Casa Cabeza: Blog Shots: Pics from Block Island

Sally and I took a trip to Block Island earlier this month, located just off the coast of Narragansett, Rhode Island. The weather wasn't great for much of the trip, so I wound up spending a goodly amount of my time practicing photography.

Some of those pics are presented below.

We decided to take a small plane out to the island. That turned what would have been an hour-plus ferry ride into a fifteen minute flight and -- amazingly -- it was only slightly more expensive than the ferry once we accounted for parking costs. The flight itself was a lot of fun, but taking a plane proved to be kind of fateful decision when it came time to try to leave the island.

Westerly Airport. Establishing shot with Sally included for scale.

Inside our small plane

Cliffs along the south side of the island, as seen from the plane

I worked on a couple of specific things during most of this trip. I shot most of the trip with as much of a wide-angle view as my camera would allow, alternating between shooting establishing shots with figures included for scale and close-up action shots that stayed in wide-angle format to give perspective and a sense of the surroundings. You can decide for yourself how that went, but at least now you know why a lot of these shots have the same kind of general composition.

Eventually, I also did some "street photography," granted mostly along the beach. We saw tons of interesting people, for whatever that's worth, but capturing them on camera in an interesting moment turned out to be a serious challenge.

This first set of pics is from the south side of the island, down near the South Lighthouse and Mohegan Bluffs Beach.

The South Lighthouse

Close to the actions, such as it is, but overlooking a wider view for perspective.

138 steps down to the beach

Mohegan Beach

"Street photography"

Little boat, big ocean. Oddly, I thought this point came across better once I cropped the picture and made the boat much, much bigger in the frame than it originally was.

I really like this shot just because I shot it from a weird angle. Makes Sally look like a superhero.

This next set is from Crescent Beach later that same afternoon.

I shot a dozen pics of these two lifeguards, trying to find an interesting way to present their story.
Still not sure I actually succeeded with that.

My obsession with lifeguard chairs continues.

From the south side of Crescent Beach, looking back towards New Shoreham

We went back to the room, took a nap, changed, and went out to dinner. I left my camera behind, so -- of course -- these are some of the most striking pics from the entire trip. But, as they say, the right camera is the one you have with you at the time.

Sheffield House, New Shoreham, RI

Dinner at sunset

I shot less somewhat less and tried to enjoy the trip more over the course of the next two days. Or maybe I just didn't get as many shots that I wound up liking. Regardless, this last set is from the next day or so, scattered all over the place.