Hey Everyone! Hope you're having a great week! This week I want to tell you about a photography trip that I took on New Year's eve. This is an annual trip that my photography wingman Robert and I take every year to capture the first light of the new year. Places we have gone are Carolina Beach NC, Mt. Mitchell, Charlotte, Cape Hatteras and this year it was Kill Devil Hills NC. Last year we added a member to the crew Mike and this year we added one more Caitlin. So we had 4 photogs on this trip. We are all in the same photography club and go on outings with each other often. So let me tell you about our trip.

First we left early on New Year's Eve to head to the coast. First stop was Alligator Wildlife Preserve. Mike is the wildlife expert in our group and comes here often and knows where some of the animals tend to stay. We arrived about 9 o'clock and rode around on dirt roads looking for any type of wildlife. We really wanted to see a bear this day. We saw lots of birds from
Tundra Swans, Hawks, Buzzards and lots of other birds. But no mammals and certainly not any bears although there were signs that they were around. If you know what I mean. LOL We stopped and had a picnic lunch provided by Robert. There were roast beef sandwiches with homemade bread. He likes to take credit but we all know that his wife did most of the work. It was a fantastic lunch which filled us up. The next stop was to scout Kill Devil Hills and Jockey's Ridge State Park.

Scouting Jockey's Ridge, If you don't already know. Jockey's Ridge is a very large Sand Dune Array with lots of sand and a very big Dune. I would guess maybe 3 or 4 Stories high. They actually hang glide off of the dune. Mostly in the summer. The dunes are always shifting and changing and we wanted to see where we would set up for a potential night shot and for the sunrise shot that we came for. We had got permission to be on the Dunes from the State Park (Jockey's Ridge State Park) after and before operating hours of the park. We wanted to get our bearings before trying to find something in the dark in the sand and with the least amount of hiking in the sand which is hard. We found our spot for the sunrise shot but decided to go to Bodie Island Lighthouse for the nighttime shot instead of the dunes.

Sunset Shot. Robert and myself had done a little research and found a spot to do a sunset shot in Manteo NC and eat at a restaurant that we had gone to before for Supper. Prior to going to Manteo we went to our overnight rental and took a few hours off to rest before the nighttime activities started and we had gotten up real early . After our rest we headed off to Manteo which was only a few minutes drive away. What we had forgot in our planning is that it was New Year's Eve and the town of Manteo had some plans of their own.
All of downtown was blocked off for the nights activities so we had to park a lot further away than we expected and it took a little longer to get to our spot. The long shadows of the end of the day had started across our scene so the shot we had planned didn't go as planned. But there were lots of other shots to get. So we did those on the way back to our truck. We did have a great dinner at the restaurant that we had picked out. Then we headed to Bodie Island Lighthouse for our nighttime shot.

Bodie Island . Robert has recently got a Star Tracker to shoot the night sky with. This is a device that moves the camera at the same speed as the earths rotation so you can take longer shutter speed shots . This lets you lower your ISO and bring in more light and keeps the stars pinpoint sharp. The wind was starting to pick up speed as the night went along and it was just a little windy when we shot there. Robert went through all of the motions of showing us how to align the star tracker and taking shots with the machine. I went with my normal set up that I usually use here. Tripod, ISO 1000, Shutter at 20 sec and f/2.0 aperture . This combo seems to work well with my camera/lens combo and I got some really good shots. It got colder and started to mist. Almost a heavy dew that got on everything and made some interesting shots. After the nighttime shots we decided to head to the rental and get some sleep before we had to get up for a early morning shoot at Kill Devil Hills.

New Year Sunrise. We got up and headed to Kill Devil Hills. It was very windy maybe 25-30mph wind with gust even higher. It was 50 degrees with a wind chill of 38. We got to our starting point a little early so we waited in the truck until it was time to hit the dunes. I put on my insulated coveralls to stay warm. I grabbed my tripod camera/lens combo and headed up the dunes.  The higher we got the winder it got. The wind was picking up the sand and blowing it across the dunes. Sand got everywhere to our equipment to our ears and eyes. We worked many compositions but I think I got what I wanted out of the shoot. After maybe an hour on the dunes it was time for breakfast! We stopped at a place that Robert and myself had gone to in the past and it hit the spot! We then started our way home. We stopped at Alligator River on the way home and saw less wildlife than we had seen the day before. I did see a couple of otters playing in the water but only got one shot of them.

This was a great trip and love going with my photog friends. Fun was had by all and lots and lots of laughs were had. Can't wait until next year I wonder where it will be. Until Next Week Get Out and Shoot!