May 13, 2011 | Photography
Not nearly as graceful but what I find as a huge challenge is photographing a running Black-tailed Prairie Dog. They don’t tend to run that much but when they do, they kind of look like a pot bellied Tony the Pony on the gallop. The tail goes one way, the belly another and the head another. There is no grace to it. This makes getting a “cool” shot a challenge. This, along with their slow speed, you need a cloudy day like we had to get a slow shutter speed to help the blur of the pan to show any motion. I was at 1/100 f/6.7 panning with who we nicknames Waldo as he was being very goofy. I ended up shooting about 4GB of video of Waldo with his antics. While the eye is sharp, because of their funny run, the rest of the body is way out of focus. I shot about 40 clicks on this to get the one with a sharp eye. Pretty short odds but I’m glad I have the one.
Photo captured by D3x, 600VR w/TC-17e on Lexar UDMA digital film
May 13, 2011 | Photography
So when we parked to get the last sunrise / God beam shot, this White-tailed doe was across the road grazing. It didn’t do a thing as we walked about shooting, just kept on grazing. Since it was by itself and just grazing, I mentally blew it off and kept on with the landscape. Once the landscape shot was in the can, I put the 600mm on the tripod to play with the deer. I don’t have a lot of shots of White-tails in my files. This is because they aren’t where I live and there are so many great shots of them by others, I just don’t put much time into them. There is one shot I would like for myself though so I do try to get it, and that’s “the flag.”
When White-tails run away in alarm, they raise their tail and wave it back and forth. You can see it for a long distance which is the point. Since I’m not normally scaring off my subjects, I’ve few opportunities to photograph it (thought have seen it plenty of times while driving about). So as the deer started for the skyline, I shot I like to take, another car came by, stopped for a moment and that sent the deer running in alarm. While definitely the best example of this, it’s my first so like it. There’s room for improvement but if you don’t start, you’ll never improve.
Photo captured by D3x, 600VR on Lexar UDMA digital film
May 13, 2011 | Landscape Photography
This simply has bigtime drama and THAT’S what I look for in a landscape image that stirs me. It shares the same basics they all have, exposure in the God beams and a good foreground. Where this one in my mind excels is first, the God beams themselves have some character. Some start and stop, some go right, down the middle and left, some get lighter and darker. They are not all the same and there is no doubt they are real and not PS made (yes, not all God beams are made the same). OK, we have a excellent background, the sky with the God beams. Moving to the foreground, it has some character to itself. It’s not a single line, a single ridge but has intertwining lines taking the eye back to meet the God beams. Then, and this is the really important part I think, the light in the foreground just rocks! The filtered light highlights the ridge lines and the seasonal pond and has just enough shadow to give roundness to the hills. It was captured and finished exactly the same as the other sunrise shots from this morning. Here though, all the elements came together corner to corner to produce the drama that for me, says it all about the morning. I live for these types of clicks!
May 12, 2011 | Landscape Photography
Seriously, no windy, I have three or four thousands clicks on this group of trees on the ridge! I just love them, their symmetry and location for sunrises. So when I saw the God beams, this is where I wanted to run. When I got here, it did not disappoint.
The top click is the first one (actually 5) that I made. I stopped to do this because the clouds were moving quickly, quicker then I could so I wanted at least this shot in case I couldn’t improve it. I liked the bottom shot the best. I moved about 70 yards to the west to line up the God Beams better with the trees on the ridge. Luckily the God beams hung in there for me and I could make the shot I had provisioned 15min earlier a mile away. And while I like this bottom shot a lot, I didn’t know that two miles further west I would make the best shot of the morning. To see that shot, you’ll have to come back tomorrow. All of these shots were made the same way, 5 images HDR, AWB, -1 at f/4 with the 24-120VR lens handheld.
May 12, 2011 | Landscape Photography
“Racing” in the Suburban down the road, stopped at the first good foreground I had in my mind. I made a couple of clicks but knew I could do better…so off I went. Same technique and gear used to make this image as last post. Off we chase for better….
May 12, 2011 | Landscape Photography
When it comes to God beams, I don’t know of any location that produces them more consistently at sunrise then the Black Hills & Badlands in SD. This morning was no exception. There are two major challenges in my mind when taking good God beam photographs, exposure and foreground. Without control on those two key elements, all you have IMHO is mud.
These days, the exposure is pretty darn simple. Yeap, HDR and these are 5 image captures, shot handheld on the fly. HDR makes it pretty simple to capture the large exposure range with the subtleties in between. While Photomatixs did the heavy lifting in the finishing, the true finishing was done in PS. It makes all the difference in the world! But while I have the exposure, I don’t have the foreground so these images are just OK at best in my book. Better can be made. Knowing the Black Hills, I knew exactly where I wanted to speed to get the right foreground. Stay Tuned…..
Photos captured by D3x, 24-120VR on Lexar UDMA digital film
