Admiralty Head Lighthouse | thewallgalleryblog

I thought it might be interesting to see the process I typically go through on a photo shoot. I start with the fact that most of my photo shoots are spontaneous and not necessarily pre-planned. Having said that I do take my 35mm camera with me as a “just in case” on most “outings”. A great example of this was done last month when my wife and I asked our oldest daughter if she wanted to go over to Whidbey Island for the day! Whidbey is right across the sound from where we live and is accessible via ferry from Mukilteo (10 minutes from our home) or via a long bridge on the north end of the island (about an hour drive from our home). We did the bridge going over and then drove the length of the island taking the ferry home. One of the stops we made was Fort Casey (more info here) which is a fort constructed in the late 1800’s and used during WW1 and WW2. Within the park is Admiralty Head Lighthouse, which our daughter had never seen. I did a photo shoot of it years ago and thought I would do another one to see if I got anything different or better than the prior shoot. Having said all of that, I thought it would be interesting to see how I handle spontaneous shoots. I have attached 6 captures highlighting the process.

The first capture is looking across the field from the fort towards the lighthouse.

The next picture shows the same capture, but edited to straighten the shot up and focus on the subject matter.

I wanted to replace the current black and white capture I had of this lighthouse on my gallery website, so the next image is the same cropped shot in black and white.

So you can see how I compensate for “crooked shots” and other aspects to arrive at the final product.

Another great example is the next set of shots. I had done a series of captures walking around the lighthouse and thought the next set would be a unique framing of the lighthouse.

Apparently I stand crooked and you can see my wife and daughter patiently waiting for me. The next shot is the cropped version.

And then the B&W version:

Thoughts? As I have said before, everyone reacts to visual art techniques and looks differently, so I am not in the least offended by opinions.

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My featured Art Print this week is the Admiralty Head Lighthouse done in black and white from my Black and White Photography One Gallery. It’s one of the six new art prints just added to that gallery.

Admiralty Head Lighthouse

The Admiralty Head Lighthouse is located on Whidbey Island north of the Seattle area in the state of Washington. It coexists with what was Fort Casey and is now part of the state park system. The location is the entrance to the Puget Sound. The lighthouse guided ships into the sound; while Fort Casey with it’s large guns protected the sound. The setting has a sweeping view of the water and across it to the Olympic Mountain Range on the Olympic Peninsula. The lighthouse was put into operation in 1861, rebuilt and moved slightly north to accommodate the guns of Fort Casey in 1903 and ultimately decommissioned in 1922. It was acquired and reopened by Washington State Parks in the mid 1950’s.

For this print, I went black and white to capture not only the mood of the day (rain and sun with heavy rain clouds moving in), but the contrast within the structure itself and the natural setting surrounding it. I shoot my photographs in RAW, which gives me the flexibility to use strong detail and the ability to adjust the many elements of a picture. With this shot, I went for maximum detail and played with the contrast and lighting to create the end result. The final art print does a great job capturing the look and feel of our visit to the lighthouse that day. Thoughts?

I invite you to come into the gallery to view the addition of new art prints to the collection in Black and White Photography One.

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