Sitka Sky

Sitka Sky. St. Lazaria Island, Sitka, Alaska. September 12, 2010. © Copyright Richard Mitchell,

Touching Light Photography - all rights reserved.

My friend Jeff Hanson and I were just departing St. Lazaria when we saw this fishing vessel headed toward us, probably destined to anchor on the leeward side of St. Lazaria.

This shot was taken as I was returning to Sitka, Alaska from St. Lazaria Island. This was from near St. Lazaria - about 15 miles west of Sitka. Taken from a rolling boat, handheld, with a 300mm f/2.8 lens at f/10, ISO1000, 1/125th sec. This is a good example of how good image stabilization is on modern lenses. Years ago, no one would have pretended to be able to hand hold a 300mm lens at 1/125th of second - a lens that without IS would require 1/500 or 1/1000 of a second for a decent handheld image. Here, the original image is really quite sharp even fully enlarged, despite being handheld at a low shutter speed.

This photograph is not in the public domain and may not be reproduced or used in electronic, print, or any other form, without advance permission from Richard Mitchell.

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Another Great Blue Heron...

Taken the same evening as the last GBH shot I posted, this heron flew right by in front of where I was standing at the Edmonds Marsh wildlife preserve in Edmonds, WA.

For the camera-ophiles that are curious - This time, I managed to have a bit more light, and the image was captured at ISO1600, f/5.6, and 1/1600 second, using a 300mm f/2.8L lens (with IS mode 2 on), and a 2x teleconverter. As a consequence of the slightly higher shutter speed than my previous post, this image is very sharp at full magnification.

I really like shooting images of birds either at dawn or at dusk. With the sun near to the horizon, you see some illumination under the bird, and it is possible to get back-lit feathers, both of which make for a better photo. When the sun is high in the sky and so are the birds, it seems as though you are more likely to capture the darkly illuminated underside of the bird against a bright sky - an even bigger problem when light overcast or thin clouds fill the sky!

Artist Point Fall Colors 2010

As most of you know, last Saturday September 28, I rolled out of bed at 3 AM to fix a pot of coffee, load up my car with lots of camera gear, and head off into the darknes to make the long (3 hr) drive to Artist Point and Mt. Shuksan. Sometimes I think that photographers really ought to just stay awake all night, finally heading to bed a few hours after sunrise, to awake again just a few hours before sunset.

When I got to the well-known Picture Lake, I found that the wind was howling, and I was alone at the Lake. It is always hard to make the decision to leave one possible location for a sunrise shot to head to another, but that is what I did. I figured that I had shot enough images from Picture Lake, I could afford to miss the sunrise there - especially with the wind howling.

I returned to my car, and started up the road to Artist Point - just a few miles further up a few switchbacks. When I arrived at the parking lot at Artist Point, the lot was already starting to become populated with the early morning photographers and early hikers, and the light from the approaching dawn was brightening quickly. I grabbed my camera backpack (around 50 lbs of gear - ugh!) and my carbon fiber tripod (makes me wonder - with 50 lbs of camera gear - does it really matter that I save a few ounces on my tripod?!), locked the car, and started up the trail - at a slow run. I wanted to move to a potential photo site before the sun rose (as it turned out, I still had a bit of time).

Before the sun rose, and lingering for a while after sunrise, there were beautiful lenticular clouds above Mt. Baker. After photographing Mt. Baker from several perspectives and with many different lenses, I was returning to the car when I saw this beautiful vista.

For this shot, I mounted my Canon 24mm f/3.5L TSE lens on my Canon 5D Mark II, and shot a very wide range of exposures. Although the sky in the distance is clear, I was actually standing in the relatively dark shadow of overhead clouds. In reality, although this presented some exposure difficulties - especially with howling wind - the soft light made the scene even more intense with color. With the sun off to the left, I also used a circular polarizer to hold down the reflected sheen on the foliage and to slightly darken the sky.

This image is actually composed of a blend of multiple images all shot at ISO 400 using manual exposure and an aperture of f/8.0, starting with a shutter speed of 1/4000 sec (underexposure of the foreground - but about right for the sky) - to a maximum exposure of 1/250 sec at f/8.0.

By using a tilt-shift lens, which allows you to literally tilt the plane of maximum focus so that the foliage a few feet in front of the camera is in tack-sharp focus while also capturing the distant mountains in sharp focus, I was able to stop the motion of the foliage by using a maximum exposure of 1/250 at ISO400.

I chose ISO400 as a compromise between going too high and risking too noisy an image, and too low, where my shutter speed would be too long and the plants would blur in the wind. By using the tilt shift, f/8 worked to capture sharpness throughout the image (especially because this was a 24mm lens).

Richard

GREAT BLUE

Great Blue Heron in flight in the last light of the day on September 25 at the Edmonds Marsh wildlife preserve in Edmonds, WA.

I'm always impressed with tack-sharp bird photos. I know how difficult it is to shoot photos of birds. They are small and tough to capture when sitting still on a perch let alone tough to catch in flight. This image was one of a few decent shots I captured of blue herons in flight during a period of about 1 1/2 hours of waiting. Most of the time, the herons (at least at this time of year) simply stand in the salt-water marsh catching small fish and grooming themselves. When they do launch into the air - at least to my untrained eye - it is not entirely predictable (though I'm sure that astute observers of herons will recognize all the clues that they are about to fly). Photographing herons is almost cheating though. These birds are surely the "747s" of the avian world. That makes herons easier to photograph from a distance. At 100 or 200 yards distance, these guys only fill a small part of the image - even with the equivalent of 960mm of focal length. Just imagine trying to shoot smaller birds in flight! With wings outstretched, they are huge and gangly, ungainly birds. Once in flight, they seem to have new found grace however, and their flight is beautiful. Approaching landing, long spindly legs unfold and they seem to almost crash land wherever they come to a rest. They don't seem to land with the precision of an eagle.

After waking up at 3 AM to make the trip to Mt. Baker and Mt. Shuksan at Artist Point, I had to return to Everett before 1 PM to pick up parts for my tractor, and then I had to shoot a soccer match before returning to wildlife photography. After the soccer match, I headed to Edmond's Marsh and headed out to the last viewing platform (furthest south) with a good view of the marsh. The herons were quite a distance away, so I had my 300mm f/2.8 lens mounted on the camera, along with a 2x teleextender. Coupled with a 1.6x crop sensor on a Canon 7D, this was equivalent to a 960mm focal length. Shot at ISO 800, 1/640th second, at f/5.6.

Rainbow Over LeConte Iceberg

This photo was taken in the evening of September 9th, when a friend and I traveled from Petersburg, Alaska to the mouth of LeConte Bay. The evening before, we'd traveled from Red Bluff to Petersburg after having spent much of the day in Frederick Sound. Our final miles into Petersburg were pretty rough with lots of rain and diminishing visibility in the rapidly approaching dusk. On this day, as we headed out from Sitka under partly cloudy skies, we saw a large rain squall over our our destination at LeConte Bay. Just as we neared the Bay, the squall moved into the Bay and the skies to the west cleared, with the setting sun illuminating the remaining rainfall to produce a spectacular rainbow.

...Nothing like having the perfect opportunity for a photo!

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LeConte!

Traveling southeast Alaska from Sitka to Petersburg with my friend and fellow photographer Jeff Hanson, I headed out to LeConte Glacier on Thursday evening and Friday morning last week. As we headed towards the mouth of the fjord from which LeConte's frozen Chihuly sculptures pour forth, we were a bit concerned to see a strong rain squall just over the entrance. A bit disappointed at the potential loss of photography opportunities, we pressed on, not sure how we'd photograph the icebergs in a heavy downpour, but persistent on getting photos nonetheless.

As we neared the fjord, a beam of sun cast from the western skies suddenly illuminated a few of the icebergs and an astonishingly bright rainbow lit the far shore beckoning us closer (photos later). We slowed as we approached the icebergs, which we could now see were in fact stranded on high points of rock at low tide. The tide was still rushing out, and as we neared the 'bergs, Jeff had to be very careful to avoid hitting any. Friday evening we were to learn from a local fisherman that a trawler entering Petersburg (about 30 miles from the fjord) had hit a small iceberg at slow speed and sank - just two weeks prior (a following fishing boat picked up the trawler crew just as the boat sank beneath the swells).

This is truly a magical place, whether or not you see rainbows. The light is spectacular in almost all conditions. On Friday morning, we photographed for hours - both before sunrise and for hours after. A remote and beautiful place with living art!

NOTE: The "black spots" on the horizon near the middle of the image is a flock of birds flying just beyond the middle iceberg.