Jun 17, 2009 | Landscape Photography
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_BMP3324bw.swf, 500, 402 [/swf]
There are those days in this business when everyone just wants to rain on your parade. That’s just the nature of the business. As my dear friend Roger likes to remind me, “Pioneers always have arrows in their back.” Fortunately these days don’t last long, that’s the great side of photography.
Case in point, we’re up in Reno, NV for the Reno Air Race photog school, now a annual event we so look forward to. Here we get to not only photograph gorgeous planes, but spend time with great friends, friends we made through photography. We started off the event with a great dinner with Scott Diussa & Bill Fortney, great friends who take the edge of any day and put a silver lining to everything. It’s truly one of the blessings of photography that just doesn’t get highlighted enough.
The photo above is a photo taken in the US of Canada. It’s the edge of a storm that we found after being stuck in rain for hours and then by chasing the light, the photography began. That’s how it works, you just gotta get through the rain and you’ll find that silver lining!
Photo captured by D3x, 200-400VR on Lexar UDMA digital film
Jun 16, 2009 | Wildlife Photography
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_BMP6199.swf, 396, 600 [/swf]
If you look to the north, you have the Osprey nest, look to the south and you have Yellow-headed Blackbirds. MT has always been a YHB producer for me and today was no different. During the nesting season before the nests are filled with eggs, the males just go nuts trying to attract a mate. Until you here their crazy call and see them perform, you just ain’t livin.
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_BMP6066.swf, 500, 402 [/swf]
Their show includes all sorts of body contortions when a female even gives them the slightest hint of attention (males just never learn). So on top of the thinnest, playable reeds in the marsh where the wind whips them around, they show off their moves all in the hopes of love.
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_BMP5934.swf, 396, 600 [/swf]
Keep in mind these are dirt common birds, there is nothing unique or special about them. No matter, we spent hours with them and in between ducking for cover from the thunderstorms, Jake & I made a couple thousand clicks in the darkish light. We think they just look cool! I ended up with lots of images I really like and didn’t have in the files previously so I’m a happy camper.
Photos captured by D3x, 600VR w/TC-17e on Lexar UDMA digital film
Jun 16, 2009 | Wildlife Photography
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_BMP5769.swf, 500, 402 [/swf]
One of my great rewards is to have our son Jake get involved in the the “family” business. Shooting with him is great fun, even more fun is sharing some of my old haunts with him. While he lives in MT now, there are still some portions of the state I know a trick or two.
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_BMP5783.swf, 500, 402 [/swf]
Dodging the thunderstorm showers, we went out to work the many bird species right out the door. On a section of the Bitterroot River that has always produced in the spring, we photographed a Osprey nest. There is a “rule” in bird photography, don’t shoot against a gray sky. In the upper image, you can see why. The exposure just don’t fly, pun intended. The problem is the solid slat gray sky with no change in the tone. The bottom photo is a little better because there is a slight variance in the gray. Of course, when you’re working a bird in flight and you get a sharp image, you tend to ignore such details. In the game of making the image, background is everything, even the sky.
Photos captured by D3x, 600VR w/TC-17e on Lexar UDMA digital film
Jun 15, 2009 | Landscape Photography
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_BMP3369.swf, 396, 600 [/swf]
Some who have shot with me know I love a good stretch of road (and not just to go fast). I think it’s the leading lines that grab my attention, the way they go off to the horizon and from there….well who knows. So when I see a stetch that when other elements are working with it, I’ve just gotta get the shot. In this case, the rise of the hill and the clouds at that moment all lined up. So, I did what I had to to get the shot, as you can see.
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/mooseonroad.swf, 500, 402 [/swf]
Jun 15, 2009 | Landscape Photography
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_BMP3444.swf, 500, 402 [/swf]
There was this light beam coming across the pines, its draw doubled by its reflection. The early morning glow doubled again by the shadowy light surrounding it. But on the other end of the leading line of the shoreline is a towering mountain peak covered in snow in the full sun.
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_BMP3441.swf, 500, 402 [/swf]
Expose for the beam of light on the trees and that snow covered peak goes to blinkie hell. Worst, the eye can’t help but fly right to it and it never leaves it to come back to what I want the eye to go to. Those trees.
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_BMP3442.swf, 500, 402 [/swf]
Go to the other end of the exposure range to bring the bright snow into line and then the trees go dark, their magic lost. You could try a split grad but the range of light and the contour of the topography, something would get lost in the translation. It would be obvious a split grad was used. The only solution I know of for this is HDR, taking 5 images. The top photo is the final image, the bottom is #1 and the bottom #5 in the HDR set. Most important to me is, you see the light I saw at the moment I walked up to the lakes edge.
Photo captured by D3x, 24PC-E on Lexar UDMA digital film
Jun 13, 2009 | Wildlife Photography
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_BMP5262.swf, 500, 402 [/swf]
Time, it is just so bloody important to the wildlife photographer.
Putting in your time on every aspect of your photography is a must and when done, it pays back big dividends, guaranteed. This is probably no truer than when trying to get a photograph of elusive subjects. This is a Mountain Goat photographed today in Glacier Nat’l Park. For six days we kept going to the slope they haunt only to see them way in the hell up the hill where, only goats go. I knew that if we put in the time, we would eventually get a shot at the goats.
Sitting, waiting, watching, getting “skunked” in that all we garnished for our time was information and no pics, it is so hard for wildlife photographers to just sit and watch, put in the time. Well, we put in the time one more time today and wam, their they came down the hill and into our viewfinders. No, it’s not the best photo. No, it’s not the greatest light. No, it’s not the best background. But it does show that time is still the most important aspect to photography. And that kid looking from behind mom is damn cute!
Photo captured by D3x, 600VR on Lexar UDMA digital film
