Photographing at night in Hilton Head

The other night I got a text message from my friend Scott Kublin about photographing at sunset. Of course I wanted to, we just were not sure where to go. Scott came up with the idea of photographing up in Hilton Head, and it turned out to be a great idea. Not only have I never been to this location, Harbour Town, but it was a pretty neat place.

The lighthouse at Harbour Town is an interesting subject. Photographing it was a no-brainer, but all of the boats in the foreground made it a challenge. There are two things we had to consider. One, the sailboats’ masts were in the way when shot from most angles. Two, the boats were constantly swaying back and forth. When you are photographing at night your shutter will stay open, allowing the sailboats to appear like they are moving, in other words they were ghosting. So, it was a little tough to get everything in frame, find the right angle and eliminate the moving of the sailboats. Between getting most of it right in camera and fixing the ghosting in post seemed to take care of those problems. The picture turned out pretty cool, but I may be a little biased.

Tybee Island is a great place to spend time taking photographs. While photographing the Island during the day may be a no-brainer, don’t forget you can also get some great images in the middle of the night. More and more I am enjoying going out and taking long exposure photographs at night. This photograph had a 30 second exposure.

This is the Pier on Tybee Island. Of course the body of water you see is the Atlantic Ocean. When I put one of these photographs out I almost always get someone asking me how to get the water smooth and silky. It is very very easy. Leave your shutter open. The best time to do this is at night or on overcast days. If you leave your shutter open for more than a half second of so on a bright sunny day all you will get is a solid white photo. Not good…You might also want to put your camera on a tripod. You don’t want the camera moving around or shaking while your shutter is open. That makes for blurry images.

So, next time you are out and about taking photographs on Tybee Island, make sure to head back to the ocean after the sun goes down for some long exposure photography.

Look at that tree traveling at light speed! Okay, so it isn’t actually traveling at light speed, but it kinda’ looks like it, right? No? Okay, then humor me for a minute, ha.

This photograph was taken on June 17th 2011. A day that I will never forget as long as I live. It was a very sad day. Days like that tend to be ingrained in your mind as if someone marked the exact spot with a hot brand.

This photograph is straight from the camera, promise! Taking photographs like this is actually pretty easy at night. Just put the camera on a tripod and use a long shutter speed. You might want to take a flashlight with you to help your camera grab focus, that is the part that can be a pain from time to time. A little trick to get the clouds just like this…watch them for a few minutes. See what direction they are traveling. Get a position where they are going directly towards you or away from you. That will create the ‘warp-speed look’. Simple stuff…