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Nubble Lighthouse & The Big Stopper
77mm Filter adptr
Big Stopper!
Back in August, I told your about the new Hitech filter system. The lack of water in the Sierra kept me from really doing much with their Big Stopper. Well on our K&M Adventure, ME, I had plenty of water so pulled out the Big Stopper. Attached to the D4 and 18AF, I went out as far as I could on the rocks safely and started to shoot. First, you manually focus and lock that in place with gaffers tape. Then it’s finding the exposure. I ended up shooting at 120sec, f/8 using the MC-36 as a timer. I have to tell you, I wasn’t thrilled with what I was seeing on the LCD.
My bud Kevin was shooting next to me and on his LCD, we saw a normal color with his Big Stopper. On my, looked like I was shooting in moonlight. Everything was blue. No matter, I kept on shooting figuring I could deal with the color cast in post. That is what I did, in ACR, simply took the Color Balance tool and clicked on the lighthouse to get the color you see here. What I do like is the blur to the clouds the long exposure. While the Hitech Big Stopper does have the color cast, I don’t hesitate using it just know on the camera’s LCD, the moon will be out.
Note: with time this filter became unusable! I don’t recommend you use it.
The Landscape with Stars
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!
Pointing Towards the UnKnown
“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!
River Cafe View – WOW!
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!
NY Skyline – Just a Week Ago
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!