Sunday, June 27, 2010

Fort Ward State park, Bainbridge island

Fort Ward State park is located on the south western side of Bainbridge island.One gloomy saturday afternoon in winter I was perusing Google maps looking for a place to shoot sunset. I haven't done much photography on Bainbridge island and Fort Ward looked reasonably close to the Seattle-Bainbridge island ferry terminal. For more information on the park refer to Washington state park web site.

After a long confusing ride (GPS is supposted to make your life easier!) I arrived at the park. Unfortunately it was pouring rain. After waiting for a few minutes for the rain to abate I started on the Fort Ward loop trail. A detailed map of the trails of the park can be found here.

Cormorants, Fort Warden, Bainbridge island

Equipment: Canon 5D Mark 2, Canon 100-400mm

Image details: 400mm, f/5.6, 1/320sec, ISO 800

I walked along the gravel trail for about 15 mnts and saw a group of Cormorants perched on some piers along the shoreline. With a storm building in the background it made for some cool compositions. Close to sunset, the sun broke through the clouds a little bit. The combination of the sunset and the storm clouds with the cormorants in the foreground made my evening.

Before I could setup my tripod the rain started pouring down. I shot off a few shots handheld and made my way back to my car. I will need to schedule a day of better weather to go back and explore Fort Ward State park.

Directions to the park

2 comments:

Sue Z Q said...

This was taken at 12mm? Were you able to get real close? Or did you do some serious cropping? I've seen these cormorants around and they don't seem to be too shy but this seems closer than I've typically been able to get. Maybe they're less shy at that park?

Dharshan said...

Sorry for the typo - It was 400mm and not 12 mm. I have corrected it in the post.The birds are still shy at this park :)