Greg Molyneux Photography

New Jersey landscape and nature photography

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The Great Gig in the Sky

May 29, 2015 by Greg Molyneux

World class sunset over the sandy beaches and jetty rock of Long Beach Island

The Great Gig in the Sky — 14mm | f/8 | ISO 100 | EXP 1/5

One minute your sitting in the back of a four-door Jeep groovin’ on some tunes en route to the Chicken of the Egg to chow down on some wings, and the next minute your banging an emergency left somewhere in Spray Beach to make a mad dash to the beach for world class cloud ignition happening directly overhead. We had but minutes.

I started by haphazardly kicking my flip-flops mid-sprint in the general direction of where street meets beach; camera in right hand, tripod in left. Awestruck and drunk on light, I reflexively and moronically tossed my tripod aside right into the sand and began checking camera settings. Heart thumping, adrenal glands were quick to inform me this color—quite possibly the best I’ve ever seen—wasn’t long for this world. After a few deep breaths and focus regained, I collected myself and my tripod and dusted out the sand as best I could understanding I was effectively out of time.

Once the tripod joints where workable I made a few pretty great shots from my first spot—right along the berm where dune fence marks the walkway. You can see an Instagram of that here. After about 5 minutes making shots I made for the beach itself. Jon Carr was already down there, busy making his own shots with his lovely wife taking in the wonder and the hijinks. By this point the ocean was reflecting the most potent yellow-orange light I’ve been fortunate enough to see. It was in a word otherwordly.

After scurrying down to join them, and as I was catching my breath, a quick glance northward along the beach revealed the secret; exposed jetty rock, perfectly arranged just waiting to be photographed. Unable to leave my muse in wait, I was off on a 300 yard sprint up the beach with Jon yelling encouragingly in the backround, “you can make it!” Here’s where the problems could have undermined it all: first a happy couple were appropriately noting the humor in a guy sprinting up the beach with a camera mounted tripod being wielded more like Gandalf’s staff in battle. The first dozen or so yards were great until my calf muscle strain decided to rear its ugly head; knotted up I bit the pain and kept jogging to these jetty rock. Throwing caution and my camera’s welfare to the wind, there was no way I was missing this chance.

My excitement subsumed the pain, and with a few more deep hand stabilizing breaths, I dug my heels and the tripod in the wet sand, composed my frame, and made what is now my favorite landscape photograph to date. And where I almost always post bracketed photographs for my landscapes—consisting of usually 7 exposures—I only needed one here. The light was so beautifully balanced there was no need to go further and merge it with the six other photographs, each exposed one stop apart from the other.

What an amazing 15 minutes.

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Filed Under: Portfolio Tagged With: 14mm beach jetty landscape long beach island lyrically inspired sunset

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  1. Those Summer Nights – Greg Molyneux Photography says:
    August 3, 2015 at 7:13 pm

    […] my trusted camera was happy to oblige. Hands down my best sunset endeavor since I hunted down this all-timer back in late May. Keep the A+ clouds and color coming, […]

  2. Landscape Photography Tips: Building Strong Composition Through Foreground – Greg Molyneux Photography says:
    May 8, 2016 at 4:46 pm

    […] The Great Gig in the Sky — 14mm | f/8 | ISO 100 | EXP 1/5 […]

  3. Ray of Hope – Greg Molyneux Photography says:
    August 21, 2016 at 8:01 pm

    […] Island Foundation of the Arts and Sciences. You see it was only two days ago I learned I had a photo in an art show, and it was only yesterday I learned said art show’s opening was set to take […]

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Photos from the archives

Sunset photo of pastel clouds over LBI beachfront property.
Golden hour photo of a Japanese Maple with autumn red leaves and smooth bokeh.
14mm photo of a burning red sunset smoldering over the winter salt marsh with sky reflections in the water.
35mm sunset photo over the salt marsh using motion blur to render a brush stroke effect on the marsh and clouds.
14mm wide angle sunset photo with pastel clouds reflecting in an oxbow lake in the Cedar Run Dock Road salt marsh.

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