Shoreline Grass in the WindAbstract for Thought

It was the night of the lunar eclipse on October 8, 2014. I should say it was a very early morning. I was at Woodlawn Beach State Park on the shore of Lake Erie, it was rather cold and wind was howling. My attempts to anchor my long lens on a tripod and photograph the lunar eclipse were doomed from the beginning as I could simply not hold the rig steady.

After a short while standing in the open I retreated behind one of the buildings trying to shield myself and also my set up. It was not enough though to eliminate the camera shake and produce any keepers.

When the daylight broke, I started looking around for something that would sum up the morning and my eyes landed on this patch of shoreline grass growing in the sand dunes. The wind was tossing the blades of grass around  like they were toys. I spent a few minutes scanning the dune for an area with good amount of motion and also with an interesting interplay among the grass colors. To convey the strong wind in a still photograph I chose to go with a long exposure to allow the grass to blur. I played with various shutter speeds and ended up liking this 5-second exposure the most. It clearly shows the motion and is very abstract, yet, one can still recognize the blades of grass (at least after being told that is what they are).

While I came to shoot the moon and left with grass I was happy to. It really describes what the morning on the lake shore was like better anyway.

Have fun!

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