Long Exposure at Nubble Light

Nubble Light, Maine

A few weeks back, Sean (the wonderful, amazing, supportive bf), David (photog-extraordinaire), my friend Beth (partner in crime for most of my adventures) and I took a road trip to Maine with the intention of shooting some fall foliage.  Well, David and I intended to…Sean and Beth were just there to keep us company.  At the end of the day, just as the sun was going down we arrived at Nubble…the blue hour was starting and the race to get set up was on.

Now, I’d like to point out that this is not my first attempt at shooting Nubble.  For one reason or another though, I was never quite satisfied with my previous images, which is a shame, since its such a nice location. As we got out of the car, I noticed there were a lot of people with tripods there, which surprised me.  I’d never seen it so busy.  Turns out there was a workshop going on, and we had to work around about 10 other shooters (and by work around, I mean, be prepared to photoshop them out!)

David and I scouted our respective locations and I was able to get in a few different compositions before we lost the light.  And boy do I mean lost the light!  This image was a 70 second exposure, though my longest one ended up being about 3 minutes long.

That being said, it worked out perfectly because my friend Will recently suggested a long exposure friendly challange.  Among my circle of photo-friends, we periodically set up group collaborations as a way to push each other to be better.  In this instance, his stipulation was longer than 30 seconds.

I think this qualifies.  😉

This image was 70sec, iso 100, grad ND filter for the sky, single image edit with a combination of luminosity masks and manual blending.  Oh, and people removal. haha

All in all, it was a great weekend.  The Great Fall Foliage (and One Lighthouse Tour) of 2013!