Touching Light Photography

Lupines at Steptoe Butte, WA

2011-06-19T10:25:00.000-07:00

Lupine and Balsalm Root against the setting sun at Setptoe Butte in eastern Washington.

This is a manual blend of 5 images (HDR) shot at various shutter speeds to capture the wide dynamic range presented by the setting sun backlighting the lupine. Lupine were illuminated by a 2 foot reflector held to the right of the camera in this shot. ISO was boosted to try to capture the flowers with less movement under slightly windy conditions.

Canon 5D Mark II, EF17-40 f/4.0L at 17mm and f/16, shutter speeds ranging from 1/8 sec to 1/250 sec.

Also at:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/touchinglightphotography/5831512794/ and http://www.touchinglightphotography.com/Landscape/Palouse-LupinesAtSteptoe.htm

2010-10-18T20:47:00.000-07:00

Roots In The Air.

I have always wanted to photograph the stands of alders along the river valleys in Washington, yet never have. It is always hard to know where to begin when approaching a grove of alders to photograph. I found this grove while driving out... on the Mountain Loop Highway yesterday (Sunday Oct. 17). This was just past the Big Four Ice Caves. What caught my eye about this scene was the cluster of green moss covered rocks by the base of the foreground trees and the receding grove disappearing into the darkness of the evergreen canopy in the background.

Morning was rapidly approaching and the sky was already lit with the rising sun when I took this photo and moved on along the road. I was afraid that I'd lose my chances to shoot on this morning as I had lazily gotten out of bed around 6:30 AM rather than my more typical 3:30 AM for a drive to the Cascades. The weather was quite cool, and as I drove out the Mountain Loop later in the morning and drove up the North Fork of the Sauk River, I encountered several areas along the road still covered in frost.

This image is a high-dynamic range composite of 5 photos taken on a Canon 5D Mark II at ISO200, with a Canon EF24-70 f/2.8L lens at 32mm with exposures ranging from 1 second (to capture details in the white bark of the trees) to 15 seconds (to capture shadow detail).

2010-10-14T21:52:00.000-07:00

Heavens Above and BelowEastside of Lake Tipsoo, Mt. Rainier National Park, Washington, USA. October 2, 2010. © Copyright Richard Mitchell,
Touching Light Photography - all rights reserved.

I had arrived at Lake Tipsoo very early in the morning, after an entire night of star photography. Departing my car under the light of my LED headlamp, I had to look around to find the trail out to the lake. It was nearly completely dark this evening. The moon had just risen around 1 or 2 AM, and was only about 1/4 full on this evening. As I walked through the woods and across the meadow to the east side of the lake, I was very aware that I had read of a few photographers encountering a Black Bear and her cubs near this location just a few weeks before. Okay, I'll admit, if bears didn't like sheep, I'd have been a bit sheepish about hiking around this lake all alone in the dark of the night, but truth be known, I knew that Black Bears had been know to occasionally dined on sheep, so it didn't seem like a good idea to be sheepish just now.

My other plan didn't look too promising either. For the first time in my life, I actually had a canister of bear repellant spray with me in case I was bothered while hiking around after dark. My PLAN was to go with a friend, and if a bear approached, spray my friend, thereby incapacitating him, after which I was confident I could run from the bear without being followed. Lacking a friend , and remembering that bears actually liked bear spray as long as it wasn't in their eyes, I was even fearful of discharging the bear spray for fear of simply providing condiments for their meal.

Arriving at the east shore of the lake, I unshouldered my heavy camera backpack and began setting up my camera, trying to imagine the scene in front of me (it was to dark to see it). In fact, this was a unique exercise in "previsualization". At least it got my mind off the bears.

I had hoped to shoot the Milky Way above Mt. Rainier, but by this hour, the Milky Way was to the north (right) of the peak, so I set up for this classic shot of Mt. Rainier in the dwindling dark of night (c'mon guys, give me a break, I once opened the door to my darkroom, and all of the dark leaked out!).

Anyway, the lake was mirror smooth, and I captured this heavenly image above (and below) Mt. Rainier. Enjoy!

Technical Details: Canon 5D Mark II at ISO 6400, Canon EF17-40mm f/4L lens at f/4.0, 30 second exposure, high-ISO noise reduction on (standard), long-exposure noise reduction on.

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

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2010-10-13T21:22:00.000-07:00

Island Icebergs.

Frederick Sound (LeConte Bay), Alaska, USA. October 1, 2010.

A magical other-worldly landscape presents itself at the mouth of LeConte Bay near Petersburg Alaska. LeConte Bay is a 6-mile long 800-foot deep bay at the foot of the LeConte Glacier. The bay itself is a very steep-walled fjord that terminates at the LeConte Glacier - the southernmost tidewater glacier (calving directly into saltwater) on the Pacific Coast. The LeConte Glacier is about 21 miles long, and is most active during the spring when it advances as much as 3 feet per day. After remaining stable for 32 years, in 1994, the terminus became thinner and began retreating.

Technical Details: Canon 5D Mark II at ISO 400, Canon EF17-40mm f/4L, 1/400 sec at f/10.

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

Richard Mitchell Touching Light Photography

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2010-10-11T21:44:00.000-07:00

Billions and Billions

(Remembering Carl Sagan)

Billions and Billions (remembering Carl Sagan)On a trail near Paradise (truly), Mt. Rainier National Park, Washington, USA. October 1, 2010. © Copyright Richard Mitchell,

Billions and Billions (remembering Carl Sagan)

Photos of the Milky Way always keep me humble. Although the nighttime sky often gives the impression of looking out on the universe, in fact nearly all of the stars we see are neighbors of ours within the Milky Way. That's right - those specs of light in the sky are our nearest neighbors, not their distant cousins billions of light years away.

When he was younger, my second son once inquired about UFOs. Not wanting him to be alarmed, I told him that UFOs were nothing to fret about, and in fact aliens surely could not visit earth since even the nearest star was so far away. "What star is the closest, Daddy?" came his next question.

I knew the answer, or I thought I did…"Proxima Centauri" I replied confidently. (Of course, the sun is the NEAREST star…but I knew what he meant).

"How far away is that star, Daddy?" I was in for the long haul now. I knew how curious he was, and I was sure to face an onslaught of questions.

"It's 4.22 light years away, Eric" I answered, hoping this would end the inquisition, and yes, I did know the answer to that question without having to look it up.

"But how far away is 4.2 light years Daddy?". Hmmm…I thought. No way out of this now. I started multiplying in my head, using approximations to simplify the problem. I knew that light traveled at about 186,000 miles per second…times 60 seconds per minute times 60 minutes per hour times 24 hours per day times 365 1/4 days per year times 4.22 years. Tonight as I post this photo, I'm cheating - I just used Excel ... and the answer is - it comes out to 2.477 x 10e13 (10 to the 13th power) miles to the nearest star.

I gave him an answer that approximated that answer… "About 25,000,000,000,000 miles, Eric". (That's about 25 TRILLION miles … to the NEAREST star.)

"But Dad, how far is 25 TRILLION miles???"

I quickly ran some numbers in my head and answered him like this:

"If you were to get into the fastest spaceship any human has ever flown in ... on the first day of your life... and you hurdled through space towards the NEAREST STAR for the REST OF YOUR LIFE until the day you died, the nearest star would not seem any closer on the day you died than it did on the day you were born." (In fact, you'd cover less than 1% of the distance at 25,000 miles per hour in a 100-year lifetime. There are probably faster spaceships now, but that is still a reasonable approximation.)

That answer seemed to satisfy him, and it opened up the vast realm of space to my mind. Suddenly, the universe seemed HUGE. The nearest star - at 4.2 light years - so far away, and yet there are stars 15 billion light years away. One day, when you have the chance, look at the Hubble Deep Field Image of a spec of sky with 1500 GALAXIES in it...it is truly wonderous.

Gazing into the endless emptiness of space above my head on a lonely dark trail in Mt. Rainier National Park, I again really saw the vastness of this amazing universe, the depth of space above me, and wondered about so many things, and the connectedness of all living things, and the good fortune in having friends to share this with.

Technical details: Canon 5D MK II ISO 6400, Canon EF17-40mm f/4L at 17mm, exposure for 30 sec at f/4.0 with high ISO and long-exposure noise reduction ON.

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

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2010-10-10T19:26:00.000-07:00

The Calm Before...

This photo was taken at the end of a long 24-hour "shooting spree" the beginning of October 2010. I had a crying need to spend some time in the woods, and to spend time listening and seeing and thinking. My wife Diane has been amazingly supportive of my passion for photography, and let me head off for 24 hours of continuous photography. I ended my 24 hour sprint by hiking up to Spray Park, via the Mowich Lake entrance to Mt. Rainier National Park, a lesser used and lesser known entrance than the more popular Sunrise and Paradise entrances.

From Mowich Lake, the trail descends pleasantly through the woods around Mowich Lake, crossing the aptly named "Wonderland Trail" that completely encircles the great mountain. For a while, the trail is kind, then it begins its ascent up switchbacks, many with log-reinforced stair-steps. Leveling again, the trail heads towards Spray Falls, then begins its final ascent to the sub-alpine meadows of Spray Park. It is always a relief to see the clearing forest, the easing trail, and the opening sky as one approaches the top of the ascent - especially with a 50-pound backpack full of camera gear!

I had originally intended to stay until sunset, but on this evening, the exhaustion of staying awake for 36 hours was starting to hit, and I had arrived at Spray Park tired from the climb, and carrying far too little water and food for the hike. (note to me - next time, bring your water pump or your iodine tablets!). I decided to leave the Park about an hour before sunset, and took this photo near to the time of my departure from the glorious meadows of Spray Park. What a beautiful Fall day! The golds and reds of autumn were as clear as the air, and few people remained in the area as I set up for this shot. A beautiful way to end a full day of photography!

Technical Details: Canon 5D Mark II, Canon EF17-40mm f/4L lens at 26mm, ISO100, 1/15 sec. at f/16.

This photograph is not in the public domain and may not be used in electronic, print, or any other form, without advance permission from Richard Mitchell. Richard Mitchell Touching Light Photography Flickr Twitter Facebook Blog Email

2010-10-09T20:10:00.001-07:00

Fog in the Valley

Fog in the Valley. Ricksecker Point, Mt. Rainier National Park, Washington, USA.

October 1, 2010. © Copyright Richard Mitchell,

Last weekend, as I arrived at Mt. Rainier National Park, I first stopped at Kautz Creek, hoping to catch the last light of the day and fading alpenglow on Mt. Rainier. A few hours earlier, I'd been driving through the traffic of Puget Sound as the weather turned progressively worse. I was trying to decide whether to turn around, or to continue on to Mt. Rainier. What were the chances that I'd find anything worth photographing with Puget Sound totally socked in with building clouds?

I continued on, realizing that I'd already passed the majority of commute hour traffic, and remembering that I'd had the same thoughts a week earlier on my way to Mt. Shuksan, but had arrived at Shuksan to find a spectacular lenticular cloud above Mt. Baker nearby.

Sometimes it pays to be persistent and to have faith! I pressed on, and as I neared Mt. Rainier and gained altitude as began the ascent up the apron of the great mountain, I broke through the tops of the clouds to a beautifully sunny and clear late afternoon. Passing the entrance station to the park, it was only a short drive before I arrived at Kautz Creek. I was hoping to shoot a telephoto image of Rainier with the evergreens on each side, that so nicely frame the mountain from this perspective. Parking my car at Kautz Creek, I grabbed my camera gear and crossed the road to the short trail to the viewpoint. Arriving at the viewpoint, I started setting up my gear as the mountain began to cloud over. At first, the clouds were really beautiful whisps of clouds in front of the mountain, but over the course of just a minute or two, the mountain became completely obscured by the rising clouds.

After a few minutes, I accepted that I would not see Rainier from Kautz Creek again that evening.

I got back into my car, a bit discouraged, but determined to press on. I headed up the road towards Paradise (quite the name, isn't it?!).

Just past Christine Falls, there is a one-way "scenic route" that drives past Ricksecker Point. I decided to take the scenic route, and headed southwest out to the point under diminishing light. Arriving at the point, I looked back to see the beautiful Rainier rising above the fog in the Nisqually River Valley, with the beautiful evergreens on the cliff under Ricksecker glowing under the light from the West. I once again grabbed my camera gear and headed out to the side of the cliff and shot a few images. In a matter of minutes, the clouds filled the valley and enveloped me in their humid flow.

Picture-taking at Ricksecker Point was over for this evening!

This image:

Canon 5D Mark II, ISO 800, Canon EF17-40mm f/4 at 17mm, (oops - I forgot to change it to a lower ISO!), exposed for 4 seconds at f/6.3 (it was dark at this point!). By the time I lowered the ISO (only a minute later), the images I shot were softened too much by the rising fog of the clouds.

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

Richard Mitchell Touching Light Photography

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2010-10-07T21:45:00.000-07:00

Reflection Lake Star Trails (toned)

Taken last weekend at 9:45 PM on Friday evening, I shot this photo of a stars over Mt. Rainier. In contrast to the images where I was aiming to capture the Milky Way, here I did not want too many stars trailing across the sky. To large an aperture and too high an ISO could end up producing a pretty noisy image with a nearly white sky (from too many star trails). Here I shot the image by leaving the shutter open for 30 minutes (plus a 30 min long-exposure noise reduction blank image...for a total of 1 hour) - and I did so with no moon in the sky - so Mt. Rainier is illuminated by the stars alone.

Technical Details: Canon 5D MK II at ISO400, Canon 17-40mm f/4L lens at 17 mm and at f/4. In-camera long exposure noise reduction on.

2010-10-04T22:22:00.000-07:00

Now You See It...

I'd rolled out of bed around 3:30 to make the long drive to Mt. Shuksan and Mt. Baker (Artist Point/Heather Meadows area at the end of SR-542 in northern Washington State). Arriving at Picture Lake before sunrise, I'd found it to be quite windy, destroying any hope for getting a reflection of Mt. Shuksan on the lake. I'd hoped to catch the reflection of Shuksan with some lingering morning fog on the lake - but no chance on this day.

I got back in my car on that morning, and headed to the top of the road at Artist Point, and found Mt. Baker mostly obscured by clouds and a lenticular cloud cap. By the time the sun rose, the clouds in front of Baker were gone, leaving a beautiful lenticular cloud on top of the mountain.

Details:

Canon 5D Mark II, Canon EF70-200mm f/4 IS lens (IS off) at 70mm, ISO 100, 1/500 sec, at f/8.0.

Now You See It….Artist Point, Mt. Baker, Washington, USA.
September 25, 2010. © Copyright Richard Mitchell,
Touching Light Photography - all rights reserved.

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

Richard Mitchell Touching Light Photography
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2010-10-03T08:57:00.000-07:00

Barred Owl.

Barred Owl.Mt. Rainier National Park, Washington, USA.

October 2, 2010. © Copyright Richard Mitchell,

Here's the story:

After traveling to Mt. Rainier National Park last evening after work, and after spending nearly an entire sleepless night shooting images of the Milky Way (above trees, reflected in the appropriately named Reflection Lake), I then traveled to Tipsoo Lake just outside the eastern boundary of Rainier.

Long story short - I traveled from Tipsoo to Sunrise, and after finding that Sunrise didn't have any fall colors from berries, I turned around and headed back out the Sunrise entrance to Mt. Rainier National Park. Just about 1/2 mile from the entrance station, as I was driving, a large bird descended from the forest canopy and traveled along the road and in front of my car for perhaps 300 feet before disappearing into the canopy. I was driving, so I couldn't quite tell what type of bird it was. I thought perhaps a Perigrine falcon. I continued driving, carefully noting the pattern of the trees in the rear view mirror, until I could find a turnaround about 1/2 mile down the road (at the entrance station). I headed back up the road to where I'd seen the owl, and parked my car. I quickly grabbed my Canon 7D which already had the 300mm f/2.8 ("big") lens on it, added a 2x teleextender, and mounted it on my monopod and started walking along the road.

Fairly quickly, I "spotted" the large bird - an owl, about 50 feet off the ground in the branches of a tree. He quickly alerted to my presence, and soon flew another 300 feet away - but this time, I saw where he landed. I tried to get a shot of him, but quickly realized that I had too much telephoto with the teleextender, and it was dark-dark-dark, so I took off the telextender and boosted the ISO (sensitivity), and checked to see that I was in the right focus mode and multiple frame mode. I set the camera to f/2.8 and shot a few images before the bird flew on. I continued following, and this time boosted the ISO to 2000, since he was quick and it was dark. I walked towards him - or rather walked slowly past him, being careful not to look directly at him. I managed to get closer, and took a few more shots through the twigs around him.

Fearing he would soon take flight, I moved sideways a bit more to give me a clear shot of the bird, and quickly fired off another dozen or so images. I have many like this with the owl's head in different positions. Most came out quite sharp.

Honestly, I wish I'd seen the branch behind the owl's head and moved a bit - but I was pretty constrained shooting through twigs in the foreground. I'm not sure I could have changed my position.

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

Richard Mitchell Touching Light Photography

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2010-09-30T22:36:00.000-07:00

Sitka Sky

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

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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2010-09-29T20:48:00.000-07:00

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!

2010-09-28T21:26:00.000-07:00

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

2010-09-27T20:08:00.000-07:00

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.

2010-09-23T21:16:00.000-07:00

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!

2010-09-22T22:04:00.001-07:00

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.

I'm still here...

2009-06-05T16:56:00.000-07:00

This is a quick blog entry...just a place holder...to say that I'm still here. I have been so swamped with work, family, and projects (and my Mom's upcoming 90th birthday party) that I have had virtually no time to get out for photography or process what I have managed to shoot. Someday soon though, I promise to get out to take more photos and to get around to updating this blog.

2009-02-14T21:48:00.001-08:00

At long last, it is time to add another photo. I've been pretty swamped over the past few months, and when not preoccupied with work and family, I've been fixing things, clearing downed trees and taking care of everything that needs doing around my home.

I purchased a Canon 5D MKII a few weeks back, and finally today had a chance to actually use it for a short while. I took a trip to the Seattle Zoo for a few hours this afternoon, along with my family. Here is one of the first photos I took, converted to black & white. With my family along, I was fairly distracted, and really could not focus a lot of attention on photography, and we arrived fairly late in the day, so the light was not ideal.

This photo of a gorilla is an approximate 1/6 or 1/8 frame crop of an image taken with my 300mm f/2.8 lens using available light and an ISO of 3200, 1/160th sec exposure at f/2.8 (not a lot of light!). The photo is entirely hand held (no monopod/tripod), so perhaps not as sharp as possible. In fact, it illustrates one of the most amazing qualities of the 5D MK II, and that is the low noise characteristics of the new 21.1 megapixel sensor. In this black and white, I have used the NIK software DFine noise reduction tool (just using the default settings). Overall, I liked this photo, and this crop, as to me, it conveyed well the thoughtful nature of this large animal.

Rainier Rainier Trip

2008-09-01T20:57:00.001-07:00

We took a trip to Mt. Rainier this Labor Day weekend, and remarkably, the mountain was hidden from view for all but a few moments on Saturday afternoon, as we traveled past Kautz Creek. On Sunday, we headed up to Comet Falls, about 2 miles and 1600 feet up from the main park road, and just before we arrived at the falls, it began pouring. So much for planning on 3 days of photography and "previsualizing" the shots I was to take!

Here is one photo of a waterfall above Narada Falls (just below where the road to Reflection Lake heads east and the road to Paradise continues northeast).

Narada Falls, Mt. Rainier National Park, Washington

2008-08-25T20:31:00.001-07:00

This is a High Dynamic Range Image, necessitated by the sun on the top of the falls, and the darkness in the canyon below. The HDR exposures covered nearly 4 stops range.

Technical Details: Canon 5D, 24-70mm f/2.8L lens, B+W circular polarizer. Exposures were f/22 for 1/13 sec, f/22 for 1/6 sec, f/22 for 0.3 sec, f/22 for 0.6 sec.

Post processing included color balancing the shaded area (warming it), enhancing saturation, adjusting levels, and contrast.

2008-08-24T13:39:00.001-07:00

August 23, 2008

Canon 5D, Canon 24mm TSE (both shifted and tilted on vertical axis), f/14, 0.5 sec, ISO200, 3-stop grad ND (Singh Ray).

Paradise Creek, Mazama Ridge, Mt. Rainier NP

2008-08-24T10:57:00.000-07:00

This photo was taken on August 23, 2008 at Mt. Rainier National Park in Washington.

This is an image from the Paradise River, just below Mazama Ridge, Mt. Rainier National Park, in the Washington Cascades.Technical Details: Canon 5D, Canon 17-40mm f/4.0 at f/22, 1.0 sec, ISO 100, B+W circular polarizer to block reflections on the rocks.

NOTE: This is a "manipulated photo" in that the image was flipped horizontally to make the water flow from left to right. This does not exist in nature in this form.

First Light at Mazama Ridge, Mt. Rainier National Park

2008-08-23T19:18:00.001-07:00

This photo was taken on August 23, 2008 at Mt. Rainier National Park in Washington.

This is from Mazama Ridge, just below the Paradise River. Technical Details: Canon 5D, Canon 24mm TSE f/14, 5.2 sec. ISO 100 with a Singh-Ray 3-stop grad ND (hard) to tone down the sky and mountain.

This was a late year for wildflowers in the Cascades, about 3 weeks after the normal bloom, and the bloom has been inconsistent, with the lupine a bit stunted. Several snow fields still crossed the trail, and the climb up to Mazama ridge, which we began around 5:15 AM was still pretty wet.

Lens Test: Canon 300mm f/2.8 vs. 100-400 f/4.5-5.6

2008-08-21T21:34:00.000-07:00

...tested on a Canon 40D vs. a Canon 5D.

I had some concerns about the sharpness of my relatively new, still warranted, Canon 300mm f/2.8 lens after taking some bird photos that just weren't as sharp as I wanted. Mostly, I'd used this lens on my Canon 40D to get some extra telephoto punch via the 1.6X crop sensor, but most of my images just weren't as sharp as I'd like. I'm still concerned that the 40D isn't focusing well enough or fast enough in the servo mode on a moving subject (reputed to have some front-focus/back-focus issues) so I tested the lens by shooting across Lake Union in Seattle, using a tripod and +/- IS (which I haven't analyzed yet).

Shown below are small 100% crops of the first 6 shots I've looked at. The bottom line is that when looking at an edge section of the image, the 300mm f/2.8 shot at f/8 easily beats the 100-400 shot at either f/8 or at f/14. The real surprise to me was that the image from the 40D cropped sensor (which appears more telephoto due to the sensor crop factor) actually seems to have more detail than the image from the 5D. That would suggest that the 40D is a great camera/sensor to give you a little more telephoto punch than the 5D (full-frame) sensor. Both cameras were shot with mirror-lock-up and at ISO400, with no IS in either test. Another surprise, the Canon 135mm f/2.0 actually produced pretty sharp pictures with reasonably good edge sharpness (same cropped area) when using a 2x telextender (effective focal length 270 mm) ... shot at f/8.0 (2 stops closed down from maximum aperture).

Here are the shots:

300mm f/2.8L shot at f/8.0

100-400 f/4.5-5.6 shot at f/8.0
Canon 5D (at about 280mm focal length)

100-400 f/4.5-5.6 shot at f/14

Canon 5D (at about 280 mm focal length)

(a little sharper than at f/8.0)

Here's the Canon 40D with the 300mm f/2.8 at f/8.0

...and the 40D with the 100-400 shot at f/8.0

...and for comparison, 1st the 5D 135mm f/2.0 with a 2x

teleextender shot at f/8.0

So, for now, it is "back to the drawing board" to figure out why my bird shots weren't as sharp as I'd like. Perhaps I didn't wait long enough for the IS to settle, or perhaps the servo focus was spending too much time trying to catch focus and just not nailing it. Hmmmmm.....

Sunrise at Lower Robin Lake, Cascade Range, WA

2008-08-20T21:13:00.000-07:00

(August 2008)

Last week, I was fortunate enough to be able to take my family on a 5-day backpacking trip to the Robin Lakes in the Cascade Range. Robin Lakes are accessed out of Tucquala Meadows, which is down a relatively long road out of Roslyn, WA. Departing Tucquala Meadows, the trail proceed for 2 miles to Hyas Lake, then past Hyas Lake about another 1.5 - 2 miles before starting an ascent over Deception Pass. After ascending for about 0.5 - 1 mile, the trail to Tuck Lake and Robin Lakes branches to the right off of the Deception Pass trail. Just after the junction with the Deception Pass trail, the trail to Tuck Lake decends briefly to a beautiful clear creek (fill your water bottles here!) before rising sharply over the next two miles to Tuck Lake. The climb is steep, and the trail is moderately well-maintained, but there are several spots where shorter hikers may need a bit of help getting up and over rocks (in several places, I had to use my hands to climb up and over rocks or grab onto roots to hoist myself up). I was carrying around 50-lbs, since I had a significant amount of camera gear, and extra food for the hungry hikers. Overall, the climb from Tucquala Meadows to Tuck Lake is around 2,000 feet. Past Tuck Lake, and following a bit of a scramble around the south side of the lake, the trail again rises steeply during the 1.7 mile ascent to Upper and Lower Robin Lakes, which are at an altitude of about 6200-feet, and about 900-feet above Tuck Lake (the climb, though, is at least 1200 vertical feet with some of the ups and downs.

This photo was taken with a Canon 40D (lighter than my 5D), a 17-40mm lens, at f/8.0, for 0.3 sec. using a Singh-Ray 2-stop grad ND (hard) filter to tone down the intensity of the sky and allow me to brighten the non-illuminated foreground. In retrospect, I wish I'd taken my Canon 5D, brought along my 24-70 f/2.8 as my primary lens, and perhaps even left my 135mm f/2.0 L lens home (I brought the 135mm on the 40D along with a 2x teleextender, to help me take pictures of mountain goats...in fact, I often found that even just the 135mm was too much telephoto, and I never used the teleextender the whole trip).

I'll post a few more photos in the weeks ahead, and will hopefully be able to grab some shots near Mt. Rainier this weekend or next, as the wildflowers appear to be peaking at 5,000 feet near Paradise right now.

Gas for photography...

2008-07-28T20:22:00.000-07:00

Okay, okay...I know this is supposed to be a photography blog. However, photographers generally travel a fair amount, and in the process consume a fair amount of gasoline and produce (too much) CO2. With that in mind, I wanted to add just a small note to my blog about the benefits of small cars.

I recently took a position working in downtown Seattle, and I have to commute about 21 miles to work every day, each way. This is the first time in my life (I'm 54) that I have had to commute more than 7 miles each way to work (and yet, I've generally lived in pretty nice surroundings :-). I should point out that it wasn't by choice that I began working 21 miles from home...my prior employer encountered a significant financial challenge, and first laid off 1/3 of the staff, followed a few months later by a lay-off of more than 60% of the staff remaining in my business unit ... as the stock dropped from around $17/share to just over $1 per share. I worked with a fantastic team that I miss immensely, but I had to stay employed, and couldn't stray from the Puget Sound area for family reasons.

Several years ago (in 2000), I purchased a 2001 (model year) Toyota Echo. My friends at work chided me a bit for not buying a BMW, but I really didn't see the point in spending 3-4 times as much for a similar sized car that got worse gas mileage (but then, I'm not exactly a car afficionado).

With the rapid escalation in oil prices in early 2008, I'm sure a few of my friends now wish they had purchased an Echo. How good is the gas mileage on a Toyota Echo? In fact, I've kept meticulous records since beginning my new job, and for the past 2600 miles, I've averaged just over 44 miles per gallon! ...and this is for the standard internal combustion engine Toyota Echo. I'm sure if I had a Prius, I'd top that, but 44 MPG for a 7 year-old 4-cylinder car isn't too bad! Yes, I drive carefully to achieve that mileage, but I'm not a "hypermiler" or doing anything crazy to achieve this...and this is the average including city and freeway driving, with a reasonable number of hills along the way.

All of which adds up to a pretty economical (and environmentally more responsible) way to haul my camera gear to the mountains. So, I'm just (no one's paying me to say this!) singing the praises of the Toyota Echo. An ugly little car that feels bigger inside than it looks from the outside. An ugly (but comfortable) totally dependable (of course...it's a Toyota!) little vehicle suitable for a photographer and his/her gear.

Needless to say, I have cut my total driving as much as I can "easily" do right now. One day in the not too distant future, I expect we will all have to begin making real adjustments to our travel to stop the global rise in CO2 that would appear to be significantly affecting our earth's climate. As photographers, I believe we need to set an example to preserve this beautiful world we all share.

Death Valley Photos

2008-03-31T17:05:00.000-07:00

Shown below are a few of the photos I have taken on this week's trip to Death Valley National Park in California.

The first photo is of the "moving rocks" of Racetrack Playa, in the northwestern section of the park. The Playa is an old, dry lakebed, and rocks falling from the rock face on the southern side of the Playa mysteriously move across the Playa surface. Apparently no one has ever seen the rocks actually move, but the moving rocks leave tracks, some as long as 3000 feet. There are several theories, but the most accepted theory is that following a rainstorm, the Playa surface becomes slippery, and with the reduced friction and extremely high winds (80-90 MPH?), the rocks are believed to slide across the surface, leaving tracks in the mud. The mud surface is usually dry, hard, and cracked.

The photo below was taken at Zabriskie Point, one of the most famous overlooks at Death Valley. In the early morning, just after the sun rises above the horizon, the shadows cast by the terrain are striking. The most common photo at Zabriskie is the panorama of Death Valley from the paved overlook. Many other photo opportunities are available at Zabriskie!

Late one afternoon, as the sky clouded over and the entire valley turned gray, I was pretty discouraged about the prospects for finding anything photogenic during the "magic light" of sunset. Luckily, I headed out to the salt flats, about 3/4 mile south of the visitor platform at Badwater, and stayed for the sunset show. Just after the sun went down behind the Panamints, the sun cast "corpuscular beams" skyward with the beautiful orange beams providing a striking contrast to the blue of the salt crystals of the salt flats. I continued to stay at the same location for perhaps another half-hour, and was treated to a beautiful gold streak of light through the clouds over the Panamints...and captured a photo that I will upload later. The photo below is the first of several beautiful sunset photos. Moral to the story: don't leave when the sun goes down!

Early one morning, I got out of bed at around 5:15 AM to head to the Stovepipe Wells dunes, which are just east of Stovepipe Wells Village. I left the car and headed out across the rocky soil towards the dunes while it was still pitch black. I couldn't see the dunes, but had a pretty good recollection of where they were relative to the road, and managed to head directly towards the tallest dune mostly by dead reckoning under the light of my LED flashlight (mostly used to avoid an unwanted encounter with a sidewinder rattle snake!). Trudging over the dunes with 40 lbs of camera gear and a tripod is a lot of work! I arrived at the location I chose for taking sunrise shots about 20 minutes before the sun came over the horizon. Believe me, by the time I was done shooting and trudged back through the sand to Stovepipe Wells, I was ready for breakfast!

Here is another view of the dunes, taken on 4/1/2008 just after sunrise. This time, the air was relatively calm, with gentle (10 MPH?) breezes...much easier for photography!

On my Death Valley trip, I also took a side-trip to Antelope Valley to see the California Poppy Preserve, which was in the beginning of a great bloom. Unfortunately for me, the day I arrived there, the winds were averaging (yes, averaging) 60-65 MPH, and the ranger said the winds were "hurricane force" and the "strongest I've ever seen here". Lots of blowing dust (and blowing blossoms) made photography impossible from this location. I headed through the Gorman Hills area north of LA to see if there were wildflowers there...the Gorman Hills can have some of the most spectacular wildflower blooms in California. Unfortunately I was just around 1 - 2 weeks too early for the real show. Below is a single photo I took of the Gorman Hills area as I passed through.

Death Valley is home to around 100 wild burros. The Park management is increasingly concerned that they are overgrazing and pushing out the mountain goats that normally inhabit the higher elevations in the Panamints. These burros were in the valley near Panamint Springs, between the Springs and the Panamint Dunes in the north end of the valley. There were actually around 6 or 7 in the pack...and even though these burros are clearly showing that they know the photographer is taking their picture...I liked their pose enough to take a shot and post it here.

Ah yes...the classical shot of Zabriskie Point...perhaps a bit "wider" than many. I haven't really edited any of my Zabriskie shots yet, but here is one that I had to post. This is taken from an area along the ridge to the right of the visitor overlook. I hiked up the ridge a fair way to get a higher vantage point over the valley, and to narrow the visible part of the valley between the prominant point (sorry...don't know the name of the point on the right yet!)...and the ridge on the left. I'll post more in a week or so, after I get back home from my trip and can work on a faster computer!

Here is a photo of the Salt Creek Pupfish, an endangered fish species living in Death Valley. In this photo (no surprise), the fish on the left is a male, and the fish on the right is a female. The fish were mating while I was at the creek today (4/1/2008).

There were several other animals evident at Salt Creek, including several species of birds, and lizards...most of which were too quick to capture during the short time I was there. The Killdeer below was most cooperative, spending quite a while pulling larvae (?) out of the sand in the creekbed. I have several photos of this bird...and haven't decided which I like best yet. I'll post other shots after I get back to Seattle.

2008-02-23T21:49:00.001-08:00

Bird Photography

2008-02-17T20:14:00.000-08:00

I finally managed to escape the gymnasium today and headed out to try to capture some of the birds that overwinter near our home in Woodinville, WA.

Bald Eagle, Spencer Island, Washington

All Canon gear: 40D, 300mm f/2.8L IS (on, mode 2), 2x extender, ISO800, 1/2700, f/10, (manual),center focus point selected

I find that photographing birds is one of the most technically challenging endeavors (didn't I just get done saying that photographing gymnastics is challenging?!). Birds are always small...and farther away in the viewfinder than they seem when you are looking directly at them. The best photos are often of the birds in flight...and it's tough to keep the bird in the center of the viewfinder or centered on one of the focusing points...long enough for the camera to lock on the focus of the bird.

Snow Geese, Skagit Valley flats near Conway, Washington

All Canon gear: 40D, 300mm f/2.8L IS (on, mode 2), 2x extender, ISO800, 1/5300, f/10, (manual), center focus point selected

I generally shoot birds with the autofocus on, and select the center focusing point (though not always). Oh how I yearn for the 45 focus points of the 1D MarkIII (or 1Ds Mark III)! I'm currently using a Canon 40D for birds, and it has only 9 focus points...probably my most significant criticism of the camera (but then again, it doesn't cost as much as a 1D Mark III or 1Ds Mark III.

Snow Goose, Skagit Valley flats near Conway, WA

All Canon gear: 40D, 300mm f/2.8L IS (on, mode 2), 2x extender, ISO800, 1/5300, f/10, (manual), center focus point selected

I headed out the door at 5:30 AM, since this was to be a sunny day, and sunrise is just after 7:00 AM here now. It turned out that leaving the clear air of my lot in Woodinville, I headed downhill a few hundred feet and directly into dense fog. Driving through Everett, WA in the dark without a map in dense fog was challenging, but finally, I managed to make it to Spencer Island...a wildlife refuge just northeast of Everett. Arriving at my shooting location before the sun had come over the horizon (around 6:30 AM), I was greeted by a cacophony of birds in the marsh. A huge Great Blue Heron took off from the marsh near where I was headed...but of course, I didn't have my camera ready to go...and in the dense fog, it probably wouldn't have mattered much.

I headed back home around 9:00 AM, then picked up my family for the drive up to the Skagit valley, where we saw Bald Eagles, Snow Geese, Trumpeter Swans, Tundra Swans, Great Blue Herons, Bufflehead ducks, and a lot of birds I don't know the identities of (okay, I admit...shame on me!).

Here are some photos from that shoot:

Richard

Gymnastics Photography - A Few Pointers

2008-02-05T19:18:00.000-08:00

During the winter months, when my kids are busy with music lessons, gymnastics, soccer, and other activities that seem to keep me indoors far too much, I often take photos of their sports teams.

One of my sons is a fairly serious gymnast, so I have now traveled to many gymnastics meets (he's on a USA Gymnastics (USAG) team) with my camera gear.

NOTE: These photos are essentially "unretouched", these are the full-frame images without any cropping.

Canon 40D, Canon 135mm f2.0 lens, ISO3200, f2.0, 1/320 prefocused (autofocus off)

Shot from a Gitzo carbon-fiber tripod, Acratech Ballhead

My first attemts at gymnastics photography were not pretty, and I found myself searching the internet for advice. I found a few helpful websites, and some wonderful people even wrote me with their advice. I've posted some of my advice on my website at:

http://www.touchinglightphotography.com/Order/Tips/GymnasticsPhotoTips.htm

In updating my "tips" for gymnastics photography, I have to add that I now have some new equipment, which has had a significant impact on my success rate.

Canon 40D, Canon 135mm f2.0 lens, ISO3200, f/2.0, 1/500, prefocused (autofocus off)

Shot from a Manfrotto monopod, Acratech ballhead

The Short Story

To keep it simple, here's my summary recommendation for equipment and settings (note, you MUST NOT use flash (according to USA Gymnastics rules, for the safety of the gymnasts), so be sure you know how to keep your camera's flash from firing!). Also, unless you are USA Gymnastics safety certified, you are NOT allowed on the gymnastic floor while gymnasts are performing...don't argue with the officials...those are the rules!)

Camera: Canon 40D (or equivalent crop-sensor camera)...the 40D has a 1.6x crop factor, and has a 6.5 frame-per-second frame rate (pretty fast)
Lens: Canon 135mm f2.0 "prime" lens (about $650 street price) or similar wide-aperture moderate telephoto prime lens. If you must use a zoom, try a professional (expensive) zoom like the Canon 70-200mm f2.8 ... which is fairly heavy, but a beautiful lens!
ISO (light sensitivity): 3200 (stopping the action is probably more important to getting clear images than low noise). In a brightly lit gym, you might be able to get away with ISO 800 or 1600 if the light is bright enough (see shutter speed, below)
Aperture: f/2.0, Aperture priority setting on camera (Av) (or the "brightest" aperture you can use)
Shutter Speed: let the aperture priority setting pick the fastest speed available. You will want a shutter speed of 1/500 to 1/1000 or faster if at all possible with the light available to you. If you can only shoot at 1/250...it's tough, but you will still get some good photos if you take them when the gymnast is motionless (reversing direction in a gymnastics move)
NOTE: Dimly lit gymnastics events are difficult to photograph with anything less than ISO3200 and f2.8 (or the equivalent combination...e.g. ISO1600 f2.0, ISO800 f1.4, etc.). I recommend "prime" (non-zoom) moderate telephotos because you can get a wide-aperture lens that isn't huge. Note that the typical f/4 - f/5.6 telephoto zooms ... typical "consumer" zooms, just don't let in enough light to take good gymnastics photos in most gyms. If you have tried to take photos of your son or daughter using an f/4 to f5.6 zoom...getting poor quality images is likely the fault of your equipment, not you! In most gyms, you MUST use a wide-aperture lens and an SLR camera... the typical point and shoot digital camera simply isn't fast enough to capture a gymnast at the right moment, and the small sensors used are often "high-noise" at higher ISO settings...and they rarely enable an ISO above 800 or so.
You may find using a monopod helpful, however, it is usually the gymnast's motion that must be frozen. Neither a monopod nor an "image stabilized" (IS) lens will stop the motion of the gymnast. IS may help if you are shooting a long and hard-t0-hold telephoto.
For floor exersize, shut off your auto focus, and stand perpendicular to the direction of travel for the gymnast, so they stay the same distance from you. Prefocus your lens and leave it (unless you are using a camera like the Canon 1D MKIII that has 45 autofocus points). Otherwise, you run a high risk of focusing on the back wall rather than the gymnast when they move out of the center of your image! Floor is tough to photograph!

The Longer Story...

About a year ago, I "went whole hog" and rented a Canon 200mm f1.8 (!) lens to use with my Canon 5D body. The lens was awesome (and HEAVY!), and drew stares from all of the jealous parents, but alas, the lens is no longer made by Canon (they now sell a 200 mm f2.0 lens which is virtually equivalent), and the f1.8 lens runs around $5500 on E-Bay auctions (used).

In thinking about my options, I finally settled on purchasing a 135mm f2.0 "prime" lens, since the big issue with gymnastics photography is light. I also purchased a Canon 40D, which is a fantastic "crop sensor" camera, that due to the smaller sensor, changes the "apparent focal length" of the 135mm lens to 210mm. Therefore, what I have now is essentially the equivalent of the lens I rented, when I put the 135 f2.0 lens on my Canon 40D to get an effective 210mm f2.0 lens.

This combination has proven to be fantastic for the gymnastics photos, and allows me to let in enough light at f2.0 to keep the shutter speed sufficiently high to stop the motion, even in a dimly lit gymnasium (though I've encountered gyms where even f2.0 is not sufficient).

This past weekend (2/2/2008), I shot a gymnastics event in a fairly darkly lit gym, and used the 135 f2.0 for nearly all shots, and they came out great (more about my settings in another post). The single exception, was photos of the parallel bars, where my best shots were shot straight on (from the end of the bars) from across the gym, using my Canon 40D and a 300mm f2.8 lens (another awesome Canon lens!). Both the 135 f2.0 and the 300mm f2.8 provide sufficient depth of field wide-open to keep the gymnasts sharp, while providing a nice background blur ("bokeh").

Canon 40D, Canon 300mm f2.8L lens, ISO3200, f/2.8, 1/250, Servo autofocus

Shot from a Manfrotto Monopod with a Acratech Ballhead and a Wimberly Side-Arm

For this event, I shot everything at ISO3200, with noise reduction off (to keep the frame rate high), then did post-processing in Adobe Photoshop CS2 with an action I wrote that provided noise sharpening, curve adjustment, color balancing, and sharpening.

My overriding advice for shooting gymnastics...

1) Use the highest ISO you can on your camera (stopping action is critical for sharpness...even more important than digital noise)
2) Use a prime lens, since you will be able to afford (and carry) a prime with a wider aperture ... the zooms will cost you light, and will add weight (I could make a pun here but will refrain)
3) NOTE: f2.8 is marginal, f2.0 is about as good as it gets in anything over 50mm
4) Use the aperture priority setting setting the lens to the widest aperture available...that way, the camera will pick the fastest shutter speed it can under the light conditions.
5) Don't shoot too tight...but do be close enough so your subject fills a large part of the frame. Shooting too tight will prevent you from having enough room to crop, and you run the risk of shooting "headless" gymnasts.

At 6.5 fps and with acceptable digital noise even at ISO3200, plus the 1.6x crop factor, make the Canon 40D an ideal camera for this application (I even shot more than 1500 shots on a single battery charge!...yes, that many images in a single event)

Good luck, and don't hesitate to write with your questions.

Waterfall below Mt. Ritter, CA

2007-08-21T04:37:00.000-07:00

Here is a new photo of one of the waterfalls below Mt. Ritter (and above Ediza Lake), CA.

The details: Canon 5D, EF17-40mm f/4L USM at 22 mm, aperture f/11, 0.5 sec exposure, ISO200, B+W circular polarizer, taken 7/25/2007.

Waterfall above Lake Ediza, CA

2007-08-16T13:37:00.000-07:00

Here's a new photo, taken along one of the rivers that cascades into Lake Ediza from the glaciers and snowfields below Mt. Ritter. This photo was taken in late July, when many wildflowers were still present in the meadows and along the streambeds around Ediza.

I took this photo with a 5 second exposure, using a 6-stop neutral density filter (Singh-Ray). I usually carry a 6-stop and a 10-stop ND filter with me, and they work well for daylight stream images such as this. It is really tough to see through these filters, however, so everything has to be prefocused, then the filter is put on. These filters also cause me to have one gripe about my Canon 5D camera...it is impossible to read the meter settings through the viewfinder when one of these filters is used in the bright sunlight of midday. I wish the meter display in the viewfinder would remain bright enough to see the shutter and meter settings under such circumstances (of course, I merely have to look at the settings on the LCD panel on the top of the camera...but I generally rely on the display in the viewfinder). Oh well...the 5D does indeed take some pretty great images, so this is a minor complaint.

Sunrise Over Mono Lake, CA - July 23, 2007

2007-08-14T12:42:00.000-07:00

Here's another photo, this one taken just before sunrise over South Tufa, Mono Lake, CA. Here are the details:

Canon 5D, Canon EF17-40 f/4L at 20mm, f/10, 1/4 sec., ISO100, using a Gitzo 2540 with an AcraTech Ballhead.

- Richard

Star Trails Over Mt. Adams from Takh Lakh, Washington - August 10, 2007

2007-08-14T08:13:00.000-07:00

This photo (taken 8/10/2007) is a composite (digital equivalent of a "double-exposure") with the first image taken at sunset using a Canon 5D camera, Canon 24mm TSE (tilt-shift) lens shifted about 6 degrees, f/16, 1.3 sec, ISO 100, with a 2-stop split-neutral density filter (to tone down the highlights in the snow fields on Mt. Adams). The second exposure (the star trails) was taken at 10:20 PM (on August 10, 2007) ISO 250, f3.5, 30 minutes (I was trying to catch the Perseids meteor shower, but very few meteors were visible, and only one is visible in this image (barely)).

At this time of the year, this meteor shower directs meteors directly over Mt. Adams (pointed straight at the peak!), but this year's display wasn't too brilliant! Nonetheless, the lake was remarkably still, with a hint of fog over the water and still enough to reflect the stars flawlessly for the full 30 minute exposure...a grand show!

Richard