Nov 5, 2010 | Landscape Photography
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_BMP9436bw.swf, 585, 473, [/swf]
Ah, we’re back up in a favorite part of the country of ours enjoying beautiful landscapes and great friends. We left fall color down in the flats and went up into the pines for a little R&R shooting. This stuff is like shooting fish in a barrel for me, it’s a matter of form, texture and shades.
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_BMP9467bw.swf, 585, 473, [/swf]
Shooting in “flat” light shades of green and gray, the pieces fill into place for me when shooting black and white. This might be something your are really struggling with. Many write me saying they just can’t “see” B&W. I highly recommend if this is your case, that you download the trial version of Silver Efex Pro, select a whole bunch of images and just look at those images using just the Structure slider in Silver Efex Pro. You’d be surprised at just how fast you too can pick it all up!
Photos captured by D3x, 24-120VR2 on Lexar UDMA digital film
Nov 4, 2010 | Landscape Photography
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/DMLARMD0864.swf, 585, 473, [/swf]
With the big storm we had about a week ago that moved out nearly all the stragglers, Jake & I figured it got the Mule Deer moving to their winter grounds. Since we were having zero luck with birds, this morning we headed down south in the search of Bambi. Now with signs like this, wouldn’t you think you’d find a deer or two? (The pole has a warp to it from snow load.)
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/DMLARMD0889.swf, 585, 473, [/swf]
Now we weren’t looking for Bambi, but its dad. No such luck, the bucks weren’t to be found. But we did find this small doe group prior to sunrise. I’ll be real honest with you, it wasn’t a rock or a tree so I was going to shoot!!!! It was still dark, I was shooting at 1/20, f4 ISO 100 handheld but made the clicks. There was a lonely spike on the otherside of us and I knew being rut that the does would keep an eye on this horny kid. I also knew the season’s fawns would always be looking to mom for reassurance hence this photo.
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/DMLARMD0897.swf, 585, 473, [/swf]
And two seconds later the sun came over the White Mtns and kissed the little band. At the same time a noise sounded backstage and so the doe’s right ear cocked to register it. The ears are everything so this moment in my book sucked, I hate that right ear. The movement though was so slight that even shooting at 1/45, it didn’t blur.
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/DMLARMD0900.swf, 585, 473, [/swf]
Finally, the stupid young buck made a move and just a heartbeat before the band walked away, I got one, somewhat pleasing click off. No, they aren’t award winning photos and in fact, it’s what Jake & I refer to as cheap blog material. I’m not going to delete them, I can use them as teaching material but more importantly are the simple lesson learned and reinforced. We learned the big boys haven’t migrated down slope this far yet. We learned it was a good year for Mule Deer since we say a lot of spring young. We found where there seemed to like to congregate (can’t miss their droppings). I practiced handholding and got sharp images at 1/20, saw how a touch of light makes a huge difference and most importantly, found something to photograph. You just can loose anytime you go out shooting even if you get skunked. Today, we got a small reward for once again getting up early. It was a good day! And yes, the first image prior to sunrise is my favorite from the moment.
Photos captured by D3x, 200-400VR2 on Lexar UDMA digital film
Nov 4, 2010 | Landscape Photography
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/DBYDS0170.swf, 585, 473, [/swf]
It’s that time of year on the Eastside when the critters just seem to evaporate. Nearly all the summer visitors have headed south and those residents that are around start doing a slow, down slope migration to slightly warmer parts of the region. The bird feeders have the occasional jay or sparrow but the masses are gone and it drives me nuts! So Jake and I for the last couple of weeks have been getting up at O’dark thirty because we just refuse to get shut down. Mother nature though just doesn’t wanta play!
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/DBDDG0404.swf, 585, 473, [/swf]
We head one morning to the shores of Mono Lake. We were in hope of finding at least one cooperative Eared Grebe of Wilson’s Phalarope. No sooner then I had the gear set up and I have an immature White-crowned Sparrow T up for just a heartbeat. I got one click off and then it was gone. It nor its friends would come back to play either. So then we headed down to the shore where we waited and waited and waited until this one, immature Eared Grebe came floating by. And with that, we decided that once again, it would be another morning with no great finds. It’s just that time of year when you just don’t know so you keep on trying. It just wasn’t our moring today.
Photos captured by D3x, 600VR w/TC-17x on Lexar UDMA digital film
Oct 29, 2010 | Landscape Photography
In Black and White!
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_BMP6168.swf, 585, 473, [/swf]
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_BMP6249.swf, 585, 473, [/swf]
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_BMP6368.swf, 585, 473, [/swf]
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_bmp6402.swf, 585, 473, [/swf]
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_BMP62421.swf, 585, 473, [/swf]
Make it a Grand Photographic Weekend!
Oct 29, 2010 | Landscape Photography
In Color
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_BMP5802.swf, 585, 473, [/swf]
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_BMP5905.swf, 585, 473, [/swf]
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_BMP5907.swf, 585, 473, [/swf]
Oct 28, 2010 | Landscape Photography
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_BMP9270.swf, 585, 473, [/swf]
While we beat the storm for the morning, the clouds tell the story of what’s to come. High winds, bloody high winds of 89mph in town and 140+mph over the ridges. Seeing the clouds, I stopped with the light skimming over the sage figuring our shooting for the day was quickly coming to an end. Wanting a great starburst off the sun, I grabbed the 24PC-E. I then made a quick 7 iamge HDR exposure.
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_BMP9221.swf, 585, 473, [/swf]
The sun was out, then it wasn’t, then it was, I wondered if the D3x 1.8fps could capture enough in 7 images to make a final image with the starburst I wanted. As it turned out the weather forecast in my head turned out accurate, we were literally blown out of our afternoon shoot by amazing high winds and raid. Later this night we had a “tornadic” like event where a large pine was snapped off and carried up and over a home to land in the front yard without doing any damage to the home. We lost a number of trees including a favorite woodpecker tree in the backyard so it was quite the wind storm. It was a killer time with really nice folks. Grateful for their coming up to the Eastside and taking a journey with us in what we think is a slice of paradise!
Photos captured by D3x, 24PC-E on Lexar UDMA digital film
