Beachscapes

Cape May Point Labor Day surf

The most photogenic spot I visit often is the stretch of the Delaware Bay beach in North Cape May, New Jersey, that I've known all my life. I enjoy shooting sunsets and rough surf there as my Facebook friends are quite aware. This is also the best place to try out new techniques and tricks in order to come up with new perspectives on the place and different-looking photos. Here's a round-up of ideas that you can use no matter what kind of camera you are using.

JUST BEFORE SUNSET, everything turns golden in other locations, too, but on the beach this is especially flattering light for people, dogs, and scenery with the sun at the the photographer's back.

Gladys at Sunset (Margaret Montet)

Shooting into the sun, we can catch some spectacular sunsets and silhouettes, too. Try positioning the subject in front of the setting sun: kids frolicking, boats sailing, dogs fetching, fishermen fishing, lighthouses and other iconic seashore structures are some of my recent silhouette subjects.

Fishin' (Margaret Montet, iPhone shot)

This is probably a good time to let you in on my big digital photography editing secret. I don't just take one perfect shot of a subject. I take many, changing settings and perspectives even when I'm not really sure what the result of the changes will be. Later on, I look through my shots and pick the very best to use or post. Based on what I just said in the previous paragraph, I would have thought that the best shot of these paddle boarders at sunset would have happened when they paddles in front of the sun (from my vantage point). My favorite turned out to be this one, just before they got to that spot. I'm really glad I took lots of extra shots.

Paddleboarders at Sunset (Margaret Montet)

THE BLUE HOUR starts about thirty minutes after sunset. I had been unaware of this concept until I read an article in the May2014 Outdoor Photographer magazine by photographer Kurt Budliger ("Get into the Wet Zone"). Budliger writes about the Golden Hour, extended shutter speeds for silky water, unspoiled sand at low tide, and this mysterious Blue Hour. Cool, I thought, I won't pack up and go home as soon as the sun goes down. I'll stick around and shoot in various directions and see what I get. Here's one of what I got:

The Blue Hour at the Delaware Bay (Margaret Montet)

It's fun to use props when shooting beach photos. We have to take care not to get sand into anything that might be harmed by it, and that includes props and regular photo gear. Keep the camera in its case while setting up shots with props, and maybe make some plastic-bag booties if you are using a tripod. The two props I experimented with recently didn't care much about sand, but my camera and lenses always care.

THE CONVEX MIRROR is a fun gizmo that I use to get interesting shots. Again, I take many shots and look through them later to find the best. Not only do I fiddle with camera settings, but I also move around a bit to adjust the angle between me, the mirror, and the subject I think I want to show up in the mirror. Here are some samples using a small convex mirror from the hardware store:

Convex Bay Sunset (Margaret Montet)

Convex Gladys (Margaret Montet)

Convex Margie and Gladys (Margaret Montet)

Then there is the repurposed PICTURE FRAME. This might be a cliche technique for snapshots of people, but I haven't seen it used much for landscapes. The idea here is the same as for anything that appears in a frame, whether it is art in a literal frame, or live entertainment on a stage with a proscenium arch, or a person's face surrounded by a floppy hat. The eye goes to whatever is inside the frame first. My cheapo plastic frame broke as soon as I tried to position it in the sand, but I was able to get some cool shots before it completely fell apart. In the future, I might drill a hole in the side of the frame so that I can stand it on my tripod or Gorilla Pod. I like this shot of the lighthouse with the gulls standing around acting naturally, and the beachgoers outside the frame. I wasn't paying any attention to them while lying on my stomach on my towel shooting this series of photos, but I like what the colorful people add to the shot.

Cape May Point Lighthouse and Gulls (Margaret Montet)

So you see, you can take some interesting shots no matter what kind of camera you have and a little creative thinking. Check out this guy:

North Cape May

Views from the Promenade (Cape May, New Jersey, USA)

Go to Cape May, take a camera, take a walk, and shoot. I used my iPhone which was also keeping track of our distance (5 miles total!) and calories burned through my pedometer app. Here's a sample of the photos you're likely to take away from the 1.4-mile Promenade...

Autumn Baywalk

Gladys the Sheltie wanted me to show you what we saw on our walk this afternoon at the Delaware Bay. It was low tide, so the beach looked like this:

and we saw lots  of things washed-up on the sand.

Coral

A claw

And, of course, shells

There was a recently-deceased or napping horseshoe (I'm told not to call them crabs because they are more like spiders, actually),

and a gull looking for lunch hiding just under the sand.

Since it was super-low tide, I got some close-up shots of this jetty which is usually under the water. Who knew so many critters lived under there?!

The Cape May-Lewes Ferry made an appearance after the HOOOOOONNNNNK HONK HONK HONK warning signal.

The ferry is leaving the canal.

 Gladys had had enough by now,

...so we headed home to rest while our crepe myrtle tree is doing this because it is autumn!

This is what low tide looks like in winter

My favorite beach for walking, as my frequent readers probably know, is the Delaware Bay Beach in North Cape May, NJ. (I've been coming here all of my life and even before, I suspect!) Summer on this beach is great for sunning and relaxing, but fall, winter, and spring are for walking, making Gladys chase her special beach toy, and shooting pictures. A few weeks ago, Fred and Gladys and I managed to fit in a cold and windy beachwalk on the bay. As luck would have it, we wandered down at low tide. This means a wider beach for toy-chasing and more oddities washed up from the depths of the bay.

Fred and Gladys wait for me as I shoot photos from the street.

I mentioned it was a windy day. Gladys was wearing her new snowman kerchief, and experienced many wardrobe malfunctions.

The best birding is in spring and fall, when so many species fly by on their migrations north and south. Some live here with us and even hang out on the beach in winter. (By the way, if you are interested in birding in Cape May County and beyond, check out Don Freiday's blog: http://freidaybird.blogspot.com)

Some gulls stay for the winter.

A plump little sandpiper/plover/sanderling--I'm never quite sure which. They're all in Cape May.

This fall we New Jersey beach lovers (avian and human alike) experienced anxiety during the approach of Hurricane (or Superstorm) Sandy. Some of us received gut-wrenching bad news, but others of us were spared. A few days before it hit, all eyes were on Cape May as the storms were expected to converge there. As we all know now, Sandy brought her devastation ashore a little further north. Cape May was, for the most part, spared, but I suspect most from the Cape May region watched the news with horror as the images from Seaside and Staten Island, Brick and Brooklyn, appeared in the media: "Man, that could have been us."

Fred and Gladys head for the beach.

There were some issues at my favorite beach as a result of the enormous storm. For the first time I can remember, the trail from the street to the beach was purposely moved over a few feet. Bulldozers did this after the storm, and I suspect the move has something to do with the new storm drain visible in the first photo above. There was a dinky drain there before, but this gargantuan seems to mean business. But anyway, I'm still getting used to the new trail, as silly as that may seem.

There was some beach erosion , too. These cliffs have always been here, but used to be much smaller. I remember when I was younger my parents could drive along Beach Drive and see me and my dog Bambi from the car. That's nowhere near possible now as those cliffs are taller than I am.

The dune cliffs, post-Sandy

Nonetheless, the beauty of the beach in winter remains. I think this is a pretty cool close-up of one of the jetties. Low-tide allowed me to get in close to the moss-covered rocks. The green moss and the charcoal-colored rocks were the most exciting color palette of the morning, I think.

At high-tide sometimes, these rocks are completely covered. P.S. The green parts are very slippery.

I mentioned that weird things wash up on the bay. Here's an oyster-encrusted tire:

Those oysters will cling to anything.

It was cold and windy that day, the moist kind of wind that you find at the beach. This is the kind of wind that will cause actual pain to ungloved hands shooting photos or flying kites, for instance. Little Sheltie dogs chasing toys don't seem to be bothered by it.

 

Two Busy Weeks in Cape May

My recent two-week vacation was packed with more action than usual but at the same time I actually attained relaxation. I had planned a reading and writing vacation and brought a few stacks of books and notebooks. My main writing would be for nj.com's Jersey Shore Blog. I'm contributing there about extreme South Jersey (i.e. Cape May, Wildwood, and points inland) just for the summer season. Therefore, I'd have to experience some adventures so I'd have plenty to write about for the agreed-upon twice-a-week posts.

On my first day, I took a whale watching cruise out of Cape May. I've done this before and only ever seen dolphins, so I was set to write a nice little post about those Atlantic Bottlenose scamps. To my surprise, the captain announced that there were three humpback whales sighted about eleven miles out and we were headed right for them. I'd seen whales off Bar Harbor, Maine, and San Diego, California, but never off the coast of Cape May! But there was one right in front of our boat, spouting and diving, and I got some great whale's tail photos. It was magnificent. Read about that cruise here.


I like boats and I'll take any excuse to ride on one. I also like pirates. We set sail on Wildwood's Dark Star Pirate Cruise on the last day of vacay. Fred and I were the only adults not accompanied by kids, but we had a fabulous time. Those pirates maintained the action and the interest for the entire hour. We learned some pirate jokes, pirate lingo, pirate history, hauled some treasure aboard, and we got to engage in a firefight (actually water) with another pirate ship. I posted about that here.


In-between the whales and the pirates, I explored Cape May. As a lifetime part-time resident, I know this place well, but I always learn new things on these (Cape May Mid-Atlantic Center for the Arts and Humanities) tours. During these two weeks, I toured East Cape May to see the mansions by the sea,

West Cape May to learn about its farms and history, the iconic Victorian architecture including Show allthe Physick Estate,

the U.S. Coast Guard Training Center (including the Sunset Parade), the 2011 Designer Show House (this year on the century-old Cape May Harbor), and I had a seat on the Ghosts of the Lighthouse Trolley Tour. Ghosts are really big this year (in New Orleans, too), so I had to sample a piece of Cape May's paranormal offerings. This tour included a nighttime climb of the lighthouse, another first for me. I have or will post about all of these things on that nj.com blog, along with some local farmers' markets and the Ocean Drive. What a fun experience that has been, and I still have over a month of posts left to dream up.


There were two excursions during this vacation that required some mileage and some decent outfits: a very pleasant al fresco dinner party with friends, and a book talk and signing at the Avalon Public Library. I just happened to notice an ad for this in the newspaper, but people I spoke to at the event had been looking forward to it for months. David and Julie Nixon Eisenhower spoke about themselves, their families, and their new book, Going Home to Glory, about Dwight D. Eisenhower's post-presidential years (1961-1969). I had the opportunity to chat with Julie Nixon Eisenhower, and found her quite witty and charming. They were headed to Cape May after the talk, and when she asked me how long it would take to get there, I had the answer: 27 minutes.


Even with all of these adventures, I had to be sure to squeeze in my favorite activity, the beach! I made it to my three favorites, the Cape May Point State Park beach, the Delaware Bay Beach (with Gladys), and the ocean beach at Jackson Street. A Cape May vacation can be so much more than just the beach, though! I hope you will click on some of the links above to get a sample of how I'm keeping myself busy this summer!

Dog Friendly Cape May

Hello everyone, I'm Gladys, the Sheltie dog who goes to the beach a lot. Last year, I guest-blogged about Dog Beach, also known as the Bay Beach in North Cape May. Today I'm writing about the ocean beach in Cape May City. Let me assure you this is perfectly legal:

This is where Mom sits when she goes to the beach without me in the summer. I may sound bitter, but I think mom is right that I wouldn't like it. I wear a thick fur coat all year long and I don't really like the hot weather.

I also don't like the water and these ocean waves are a lot bigger than the waves at Dog Beach. (Mom says to call them breakers because it's more descriptive.) On Sunday we walked from the Perry Street Beach up to the Cove. I have never seen so much sand. There's another dog with its people on the jetty in silhouette.

Here's me posing for the camera by the drift fence: This is Sunset Pavilion next to Cove Beach where all the brides go to get married or to have their pictures taken.

And this is Cove Beach See the lighthouse?

After Las Vegas and Disney World, Cape May is the most popular U.S. municipality for weddings.

On the way back to the car, Mom stopped to shoot some pretty Victorian architecture.

What I do not like about Cape May even in the cooler weather are the flagstone sidewalks. I cannot get traction on them. And this: But I really like that beach!