Beach Break: Photography at Assateague Island National Seashore
Sika deer (an exotic species introduced from Japan) on the beach at sunset…
I recently spent a few days at Assateague Island National Seashore in Maryland with a good friend. Those of you familiar with this place will know that it’s the wild horses that made this place famous, and there are plenty of them, many with little ones in tow and they are not at all shy… We camped (which is to say we spent 3 nights battling the mosquitos and deerfly), and a couple of times I emerged from the shower to find the horses gathered right outside in the shade of the building.
Though I wasn’t there for photography, I managed a few early morning and late evening shoots in between long lazy days on the beach. There is something deeply calming about photographing moving water, and I spent hours experimenting with shutter speed and camera movement to create interesting and compelling images of waves breaking. Of course, the beach is lovely, but the dunes, forests and marshland were equally stunning and I really enjoyed walking the multiple boardwalks into these areas. I was surprised at the wide variety of wildlife. Birds, deer, horses - everywhere we turned there was another creature to behold.
As a bit of a departure from my normal fare, then, and as a sort of last-of-summer post, today I’m sharing a few images I made at Assateague along with some brief notes on how I approached or made some of them.
Beaches Breaking Waves, Clouds, Sea Sparkle, & Marsh Scenes…
I used many techniques for these scenes, but for the breaking waves, I played around with a slow shutter speed to capture the rolling and crashing movements. Generally, I find that 1/10 to 1/2 second exposures work best on the waves, depending on the time of day and/or amount of light in the scene. Experimentation is key to finding the right setting for the conditions, since in my opinion the best images show movement as well as some structure. I also added intentional camera movement to the mix here - moving either in the direction of the waves or even against it, to see what happens. It’s a very unpredictable and random process, but freeing and cleansing since it is so opposite to the normally structured approach to landscape photography. Defocussing is also fun to play with, both for breaking waves and also (my favorite) sea sparkle.
Creatures of Assateague…
I don’t normally shoot wildlife, so this was a step out of my comfort zone! The ponies were everywhere, but the scene below caught my imagination. A group of them were posed at the edge of the marsh in dramatic but harsh lighting. The bay was solid silver and highly reflective, so I bracketed my shots to be sure I had images exposed for the highlights as well as the shadows, thereby offering maximum flexibility in post. I ended up liking just the single exposure, with the silver bay bright (though not blown out) and the horse or horses in silhouette...
If you’d like to be notified of future blog posts as well as announcements, sales, and links to educational resources, subscribe to my mailing list below. I also offer a free ebook, The Art of Fog, available only to subscribers. You can find that link in the menu above!
Happy end of summer to you!
