Greg Molyneux Photography

Tag: barnegat bay

  • Sand to Snow

    Sand to Snow

    Sunset photo over frozen Barnegat Bay in Harvey Cedars, NJ.
    Sand to Snow — 14mm | f/8 | ISO 100 | EXP 1/15

    Harvey Cedars locked in ice. A beach paradise locked and bound in frozen bonds of wind driven snow, ice and unstoppable cold. The arctic has found its way south and wrought with it a landscape better tuned to penguins.

    Trudging through Harvey Cedars Sunset Park I felt myself alternating discomfort and awe. Foremost was the wonderment. I strode incredulous among magnificent shapes carved by the master hand of wind driven snow. Three to six foot mounds of stratified snow dunes in all directions. Features that would look more at home marking the desert sands. The juxtaposition made more striking contrasted against wide swaths of grass and stone blown free of any trace of snow. This is mind-boggling considering the foot plus that dropped up and down the New Jersey coast less than 24 hours ago. As the snow was busying itself building mesmerizing drifts it was leaving whole swathes of park untouched. Never before have my eyes seen its equal.

    Enhancing the displaced winter landscape was the transformation of Barnegat Bay. This familiar waterway left frozen solid and topped with reticulated patterns stretching to the horizon. Any vestige of the summer paradise fell away as it bent the knee before the reign of ice.

    Through my wonder a crippling west wind carrying biting cold air tested my limits. Setting up to shoot headfirst into 20 mph sustained winds posed a threat to exposed skin. Despite my layers and heavy dress I struggled for comfort. In a battle of diminishing returns against a relentless enemy I made a few dozen exposures over span of 45 minutes. I will share one or two more photographs in the coming days. In the meantime I am off to thaw a replay the magic frozen before me.

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  • Clear View

    Clear View

    Blue hour photo with motion blur over calm bay water.
    Clear View — 14mm | f/8 | ISO 100 | EXP 1/10

    Life comes in moments. The best are calm, soft, unpredictable moments. Moments where past and future fall quiet before the present. Moments of awareness proving what the relaxed mind can be. A mind free of worry and regret. Free of what was and what may still come.

    Such a moment hit me looking out over Barnegat Bay last week. On the boards I stood transfixed by a sublime gradient of light passing on from sunset to dusk. Its tempo put to time by subtle undulating movement upon an otherwise still sheen of water. Daylight’s last burn playing soft tricks upon its surface. An elemental merger of fire and water.

    At one with the moment I stood synchronous with slow, steady breathing. In perfect time with a relaxed heart. A moment where time fell still and the world stopped turning. Sans camera I stood. Breathing. Watching. Observing. The moment and I, together as one.

    Back to the real world I looked back toward my trunk and thought, I better make a picture.

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  • From Stone to Sand

    From Stone to Sand

    Blue hour photo of four small pebbles set upon an empty bay beach.
    From Stone to Sand — 14mm | f/2.8 | ISO 400 | EXP 1/60

    The wheel of time pays little mind to the trappings of ephemeral life. Its burden is the long game. Tireless at work upon the great mill of the universe grinding all back to the stardust from whence we came. The wheel’s is a blind justice—never to grant favor, never put off its task—the laws of physics its only master. As the arrow of time points forward the blossom of our creation journeys back to dust, and onward the mill turns. On and on; working, grinding, rounding. Bringing wear to young life as it works stone to pebble to sand to dust. A spinning wheel of entropy eroding us back to our most basic of constituent parts. This is the game to which we have been cast. Forever turning. Forever worked upon at the cosmic millstone until we are cast back together shone in new light.

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  • Momentary Lapse

    Momentary Lapse

    Sunset photo of a rising supermoon over gentle waves of Barnegat Bay.
    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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  • Bayside Burn

    Bayside Burn

    Fiery sunset photograph of explosive cloud color over Barnegat Bay.
    Bayside Burn — 14mm | f/8 | ISO 100 | EXP 1/8

    Saturday night and the sky is all right. This weekend I got back on the photo grind and made off into the night with some kind of sunset. Mother Nature threw me a solid and brought out the big guns along the Surf City bayshore. Roughly a dozen sunset dwellers milling about Sunset Park were treated with one of those long burn smoldering skies that for the better part of a half an hour made the world stand still. Cellphones, mirrorless, and SLR cameras alike were put to good use documenting the light show; a frenzy of Instagram posts and rapid collection of likes ensued. For the few folks that rocked out sans camera, free-wheeling leg pumps on the area swing set made for idyllic, stress free viewing. For the few lovers among us the sky brought hearts to bear, setting to light the purity of their affections.

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  • Light Up The Senses

    Light Up The Senses

    Vertical orientation sunset photograph of dramatic skies and rich pastels over Barnegat Bay.
    Light Up The Senses — 14mm | f/8 | ISO 100 | EXP 1/6

    Here it is—photo number 4 from Sunday, June 5, 2016. Real life has negated any and all attempts at photography the past week or so leaving me desperate to go to the well once more. At least its a deep well. A fresh well full of cold, clean water. Sustenance of the highest order—figuratively speaking in this well. Honestly I wanted to post this photo much sooner, but again, see comment regarding real life. Time to digress—

    I like this shot. I like it a lot. Sure, the rain drops on my 14mm get in my perfectionist craw, but I will try to embrace the “rawness.” Going vertical for the composition allowed me to bring the sky drama into a more comprehensive view. With the whole of the sky torched in pastel fire, the more conventional landscape orientation wouldn’t convey to the viewer the height and scope of the sky. Fortuitously a little bay wave came crashing over at just the right time, with just enough lazy shutter, to bring movement and detail to the foreground. This serves as an ideal counterbalance to a sunset sky loaded down with endless detail.

    With the weekend finally here maybe I can sneak it some time to do a little shooting?

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  • Center Mass

    Center Mass

    Sunset photograph from Surf City Sunset Park gazebo with sunlight casting a strong orange glow.
    Center Mass — 14mm | f/8 | ISO 400 | EXP 1/30

    More Sunday action, people. One more to go and then I can finally move on from last week. As far as the sequence of shots goes, this was the first photo made. Before the rainbow and before the sunset I first posted. Rain was just starting to fall and I was enthralled by the orange glow bouncing off the stormy cloud deck. All was awash in orange, and while I was left to hide under gazebo cover as the rains came I made this handheld shot. (Hence the ISO 400 to get the exposure time up to 1/30—no tripod for this one.)

    What drew me to this composition, aside from notable light, was the symmetry of the scene. While I try to bring balance to all my shots it’s rare when I center up all the key elements of the frame. That’s essentially what we have here—with the sun just a tick to the left of center. It’s a soothing shot. A calming photograph leaving behind two empty benches to fill in with your own story.

  • The Home Fire Still Burns

    The Home Fire Still Burns

    Sunset photograph of dramatic clouds painted in fiery pastels left behind after storms rolled through Long Beach Island.
    The Home Fire Still Burns — 14mm | f/8 | ISO 100 | EXP 1/5

    Sunday began what is now day four in a stretch featuring potent storms, dramatic clouds, and fiery sunsets. While I’ve been tied down and largely unable to shoot, it’s been impossible to miss what has to be the best consecutive stretch of sky goodness in recent memory. New Jersey based social media accounts have been set afire with countless jaw-dropping photographs for the better part of a week. Thanks to ubiquitous smartphone adoption the degree of documentation has sailed far beyond unprecedented levels. Everyone is a photographer now, and I think it’s is great. Scrolling through my Instagram feed this week has been a total treat.

    Above is my small contribution for the week. This photograph was made at Surf City Sunset Park on Sunday evening. Strong to severe storms were powering across the mid-Atlantic, bringing strong winds and heavy rainfall. Unfortunately the line fizzled just as it made its way to the coast. While a proper shelf cloud never materialized over Barnegat Bay, it was becoming readily apparent the clearing would time up perfectly with sunset. My friends and I bailed from our Barnegat Light thunderstorm position and made our way south into Surf City. From there it all came together. To the east was a properly majestic double rainbow backlit by a stunning array of pink storm clouds. To the west, a potent sunset stretched across the sky. So powerful was the light differential from sun to storm clouds that auto white balance was rendered effectively useless; leaving RAW files cast in a strong purple hue if left untouched. When this extreme is achieved you know you are in the presence of some properly dramatic light play. For me, I was simply dumbfounded; left holding my gear, smiling ear to ear.

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  • Disrupt

    Disrupt

    Wide angle photograph of an ominous shelf cloud storming over Barnegat Bay en route to Long Beach Island
    Disrupt — 14mm | f/8 | ISO 100 | EXP 1/125

    Wild weather bore down on Surf City’s Sunset Park yesterday afternoon. I was fortunate enough to be out storm chasing with JC of Weather NJ fame, and we set up shop on a favorite Long Beach Island bay beach. With a dead west exposure over Barnegat Bay, winds were already ripping from the same direction, and a well defined shelf cloud was easily seen contrasted by the dark brooding cloud shadows behind it. Most striking, however, was the eerie green hue that illuminated the roiling bay water. It was an unnatural savage green, amped by full afternoon sun pouring in unfiltered from the south that was magnified as it bounced off the cumulonimbus cloud bottom. This, in effect, created lighting conditions that would be something akin to millions of pool table lights draped only feet over the bay. It was one heck of a sight. I’m sure my Snapchat followers could hear my excitement. (Not to mention a few expletives born of exuberance.)

    No less than two minutes after popping off the photo above, the gust front made landfall, temperatures dropped 20 degrees within 10 seconds (no exaggeration), and the winds went from about 35 mph sustained to ~60 mph. Severe storm criteria is defined as 58 mph winds or greater, and we were certainly there. Of course, the lion’s share of thunder and lightning slipped just to our north, but man it was fun being out there. Talk about a charge of energy. Here’s a short film JC shot to give you a sense of the sandblasting wind. (That’s me standing out there trying to capture cellphone footage.)

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