The Blue Hills near Boston

The quality of this particular sunrise? And how it renders thru my photography.

The Blue Hills photo trip, as I recount in my journal

October 20, 2014, Monday

Saturday was wet, Sunday cloudy but relatively dry. This affected the fall light workshop plans. We postponed from Saturday afternoon and evening to Sunday morning. And had a grand time with what I considered to be a spectacular sunrise seen from the summit’s observation tower. However, most students who voiced a view felt this moment was their low light, their low point in the session, disappointed after a long climb thru darkness to gain the summit.

Arriving Sunday morning at 6:30 am to reach the summit by 7 for the sunrise, we lugged ourselves and gear over rocks and roots. We used flashlights and occasionally lost the trail. Crossing the summit road we decided to walk it to hasten our ascent and more likely assure good timing for the sunrise. High in the observation tower, over most trees, I used my 400 mm telephoto lens for what I hoped might be proof that the sunrise indeed was spectacular, worth the climb and early rising, and demonstrate to my students my vast experience. Well, maybe not. We shall see.

Two days later, Wednesday

Anticipating my possibly traumatic experience in the dental chair tomorrow when a student doctor drills a hole in my jaw to set a post for my implant, I began editing and processing last weekend’s Blue Hills photos. A particular challenge is proving that the sunrise I raved about was really grand and suitable for photography. So far, working in Lightroom by heightening saturation and color and using the graduated filter, I believe I may succeed. I also tried the so-called “Civil War” filter preset that reddens the image and produces a dark-cornered vignette. More today, including posting on my website.

My entire photo series forms a chronicle of our attempts to climb the mountain, from the day before when we were rained out to the next morning’s early start, reaching the summit, and the long walk down over a steeply declining rocky path known as Breakneck Ledge into a lush forest, brilliant with autumnal color.

photos from the Blue Hills in winter, 2010

photos by skip schiel & teeksa photography

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