If you are working with close foregrounds you will have to adjust your aperture (f/22 or higher) to ensure good focus through-out your image (focus-stacking is another option). “Kraken” Stalking a tasty shrimp boat on the horizon.īe aware of your depth of field. They can be nice additions on the horizon if you can work one into your composition. There are usually shrimp boats working the coast well before dawn. Use the reflections in the puddles to break-up your foregrounds… If the tide is up, there will be shallow reflecting pools of water that you can use as foregrounds. The difference in perspective might surprise you. Try shooting from a few inches over the sand rather than at eye-level. Consider trying some HDR or plan to manually blend multiple exposures. Unless you want the trees to show as solid black silhouettes I’d suggest using exposure bracketing (3 to 5 stops) since the dynamic range can be pretty dramatic. For the best look, wait until the water reaches its high point on the beach and hit your shutter as it starts to recede. If the tide is up, a pair of wading shoes/boots will allow you to get the shots that would otherwise result in you driving home with cold, wet, and wrinkled feet.Ī dark ND filter will allow you to make the long exposures (more than 2 seconds) that result in those images with long, silky lines of surf stretching across the beach without overexposing your image. Obviously, a tripod is a necessity due to the low light. Good images can be made at either but personally, I prefer high tide since it ensures that many of the trees will actually be standing in the water (as opposed to being high and dry in the sand). Some folks like shooting at low tide, others at high tide. Trust me, I arrived 20 minutes early the first morning, then 30 minutes early the second day, and missed the peak both times! However, sand gnats are a real pest in the summer and can make your experience unpleasant.ĭriftwood Beach is really a sunrise and morning location (although Milky Way photography would also be fun).ĭo yourself a favor and be on the beach at least 45 minutes BEFORE the scheduled sunrise to catch the most colorful skies. When to Goĭriftwood Beach looks pretty much the same all year, so good photographs can be made in any season. I strongly suggest you scout the area during the daytime ahead of time, so you know which trees you want to photograph when you come back in the pre-dawn morning. Most of the really interesting trees are within a pretty small 800′ section on the beach. The walk to the beach is less than five minutes. Parking is easy: there are three free parking areas located alongside the road. If you pass Maurice Drive, the Campground, or the Horton House, you’ve gone too far. Unfortunately, there are no signs for Driftwood Beach (I suggest you just use Google Maps on your phone…there is excellent cell service). Just take BeachView Drive to the north tip of the island. Finding the Beachĭriftwood is near the northern point of the Island. The Island is only 7 miles long and 1.5 miles wide but you will need a car to get around. You have a wealth of options when you decide where to stay.ranging from the luxury of the Jekyll Island Club to AirBNBs and hotels and even a campground. There is an $8 fee to enter the island via a causeway. Jekyll Island is about halfway between Savannah Ga. I recently spent three days there and want to share some tips for other photographers that might get a chance to visit. Now their skeletons litter the beach, which is why some playfully call it “Boneyard Beach.” But by whatever name, the result is a playground for landscape photographers. Over the years, the ocean has nibbled away at the beach in front of an old grove of trees that have gradually succumbed to the saltwater. But what interests photographers is a small, 1/2 mile stretch of beach on the northern edge of the Island known as Driftwood Beach. It is beautiful and quaint…which is why it is now a popular vacation destination. It was once the playground of the ultra-rich during the Victorian era but now the whole island is the crown jewel of the Georgia state park system. Jekyll Island is one of the small coastal barrier islands off the south coast of Georgia. This is why finding a killer landscape photography location I can drive to in a few hours is a Godsend. Although I adore the Sunshine State, most of the landscapes that excite my camera are far, far away. As a landscape photographer who lives in Florida, I find myself on airplanes a lot.
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