Tag Archives: Mike Acquesta

Photographer’s Choice – Mike Acquesta

Photography is Light Painting

Mike Acquesta - Emerald Isle, NC

Mike Acquesta – Emerald Isle, NC

Postings for the past two weeks have featured the beauty of a mountain winter. With the recent cold temperatures, perhaps it’s time to take a break. This week it’s the warm yellows, pinks and blues of an early morning summer sunrise at Emerald Isle on the North Carolina coast . Mike was out and ready at 5:40 on the morning of August 3, 2012 to capture this scene, before the light became intense, when the clouds were softly backlighted and the early rays were reflecting off the grasses and oats on the dunes. He chose a wide angle 24mm lens to create the sweep from the near dune to the far gentle surf, with a few early morning strollers to add a human interest. The overall balance of the composition invites the eye to come in and enjoy the quiet and peace before the hot and glare of a full summer sun becomes a reality.
Remember in order to view a higher resolution version, simply left click on the image.
Canon EOS 40D
Focal Length – 24mm
Shutter – 1/160sec
Aperture – f/4.0
ISO – 100

Photographer’s Choice – Mike Acquesta

Moonlight Reflection in Upstate New York

Mike Acquesta - Seneca Lake Moonlight

Mike Acquesta - Seneca Lake Moonlight

Mike grew up in the Finger Lakes region of NY State. In the early morning of Oct 11, 2011, while vacationing in the area, he captured the above scene from the east side of Seneca Lake. He describes it as follows:

I positioned the camera so that the moon light reflection on the lake cut directly between the two docks. The reflection points to the opposite shore and towards the moon. The moon did a wonderful job of under lighting the clouds. When first looking at the picture, one immediately notices the bright streak of light extending up at an angle. As the eye passes through the portal created by the decks, I think you start noticing other aspects of the shot, including the deck silhouettes, the suspended boat, then the opposite shore. Finally the moon comes into view with the bottom lit clouds. I applied a minor touch-up in Camera Raw – exposure boosted ever so slightly, and that was it.

His camera was a Canon 40D set on manual exposure with a Canon EF-S 10-22mm wide-angle zoom lens, set at 22mm, aperture f/4.5, shutter 25 seconds, tripod mounted.