Today’s PS Challenge image comes from the Dangberg Home Ranch Historic Park. I was hoping the coming storm front would provide good light and great skies for shooting the Home Ranch. Alas, the light didn’t cooperate with me.
To make this image, I used the exposure bracketing feature of the PowerShot G9 X camera to make the three exposures, then combined them in Photomatix. I caught this Momma cow in mid-chew, then she and the calves all ran away.
Enjoy – PHOTOROGR
One of my favorite magazines is Outdoor Photographer. I enjoy the content and have been getting wonderful ideas and information for improving my photography. The April 2017 issue had a great article titled ‘Grand Landscapes, Intimate Details’ by Dave Welling. The focus (pun intended) of the article was summed up nicely by the subtitle, ‘Tell a deeper story of a place by adding close-up images to your location portfolios’ The concept is simple – while you’re shooting that grand landscape, take a look around your feet and find something that connects the audience more intimately to the location.
I had the opportunity to employ this technique just yesterday. My lovely bride and I ventured into the mountains during yesterday’s storm, specifically driving CA 89 south of Markleeville CA. The road was wet from the occasional rain and snow, and there were few travelers besides us and a couple government vehicles. The sun appeared and disappeared, the snow blew and stopped, the mountains were covered and uncovered during our visit. (All the images below were taken within an hour of each other. You know what they say – if you don’t like the weather, wait five minutes!)
The small valleys were running with water from the rain and the snow melt. Occasionally, the weather made rather ominous scenes in the recently burned areas.
I converted to grey tones to show the desolation of the fire, but the promise of renewal with the snow and running water.
As I walked to a bridge to capture an image of the raging river, a Stellar Jay landed on a rock about 15 yards away. He proceeded to dance about on the rock, as if to say ‘Where’s your big camera? You can’t take my picture with that little camera in your hands!’ (I had grabbed the PowerShot for the river image.) I got my river shot…
East Fork of the Carson River…the Grand Landscape! The Jay was on a rock to the right of this image.
…and ran back to the PhotoRanger for the big camera. Amazingly, the Jay stayed put as I returned and grabbed a few shots, moved a few feet and grabbed a few more shots, moved a few more feet and grabbed a few more shots, and so on.
Stellar Jay…the intimate detail!
There you have it, an example of Grand Landscapes and Intimate Details.
I hope you are enjoying the PS Challenge – I sure am! The process of using the PowerShot – learning its capabilities and limitations – helps to reinforce the principles of photography and composition.
Enjoy – PHOTOROGR
My apologies for the long break between posts. I’ve been busy shooting, but I took a little break when my friend and photo buddy, Richard Hawkins, lost his battle with cancer. Many of you are familiar with one of Rich’s best pictures.
Richard and I were out with the wild horses a couple years ago. I had just made a few images and turned around when he grabbed this shot of me. Shooting with him was always fun – he had a great eye for images and helped me look at things a little differently. Rich bought a 1964 Olds 442 just before he received his cancer diagnosis. He dated his wife in a car just like it many years ago. At his first car show, he won the ‘under construction’ category. He also asked me to take his picture in the same pose he was in when he had his original 442. I was very happy to do so. God Bless You, Rich – my cameras and I miss you.
On to the images from this month. I picked up a point and shoot camera, a Canon PowerShot G9 X Mark II, to enhance my camera bag. I’m learning the capabilities and limitations of this tiny little camera (it’s only 3.75″ wide, 2.5″ tall, and a narrow 1.25″ thick), but it makes marvelous images. I’m getting very nice landscape images, as you can see, and there’s potential for close up and macro photography, once I learn the camera a lot better. The PS challenge can be either ‘point n shoot’ or PowerShot, depending on my feeling that day.
I made this image just south of Woodfords CA. That’s CA 89 on the left. I made this image with the PowerShot.
I’ve driven by this section of the East Fork of the Carson River several times, and finally stopped to make the image. Great sky and great light!
The beauty of the PowerShot is the ability to stop and jump out for the quick shot. This image was made from the side of CA 89 (the Carson River is just behind and downhill from these trees) in an area where a wildfire burned a couple years ago. The tree on the left was completely burned but the other two were only burned on the bottom half. I hope they survive.
The last PowerShot image for this post – the West Fork of the Carson River in the middle of the Carson Valley. The Town of Genoa is visible at the base of the mountains, and Duane Bliss Peak is reflected in the river.
As much as I love my PowerShot, it will never replace the big camera for many things. The PowerShot will bracket exposures and focal length, but the big camera does it much better.
This is an HDR combined from an exposure bracket of the West Fork of the Carson River, in the mountains. There’s lots of ice in the stream still, as this section of the river gets very little direct sunlight in the winter months.
Another HDR of a usually dry wash feeding the East Fork of the Carson River.
This is the Bower’s Mansion, an historic structure on the west side of Washoe Lake, just south of Reno.
The Eagles are long gone, except for the nesting pairs, and the other Raptors are slowly leaving the area as spring approaches. Smaller birds are returning, so we have subjects to shoot and new challenges in shooting. Small birds are more likely to move as you approach, so a long lens and quick reaction to spotting them is critical.
I found this Western Meadowlark on a fence post in the wildlife viewing area on the south end of Washoe Lake. Chilly morning, so it was trying to fluff up and stay warm.
This Western Meadowlark landed on a branch near me, and posed nicely.
These Black Tail Deer are part of the Town of Genoa herds, although these 4 can be found a couple miles north of town on Foothill Road.
I’m not sure they were more worried about me or something to the right, but they held still long enough for me to make this image.
I had the opportunity to try a new technique I saw in Outdoor Photographer magazine – the wildlife panorama. I usually try to get my wildlife images as close and detailed as possible, but I love the concept of combining wildlife and landscape photography. Watch for more images like this.
I found these 4 another day, but they moved into a grove of trees as I approached. New challenge to get a good shot through the trees. This one moved in and stopped, not exposing more head for me. Changing my position wouldn’t have helped, as other trees blocked the view.
Spring is here – evidenced by the blossoms on some of our fruit trees. These are from the Flowering Plum in the corner of the backyard.
First close up of the year – almost a macro. Each blossom is only 3/4″ in diameter. As more flowers bloom, I’ll shoot more macros. Hopefully, the wet winter will cause the desert to bloom, and not delay too much the mountain meadows blooming.
Welcome Spring and the changes it brings. Thanks for reading this blog!
Enjoy – PHOTOROGR
So, there I was, reading the March/April 2017 issue of Popular Photography magazine (specifically an article by Glen Van Slooten on ‘seeing the trees for the forest’) which included this quote from Henry David Thoreau. The words resonated deep inside me. A few days later, I was reading about the cover shot for the March 2017 issue of Outdoor Photographer magazine. In his own words to describe the picture and his process for making it, the photographer, Robert Glenn Ketchum, said this, “…As you look at this image, I want to call your attention to an “old school” idea about taking pictures: The camera doesn’t matter; it’s what you see that’s important…” My technically oriented engineer’s brain almost exploded. I called one of my photo mentors to discuss this interesting concept. He laughed and said something like, ‘why yes, and that’s the subject of a presentation I’m making next week.’ (Though I didn’t hear it specifically, I’m sure that he covered the telephone and said something like ‘he FINALLY gets it!!’)
As I thought about the quotes and my mentor and his presentation, I realized that I have been subconsciously wrestling with the concept for some time. When I look at something, what am I actually seeing? I had always wondered why people making images from the same place and time that I was were making better images. In many instances, they could see an image that I didn’t.
What does it mean? Simply, there’s one more item on my list of things to learn about photography. This one, however, is not a setting on the camera – it’s consciously looking at an item, animal, or scene and visualizing the image it could be, or taking an idea and making it into a reality. We’ll all see if I can actually do it – the challenge is there.
I had the opportunity to go inside the Nevada State Railroad Museum in Carson City before it re-opened last weekend. The Museum suffered damage from flooding last January and has been closed for repairs and cleanup. I’m happy to report that the Museum staff and volunteers did an excellent job and the displays and exhibits are in excellent shape. Here are some images from my visit.
This is the Glenbrook. I made this image from three exposures processed in Photomatix, a High Dynamic Range (HDR) software, and finished as a monochrome image. HDR utilizes multiple images made at different exposures to bring out the best highlights and details in the shadows. (I discuss HDR in more detail in this post, https://photorogr.com/2016/03/29/an-amazing-week-for-me/ – go take a look!)
Same image as above, but rendered in color.
The drive wheels on the Inyo. Note the reflection in the floors – Museum staff thinks the floors look better than ever and I agree!
If you think the names on cars are obtrusive, take a look at this! We can clearly see that the Inyo was built by the Baldwin Locomotive Works in Philadelphia. This decoration/advertisement is displayed between the drive wheels and can be seen in the previous image.
I’ve got to learn the names of the things that make these beautiful machines run. This is an HDR image.
The firebox and surrounding area of the Glenbrook, processed as an HDR image.
As you can see, I worked on my HDR skills. I also tried a new technique that I’ve been exploring – focus stacking. In focus stacking, images are made at different focal planes and then blended together to achieve deep focus in subjects. The Museum was probably not the best place to work this technique as many of the subjects have curved surfaces, making focus stacking a challenge. I did it, however, and learned lots about the technique and its challenges.
One of the drive wheels on an engine. I focused on the face of the bolt (at left center), the washer, the face of the drive shaft, the bolt heads on top of the drive shaft, the wheel spokes, and the machinery behind the wheel. The light was at the top of the drive shaft, so everything below was in shadow. I liked the composition.
Inside the cab of one of the engines, a focus stacked image (8 focal planes).
Same image as above, rendered in monochrome.
I was intrigued by this control lever, and made a focus stack using 8 focal planes along the length of the lever. This wouldn’t be possible in a single image, even at a small aperture maximizing depth of field.
The spherical object on the right presented the greatest focus stack challenge, as the gauges were all on the same focal plane.
This is the entire apparatus, 7 focal planes. I worked the image to bring out the patina of the brass as well as the deep focus.
This is a shot from inside the passenger car. I loved how the old glass caused the somewhat rippled appearance of the Inyo cab, against the straight and in focus wood paneling. This was made from two exposures and focal planes, one for the interior and one for the Inyo.
This is the ceiling of the passenger car. The artwork is amazing and the lamps are just gorgeous. I used 8 focal planes to make the image in focus from the front lamp to the wooden header behind the far lamp. As I refine my focus stacking technique, I will use more focal planes for better quality images.
I love focus stacking, and am happy to add it to my photography toolbox. Just like everything else in my toolbox, its best use is a work in progress. I hope you enjoyed my revelation and my trip to the Railroad Museum. A big thanks to the staff for allowing me to visit.
Enjoy – PHOTOROGR
In my last post, I introduced the sharpening process and described my first footsteps into its intricacies (yes, I had to look this one up to make sure). The study is going well, but there’s an amazing amount of information to digest. I am surprised by the number of tools available. Unsharp Mask, for example, has its roots in film photography, where wet-darkroom magicians would use a duplicate negative to create a mask to increase the apparent sharpness of a photographic print by increasing contrast along edges. From the descriptions I read, it was quite a process. Other digital sharpening tools in Photoshop include Smart Sharpen and Shake Reduction. Of course, the flip side of digital sharpening is the introduction of digital noise. (Noise is the grainy appearance of a photograph, and is beyond the scope of this blog, so we’ll save it for another day.) Lightroom and Camera Raw’s sharpening and noise reduction tools work the same way – very easy to use, and the Nik filters have Define (for noise reduction) and Sharpener (for sharpening). My head is swimming.
In a feeble attempt to keep myself somewhat sane (those who know me will attest that it’s as good as we can expect) while I’m learning sharpening, I’m still out there looking for great subjects and trying new techniques. Here’s a few pictures from the last couple weeks.
Okay, this isn’t really a new technique for me, but it’s fun and worthy of continued exploration. For this image, I overlaid a picture of the Ward Charcoal Ovens onto a picture of a wood floor (beautiful texture). I’m looking for a little constructive critique (CC), please!
This is a Merlin, and it’s the latest capture in my quest for new raptor species. (Recall that I also got a Northern Harrier and a Rough Legged Hawk this year.) Merlins are in the Falcon family, and only get to about 12″ tall with a 25″ wingspan – just a little bigger than a Kestrel. This little one was in a tree in my neighbor’s yard and, uncharacteristically, sat for me for several minutes.
My lovely bride was with me the other day and she is an excellent spotter. She saw this Great Horned Owl in a tree as we drove by. Some of my friends thought it was a Long Eared Owl, but my resident expert on bird identification confirmed Great Horned (thanks Larry!).
Because I like to explore with different filters during processing, I used a vintage colors filter in Nik Silver Efex for this interpretation. This filter is one of my favorites
Okay, this is a new technique called focus stacking. I mounted the camera on a tripod and locked it down. I took 5 images of these crabapples on a tree in our backyard, each image using a different focal plane (focusing at different levels) and blended them in Photoshop to create this image with all the crabapples in focus. I’ll refine my focus stacking workflow and use it on flowers this summer!
While I was making images for focus stacking, I made this image of an ‘about to drip’ from another crabapple tree in the backyard. When I downloaded these images to the computer, I noticed the inverted tree in pretty good focus. I tried to get closer, but I would have bumped the tree and dislodged the drip. I’ll take it for now, but will look for other drips to shoot. Aren’t optics fun?
Well, that’s it for this blog. Stay tuned for more info on sharpening, focus stacking, and macro. Until next time – enjoy!
PHOTOROGR
I can hardly believe that it’s already the first day in February! Tomorrow, the Groundhog comes out and we’ll see just how much longer we’re going to have winter – at least according to folklore. I’m betting we’re going to have more winter, partially because a big storm is coming into the Carson Valley tonight! Speaking of folklore, many of you have spent the last month trying to sustain the new year’s resolutions you made. I didn’t make any, nor did I set any specific goals for my photography. As I’ve continued my photographic journey, I’ve found that my best goal is to look for and be ready to pursue knowledge as I find new things.
In my last post, I announced that I was taking a winter photography course. The snow was deep and our outdoor shooting time was shorter than expected. The instructor was excellent – we shifted the program indoors to study light and shadow and photo processing techniques, which brings me to the ‘new kind of whet stone.’ Us old Boy Scouts remember that a whet stone is used to sharpen knives and axes. In the digital photography world, we use software as a ‘whet stone’ to sharpen our images. During the workshop, we spent quite a bit of time on sharpening. The most important thing I learned was that I’ve been doing it all wrong, and badly to boot. I now have a specific goal – become proficient in using software to sharpen my images!
In the book Real World Image Sharpening with Adobe Photoshop, Camera Raw, and Lightroom, authors Bruce Fraser and Jeff Schewe begin the discussion on sharpening with, “…one of the ways our brains try to make sense of the world as seen through our eyes is by breaking down the scene into edges (objects) and non-edges (surfaces). If the edges in an image appear too sharp or not sharp enough, our brains tell us that there’s something wrong, and in the case of a photograph, the image appears unconvincing.” Bruce and Jeff tell us that, “Sharpening works by increasing the contrast around edges.” (Contrast is the difference between light and dark tonal values.) And so begins my journey into the wide world of sharpening! Since I’m just beginning my venture into sharpening, I don’t have anything to show you. I will soon – I promise.
What have I been doing besides reading about sharpening? Let’s look at some pictures!
From the winter photography workshop – this is the view across the road from Sorensen’s Resort in Hope Valley CA. As I said, the snow was deep. Sorensen’s got a foot of new snow the night before the workshop and several inches while we were there. They were expecting another three feet that night!
Same picture, just a little bit different editing technique. Could be a nice Christmas card!
I ventured into Diamond Valley looking for Eagles and found this tree covered in Pogonip (heavy frost). I made this image before the frost melted away.
A recent storm dropped several inches of snow at my house. This is a Spruce tree in my backyard…
…one of the Austrian Pines…
…and one of the clumped Crab Apple trees in my backyard. The apples help feed the little birds all winter long.
I found this Rough Legged Hawk near Genoa last week. As I was shooting, the Magpie flew into the shot. How lucky for me!
A couple days later, I found the Rough Legged Hawk again – this time on a fence post. He launched…
…soared gracefully, close to the snow-covered ground…
…and pounced on his noon meal!
The Kestrels have been out in force. I came on this little fella’ just south of David Walley’s Hot Springs on Foothill Road…
…and his friend north of Genoa. They always give me a good look before they take off!
This Cooper’s Hawk was sitting on the snow pile when I first saw him. He launched as I was taking pictures.
I added a new tool to my toolbox – a 2X teleconverter! My big lens now has a maximum focal length of 1200 mm! While this is wonderful, the longer focal length comes with a new set of challenges. Using a tripod is a must. Autofocus only works in Live View (not a bad thing on tripod anyway). The longer focal length exacerbates any movement or imperfections in focusing, and depth of field is very shallow at any aperture setting. It’s a tool, however, and only a matter of learning how to use it! This is the first image at 1200 mm. Not bad!
This is my second attempt with the teleconverter. This Eagle was 173 yards away (I bought a rangefinder) and the background looks like heat waves, although it was near freezing when I made the image. A little soft, but he looks good nonetheless.
The Eagles have been in town. I seemed to find this one hanging out at the Dangberg Home Ranch Historic Park rather frequently.
I think he’s in his final year of being a juvenile, based on the coloring in his head feathers.
His ‘pensive’ pose…
This is a different Bald Eagle (note the lack of dark feathers in his head), using his ‘regal’ pose!
One of the fun things for me was having one subject in the same spot on different days and different lighting conditions, then playing with the processing for a different interpretation of each image. I hope you’ve enjoyed my images, and I promise to be sharper in the future!
Enjoy – PHOTOROGR
Our collective attention has focused on the weather for the last week or so, as seemingly the entire nation has been under siege by cold and snow. (One of my good friends ran off to Australia to escape. Travel safe, Butch!)
Taking pictures in snow is very challenging. I’m taking a winter/snow photography class next week so I’ll learn the mistakes I made in shooting for the last couple days, but I’ve had a great time this week and I look forward to learning something next week!
I’ve been out in the Carson Valley the last couple days. The snow was falling both days – very evident in many of the images. One of the challenges of shooting snow is preventing the snow from blowing out (or overexposing), making great white spots in the images with no recoverable detail. One means of preventing this, I’ve read, is to overexpose the image by one stop. (This is primarily done to maintain white balance in snow pictures. Since I shoot exclusively in RAW format and assign white balance in the computer, this is not a factor for me.) I tried this technique and feel that I had great success.
Let’s get to the pictures!
You’ve seen these horses before – they were in a landscape I did last year. The two on the left were standing in the snow, and the horse on the right came over the culvert to join them. I couldn’t have placed them in better position.
The irrigation ditches are running strong with all the moisture we’ve had. I was drawn by this meandering ditch with the yellow vegetation covered in snow. I thought about processing this in black and white but I loved how the yellow showed through, so I left it alone.
This is a bigger irrigation ditch with more vegetation. I didn’t need to desaturate (remove the color to make it black, white, and various shades of grey) the colors…nature did it for me!
I processed this scene using Photoshop and Nik Silver Efex to enhance the contrast, give the image a bluish tone, and add a nice vignette and border. I loved the dark tree in the foreground with the smaller tree up the hillside in the background!
I had a lot of fun with this image. This is the Genoa Bar in Genoa, Nevada. It is the oldest bar in Nevada. I had made three images when a guy drive his car into the foreground and parked. Darn it! For this version, I processed the RAW image and went into Photoshop. I created a duplicate layer and desaturated the first (or background) layer, then applied a Gaussian blur to the duplicate color layer. I overlaid the blurred layer on the black and white layer and blended them. I then adjusted shadows and highlights and applied a vignette to make this image. It’s a technique called ‘Dreamscape’ that I learned in a weekly photo challenge a couple years ago. It’s a fun effect and works well for this image.
Dreamscape is not for everyone, however. A couple of my friends didn’t like the above image, so I processed this image without the Dreamscape effect. Like most art, beauty is in the eye of the beholder (or something like that).
After the interloper disrupted my Genoa Bar shoot, I rolled forward a few feet and began shooting the structures next door. This antique store, with its wagon and covered porch, made a great composition. I worked to bring out the colors in the buildings and the wagon to offset the snow covered trees and foreground. If only I’d had some people in period costume or maybe a horse or two…oh well!
There’s a few of my snowy images from this week. I hope you enjoyed them. I look forward to learning how to take pictures in the snow next week, and sharing the results with you! Everyone stay warm, drive safe, and enjoy! PHOTOROGR
…until you know and understand them.” This is the final tip in an article called ’50 Tips from 50 Years Behind the Camera’ by Allen Weitz (https://www.bhphotovideo.com/explora/photography/tips-and-solutions/50-tips-50-years-behind-camera?BI=4906).
My lovely bride found the article and sent it to me (it’s so nice to have a partner who supports your habits). The other 49 tips are also good but this one resonated with me for some reason, especially as we begin a new year. I began my journey in creative photography a few years ago with the stated intent to learn how to take better pictures. Every now and then I catch myself challenging those few rules that I know, mostly as I investigate more creative techniques and photographs. These tips help me be a little grounded, though, because I don’t know all the rules – YET! I’ll just have to continue working on it! Stay tuned to watch me challenge the rules…as I learn them.
The winter months can be challenging for photographers. Here in the Carson Valley, when the weather gets cold we break out the really big lenses and go looking for the Raptors and other predatory animals that migrate into the area during this time. We’ve seen a few Bald and Golden Eagles in the area, but the Hawks and Coyotes are the most evident, at least for me. Here’s a few for your enjoyment!
I saw this three-legged Coyote near the California line a few days ago. He wasn’t interested in me taking his picture!
I found this female Northern Harrier on Mottsville Lane last week.
Several friends like the previous picture, but I’m kind of partial to this one. She appears to be thinking about something, but she’s actually cleaning herself. This is my favorite composition for a Raptor picture – eye level, wide aperture giving great detail on the subject with a pleasing out of focus background.
I found the Red Tailed Hawk south of Genoa. I think he was checking his position relative to the camera to ensure I got his good side.
American Kestrels are the smallest and most common of the Falcons, but they are extremely camera shy. I snuck up on this guy while he was enjoying lunch!
But I obviously over stayed my welcome.
I first saw this Kestrel on a utility wire, but he quickly flew to the backslope across the road. I was very excited to get a Kestrel with a background other than a blown out sky.
Of course, he took exception to me taking pictures of him and flew off to another utility line.
Enjoy – PHOTOROGR
In my last post, I shared pictures from my recent trip to Sedona, Arizona, for a Night Skies Photography Workshop. When one drives over 700 miles (one way) for something like this, one often plans little side trips to make the trip more worthwhile. This post is about the drive down and back. I hope you enjoy my trip as much as I did!
I left home on a nice Sunday morning and drove to Boulder City, Nevada. My goal was to get past Las Vegas and avoid the traffic on Monday morning. I got up early on Monday and drove south on US 95 to an ‘oasis in the desert’ named Nelson, Nevada. Situated about 21 miles from Boulder City (10 miles on US 95 and another 11 miles on SR 165) in the Eldorado Canyon, Nelson (http://www.ghosttowns.com/states/nv/nelson.html) is the home of the notorious Techatticup Mine, where millions of dollars in gold, silver, copper and lead were mined from about 1858 until 1945. The town is now host to cactus, snakes, tourists, and photographers wanting to see life in those times.
A couple of the buildings and vehicles.
The water tower…not sure if it’s still functional.
This water truck under the water tower is definitely not functional, but the controlled decay makes for a fun picture.
Another of the wonderful photographic subjects around the town.
Colors and textures abound…with some very fun antiques.
This is not a very impressive subject – I would never try to sell this image. The process for making the image is worth discussing, however. Getting a single exposure that shows the shaded subjects inside the structure while viewing the sunlit mountains through the window is impossible. This image becomes possible by using a tripod to hold the camera in position and then making multiple images at different exposures, then combining the images in a high dynamic range (HDR) software. I recently saw a new technique that does not require HDR software. Using the underexposed image (for the mountains in the window), I made a copy of the mountains in the window and overlaid it onto the normal exposed image (covering the overexposed mountains) to create this image. Well, I did a little creative editing after the merge. A fun technique and worth the time to explore!
After spending some time taking pictures in Nelson, I continued south on US 95 to Laughlin, Nevada, where I made a quick stop at the Big Bend of the Colorado River State Park and stamped my Nevada State Parks Passport. Big Bend is at the southern tip of Nevada and I don’t expect to get back there anytime soon. From there, I headed for Grand Canyon National Park. I drove on I-40 to Williams, Arizona, and headed north on AZ Highway 64 to Mather Point on the South Rim of the Grand Canyon.
A Grand Canyon panorama…
Another Grand Canyon panorama…note the tourists on the lookout on the left…
This is not a panorama, it is a single image cropped to near panorama proportions. I’ve talked about the ongoing ‘to pano or not to pano’ question before. Still a pretty shot!
I couldn’t resist including my ‘selfie’ from the Grand Canyon. It’s my new profile picture on Facebook, so many of you have seen it before. One of my friends told me it’s not a real selfie, but I disagree.
As I headed south from the Grand Canyon, I saw a band of Pronghorn Antelope hanging out by the side of the road. I pulled over and snapped a few pictures.
I processed this image in warm tones just for fun!
I’m very familiar with Pronghorn, as they are very prolific in my home state of Wyoming. I was excited that these animals were so unconcerned about my presence. The Pronghorn back home don’t tolerate people and most of my images from home are Pronghorn butt as they run away.
I arrived in Sedona in the dark of late evening, so I didn’t see the landscape until the next morning.
I grabbed this picture with my cell phone on my way to breakfast. As you saw in my last blog, this doesn’t do Sedona justice in any way!
Since the Night Skies Workshop didn’t start until Tuesday afternoon, I made a quick trip to Clarkdale, Arizona, to visit the Tuzigoot National Monument. Tuzigoot is an Anasazi ruin, and was definitely worth the trip.
From the ruins near the top, I made this panorama. I wish I had increased the height of the tripod to minimize the wall in the foreground.
I liked how the ruins in the foreground followed the lines of the mountains in the background. This image was taken in the morning with the wall in shadow. I might have had better light in the afternoon, but then I would have lost the helpful impact from the shadows.
This is the Visitor’s Center. It’s a beautiful structure and fits the environment well.
This is the view from the very top of the ruins, looking to the southeast and down the mountain. Can you imagine living in this community, climbing ladders to reach your living space?
When the workshop was over mid-morning on Wednesday, I began my trip home. I had been fighting a cold or some type of crud from the time I left home, so my goal of getting to Las Vegas was fairly modest – only 250 miles or so. When I crossed the Tillman-O’Callahan Bridge into Nevada, I was feeling a little better and decided to drive up the west side of Lake Mead. I stopped in the Lake Mead National Recreation Area Visitor Center, stamped my National Parks Passport, and headed north towards Overton, Nevada. I made a couple stops on the way to take some pictures, but the water level in Lake Mead is so low that I didn’t get near the water.
You can see the ‘bathtub ring’ in this panorama of Lake Mead. I saw a few wild horses in the desert, but did not see any Desert Bighorns (darn it all).
When I exited Lake Mead’s north entrance, I came on the Valley of Fire State Park East Entrance. The sun was going down, but I paid my entry fee, stamped my State Parks Passport, and ventured into the Park. The light was fading and my sinuses were regretting my decision to make this side trip, but I found some pretty rocks and stopped for a couple sets of pictures.
The setting sun was behind me as I shot this panorama. I love the sky behind these rocks.
I cranked the tripod head 180 degrees and shot into the sunset. Yes, it’s a very over-processed image, and I won’t get into the details of what I did. Pretty sunset, and not a bad foreground.
I got a good night’s rest that night, and made it home safe and sound. The trip was fast (5 days) and I put about 1,800 miles on my Expedition. I picked up 3 stamps in my National Parks Passport, 2 stamps in my State Parks Passport and, of course, lots of images of Nevada and Arizona.
Since I’ve been home, I’ve been in the field a couple times checking out the local Raptor scene. The Bald Eagles are starting to return to the area. I leave you with this image from Diamond Valley, south of the Carson Valley just over the California line, from a couple days ago. Thanks for reading my blog. Merry Christmas!
Enjoy – PHOTOROGR
In the many photography magazines and websites that I read, I see all manner of advertisements for photography tours around the United States and the world. The tours range from a few hours for a seminar to a few weeks shooting with big names in the photography world, and can cost thousands of dollars. The more expensive tours include all lodging, meals, and transportation around the chosen venue. A couple months ago, I saw an ad for a night skies photography workshop with a couple locations within driving distance and at a very affordable price. The tours were offered by National Park Trips Media (visit their website at nationalparktrips.com) teamed up with Tamron USA (http://www.tamron-usa.com). I selected the tour in Sedona, Arizona.
Sedona is a community of around 11,000 people located in north central Arizona, about an hour’s drive south of Flagstaff. (Visit http://www.sedonamonthly.com to learn more about Sedona.) I arrived in the darkness of early evening and my Garmin took me on quite a tour before finding the hotel, the Andante Inn of Sedona (http://www.andanteinn.com).
The workshop started at 2 p.m., with a couple hours in the classroom. Tamron’s award-winning photographers – Ken Hubbard, Andre Costantini, and Marc Morris – provided a review (for me, anyway) of the photography triangle (aperture, shutter speed, and ISO) and shooting in low light conditions. After, we loaded up the equipment truck and the van and headed to the Crescent Moon Ranch to photograph Cathedral Rock with Oak Creek in the foreground.
Cathedral Rock reflected in Oak Creek
Our group joined a pair of photographers who were after the same view on a small patch of dirt along the creek. The pair of photographers were a bit overwhelmed by 16 people invading their shoot with tripods and cameras, but they offered their spot to the highest bidder when they were done shooting! I got my shots and looked around the Crescent Moon Ranch for a different view and other subjects.
Cathedral Rock from the Crescent Moon Ranch
As the sun went down and the light faded, we loaded back up and headed to Bell Rock Park off SR 179. This is where the shoot got very interesting. I’m used to shooting in ambient light and being able to look through the viewfinder on my camera or use Live View to set the exposure and compose the shot. In the light of the half moon, we were literally shooting in the dark. I set my ISO at 3200, a relatively high setting, my aperture wide open, and shutter speed at 30 seconds. Hoping for the best, I manually set the focus at infinity and pushed the shutter release. When the shutter closed, I was able to see the image for the first time and it wasn’t bad. I made a few adjustments in the camera position and resumed shooting. Over the next several hours, I made around 130 images.
This is a rock formation in Bell Rock Park.
Bell Rock is on the left. The bright light at the bottom of the saddle is from Sedona.
The Tamron guys helped us experiment with a technique called ‘light painting.’ During long exposures, we used flashlights to illuminate trees to bring out some of the detail and add a new element to the image. Light painting is definitely an art, as controlling the light on the subject is critical. It’s very easy to put too much light on the subject and ruin the shot. The image below took several tries – still not perfect but acceptable.
Light painted tree in the foreground.
Long time followers of my blog know that I love a good panorama, and I had to try for a panorama in the dark. From the position of the light on the rock formations, you can see that this panorama is actually about a quarter of a circle – not just flat.
The instructors used the star apps on their smartphones to get us in position to shoot Orion over the rock formation on the right side of this image. If only someone had a star app for my Windows phone (big sigh).
One of the members of the tour got separated in the dark and ended up a mile away from the group. After an hour of searching, we got word that he had called 911 and local law enforcement had picked him up. We got back to the hotel around 1 a.m. and got a few hours sleep before heading out the to local airport for an early morning shoot.
The morning was overcast, but we waited for a couple hours and finally got rewarded by good light. Here’s a couple panoramas from the early morning shoot!
The sky was overcast, but not very sexy.
A little different position and shot.
After the morning shoot, we returned to the hotel for breakfast and some instruction on Lightroom software to process the night’s work. The workshop was a fast 20 hours of exploration into a new photography technique. I learned a lot and look forward to continued exploration into night photography. I see that National Park Trips Media has a night skies workshop in Yosemite next August. Hmmmm – might have to register for that one!
Thanks for being a part of my journey. Until next time – enjoy!
PHOTOROGR
The PHOTOROGR Project 