Headlands Beach Spring Sunrise
Headlands Sunrise And An Unusual Feature On This Beach
This morning I headed out to Headlands Beach State park to see if I could get an interesting sunrise. The clouds were low on the horizon so there wasn’t going to be the kind of cool color display I was hoping for.
On a nice note, the western sky was clear with some clouds and they were catching some pretty pastel color so I took advantage of a couple of compositions on my down the boardwalk to the beach. Here is a nice minimalist type image and you can see how nice the sky was getting lit.
Continuing down to the shoreline I was surprised to find the beach split by a canal full of water. I’ve never seen this at Headlands, though I’m sure its happened in the past. Water was running into a gap and flooding part of the beach. I framed up a couple of shots to see if I could get some nice reflections. They turned out OK.
These were both shot with the 24-120 lens.
I found a spot to set up a timelapse for this view but it didn’t work out too well. It was cool watching the water in the push in and out, but the sky didn’t look that good in the timelapse. I think this was a 3-second interval, with a polarizer to slow down the shutter speed and bring out some contrast in the sky.
While this timelapse was running I grabbed my other camera with the 14-30 wide angle and set up a composition facing the other direction.
I liked how the clouds were moving in, so I set up the camera on a small rock and shot another timelapse at 14mm-nice and wide to exaggerate the foreground and get a lot of sky in the frame.
I love timelapse sequences where the clouds come directly at you. I will always take advantage of this when I can. This sequence was shot with a 2-second interval.
After shooting these I put the 100-400 lens on the Z8 to see if I could get some wildlife shots. I also love using the telephoto to compress scenes, like this shot of the lighthouse from the trail at the boardwalk.
Or this one from the trail along the breakwall.
I didn’t have good luck getting any wildlife shots, though I did capture this group of bird-watchers enjoying the morning.
I wandered back toward the parking lot, and captured this view of the boardwalk with the telephoto lens. This shot is from the trailhead where the boardwalk begins. The observation deck is a lot further than this telephoto lens shows.
I decided to head home and made my way back to the jeep.
On my way out of the park, I saw what I thought might be an eagle or osprey hanging out in a tree overlooking Shipman Pond. I stopped a grabbed a quick shot as he took off. I think it is some kind of hawk, and he’s getting divebombed by this other little bird.
I bet that group of birdwatchers can ID these guys.
All in all, a nice morning out by the lake. It wasn’t too cold, the sun has finally appeared after a gray winter, and the lake was really calm. Get yourselves out to Headlands State park, it is absolutely beautiful. :)
