Photographing the Pier on Tybee Island

Tybee Island is a great place for photographers. Not only can you make a living photographing weddings there like my friend Shannon but it also has some incredible landscapes and ocean views. It is still my favorite place to photograph the sunrise…

When photographing something as bare as a beach you should really try to find something to anchor the foreground of your photograph too. You just need something there. Or, you can find lines to help add definition to your photograph. That is what I did with the Pier on Tybee Beach. I really like how the pillars of the pier form a path for your eyes to follow…all the way ’til the end. In February, there were 3 days when the sun rose perfectly symetrical with the opening at the end of the pier. I waited months to get that photograph. I went all three mornings and all three mornings there was no real sunrise due to the clouds. It was one time I was cursing the clouds in my photograph. So…I guess there is always next year.

Photographing River Street at Night

The other night my photo friend Megan and I went down to River Street here in Savannah to do some night photography. I took a break from shooting all HDR to play around with some long exposure photography. One of the great things that can happen with long exposure is that people will not appear in your photo…if the exposure is long enough and they don’t stand in the same place for too long.

Making People Disappear

While this photo was being made about 40 people walked in front of the camera…but none of them showed up. How is this possible?! Well, when you are photographing at night  your shutter is left open for a long period of time to collect all of the light the camera needs to take the photo. So, when people walk in front of the camera, unless they stay in one spot they do not bounce enough light back to the camera for them to be picked up. Hence, they don’t even appear.

To make this technique even more effective use the lowest ISO and smallest aperture you can. I photograph River Street Sweets in Savannah at ISO 100 and f22. The shutter was open for 20 seconds.

If you are in Savannah long enough you are bound to see one of these guys, a member of the Savannah Pedicab corps. These guys are great. It is a very environmentally friendly  and novel way to get around the city of Savannah. I was talking to one guy who worked as one and he said they can go pretty much anywhere in the historic district except for River Street, because of the cobblestones. What a great idea.

Taking People Photos and Model Releases

So, when I took this photo I was walking around with a friend of mine. I told her I would use this photo on my blog at some point and she asked/said “You can’t use someone’s photo on your blog without their permission though.”  That is a common misconception. You can absolutely use a photograph you took of someone without their permission as long as you follow a few rules. First, the photo has to be taken in a public setting. Two, you cannot use the photograph for commercial purposes. In other words, I cannot use this photo in an advertisement  without a release from the gentleman pedaling this cab around. Of course if he was riding away from me and I couldn’t identify him I would be able to use the photo for whatever I wanted without his permission. So, there ya have it.

Photographing Shrimp Boats on Tybee Island

Well, I guess it should technically say ‘ Photographing Shrimp Boats in the waters around Tybee Island’…but close enough.

Shrimping is a big business in these parts. If you go to any self-respecting seafood restaurant in Savannah you will find freshly caught wild Georgia Shrimp on the menu. Many of these shrimp are caught by small boats fishing with a crew of only a few men.

This photograph was taken while I was on a Dolphin Tour off of Tybee Island. During the course of our hour-long dolphin ‘hunt’ we came across a number of these Shrimp Boats. Each and every one of them had seagull flying and dive-bombing the deck and dolphins swimming around the boats waiting for the scraps. It was quite the sight.

Photographing the Streets of Savannah at night

Some days, after the sun goes down, the streets of Savannah start calling my name. There is something very meaningful about walking along such old and historic streets. Doing it at night brings out a whole new side to the energy that flows through the streets. It also happens to be a time that fewer people photograph, making it ideal for someone like me. I don’t want the photographs that everyone else takes.

Sometimes, the photographs I take of Savannah at night look best in black and white…well, that is a stupid thing to say because photographs during the day sometimes look better in black and white. Walking along Bay Street I stopped at the corner. I looked up and to the right and noticed this sight. I took its picture. Now you’re looking at it. Kinda’ cool how that works…right? ha..