Tides on Photography Days

Links to page sections below: 1997 , 2003 , 2006 , 2007 , 2008 , 2010

tide gauge setup

I had the fortunate opportunity to have a tour of the instruments in June 2007 when I was at a meeting on sea-level rise that was held at Sandy Hook.

I try to pick a day for photography in early May when low tide is supposed to be below 1 ft MLLW. This reliably occurs in the afternoon after spring tides, but it can occur on other days too. The important thing is to get a decent low tide at the time of the photos. Sometimes the winds produce a slightly higher level than was predicted, sometimes the weather forecast or other factors prompt the selection of another day. Water level records for the days of photography are in the graphs of Sandy Hook, NJ tides that are shown below.

Sandy Hook is the closest NOS tide gauge to the Manasquan beach. The S.H. gauge is located around the tip of Sandy Hook, so the Sandy Hook tides are a little delayed compared to tides on the open ocean shoreline (e.g. at Belmar). Low tide on the Atlantic Ocean shoreline usually occurs about 30–45 minutes before low tide at the Sandy Hook gauge.

The times of photography (the month of May means Daylight Saving Time is in effect in the U.S.) are indicated by vertical magenta colored lines that I added into the NOS tide graphs. The x-axis label "Date/Time (Local)" means that the graph is constructed with Eastern Time, not UTC, and "Local" means that that DST is the time format.

 

2010

Monday May 10, 2010 was a beautiful spring day. NW-W wind and a bright blue sky. Photos began at Site A at 11:00 a.m. and ended at Site O at 12:30 p.m. EDT).

2010 tide trace

2008

Friday May 2, 2008 was a cloudy, but bright day with a bit of a haze due to the east wind. I thought about taking the pics on another day, but there was lots of rain in the forecast so I went with it. I switched to taking photos before 1:00  (actually 10:45–12:12 p.m. EDT)  because I wanted to keep shadows off of the houses. I probably can't take photographs when the sun is right on the houses because on the ocean shoreline, early morning LT's are usually neap tides.

2008 tide trace

2007

Sunday May 6, 2007 was a beautiful spring day. There was a wind from the east. Photos were taken from 4:38 to 6:22 p.m. EDT.

2007 tide trace

2006

May 1, 2006 was, weather-wise, like May 4, 1997. The photographs were taken between 4:50 and 6:10 p.m. EDT.

2006 tide trace

2003

May 18, 2003 was a lousy day. As the whole spring has been. It seems like it has rained every weekend, and so the sunshine wasn't there, but the beach was. Photographs were taken from 4:15 to 5:15 p.m. EDT.

2003 tide trace

1997

May 4, 1997 was a beautiful sunny spring day. The photographs were taken between 1:00 and 2:00 p.m. EDT.

1997 tide trace