Friday was my 20th birthday. Since birthday celebratory activities were planned for saturday (better scheduling) I decided to camp down on the lake for a little contemplation. I ended up sharing the beach with a couple other unexpected campers (one of whom turned out to be a long-lost acquaintance) and the weather was fantastic; beautiful clear skies and no wind. It got chilly and I lacked my actual camping gear, but was able to keep warm by digging a pit, filling with hot coals, covering them with sand and sleeping on top. All in all an extremely satisfying evening.

I woke up shortly before dawn and noticed some interesting colors in the sky, so I decided to do some long exposures. I set up the camera on a rock (no tripod) and put it on bulb with the 10-second timer, starting the exposure by taping a pebble tight onto the shutter button, since I didn't have a remote. 616 seconds later I took the tape off, and ended up with this photo:



The strange light colors on the horizon are the glow from residential areas in canada.

The sunrise continued and became very pink. I'll probably post a few others as well, but this is one of my favorites from later that morning (I should take care of those dust spots, I suppose):



As the dawn of my 20th year, I felt grateful in a sense to have such a beautiful sunrise to appreciate and to get such beautiful results from it. I hope you enjoy them too.

Beautiful pictures.

But more than anything else I liked the concept of recording such an occasion in stills.


Happy birthday.

[ivoire]

very nice! i like the one of the 'civilized' aurora best

[aerodave]

Hate to be pedantic, but if you just turned 20, it's the dawn of your 21st year. Your first year started when you were zero.

Nice pics, btw.

[er1kksen]

Right you are, Aerodave. I'd better go fix that on the flickr title.

Thanks, everyone.

Forgot to mention: both of these are jpegs developed in-camera with some minor tweaks (like horizon straightening) done in RAWTherapee (which is surprisingly useful to jpeg editing). Having such control over in-camera RAW development is one of the great things about Pentax; I see that with the 60D Canon finally added in-camera RAW development for the first time (I believe). Pretty funny to me since my past pentaxes always had that ability. I hated the lack of it when I owned a 40D.

[dcmsox2004]

very nice compositions..... and happy birthday..... dave m

[gawan]

Excellent shots, happy birthday!

[zman]

Happy Birthday ! Enjoyed your pics, especially the first one. I'm also from WNY and know how the lake provides us with an endless supply of photo opportunities.

Your method of obtaining the long exposure using a stone stone taped the the exposure button couldn't have been more timely for me. I'm seriously considering upgrading from my K100DS to the upcoming KR. But because it doesn't accept (like your KX) a cable switch I'm trying to learn how one does set the camera for long exposures.

Enjoy the beach - you know what's not far away ! Brrrr !!!!!

[er1kksen]

Happy Birthday ! Enjoyed your pics, especially the first one. I'm also from WNY and know how the lake provides us with an endless supply of photo opportunities.

Your method of obtaining the long exposure using a stone stone taped the the exposure button couldn't have been more timely for me. I'm seriously considering upgrading from my K100DS to the upcoming KR. But because it doesn't accept (like your KX) a cable switch I'm trying to learn how one does set the camera for long exposures.

It's a really useful technique, I ended up using it while camping in Colombia for some star trails as well. I always meant to grab one of those chinese remotes that go for a couple bucks on ebay, but never got around to it.

Where in WNY are you from? I recently moved from Fredonia up to East Aurora, and I really miss being near the lake. Being able to walk just a few miles to the beach was something I always loved about Fredonia.

Winter may be coming soon but I find that often results in some spectacularly dramatic light and weather on the lake. Great for photos.

[Nowhere Matt]

Oh yes. Those will do nicely.

[lidy]

Sounds like a very memorable birthday. Glad you had a good time - happy birthday and great pictures!

[Sailor]

Happy Birthday - and congrats on the wonderful photos. I'll be 64 next month and have been shooting for decades - I don't think I've ever taken anything as good as your second image.

Jer

[Ash]

Pleasant couple of landscapes.
Welcome to your second decade of life - so much more in store for you.

[er1kksen]

Thanks all for the birthday wishes, and I'm glad you liked the photos.

[MRRiley]

Very nice shots. I like em both but particularly enjoy the 2nd one. The soft muted colors work very well with the soft water due to the slow shutter speed. Well done and Happy Birthday.

Mike

p.s. hate to bring this up, but in the 2nd photo, are those dark spots on the left side around the horizon birds or dust?