Greg Molyneux Photography

Author: Greg Molyneux

Land Bridge
Land Bridge — 35mm | f/1.4 | ISO 100 | EXP 20 sec
Friday evening I hitched a ride with Jon Carr and we made our way to Great Bay Boulevard. The hope was twofold: 1) outside shot at a well timed break in the clouds for sunset ignition; and 2) with a segment of thunderstorms approaching from the west, lightning captures were on the table. While neither outcome panned out in the ideal the night wasn’t a total wash. Under the gun of days of stiff west by northwest winds, a blowout tide exposed a land bridge and thereby allowed me to shoot from a sand plain that’s far more often than not under the cover of brackish water. Advantage: Greg. This afforded me a rare angle on Great Bay Boulevard’s first bridge, and I did my best to exploit the opportunity.
Surely I wanted some high drama cloud to ground lightning from this vantage point, but considering we were about 20 miles south of the real action that simply wasn’t in the cards. Instead I tried to make the most of the cloud level flashes coupled with the low cloud deck that was bouncing the light pollution in a cool array of orange, pink, and purple hues. One of the reasons I added a 35mm lens to my bag was for some better lightning photography. More often than not the 14mm is just too wide, and unless you have the fortitude to let the lightning get right over your head the bolts are oft too far in the distance. My hope is the 35mm while bring in the right amount of intimacy while remaining wide enough to still capture a good piece of the sky.
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April 3, 2016
Missed
Missed — 100mm | f/3.5 | ISO 100 | EXP 1/200
I’ve been chewing on out of focus photography for a while now—and by a while now I mean well over a year, and by out of focus photography I mean pictures that are deliberately rendered focus out, in absence of sharpness and clarity. Now I am not ready to declare this here photo the start of something new in my developmental photographic arc, but I am ready to state my affection for this kind of shooting. Done well it breaks through much of what we think are required features in a “good” photograph—strong lines, clear forms, and sharpness on our subject. Focus out instead pares down the rules to introduce simplicity, blur, and softness that brings the attention to the simpler beauty of form, contrast, and movement.
Shown here is a Jane Magnolia bud, a mere day or two from opening, presented in its stripped down form. Even in the absence of focus it’s still easy to pick up on everything happening in the photograph. The sun is warmly shining down on a single flower bud that’s part of a larger bush system. Here sharpness, focus, and clarity are not needed to tell that story. Even in its faded state the imagery is clear. This shot struck me immediately upon import into Lightroom. Even in its unaltered straight out of camera state it smacked me right in the face with that oh, I like this one feeling. A feeling that for me doesn’t come around too often.
Speaking of Jane Magnolias and the layered meaning of the titular Missed—this is the first time in about 3 springs my magnolia bush has armed itself with decent buds. I aggressively pruned and moved the bush a few years back and while it has spread its leaves OK in subsequent years, it has nary managed more than a handful of buds. This year it’s back with dozens and dozens of purple flowers ready for the appreciation of my lenses. I’d be surprised it this winds up my only magnolia capture of the year. It has been missed.
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April 2, 2016
Reframe
Reframe — 35mm | f/5.6 | ISO 100 | 7 Bracketed Exposures
This shot? Again? Really? If you’re thinking we’ve been here before you’re certainly right. In an effort to get comfortable shooting landscapes at a 35mm focal length, last night I returned—if not in triumph, then in repetition—to the familiar stomping grounds of Antoinetta’s Restaurant. The logic was twofold: 1) I was short on time leaving Dock Road as one of few sunset options, and 2) if you’re testing out the landscape prowess of a new lens it’s probably best to benchmark from a location and frame you’ve successfully photographed before. Having made some winners from this spot in the past, it made as much good sense as any.
Having made my first set of brackets fixed atop a tripod using manual focus, my initial thoughts of the 35mm wide angle in comparison to its 14mm ultra wide angle focal length counterpart are as follows: (For referenced I’ve included a similarly framed shot of Antoinetta’s photographed at 14mm below.)
- Staring down the 35mm makes you appreciate just how remarkably wide a 14mm focal length is—I’m roughly in the same spot as in the 14mm rendition below, yet you get the sense I’m substantially closer in the photo above. It’s a significantly tighter frame.
- With a tighter focal length, though still technically wide angle, the 35mm creates less distortion in the perspective. You’ll notice the restaurant (pictured top right) has straighter, less angled lines—particularly obvious along the roof. The perspective moving the eye toward the vanishing point is far less extreme than at 14mm.
- For a first pass the color and sharpness seem pretty good. At this point I am fully confident with dialing in manual focus on my 14mm. To such a degree I don’t even check to ensure I’m dialed in. I simply need to look at the position of the focus ring. It’s going to take some time with the 35mm, but through early testing the 35mm is proving plenty sharp.
Roughly three weeks in, and I am satisfied with my latest gear acquisition thus far. Still a work in progress and despite being another prime lens, the 35mm focal length is proving its versatility.
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Subtlety in Familiarity — 14mm | f/8 | ISO 100 | 7 Bracketed Exposures
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March 24, 2016
Putting in Work
Putting in Work — 35mm | f/8 | ISO 100 | EXP 1/100
Test work with the 35mm continues. Yes, obvious work in progress is obvious, but the fact I took this photograph within moments of yesterday’s dreamy grass shot speaks to the versatility in this lens. To go from shallow depth of field work—getting close enough to near macro conditions—out to a serviceable landscape lens without any change in focal length. Simply stop down to ensure maximum sharpness through your acceptable area of focus, and you are golden.
In the photo above I stuck with a handheld, autofocus approach. I’ve yet to get this thing on the tripod where I’ll attempt to manually find the hyperfocal sweet spot for this lens and make multiple bracketed exposures. Once I figure that all out, I’ll be using this lens setup the same as when shooting landscapes on the 14mm. The big difference here will be a tighter image thanks to the extra focal length. For a theater of the mind comparison, look to the shot above—were I going with my 14mm rig the tree line would be pushed far back to the horizon leaving the trees still recognizable, though hardly discernible—they’d maybe be 1/3 as tall. Sure I would have been able to bring more sky and clouds into the frame, it just would have been at the expense of intimacy. With no interesting foreground subject, shooting ultra wide can get a bit boring. Of course not always, but in general.
Back to the subject at had. Considering this was a single shot, handheld, with no mirror lock while using autofocus, I am satisfied with the sharpness over all. Perfect? Hardly. Yet with some more time in the field putting in work with this lens system on my tripod mount, and I am confident the 35mm will become a key piece to my landscape arsenal.
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March 20, 2016
Still Here
Still Here — 35mm | f/1.4 | ISO 100 | EXP 1/640
As I was preparing to onboard a fast 35mm to my lens array there were three primary uses driving my motivation:
1. Tighter option for landscape shooting situations where the 14mm is too wide
2. Sufficient prime lens solution to spend an entire day shooting with a single lens—think of it as a walkabout lens for Disney World
3. Tack sharp rendering even wide open at f/1.4—allowing all sorts of shallow depth of field, selective focus, and bokehlicious opportunities
Yesterday’s shot above speaks to the latter, and if I get down to it, is the primary reason I long coveted this lens. As much as landscapes are my wheelhouse, this kind of dreamy, shallow depth of field shooting engages me the most. It’s back to the basics photography—walking around, camera in hand, single shot work up close and personal with the subject. Frankly shooting landscapes becomes a bit clinical at times; rote behavior stuck behind a tripod, never worrying about focus—thanks, hyperfocal!—and capturing brackets. But it’s not all a crying shame, being detached a bit from the process allows you to sit back and take in the great sunset you’re there to shoot.
Bringing it back around there’s just no substitute for pared-down handheld shooting. Walking about Stafford Forge yesterday I met with a surprised greeting the nascent remnants of a seasonal control burn. It must have taken place about 10ish days ago as green grasses were already breaking through, coloring up the landscape. Every year this happens, taking down human height grasses and brushes that will steadily accumulate over the spring, summer, and fall growing seasons. For yesterday it made for a chance meeting with this bit of grass here—anyone able to ID that thing? Like most plant life in the Pinelands heat from forest fire allows protective casings to open and seeds to drop. Think of pine cones. This makes the control burning a necessary and important task for healthy maintenance of a productive pine forest ecosystem.
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March 19, 2016
Spring Too Soon
Spring Too Soon — 35mm | f/2 | ISO 100 | EXP 1/5000
Eager for some more lens time, I photographed this daffodil earlier today. Chilling on the north side of my yard, it’s always my first flower to bloom—a clockwork messenger chiming to the first sounds of spring. A spring it seemed that was on with a vengeance this March. Seeing temperatures readily cracking 60, with several spikes into the 70s and 80s. Record shattering warmth after the back-to-back, bitterly cold backloaded winters of 2014 and 2015 that locked the mid-Atlantic in ice. Finally it seemed this was the year to rocket off into an early, and perhaps even warm spring.
[Insert cliché record scratch] We toss.
In spite of our best hopes of a Cinderella springtime, it’s looking more and more likely that the region will face a significant late season storm Sunday into Monday. Just in time for the start of spring. The spring that once held such hope. Instead we may be looking at widespread moderate to significant accumulations across the area. So all those poor cherry blossoms that got dressed up early this year will have their nascent blossoms held in icy cold hands. I guess we hold our collective breath that the moderate temperatures spring back post haste.
As far as the photo goes, here’s shot number two with 35mm. I’ve been keen to see how the bokeh would show with flora work, and the daffodil’s spring showing made for a timely subject. With plenty of mid-day sun pouring down, I rifled off a few shots from an approximate distance of about 10 inches from the daffodil bloom you see above. Stopped down to f/2 there’s plenty of buttery bokeh smoothing out the shallow depth of field. I love this kind of shooting—thin areas of selective focus that make for a more airy, whimsical feel.
My brief time with the new lens continues to impress, even if it still feels a bit foreign to me. From today’s quick session the takeaway was all about color. Specifically the color rendering in full, harsh sun. The blues and yellows being particularly vivid standouts.
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March 17, 2016
Run Out the Tide
Run Out the Tide — 14mm | f/8 | ISO 100 | 7 Bracketed Exposures
Friday evening, about 20 minutes before I made this, some primetime golden hour light was pouring over the salt marsh along Great Bay Boulevard. Better yet, the clouds were decent with the tide dead low and dead calm. All signs point to decent photo making when these conditions are met.
Compositionally my goal was to key off the remnant bulkheads—the roughly 1 foot in diameter stumps of wood you see aligned at an angle about the foreground—while conveying the extent of the dead low tide. To do this I kept my tripod higher than usual, putting the camera body about 5 feet off the ground, giving me enough angle on the marsh. More often than not I tend to get low and close when shooting wide angle—this makes closer objects appear more dramatic (re: large), but limits your ability to push the viewers eye depth further out toward the horizon. In other words, if I was crunched down here as usual, the tidal exposed marsh and the still water to its right would appear as much thinner strips. However, the bulkheads would be given much more visual weight. These are the kinds of decisions you have to make when you approach a scene. What am I trying to convey? And then, perhaps more importantly, what concessions do I have to make to achieve said conveyance? This is where I cannot advocate trail and error experimentation enough in an era of digital.
But it’s not all faeries and roses here. Due to the extreme angle I placed the sun—setting it to the outer sixth of the frame—chromatic aberration and lens flare marks the horizon from right to left in several spots. While I’m not sure if it’s a bad thing, I’m fairly certain it’s not a good thing. Ultimately I will leave this up to the subjectivity of the viewer. At the very least I should concede this effect was not intentional.
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March 13, 2016
Two Together
Two Together — 35mm | f/1.4 | ISO 100 | EXP 1/500
Here it is—my first photograph with the new 35mm lens. Finally. Despite having this bad boy for a week now, up until tonight I had yet been able to piece together a serviceable shot. Sure there’ve been a few passable photographs, but nothing of real interest or note. This isn’t entirely unexpected: 1) I’ve never shot at a 35mm focal length before; and 2) there’s always a learning curve with a new lens. Where are its sweet spots? How sharp is it wide open? What kind of bokeh and depth of field are we dealing with? How shallow is the area of focus and how does it change throughout all f-stops? How fast? How does it focus in low light? In hyperfocal how close to my foreground subject can I get while keeping it and the horizon in acceptable focus? And so it goes. While this learning curve can feel tedious and restrictive at times, it’s a necessary period in trial and error as you learn the limits and capabilities of your lens. So here’s to a spring and summer of experimentation, and a few expletives.
Through limited period of field time so far, my primary observations orbit damn this thing is heavy, and holy smokes, this thing is sharp wide open! The latter has me excited, and the former I don’t mind—I actually prefer a heavier rig, I have strong, sizable hands and prefer the heft; though I suspect I may be in the minority here. However, the combination of sharp focus and shallow depth of field—particularly wide open at f/1.4—has me salivating for flower season. This should afford some cool looks with all the flora about the area that’s about to bloom.
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March 11, 2016
Machinations of a Pastel Sky
Machinations of a Pastel Sky — 14mm | f/8 | ISO 100 | 7 Bracketed Exposures
For southeast New Jersey peeps a vantage to the north and east had it going on at sunset last night. Bailing on the traditional west by southwest exposure at sundown—which had nothing doing but clear skies—I did a 180 and posted up on the north side of Dock Road. A whole 20 foot walk from my usual spot. Whew! From there I let nature do the work. Admittedly I had a bit of trouble centering on the turning waterway while keep some rouge elements of the guardrail out of the foreground. With a little fiddling of tripod height adjustments I made it work. After that it was all just pushing buttons.
Heading into yesterday’s shoot on what was 4 March, I had been in a bit of a dry spell. I hadn’t been out doing the photo thing since 16 February, when coincidentally another striking east facing sunset took shape. Landscape photography is full of peaks and valleys; hot streaks and dry spells. When you’re at the mercy of weather, timing, and real life responsibilities, opportunities to shoot come and go. As tedious as it may become at the tail end of an extended hiatus, the reward of a steady supply of great light makes the wait bearable. If nothing else photography is a lesson in control—insofar as we ain’t gonna have it.
In other photography news: I picked up a long overdue 35mm lens yesterday. Fifth Prime I’m calling it as it joins my 14mm, 40mm, 50mm, and 100mm as the fifth prime lens in my bag. I’m excited to see what new opportunities this long coveted piece of glass affords me. I’m even thinking of dabbling in some people photography with this at my side—it will be interesting to see if this actually materializes.
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March 5, 2016