Sakonnet, Reacquainted

I have a long "To Do List" of things to shoot and places to go.  It's a self assigned Project List to keep me busy and preoccupied during the winter months.  One of the items on this list has been to photograph more Rhode Island Lighthouses and to visit Sakonnet Point.  I hadn't visited Sakonnet since my junior sailing days back in high school when a couple of Laser events were hosted out of Sakonnet Yacht Club.  I remembered it being a terrific place to sail, ocean-like conditions, big swell, strong breeze, with none of the boat traffic of Newport Harbor.  This visit to Sakonnet was a little bit different.  It was during a week of freezing weather in December instead of the steamy month of July.  It was at dusk instead of high noon.  I was bundled with at least 3-5 layers of clothing plus hat and gloves instead of my previous attire of just a bathing suit and hiking pants.  I was armed with a camera and tripod instead of a boat and rig.  It was certainly a different trip to Sakonnet.

The drive was more beautiful than I remembered last time, probably because I was actually able to drive instead of sleeping in the back seat.  My goal was to familiarize with the area and hopefully have a terrific sunset seascape featuring Sakonnet Ligthhouse.  While I prepared for a brilliant sunset, the clouds that I had eagerly watched overhead began to move down to the horizon.  A brilliant sunset often calls for clouds overhead and a clear horizon, not the opposite.  Now the sun was turning a muddled shade of yellow and orange, and while I was slightly disappointed, I didn't stop shooting.  The wind was terribly brisk and I could feel my face getting weathered by the cold windy conditions.  I forgot to bring my Step-Down ring to allow my filters to fit on my telephoto lens, so the idea of a long exposure using my long lens and zooming in on the lighthouse went out the window.  If I wanted to use my filters for a long exposure I had to leave the wide angle lens on and opt for a composition leaving the lighthouse as just an element in the background.

I tried to capture a shot of the moon coming over the point before packing up my equipment and hoofin' it as quickly as possible back to the warm car.  I do hope my next visit to Sakonnet goes more as I had envisioned, but I'm not entirely disappointed by this first reacquaintance with the area! 

Happy New Years everyone!