Jan 25, 2010 | Wildlife Photography
Said our good-byes to a really great group of photographers, moved our base of operation and headed over to the Lamar Valley region of Yellowstone. Even if I never make a single click, I just like the total change the north end of the park provides. How many times have I cruised the road in the last 30yrs? Oh man, no clue but it never gets old. In fact, it offers up challenges and new opportunities each pass of the road which is probably why we love it so. And it’s one place I can easily indulge my passion for Bighorn Sheep.
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_BMP3079.swf, 585, 444 [/swf]
The herd that travels through the North Entrance in fall / winter is a great herd to work because they are so busy just being sheep. I also really love to photograph them in habitat not typical snow covered slopes or brown rocks (though I do plenty of that too). This day brought some great opps working with the rams in sage.
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_BMP3324.swf, 585, 444 [/swf]
Another thing I love to do is photograph sheep in low light. Shutter speeds are often down around 1/60 but the quality of light on the pelts speaks about each individual uniqueness. While photographing the sheep today, I recorded 32GB of video clips. I hope to get a little sheep photography tutorial created and posted in the future. That aspect of the D3s I find very appealing.
Photos captured by D3s, 600VR w/TC-17e on Lexar UDMA digital film
Jan 25, 2010 | Photography
Of course, Sharon & I think Jake is a helluva of a kid (we’re blessed with two) and I think he’s a damn good shooter, but it’s a whole other thing when our dear friend who we deeply admire thinks the same thing. Last week, Jake made Joe’s Blog in grand fashion (get’s his looks from his mom, thanks Joe). It’s pretty damn cool and we couldn’t be prouder!
Not one to rest on his laurels, Jake even though is back in school with a full schedule, spent time shooting with us the last three weeks, he manages to keep on cranking out great images and a very successful blog. Just check out the very cool images he just posted on his Blog Gallery. Dang Boy…cranking up the heat on the old man, aren’t ya?! Cool, I really like shooting with a superhero!
Jan 25, 2010 | Photography
Actually, it’s no secret. How’d I get the extra detail in the gray when there really wasn’t much if any to start?
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_BMP2900.swf, 585, 444 [/swf]
A saw one correct guess on Twitter but had not a one correct answer come via email though I actually gave you the answer last week.
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_BMP2935.swf, 585, 444 [/swf]
When it comes to pulling out more detail in the exposure, what’s the most popular solution right now? Take a whole bunch of frames and process them through Photomatix Pro. But that’s not what I did here.
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_BMP2528.swf, 585, 444 [/swf]
Nope, these are all single frame images shot with no filter on the camera and no filter used in processing. They are all Psuedo HDR as inspired by RC and Matt. When I get back to the studio I’ll record a simple how to. But that’s it, that simple! And for my own photography, if someone looks at my images and says, “You used this or that” in post processing, I feel the image is a failure. The folks in our Yellowstone Adventure saw me sink and swim all week in striving this high standard I set for myself. Sometimes I loose, and sometimes I win.
Jan 25, 2010 | Moose Adventures, Photography
It’s Friday morning and we’re cruising for bull. No, not for me…Bison Bull and in particular one called Crusty. We had a good snowfall and the air temp was just hovering around double digits so there was a possibility of finding him. We headed to the one place where there are always bulls, Gibbon Meadow (and we were told the Canyon Pack from the day before were heading that way). We made the turn in the road and….nothing! We had some nice hoar frost so we worked it and then kept heading down the road. We made the turn in the road and off in the falling snow is Crusty so we slammed on the brakes and started to walk.
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_BMP8783.swf, 585, 444 [/swf]
We ended up walking a couple of hundred of yards in the snow to get the cleanest background possible while staying on a rise to shoot down a little and stay out of the grasses. It’s snowing and the light is kinda flat. I’m shooting along and not really thrilled with the results, the flat light just grayed out the bull and that made the snow less white. Then the thought just popped into my head.
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_BMP8714b.swf, 585, 444 [/swf]
What if I switched the Picture Control from Standard to Vivid? Would its tonal curve pump up the contrast even though there isn’t really any vivid color to bend? I checked my results on the camera’s LCD which I totally don’t trust so I asked Tom & Jim to try the same and tell me what they saw. This is what we all saw.
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_BMP8714.swf, 585, 444 [/swf]
Yeap, just a little pump in the contrast which makes all the difference in the world to the photograph. Keep in mind I am a fanatic about getting it right in the camera. I wouldn’t even go so far as to pump up the contrast in post when it comes to my wildlife images so I really like this in camera solution. The top & bottom images shot on Vivid, middle photo on Standard, WB=Cloudy, Exp Comp=0.
Photos captured by D3s, 600VR w/TC-17e on Lexar UDMA digital film
Jan 22, 2010 | Moose Adventures, Wildlife Photography
This was one of those magical days in a career you know will come if you put your time in. So you drag your butt out day after day long before sunrise is even a hint on the horizon just waiting for it. We made the bend in the road at Seven Mile Bridge when Steve says, “Is that a Wolf?” There, beside us is a Gray Wolf pulling on an elk carcass. Could have grabbed its tail by reaching out the door! It’s just after 7AM, the sun won’t rise for another 30min but it won’t help, it’s snowing. No matter, even with the worst possible light we stop and get out cautiously.
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_BMP1719.swf, 585, 444 [/swf]
It was a no win situation from the get go. A moving subject in no light on white snow. There was no way to make the great image or even making any real image so with nothing to loose, I advised cranking up the ISO so that this rare opportunity could be captured at least for their memories to reflect on later in time. I grabbed the D3s, attached the 200-400VR and slipped out. I made the handheld shot at 1/30 at f/4. It will never make it on the wall or in a magazine but it is forever embedded in my heart!
Shooting in no light with the subject under a tree making things worse with an high ISO that you knew would produce noise because of the light, I made the decision for myself to ditch stills and go to video. A reason for having video in our DSLR. This plan had long sunk into my shooting as a possible option before this moment so it only required a push of the LV button to put into action. I am so glad I did, see why.
01.01.2013 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!
This video was shot at ISO6400 and while it will never win an Academy Award for technical excellence, it was more than acceptable to the wolf biologist Jesse who came by after our encounter. He had been tracking the Canyon Pack with telemetry and with the video playback, could confirm it was that pack and with that, an exchange on information occurred. I like Jesse, smart kid and I’m sure he’ll have a long career in wildlife management. We talked biology, he provided great insight into the pack which help be decide to spend the whole day on the kill and even cameback to tell us of a Bobcat up ahead (stuck with the carcass, blew off bob). I just love biologists!
What an amazingly spectacular day, one that is one of the great rewards of this profession. To see such a wonder as wild wolves, being able to share it with photographers wanting to improve their wildlife photography and coming back with a couple of snaps too, what a gift!
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_BMP2476.swf, 585, 444 [/swf]
Photos captured by D3s, 200-400VR / 50f1.4AFS on Lexar UDMA digital film
Jan 21, 2010 | Moose Adventures, Wildlife Photography
It was simply a marvelous day! Simply put, we took the group to a part of the Yellowstone ecosystem that few others ever explore and learn about. After a great morning we ended up with one of my favorite species, Rocky Mtn Bighorn Sheep. For the majority of the group, it was the first time they had ever seen a Bighorn let alone photograph them so it was a learning experience all the way around!
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_BMP7887.swf, 585, 444 [/swf]
Here’s one of the afternoon rams, pretty sweet example of a ram if you ask me. The light is nice, not perfect but a good start. The background though is a little busy with the head, tan in color, blending in with the background which is a pretty similar shade of brown. So first thing we need to do is improve the background.
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_BMP7949.swf, 585, 444 [/swf]
OK, while we can fine tune the background a little by our moving, most of it has to be done by the sheep’s moving which means putting in your time and waiting for the right moment. So the ram moved into a little nicer light and with a little better background but we can do better by just waiting a little longer.
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_BMP7955.swf, 585, 444 [/swf]
The subtle change in the head, the gesture, makes all the difference to making a better image. This takes not only waiting but knowing that better can come and that the better is a simple head gesture.
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_BMP8107.swf, 585, 444 [/swf]
But making the shot I love the best from the afternoon required waiting four hours, for the light to go almost flat and improve the angle of the camera to the ram. I just don’t like the warmth the afternoon light brings. I don’t like shooting straight on the ram, rather shoot up slope a little and like the biology than the portrait. These are the basics for sheep photography. FWIW…all images shot wide open at f/6.7.
Photos captured by D3x, 600VR w/TC-17e on Lexar UDMA digital film
