Jul 11, 2013 | Landscape Photography
With the D4/800 in my lap and Puffin Pad beside me, Sharon & I took off to check out Upper Souris NWR outside Minot, ND. The Upper Souris is a location I’ve long heard about so wanted to see it for myself. I was really hoping our timing would be perfect for the hatch of grebes but such was not the case. We were about 10 days late, the chicks too old to be floating around on their parents backs. But the trip was anything but a bust!
I put the 800mm away and grabbed the 18-35AFS and 24-70AFS and worked the amazing fields of Mustard that seemed to stretch to the horizon. The skies were nearly perfect for landscape photography even though the sun was high in the sky. In fact, I don’t think I would have wanted the sun any other place. The bright, cheery yellow screams for bright and cheery. There is no filters, no post processing, these are simply images out of the D4. The ones I like the best are the ones that show a little topography to the mustard fields. A little creek at a diagonal was something I seeked. To say getting back, earlier to the area is on the calendar. We saw nearly 50 species of birds and that with being technically “late” so I can’t wait to see what we’d find being ontime.
Jul 9, 2013 | Landscape Photography
It’s summer time and the afternoon thunderstorms are rolling through. I love it! Is there a trick to lightning photography? These days, you can capture the bolt pretty darn easily with tools like Ligthning Trigger, which permit you to capture the bolts even during daylight hours and not even touch the camera. And that’s when I think some of the best lightning images are made. Like many aspects of photography, just capturing the “one” aspect doesn’t make it a good photo. Just capturing a lightning bolt in itself doesn’t make a good photo. It’s just the subject and like all photographs, elements around it should support it. What are those elements? In the top photo, it’s the glow of the bright skies that are behind the storm. Summer thunderstorms typically are “regional” so getting to their edge, there is bright skies behind them that can light up the clouds giving them a unique glow all their own.
Some of the strongest are simply clean landscape photos that can stand on their own without the lightning bolt. My favorite which is above was taken many years ago in Montana at sunset. The great color is courtesy of a forest fire and by simply turning the camera to follow the fast moving storm, the Lightning Trigger did the rest of the work. The “tricks” to this is first staying dry because often you’re in the rain. I have a large, golfer’s umbrella we use. It has a carbon fiber post that in theory help prevents being struck but lightning. And that is a concern you need to take into consideration. The other “trick” if there is one is to underexpose by at least one stop. It doesn’t lower the intensity of the bolt but the rest of the scene which then makes the bolt look brighter. Lastly, never leave home without your Lightning Trigger because the moment you do, you will witness the most amazing lightning storm, ever!
Jul 1, 2013 | Landscape Photography
Like most in the west, even the Sierra got warm this past weekend, getting up to 86 which is warm for 8000′. The new shooting gallery is getting more and more active which is fun. Over the weekend chipmunk love found it. It’s that time of year when the Panamint Chipmunks find each other and in the process, make baby chipmunks. It’s fun to watch them as they watch each other looking for a partner. Their tails just go nuts wiggling with excitement. This female took a breather resting on the roof of one of our nesting boxes as the males circled below. Shooting with D4 / 800mm, it’s a test of my panning, vertical panning as they go up and down the tree trunk using them like a vertical highway. But it’s a ton of fun and permitted me to stay inside and cool and still shoot.
Jun 28, 2013 | Landscape Photography
Have I ever told you, I really hate bald skies! But what is one to do when you have bald skies? Gotta make lemonade as I see it. So with all the annual hoopla over the “big moon” I thought I would make the sun into the moon. How? Shoot right at it, closing the aperture all the way down and underexpose. Then went to a landscape that would support that “moon” like feel leaving the viewer asking, “Is it the moon or the sun?” Shooting with the D4 with 16Fish attached, I did just that. Then in the DD, I used ACR to “straighten” out the Fish. The only real thought given to the image was the landscape, (Horseshoe Lake during the drought), the shoreline and placement of the sun. Won’t go on my wall but was fun and being about getting skunked behind the camera beats anything else I can think of!
Jun 28, 2013 | Landscape Photography
I have this really well earned reputation for getting up really early for a photograph. And it is well earned, I do just that, a lot! Yesterday morning was no exception because this time of year, the sunrise is really early and traveling up to 10,000 to greet the day, 04:00 was the time. Now you’ve not probably done exactly that, I have no doubt though you’ve been up early at some point for a shot. You’ve also probably had the same results as we did. You’re there, the mosquitos are there but the light, it was nowhere to be found. Don’t worry, the sun did rise but there was no magic, no pop, no drama. It just did it’s usual thing, it came up with no ceremony. So, what do you do?
Shooting with the D4 and 80-400VR3, I actually ended up spending more time playing with the iPhone at times than the D4. Why, well, been there done that at Minaret Vista a few hundred times before. Why? It’s literally my backyard, we can be there in minutes. Why go back to the same place over and over again when, I knew at 04:00 it was going to be blah? OK, photographically it was blah but for the soul, it’s an amazing WOW! And being the only ones up there, we knew the rest of the world didn’t know about it. When you can take a photo with your iPhone and thousands of folks can instantly experience what it was we were experiencing. Now how cool is that? And that’s partly why I’m posting this rather ho hum photos because, you weren’t there and you don’t know how amazing it can be. You only know what’s contained in the photos presented you and that’s the point. Even when it might be blah blad to us, those not with us, it is really possible it is amazing and that’s one of the great gifts of photography. When we share, we just never really know the impact the simplest photo content might have on someone. Sharing is just as important as getting out at 04:00 when it comes to photography. So, get out, shoot and share this weekend. Your blah (and hope you don’t have blah) might just be the light someone needs that day!
Jun 26, 2013 | Landscape Photography
The extra reach of the 800mm got my mind to thinking. Heading to another window in the office, I stood, watched, thought and acted on making that view a shooting gallery just for the 800mm. So, I got out the big stick again and went back to pruning Kelby Training style quickly making a great path for shooting. I no sooner got cleaned up and back in the office and behind the D4 and a good lookin Cassin’s Finch landed right I had just cleared out a bunch of sticks.
I’m shooting with the straight 800mm and as you can see, got a great image size. Being spring, the male’s have a nice glow to the head and breast and this was a pretty good lookin male, so I spent some time with it. The best part was there was a little kiss of light filtering through the pine boughs. I was very pleased that so quickly the new shooting gallery was producing.
Now the Cassin’s Finch is a real, dirt common species, nothing special. So the goal as always was to make the uncommon out of the common. I didn’t get there this first attempt but with a start like this, I have high hopes. It was just great to be back with my friends and being able to share them with you.
