Location

Coney Island has a checkered past. And even its present still has many fresh wounds. But at 6 AM looking out into the Atlantic Ocean — Coney Island seems like an oasis.

Equipment

  • Camera: Nikon D5000
  • Lens: 50mm (Zeiss Planar T* 1.4)
  • Exposure: 1/30 sec at f/16
  • Tripod: Oben AT-3400

Workflow

This is a single exposure photograph. Since this was a planned photo-walk I used my tripod. And yes, when it’s a planned photo-walk I do use my tripod — unless the tripod gets in my way. I was at Coney Island during blue hour — that was the goal. But as blue hour came and went, I became slightly frustrated.

The sky was rather plain — nothing was popping. So I began to use the environment — jetties, sand formations, crashing waves and pylons. It was a struggle for me to get something that told a good story.

Then there was this photo of the Atlantic and the jetty. At first I thought, “so plain.” But then in post, I began to play with the exposure, shadows, blacks, whites, saturation and vignetting.

I even cropped and straightened.

Post

All post work was done in Lightroom 4.1.