Soft Drain
Yet another Ross Bay storm drain picture, this one taken the same day as my Drain Gull picture a few weeks ago.
This one is merged from four long exposures at 5, 10, 20 and 30 seconds. I really the like the colour of the water in this one, influenced I think by the under exposed shot. Drain Gull is much brighter and less coloured, and merged from three longer exposures.
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Canon 5Dii, Canon 50/1.4 lens, ISO100, f-22, brackets at 5, 10, 20 and 30 seconds, Cameron Fader neutral density filter at about 7 stops of density.
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burnt embers 
The blue-green pastel tones are amazing. I love how you constantly capture a new image in the same place. This is a stunning image.
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Hi Ryan – thanks for this comment. I find that the drain lends itself really well to the task, the tide and water conditions (and sky) are always different. I think it would be nearly impossible to take the same kind of picture twice on separate days.
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pshhh, no cheating here, I wouldn’t even worry about that!I took a look at Drain Gull and actually prefer this image over that. This one has such a…dream like feel to it, love it!
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Thanks David. It’s just a bit of a feeling, and when it comes down to it, I have seen lots of other similar shots of similar structures from around the world. I really like the gull just because it flew into the picture and cooperated so well. At the time I was taking the photos I was pretty excited about that gull just standing there. However, I see what you mean about the dream like quality, and as far as I am concerned any dream full of seagulls is likely a nightmare.
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I agree with Karen – there’s just SOMETHING about that drain and I never get tired of seeing it. Thanks for posting a new shot.
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When I posted this image I had planned to reveal a recent discovery which makes me feel a bit like a fraud. When tea was spilled on the computer desk I had to dig out a pile of papers behind the monitor. In that paper I found a postcard from a local and very talented photographer, Dave Aharonian (link). My son knows him a bit and brought that postcard home before I got a DSLR and started taking photographs again. I know I looked at it at that time, but have no conscious memory of the images on it. By now you will have guessed that one of the four images on it was of this very storm drain, a long exposure no less (link). So, I feel a bit like I lost my idea with that discovery. I expect it is a bit like musicians composing a tune with musical phrasing they do not remember hearing, but which they listened to sometime in the distant past, or grew up with. At least this view is not copyrighted!. It would be better if his photographs were not of such wonderful quality – if I had subconsciously taken an idea from a snapshot of some kind. His website has more than one storm drain photo, this is the other (link).
So, that is my confession. At least I was not knowingly cheating, or really even cheating at all.
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This is wonderful, Ephem. gorgeous tones – i love those misty blue-greens.
It seems like a path into the sea – a merman/maid portal perhaps…
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Thanks Karen. I like the idea of a portal indeed. Perhaps there was even mer-one passing through when I was making the long exposures, just not caught on ‘film’ due to their motion.
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Maybe you’ll catch one someday – keep trying – I never tire of this series.
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Glad to hear it, I wonder sometimes if it could be getting a bit repetitive.
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I like the contrast between the strong tones and textures in the foreground and delicateness of the water and sky in the back. Well done!
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Thanks Ray. I like that too, it is so often the case on our shorelines with rock and gravel beaches. Less so with sand or mud ones where they have many of the same textures as water.
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I, too, like the color of the water and the silky smooth appearance. Also, it seems a bit muted, which is a very nice effect. Give this one 4 stars.
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Thanks Ken, 4 stars it is then!
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I like those straggly and forlorn pieces of driftwood, little bits of vegetable nature among the hard rock.
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I like that too – it is so typical of the beaches around here, soft and hard jumbled together, or framing one another.
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