Gaspe vacation photos ~ The Sky

July 6, 2010

As promised here are the rest of our photos I wanted to share from our trip. Only this time the focus, quite literally is on the sky.

Usually when we camp we are deep in the woods somewhere tucked between mountains. As lovely as this sounds it's nearly impossible to take stunning sunrise or sunset photos in these settings.

This trip to the Gaspe however we stayed most of the nights on a high point, a little mountain really, camped out in our friend's yard and then the last couple nights with my parents camped right at the ocean's edge in a lovely campground. The sky was spread out before me - day and night. I loved it.

Near the end of our trip, while camping by the ocean I got up very early one morning (3:30/4:00am) to photograph the sunrise. Don't worry I went back to bed but the sunrise was worth rolling out of my sleeping bag.

This sunset was a bit easier to photograph, sometime around 8 pm or so.

This next photo is right around sunset at our friend's farm. They live on the top of a ridge but misty air had risen from the ocean below and rolled over their pasture. It was breathtaking to watch. The contrast on this photo is boosted a bit for effect.

During the sunny days I was captivated by the sky and the ocean.

And here is where I want to share my little photographer tip. Ever since using a polarizer my sky shots have gotten much better. I bought it late last summer and every gorgeous sky/ocean shot I've published since was probably taken with that polarizer on my lens.

I'm not going to go into all the technical mumbo jumbo about how they work, I'm still figuring that all out. Quite honestly, when it comes to many things with photography I don't need to know why they work I just want to know how to use them. If you're of the same mindset you might like this article from Digital Photography School.  This short article is a bit more technical (but still understandable) explanation of why and how they work.

I use a Nikon polarizer. I didn't use the polarizer with the sunrise and sunset shots you see here, only with the midday blue sky shots (and any other midday blue sky shot you've seen on my blog for the past year). I love it and think it's a great tool for landscape/nature photography.

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