I’ll Leave You With This…
Tomorrow we leave for vacation and I hope to bring you a few shots from our destination. If all goes according to plan I will be posting via my Ipad utilizing Snapseed, my mobile processing program. Now that I think of it, I wish there was a version of Photomatix for Ipad…..hint, hint.
More East Coast Sunrise…
Yes, I do post too many sunrise shots but I haven’t taken a decent shot elsewhere in quite a long time. I’m in a little bit of a funk and today didn’t help either.
Sly Like A Red Tail Fox…
I went to Island Beach State Park on Sunday morning intent on grabbing a few shots of the Barnegat Lightouse, the coastal dunes and these Red Tail Fox I’ve been seeing on Flickr. For the latter part of 3 hours or so I didn’t see any form of life, human or animal. Now I had never been to Island Beach State Park and all I knew was that it’s about the only coastal barrier island on the Eastern seaboard that remains undeveloped and it’s home to quite a few of these guys.
The first few hours I walked along the southern most tip of the park and I have to tell you that this strip of beach is just gorgeous. Pix on that will be posted at a later date. After I had walked along the beach my next focus was to trek along some of the trails in the middle part of the island. I have to admit I was not impressed with the first few trails and without any sign of life I was getting quite discouraged. It wasn’t till the last trail that I sighted one of these guys and this was as close as he would let me get before scurrying into the brush. So I continued my walk on the trail and eventually drawn to the fact that that would be my only sighting…..Time to go home.
I walk out of the trail and turn a blind corner to find 3 cars of people snapping away pictures of 4 red tail fox. I’m thinking I must have flushed them out and began to seize the moment. These guys were not a bit intimidated by any humans and in fact seemed to be posing waiting for a reward. I must have shot for 15-20 minutes as they walked around oblivious to all humans and cars for that matter. I must have shot 60 pictures and I only managed 3-4 keepers that included a good look at their beautiful eyes. They wouldn’t look anywhere near me. That reminded me of that old saying….”sly like a fox” .
Large…
I don’t think I did this shot justice in showing exactly how large these guys are, I’m 6’4″ and I was as tall as if not slightly shorter than these bulls. Not only that but they must weigh over a 1000 pounds each. Tammy you might have to find them a new house because I think they’ve outgrown their current dwellings.
Anyone have any ideas how I can convey their “largeness” any better than this? Maybe I need to stand right next to one for a sense of scale……not!
Warmth…
Nothing implies warmth in photography more than reds and oranges. I managed to barely pull off this shot at this time of day with my Canon 50mm 1.8 set at 400 iso. I have to say this might be the best prime lens for the price in the industry. I think I paid $70 for this versatile glass and although it searches for a little while in low light it really produces a very usable result.
On another note, I would much rather have these warm nights ahead instead of the cold weather that’s on it’s way. I find that my enthusiasm for shooting diminishes quite a bit in the winter months in the northeast. There’s not much to shoot in the winter and although I’m close to the Atlantic Ocean who wants to shoot sunrises when it’s 25 degrees and windy? So, what do you look forward to shooting in the winter months, any ideas to spike my enthusiasm?
Multiples 2…
A follow-up to my most recent post, this is just a fun shot to compliment the the front end perspective from yesterday. A few people responded to my horror movie question and I would have to say that the one movie that I remember being really scared at was The Trilogy of Terror. Karen Black was the main actress in all of the short stories. The last story, Amelia, was definitely the best and scariest of the three. If you haven’t seen it put it at the top of your must see list.
This shot , as with the last one, is double tone-mapped in Photomatix
Multiples…
I’m a few days late with this post, but you know the old saying…..”better late than never”. Don’t know if we have any of those horror movie aficionados in the audience but some of you may recognize a few of these characters anyway. Freddie and Jason have got to be the kings so I guess that’s why their on top, but fear not because I have one or two other shots that might showcase your favorite nemesis. Stay tuned!
Anyone have a favorite horror movie you’d like to share with the group? Let us know!
Processing included double tone-mapping of 3 bracketed images in Photomatix
Weathered…
As I was walking around the neighborhood with my daughter and her friend for Halloween I noticed this lone leaf perched atop a sewer. I immediately noticed the contrast of color and shapes and knew it was a keeper as long as I could snap it before the wind blew it away.
As far as processing goes this was a quick one. 1. Exported to elements for some cloning and high pass sharpening (seems to be popular in many posts lately) 2. Back to lightroom for a graduated filter adjustment for brightness and 3. added a vignette to finish it off.
Shot settings: F6.7, 1/180 sec, iso 200 at 145mm
Perspective…
My brother couldn’t figure out why I was pointing the camera out the window (and taking pictures) of the shuttle while returning to the park entrance at Zion. He asked me if we were moving too fast to get any decent pictures. My response….. you never know! Well this one is not perfect but not bad for being taken out of that bus window moving at 25mph.
Remember, if your using a digital camera it doesn’t cost any more to experiment by taking more pictures of all kinds of shots, in all kinds of conditions. I may have taken 30 shots in that moving busbut managed to get 2-3 keepers. Not bad for you never know!
Shot with a Canon XTI at f3.5, 1/1000 sec, iso 100 and 17mm
Faces…
My daughter poolside over the weekend. She always complains and never cooperates when I want to take her picture but not this time as I surprised her as she came up from a game of sharks and minnows.
Settings: f4 at 1/1000 and 100mm, iso 100
Depth of Field…
Shooting Zion….. how hard could it be? You have fantastic scenery, great colors, beautiful skies, moving water, wildlife, you’ve got it all! Well, it turned out to be much more difficult than I thought. You see, the dynamic range of light within the park was off the charts. No way a single exposure could ever cover the range of light I experienced in most shots. In fact, even after several hours of shooting I still missed some great scenes because I didn’t bracket enough shots.
The big decision was to bring or not bring the tripod. After some observation of the conditions, I think I need it. After my family gives me grief, I better not bring it. And the decision is???????????????????? Bring it! And I’m glad I did because 90% of the shots I took required multiple exposures. This shot is a composite of 4 bracketed exposures which required quite a bit of processing. And this isn’t even the most extreme conditions I encountered. After all my thoughts were focused on how many brackets to take I totally forgot about depth of field, so at f8 I’m thinking that I could have gotten more of the scene in focus with something like f16.
Looking back on shooting Zion…..I learned quite a bit about how difficult it can be to shoot this “easy to shoot” natural wonder.
Sky II….Deja Vu(?)
We’ve all had those moments when you feel like you’ve seen or been somewhere before, right? Well this was one of the moments, for only a few weeks before arriving at Zion, I saw this shot of the same market while scouring flickr. Me, being a HDR fan, saw that shot and it became an instant flickr fav. Here I am only weeks later taking essentially the same shot. My version isn’t quite as good but again it’s exactly the way I remember it and I like the end result. Thanks for the inspiration Shineylewis……. So when you peruse the internet for pictures of places you think you’ll never visit…….think again.
The Great Outdoors….
Wow, after spending a great week and a half in Vegas we decided to take a trip to Zion National Park. The night before leaving for Utah we found a fantastic lodge that was literally steps from the main entrance to the park. We turned a corner behind the hotel and walked over a small bridge and this was our first look at Zion. Everybody just stopped and stared at The Watchman mountain. What a scene!
