Greg Molyneux Photography

Tag: high bar harbor

  • Biding my time

    A serene blue hour befalls a calm Barnegat Bay in this wide angle HDR photograph taken from the secluded shores of High Bar Harbor, Long Beach Island, New Jersey.
    Biding my time — 14mm | f/8 | ISO 100 | 7 Bracketed Exposures

    Shooting has been at a premium of late. More so it seems the few opportunities I’ve had to make photographs have been either clouded out or entirely uninteresting. Neither of which cultivate and atmosphere for good and/or interesting landscape photographs.

    Despite today’s near totally cloudless sky, my buddy Jon had the good notion to venture to Barnegat Light on Long Beach Island. He figured at the very least we could maybe make some golden hour frames of the fishing boats at Viking Village. No trespassing signs be damned, we couldn’t get anywhere that would produce a good shot with violating someone’s well-earned property rights. We made for the secluded High Bar Harbor as a timing killing Plan B.

    Upon reaching our destination the draw of pictures became little more than an afterthought. We killed the bulk of two hours talking through the world’s problems, making them worse, and watching the sun go down. Between the serpentine sand patterns sprinkled with a hint of cloudage that began marking the westward horizon, I figured I might as well grab my camera and tripod and make something out of nothing.

  • A new place to play

    An afternoon long exposure photograph taken from High Bar Harbor in Barnegat Light overlooking east toward the Barnegat Lighthouse. In this empty bay beach scene, the low level clouds streak across this black and white photograph from left to right.
    A new place to play — 14mm | f/22 | ISO 50 | EXP 41 sec

    My buddy Jon and I had some time to kill and set out for some photo-exploring. Initially targeting the Barnegat Lighthouse, we made way to Long Beach Island and turned north. Approaching our final destination we made a quick pit stop at an area Barnegat Light bay beach. Unremarkable on its own, that beach told us one thing: the wind was going to spoil any shooting out on the long jetty of the lighthouse inlet. Any exposed area would render shooting difficult at best.

    Having never been before we turned our attention toward High Bar Harbor. A unique piece of land on the west end of Barnegat Light where we made for a cove that would shelter us from the whipping west wind.

    Where we wound up was pay dirt. An area of protected beach that has an eastern face—featured here looking out to the lighthouse—that will be most excellent at sunrise; and a path leading to a western exposure looking out to the Barnegat Bay to the rear. Morning, noon, and night, this spot has loads of potential.

    It was a bit earlier than I normally shoot, and as such the light was rather intense. I went with my ND filter and stopped all the way down to f/22. I seldom stop down this far unless it’s for a very specific purpose—in this case it was to maximize my exposure time—slowing things down all the way to 40 seconds. Enough time to render sufficient cloud movement left to right.