
In The Shot
Back with another great guest desktop for everyone! This week we have an image from Dan Hawk, a photographer from the great city of Portlandia. He reached out to me showing interest in sharing a photograph in the guest series and after pouring through the beautiful photographs on his site I found this gem which he was kind enough to share with everyone as a wallpaper.
At first glance a straightforward long exposure of a beach at sunset caused me pause when I noticed the blurry outline of one of his children in bottom of the frame. The ghost like figure gives it a personality and vitality that I really love. As you know, I enjoy a story or a few thoughts about an images creation and Dan had this to say about the photograph:
“My wife and I took all three of our kids to Maui this year and this image is from their first Hawaiian sunset after a long day playing in the ocean. I tried to make it down to the water for sunset every evening as it seems so wrong to miss them. I made a couple of long exposure pictures that evening which turned out pretty good, but then my son decided to jump in the frame on this one and it became the keeper. I tried to get him to hold still, but he’s 9, so it was a lost cause. When making photos, I hope my images represent the way it felt to be there and this one succeeds for me.”
A story that rings true of some of the worlds best photographs, ones of serendipity and adjusting expectations to fit the circumstances to discover something even better.
Dan also had this to say of his technical approach; “I made this image with a single frame taken with a Sony NEX 7, the 18-55 Zoom lens (which is pretty good stopped down at 18mm) and a Neutral Density Filter so I could use a longer shutter speed. This is a ten second exposure at f/20, using a tripod. I’m usually more of a prime 35mm equivalent shooter, but I find myself reaching for the wider angle of the zoom for these big ocean sunsets. I generally shoot in RAW which gives me access to the broad dynamic range of light that the sensor is recording. All of my editing is done in Lightroom.”
You can find more of his work and follow along with future photos and stories here.
No comments yet.
Leave A Reply