Blowing in the Wind

Today I had the opportunity to travel down to Little Compton, RI. This is a rather remote area of a small state, which is deceptive since despite its diminutive status the state has a road system which makes it not easily accessible to certain areas. If you can imagine that Rhode Island is the 13th State, meaning that it’s been around since colonial times, and the roads in all likelihood were build upon old cow paths, as they are won’t to say in these parts.

In any event, I thought I would take the opportunity to fit some photography in while I was down in this part of Rhode Island. Unfortunately, the elements of tim
e and weather did not fully cooperate, since I was there at around 10 AM and the weather was blustery (25-35 mph winds). Nonetheless, I pushed onward, especially since the area I wanted to shoot in was not visitor friendly. What this means is this: I was interested in shooting Sakonnet Point Light which lies off the southeastern coast of Rhode Island on a little rock jutting out of the sea, whose name is Little Cormorant Rock. Getting a good visual viewpoint of Sakonnet Light is not easy, at least from land. Most of the area is privately owned and very little parking is available to make access easy. In any event, I did manage to find parking (particularly since at this time of year anyone in their right mind under these weather conditions would not be here).

The wind was merciless when I finally set up my tripod on the shore directly in front of the Light. I proceeded quickly since I was freezing (mid 30s temperatures with a wind chill of mid 20s). I captured about 70 shots and felt pretty good about my efforts. Little did I know that although I did everything by the book, with tripod and cable release, my shots were less than sharp simply because of the wind moving my tripod ever so lightly, even though I was about 2 feet off the ground.

The currently posted shot of Sakonnet Light was the only shot I was able to salvage. It was shot with a Canon 5DS, EF24-104mm f/4L IS USM @ 105mm, f/11.0, 30″, ISO 100, using a Heliopan 10 stop ND filter, processed with DxO 11 Optics Pro, Adobe Camera Raw, Photoshop, and Color Efex Pro 4