Walking Into The Storm

Sometimes I capture an image that I know is good but no amount of tweaking in post can tease that magic out of it. Eventually I give up and move on but if I really like it I may try again later. This image was one of those, I couldn't make it work no matter now hard I tried and I tried more that once.

A few weeks ago I started experimenting with putting Motion Blur in some image sand just like I found what I had been looking for. That addition seemed to fix the issues I had been having and what I was left with was a shot that really captured the moment.

Walking Into The Storm - Ocracoke, NC

This was captured on the south end of Ocracoke Island back in November of 2021. A nor'easter was blowing in, the wind was up, rain was on the way and the ferry to the mainland had already been shut down. We had been on the island for less that and day and we still had two more days of fishing planned. Shortly after this shot my father and I decided that we need to pack up and try to get on the ferry to Hatteras before that shut them all down.

Not that being stranded on Ocracoke would be a terrible thing but it was Friday and my son had already missed 2 days of school and if we didn't get off now it would most likely be Monday before we could leave. So we headed to the house to clean up, grab our stuff and then drove to the Northern Ferry Terminal.

We pulled up to back of a long line of cars and waited and waited and waited. Six hours later, at 10:15pm, we rolled onto the ferry and headed to Hatteras. Finally, just before midnight we began the long drive back home. In retrospect I probably should have found a motel somewhere and called it a day but with the storm approaching I needed to get up NC12 and off the Outer Banks sooner rather than later.

My day had actually started at 5am when I got up and went out to shoot some zodiacal light and sunrise. It ended roughly 26 hours later when I finally made it home. That image though, my son striding defiantly into the wind and rain, it really brings that trip back for me. It was his first trip out and it was certainly memorable one. I knew that image had some magic and if I tried long enough I'd find it.

If you're interested in learning to shoot nightscapes or post processing check out my YouTube Channel here.  I'm also available for private coaching in the field or zoom sessions where we can work with your own images.

Please check out my available prints here.