Rye Beach Weekend Photography

 

Trying Again for an "Eddington Moment"

Every summer our friends Tom and Paula rent a cottage for a month on the New Hampshire seacoast at Rye Beach. The beach is lined with beautiful and extravagant houses, but Tom and Paula's place stands out as a rustic throwback to earlier times when beach houses was supposed to be simple and time at the shore was more like camping without an elegant modern structure blocking the experience of the sea. During their stay on the beach, Tom and Paula entertain many of their friends and every year we join the group for "Chesterfield Weekend". It is a great chance to be on the coast, to sit and watch the waves, eat and drink and of course talk. We do love to talk.

For me it is a treasured annual opportunity to photograph the New Hampshire seacoast. We are only there for a couple of days and my photography is strictly controlled by the weather, but for a poor landlocked guy, it is always an exciting opportunity. Even when the weather is terrible I can scout out interesting locations for another time. Besides, bad weather is often the best time to shoot. Except when I’m looking to capture a sunrise.

Whaleback Sunrise
Last year I had carefully planned to catch the sun rising behind

Last Year's Disappointment

Whaleback Lighthouse at the entrance to Portsmouth Harbor. I used The Photographer's Ephemeris to find the perfect location on Frost Point in Odiorne State Park. I got up at four am and hiked through the predawn dark to reach the beach, but the clouds remain stubbornly impenetrable and I had to be satisfied with moody shots of the restless gray ocean. I was happy with the images, and philosophical about the vagaries of nature, but that was not what I came for and certainly not why I dragged my old body out of bed at four AM. You can read about my adventure and my failure to experience an "Eddington Moment" in my blog article from last summer.




Persistence

Notice the Alien at the Helm

This year I decided to give it another try. Again the weather seemed marginal, but I was there and it seemed worth another shot. Since we always visit around the same date, the optimal location on Frost Point had not changed. Four AM came just as early as last year, but the sky looked clearer. When I got to the beach there was overcast on the horizon, but just as I was ready for another disappointment, the sky lit up. The golden clouds were a perfect back drop to the lighthouse and the passing boats. This is what I came for and it was worth the two early mornings. As the sun rose above the clouds, and became excessively bright, I began concentrating on the warm light which bathed the rocks and sea grass along the shore. It was a great morning to be by the ocean, peaceful and quiet, and with surprisingly few mosquitoes. While I was wandering the beach, I set up my field recorder on a rock near the water to record the relaxing sounds of the waves and sea birds. 








You can also listen to the ocean music on YouTube or as the background for my Atlantic Coast slide show (If you have Flash). 

 



I lingered for awhile, but I had to get back to nap before I joined the crew at the Golden Egg for a perfect breakfast. I enthused about the spectacular sunrise; attempting to make my lazy friends feel sorry that they didn’t join me on the beach. I failed, but, for me, it was still a perfect example of the power of persistence. Eddington would have been proud.

 
 Gifts from the Sea
I bagged my sunrise, but I always try to get the most from my trips to the coast. Although the full moon had passed I scouted around for good moonrise locations. I found that the view from Fort Stark in Portsmouth Harbor would work well. Sadly clouds were an issue on both nights, but soft overcast light worked well for other subjects, such as one of my favorite run down tidal shacks in Rye.

Atlantic Arch

The Best Laid Plans
Not all photographic opportunities come based on careful planning. Sometimes you have to be ready when luck plays its part. While beginning to prepare for dinner in the cottage on Friday night, My friend Bob suddenly began screaming for me to come quickly and to bring my camera. A rain shower was passing out to sea and the setting sun had just broken through the clouds, the perfect situation for a rainbow. And there it was, a spectacular full double rainbow floating on the ocean. I leaped back into the house to grab my 16-35 mm wide angle lens and started shooting. My choice of foregrounds was limited, but I was able to incorporate the small deck. Even with the wide angle, I couldn’t catch the full double, so, before the color melted away, I quickly grab a 5 image panorama which happily included Paula and Lynne watching in stunned amazement from the beach.  As much as I have learned about how rainbows form, I can rarely anticipate when one will appear. The conditions usually come together in an instant and are gone just as quickly. The best I can do is try to be ready when the miracle happens. This time it worked. This photography stuff is Great!

 

Before I headed home Sunday afternoon, I wandered the rocks along Rye Beach at low tide. The light was still flat, but I was able to catch some modest surf and tidal pools. I managed to keep my camera dry, but very little else. After drying off I reluctantly headed for home. 


Chesterfield Weekend at Rye Beach is always a great chance to visit with friends away from the distractions of home, and happily, there is always time to get out to capture the magic of the ocean. I was sad to leave, but excited to get home to dump my image into the computer and begin exploring my seacoast treasures. If nothing else, it was a refreshing break from the cows and trees.
　
　
　
Jeffrey Newcomer
Partridgebrookreflections.com

Whaleback Light

 Searching for an Eddington Moment

Einstein and Eddington

On May 29, 1919, Arthur Eddington was watching a rainy, cloud filled sky on the remote island of Principe off the west coast of Africa.  He had come from England to observe the solar eclipse

Arthur Eddington

hoping to confirm or refute Albert Einstein's controversial theory of relativity. It was no small matter that, just after the carnage of the First World War, it was an Englishman who had set out to test a German theoretical physicist's theory, which, if confirmed, would overthrow the god of English science Sir Isaac Newton.  Einstein's theory predicted that light passing by a massive object like the sun, would be noticeably deflected, but the only time to measure such an effect would be when the sun's brilliance was blocked by a solar eclipse. Eddington had planned carefully for the experiment and had traveled more than 3500 miles to be in the right spot at the right time. Despite all the preparation, the observation almost never happened, as the obscuring clouds parted only briefly during the period of totality. The result was that Einstein was confirmed and most of the rest of the world was left hopelessly confused and nostalgic for the simple days of Sir Isaac. Eddington had the luck that all photographers lust for, but even such a profoundly religious man was enough of a scientist not to depend entirely on providence. He sent a second expedition to Brazil as a hedge against bad weather.

This is all a round-about way to bemoan the fact that I had no hedge against bad weather this weekend and despite all my careful planning the sky did not open at just the right moment as I tried to catch Whaleback Light against the rising sun. Since I live about 90 miles from Atlantic coast in the beautiful southwest corner of New Hampshire, I treasure every opportunity to make it to the ocean. I don't have the luxury of returning time and again until the conditions are right. I have to make the best of what nature gives me, truthfully that is a major part of the fun. 


The Rye Weekend
Every summer our good friends Tom and Paula become even better

Whaleback Lighthouse, Portsmouth Harbor

friends when they rent a cottage on the New Hampshire coast at Rye Beach. It is a great excuse to spend a weekend by the water, to eat and drink, and to sit watching the various sizes and shapes of humanity strolling along the beach. Of course I also have to photograph and this year I had a plan. Whaleback Lighthouse at the entrance to Portsmouth Harbor is a classic and I wanted to try to capture the sun rising behind the tower.  Before leaving for Rye, I went to my favorite program, The Photographer's Ephemeris, and discovered that the sun could be seen rising behind the lighthouse, at 5:30 Sunday morning , from a spot on the beach at Odiorne Point State Park in Rye. I was able to find the exact location on the beach and determined

that Whaleback had to be at 63 degrees from my vantage point to be perfectly aligned. Knowing that I would be crossing the park in the dark, Tom and I scouted the location Saturday afternoon. The park is a lovely wooded oasis away from the bustle of the beaches and is crisscrossed with a web of secluded trails. Once on the beach, I was able to find the spot which placed the lighthouse at 63 degrees. Since I would be returning in the dark the next morning I built a small stone cairn to mark the location. Like Eddington, after the preparations, I could do nothing but wait for the weather.  Unlike Eddington, I could return to the cottage on the beach for a wonderful dinner and too much wine.

Tom Scouting the site

Carin Building
Photo by Tom Dustin

 












 

 You Have Fewer Friends at 4:30 in the Morning

Odiorne Point State Park, Rye NH
Less spooky in daylight

When I arrived at the park the next morning there were just a few small , hopeful, breaks in the clouds. I worked my way along the dark trails, guided by the narrow column of my headlamp. It was a bit spooky, but I figured that it was unlikely that potential muggers would decide to seek their prey from the Poison Ivy along a lonely wooded trail at 4:30 in the morning.  By the time I reached my spot on the beach the sky was completely overcast. I setup my tripod and, accompanied only by the mosquitoes, settled in to await the miracle. Sadly there was no Eddington moment.  5:30 came and went without a trace of morning gold. Once it was clear I was not going to get the perfect sunrise, I settled in to work the site for whatever I could get. 





Making Do
The cool blue light had its own attraction and the rocky shore

Odiorne Point Shore

provided some nice framing opportunities on the lighthouse, but the low light imposed its own challenges. For the lobster boat image, I framed the lighthouse through the rocks, locked down my tripod, and then took several exposures focusing on each of the foreground, middle rocks and the lighthouse (focus stacking). It was helpful to use Live View to nail the focus in the dim light and the long exposures created a nice soft appearance to the rolling waves. Then, keeping the camera in position, I waited for a boat to come by and added the final piece of puzzle. I had to boost the ISO up to 3200 for this image to freeze the moving boat, but in the end the composite brought it all together for the best representation of the lovely scene.

I spent two hours on that peaceful beach and, although I was disappointed about the lack of a spectacular sunrise, the quiet solitude was well worth the trip. I knew that, behind those clouds, the sun was rising and that it would be there for me on another day. Despite the best planning nature doesn't always cooperate, but photography would loose its excitement and challenge if every shoot was an Eddington moment. 

Angry sky over Rye Beach New Hampshire
A nice oppoertunity for a little HDR

Jeffrey Newcomer
partridgebrookreflections.com