Jul 7, 2016 | Landscape Photography
We’d just finished flying, had dodge in and out of clouds about 30min out but landed to clear skies. The sun was slowly going down but sunset is after 10:30pm so speed is relative. One of our favorite past times from our locale is watching the skies. Ya, there are a bunch of planes in the air, a Piper PA-11 & Cub, A Taylor Craft and Aeronca, but its against the clouds that makes watching them so entertaining. Off to the west they are slowly building, but behind us we really can’t see from where we’re sitting. We get up to watch the activity flyin about when we see the top of a tower growing behind us. It’s massive!
I was so comfortable sitting there. Sharon said “let’s walk up the hill” which, well … I was so comfortable. I got up and we started to make the walk up the hill when I saw the cloud had grown even larger. So i went back down to the car and grabbed the D5 / 14-24AFS and started back up the hill. The PA-11 was still out flying (Jake getting in a hour of flight training) as we headed up, the cloud getting bigger and bigger. Finally we crested the hill to see the site you see here. The cloud was freakin massive! The PA-11 is in front of it in both these photos but you can’t see it, the cloud is that big! Now comes the photographic issue, show where it is amongst the gorgeous fields of the vast North Dakota landscape or, show just how big it is? I only had the one lens so I shot at 14mm and then at 36mm (HSC). I love the two images but wondered is another lens would bring a different story. We boogied back down the hill and jumped in the truck but too late, by the time we got back, the cloud had released its energy and was just a dot on the horizon. I’m still wondering which would be the most powerful of an image, size or place?
Jun 24, 2016 | Wildlife Photography
I was down on the flats shooting the Swallows on a gorgeous morning. Off in the distance is home, the Sierra Mountains, still snow capped and in that filtered light – simply gorgeous. Then up the river I see a White Pelican lift off the water. I throw the D500 / 300PF up to my eye, gently touch the shutter release activating the AF system (in Auto Area AF), the system locked on and I let it rip, and rip, and rip and rip hoping the Pelican’s flight path would put it in front of our home.
There was no way to know if the Pelican’s flight path would take it with the background I wanted when it first lifted off. If I waited to put the camera up to my eye once I saw the background, by the time the camera locked on and I took the photo, there is a good chance that the background would be loss. So shooting the D5 or in this case, the D500 with that basically unlimited buffer, I let ‘er rip! As you can see, there are 102 shots from this series from lift off to the rude butt shot (that’s a lot of sharp images!). Now this kind of photography, of just letting ‘er rip is a luxury, wasn’t that long ago that wasn’t an option. Now while not the greatest photograph, to me, seeing this cool bird over our home makes it special. Having gear that can capture special memories is important since photography is all about memories. Cause it’s not every day you see White Pelicans over snow!
Jun 20, 2016 | Landscape Photography
Light is everything, everything in a landscape photograph. All too often though, the moment we happen upon a landscape we like, the light just isn’t there. But because we are there and all the efforts it took to be there, we click away anyways. It’s really not that different from that hail Marry pass. But unlike the hail Marry, we have options and the biggest option we have in our playbook is time!
This is a simple illustration of my point. The side of this old miners cabin when we first walked up is what you see in the top image. The light was a little contrasty but more importantly, not very expressive. But I was there so I took that click. I had no real thoughts about the image other than it was a “I was here” photo. In my book, about the worse kind of photo. But we stayed just five more minutes prevuing the scene. Then the light radically changed, it had character and therefore, gave the side of the cabin and more importantly, the window life. And that’s all it took, just five minutes. So when looking for the one thing, technique, gear, idea that might improve your photography, remember the best improvement comes with, time.
Jun 10, 2016 | Wildlife Photography
Read and Ponder, YOU might be the answer!
May 27, 2016 | Wildlife Photography
Spring has sprung on the property and Sharon’s favorite birds have come back. We have two distinct populations of Evening Grosbeaks, winter and summer. This migratory species ranges over most of North America and Mexico with our winter Grosbeaks coming south from Canada, stopping at our feeders and our summer Grosbeaks coming up from the south to stop at our feeders. Sharon carefully notes their comings and goings over the years and so looks forward to the summer population since they are so active and noisy!
We were in our home for years before we first saw the Evening Grosbeak on the property. We’d seen them in the Sierra but not around our feeders. Then eighteen years ago the first one arrived in May. Couldn’t move one foot in the house without flushing them. They are incredibly shy! Then none over the winter until the following May when we had a couple of Grosbeaks. The summer population slowly grew overs the years and then about seven years ago, the winter population showed up. This past winter, we had a continual flock of about thirty Grosbeaks and this summer, well we can’t count all the Grosbeaks in all the feeders. It’s so much fun to see all the yellow in the trees and darting around the property. That’s a long winded story about the photos you see here taken yesterday.
Last year we saw the Grosbeaks one day go to the tops of our leafing out aspens and start striping it of its new buds. We were horrified cause we thought we’d soon have bare trees! We were totally confused cause these are seed eating birds. We watched and watched and after a short time, they flew from the aspens which as the summer unfolded had the best growth ever. Still don’t understand what’s going on there, interesting biology. Well this morning, we saw the Grosbeaks leave the feeders and head up into the apsens so I grabbed the camera to photograph the action.
What you see here are the males who are watching the females (spring love) and the females who are eating the leaf buds. It was a good day to photograph this biology as we had a good cloud cover – soft, saturated light. The best part was when I stepped out on the deck to shoot. As I stood there, the other Evening Grosbeaks kept coming into the seed feeder five feet in front of me and the bird bath one foot from me as if I didn’t exist. Such a change from decades ago and it’s such fun! It’s one of the greatest benefits of having a shooting gallery in your own backyard (want to get started, here’s a class on backyard bird photography). You can see and photograph so easily all that great biology with ease. I enjoy it this time of year especially as the Evening love cranks up!
May 26, 2016 | Wildlife Photography
On my last two week bird road trip, I photographed 42 species of birds, 23 were new to my files. It was a great trip! Now I saw some gorgeous birds, some rare birds, some weird birds and lots of birds but the one that was the real joy to photograph was this Bobolink. Why? I’ve been seeing Bobolinks on wires for two decades. I have many times stalked a Bobolink, had them in the viewfinder but for every possible reason, I had never got one click of one. Not a rare bird, not an incredibly cool looking bird but for me, one of those birds I’ve always wanted only because of the challenge of getting the shot. And this trip I got one in the viewfinder, I lucked out with a clean background and nice light (not great light though) and made the click. What’s the point? No matter where you are in your wildlife photography, having a critter in your sites, preferably a “common” one that you want that nice photo of drives you to get out and get that photograph. You might not get the shot of the bird you’re after, but you will photograph birds and therefore hone your skills. It’s a fun thing to do, a great challenge, a simple pleasure especially when you score!
Update – the chase is still on! This is a Lark Bunting and not a Bobolink. Hot dogs!
