Jul 22, 2009 | Landscape Photography
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_BMP0810.swf, 500, 402 [/swf]
All the thunderstorms we’ve had this summer have prolonged the spring growing season, made the plants thicker and more colorful. It’s something I witness everyday when I go out to the meadow that is our front yard. When folks go out in the morning to walk the dogs, they usually take the newspaper or a cup of coffee or just open the door and kick the dogs out. I’m kinda weird, this time of year I go out with a camera on my shoulder. I just never know where the sun is going to hit the meadow and what combination of plants are there in sweet bloom. This morning, the pretty blue and white ones were looking darn nice (sorry, I don’t do plants). So, while the dogs did their business, I did mine.
Photo captured by D3x, 24-70AFS on Lexar UDMA digital film
Jul 15, 2009 | Landscape Photography
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/landwk1.swf, 500, 402 [/swf]
There is probably no more beautiful locale in the fall in the Eastern Sierra. A couple of fans have asked over and over and over again for me to do a landscape photography workshop here in the fall. They finally twisted my arm. Oct 08-11 this year, we’ll cruise from Lee Vining to Lone Pine photographing some of this lands most amazing landscapes.
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/landwk2.swf, 500, 402 [/swf]
We have a huge laundry list of locales to visit: Mono Lake, fall color everywhere, Lee Vining Canyon, Bristlecone Pines (weather dependent), Alabama Hills, Death Valley, Ultra Wide Panos, Star Trails, long days with tons of digital darkroom time (OK, hours), it will be a tiring event!
We’ll be based one night in Mammoth Lakes, two nights in Lone Pine. It’s limited to just 5 shooters with only a couple of spots available. The price is $1100 which includes instruction only. If you can handle four days of Moose, landscape photography and no sleep, this might be just for you. Just as a FYI, this is just days after the Las Vegas Photoshop World, a five hour drive from Mammoth. If you want in on the fun, give the office a call 760.924.8632.
The top photo is of the Tufas of Mono Lake captured by D3 & 24-70AFS. Bottom photo is Mt Williamson, D3 and 24-70AFS. This is just a small sample of the possibilities the Eastside presents.
Jul 14, 2009 | Landscape Photography
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_BMP0622.swf, 396, 600 [/swf]
It’s a daily ritual with me when I’m home. Checking the day’s weather forecast, both what the weatherman predicts and what I predict looking at the radar and other stats. The forecast for today was for a sunny, clear, cloudless day. Looking at the numbers though, I had a gut feeling that thunderheads could form late in the afternoon over the valley. By dinner, dark clouds covered the valley. With Jake on alert in case we needed to run to chase the light, I kept watch on the deck. Then the light broke, breaking right over my head!
What you see here in this Gallery are just 36 of the 249 images I took in 38mins of great light. It was gorgeous!The photography was pretty straight forward. The WB was set to cloudy, wanted that warmth. Exposure Comp varied from -1 to -1 1/2. Other than walking up and down the length of the deck and getting a stiff neck from shooting up, I just simply enjoyed the show. Image processing: none, these are Jpegs right out of the camera. The Sierra, the Range of Light, produces amazing skies, great show for finishing up the day and a glass or Merlot!
Photos captured by D3x, 45PC-E on Lexar UDMA digital film
Jul 6, 2009 | Landscape Photography
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_BMP9318.swf, 500, 402 [/swf]
We hope you had a marvelous 4th, I know we did. Our dear and long time friends Roger & his family were up to celebrate the 4th with us Sierra style. Our small town parade, firehouse open house, streets closed off and talking with friends, it’s just a great time. It’s capped off with a really outstanding firework display at the lake. Thousands come to the lake to watch the show, from the shore and from the water. We head out early and put out a complete spread of Deeeelicous food and margaritas and enjoy the afternoon simply watching the clouds float by. It’s simply great fun.
Of course the camera went to capture the big moment. I’ve done fireworks all sorts of ways over the years, almost all centering around freezing the display. This year I wanted to bring back the memory and not the reality of the rocket explosion. I decided to not go with my normal 2sec explosion and push it to 8sec, f5.6. Here’s a couple of my favorites from the night. I hit the shutter release when the skies were clear, that meant waiting for bursts to completely burn out before taking the next shot. If you look closely at one of the bursts, you’ll see a sunburst from the shell exploding. That’s kinda cool! That was all, I kinda like the effect and is something I’m going to explore more in the future.
Photos captured by D3x, 24-70AFS on Lexar UDMA digital film
Jul 3, 2009 | Landscape Photography
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_BMP8965.swf, 500, 402 [/swf]
So there we are on day three of our PT and we’re heading to the mecca of landscape photography, the Tufas of Mono Lake. In the last 30yrs, you could say I’ve been to the shoreline a couple of times. As we got our gear out at the parking lot, the clouds were on the horizon pretty darn thick, the color was just one little spot of glow. I had already decided even before arriving at the lake I was going to head down with the 600VR and click some birds. Knowing also how fast things can change, I grabbed my fanny pack with a couple of wide angles.
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_BMP9041.swf, 500, 402 [/swf]
As we walked down the path, the clouds started to dissipate, they were leftover from the evenings thunderstorms and the sun was drying them up. My pace down the path quickened as it looked like magic was going to happen. I hit the beach and made the turn and the skies opened up and the God beams flooded in. With the 600VR on the tripod over my shoulder, I quickly put it down, put on the 14-24AFS and made the top click. I then boogied down to the shoreline and with the pirate ship in front of me, saw what you see here. There is no way the photo could be made with one click, huge exposure range. I had no tripod for doing short lens work, so I made a handheld, 5 frame HDR, praying the whole time. Glad I can hold still (and didn’t need a bush).
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_BMP8974.swf, 500, 402 [/swf]
It might have been leftover from the day before, but I was feeling a little artsy fartsy. I walked the shoreline looking for, well, what you see here. I took only one image, this one and it worked. It’s always fun taking landscapes lugging around a 600VR on your shoulder. But it does demonstrate how important solid handholding technique is.
Photos captured by D3x, 14-24AFS on Lexar UDMA digital film
Jul 2, 2009 | Landscape Photography
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_BMP8946.swf, 396, 600 [/swf]
I don’t know that these plants are called (don’t really care though) but I love what they do with light. The funny thing is, I thought I would be going B&W with this but when I looked at it further, I decided the shades of green were just too intriguing to blow away. This is a photo we’d put in the artsy fartsy category.
Photo captured by D3x, 45PC-E on Lexar UDMA digital film
