Feb 12, 2010 | B&W Photography
The cool iPhone photo contest the folks at Adorama have put this together has had its deadline extended to 28 Feb, 2010. It’s an iPhone photo contest! It’s pretty darn simple, take an iPhone photo, email it from you iPhone if you want and you’re in! You can even win prizes by simply voting for an iPhone app! Dang, it just keeps getting better and better and you read about it. How am I involved? I’m just one of a great group of judges that get to pick the winner.
As a reminder of how is it is, here’s this photo of the Golden Gate Bridge. It was taken after dark and finished with the Photoshop iPhone app, converting it to B&W. The bottom image taken and created with the AutoStitch, dang easy! There’s are so many options. I look for to seeing YOUR entry!
Feb 11, 2010 | B&W Photography
I am incredibly fortunate living here in the Sierra where the light is always playing with the landscape and taking me away from the computer. I sit in the evening just gazing out as the day shifts into night, the transition often living all who stop without breath at it’s simple beauty. That’s why I always have the camera beside me, the only question each night is the lens.
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_bmp5824.swf, 585, 444 [/swf]
At first I thought the clouds were going to line up to make for a good, solid B&W image. Nice contrast that would make the “texture” of the clouds stand out so I make the click. But that thought didn’t last long.
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_BMP5871.swf, 585, 444 [/swf]
You can see that clouds change pretty darn quick, changing my shooting. They lost their character of contrast which was replaced with the hint of color.
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_BMP5988.swf, 585, 444 [/swf]
Ten minutes later all my preconceived idea for photographing the show changed. The color was changing, the clouds were flattening out, there was a wind coming over the crest messing with my photographs.
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_BMP5993.swf, 585, 444 [/swf]
I turned my back on the scene for a heartbeat to turn around and find it all changed. I ran for a different lens. I had been shooting with the 28f1.4AF and switched to the 70-200VR2 to get in on the formation of a weak linticular cloud. I hoped for a Sierra wave but no such luck but it was another gorgeous night from the deck. No complaints!
Photos captured by D3s, 28f1.4 / 70-200VR2 on Lexar UDMA digital film
Feb 9, 2010 | Landscape Photography
It’s an inside joke, Moose & stumps. These dead trees are part of a forest submerged in Quake Lake, MT. Quake Lake is a ~real~ cool place that we enjoy hanging out at. It was created by a huge earthquake not to long ago that shut off on end of the canyon, damming it up. In the winter as you can see, it freezes and that’s when the photos come to life!
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/DLCMTQL0030.swf, 585, 444 [/swf]
The “trick” to making the image required selecting only those elements that worked while make sure everything else was excluded. I shot with the 70-200VR2 because we were stuck on a road, couldn’t actually get down to the lake. But being up high was the other important ingredient in making the image.
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/DLCMTQL0018.swf, 585, 444 [/swf]
Yeah, I stopped the bus to photograph big sticks in the snow, hard to believe I know. The shadow on the top edge of the top image I think bothers me and the lack of depth in the bottom one makes me wonder about it. Seeing them small here on the blog doesn’t bring out the texture you can see in those sticks, perhaps that’s what has me scratching my head. I’ll have to print these and stare at them. I like them, not sure, yet, if I love them.
Photos captured by D3s, 70-200VR2 on Lexar UDMA digital film
Feb 8, 2010 | Landscape Photography
Still playing catch up, processing images from this last road trip. I was looking at some of the TrueHDR images I did and wondered what would happen if I did just a One Image HDR from the middle exposure. At the same time, tried a couple of single clicks just to see the outcome as another possible tool in the photographic arsenal. I really like the Oak Bay Bridge, not liken the Muir Woods images, the boat going to sea has me jazzed.
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_BMP69842.swf, 585, 444 [/swf]
As you view the gallery, you’ll see the After image on the left, the Before on the right. It’s on my to do list creating a simple how to video on this, but you can see and learn more about this from the same guy who planted the seed in my mind, RC, right here.
click here to open Gallery
But this is real easy stuff, in Photomatix Pro, simply File > Open, select image and OK and you’re done! Give it a try.
Photos captured by D3x / D3s, 70-200VR2, 24PC-E on Lexar UDMA digital film
Feb 8, 2010 | Tech Tips, Wildlife Photography
A sharp subject, the #1 ingredient in a successful photograph. There are a whole lot of techniques that when used in concert can help you achieve this goal. Peak of Action is just one of them. It was THE technique back in the day of manual focus but with AF, many don’t know about this simple tool in capturing a sharp image.
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_bmp2278.swf, 585, 444 [/swf]
The stills in this video weren’t taken during the video filming, the D3s just can’t do that. You can stop video capture for still capture and that works great but the video won’t start again until the buffer is done emptying all the stills. But I think you’ll get the idea better this way then by just a verbal description.
Pages are in the process of being updated. In the meantime you can watch our videos on our YouTube Channel as well as all Videos are available on iTunes as Podcasts!
Photo captured by D3s, 600VR w/TC-17e on Lexar UDMA digital film
Feb 4, 2010 | Wildlife Photography
I don’t know why, but these unique and crazy birds are just cool to me. With that said, I’ve not photographed them for a decade. Not for the lack of trying, they just aren’t common until you find the location where they are common and then they are everywhere. This morning, they were EVERYWHERE!
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_BMP9725.swf, 585, 444 [/swf]
So I come up to the group and they’re shooting the last of the White Pelicans lifting off the water (remember, that was the goal for the morning). I then notice this Limpkin flying in with something big in its bill. It’s got a snail, a big ass snail too boot. I get over to where it landed to catch this lovely scene. In my mind, I was just excited to get glass on a Limpkin again.
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_BMP9746.swf, 465, 600 [/swf]
Then it flew off to a bank and at first, went behind some scrub giving up no shot. So it went from bad to worse, typical wildlife photography scenario. Then, it flew out to this floating debris mat and performed. It was great! It whacked the snail, yanked on it until finally the animal was pulled out of the shell.
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_BMP9755.swf, 465, 600 [/swf]
The light, not so hot. The shutter speed, not as fast as I would have liked to freeze some of the motion. But it ended up being a ton of fun for just five minutes. We went out for White Pelicans and I ended up photographing 11 species in less than an hour and some images are just down right cool. I’ll take a morning like that anytime! Am I heading back to this locale for more? Hell yeah, I’ll bring our FL Base Camp here, it’s a killer spot. Where’s here? That’s for me to know and to tell you next month :)
Photo captured by D3x, 600VR on Lexar UDMA digital film
