Day Twelve: Sunrise, Ocean Point

This is one of my favorite Downeast haunts. Just east of Boothbay harbor, down Route 96, lies a stretch of road that follows the coast. There’s plenty of public parking along the road, so you can park, walk, and shoot. Again, my partner and I attempt to catch the rising sun. Only this time I bring the D50 and the B+W 092M IR Dark Red Filter along with the D90. And of course, my iPhone 4S is always with me.

Sunrise, Ocean Point, Maine.
Nikon D90, AF-S NIKKOR 16-85mm G.

A daylight white balance setting objectively captures the amber glow of the rising sun. Moments later, I take a wide angle shot with the iPhone. With a little in-phone post processing using Camera Plus Pro, I arrive at this…

Sunrise, Ocean Point, Maine.
Apple iPhone 4S, Camera Plus Pro App.

The iPhone is not so objective. The only white balance option is AWB (Auto White Balance), so its interpretation is not so objective. But still beautiful nontheless. On the other hand, the D50’s Infrared interpretation is vastly different…

Infrared Interpretation of Ocean Point Sunrise.
Nikon D50, B+W 092M IR Dark Red Filter.

Without the Voigtländer finder, I fix my gaze on the focal point of the scene and bring the viewfinder square up to my eye. I can just see the outline of the center focus indicator, so I align it with focal point of my gaze. In a pinch, this seems to work well.

Most of my shooting is off in the distance, so I just set the infinity mark to the infrared index. Zone focusing seems to be a good approach in this case. The NIKKOR 28mm and 50mm Series E would be ideal for this, except that auto exposure is not an option with manual focus lenses on the D50. However, with professional-class cameras like the D800 this is not a problem since the lens’ focal length and maximum aperture can be entered into its database for full metering capability. But I’m not counting on the D800 for infrared.

The metering capability is important, as I’m finding that Program mode works quite well. In fact, if I second-guess it, I usually wind up with overexposed images where the highlights turn to an unflattering cyan as they have above (note the very distracting banding). The images look very dark on the D50’s LCD; the histogram shows that the highlights start at the quarter-tone mark. But if I swap the SD card out and view them on my D90, they don’t look too bad. Sometimes, you just can’t trust the LCD.

I quite like the natural, sepia/blue duotone effect that comes naturally with the D50. It works well under certain circumstances. Usually though, I like to invert the a and b channels, which turns the sky back to blue, which tends to look more natural. Here’s the same image after post-processing…

Post-processed version of the above image, using a/b channel inversion.

I find that turning on the D50’s auto ISO feature helps a lot. I set the camera to ISO 200 and set the minimum shutter speed to 1/30 second. There are only four ISO settings on the D50; 200, 400, 800 and 1600. But interestingly enough, if program mode needs to set a shutter speed less than 1/30, it changes the ISO in incremental steps, sometimes quite small. This is huge, as it goes a long way to preserving image quality.

Looking west, we have a much lower contrast scene, and the cyan blooming is not as much of a problem…

Looking west at Ocean Point.
Nikon D50, AF NIKKOR 20mm f/2.8D, B+W 092M IR Dark Red Filter.

For this image, I remapped the start point to the quarter-tone point, and added just a touch of saturation and vibrance, but otherwise left it as it came from the camera. This can all be done in Adobe Camera RAW. Often, desaturating the image to create a split-toned monochrome interpretation produces beautiful results. This image is much sharper than the eastern-facing image above.

With the D50, there’s no way to convert the image to monochrome in the camera, so you’re always shooting in color. And no, you cannot swap the SD card and process it in the D90. The D90 will only allow you to modify its own images. But in post-processing on the desktop workstation, you can create monochromatic (Black and White) images from any of these color interpretations. And to be honest, this seems like a more natural domain for Infrared images.

Montsweag Camera Find: The Sequel Yes it’s Wednesday, Montsweag Flea Market Day. So, after breakfast we head down Route 1, and just before the rain sets in, and the vendors start packing things up, my partner comes across an epic camera find:

Kodak Retina IIIc Rangefinder

Kodak Brownie Bull’s-Eye Bakelite 620 Box Camera

Kodak Signet 35 Rangefinder

These are all in excellent condition. Ever since I first saw the Signet 35, I’ve wanted one; it’s really tiny, and built like a tank. The Retina IIIc features a Schneider Lens and a Synchro-Compur shutter, and is a serious, German-made rangefinder. Unfortunately, it’s in need of repair. The Brownie Bull’s-Eye is a focusing bakelite box camera. Bakelite rules!

Then, we head back towards Boothbay, stopping off at Sarah’s in Wiscasset for lunch. Afterwards, we browse some gallerys and antique shops, and I come across this:

Konica IIIA 135 Rangefinder

This is the most significant find of all; a superb, fast rangefinder that was years ahead of its time, in full working order. Definitely planning on shooting with this.

Sarah’s is right on the waterfront of the Sheepscot River, former home of the Hesper and the Luther Little, two of the last four-masted ships built in New England. They have since been reclaimed by the sea, but their moorings stil remain, captured by the D50, which I kept with me all day.

Sheepscot River, Wiscassett; former resting place of the Hesper and Luther Little.
Nikon D50, AF NIKKOR 20mm f/2.8D, B+W 092M IR Dark Red Filter.