Somewhat Wild In Southampton, New York

Unfortunately not everyday at the Beach is going to break sunny and clear. Many mornings on the eastern end of Long Island and the Hamptons are going to break cloudy and overcast because of the strong influence the Atlantic Ocean has on the weather in the area. Even on mornings such as these you can often find plenty of subjects to photograph. While the beach itself can yield some interesting results with a little imagination and the use of long timed exposures to blur the water and the clouds, there are many other subjects that photograph well in the soft light.

This particular morning in Southampton was exactly one of those mornings. One of the difficulties in photographing along the coast and near large bodies of water is wind. It’s rare not to have a strong breeze along the shore in the morning. Often, this will not affect photography of subjects such as the beach and or the ocean, but it can make it very challenging to photograph items that move and sway in the wind without capturing motion blur. Even though this particular morning was cloudy and overcast, there was little to no wind. I decided to head off the beach to a location I had spied the day prior.

The town of Southampton, New York maintains some open space property that has been donated from a large estate just off the beach near the original 1640 town site. They have cultivated a mix of wildflowers and garden flowers in this location and there is quite an impressive display of color to see here. The cultivated gardens which are partially maintained and irrigated have had their flowers propagate outwards amongst the open space field. This has created a great location to photograph the flowers, some cultivated and some wild amongst the grasses of the open space. With the soft diffused light, I was able to capture this impressive display of flowers without a stiff breeze causing the flowers to sway during the long exposures required. All in all it worked out to be a good morning to look for subjects not beach related, and instead work with subjects that require little to no wind to capture successfully.