Mar 21, 2014 | Landscape Photography
The Coquille River Lighthouse is a favorite haunt of mine. If you watched my B&W Landscape Kelby class, you know I’m here, a lot! So no surprise that since we’re in the neighborhood for our K&M OR Adventure, we’d stop by, for sunset and than sunrise. Just like any landscape, this one varies every time you visit it with the weather driving everything. In this case, the other variable which is removed from the equation if that places you can stand to shoot. Between the river to the south and the town to the southeast, you really have limited options. Of those options, this view is the one I come back to most of the time. On this trip, I shot from the both sunset and sunrise from the same spot but with totally different intent.
Shooting the D4s / 18-35AFS, the top image was processed in ACR and the bottom image, shot with the Big Stopper, was processed additionally with Silver Efex Pro. And I know that next time in the neighborhood, I’ll stop again and shoot the lighthouse. It’s just simple, fun!
Mar 20, 2014 | Landscape Photography
Had a bunch of folks ask if I went to Slot Canyon last week. We sure did, had a great hour and made a few clicks. I will post the images and the story next week, when I’ve caught my breath and can tell the whole story. Don’t know if you’ve been there, but this was my first time and what I found is not what I had been lead to believe or heard what it’s like. mtc.
Mar 18, 2014 | Landscape Photography
A long time desire was to be at the sand dunes in front of Totem in Monument Valley for sunrise. This past week we were able to make it happen with the help of my good friend Don, a local guide. At 0643 we arrived at the dunes and the sun was barely a hint in the dawn’s early light. After a little bit of a walk, we reached the edge of the dunes which is what you’re seeing here. Now I have a real set strategy for working dunes I’ll talk about in another post. This one is a real simple post and it’s all about getting getting out early. What you see here is what we saw when we came up on the dune. The sand “glows” with the least amount of light. Shooting with the D4s / 18-35AFS (don’t dare change lenses in the wind on the dunes) in this early, dark light, I was at ISO3200 (really weird place for me to be), 1/15, -1 exp comp, Cloudy WB, handheld loving the glow. Now that glow is elnatural, just like Mother Nature presented to us. Now I really wish I had a D4 to do a side by side because I shot this with the new D4s Matrix Metering – Face Detection. I don’t have the hard proof yet, but I have the gut feeling in these types of lighting conditions, it’s providing a spot meter bias on where the AF sensor is placed. I’ve not sat still enough to come up with a test, this is just my gut feeling and as the photo points out, the D4s did a fine job in this scenario. And with that glow in the foreground, the background was just that. Now, keep in mind it was dark, ISO3200 dark, light not even on Totem yet so the glow is the subject. Not complicated, a simple click that really set the stage for what would become a gorgeous morning started in dawns early light.
Mar 17, 2014 | Landscape Photography
I posted this image amazingly while in Monument Valley and it brought in a flood of emails that can be summed up simply as “Why’d you do it that way?” What you see here is a simple pano at the entrance to the Valley of the Gods, simply a gorgeous place when you have clouds (bald skies suck). At this point in time, we had some really cool clouds, those in the center of the pano especially caught my imagination. Shooting with the D4s / 18-35AFS and Nikon Thin Circular Polarizer, I saw instantly in the viewfinder two things; the butte on the left had a slight lean to it and more importantly, I couldn’t capture all the clouds. So then I went with the 16Fish and while I now had all the clouds, the lean was no better. So with those two options not solving the problem, pano was the only answer. I think what really had folks scratching their head was the vertical shooting orientation.
The subject is the sky more than the landscape so I wanted more sky in the photo. Shooting in a horizontal format, the sky takes a back seat to the landscape. Shooting at 18mm and turning vertical, the sky and more directly the cool clouds take dominance. With that, it was a no-brainer to make the shot. Nope, no tripod or special head required. The pano shot handheld, I shoot left to right, looking through the viewfinder to do a rough plan of where I want the two seams and then click. When you have this much sky in the frame, the amount of overlap between each image is really no big deal, Photoshop assembles the pano in a heartbeat. I work to keep the horizon level and other than that, I just go click. In Photoshop, I use Photomerge letting it take the Nef’s and assemble the pano. I then used the ACR Smart Filter to take the assembled pano into ACR and finish. So in my mind, this is just a simple click since it was so simple to create.
Mar 13, 2014 | Landscape Photography
The day has been long, the hour is late and the internet is dying so going to keep this real brief. Got to a long time goal, sunrise on the sand dunes in front of Totem this morning. My good friend and guide Don made it happen. This afternoon we were out with our long time dear friend and tribe elder Albert (seen here with Sharon) in the Valley backcountry. Only stuck the van in sand once but killed many pixels in the process. D4s continues to perform and impressing me. We hit it hard again tomorrow real early so signing off.
Mar 12, 2014 | Landscape Photography
This really isn’t rocket science, it’s just getting past human nature. Don’t get me wrong, the gorgeous light at sunset isn’t to sneeze at. Shooting with the D4s / 24-70AFS, Cloudy WB and -2/3 comp makes it a real simple click. But when you wait until AFTER the sun is long gone and there is just a hint of light, you can use the same basic settings (you might crank up the ISO if you’re still handholding) and come up with this. The trick is, just waiting around.
