Jul 15, 2010 | Landscape Photography
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_BMP4315.swf, 404, 600 [/swf]
Those few times when I don’t have a blog posting up first thing in the AM, I get a couple of emails asking what’s up. I do appreciate being missed. Right now the office is just hopping and I’m jamin and cramin to get everything done so I can be gone. I’ve been writing like a mad man so, well, the blog just got the bottom of the list so it’s late today.
Well, finally the nests are popping out some young. The early birds have fledlings but most are just now getting nestlings. This is a Mountain Chickadee that has its nest literally attached to our home. It’s nesting in a bird box that it’s been using for a decade and every year, it successfully adds a few more to the gene pool. The perch it’s on is one I’ve screwed into the house for it to use. When I put it up, I didn’t use a lens so didn’t know it was too close to the bird house. No problem!
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_BMP4330.swf, 404, 600 [/swf]
I just got the drill out and lowered the perch. As you can see, it didn’t effect the chickadees at all. The other thing you should notice is the big difference in the overall look of the two photos. Both were taken at the same time of the day. The top one though was shot without flash. The bottom one has flash fill. When it comes to nesting birds, it is really rare you can shoot without flash. You can see here why. I’ve gotta get back to real work so I can get back out with the nests. When it rains, it pours!
Photos captured by D3x, 200-400VR2 on Lexar UDMA digital film
Jul 13, 2010 | Landscape Photography, WRP Ed Zone
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_BMP6703.swf,404, 600 [/swf]
One of the important lesson the Eastern Sierra teaches anyone who cares to listen is take life slow. To simply enjoy even the smallest treasure makes the day all that much sweeter. Our last shoot at Rock Lake spoke this listen in volumes!
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_BMP66791.swf,404, 600 [/swf]
Didn’t have to wander any distance, barely walked far from the truck and the clouds and the light performed. We had a wonderful time with really great folks sharing our home here in the Eastern Sierra. I think we have a couple more B&W converts and definitely fans of this very unique of our wild heritage. Thanks gang for a great week, it ended with one helluva exclamation point!
Photos captured by D3x, 18AF on Lexar UDMA digital film
Jul 13, 2010 | Landscape Photography, WRP Ed Zone
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_BMP6611.swf, 585, 473 [/swf]
I told the group we were heading to one place but as soon as I saw the sky, I made a quick left and then a rapid stop. I grabbed my camera and ran up the hill. When you see here what I saw, you can see why there’s a bumper sticker saying We Stop for Photos!
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_BMP6631.swf,404, 600 [/swf]
It’s all about drama, landscape photography that is. This kind of sky screams drama so to make the image, you just need a somewhat interesting foreground. The more interesting the foreground, the more the drama pops in the photograph. The rocks are tan and they were surrounded by yellow flowers, a great foreground. In fact, just a little too good which is why I went B&W. If I hadn’t, the foreground might have gotten more attention visually when I want you looking at the drama in the sky. You’re the photographer, it’s always your choice where the viewer’s attention is going to go.
Photos captured by D3x, 18AF on Lexar UDMA digital film
Jul 13, 2010 | Landscape Photography, WRP Ed Zone
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_BMP6520.swf, 585, 473 [/swf]
After haunting the shoreline for sunrise, we headed up to the Ghost Forest. This grove of pines were killed in place by CO2 from our volcano. When you have great skies you really can’t make a bad photo here and this morning was that kind of situation.
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_BMP6545.swf, 585, 473 [/swf]
What’s the key to making the images happen? First is finding the right clouds for the background. Next, find a design pattern in the trees that is interesting. Next is know that you can’t find the perfect pattern and that there will always be some trees you’ll need to remove in post from the photo. Lastly, a wide lens and the willingness to endure a stiff next the rest of the day. After that, just have fun wandering the forest for a couple of hours.
Photos captured by D3x, 18AF on Lexar UDMA digital film
Jul 13, 2010 | Landscape Photography, WRP Ed Zone
The radar showed clouds and in just the right places so I knew exactly where I wanted to take the gang for their last sunrise shoot. That is one of the big advantages of the Eastern Sierra Adv, I do know my backyard pretty good for just such occasions.
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_BMP6393.swf, 585, 473 [/swf]
Horseshoe Lake is one of the very few that man doesn’t mess with. It’s waters come and go on natures clock. Right now it’s just one giant mirror reflecting the incredible beauty of the Sierra crest.
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_BMP6426.swf, 585, 473 [/swf]
There’s a really good reason John Muir called the Sierra the Range of Light. Just wait five minutes and it will change as you see here. Sometimes it gets better, sometimes it gets worse but it will change. Was it worth getting up oh dark thirty to greet the day? Hell ya!
Photos captured by D3x, 24PC-E on Lexar UDMA digital film
Jul 12, 2010 | B&W Photography, Landscape Photography, WRP Ed Zone
With the great puffies and gorgeous July light, a trip to Bodie was a must. Bodie is not new to me, in fact, my family has been going to Bodie since 1900. So it was with great delight we took the group there to share not only it’s photographic wealth, but also it’s colorful history.
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_BMP3858BW.swf, 585, 473 [/swf]
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_BMP3890BW.swf, 585, 473 [/swf]
There are many, many ways to approach photographing Bodie. My approach this time was to have corrected buildings in B&W. The first obstacle most fret over are all the people that walk through your photo. There are two ways of dealing with this. The first is simply wait, most folks don’t stand at any one place for more than 30secs. The seconds is simply use Content-Aware fill in Photoshop. I used a combination of these two in these photos.
Next, I shot with the 24PC-E handheld. I seemed to have opened Pandora’s box by talking about these lenses so much, all I get are questions on how to use probably one of the simplest of photographic tools. We have a video being posted this week which will hopefully make this simple tool simple to use.
Lastly there is the B&W. What I did was create 1 image HDR and then take that Tif through ACR 6.2 for the B&W conversion. It’s really easy to do and as you can see, it creates pretty dramatic results. But the key to all of this is the one thing we have zero control over, and that’s the clouds. They make the whole image happen. Without them, all the rest is just talk.
