Sharon, Maggie & I were on the back deck with the herd. One of the big White-tailed bucks was trying to make nice with all the does and single Bambi grazing on the apples I’d thrown out. I was photographing the buck with the one doe concentrating as I watched through the Z400 and clicking at the right moment. Then the light went away and a moment later, Boom! We looked to the west to see black skies, lightning coming our way. Boomers! We were so enthralled with the interactions we didn’t even see the fast forming storm behind us. We no sooner commented on it and the skies opened up driving us in.

Once in a while when a storm goes through near sunset, it will break and put on quite the show. I changed camera and lens, put on waterproof shoes and rainshell and waited a few minutes until the rain started to lesson. I looked to the east to an amazingly bright, full rainbow. I dashed out the door and up the slope to get a clear view of it all. The gallery of five images above represents the fifteen minutes the rainbow and skies slid on past. It was a glorious moment. We just love boomers!

Are you into using Hyperfocal distance, then the Z 9 might just be your best friend. If you don’t know what Hyperfocal distance is, it is defined as:

“The hyperfocal distance is the closest distance at which a lens can be focused while keeping objects at infinity acceptably sharp. When the lens is focused at this distance, all objects at distances from half of the hyperfocal distance out to infinity will be acceptably sharp.”

This might not come as a surprise to you, but I’m not into it but I know a lot who are and I want to help you. One of the keys to success is knowing actual distances, physical distances. I saw a person with a range finder one time and asked what they were up to, this was it. The Z 9 with it’s 4.0 firmware, when you manually focus (even if camera is in AF mode), it will tell you EXACTLY the distance on the point in which you have focused. Using an app like PhotoPills, the rest is a slam dunk. Now I would love to take credit for this but it was a 06:00 phone call from my dear friend (who shares the same bday as me) that brought this to my attention. In case you’re wondering, the Z 9 is the only body providing this kind of information. Man, I love the Z 9!

In the process of doing some visual homework for an upcoming project I was in my location gallery looking at backgrounds, in particular, The Palouse, WA. This vast, rolling landscape has many, many faces depending literally on the day of the year. It’s a gorgeous place I love to roam as it is new every turn in the road. In the summer as the fields on its hills turn brown just before harvest, the shades of tan, brown, yellow, meld together into a magical carpet. At sunset when you venture to the top of Steptoe Butte, you lookout on a vastness it’s hard to find anywhere else.

With plenty of water in hand, broad brim hat protecting your face, you wait for that moment. When you arrive there is no photograph and you might question your decision to make the drive in the first place. Then the sun heads for the horizon and the shadows start to hint at the magic to come. Then, then just before the sun slides towards the west you see in the viewfinder why you ventured out in the heat of summer. It’s at that moment you know deep down, summer is romantic!