Drain Boys
I had my tripod set up and was taking pictures of the Ross Bay storm drain when these boys, oblivious of my activity, arrived and got out of their shoes and socks and ventured onto the drain. My feet hurt just looking at this as I know how cold that water is. I was watching and wondering, if they get caught by a bigger wave and pushed over the side into the deep water, do I have to go in after them. Thank goodness I did not have to follow that thought through to an answer. I hate cold water.
Like a recent post that does not include people, this photograph is made with several long exposures combined with HDR techniques. This too is processed within Photomatix, but combines only half as many shots. In this instance the boys were very much in motion and they are derived from only one of the three brackets used. They are blurred because of the long exposure and their excited running about.
The earlier post with more brackets and longer exposures has a nicer quality to the water than this one, but I felt that I was not going to get the boys at all with a 20 second exposure, so I dialed the neutral density filter down several stops. I am happy to have parts of them in focus and parts in blurred motion. It represents well what I was watching. If only I could have arranged for both the kids and nice creamy water surfaces.
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Canon EOS 5Dii, Canon 50/1.4 lens, ISO100, f-22, 3 brackets at 1/10th, 1/20th and 1/40th seconds
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burnt embers 
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I must have missed this the first time around, so I’m glad Melinda pointed to it today. I like it a lot and don’t mind at all that the water is not creamy. I probably prefer it this way, actually.
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Thanks Linda! Glad to have people looking back in time, there are getting to be a lot of posts on this blog, some of which are best forgotten, but some which I would like remembered. So I am glad that Melinda remembers this one enough to draw people back to it.
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I remember this now. I guess it was this one that made me think it was bigger than the others. Even with the boys on it (and the gull) I find it hard to imagine its true stature.
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Thanks Katherine – I think that is a good thing. The way I tend to photograph it does leave uncertainty and a bit of disconnection from reality too (I hope). Sounds like it worked a bit with you.
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Yes. All of your photos work that way for me. Smiley face, ell-0h-ell!!!!!!
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This is terrific! the movement of the water and the figures – so beautiful. I certainly does look cold!
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Hi Karen. Thank you! If you have dipped a toe in the north Pacific you know it is cold, pretty much all year around.
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I saw this, and liked it, the day you posted it. Today, while I was driving to work (it’s 40 minutes, so I have a lot of time to think random thoughts), I started thinking about this shot again. I like your storm drain shots a lot, but this one keeps coming back to mind. It’s those ghostly boys, I think, that have kept the shot in my mind. Good job on this one!
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Thank you Melinda – it’s very complimentary that you find one of my images sticking with you. Thanks for letting me know
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Can you email me if you would be interested in selling me a print of this?
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Hi Melinda – you honour me with your request. An email has been sent. And, thank you so much!
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I really really enjoy this! You have several great elements converged in this shot, making for a compelling picture to view!
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Thanks Toad. Another of those lucky moments. You would be the one that would know – is it possible to tell Photomatix which bracket to use when deghosting, or is the choice totally up to the software? One of the other brackets had boys posed in a way that I might have preferred, had I a way to tell the software what to do. Maybe there is a work around, but changing the EV values or something, or uploading the bracket in question twice, but that sounds complicated.
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Just a note for others. I met Toad for coffee last week and he tells me that indeed one can select the bracket used in any area identified for deghosting – once the area is selected and confirmed, another right click within that boundary will show a list of all the brackets and you can select which one you want to use. Cool.
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I love the abstract treatment of this photo. This is an iconic image, Ehpem!
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Wow – what a compliment. Thanks Lynn 🙂
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I LOVE the motion of the kidlets, simply beautiful! Don’t even get me started on those clouds…wowza! I take back what I’ve said on other posts, this is my fav storm drain post by far!
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Wow – thanks for the fantastic comment (and for tweeting it too). I am finding it interesting the range of responses to the same feature, on the same day, with different post processing. Quite instructive, and a bit unpredictable too.
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You make a good case for a second camera!!! It’s impossible to set up for one shot so carefully and then switch back to another mode quickly. Maybe another way is to just put the camera in PROGRAM mode or even in AUTO mode and shoot away. My problem is that I cant think fast enough to get a shot of the kids and the slow shutter speed shot. I see the advantage of being able to clone in a good shot of the kids onto the slow shutter shot.
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Hi Ken. Good thoughts. A further complication is that in Photomatix when using the deghosting tool, one cannot choose which bracket will contribute the non-HDR area, like the boys in this image – one of the other brackets had clearer boys in a nicer arrangement. Photomatix chooses the bracket to contribute that area to the final image, presumably depending on best exposure or something, and that is what one is stuck with. I don’t actually have software that would allow me to clone in the boys onto one of my other pictures, though that might well be the best solution. I should have thought of Program mode in this instance, I would have been able to move much more quickly (but with no control of ISO). I think what I did was dial down the filter and put the camera in Aperture priority mode, which is why the exposures where a bit slow for the boys.
In any case, I quite like the photo, even if it did not quite work in with my main purpose of photographing the drain that day. It tells a story about the drain and how it is used as beach furniture.
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I would have bribed them to stay still for 20 secs.
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Somehow that does not surprise me! I think it might be impossible for boys this age to be still that long, especially with such cold water under foot.
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