Oct 31, 2012 | Landscape Photography
Ever seen those photos of the landscape with a sky full of stars rather than sunshine? I have and when I can, I take them. The problem is, they often don’t turn out all the great. This is the first ones I’ve done with the D4 and I was really impressed by what it was producing. Along with that was just the right combination of lunar and sun light. Pointing the camera northwest from the South Tufa parking lot, you could get a little bit of Mono Lake, Sierra Crest and the heavens.
The 24f1.4AFS was still attached, lens set to infinity with gaffers tape holding the focus, ISO to 1600 at f/2.8. I kept lookin around as the shutter was open because the clouds were constantly moving. Seeing a cool scattering, I turned to the southwest and shot. I like htis one because the outhouse airstacks in the photo look like some old western cabin chimney. Opps…did I ruin the illusion for you? These top two photos are moon light influenced.
This bottom photo is sun influenced. Now if you were standing with us and looking to the east, you would have barely, barely seen the glow on the horizon. But an 8sec exposure, it can see it no problem and that’s part of the trick. It’s kind of a balancing act between stars, sun and landscape. This turned out though really cool as fas as I’m concerned because we can see Mono Lake, stars and Area 51 in the east. The perfect way to start the day! If you want to learn this and more about photographing the stars, be sure to join us for our Star Trails Workshop in 2013!
Oct 31, 2012 | Landscape Photography
“What if…” I love following what ifs when I’m behind the camera. This last Sunday morning while waiting in the dark for the gang to arrive for our Mono Lake weekend, like normal I was outside with my stare to the heavens. I love stars, grew up in the Sierra on a blanket on warm summer nights watching the heavens. I still do that even though we had a nearly full moon out. Shortly after arriving, the bright moon went behind the Sierra crest and a couple more stars began to appear. At the same time, there were thin clouds floating by. That’s when I had the “what if…” thought go through my mind. So I pulled the camera out.
With 45min max before the sun would start to shine, I didn’t go for “star trails” but rather simple point of light source star shots. With the D4 and 24f1.4AFS, I set up and pointed the camera do north. The lens was set to infinity with gaffers tape holding the focus (in manual, not auto). I set aperture to f/2, shutter speed to 8sec and set the ISO to 3200. Made a click. Too bright, changed ISO to 1600, too bright, changed f/stop to f/2.8 and shot like crazy. Even though the moon was gone from sight, there was enough to give a little life to the clouds and that’s what I wanted. More stars were captured then we could see which I knew would happen. Soon, I had a dozen cameras around me doing the same thing. Simply good times making simple clicks!
Oct 30, 2012 | Landscape Photography
Click Here To see bigger pano
After an amazing day on the water, our very gracious host Howard provide us an amazing dinner beside the water. In true NY style, picked up in a Black Car and whisked across town, we put on our dinner jackets and ate dinner under the Brooklyn Bridge looking over at Manhattan. Me being me, I wasn’t without my camera. So while ordering dinner, before telling them what I wanted, I asked how I could get outside to photograph what you see. I’ve got my priorities! With the D4 w/50f1.4AFS attached, I headed out to take a 3 image, handheld pano. Then I simply dropped it into CS6 to assemble. What a gorgeous night, what a fantastic meal. Thanks Howard!
Oct 30, 2012 | Landscape Photography
With Sandy pounding on this amazing architecture, I just wanted to show it in the gorgeous light that also shines on the Big Apple. All the photos were taken on the B&H / Lexar Photofloat just a week ago on a gorgeous day sandwiched in between two very stormy days. Our thoughts and prayers go out to all on the Eastcoast being pounded by Mother Nature!
Oct 30, 2012 | Landscape Photography
The Statue of Liberty is so iconic, so majestic, so New York and simply SO cool to photograph! During our B&H / Lexar Photofloat, we had the opportunity to go right up to the Grand Lady for an up close frontal shoot. The skies were perfect as we floated past and if I had any compliant, we couldn’t stop too long in any one place so the background was constantly changing from our movement. With the Nikon D4 and Nikon 70-200VR2, I shot as fast as I could when I had a moment between talking to folks. And in the process, that internal strife kicked in, Vertical or Horizontal format? I shot both ways many times as the background kept changing. I liked what I got but I say on some other photographer’s LCD better shots as they shot at times I couldn’t It was interesting to see that of all the shots I liked of the others, they were all, 100% horizontal format. The background is everything!
Oct 29, 2012 | Landscape Photography
Our snow storm last week cleaned out a lot of the remaining fall color on the eastside. There are a couple of pockets of color though, those areas that were protected from our fierce winds. During our weekend workshop, we visited one such pocket of color and as you can see, it was bursting! Well, it was for about a block as on either end, it was just bare trees. Now how do you approach such a shooting opportunity? Normally fall color is captured at some distance and is just an element in a photograph. This calls for distance and long glass or up close with wide angle. But if in a scenario like this, if you ask yourself that all important question, “What’s the subject?” you might come up with a different answer in telling the story of the moment.
If in a canyon there is one small spot that is an explosion of color, how do you say explosion of color? Personally, I get in close physically and tight optically to start with. Shooting with the D4 & 70-200VR2 mostly at 200mm, I got right in on the color. To make that color even more explosive, I shot backlit and I mean, backlit! We were shooting right into the sun! Most were going blind because we were doing that and all were struggling with the sun coming basically right down the barrel. This created flare up the wazoo! That flare flattened the contrast and the contrast is essential in making the photo happen. Spent some time either shading lenses for folks or showing them how to hold their baseball cap on their lens to extend their shade. Then to finish the feel, in ACR, I dropped the Black slider just a tad and something I almost never do, took the Saturation slider to 15. I love this type of fall color shooting, it’s just happy photographs!
