I recently found this image from a couple of years ago floating around on my hard drives. I had taken a workshop with John Barclay at Cape May, New Jersey. The workshop was the weekend after our busy fall season ended and I was exhausted. The first day we went out to shoot all the old Victorian houses there and I just couldn't get into it mentally. The next day, as I recall, we did some ocean scenes similar to this and we left very early to shoot the 59th Street Pier in Ocean City. We experienced epic light and my spirits were revived considerably. The morning after the workshop concluded, I choose to get up early way before dawn in the cold and wind to try again at this location along Poverty Beach. At first I was disappointed seeing there would be no clouds. A bald sky is generally considered to be not worth photographing. Many would have packed it in and headed back to the warmth of the hotel. The tide was up and I had gone to the trouble to bundle up in four layers of clothes so I decided to stick it out and hope for the best. So glad I stayed as this has become one of my favorite images. I am drawn to the minimalist composition and contrast of color across the sky and sea. I selected an exposure of 25 seconds to smooth the waves but still leave some texture in the water. I have shown the Black/White version in the past and I include it here for your comparison.
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