The ocean at dawn with three mirrorless cameras

Over the past few weeks I have been going to the ocean at dawn to photograph the sunrise. I usually have at least two mirrorless cameras with me -- one is tied up shooting a timelapse while the other is free to capture stills of the ocean. One camera is the new Nikon Z7, which I use for the time lapse shot. Another is a Fuji X-H1 for capturing stills and video, and the third is compact Leica Cl with an 18-56mm Leica-Elmar zoom also for stills. It is interesting to me how really good modern digital cameras have become.

All the images were captured in RAW and processed as 16-bit TIF files for further processing in Photoshop. The extreme color and exposure latitude leaves me with plenty of maneuverability for modifying exposures and colors in post. This explains why some of the images below are bright, while others are very dark and dramatic, and also why there are varying tonalities in similar images.

Leica CL with 18-56mm Leica Elmar zoom lens.

Leica CL with 18-56mm Leica Elmar zoom lens.

Leica CL with 18-56mm Leica Elmar zoom lens.

Leica CL with 18-56mm Leica Elmar zoom lens.

Leica CL with 18-56mm Leica Elmar zoom lens.

Fuji X-H1 with 18-135mm zoom set to 30mm. This image is a double exposure of the ocean scene with a background photo of a textured concrete wall. 

Fuji X-H1 with 18-135mm zoom set to 66mm. This image was kept on a darker dramatic side by processing for the highlights and allowing the shadows to go deep. Nonetheless, there is plenty of detail in both the shadows and highlights because of the RAW and 16-bit processing. 

The photos above were intended for my personal art portfolio so I gave each of them more of a monochromatic look by selecting one of the colors in the scene and using it as the basis for the overall color palette.

On the other hand, all the images  below were intended for stock photography so I kept the colors more and on the natural side while also leaving plenty of neutral spaces to use for type or product placement. 

Nikon Z7 with 24-120mm Nikon zoom set to 24mm.

Fuji X-H1 with 18-135mm zoom set to 24mm equivalent.

Nikon Z7 with 24-120mm Nikon zoom set to 35mm.