Jul 10, 2009 | Wildlife Photography
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/DBCBG0522.swf, 585, 444 [/swf]
Really, I’m supposed to be working, writing like a mad man! At 08:28 Sharon says, “I hear her clucking outside!” We look and sure enough, the Blue Grouse family is back in the meadow. Didn’t see them yesterday but with the road work and gardeners next door, not too surprising. Today is a nice quiet day (which is why I’m supposed to be writing) and perfect to take the kids for a stroll.
Well I grabbed the 200-400, headed out the garage and around the house to find mom on the edge of the meadow just looking around. I got right up on her, 12′ away and she really didn’t care. In fact, at one point she hopped down from where you see her here to the driveway and walked up to me to check me out. I looked, she didn’t have a camera.
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/DBCBG0694.swf, 392, 600 [/swf]
After a while I headed back in to find Jake shooting out his window with his 6. I looked out to see the female had come around and was point blank in front of his window. Jake was smart enough to have his SB-800 up and firing. I asked if I could plug into his 6 for a moment to get a shot. This is what you saw from his vantage point. And as I made a quick couple of clicks so I could give Jake his lens back, in the background I heard explosions. I turned around to see Jarhead playing on his TV. It’s just another rough day at the office!
Photos captured by D3x, 200-400 (handheld) / 600AFS II on Lexar UDMA digital film
Jul 9, 2009 | Wildlife Photography
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_BMP00677.swf, 585, 414 [/swf]
Where most folks have a lawn in their front yard, we’ve planted a meadow with over 30 native plants. Besides making more time on Saturdays (no lawn to mow), this time of the year we call it the nursery with all the baby animals that call its thick growth home. I ventured out this afternoon to the deck and looked down on the meadow to find a female Blue Grouse. It’s only the 2nd time we had them in our yard (last time over a decade ago). Well, I ran in the house, Jake focused in on the bird from his window with his 6 while I ran to get a camera. Not too soon later, I got an eye in the viewfinder.
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_BMP01237.swf, 585, 414 [/swf]
After I made a complete circle around the meadow to get a shot, Mom came around out in the open and then hopped up on the stump to take a gander around. Blue Grouse aren’t the brightest of birds, they are hunted in some places with a bow & arrow. It wasn’t too much after taking this photo that Sharon called out chicks. From my vantage point, I couldn’t see down into the deep cover. But sure enough, there were two chicks with mom but there was no way to get any glass on them.
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_BMP02327.swf, 585, 414 [/swf]
After a long while, mom took the family for a stroll as they kept moseying along their way. The chicks came scooting out of cover and stuck to the shadows for quite a while. Then finally they had to make a break across an opening and for a moment, one of the chicks stepped into the only drop of sun in the area. It was great fun for an hour even if the shutter speed never got above 1/45, made a couple of fun clicks.
Photos captured by D3x, 200-400VR (handheld) on Lexar UDMA digital film
Jul 8, 2009 | Wildlife Photography
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/DMLCKYP0008.swf, 500, 402 [/swf]
As we stood creekside photographing the Dippers, baby everything appeared literally at our feet. I mean, at our feet, so close you couldn’t focus on them. I hate that! This baby Yellow-pine Chipmunk is just a sample of the small mammals that we saw. The cute little bastard wouldn’t hold still! The baby Golden-mantled Ground Squirrel was the cutest. It couldn’t have been more than a couple of weeks old. It held still for a couple of clicks.
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/DMLGSGM0003.swf, 500, 402 [/swf]
And like the Dippers, the light bringing light to the scene was all flash. The SB-900 is mounted onto a Wimberley Flash arm. This keeps the flash over the lens axis and put the shadow behind the subject. Exposure comp is dialed down so even though it is technically acting as flash fill, since the kids are totally in shade, it brings up the exposure value and more importantly the color value to create an image appearing like open or filtered shade. Photography is all about light and wildlife photography, you often have to take the light to the wildlife to make the image.
Photos captured by D3x, 600VR w/TC-14e, SB-900 w/Better Beamer on Lexar UDMA digital film
Jul 8, 2009 | Wildlife Photography
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/DBZDR0302.swf, 500, 402 [/swf]
In between the very brief times the parents were at the nest, they foraged along and in the creek. They keep you spinning as you try to keep up with them. They keep you guessing when they go underwater, water moving so swiftly you wouldn’t venture in, and then pop up ten feet down stream. Then are great bird, they are a great challenge.
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/DBZDR0226.swf, 500, 402 [/swf]
These two photos have a couple of things in common. Yeah, the subject is one of them. Another is the rock and Dipper are all lit by flash (they were in complete shadow) and the last, the watery background is ambient light. Using and applying flash so no one can tell you’re using flash is incredibly important in wildlife photography. In both these cases, a Better Beamer was used, being feathered so the center of the light beam was sent over the head of the subject. The exposure comp dialed into the flash was -.07. The Nikon flash magic did the rest.
What’s going on biologically? The top photo, the Dipper seemed to be “stalking” a bug, I’d never seen that pose before and it held if for a long time before diving. The bottom photo, the Dipper is cruising the rapids looking for food, employing it’s “diving mask” second eyelid to keep the spray from blurring its vision.
Photos captured by D3x, 600VR w/TC-14e, SB-900 w/Better Beamer on Lexar UDMA digital film
Jul 7, 2009 | Wildlife Photography
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/DBZDR0386.swf, 500, 402 [/swf]
I needed some teaching images for a project, so Jake & I headed out at 05:00 starting on the shore of Mono Lake. After a very good couple of hours there, we headed off to the hills. We went to where we always know we can photograph birds, the creek. Most of the nesting birds are just starting to fledge their young, the American Dipper was no different. They build a moss “iglo” nest next to or under a waterfall, a crazy affair that is really cool. You see it here with the fledgling on the left at the entrance of the nest that then goes back under the ledge. You also see one of the major problems of photographing the nest, water! We’re talking lots of it that splashes and sprays often getting between you and the subject and messing up an otherwise cool photo.
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/DBZDR0193.swf, 500, 402 [/swf]
The other big problem which interacts with the first is, it’s dark as sin! Flash has got to be used and with a roaring creek between you and the nest, the Better Beamer is a must. How does that interact with the water? The spray and splash is between you and the nest, or to be more exact, between the flash and the subject. Since it’s closer and somewhat opaque, it creates a curtain of haze that kills the photo. To get the photo like you see here, you have to make the most of every opportunity when the adult comes in and cross your fingers there is no water blowing up. The flash is acting as flash fill in these photos, set to -2 Comp to just barely bring up the exposure and more importantly, bring up the color.
Photos captured by D3x, 600VR w/TC-14e using the SB-900, SD-9, Better Beamer on Lexar UDMA digital film
Jul 6, 2009 | Landscape Photography
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_BMP9318.swf, 500, 402 [/swf]
We hope you had a marvelous 4th, I know we did. Our dear and long time friends Roger & his family were up to celebrate the 4th with us Sierra style. Our small town parade, firehouse open house, streets closed off and talking with friends, it’s just a great time. It’s capped off with a really outstanding firework display at the lake. Thousands come to the lake to watch the show, from the shore and from the water. We head out early and put out a complete spread of Deeeelicous food and margaritas and enjoy the afternoon simply watching the clouds float by. It’s simply great fun.
Of course the camera went to capture the big moment. I’ve done fireworks all sorts of ways over the years, almost all centering around freezing the display. This year I wanted to bring back the memory and not the reality of the rocket explosion. I decided to not go with my normal 2sec explosion and push it to 8sec, f5.6. Here’s a couple of my favorites from the night. I hit the shutter release when the skies were clear, that meant waiting for bursts to completely burn out before taking the next shot. If you look closely at one of the bursts, you’ll see a sunburst from the shell exploding. That’s kinda cool! That was all, I kinda like the effect and is something I’m going to explore more in the future.
Photos captured by D3x, 24-70AFS on Lexar UDMA digital film
