I was determined to capture something somehow with my camera. I went to an odd and out of the way place I found on Mapquest, just out of curiosity. It didn't look like much with the white sky and all. In the very far distance I spotted what I presumed to be a tiny cloud. After walking around for an hour and unsuccessfully trying to shoot gulls, I noticed that the "tiny" cloud started to obscure the sun and was actually quite the dynamic formation. I sat down in the sand and waited for it to move across the water. When it finally did, I took this shot. Not one of my best but I feel like it was at least worth the wait. What surprised me was how the light changed instantly the moment the clouds moved in front of the sun. It was bright afternoon light before and suddenly it looked like sunset an hour ahead of time.