Montauk Lighthouse

Montauk Point, Lighthouse

Construction began on June 7, 1796 and was completed on November 5, 1796

This shot has a long history. I woke up before dawn and went out with the Elan 3, and put together the longest lens I had with the 1.4x convertor, and waited for the sun to come up behind the lighthouse. It was off-season - which is usually when I could afford to go out to Montauk - and it was cold and yes - a cold rain started up. I covered up the camera with a poncho and sat in the car. When the sun finally decided to show, I took a couple of shots, packed up and headed back to the motel.

When I did prints of this thing - the blank sky was annoying - and the pre-dawn atmosphere was not on the film. So I began to play around with the sky these many years later. I did several edges and cut what texture there was in the sky so that other layers with related colors could show through. In other words the sky is three shades of blue composited.

Fog was added to the beach and a bit to the clouds to get a touch of a halo. Still not quite finished. The top of the lighthouse needs work. I want to give a tint of - not sure what - pinkish something to the clouds and I don't like the gray shadows in clouds which are leftover from the b&w picture.