Jan 2, 2014 | Landscape Photography
I hope you had a great first day of the year. We sure did which started with a great surprise. Around 0900 every morning for the last two weeks, our baths and feeders are stormed by twenty or more Evening Grosbeaks. A great bird and a favorite of ours, we watched them the first few days and then we, sorry to say, took the activity for granted. During this activity, a number of other species come in as well, the other normal host of characters that share our land with us.
I was heading to the door to put out another bird feeder (we bring it in each night so the bears can’t get it) when I saw a bird at the bird bath that was not one of our usuals. In a heartbeat I knew it was a Townsend’s Solitare. A bird species that lives at high altitude, we’ve seen them in other canyons nearby and usually a thousand feet higher in altitude, but never in our area and never before at our bird bath! I instantly called Sharon and together, we watched it. I slowly opened the door and it didn’t flinch, it just kept on drinking. What a treat!
While Sharon watched, I slowly backed up heading to the office to grab the 800mm. I get it back to the door with the Df attached and just put my eye to the viewfinder when it flew. Bummer! I left the camera in place and went on fixing waffles. Well, no more than fifteen minutes later it came back. Without hesitation I started shooting. No, the photos aren’t the best, plastic bird bath with heater unit but that’s not was I was working towards. I wanted to break the “jinx” as I think of it, getting those first shots on film so I can calm down, move forward and get better shots (yes, have lots of them in my files already). At the same time, I wanted to get it use to us so I can move and improve the photos. It came back one more time while we were eating breakfast and than left with the rest of the gang. I’m hoping tomorrow it returns with the flock when I’m ready for it, better perch and flash set up. It’s Jan 01 and wow, what a start!
Dec 30, 2013 | Landscape Photography
Bodie State Park is a place my family has been visiting for a while, since a cousin ran the mill there in 1900. With the lack of snow so far this winter, the road to the park and the park itself is open for visitation. With Brent’s better half Katt never having been to the old family homestead, we packed the dogs and our good friend Jeff Cable into the cars (not in that order) and off we went. It’s just an hour drive from our home, so we were there in no time.
Jake summed it up pretty well in his blog today, it’s not a new place to us and the light was, well, yuck. No matter, we went with cameras and shot. I took my favorite right now, the Df & 18-35 on my shoulder for the walk. Having run a workshop series in Bodie in the early 90’s and writing a book on its history (nope, never published), I was the unofficial trivia guide more than photographer. We were all hoping for more “snow shots” but such was not the case. In fact, finding snow that could be incorporated in the photo to say we were there in winter was a major challenge.
One of the uh oh moments for me was leaving my polarizer in the truck. If there is ONE PLACE that must have a polarizer on a clear day is Bodie! That’s because it’s the tool to remove the blue reflection from the sky from all the rust. Since I was too lazy to walk back to the truck to get the polarizer, I thought I might be able to effect a polarizer like result in ACR. Heading to the HSL/Grayscale tab, I removed the Blue in the Luminance & Saturation tabs and added Magenta / Purple which did a pretty good job. I would much rather had done it right in the camera, but I was too busy having fun with family and friends than be a photographer.
And summing up the great day best is this photo. Here you see myself with my long time and dear friend Jeff Cable. Besides being a marvelous photographer and globe trotting educator, he heads up the Lexar Group at Micron. The two of us have chased all sorts of fun in the name of photography over the decades. He’s heading to the Winter Games being the official shooter for the US Hockey team. Head to his blog and follow the action, it’s going to be great. The third person in the photo is Jake, taking the photo of the two of us. And that’s still the best part about photography, that’s getting out with family and friends sharing the experience. I hope during this week of celebration, you are afforded the same opportunity to spend time with family and camera!
Dec 30, 2013 | Landscape Photography
With a beautiful sunny afternoon and annual tradition of holiday dinner with our dear friends The Cables, off to the lakes we headed. With dogs and camera, we headed up the trail. It would turn out being just a four mile walk up but it was great. The snow in many places was gone, we walked on the exposed road but the ice was fun. One of the great blessings of living in paradise is the ability to instantly be in wilderness and is one we take advantage of every chance we get. It’s just a fun family outing!
But as you might imagine, I’m not going on such a walk simply to walk. Not me, the camera has to go (Df & 18-35) and I’m lookin for my now life long adversary, The Bastard (known as the White-tailed Hare to science). Now you might be wondering why, if I was looking for a rabbit I would have such a small lens. Well, since we were walking with our dogs as well as most others out for a walk, actually seeing the rabbit was not likely. Rather, I was looking for its tracks which I did not find. What you see here are the tracks of a cottontail, bummer. No matter, it was a great afternoon walk and now having had that dinner, glad we went!
Dec 20, 2013 | Landscape Photography
It snowed today and for a heartbeat after the sun set, birds showed up. 800mm always set up, attached the Df set to ISO1600 and photographed the Junco posing out the window. 2013 will go down as California’s driest year ever recorded!
Dec 16, 2013 | Landscape Photography
About half way through our walk, Robin turned to me and said, “This is where they think Robert Frost came up with The Road Not Taken.” If you’re a landscape photographer, this is one poem you should know and embrace. After Robin told me this, my mind went to looking for a photo that might embrace the poem, no luck. The best I could do is this photo to give you a sense of the location, but no romance. And if you don’t know the poem, here is it
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
Dec 16, 2013 | Landscape Photography
Sharon & I are quite blessed with some great friends and we spent the last part of last week with just those who, love to walk in the snow! Now, that’s my kind of people. So they took us to a trail along the Huron River for a gorgeous walk. The first think some would ask is, “Did you drive to the trail?” Yeap, even though there was perhaps 6″ of snow and ice on the road, the two mile drive was easy in the Land Cruise. Next, the most common question is, “What did you wear?” You really can’t go by me, I just had on regular pants and Carhartt jacket. Lastly, “Did you do anything special for your camera?” Nope, it was on a camera strap hanging on my shoulder as we walked the trail.
When shooting on days when it’s snowing, there is no way to avoid the gray skies. Knowing that, you’ve gotta think of how to best incorporate it into the photo. My personal preference is to find warm colors, such as browns and include those brown elements in the photo. In fact, you could say the color brown in many ways is the subject. Now when shooting when it’s snowing, you need to know that you will have a color cast, a blue cast that you can remove either in camera or post to “warm” up the photo which only really makes the browns come to life. So with that, you look for patterns of the brown in the white / gray and shoot.
I went shooting with my new favorite body, the Df and 18-35AFS lens. Like I mentioned, I had this outside my jacket hanging on the strap. Yes, snow collected on the body and lens. No, neither ever had any issue. When the snow got so deep on the body I couldn’t see the shutter speed dial, I took in a deep breath of cold air and then blew the snow off the body. I didn’t want warm air (and I’m full of hot air) as that would start the flakes to melting and I didn’t want that. Once back in the Land Cruiser, I used a start to “snap” the snow off. I didn’t wipe or blot, but snapped the towel on the gear to use the force of air that created to “blow” the snow off. It was a great morning with friends, camera and our great outdoors. I hope you have the same experience this Christmas season.
