With the very deep freeze letting go of its grasp for a day or two I thought I better get out to look for some icy scenes to photograph at the beach yesterday morning. The groins (jetties) at Herring Point had interesting ice formations on them and the tide was pretty low at sunrise but was beginning to come in. I found these salt water icicles hanging from a rock but I wasn't able to get into the best place to shoot them with the rising sun beyond them and also use my tripod too. Anyone who has taken my photography seminar knows my mantra is 'use your tripod'. To get this shot the camera came off the tripod, I wedged myself into the rocks behind the icicles and was about in a fully horizontal position. Luckily, having to lie so flatly also allowed me to rest the camera on my chest to stabilize it. My cold glasses fogged over badly from my breath bouncing off of my chest with my head bent at a 90 degree angle and I could barely see what I was photographing. I made three different exposures due to the wide range of light and shadows in the scene. My good friend and colleague Pamela Aquilani, who is far better at it than I, blended the three exposures together in Photoshop to make the photograph I saw through the lens. I love this Delaware beach image which makes me feel like I visited the Maine coast yesterday.
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Tony Pratt is the administrator of the Shoreline and Waterway Management Section of Delaware’s Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control. He is a scientist and naturalist, well versed in nature study.
Pratt is a lifelong photographer who has worked closely with Kevin Fleming since 2007. His interests in photography range from wildlife and landscapes to portraiture work.
His photography can be seen at www.tonypratt.com and at the Kevin Fleming and Friends Gallery, 239 Rehoboth Ave. in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware.
