Jun 9, 2008 | Wildlife Photography
Went off to one of my secret locales in Anchorage for one of my favorite birds in AK, the Red-necked Grebe. Not one you find outside, especially in breeding plumage, I target this bird in June when I’m in AK. The Base Camp campers got quite a show, from great backlit feeding (the water splashing is from killing a little fish it had caught), to courtship and in this case, defending a territory from another male, to just simply coming up and saying hello. Light and backgrounds were on the learning agenda for the day and the grebes made it great!
Photos captured by D3, 600VR w/TC-17e on Lexar UDMA digital film.
Jun 6, 2008 | Wildlife Photography
Just back from the trip chasing tornadoes and I’m already on the road and in Alaska (for our Base Camp). But the experiences from last week left a definite impression.
This thunderhead over Cook Inlet is upsecuring the view we were just minutes before enjoying of Mt McKinley. Its speed and density brought back memories of last week in KS. But we ain’t in KS no more :)
We then went out scouting for some of our training locales for Base Camp and came across some old and favorite subjects like Mew Gull. And…
Arctic Tern. This one is flying in with a fish which it delivered to its mate tending the nest. While I nailed it in flight, it smoked me when it dove down to its nest and delivered its fish. Outta practice I guess, need to work on my vertical panning this week. Panning is something we stress at Base Camp. Stopping action by moving the camera body (sounds like an oxymoron) is an important tool in the wildlife photographer’s bag.
So is this tool, the Wimberley Head VII. I depend on this head for supporting my 600VR. Mine got “unhappy” on our SD Base Camp (TSA dropped). Well, sent it to Wimberley for TLC and man, did they deliver. Waiting for us in our room when we checked in AK was a silky smooth, very happy Wimberley. Now that’s service!
Personally, I use my Wimberley slightly differently from the instructions. You can see here I mount the lens in the opposite direction so my wrist isn’t fighting the main support post. Also, I never tighten the controls but rather, have them slightly loose so panning is smooth but not stiff.
I’ll post from AK the next week as I can. With only a few hours of “dark,” it’s going to be some long days!
Photos captured by D3, 70-300VR / 600VR on Lexar UDMA digital film
May 22, 2008 | Landscape Photography
It’s hard to say good-bye, but we’ve had our last shoot, saw an amazing participant slideshow and now it’s time to die. Tonight we went to another favorite grove, Del Norte. More difficult to shoot, it does have some real treasures locked up in its trees. As you can see, I was shooting in a B&W mode and enjoyed every moment of it!
I want to publically state a huge thank you and express my respect for those who are the DLWS staff. Joe, Laurie, Kevin, Josh, Brad, Joe and especially Sharon make DLWS special for our participants and make sure that the main ingredient of DLWS, the passion for photography, flows! Here’s right back at you guys!
Photos captured by D3, 200f2VR on Lexar UDMA digital film
May 20, 2008 | Landscape Photography
We spent the evening out on the rocks over Battery Point. While this God Beam is kissing the horizon, McNally has nine guys lighting themselves with SB-800s just out of frame left on a rock out in the water. It’s a typical scene at DLWS but man, did we draw a crowd.
The main show was the Battery Point Lighthouse. While it normally doesn’t work this way (requiring the taking of two photos, one for the waves and a second for the light), I lucked out and got the waves and light in one capture making my post time a snap. For the very first time, I found a when the “vivid” setting in the D3 worked.
Photos captured by D3, 200f2VR on Lexar UDMA digital film
May 19, 2008 | Landscape Photography
Redwoods DLWS headed to Harris Beach in OR tonight for a spectacular show of clouds. While we didn’t get the traditional “sunset” color one expects at the beach, the clouds spread across the heavens in the winds in a hundred different patterns over the evening. The challenge was racing up and down the beach to find the perfect foreground to go with them. Of course, there was the occasional wave to dodge.
I want to recommend you head to the other DLWS blogs to see some very cool images from the same shoots. Head to Laurie’s, Kevin, Josh, Brad and Jake to see what I missed.
Photos captured by D3, 14-24AFS on Lexar UDMA digital film
May 19, 2008 | Landscape Photography
What a typical DLWS morning. Started off with the participants thinking we were nuts with our shoot locale. While exploring, a participant Mary Ellen found this cool boat being worked on. She found me later and told me and while the staff was walking back to the van after already shooting 10GB, I told McNally about the boat and off to the races we went!
The owner of the yard was great, invited us in, told us what they were doing and then opened the giant doors letting in amazing light as you can see above. Joe being Joe quickly found the perfect model and the pixels, they went a flyin! Don’t tell Joe this, but he is magic!
Photos captured by D3, 14-24AFS on Lexar UDMA digital film
