Simple Click – When You Insult the Herd
The Dawns Early Light
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.
I Love When They Make Me Wonder Why
When I was out a week ago with the Gtr Sage Grouse (couldn’t get out this AM, wind too big), there was one unique individual. This lone male wanted not only to be on the other side of the road, it wasn’t even on a lek. In fact, he was on this little mound you see here near the Owen’s River (fog in the background) on the edge of a flooded meadow. Prior to sunrise, I saw it take flight far in the background of the main lek on the edge of the sage and fly over to this spot. It got my attention because it flew for a time right at me as if it were going to join me in the cab of my truck!
Why is this so unique? Well, for this individual it might not be. This male might just know something about attracting the females I have no hint of. On the other hand, it might be a whack-a-doodle whose DNA might not go no further. And those questions always entice me because while Mother Nature probably has the answer, we probably never will. To get even a hint to the answer, one would have to mark this individual and then watch it basically 24/7 during the entire lekking season. And even then, the answer would be a sampling of one which in science makes it an oddity as much as anything else. But I live to see these oddities.
Shooting with the D4s, 800f5.6 w/TC.25 resting on the Puffin Pad, I didn’t photograph this lone male until after the other grouse had left the lek. I actually drove up the road 3/4 mile to where I could turn around, came back and parked, reset up and shot. Where all the other grouse had left, this lone male stuck. I really wanted to get back out this morning to see if he was still using this mound, hopefully my next visit I will get a little more of an answer. This is why I love being a wildlife photographer. I love when they make me wonder why!
“Why a Wide Angle Vertical Pano?”
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.
Monument Valley Big Day
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.
Those Five Minutes Afterwards Don’t Always Suck
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.
