Jan 4, 2010 | Landscape Photography
There I was sitting in my favorite chair, images selected, thought at hand staring into the fire. I had it all ready, text written, images tagged and the draft saved when I looked out the windows to see the simple beauty of a Sierra sunset lighting up the sky. I grabbed the camera which is always sitting next to me and went out and shot it and then came back and deleted all I had wrote, removed the tags for the images. And now, you see it here.
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_BMP8088.swf, 585, 444 [/swf]
Sometimes I get all wrapped up in some technique or flowery words or, something other than just simply enjoying making a simple click. Enjoy a simple click.
Photo captured by D3s, 70-200VR2 on Lexar UDMA digital film
Dec 28, 2009 | Landscape Photography
I have to admit, I enjoyed the challenge of shooting in the contrasty light of high noon. I actually looked for situations where I could play with HDR for a couple of reasons. I had a new way I wanted to finish my HDR images pushing the edge of Elvis on Velvet without going there and, had new HDR software I was asked to beta test (not so hot). For the most part I liked my new approach to finishing of the HDR in Photoshop (nothing different in Photomatix). It’s still a work in progress to achieve what I was seeing in my mind’s eye on paper. My bud RC got me to thinkin about it, now to keeping moving forward with that thought.
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_BMP7517.swf, 585, 444 [/swf]
I wasn’t going HDR just because I could, I wanted to achieve a certain look. I wanted to bring some of that “old” Hollywood western light & warmth to the images while not going cross the line. I reached my goal 50% of the time which ain’t to bad for experimenting with new ideas. This image from inside the grocery store turned out to my liking. So did the bed and wagon wheel. Jury still out on the Model Ts. I assembled a little collection of what I’ve finished from our two hours of shooting for you to check out. You can see them here, enjoy! And the very last image, that’s no HDR, it’s just one I like.
And be sure to check out Jake’s blog, a couple of very sweet images from the same shoot!
Photos captured by D3s, 24 & 45 PC-E on Lexar UDMA digital film
Dec 27, 2009 | Landscape Photography
Our great friend Jeff Cable is here in Mammoth for the holidays so we decided to get out today and make a couple of clicks. He brought his son along so we headed to Laws to play with the trains. Laws is located down the hill and I knew the light would be hard since they don’t open until 10am. So I went knowing I was going to play with the light of High Noon. This is one of the images I came back with that I really like.
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_BMP8075.swf, 585, 444 [/swf]
Now playing with High Noon in my mind is using the contrasty light, the shadows and making them as much of the photo as the subject themselves. In this case, the milk cans on the platform are just part of the image. It is their shadow (which is enhanced in post) leading up to the cans that I liked just as much. It was a fun couple of hours which produced some fun results. I’ll post a couple more and a video tomorrow.
Photo captured by D3s, 50f1.4AFS on Lexar UDMA digital film
Dec 14, 2009 | Landscape Photography
The light just became too incredible for me to just shoot as I drove so I finally pulled over. I found a spot, not the safest, to pull the truck over and parked in a snow bank. Our local sheriff went by and just waved, you could say my truck is known around here (that’s another story and not what you think). I had driven all the way from Reno with the D3x in the seat next to me so I just threw the truck into park and ran out.
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_BMP6724.swf, 585, 444 [/swf]
These are Mono Cones, three extinct volcanoes that are just south of Mono Lake. It’s said that a geologist saw steam coming from the middle one in 1924. The drama in the clouds over the cones just got better and better. I didn’t have time to do it right in camera but knew I could finish the photo in post. Other than the B&W process, I used Nik Color Efex Pro Split grad to darken the top 1/3 of the photo.
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_BMP6730.swf, 585, 444 [/swf]
Turning to the west, the light over Bloody Canyon was spectacular! That in combination with the fresh snow made the image a slam dunk with really little skill on my part. I finished the image the same way as above. You might wonder about the really blown out highlight. That’s where the sun was trying to shine through and for someone who leaves in snow country, that’s a very welcomed sign after a storm. Capturing detail in that highlight would have taken away from its meaning so I let some pixels die.
Photos captured by D3x, 24-70AFS on Lexar UDMA digital film
Dec 9, 2009 | Landscape Photography
As the sun slowly climbed to the horizon the clouds kissing the earth got brighter and brighter and the color more and more intense. It’s what New Mexico is so famous for and this morning, it did not disappoint! The number of birds on the refuge is definitely down, really down so the vast numbers that create the huge explosions at sunrise just aren’t going to happen. Not to worry because it just takes one bird to make your day.
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_BMP7600.swf, 585, 444 [/swf]
Earlier then I would have liked, the Snow Geese that were slowly growing in number burst into the sky. A Bald Eagle had swooped in looking for an easy meal of a injured bird. There were none so it went off hungry. Those with the ultra angle in hand and ready to go, the surprise explosion made for a very cool photo app. The key I think in making the image work is including as much color as you can while tilting the camera up to include as many geese directly overhead you can. You swing, fire and smile with the incredible display of nature unfolding right over your head!
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_BMP7657.swf, 585, 444 [/swf]
When that was over I turned to the west and say this gorgeous cloud stretching out to reach us. It was one of those landscapes that just had to be recorded and shared. Simply gorgeous!
Photos captured by D3s, 14-24AFS on Lexar UDMA digital film
Nov 17, 2009 | Landscape Photography
The weather of last week has melded away to absolutely gorgeous stuff which was the perfect start for our DWLS NY – the Joe Tour. With all of us hopping into a bus, our first stop was Central Park. What a gorgeous morning with that killer fall nip in the air. After a short briefing, our great group headed off into the park and the perfect start!
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_BMP1891.swf, 585, 444 [/swf]
Ida didn’t blow away all the fall color and in fact, she probably arranged it perfectly for us along with cleaning everything up and making the tree trunks black. It was the perfect combination along with the sprinkling of earlier risers taking advantage of the day. Shooting was pretty easy, find the pattern and shoot!
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_BMP1951.swf, 585, 444 [/swf]
I’ve been shooting a bit of fall color this fall, pretty darn lucky in my timing. So rather than go for the overall ground, tree, color landscape type photo, I made the mental effort to look for patterns in the color itself. This is one of the more successful images from the morning in those regards.
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_BMP2558.swf, 585, 444 [/swf]
I happened to see McNally spool up and gitty up in a particular direction. I saw what he was after so decided to follow along. I don’t know if Joe took this photo as I stopped to help a student for a moment. I was glad when I was done this cool shot was still there. I had worked a lot of narrow DOF this morning and this is a pretty neat example of how I was approaching it. What a great start with a really nice group of shooters!
Photos captured by D3s, 70-200AFS VR2 on Lexar UDMA digital film
