Greg Molyneux Photography

Category: Blog

Greg Molyneux’s latest photographs and words presented in reverse chronological order.

Headlong to the Horizon
Headlong to the Horizon — 14mm | f/8 | ISO 100 | 7 Bracketed Exposures
A few thoughts as we get cracking on this here post: Hot damn it was cold today. Snow may still be a twinkle in my eye but the first real shot of Canadian air is hardly a figment of my imagination. As my body struggles to adjust to colder climes I warm myself if only mentally by anticipating the great winter sunsets to come; can’t beat winter color, you guys.
Also on the list of brain happenings while shooting—I’m pretty pleased with this vertically oriented photograph. I’ve talked about it many times before, and while it still rings true, these essential landscape photographer compositions do not come as easy to me. But I like today’s results.
Next item up dealt with some pondering on whether or not I should open up comments on this here website again. I disabled them at least a year or so ago on account that there really weren’t any. Not unless you’re counting spam, of course. Perhaps it’s worth giving it another go? Of course it’s not like I’m in a position to solicit feedback from anyone regarding this decision considering comments are disabled, so, uh, yeah… Send a carrier pigeon or something.
Lastly my thoughts are turning toward a coffee table book. Over the years several people have independently encouraged me to go down this route—especially over the past 12 months. The first dozen or so times I disregarded the idea in its entirety for a host of reasons. 1) Who would want it? 2) It’s a lot of work. 3) What if it sucks? 4) Who can I find to edit and reign in my babbling? 5) Who’s going to print it? 6) Related: what does the supply chain look like? 7) Seriously, who would want this? But after two years of full stop dismissal I am beginning to think it may be worth legitimate consideration. So now I am going to start chipping away at this seven points to see if this is a project worth pursuing. I’ve got all these photographs and all these words about them maybe it’s worth brining them to people’s homes. I’d say leave a comment and let me know how you feel, but yeah…
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December 10, 2016
Blue Window to the Soul
Blue Window to the Soul — 14mm | f/8 | ISO 100 | 7 Bracketed Exposures
There’s little doubt Rand’s Marina has rocketed up my list of favorite spots to photograph. The cedar pole and bay water combination provides plentiful foreground opportunities, and it’s compositionally strengthened with derelict dock remnants in the middle ground backlit by marsh, clouds, and sky background. It’s just a great space for making landscapes. While this shot was made Monday, December 5, 2016, I didn’t have enough time to get it posted until today. Preparations for a long, exciting week with the day job took precedence; laundry must be done, and bags must be packed, ya know? But now that I’m back home I’ve got time to properly blog it up.
Looking forward a bit, it’s getting to that time of year where I’ve got to start thinking about selecting 12 shots for my annual best of—due out December, 24, 2016. The past two years its proven to be a fun retrospective of a year’s week. It’s proven a great way to benchmark where I’ve come from so I can calibrate where I’d like to get to. Beyond that, I’ve gotten my hands on a Pulse Camera Remote from Alpine Labs—it’s charging now!—and I am eager to broaden my horizons through the world of time lapse. For years I’ve been wanting to explore this road but I never pulled the trigger on an intervalometer. Finally that time has come. Now I just need to figure out what I’m doing. . .
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December 9, 2016
I Look at the Floor and I See it Needs Sweeping
I Look at the Floor and I See it Needs Sweeping — 35mm | f/2 | ISO 100 | EXP 1/40
You’ll find no nature here. Only aged remains of a disued shack left to dereliction. What happens when we’re gone? When all else fades but the ruins of a life gone by? When the fire has gone out and time comes along to reclaim fashioned resources back to dust? Undefeated is time. The second law of thermodynamics tells us so—entropy mandates decay of any and all things found in a closed system over time. This is why a famously felled Humpty Dumpty was never put back together again. Ironically human progress shields us from this fact. Civilization throughout the ages has achieved greater and greater levels of order, enterprise, and design when in reality we build our great monuments of progress to cast baseless doubt on the truth—incremental and inevitable disorder and decline. The next dark age waits just around the corner. Just as a great castle fortress was built high atop the hill only to be blast asunder from some new armament built only to destroy. Always forward is the arrow of time. Always locked in the battle of life, death, progress, and decay.
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December 2, 2016
Antoinette Only
Antoinette Only — 14mm | f/8 | ISO 100 | EXP 1/4
Mayhaps, Marie, had the guillotine not intervened and the mechanics of time proved malleable, you may have found sanctuary here. Alas revolutions come and turbulent throngs shall be paid their pound of flesh just as Charon, too, must be paid. Never forget the will of the people, Marie, for they will not forget you.
I’m mixing up a familiar motif going with sepia post processing treatment on this photograph. I could have went with my usual color approach but there’s something about the aged yellow monochromatic hue that tells a different kind of story here. I have photographed Antoinetta’s Waterfront Restaurant numerous times over the years, and I’ve always given it the full color treatment. Having gone down that road before I’m glad my gut wrenched me to sepia. Perhaps it was the eponymous Antoinette Only sign that turned my mind down a historical path? Scratching my subconscious to make this photograph look weathered and worn. Perhaps it’s a reflection of the cold unwelcome I felt shooting mere feet from a sign imploring me to keep out? You are not welcome here, sir. They’re an alienating thing, signs. A declaration of boundaries that while oftimes explicit ironically leave much open for interpretation—especially for the less secure among us. Who stakes claim to place? Who will come to usurp it?
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November 21, 2016
Before You Go
Before You Go — 35mm | f/1.4 | ISO 100 | EXP 1/800
After last night’s negative tilt trough supreme wrought a 30 degree temperature drop; rain, snow, and sleet; and gusts of winds the Anemoi would be proud of in the span of roughly three hours these leaves are now gone. But 24 hours ago they were still here, so hey, maybe almost does count? Such is the onslaught of winter. One minute you’re hanging around LBIF dropping off photos on a 66 degree day and the next minute you’re running for the coat closet. Weather mood swings be damned, I’m happy I got to see my first flakes of what I hope will be a good old fashion snow-down for the winter of 2016–2017. Big snow, people—big snow. Measured in feet. (Meters would be even better.) I’m what they refer to in nerdy weather circles as a cold weather snow weenie. I’ll own it.
As for this photo it’s a bookend of sorts. Made one week ago it’s something of a mirrored close-out to I Saw Red which was made back in April when this very maple was in spring bloom. This tree of mine makes for a great subject as 1) it looks cool, and 2) it sits right outside my front door standing sentry at the House of Greg. This keeps things easy. Just load up the 35mm lens, set the aperture wide open, and step outside in my soft pants to squeeze off a few frames. It also gives me a chance to work on my vertical orientation game which I often ignore. Many a skilled New Jersey area landscape photographers do a great job exploiting the fall and documenting its seasonal change. As you’ll note by my lack of autumn type leafy photographs through the years you can surmise I have been measured and left wanting in this arena.
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November 20, 2016
Momentary Lapse
Momentary Lapse — 35mm | f/1.4 | ISO 100 | EXP 1/1600
Two moon shots in a row? If you’ve been following my work for any length of time you know moon/night photography isn’t an all too common occurrence in this house. It’s not that I don’t love me some moon, it’s just that I lack the requisite gear to make some hay in this department. Long lenses—telephotos—are not (in) my bag, baby. Yet here I am backing up Saturday’s lunar landscape with another moon sunset from Sunday; and as I am sure you’ve heard ad nauseum it was the start of supermoon central on the internets. For the next 24 hours Facebook and Instagram were inundated with giant orbs from our number one satellite. It was a lot like Majora’s Mask only less cool and with a worse soundtrack. Never one to want to miss out on the party I present you my contribution: photographed at 35mm overlooking Barnegat Bay from Barnegat Bay Beach in Barnegat, New Jersey. (Say Barnegat again, Greg. Please.)
Now if you’ll allow me to enter critique mode. Photographing handheld from the bay beach my intention was the get a front focus shot of some lime green mossy stuff strewn about the shoreline. I was shooting wide open at f/1.4 going for shallow depth of field where the middle ground and back ground faded away into smooth bokeh. Most of my shots Sunday were made with this in mind. However, I did pop off a few off frames where I focused out to infinity to bring clarity to the middle ground and back ground. Instead of stopping down to f/5.6 which increases overall sharpness while simultaneously pulling the acceptable range of focus closer to the viewer, I stayed wide open with the aperture. This is why the foreground is somewhat out of focus here. None of this is wrong, of course, and frankly the movement from out of focus and into focus creates a different kind of mood with the photograph. I am just conceding that if I went into this shoot with the goal of producing a sharp landscape, I absolutely would have used my tripod and stopped down to f/5.6 or f/8 instead of going with wide open handheld action.
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November 16, 2016
Placebo
Placebo — 35mm | f/5.6 | ISO 100 | 7 Bracketed Exposures
Gazing east from Cedar Run Dock Road during last night’s sunset while simultaneously treated to a 96% waxing gibbous moonrise was exactly what the doctor ordered. To far away Tranquility Base, detached from the present day reality of this earthly world, I salute you. Prior to yesterday’s sexy sky business, landscape photography wasn’t even on my radar. Conditions were crisp and cool all day with nary a cloud in the sky. Besides that I was tasked with making some afternoon family photographs—gasp!—of my friend and her parents. (Two super cute doggies in tow.) Despite my total lack of experience the shoot went well enough—I hope. Being out there, exposed outside of my comfort zone yet surviving, had an added benefit: the development of high level cirrus clouds building toward the east. The rusted gears of my mind began to turn and clank.
Leaving the shoot and driving over the LBI causeway bridge back toward the mainland I was hemming and hawing on whether to shoot and where to go. To the west the sky was mostly clear so a traditional sunset seemed out. To the east the clouds kept calling. Further down Route 72 West the exit to Route 9 South approached—reflexively right blinker went click, click, click—I suppose Dock Road it is. Driving down the isthmus and out onto the marsh an unexpected wrinkle was thrown into the fold; a big fat mostly full moon was a few inches over the eastern horizon and the plot began to thicken. Even though prime pastel cloud color was good 20 minutes away, it was a lock that the moon would sit large and in charge amid a cotton candy sky. As an added bonus the wind had died and the water was calm and reflective. For a chilly evening in November everything came up Greg with a sugar pill dose of much needed calm and pleasure.
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November 13, 2016
I Wonder
I Wonder — 14mm | f/8 | ISO 100 | EXP 1/100
I wonder what the future holds
Hope or fear light or dark untold
Uncertain what the day will bring
Nighttime darkness turns and sings
Tread lone to sole’s despair
Shine and polish to soul’s repair
Ardent and forward to set things right
Walk back round to find the light
Stark and full and wrought with toil
This empty vessel runs to boil
Frayed and worn of words to sting
Tomorrow’s newness someday brings
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November 12, 2016
Goodbye Sun
Goodbye Sun — 14mm | f/8 | ISO 100 | EXP 1/15
Welcome back to Standard Time!—ugh. If you’ll allow me this moment for an airing of grievances. No fan am I of the cyclical cessation of Daylight Savings Time. Being a veteran on team Not A Morning Person I need to milk as much evening daylight as possible. Were it up to me we’d bask in perpetual latter day light on the forever Daylight Savings side of things—no more of the falling back/springing forward nonsense. I’ll concede the one day we get an extra hour of sleep is nice and all, but really it’s just a cheap marketing gimmick to help us try to feel better about ourselves; and let’s keep it real, when it’s ripped away from us each spring keyboard warriors take to Facebook and decry the personal affront felt by all. And while I’m sure many of you may find appeal in a world of no more time shifts I suspect you may find your allegiances hitched up to the Standard Time bandwagon. That’s OK but I’d like to ask just one thing: is the thought of 4:00 a.m. sunrises in summer really that appealing? No thank you, I will take my 8:00 p.m. summer sunsets year in and year out.
Quick photo talk time. I hit up Dock Road yesterday afternoon around 5:30—see the sun already sets early enough as it is!—and while it’s no doubt my go-to spot I wound up shooting from a vantage point I’ve yet to use in my half decade of photographing. Down at the far southeast end I posted up at the bulkhead of Stafford Municipal Boat Ramp and shot out over the bay with a southeast orientation. The light was great, and the clouds milling about the horizon were pretty great, too. Ditching the tripod and my usual bracketing I went handheld and executed my little motion blur technique—the one where I intentionally create a blurry, out of focus look on the exposure. Adding a bit of motion that brings a more painterly feel; it pairs nicely here with the otherwise minimalist look of the frame. That’s it for me, enjoy your next few months of 5:00 p.m. darkness.
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November 6, 2016