On a whim one late evening, back in the winter of 2007/8, I drove over to Marblehead Harbor to practice some nighttime, long-exposure photography. The results were mixed. I was not happy with the quality of the shots – they just didn’t seem to capture the beauty of the harbor. Some of the tighter shots appealed to me, as they showed a quaint, New England town, covered with snow. Although the houses pictured on the Neck aren’t exactly ‘quaint’. Way beyond my budget!
After looking through the pictures it was clear I needed to go at twilight. To get the right exposure in the pitch black of night for the water required blowing out the lights of the houses on the Neck. So I went a few weeks later, at twilight, and the pictures, I think, are much better. Further, I found with some judicious cropping – removing much of the sky – the picturesque quality of the harbor was further accentuated. Good cropping is still a technique I need to learn.
