Doug Haass Photography

Punk Rocker Heron

2012-01-18T18:14:00.000-06:00

I fired off quite a few shots of this Tri-colored Heron while I was sitting on the ground. I had my tripod down low and tracked it as it walked around looking for food. Most of the herons, egrets and similar birds, either voluntarily or not, will ruffle their feathers and create some funny looks. This is one of them.

Tri-colored Heron

1/1000 @ F4
500mm focal length
ISO 200
Aperture priority
Pattern metering mode
Off camera flash using Better Beamer

Reduced exposure -.18 in Lightroom 3.6 and cropped in vertical

Observation Tower in Fog

2012-01-16T00:00:00.013-06:00

The original shot from here lacked any detail. You could only see the top of the tower in the photo, totally obscured by the fog. I liked the color in the sky and did not want to do anything to change it, but the shot didn't really do anything for me.

I recently purchased Nik Color Efex Pro 4, an upgrade from my version 3, which I liked a lot. I went from Lightroom 3.6 into Color Efex Pro 4 as an external editor. After applying any effects it brings the finished product back into Lightroom as a tiff file, next to the unaffected Raw file. You then can export it out as a jpeg to your blog, website, Facebook, etc.

I clicked on the Landscape tab and pulled up the options Nik had for default for that genre. As I scrolled down the 9 or 10 options listed, I noticed the one called Details Enhancer. As soon as I clicked on it I knew this was the one I needed to add some dimension to the photo. It actually allowed me to see through the fog and bring out the structure of the tower, immediately adding something that was missing from the photo. There are sliders you can tweak to get the exact level of the effect you need. I moved the slider almost to max setting in order to bring out the lower levels of the tower.

Observation Tower in the Fog at Sunrise

Kingfisher in Fog

2012-01-15T12:48:00.001-06:00

I made it back out to my favorite haunt on a very cold (34 deg with frost) and foggy Saturday morning. I wanted to check out how the recent rains had helped the park water levels at Brazos Bend State Park. They made a huge impact on some of the lakes in the park. Creekfield Lake is now full, Pilant Lake is a lake again and 40 Acre Lake has come up more (though not back to normal levels).

I got to the park at 6:30am, well ahead of sunrise. I mounted my gear on my tripod, put my cold weather gear on and hit the trail to 40 Acre Lake. My first goal was to get to the top of Observation Tower to shoot a panorama showing the water levels in 40 Acre and Pilant lakes. The pano was shot handheld with my 24-70mm lens. I walked around the outer edges of the top and just made sure I kept the horizon in the same general location in each shot as I went all the way around it.

40 Acre Lake (left), Pilant Lake (middle) and Spillway Trail (right)

There was a layer of fog on the ground that was difficult to shoot through for some time. I would try to focus on something and it would be hazy looking through the lens. At first I thought it was fogging my lens, but it was clear. It was just the fog on the ground.

The series of shots to follow over the next few days were all shot with my Canon 50D + 500mm, some with the extender and some without. This was without it. I processed this foggy shot in Nik Silver Efex Pro 2 as the color shot lacked any punch and I wanted a moody feeling to it. I cropped it to 4:5 format because it looked better than the original 2:3 format.

Belted Kingfisher in Fog

Galveston Photo Shoot #3

2012-01-11T21:44:00.002-06:00

Another shot of Lauren. This is my first real attempt to use a layer mask, and I did it in Lightroom 3.6 using OnOne's software called Perfect Layers 2. The free background was downloaded off the internet.

I saw a video demonstrating how to use the mask tools and edge detection in Photoshop CS5 that I will probably try out to see if I can improve this shot. I might be able to do it with the new version 2 that I just installed and used on this photo. I'm not familiar with the new features yet.

Lauren in Dune

1/250 @ F9 and ISO 200
Focal length: 120mm
Manual mode using softbox with 580EXII flash in front of the model on the ground. I combination reflector/diffuser was used to control the sun coming in behind her. It was twisted slightly allowing the sun to highlight her hair.

Galveston Photo Shoot - Lauren #2

2012-01-09T19:37:00.002-06:00

I decided to go tight on a shot I had taken in the dunes. I wanted to convert to B&W, so my tool of choice was Silver Efex Pro 2. I used the plugin as an external editor through Lightroom 3.6.

The preset was a high key style. This made the bone structure of Lauren's nose disappear into the photo. I had bounced this shot off Steve Schuenke and he suggested burning in the nose just slightly. I was able to do this in Lightroom 3.6 using the adjustment brush.

Click on the photo to see it larger.

Lauren

1/250 @ F9.0 and 140mm
0EV, ISO 200
Camera and flash in manual mode.
580 EX II flash for fill, diffuser screen from my 5 in 1 portable reflector/diffuser

Diffuser placed behind Lauren to reduce direct sun. Portable flash in softbox on a paint stick in front for fill.

Galveston Photo Shoot - Lauren #1

2012-01-02T11:13:00.004-06:00

A group of us got together a few days after Christmas to shoot some late afternoon and sunset portraits in Galveston. We used light on a stick (flash in a softbox mounted on a telescoping paint stick), reflectors and a mix of natural light. Our volunteer models, who we've shot on numerous occasions, braved the cool weather down at the water's edge and we ended up with some very nice shots.

The first shot I'm posting in the series is of Lauren. The sun was still pretty high in the sky and a little harsh to allow it through unfiltered. The deep shadows were a little too much, so we feathered it with the diffusion part of my combo reflector/diffuser. Most of the sun was diffused in this shot, with the exception of a little sun allowed to highlight Lauren's blonde hair.

We also used the softbox on a stick to provide some fill light. All shooting was done in manual, flash and camera, so we could control the amount of light being used. There were some flowers in the dunes we used for the background, which don't really show in this shot, as a result of me going with a monotone image. I wanted the focus to be on Lauren.

Processed in Lightroom 3.5. Adjusted WB to Daylight, set black & white points, applied a tone curve adjustment, set lens correction for my lens and left Camera Calibration on Adobe Standard. Applied a slight vignette to place more focus on the subject's face.

The final adjustment was applying a modified Lightroom antique preset.

Lauren

Shot with a Canon 5D + 70-200mm F2.8L
1/250 @ F9 at 125mm
ISO 200
0EV
Manual exposure

Backyard Red-shouldered Hawk

2011-12-23T11:06:00.002-06:00

You never know what you'll find in your backyard. Just got home from work and heard it before I saw it. Then I heard all the nervous doves that were roosted in the same tree with the hawk. Of course the light was bad, but I went inside, grabbed up my already mounted 500mm with 1.4x and took a few shots. It didn't seem to be in a real hurry, so I had time to grab my tripod and mount it. I kept trying to work my way around to a clear shot, but there were too many small branches sticking up all around it.

Spot metered and +1/2 EC. I had to add another 1/2 in processing. I thought I had moved it to +1 when shooting, but didn't confirm it until it flew off. No flash (would have helped using my Beamer) 1/500@F5.6 at ISO 400 and 700mm.

Red-shouldered Hawk

Nature Walks

2011-12-17T22:49:00.000-06:00

I don't realize how much I miss shooting nature until I can't get out and do it. With getting ready for the holidays there just isn't enough time to get out. I watch the weather reports, looking for a break in the cloud cover. I'm thinking I'll take off for a day if it ever clears up, just to shoot in the morning, so I can plan on it.

These two shots are what I miss most; the solitude of walking the trail and the wonder of nature.

40 Acre Lake Trail

Black-bellied Whistling Ducks coming in for a Landing on Pilant Lake

Dickens on the Strand Final

2011-12-08T20:06:00.001-06:00

The last of this series from Dickens on the Strand.

Buck...I don't know, it seemed appropriate.

Rachel

Rhonda

Dickens on the Strand #2

2011-12-07T20:40:00.002-06:00

Another selection of photos from Saturday afternoon. Steampunk was a hit last year and they were out in full force this year. There was no small amount of people who were more than willing to have their picture taken by total strangers. We always find some way to get their photos to them electronically. They are also very appreciative to get them.

What the street artists did while working with concrete as a medium was nothing short of amazing. This guy in the chains was so good it was unreal. He stayed in character the whole time I saw him moving around the event, and he did it so well. The town drunk caught me taking his photo and did his best not to break his pose, but cracked a little smile as I shot.

Steampunk

Town Drunk

Street Art

Street Art & Artist

Dickens on the Strand 2011

2011-12-04T20:03:00.000-06:00

Generally a popular field trip for my camera club; there seemed to be a dearth of members on this one. It's a shame, because they missed some fantastic opportunities to shoot a variety of very willing subjects.

I shot most of my stuff at F2.8 with my Canon 70-200mm F2.8L and Canon 5D (full frame). I moved between ISO 200 and 400, depending on the available light at any particular location. It was forecast to be totally clouded in, but it ended up being partly sunny throughout the 3 hours I was there. We just avoided the shots in full sun and mostly worked in the open shaded areas.

We tend to move our subjects to areas with nice backgrounds if possible, but do capture many of our photos just on the fly. We try to control the background by moving camera location to keep it clean and uncluttered. It's hard to do with so many people walking back and forth behind your subjects.

Processing was very basic (black & white points, set camera & lens profile and a small tone curve adjustment); all done in Lightroom 3.6. I have a few of them left that I will work on using various plugins out of LR.

Parasols

Violin Player

Steampunk

Glass Blower

Brazos Bend State Park - Thanksgiving Morning #2

2011-11-26T22:30:00.000-06:00

Balance of some shots I took on Thanksgiving morning. Very foggy; sun only popped out for a few minutes before retreating behind low cloud cover. It came back out later around 9:00am, but too late for pretty morning light that I'm looking to shoot.

American Bittern and Great Egret are non-cropped on close-up shots with 700mm on tripod. Daylight white balance used on all of these, so they may look cool to most of you. The one warm shot of Bittern was when sun briefly popped out across a section of 40 Acre Lake and hit on the bird while I was waiting for it. The Bittern was non-plused with me being 15-20 feet away. It only got nervous when I tried moving in with my 5D + 70-200mm handheld, so I backed off not wanting to stress it out.

I contemplated cloning out the birds on the ground in the flight shot (last photo), but decided they were there, so left them in. That shot was with my Canon 5D with 70-200mm F2.8L. I had left my 50D on tripod and walked down where they were flying in and out of Pilant Lake.

Black-bellied Whistling Ducks

American Bittern

Great Blue Heron

Brazos Bend State Park on a Foggy Thanksgiving Morning

2011-11-25T13:57:00.001-06:00

Wow. Managed to have a few brief minutes of a peeping through the fog sun, then it disappeared until 9:00am. The park has received more rain in the last few weeks. Things are starting to pick up nicely. It's still not where it was last year, but the birds are coming in and staying for a time.

I've noticed it has gotten considerably noisier behind the island located to the right as you hit 40 Acre Lake trail, coming in from the north side of the parking lot. A lot of the birds seem to be hanging out on the back (south) side of it.

I've seen more Pied-billed Grebes and Teal than what I've been used to over the last several months. Good numbers of Black-bellied Whistling Ducks are flying in and over 40 Acre and Pilant Lakes on a regular basis. Shot my first American Bittern while seeing smaller numbers of Snowy Egrets, White Egrets, Great Heron, Little Blues and Great Blues. I also shot this one White-faced Ibis I saw. Light was bad and my flash decided to quit working, so no beamer shots, all natural light.

There is a pair of Red-shouldered Hawks that have been pretty much camped out around Pilant and 40 Acre Lake for the last few months. You can hear them talking back and forth to each other if you pay attention to the sounds while you are at the park. One of them is perched, at some point during the day, on a dead tree sticking up almost due north of Observation Tower.

If you are patient you can get some nice shots when they fly in for a meal at 40 Acre. Birds in flight, or even on the ground for that matter, were a stretch with the fog being so heavy and a lack of sunlight to create any contrast.

Great weather and moisture for shooting spider webs and dew covered plant life. I should have spent more time doing that on this trip.

Sunrise through trees and fog 1/1500@ F5.6 ISO 200 w/700mm on tripod

American Bittern at Sunrise 1/125@F5.6 700mm on tripod

Nutria in Fog 1/60@F5.6, +1EV 700mm on tripod

Pied-billed Grebe 1/125@F5.6 700mm on tripod

Dew covered Web 1/200@ F2.8 ISO 200 Handheld

Texas Renaissance Festival 2011 #3

2011-11-07T00:00:00.002-06:00

As I indicated in my previous post, the light can play havoc with you while trying to get some decent shots of the Gypsy Dance Theatre dancers. Sometimes I resort to taking drastic measures to compensate for the exposures that fall out of range of my camera meter.

In this case I thought the photo of Soraya would work with some presets I have installed in Lightroom 3.5. I tried a few of them and decided I liked this one best (300 v1 from Matt Kloskowski). I still have the tambourine skin blown out, but I'll live with it for now. I also applied a burn adjustment to darken some areas to place more focus on her rather than the surrounding foreground and background.

Soraya

Exp: 1/200 @ F4.5
Focal length: 200mm
Exposure bias: 0EV
ISO 100
No flash
Aperture priority
Spot metered

Texas Renaissance Festival 2011 #2

2011-11-06T11:41:00.003-06:00

This is Farasha. She is what I consider to be the matriarch of the Gypsy Dance Theatre. I know all the other dancers defer to her and her skills of the dance. This shot is natural light with a Canon 5D + 70-200 F2.8L IS lens.

When shooting the dancers on this stage you have to be very aware of the background and its limitations, as well as the stage itself. On one side there is a harsh white line made from the roof of a nearby building. On another side is the stage with all the musical instruments. Then you have what I consider to be the best option; the side with some trees and a building with nice colors to place the dancer against. That is where I shot this one from.

You still have to know there are people in the audience who will show in the photo too, especially if they are wearing light colors. There are also some food booths that are bright and show in the background.

The stage has its own share of problems to deal with too. For one; it is wide open to the sun. Depending on the time of day you can get some filtered light through some surrounding trees. There are some fixtures attached to the corners of the stage that don't allow unimpeded views of their feet, so they get cut off all the time. The light can be harsh bouncing off the stage, so I burn that in when needed.

Optimum lighting would be very minimal fill flash if you want to remove shadows under the eyes and what not, but the play of shadows and light do tend to make a photo appear alive.

Farasha

Exp: 1/800 @ F3.2
Aperture priority
Metering: Partial
ISO 100
Exp bias: -1.00 EV
Focal length: 200mm
No flash

Texas Renaissance Festival 2011

2011-11-03T21:43:00.000-05:00

I always enjoy going to this festival. For the last few years I have been shooting with some friends using flash almost exclusively to capture the myriad costumes and characters at the event.

This year, Steve Schuenke and I decided to push the envelope and try more natural lighting, as well as shooting different subjects. That lasted for awhile, but we really missed not using flash closeup. We struggled mightily all day, but did manage to come up with a few different shots.

Here are a few of my early attempts at uniqueness.

Butterflies on a String

Exposure: 1/100 @ F4.0
Focal length: 115mm
Exposure bias: 0EV
ISO 100
No flash
Exposure mode: Aperture priority
Metering mode: Pattern
Canon EOS 5D + 70-200mm F2.8L IS

Backlit Butterflies

Exposure: 1/500 @ F4.0
Focal length: 200mm
Exposure bias: 0EV
ISO 100
No flash
Exposure mode: Aperture priority
Metering mode: Pattern
Canon EOS 5D + 70-200mm F2.8L IS

Colored Sands

Exposure: 1/200 @ F4.0
Focal length: 200mm
Exposure bias: -1-2/3 EV
ISO 100
No flash
Exposure program: Aperture priority
Metering mode: Pattern
Canon EOS 5D + 70-200mm F2.8L IS

More Sandhill Cranes

2011-10-24T17:31:00.000-05:00

I went back to see what I could find of the cranes, as well as return the hay I had borrowed for the Fall photo shoot on Sunday. They were in the same location, but certainly fewer in number. I counted 56 in the field.

They were still way out there; even with me using a 2x extender with my 500mm, for an effective 1600mm. I have the long shot showing just how far out, and a cropped shot, as well as one flight shot.

Sandhill Cranes

2011-10-21T16:04:00.004-05:00

This isn't a work of art. It is a representation of what I partly saw while driving down FM 2004 today after picking up some hay from a friend of mine, for a fall photo shoot.

I didn't know how many photos Photoshop could photomerge, but I gave it a shot. The first time I tried it with Raw files and it choked due to file size. I tried it again with a smaller number of Raw files. It created the panorama, but choked on the final size of the file, exceeding the 4 gig limit. I went back and converted to jpeg at 67% size and it worked. I still ended up having to save it as a tiff file.

Anyway, the point was trying to show you how many Sandhill Cranes were in this field. I didn't accomplish that completely as I had to cut the merge short of the total files. I was using a 500mm lens with 1.4x extender and overlapping quite a bit to get full coverage. I also did this handheld, wind blowing and hordes of mosquitoes attacking me from the tall grasses.

I'm uploading a small photo. Click on it to see a larger size photo, but not the original merge size. I left the blank background in the photo because I couldn't crop it where everything showed. I also did not want to clone or patch anything into the photo. This is for information only, not an artful representation. I was too far away to use a wide angle or they would have looked too small.

Click on the thin pano below this sentence. Yeah I know; it's really thin. That's how I reduced file size to make it work.

Wings Over Houston Airshow

2011-10-21T13:58:00.000-05:00

Decided at the last minute to go shoot some flight shots at Wings Over Houston Airshow at Ellington Field last weekend. I didn't want to go inside, nor did I want to pay $20 to park down the road that lines up with the runway on the north side of the field. I opted to park in a church parking lot (free) on Genoa Red Bluff Road where I could still line up with the runway.

I had to contend with some power lines; so that was a stupid move on my part, but I was able to work with it anyway. I set up in the bed of my truck with a tripod mounted 500mm with 1.4x extender. I figured I was pretty far back and wanted some reach. On the other hand I thought I might get some close up shots as they came in on the back side of the field and directly over my head.

I did pull my extender off after awhile as it was hard to follow the jets as they went through maneuvers at high speed.

Maternity #2

2011-10-18T22:01:00.000-05:00

Another shot in this series. Obviously we had some fun with this one. We had their son paint her belly, while her husband had the honor of spelling out the baby's name. I used a frame from OnOne's Photoframe 4.6 plugin for Lightroom 3.

I used a black backdrop and two softboxes with 580EX flashes. They were controlled remotely by Cybersync trigger and receivers.

Maternity Shoot

2011-10-16T19:33:00.001-05:00

I agreed to shoot some maternity photos for Michael and Laura last year. They had seen some shots I took for my son and daughter-in-law earlier in the year and asked if I would do some for them.

She was pretty far along at that point, so I didn't know how well she would hold up during the shoot. Basically, she could have had the baby while we were shooting. They were both troupers as we took about 4 hours or so to shoot a variety of poses. Later Laura told me she had crashed that afternoon, not realizing how much it took out of her.

I knew they had a pretty good sized window I could use for natural light fill, but it was facing west. There were several objects infringing on that light, so I ended up shooting with fill flash in the front and sidelight from the window for many of the shots.

For the shot shown here I actually placed my flash outside the window on full power to achieve the high key blown out background. I had another flash on a softbox in manual mode for fill; it was dialed back manually. I had picked up several selections of gauzy, soft material at Hancock Fabrics a few days before to use in the shoot.

Laura

Canon 50D + Canon 24-70 F2.8L
Exposure: 1/180 @ F4 and 46mm
Exposure bias: 0EV
ISO 200 and manual mode
Center-weighted metering

Canon 580EX in manual at full power, placed outside window. Another 580EXII was on a stand with a softbox where I used a Cybersync trigger and receivers to activate them.

Processed in Lightroom 3 with no corrections and then edited in PS CS5. Added an adjustment layer for brightness after selecting the background using the quick selection tool. The white sheet over the window did not blow all the way out in a few areas, so I manually did it with a brightness increase. I then added another adjustment layer for levels to lighten the shadows on her face some.

Spot healed a belly ring mark above her navel.

Mesa Arch and Washer Woman Arch

2011-10-01T17:09:00.006-05:00

My wife bought me some software by Nik called HDR Efex Pro (at my request of course). I really do like the Nik plugins that are available for Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop products. Sure you can do many of the same adjustments in Photoshop CS5, but why spend more time doing it. It's also easier and have I mentioned it's faster.

Anyway, I was reviewing some shots taken in July 2006 in Canyonlands National Park, located in Utah just outside of Moab. I am a better photographer now than I was back then. At least I like to think I am. I'm also better at processing, as well as having better tools to work with on my photos.

The photo is of the iconic Mesa Arch and Washer Woman Arch located behind it. If you look towards the middle of the photo, right over the arch, you will see what looks like a woman scrubbing clothes on a rock. Most people don't see it or even know what it is.

The three (3) photos are the straight out of camera Raw shot, warts and all and two (2) processed versions using Nik HDR Efex Pro. The first processed version is pretty much how I saw it. The second one is more of an edgier version. In both processed versions I used a single shot and created a -1, 0, +1 version to work on using Lightroom 3.5. It only took a few minutes to do both versions.

I didn't do any bracketing at the time. You really had to jostle for position to shoot and time was short before the light got too bright. There were shooters already in front of the arch and in the way at 5:00am. This shot was from a different perspective from what you may be used to seeing, which is through the arch itself. I took several of those type shots too.

What really surprised me was how the bottom of the arch turned such a bright orange. You see that in most of the photos on the web and think they must have saturated that shot. That is not the case. The light bouncing up from the rocks under the arch turns orange in color. It stays that way for some time.

Which HDR shot do you like, if at all? I prefer the more natural look of the first one.

Mesa Arch at Sunrise

Mesa Arch HDR1

Mesa Arch HDR2

You Just Never Know What You Will See

2011-09-27T22:51:00.000-05:00

I came home from work like normal. Unload the truck, let the dog out and go get the mail. The only difference this time was the Graackkk...Graaack...Graaackk sounds I heard as I walked to the mailbox at the end of my driveway.

I look to my right and see two parakeets eating crepe myrtle buds from my trees. We are not talking about small birds either. These are full grown large birds. They don't like me getting close either and make me aware of it by making those loud noises I mentioned earlier.

I had my camera with 500mm lens still mounted on my tripod in the house from shooting hummingbirds in my backyard this last weekend. I slipped by the parakeets and got my gear from the house. When I came back out they moved to another crepe tree when they saw me. I was afraid they would fly off and moved back away from them to the point where they did not feel threatened.

I set up and took as as many shots as possible before trying to move in a little closer to get a frame filling shot. That's when they flew into my oak tree overhead. As I tried to locate them, they flew down the street to another tree. I picked up my gear, moving in that direction to see if I could get a full length shot so I could identify them better. From there they flew off where I could not follow.

These are a few shots I managed to take in that short time. My Sibley's Guide to Birds shows them to be Monk Parakeets. If you know the description to be different please comment here.

Monk Parakeet

Hummers...they blink too.

2011-09-26T00:01:00.002-05:00

Another in a series of shots taken in my backyard this weekend. As I have indicated in the previous post, you never know what you will catch shooting at 6.5 frames per second. I have my camera set up to shoot using the diopter adjustment. That means I can get a sharp photo without glasses, but I cannot see what's on the lcd screen after the shot.

You would never be able to see this with your eyes, so the camera obliges us with another moment frozen in time. Canon 50D + 500mm F4L + Canon Extension tube EF12 II on tripod.

Exp: 1/750 @ F4.5
Focal length: 500mm
+1/2 EV
ISO 400
No flash, aperture priority and spot metering.

Hummers...the birds, not the vehicles

2011-09-25T17:58:00.001-05:00

I spent a an hour or so over the last two days trying to shoot hummingbirds in my backyard. The wind made things difficult by incessantly whipping the Hamelia (hummingbird) bushes all over the place. This made it imperative to use AI Servo mode on my camera; though that still hunted quite a bit with everything moving, not just the hummingbirds.

My camera shoots at 6.5 frames per second which is essential to capturing things that take place in split seconds rather than minutes. The following photo is one of those rare captures that you don't see until you are reviewing the photos on your computer. It made me laugh when I saw it; hope you do too.

Canon 50D + 500mm F4L + Canon EF12 II extension tube
Extension tube allowed me to shorten the minimum focus of the long lens to fill the frame a little more than normal.

Exposure: 1/2000 @ F4
Focal length: 500mm
Exposure bias: 0EV
ISO 400 (to keep shutter speed faster)
No flash, aperture priority and spot metering

When the Golden Light Fades, Don't Quit

2011-09-16T21:44:00.002-05:00

I always make plans to be at the park before sunrise. That gives me enough time to get my gear together and get on the trail. It also allows me to catch the first light as it hits the lake. If anything is moving I will take advantage of it and get that nice golden light.

As the morning wears on the light quickly becomes very harsh. I will usually move to the east side of 40 Acre Lake at that time. There is always open shade from the trees behind you that allows you to keep shooting longer then you normally would. Anything in that shade will photograph quite well. The only thing to be aware of and lookout for is the bright background behind your subject as you shoot.

Because the light filters through the trees you can get some nice shots of dappled light hitting plants and animals. Again, a warning; you have to be careful you don't blow out the highlights. Lastly, no matter what you do, get the eye in focus.

Click on the first photo and you can then scroll through the rest at large size. All shot with Canon 50D + Canon 500 F4L. Photo of moth also had Canon Extension Tube 25 to reduce minimum focus distance. This allowed me to get a larger subject by moving in closer to the moth. I still had to crop heavily.

Lotus Flower and Honeybee

Lotus Pad

Juvenile Little Blue Heron

Little Blue Heron and a Meal

Great Blue Heron among Lotus Pads

Alligator Sunning on Bank of Trail on 40 Acre Lake

Unidentified Moth

Great Blue Heron

Subjects of Brazos Bend State Park

2011-09-15T20:49:00.000-05:00

Brazos Bend State Park has a variety of wildlife, birds, insects and flowers. Even though water levels are perilously low, nature still thrives there. I spent the better part of last weekend documenting the many different subjects available to most any photographer willing to get there early and put in the time to find them. I am including a sampling of them today.

All shot with Canon 50D + Canon 500mm F4L. All in aperture priority and using spot metering. Click on any of them to see them larger.

Spillway Bridge

Great Blue Heron

Pilant Lake in Light Fog

Lotus Flower

Green Heron

Cardinal - Female

Red-bellied Woodpecker

Early Morning or Late Evening Golden Light

2011-09-12T20:57:00.001-05:00

Early morning or late evening golden light is what I'm looking for when I go shoot. It doesn't matter where I'm at as much as when I'm there. One caveat with that statement would be having that beautiful light hitting the wrong spot, specifically the one where you are not.

Catching that light requires knowing something about the area and where the sun hits at a certain time of day. I know that there is a curve in the island within 40 Acre Lake. Depending on the time of year the light will not reach all the way around that curve, so I have to be in front of that curve to get the sweet light when the sun first pops over the treeline.

This shot is an example of what color light I'm looking to get; warm golden light.

Cottontail Rabbit at Sunrise

Exposure: 1/125 @ F4
Focal length: 500mm
ISO 200
No flash
Aperture priority, spot metering

Canon 50D + Canon 500mm F4L IS

Flying White Ibis

2011-09-11T13:35:00.005-05:00

I have attempted taking photos of birds in flight numerous times. Most of the photographers I've seen having success with this type photo have shot handheld, not on a tripod. I've found the weight of my 500mm lens with camera body to be 10 pounds and not conducive to hand holding for me. It is just too hard to hold the lens steady, even using IS (image stabilization) of the lens.

To that end I have continually tried to capture flight using my ball head with a Wimberley Sidekick mounted on it. I chose not to try the full Wimberley Head due to weight and price concerns, though it may be the better choice for this type photography.

I guess there is something to be said for being stubborn. I finally got my first real bird in flight; sharp, eye in focus and with a decent background to boot.

White Ibis in Flight

Exp: 1/1000 @ F4.0
Focal length: 500mm
Exp bias: 0 EV
No flash
Exp program: AV priority
Metering: Spot

Canon 50D + Canon 500mm F4L IS

Processed in Lightroom 3.4.1
Dropped exposure 1 stop to bring some detail back. Still lost some whites in the neck and shoulders. Once you blow out those highlights they are gone. While at times it is possible to use the recovery slider to bring the exposure down in those areas, you still cannot get the details back.

The other negative you have to be careful with is the odd looking gray color it introduces while trying to bring the exposure back in line. In this case I used the exposure slider itself. Trying to burn it in would only make it worse, again because there is no detail to work with. It will only introduce an ugly brown where there is no detail.

Otters at Brazos Bend State Park

2011-09-10T21:07:00.000-05:00

Went to the park Friday morning hoping to get a spectacular sunrise and not knowing if smoke was going to be an issue. Neither one of them happened, though one could argue being able to see the sunrise was still pleasurable. Got there at 6:30am and for two hours everything was pretty much normal, other than making more long shots of critters than usual with the lower water levels.

That's when things changed. I was about 100 yards from the Observation Tower on 40 Acre Lake, working my way back from Spillway Bridge. Much to my surprise I saw 3 shapes slinking across from Pilant towards 40 Acre Lake just behind the tower. It was 3 River Otters.

I moved as fast as I could with my 500mm setup to verify what I saw and try to get a shot. Long story short...I believe this is the adult male. I saw the adult female and pup but never could get a shot of them together. They were very nervous around people and I did not want to stress them by chasing after them. It's not worth getting the shot if you stress out the subject.

They ended up in 40 Acre Lake with some very observant gators making tracks in their direction. I was just lucky enough to catch a decent shot of the male who was looking at me, as he hesitated before heading into the water. 1st shot shows the edge of Observation Tower looking south down the trail. That's where they all ended up together. I took a photo of their tracks.

The park manager Steve Killian is placing the two photos on their Facebook page. They are now up on the site. They were pretty excited I had photos. Someone else had told them about seeing the otters, but they didn't have a memory card in their camera, so they were hoping someone got some shots. If you manage to get some of the otter family please stop in at the Ranger station. Let them know where you saw them.

Click on the photos to see them much larger.

Take a Look Behind You

2011-08-31T00:01:00.006-05:00

I've read it , heard it and done it. Don't get so focused on the one thing in front of you that you miss the opportunity to shoot what is going on behind you.

I was watching the sun track up the arch, leaving shadows across the landscape in front of me, with a hard edged line between them. While I was waiting on the sun to go down and the full moon to start its path over the eastern horizon, I decided to look behind me. The photo below is what I was rewarded with as a result.

I did not have a graduated neutral density filter in my camera bag. I also was not that well versed on shooting multiple exposures to combine later in Photoshop. Photomatix for HDR was not even out at the time, at least not that I knew about. I did understand bracketing shots, but I could not resolve the difference between the sky and the foreground at that time. So I just shot and metered off to the side of the sun, not metering directly at it, checking my lcd after each shot. I didn't know anything about histograms at that point either.

Anyway, now that I am revisiting these shots I find I have better skills and tools to do them justice. I removed any spots using Photoshop CS5 and the healing brush with content aware. I created two gradients using Lightroom 3.4.1; one for the foreground and another for the sky. I applied the Camera Landscape camera profile and a lens correction. There was not a profile for my lens, so I used one very close to it that seemed to work quite well.

I applied a small 'S' tone curve and a +20 luminance noise reduction with a small +17 sharpening adjustment and a +57 mask in Lightroom. Canon EOS 5D full frame + 28-105mm, F3.5-4.5 USM lens, 0 EV, Pattern metering mode, 1/5 @ F14 exposure, ISO 100 and aperture priority.

Click on the photo for a larger version. Go here to see my previous processing on this photo.
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Arches National Park

2011-08-30T17:44:00.006-05:00

I've been going over some photos from my trip to Moab, Utah several years back. I found that at the time I had only picked out a few photos to process and post. I have several more worthy of posting (in my humble opinion) since it is too hot around here to do much shooting right now.

This photo was taken at sunset in Arches National Park. What an awesome park! I bought a pass to Arches and Canyonlands National Parks so I could come and go as I pleased. This allowed me to capture lighting at different times of the day, thereby maximizing my time spent taking photos.

Arches was 5 minutes on the edge of town, while Canyonlands was about a 45 minute trip, both of them very doable multiple times during the day and into the night. On the day of this photo a flash flood had hit Moab. It was also scheduled for a rising full moon. My plan was to catch the moon coming through or at least rising over Delicate Arch.

Several groups of people made the trip to the top of the rise where the arch is located. It can be fairly treacherous carrying all your gear while traversing the slickrock slopes. If anything, it's a little tiring as you slowly make your way to the landing at the top.

I was plenty early and was able to capture some nice moments as the sun dropped lower in the sky. This photo is a good example of what it looks like as the sun drops behind the mountains to the west. The sun lights up the iron oxide in the sandstone formations and ridges, creating some very nice rich tones in the rock. The clouds from the dissipating thunderstorm certainly add to the dynamics of the scene.

The bowl in the foreground can be tricky to navigate when the sun finally sets, turning into night. You really need to have a headlamp or portable light of some kind while moving around up there. The ledge that allows access and egress from the location is very narrow. It makes for a hairy situation when you first see it and realize you have to walk on it to get to where you are going.

The small triangular object in the lower right of the photo is actually water filling a small depression in the sandstone. One thing I realized after working on this shot was that I had posted it before on this blog.

Go here and here to see the two versions I made at the time. One version my calibration was off, so I redid it. Note any differences between them and the new one just posted. I have the same scenario on my next posting for tomorrow

Delicate Arch Sunset

Canon EOS 5D + 28-105mm F3.5-4.5 USM, 100 ISO
Exposure .3 sec @ F18
Focal length 28mm
0 EV, Aperture priority,
Patter metering mode

Applied the Camera Standard profile in Lightroom 3.4.1. Applied two gradients, one from the top and another from the bottom to even out exposure across the photo. Removed dust spots in PS CS5 and sharpened some in Lightroom.

Valley of Fire Panorama

2011-08-07T09:24:00.000-05:00

Standing on this spot, which I've done many times, made we want to capture the wide view I was witness to at that moment in time. Even though there was a couple witnessing the event with me, it was still an inspiring and quite solitary moment.

I listened for sounds and there was only the wind blowing across the landscape. Every time I've stood at this point in the past, the very same location, I've been struck by the solitude I felt. It's hard to explain or put into words, so instead I share my photos with you.

This panorama is the result of a 4 shot sequence while on a tripod. I do not have a pano head to facilitate a better series of shots and make do by overlapping by about 40-50% on each shot. I don't like seams in the frame and that seems to work well for me.

Click on the photo to see a much larger version.

Valley of Fire State Park

Valley of Fire Revisited

2011-08-06T17:13:00.003-05:00

I previously posted a sunset from this same location on my last trip to Las Vegas. This is the view looking into the sun as it set in the west. Obviously, without using a grad filter to compensate for the different range of light values the sky will be exposed properly while the foreground is underexposed.

In this case I bracketed 3 photos at different exposure values so I could merge them together to create a more properly exposed photo. This version is using Photomatix Pro 4 and tweaking it so it was not a garish HDR rendering of the combined photos.

These were shot in aperture priority, F11 at 1/13, 1/25 and 1/6 sec, -1, 0 and +1 respectively, ISO 200 and on a tripod. Mirror lockup was not used. All shot with Canon 24-70 F2.8L at 24mm and original Canon 5D (full frame).

Another Time

2011-07-26T22:31:00.000-05:00

Another shot in the HDR series from Nelson, Nevada. I'm telling you, this location had a little of everything. I didn't have time to see it all as the light was fading quickly. This plane is from a movie that was filmed in Nelson, not a for real crash landing.

I knew when I shot it I would be doing some kind of HDR effect with it. The light was bad and there were no clouds in the sky to punch things up. Processed in Lightroom 3, exported to Photomatix Pro 4, pulled back into LR 3, back out to Color Efex Pro 3 and then finalized in LR 3.

Valley of Fire State Park

2011-07-26T00:00:00.022-05:00

Just returned from Las Vegas, Nevada. I always make a trip to Valley of Fire State Park when I'm out there. I have one location that I shoot for sunset. I can shoot both directions (east & west) and usually get something in either direction.

If you have never been there your first trip can be frustrating. The sun drops behind the mountains pretty fast. Depending on where you are in the park it can still be pretty much short of the actual sunset, so the light may not be nice at that location. By the time you find a spot it's too late. After a few trips you tend to remember where the best opportunities for sunset are located.

Anyway, this location is just after Rainbow Vista, maybe 1/8 to 1/4 mile north of it. Rainbow Vista is pretty nice too. As you come through the park on the scenic drive you will see the Visitor's Center on the north side of the road. There is another scenic drive that runs to the west and north of the Visitor's Center. That's where this shooting location can be found.

It's a small ridge or overlook in the bend of the road that allows you to get high enough to catch the fading sun at its lowest point before falling behind the distant mountain range. If you are lucky, as I was, you will have the rare chance of clouds for the light to dance across as the sun sets in the west. I'm facing east in this shot.

Click on photo for larger version:

Processed in Lightroom 3
WB - Cloudy, very small "S" tone curve
1/4 sec @ F11 and 24mm
Aperture priority, 0 EV, ISO 200

Canon 5D + 24-70mm F2.8L

Two Doors Down

2011-07-25T00:00:00.003-05:00

Another in my series of HDR shots from Nelson, Nevada. So many things to shoot and so little time as the light continued to drop further behind the mountains. These doors caught my eye so I set up on them and took a 5 shot bracket + 2 stops to - 2 stops.

Processed in Lightroom 3, Photomatix Pro 4 and Color Efex Pro 3.0.

Chevy in HDR

2011-07-24T00:04:00.002-05:00

Another HDR from my Nelson, Nevada shoot. I have a lot to learn about HDR, but I'll keep working it until I get some kind of routine built up. This is a 5 shot stack, processed in Lightroom 3, exported to Photomatix Pro 4, brought back into Lightroom 3 and run through Nik Color Efex Pro 3.

If you check out the front bumper, lower right you should see the photographer and tripod in reflection. By the way, it was very windy. This plays heck with HDR and proved itself out against the antenna. While I did apply the ghosting correction it still left a weird bend to the top half.

Another thing I think I'm noticing is areas that blow out tend to be difficult to blend in using HDR. I'm talking about the area above the roofline, to the left of the antenna. Someone who knows better can comment to that please.

Nelson, Nevada in HDR

2011-07-23T19:14:00.003-05:00

This is my first true HDR for posting other than a barely there HDR landscape and one true HDR + Topaz painted landscape that I did a year or more ago. I've seen some really good HDR from fellow Bay Area Photo Club member Barry Armer, so I wanted to try some on my recent trip to Las Vegas.

Since the devastating earthquake and tsunami in Japan things have dried up gear wise from Canon and Nikon. I was looking for a new camera body to pick up and my wife found a camera shop in Las Vegas for me that I wanted to check out. You never know where you might get lucky and find something no one else has in stock. I didn't have any luck in that regard, but I did find a very knowledgeable B & C Camera store employee by the name of Rob.

I'm always on the lookout for new places to shoot in and around Las Vegas, mostly landscapes and cityscapes. Rob told me about Nelson, Nevada. In particular, he told me about a Ghost Town just on the back side of Nelson.

It's not really a ghost town as you may know it. It's a couple who happen to own the property that is filled with abandoned old trucks, cars, buildings, signs, etc. There also happens to be plenty of ground squirrels, rabbits, rattlesnakes (by their count) and Cholla Cactus. I saw three of the four and trust they are right about the 4th one (rattlesnakes) since you have to sign that you absolve them of any and all liability if you are dumb enough to get hurt.

Lighting is tricky for the fact that the sun is still pretty high in the sky and harsher than I would have liked to shoot under the circumstances. I could see some great photo opportunities with some golden light, but it goes from too much to almost none in the blink of an eye. The sun drops behind the mountains in the west and goes flat with no shadows pretty quick. I'm thinking on my next trip there I will try for a morning shoot. There is a sloping valley down to the Colorado River on the east side that may push some sweet light into the buildings. I didn't shoot inside of them because I couldn't get that light.

Anyway, here's my first of several to post. I shot this one in 5 exposures from -2 stops to + 2 stops. They were loaded into Lightroom 3 and using the Photomatix Pro plugin from within LR3 was able to get this version. Any hints on reducing or removing the halo on the mountaintop and other helpful comments to improve the photo are welcome. Click on the photo to see a larger version.

Okay...Don't Move

2011-07-21T19:01:00.004-05:00

Okay, as I said in my last post I did not have enough lens to bring the Desert Bighorn in closer. The sun had set minutes before. That meant climbing up a very steep grade of loose rock...and it's getting darker by the minute.

Did I mention the lady back at Ghost Town in Nelson (another post to follow) said to be very careful walking around. They had picked up about 7 rattlesnakes at her site that week. Must be why they have you sign a form absolving them of any stupidity on your part while on their property. That and the Tarantulas that roam the area. Did I mention the bats...

Anyway, this is a closer shot while on an incline with my tripod and hoping I don't slide (as in fall) down to the bottom of the hill. I'm telling you it was about a 30-35 degree angle. Heck the road carries about a 15 degree slope while driving.

No adjustments to the shot. I'm showing what changing position does for you if you run out of glass. I used center point for focus on many, but not all shots. That's also why he is in dead center of the frame. I'm not concerning myself with any rules of photography at this point. I just want the shot so you can compare. I like to think my blog is more about teaching and less about the perfect shot.

I am including a very hard crop to show you more of the Desert Bighorn Sheep up close. I did tweak the noise using Lightroom 3, but not excessively with the 5D I was shooting with. I also upped exposure 1-1/2 stops. This increase blows out the sky. I can use layers when I have time and apply a gradient, masking off the sheep, but for now I'm not doing that.

1/1600 @ F2.8, spot metered, 0EV, ISO 400 on Canon 5D + 70-200mm F2.8L

You Just Never Know...

2011-07-20T19:58:00.002-05:00

I find myself balancing the security of my camera gear with the need to have it handy in order to capture those rare moments that I'm always looking for. That also applies to how much gear to take with me when I travel. It always seems to be a rare event that I carry what I end up needing.

Part of the problem lies in what kind of photography I anticipate I'll be shooting. At home I can usually get away with nothing longer than 200mm for knock around stuff. For specific trips close to home I can haul everything I have available. Traveling out of state requires more thought, usually based on flight restrictions and what I intend to actually shoot.

I am always on the lookout for unusual sightings out of the corner of my eye while driving. Driving safely is critical, but if you are a photographer you know what I'm talking about.

Anyway, this photo is a solid example of what I saw while scanning for opportunities in Nelson, Nevada. Of course I didn't have enough lens and was on the wrong side of the light, so I made do. My best chance was a silhouette against the twilight sky.

This is a male Desert Bighorn Sheep standing on the ridge against the fading light. I saw his outline as I scanned the rocky slopes off the highway. I stayed after this sheep and a few others that appeared for about an hour as the light gradually disappeared. I also managed to climb up one slope to get myself a little closer with my full frame Canon 5D with 70-200mm F2.8.

This is the original un-cropped photo and what it looked like from my vantage point off the side of the road. The male Bighorn was looking at me as I got out of the car; getting my camera gear out of the back seat of my rental car. If you are sharp-eyed and think you spotted a speck of dust from my sensor you would be wrong. The spot will be in the lower right-hand corner of the photo. This is actually a bat or two. They were flying all around me while I was shooting.

Dragon Wings

2011-07-13T20:39:00.001-05:00

I submitted this photo into my camera club's monthly Honor's Night competition on Tuesday. It won a "Gold" award along with some very nice comments from the judges.

This was taken in the morning at Brazos Bend State Park. I wanted to shoot something a little different and decided to go with a backlit version of this dragonfly. The sun was pretty bright looking down the barrel of my 500mm lens and was creating a little flare in the process. I moved partially behind a tree to reduce the glare. You can see the shape of the diaphragm in the upper left portion of the frame.

I originally thought I had my 1.4x converter mounted for this shot, but it was not. Effective focal length was 800mm and mounted on a tripod. Shot at 1/750 @ F8 from 14-1/2 feet (minimum focus on my 500mm lens). EV -1.5 stops, ISO 200, no flash, aperture priority and spot metered.

Get it while you can...

2011-07-07T00:01:00.034-05:00

What it appears my grandson is saying to me with this look. I tried using off camera flash to catch some special moments of my grandson. After trying to shoot one-handed with my very heavy Canon 70-200 F2.8L lens + Canon 5D and the other hand holding a flash with cord attached to the hot shoe, I gave up. It's too difficult chasing a soon to be 15 month old active baby boy around the den.

I placed the flash on camera in Manual, but did swivel the flash head away from direct flash and bounced it. I had to play around with what worked, but it turned out okay.

It is truly a joy seeing him grow and take on his own little personality.


Canon 5D + 580EX Flash on manual, 1/200 @ F2.8 and ISO 100

Not a Pretty Picture

2011-07-06T00:01:00.004-05:00

I love shooting photos of any and all wildlife. I'm also proud to show many of my shots to anyone who cares to look at them. Most of them are pretty nice shots, if I say so myself. This shot is what I would call an exception to the rule.

I had been witnessing many gators growling at each other up and down this section of the park. It's a unique process, one you have to see and hear to really get the full effect. It's used during mating time and also as a sign of aggression to other gators. I have included a link to a rather long and detailed video describing how it works.

I was on the strip of trail that runs between 40 Acre Lake and Elm Lake. Pilant Lake is to the north, which is where this brute came from. Birds that had been feeding immediately vacated the area. I was looking around for what was creating the uproar when this beast came walking out of the woods on all fours. I could swear it was looking right at me when it came out and flopped down into the mud across from me.

This is not a pretty photo of some pretty wildlife. This is a photo of a prehistoric monster, a very gnarly one. The photo was actually severely overexposed on the right side of the gator. I used the adjustment brush in Lightroom 3.4.1 to correct it using the burn tool.

American Alligator on Pilant Lake side of Brazos Bend State Park

Crawfish Appetizer

2011-07-05T00:01:00.000-05:00

All the wildlife, especially birds, love the crawfish that typically fill the lakes and small ponds of water. The Yellow-crowned Night Heron are always pulling them out of the water onto the banks and trail. This way if they drop them, which happens frequently while fighting to get them down, they don't lose them back into the water.

Yellow-crowned Night Heron eating Crawfish on 40 Acre Lake

1/1500 @ F4 @ ISO 200
Spot metered, Aperture priority
No flash, 0EV
Canon 50D + 500mm F4L

Green-backed Heron

2011-07-04T00:01:00.002-05:00

The Green-backed Heron is a patient fisherman. They sit for hours on stumps and logs in the water constantly scanning for fish and bugs to stray within range of their stretched out necks and beaks. If you have the patience you will be rewarded at some point with a capture of the action on your memory card. If you don't have the patience you will get a shot like this one.


Green-backed Heron on 40 Acre Lake at Brazos Bend State Park

American Alligator

2011-07-03T11:42:00.004-05:00

Another few shots in my BBSP series from Saturday morning. It was really a slow shooting day compared to most other trips I've made to the park. Water levels are really low right now with the drought having a huge impact on the wildlife in the park.

In many places where water has ponded or shrunk in size the gators are in abundance. They are taking the easy kills where fish have gathered in the shallows. After shooting the red-shouldered hawk near the parking lot I decided to stop at the pier at the head of 40 Acre Lake. I was already running late, but seeing what was going on at the pier wasn't going to keep me from getting any first light shots.

As I approached the pier I could hear constant splashing and slapping tails of gators gathered at this location. I saw a good 30 gators of varying size constantly diving into the water after catfish who had run out of room to hide.

I had charged up my HD video camera with plans to bring it along and forgot it at home. That was a bummer. This scene would translate well to video and audio. Next time I'll make sure its charged and in the bag.

Processed both shots in Lightroom 3.4.1. Both shots were underexposed in processing by 1.7 and 1.5 stops, respectively. The second shot taken 2 minutes, 10 seconds later had more available light by virtue of the sun reflecting in the water, hence a faster shutter speed and lighter tones.

American Alligator - 1/1500 @ F4.0, ISO 400, No flash, spot meter, AV priority

American Alligator Feeding - 1/8000 @ F4.0, ISO 400, No flash, spot meter, AV priority

Red-shouldered Hawk

2011-07-02T22:45:00.001-05:00

I tried Creekfield Lake Trail at Brazos Bend State Park again this morning. I was hoping to recreate some of the magic light from Father's Day weekend, but it was not to be. Almost all the water is gone from the lake. No nice reflective colors and no action to be had.

I know when to cut my losses and headed over to 40 Acre Lake, my favorite location to date at BBSP. I stepped out of my truck and spotted a red-shouldered hawk picking up something from the grass at the edge of the parking lot. I already had my gear together in the back seat and quickly moved to find where the hawk landed with its meal.

I managed to catch the hawk a few seconds late as it ate the quick meal it had picked up. The light under the trees was quite low at this time (7:14am) and my first three shots were blurred with slow shutter speeds not stopping the action. I finally managed to fire off a decent shot before it flew off to another tree. The second photo is from that location.

1/20 @ F4 at ISO 200
0 EV, Spot metered, Aperture priority
Canon 580EX fill flash + Better Beamer using ETTL at -3 I believe.
Canon 50D + Canon 500mm F4L + tripod
Processed in Lightroom 3.4.1

1/45 @ F4 at ISO 200
0EV, spot metered, aperture priority
Canon 580EX fill flash + Better Beamer using ETTL at -3 I believe.
Canon 50D + Canon 500mm F4L + tripod
Processed in Lightroom 3.4.1

One with Nature

2011-06-27T00:01:00.000-05:00

It's hard not to get philosophical about communing with nature on a one to one level. Many people still don't understand why so many nature and wildlife photographers either get up so early or stay so late to get "the shot" they are looking for before they head out the door.

I'm usually up by 3:30am or 4:00am whenever I have planned to go out and shoot at sunrise. Of course it's my off day, so the opportunity to sleep in is gone when I plan on shooting on the weekend. I have to say with all honesty, it is hard for me to get up so early at times.

What does help me get up is my quest to get close to nature. I have made all my preparations the night before, so that prepares me and makes it a little easier to go. I also need to release some of the stress that has built up over the week. That is usually the added incentive I have to go ahead and get moving in the right direction.

Once you are up and moving it easy from that point on. You place all your gear into the vehicle and head down the road to your destination. I use outside air coming into the truck to acclimatize my gear to the shooting conditions so I don't have any fogging or condensate issues when I arrive at my destination. It also prepares me to handle whatever temperatures I'll be hiking in. If you drive a car, put your gear in the trunk. It will do the same thing for your equipment and allow you to ride in comfort if you wish to do so.

When you get to your shooting destination you and your gear will be ready before first light. It's always my goal to be on the trail before the sun comes up. This allows me to position myself to catch the best light on my subject and get as many shots under those conditions as time allows. That is usually only 30 minutes to an hour before the light starts getting harsh and more direct.

What follows are a few shots taken in that early morning light and why I like it so much.

Sunrise at the Gate to BBSP

Foggy Sunrise at BBSP

Sunrise at BBSP

Sunrise and Crescent Moon over 40 Acre Lake

Golden Silk Spider

Black-crowned Night Heron on the Hunt

Sunrise across 40 Acre Lake

Sunrise Capturing Backlit Dragonflies in Trees

American Coots Water Walking across 40 Acre Lake at Sunrise

What I Experience at Brazos Bend State Park

2011-06-26T00:01:00.000-05:00

My photography shows you one perspective of Brazos Bend State Park. Two-dimensional representations don't necessarily do it justice. Many of my camera club members (Bay Area Photo Club) have been to the park a few times on field trips, but they have seen only a few different faces or looks of the park on those trips.

I was looking up some videos on You Tube on the park and ran across this one. It very accurately depicts the park as I've seen it on many occasions by getting there before sunrise. The video is by photographer George Hosek. I have provided a link to the video on his personal website.

A few more photos from the park are included below.

Elm Lake Sunrise

Little Blue Heron on 40 Acre Lake

Water Hyacinth

Anhinga drying out its wings on 40 Acre Lake

Prehistoric Beast

2011-06-25T15:39:00.003-05:00

I never get tired of taking photos of these prehistoric animals called the American Alligator. It's easy to get the same shots time and time again without much variety. I'm always on the lookout for any special shot of an eye (close-up). I also like to get something with different colors within their environment, which is what I was able to do in this shot.

If you have read any of my recent posts you will know that I found a different trail to shoot on this trip. It is called the Creekfield Lake Trail. I had seen it numerous times and even walked through it years ago on the way to the George Observatory. I really enjoyed the diversity of wildlife and birds I saw at this one location.

I was able to get very close, at times too close for what I was shooting with. I actually had to back up to get some shots. I could have removed my Canon 1.4x lens extender to help with that, but I try not to change lenses in the field due to sensor dust concerns.

On this shot I wanted to get more of the gator in focus. I have plenty of head shots and wanted to show more of the ridged body and color reflected in the water from the background trees.


American Alligator (About 8 foot) Canon 50D + 500F4 + 1.4x extender

1/125 @ F6.7 and ISO 400
Spot metered in aperture priority
No flash and 0 EV
7:09am

"I'm all Ears"

2011-06-23T20:36:00.003-05:00

Saw several doe and a small buck making the rounds through this section of the park (Creekfield Lake Trail). This one was checking me out while I was trying to get a shot off. The doe was in fairly low light in the shade of some trees.

Doe on Creekfield Lake Trail

1/250 @ F5.6 at 700mm.
ISO 800, 0 EV, Spot metered
Aperture priority
Canon 50D + 500mm F4 + 1.4x extender
Handheld, no flash

Flying Fish and Eye to Eye

2011-06-21T17:14:00.004-05:00

I usually visit 40 Acre Lake when shooting at Brazos Bend State Park. I know which direction the sun is coming from and where I need to be to maximize my chances for a pleasing shot. On this trip I hit Elm Lake and was underwhelmed with my choice of location as the sun came up. I needed to be on the other side of the lake to get the nice golden light as the sun came over the horizon.

I wasn't seeing anything and decided to head back over to 40 Acre Lake to salvage my busted sunrise shots. As I drove towards that section of the park I passed Creekfield Lake Trail. This trail ties to the George Observatory and its big telescope.

I was pleasantly surprised at the number of different animals and birds in this almost dried up pond or lake. There were a few piers going out to the water to shoot from so I availed myself of the south platform.

This is one of several nice shots I took at this location. The Great Blue Egret flipped the perch into the air in order to get a better bite on it. When it caught the perch again it seems they were looking eye to eye at each other, for different reasons of course. The green color in the water is from reflected light off the trees in the background. It was gorgeous to see.

1/750 @ F5.6, ISO 400
AV priority + spot metering
700mm
No flash
Canon 50D + Canon 500mm F4 + Canon 1.4x extender

Processed in Lightroom 3.4
Cropped, noise reduction and sharpened.

Waning Moon in Morning on Father's Day

2011-06-19T21:59:00.001-05:00

Boy Scout I'm not. Always be prepared is their motto, right? It's supposed to hold true for experienced photographers too. In my case I missed the boat.

I did what I normally do before a trip to Brazos Bend State Park.

I called the park the day before to get the code to get in early. Check.
I asked my wife if it was okay with her. Check. Yeah I know I got the code before asking. It was for Father's Day. Pretty safe bet.
I made sure all my batteries were charged. Check.
I made sure I had memory cards in the camera and bag. Check.
I pulled out my monster 500mm lens and set it by the back door. Check.
Camera bag with spare body and 70-200mm lens. Check.
I checked the weather report for rain and sunrise time. Check. Yeah, rain...right.
Made sure my truck was gassed up. Check.
Tripod in the truck floor board under seat. Check...in my head, but I didn't look.

Got to the park in plenty of time (6:05am) to be in place for the sunrise at 6:25am. Drove around to Elm Lake this time figuring to shoot in a different spot for a change. That was another mistake...not being familiar with where the light would fall on the other side of the park. It was on the other end of the lake from where I started out.

Did I mention a tripod earlier? Yeah, started setting up with my gear and after scratching and clawing at the floor board could not come up with that all important piece of gear. Normally not an issue, but have you ever tried lugging around a 500mm lens combo for about 2-3 hours in your hand? Have you ever tried shooting handheld with such a beast? I tried it once for a few minutes when I first bought it and decided I would always use my tripod. Try picking up a bird in flight in low light using a 1120mm telescope and that's what it's like.

Anyway, I managed to botch many shots on this trip. Even boosting the ISO to 800 on the 50D it was difficult shooting in the the shadows. Trying to hold still to shoot with the end of the lens circling around my subject was a unique experience for sure. It was like pushing a BB uphill using a wet noodle.

Here's one of my keepers. Moon shot handheld at 1/1500 sec @ F5.6 and effective 1120mm.

Pileated Woodpecker

2011-06-03T00:01:00.006-05:00

Tat tat tat...tat tat tat...tat tat tat...tat tat tat.........tat tat tat...tat tat tat...tat tat tat...........tat tat tat...tat tat tat...tat tat tat. I hear it and know it's some kind of woodpecker, but what kind is it and where is the sound coming from.

I narrow down where I think the sound is coming from and using my 500mm lens I scan left and right in front of me. Sure enough I finally see this red head that is pecking at a hole it has started and then dropping back down out of sight. It is sitting too far away to bring it in close, so I wait until I can at least get a shot from the side to catch the eye.

This is not a good shot, but it serves well enough for identification of the species. It is a male Pileated Woodpecker. Pileated woodpeckers are our largest woodpeckers, crow-size, hunt for carpenter ants by excavating large rectangular holes in trees. The female has a slightly more rounded red crest at the top where the male crest looks more like a punk rocker. They get up to 16.5" long with a 29" wingspan.

You can see the hole it has started just to the right of his red crest.

1/180 @ F5.6 and ISO 200.
0 EV with a flash fill using Canon 580 EX + Better Beamer.
Aperture priority, spot metering.
Canon 50D + Canon 500mm F4L + Canon 1.4x extender
on tripod.
Still had to crop in hard to get this with it being so far out from where I was sitting.

Processing in Lightroom 3.4

White Egret

2011-06-02T00:01:00.004-05:00

This White Egret was sitting on one of the small islands on 40 Acre Lake at Brazos Bend State Park. When shooting across the lake it's important to pay close attention to what is in the background. The only ways you have of controlling what gets in the photo is proper use of aperture to limit depth of field (DOF) and/or physically moving until you get what you want as the backdrop.

In some cases, like this one, you can be limited to where you can move depending on accessibility to the subject. I could not move any closer or I would be in the water. Normally not a problem, but in this case there are alligators there also. While I take my photography seriously I also value my own skin.

The other restriction was a pier across the way and some other colored objects I did not want in the photo. Again, I could move left or right some, but not too far if I wanted to keep the eye in focus and get a mostly profile shot. I still had to crop in pretty hard to bring this one in close enough.

1/1500 @ F5.6 and ISO 200.
0 EV, Aperture priority, spot metering.
Canon 50D + Canon 500mm F4L + Canon 1.4x extender

Processing in Lightroom 3.4

Four-spotted Pennant

2011-06-01T00:01:00.003-05:00

Another from the BBSP series taken last Saturday morning. I got there just a hair after 6:00am, well before a 6:25am sunrise. The sunrise, while always a highlight of my day, was a bust in photographic terms. The sun stayed behind a layer of clouds on the horizon just long enough to wipe out any warm color you would normally get from it.

On a good day you milk 30 minutes out of it before it turns slightly harsh and it rapidly goes downhill from there. I will get what I can and usually head for open shade as it goes higher in the sky, giving me a little more time to shoot and still retain some good color and light on my subjects.

This photo is of a Four-spotted Pennant Dragonfly. Click on the photo for a larger version.

Exposure: 1/750 @ F5.6 at ISO 200.
Spot metering, aperture priority @ 0 EV.
No flash, Canon 50D + 500mm F4L + 1.4x Canon extender @ 700mm.

Processed in Lightroom 3.4

Backlit Dragonfly

2011-05-31T00:01:00.003-05:00

I tried shooting some different subjects with backlight on this trip to BBSP. I had never tried shooting a dragonfly like this, though I can't tell you why I never thought about it. I had to move behind a tree so the sun wasn't just totally blowing out everything. This allowed me to capture some rim lighting on the branch and body of the dragonfly, along with making the wings totally translucent.

I like how the patterns and structure of the wings showed so well under that kind of light. There is definitely room for improvement, but it's a more than adequate shot illustrating what can be done with putting a little thought towards shooting a subject.

Exposure:1/750 @ F8.0 at ISO 200.
EV -1/1/2 @ 500mm.
Aperture priority, spot metering.

Processing done in Lightroom 3.4

Anhinga

2011-05-30T20:39:00.001-05:00

I finally got back to my favorite haunt for shooting wildlife and birds; Brazos Bend State Park. I expected the water to be much lower than what I actually saw, especially after seeing the Brazos River running so low when I came over the bridge on FM1462. Apparently they have pumped some water into 40 Acre Lake to keep it up enough for the birds and wildlife that count on it for survival.

Anyway, I saw a number of Black-bellied Whistling Ducks and Anhinga flying back and forth across 40 Acre Lake and Pilante Lake to the north. I also heard two owls calling to each other at the entrance to the trailhead, but only saw one of them that moved back into the woods at my approach.

This Anhinga was up in the trees and had the blank sky behind it. I shot using spot metering so at least the bird would be properly exposed. There's not much else you can do in this case other than wait on it to move to an area with a better background.

White balance: Auto
Exposure: 1/180 @ F4.0 at ISO 200.
EV 1, Spot metering, aperture priority.
Canon 50D + 500mm F4L
No flash.

Processed in Lightroom 3.4

Grandson

2011-05-23T22:50:00.002-05:00

I find it hard to believe my grandson is just past 13 months old. It seems like I was just holding him in my hands not that long ago. He's too big to do anything but grab and hold onto now.

He recently had to get tubes put in his ears to help with the continual ear infections he had. You could tell when he had an infection because he would tug on his ear lobes when it hurt. He was an amazingly good baby in spite of it. Since the surgery he seems to have hit his stride and can really be himself.

He loves the outdoors. If he does happen to have a moment (the rare times he might cry), taking him outside immediately quiets him. This series of photos were shot at Bay Area Park last Sunday.

My wife, his granny had a hand puppet on her head and he was laughing at her. You can also tell he has a mouthful of teeth.

All shot with natural light with Canon 5D + 70-200mm F2.8L
1/800 @ F3.2 at 180mm, AV priority, Pattern metering, ISO 100, 0 EV
Sharpened and mask applied using Lightroom 3.4

I used the button on the back of my camera to move the focus cursor around while framing him in the viewfinder. This allowed me to keep painting his eye with it so I could keep it sharp.

Serene Setting at Brazos Bend State Park

2011-05-14T16:02:00.002-05:00

This shot was taken a few months ago at BBSP. It was early morning, with the mostly orange sun just waking up. There were numerous birds on the lake, but I wanted to isolate this one in silhouette on the water with all the warm colors of that sunrise.

In the larger version (click on the photo) you will see what appears to be an orange spot on the beak. That's the breathing hole where the orange from the water is showing through.

People may wonder why I continue to go back to this park. I see something different each time I go. Even if I don't get a shot of anything worth keeping, I enjoy just being there in the moment. You can really clear your thoughts in the quiet environs of this park.

6:48am
1/1500 sec @ F4.5 and ISO 200. Dialed in -1 EV, 500mm focal length, Aperture priority, spot metering.
Canon 50D + 500mm F4 L

1st Birthday Bash: It's all about the cake.

2011-04-23T22:42:00.001-05:00

My grandson really liked his cake. Yes, he was able to have his cake and eat it too!

1st Birthday Party

2011-04-22T12:56:00.000-05:00

One minute they fit into your hands, the next they are their own person. This is one of the unguarded moments of my only grandson that I could capture, with numerous people all vying for his attention.

On camera flash for a little fill. I brought the ambient up 1/2 stop and I believe had the flash about 2 under. Some nice light was coming in from a window, but it was blocked somewhat by people.

Canon 50D at 1/60@F3.5 with Canon 24-70mm F2.8L.

Broken Roost

2011-03-20T09:10:00.001-05:00

Last shot from the Brazos Bend trip. Thought I would get something even more different than my long perspective across 40 Acre Lake. Many birds land on these roosts throughout the day. Black-bellied Whistling Ducks are on them a lot. This one is located on Pilant Lake, just north of 40 Acre Lake. It has seen better days.

I like the warm colors in the scene. That was helped a little by setting my camera profile to camera landscape in Lightroom 3.3 and daylight WB.

Canon 5D with 70-200 F2.8L IS handheld at ISO 200. Exposure 1/500 @ F5.6 taken at 200mm. Exposure compensation was -2/3 stop, aperture priority and spot metering. Again, I would normally be using evaluative metering with this type shot. I was set up for shooting backlit birds and did not make the correction in camera.

40 Acre Lake

2011-03-19T23:19:00.001-05:00

You have seen a number of photos capturing wildlife on this particular trail at Brazos Bend State Park. This shot shows the view I had where I took most of my shots that Friday morning. This was an hour after sunrise. The fog was starting to finally burn off, but lingered a little longer than normal.

Canon 5D and 70-200mm F2.8L at ISO 200. Exposure 1/4000 @ F7.1 and 0EV at 200mm. No flash, aperture priority and spot metering. I normally would have been at evaluative metering, but was set up for shooting backlit birds up close.

In Lightroom 3 - Daylight WB, set a Camera Landscape profile and applied a gradient across the top to even out exposure with water. Adjusted blacks, a touch of clarity and vibrance. Applied color and noise reduction, some sharpening with a mask.

American Alligator

2011-03-19T13:30:00.007-05:00

I wanted to capture a variety of subjects from the Brazos Bend State Park trip as an indicator of the wildlife returning for another season. This guy is one of many who normally prowl the park. It is still early for them to be out in force. I saw 4 alligators on 40 Acre Lake on this trip where you would typically see 20 or more. I did not go all the way around the trail, so more could have been out. This one was larger than what I had seen in two trips this year.

Most of the time the gators are far enough from any distracting elements that they can be isolated from the background quite easily. It was slim pickings, so this shot is all I was presented with that morning. It was sunning and quite frankly quite happy to just lie there. I processed this photo heavier than I would normally ever do to a wildlife shot. It's still not a work of art. I just wanted to see what I could do to improve it.

Canon 50D and 500mm F4L + 1.4x extender at ISO 200. Exposure 1/125 @ F5.6 and 700mm focal length. No flash, aperture priority with spot metering. I need to learn how to do a rollover on these, but for now this is what you get. I have the processed version with the original shot under it.

Exported in PS CS5 for a liberal use of the content-aware feature with spot healing brush. Used the quick selection tool, selecting the gator and its reflection, then inverted the selection to choose everything else. Applied a levels adjustment layer to darken everything. Feathered the selection, deselected it and used the burn tool to selectively darken some of the brighter stems of grass and reeds in the background.

I mirrored the use of the burn tool in the foreground areas too so it matched the reflections. I cropped out the part of the grass that dissected its body after attempting to clean that up. It did not look good, so I just cropped it out altogether. Applied noise reduction and sharpening in Lightroom 3.

Click on the photos to see larger versions.

Tri-colored Heron

2011-03-18T21:43:00.001-05:00

Another in the series from Brazos Bend State Park. I was sitting down on the side of the trail with the 500mm on the tripod. The heron was walking on the grassy or greened up area between the trail and the water. I don't normally like shots of birds taken on the ground.

Canon 50D and 500mm F4L + 1.4x extender at ISO 200. Exposure was 1/1500 @ F5.6 at 700mm. No flash, aperture priority and spot metering.

Female Blue-winged Teal

2011-03-17T19:13:00.002-05:00

This is an adult female Blue-winged Teal. The most significant difference between the male in my other post and this female is the smaller, less distinct white crescent between the bill and the front of the eye. Another difference is the lack of a white hip patch.

I shot almost everything on this particular morning without any fill flash. I went for the best available light, taking my time to let the subject turn towards the sun for the catch light in the eyes.

I paid close attention to exposure so I would not blow out any highlights. I have the 'blinkies' (do a web search if you are not familiar with the term) set on my camera so I can decide how to handle them. In some cases it doesn't really affect the photo in any negative way. Blown highlights in this case would have been distracting to the viewer, whether in the water or on the bird.

Canon 50D and 500mm F4L + 1.4x extender @ ISO 200. Exposure 1/750 @ F5.6 @ 700mm, 0EV, no flash, aperture priority with spot metering.

Pied-billed Grebe #2

2011-03-15T12:35:00.000-05:00

I arrived at the park at 6:00am for a 6:28am sunrise. My tripod with ballhead and sidekick was already assembled. My lens was in the case, ready to assemble, as well as my camera body in my bag. Batteries had been charged, memory cards formatted and installed in same cameras.

If you have a car it's a good idea to place everything in the trunk while you drive to your destination. That gives your gear enough time to normalize to the outside temperature. This way you don't have to deal with fogging of your lens or camera when going to and from different environs. If you drive a truck, placing your gear in the bed doesn't seem like a good idea. I open my lens case and camera bag inside the truck cab. I allow outside air into the cab of the truck, whether it's hot or cold outside to better match those conditions. That allows my gear to normalize before I have to shoot. When I get to the shooting site my gear is ready to go.

Canon 50D and 500mm F4L @ ISO 200. Exposure at 1/1000 @ F4.0 at 500mm, 0EV, no flash, aperture priority and spot metering.

Pied-billed Grebe

Pied-billed Grebe

2011-03-14T19:38:00.000-05:00

This is another tranquil scene taken while the fog was still on the water. The Pied-billed Grebe was out there by itself looking for something to eat. I thought it would be nice to isolate it in the scene, so this is what I ended up with.

Canon 50D and 500mm F4L @ ISO 200. Exposure was 1/1500 @ F4.5 @ 500mm, + 1EV, no flash, aperture priority using spot metering.

White-faced Ibis

2011-03-13T20:03:00.003-05:00

This is one of the prettier birds from the Ibis family, at least I think so. They have very colorful wings. The breeding adults are a reddish-brown and their plumage appears as what is described as a shiny bottle-green; which this one exhibits.

Canon 50D and 500mm F4L + 1.4x extender at ISO 200. Exposure 1/500 @ F5.6, 0EV, no flash, aperture priority and spot metering. I did burn in the grasses some along with some bright areas on the legs.

Snowy Egret

2011-03-13T13:15:00.002-05:00

There were quite a few birds making their way back to the park in preparation for spring. That's when everything really starts jumping at Brazos Bend State Park and it runs through the summer.

This snowy egret was hunting for food along the bank of 40 Acre Lake trail. I had to pop a little fill with my Better Beamer since the sun was a little behind and to the right of my subject. I did not want to clone anything out of the photo, so I left things natural as shot.

The Snowy was moving in my direction fast and was pretty close, so I was in a hurry and tilted the shot. I did have to rotate it to level in Lightroom 3 and crop at that point only. Otherwise, this is full frame.

Canon 50D and 500mm F4L @ ISO 200. Fill provided at -2 stops in ETTL at 50mm on external flash (Canon 580EX). A good starting point using the Better Beamer for fill is ETTL at -3 stops and 50mm zoom. If the subject is farther out you adjust back to 0EV and work your way up in zoom to increase output to compensate for the added distance. The goal is to keep it to a minimum so it appears more natural, fills in shadows and doesn't scare your subject off.

I had dialed in -1EV on camera to darken the background some. Shot at 1/500 @ F4.5 in aperture priority using spot metering to handle the backlit nature of the shot. The lines of light on the Snowy's body are reflections of my flash off the ripples in the water.

BBSP Series Continues...

2011-03-12T13:03:00.002-06:00

I caught many beautiful scenes as I was shooting this foggy morning across 40 Acre Lake. The American Coot featured in this photo managed to take off against the rising sun, creating a highlight across his wing.

Canon 50D and 500mm F4L at ISO 200
1/4000 @ F4.5, No flash, 0EV, AV priority, Spot metering

Click on photo for larger version.

Splash Dancing at BBSP

2011-03-11T19:54:00.005-06:00

The next series of photos I will be showing over the next several days was taken Friday morning. It's about an hour from my house. I got there just after 6:00am. There was a nice layer of fog on the way to the park. I knew there was a good chance to get this kind of shot based on my previous visits during foggy weather. I wasn't disappointed, so I hope you are not either.

My research indicates that younger American Coots have to run across the water before they can take off to fly. Adults are supposed to be able to just take off. I don't know that I buy it though. There are literally hundreds of coots doing this water walking as they traverse 40 Acre Lake. I think it's just easier than flying. They do eventually take off from the water.

All shot with Canon 50D and 500mm F4L at ISO 200.
1/4000 @ F4.5, 0EV, no flash, aperture priority, spot metering

Pied-billed Grebe Chugging a Fish

2011-03-09T22:23:00.000-06:00

Another few shots of the Pied-billed Grebe trying to get a fish down its gullet.

Shot with Canon 50D and Canon 500mm F4L at ISO 200

1/1500 @ F4.0, at 500mm, 0EV, no flash,
aperture priority, pattern metering mode

Common Moorhen

2011-03-07T21:51:00.001-06:00

This one is in the same family of birds as the American Coot, but has its own name. They are fairly prevalent at Brazos Bend State Park. They also have their own distinct sound, as do many other birds across the park. Once you spend some extra time here, you start developing the ability to tell what they are before you see them.

Canon 50D with Canon 500mm F4 L @ ISO 200 on tripod.
1/750 @ F4.5, 0EV, Aperture priority, No flash, pattern metering mode.
AWB changed to Daylight WB in LR 3

Blue Winged Teal

2011-03-06T16:30:00.002-06:00

I would not have ventured a guess as to what this was without visiting my copy of the 'Sibley's Guide to Birds'. My research shows it to be a Adult male breeding Blue-winged Teal.

This one was swimming with a few others mixed in with some American Coots and Moorhens. I managed to isolate this one out on 40 Acre Lake at Brazos Bend State Park. The water cooperated in that it was flat. Other parts of the lake had ripples from the wind.

Shot with Canon 50D and Canon 500mm F4 L at ISO 200.
1/1500 @ F4.0, 0EV, no flash, aperture priority & pattern metering mode.

The American Coot

2011-03-05T20:53:00.007-06:00

The American Coot has a story of its own at Brazos Bend State Park. I've been at the park before daylight and had the pleasure of seeing these birds perform their daily ritual.

This involves hundreds of Coots leaving the shelter of reeds and tall grasses of Pilant Lake, crossing the trail at 40 Acre Lake, filing down the bank to the water and water walking across the lake through a break in an island that separates parts of the lake itself.

Apparently, they do it in reverse every evening. While I was there after work on Tuesday I witnessed that event. The photos will show the Coots at rest, water walking and then leaving the water to walk up the bank over the trail and into Pilant Lake.

All shot with Canon 50D with Canon 500mm F4 L at ISO 200.

1/1000 @ F4.0
Focal length: 500mm
0 EV, No flash, Aperture priority
Pattern metering mode
AWB changed to Daylight in LR3

1/750 @ F4.0
Focal length: 500mm
0 EV, No flash, Aperture priority
Pattern metering mode
AWB changed to Daylight in LR3

1/90 @ F16
Focal length: 500mm
0 EV, No flash, Aperture priority
Pattern metering mode
AWB changed to Daylight in LR3

1/2000 @ F4.0
Focal length: 500mm
0 EV, No flash, Aperture priority
Pattern metering mode
AWB changed to Daylight in LR3

1/1500 @ F4.0
Focal length: 500mm
0 EV, No flash, Aperture priority
Pattern metering mode
AWB changed to Daylight in LR3

More Grebe Shots

2011-03-04T22:02:00.000-06:00

Here are a few more shots to enjoy. Click on them to see a larger version.

Pied-bill Grebes at BBSP

2011-03-03T22:09:00.002-06:00

The Pied-billed grebes were just going bonkers out there together, making all kind of noise. The one grebe caught this fish and tried for at least 6 minutes to get it down while the other one chased it around 40 Acre Lake. The chase was only part of the problem...the other being the fish was almost as big as he was. He kept trying to flip it up to get it to go down, but never gave up. He finally got it to go. At least I think he did. I lost him in the shadows at the far bank for about 3 minutes. When I saw him again the fish was gone.

Even with the 500mm on my 50D I had to crop in pretty hard to get in this tight. Shot Raw wide open at F4, aperture priority, ISO 200 and 1/1500 sec. AI Servo and hi speed setting (kept hitting the buffer too).

Click on photos for larger view.

Brazos Bend State Park Tuesday Evening

2011-03-02T10:56:00.001-06:00

I have not been able to make time to shoot any nature lately and frankly was getting a little stir crazy. I made a few silly errors as a result; one being I left my 1.4x and 2x extenders at home, and the other was not checking my clock on either camera. I was able to correct the time issue in Lightroom 3, but the other one (forgetting my extenders) will be a learning experience...again.

Had a few chaps from London, England (working in Houston) chat me up while I was shooting. Saw what looked like an adult bald eagle flying really high and out there, but over 40 Acre Lake. Sure enough it was. You get the long view with a slight crop here. Even with 500mm he was small in the viewfinder.

Another Airship Isabella Character

2011-02-24T21:14:00.002-06:00

Canon 50D w/70-200mm F2.8L
1/90 @ F4 @ ISO 200
Focal length: 200mm
0 EV, No flash
Aperture priority
Center-weighted average
Processed in LR3.3

No dearth of characters to shoot. Mainly wanted to come in tight and shoot almost wide open to eliminate distracting background elements.

I did apply a vignette to direct more focus on her face.

Another Dickens...

2011-02-21T21:53:00.000-06:00

This is Amarante of the Airship Isabella. She was a popular subject to shoot. She had a very expressive and unique look that I wanted to try and capture. It was made more difficult with the number of people and distracting objects surrounding the booth.

Canon 50D w/70-200F2.8L IS
1/500 @F2.8 @ ISO 200
73mm, 0EV, No flash, AV priority
Center-weighted average
Processed in LR3.3

Dickens Revisited

2011-02-20T09:36:00.002-06:00

I haven't posted in several months now, so it's time to get something going. Blogging is a habit that requires dedication to the daily posts required to keep the viewer's interest. I've pretty much missed the boat on that count over the last 6 months or so.

Too many other important life events take time away from what is pretty much discretionary for most people. For those of you who can and have maintained that daily post, I salute you. It's not an easy thing to do.

This shot was taken during Galveston's Dickens on the Strand in December 2010. My previous post of the 'Mad Hatter' was of the same group of 'Steampunk' characters. Dickens had wanted to liven things up some by bringing in some new faces with the Airship Isabella. They certainly did that and it was very successful based on what I saw that day. There were literally hordes of people stacked up at the 'Steampunk' memorabilia table throughout the day.

My next set of posts will be of a few of those characters to complete that genre of photos. Nothing special in processing, mostly straight up shots shooting mostly wide open and processed lightly in Lightroom 3.3. I'm providing a link to a friend who had some awesome shots of 'Airship Isabella' you may like to see.

I think I was drawn to his intense look at the time. It seemed natural and unforced at this point in time. Was he thinking about the huge crowds they had drawn to their table or was he just trying to plan his next steps?

Canon 50D w/70-200mm F2.8
Exp: 1/350 @ F4
Focal length: 135mm
Exp bias: 0EV
ISO 200
No flash
Aperture priority
Meter: Center-weighted avg.

Dickens on the Strand - The Mad Hatter

2010-12-05T11:09:00.002-06:00

We had a good time at our annual Dickens on the Strand field trip with the Bay Area Photo Club. There were about 8 of us who spread out in little groups to see what we could find to shoot.

There is of course a plethora (I sometimes use big words) of subjects to train a camera on and press the shutter. The trick is finding the good light since the early part of the event mostly takes place in the open street during the middle part of the day. Not the best light to work with, but there are areas that work better than others. If you stay late you can of course catch some really nice light.

We supplement with fill flash where it's needed to pop a little extra light under a hat brim or ladies bonnet. Some of us use on-camera flash with exposure compensation dialed in and others use off camera flash. One is more portable and easier to use while the other probably does a little better as you can direct where the light actually goes and adjust it more finitely than on camera built-in flash.

Many shots on this trip utilized natural light. We found one location in full shade to have exceptional light bouncing off tall whitish buildings that surrounded it. We spent a considerable amount of time shooting here and after leaving once came back to it later, drawn to the nice light.

The Mad Hatter was a quirky guy to say the least. Our understanding of him is that they require him to hold off on going into costume until he is actually on location as he falls into the role completely and it becomes a rather dicey situation controlling him, if that's the right terminology to use for it. He is part of the Airship Isabella.

Processed in Lightroom 3.2. I should have been in spot mode here, but at the time I was fending off a very weird acting Mad Hatter and should be excused for not making that change.

Canon 50D with 70-200 F2.8L IS lens
1/125 @ F4 at 73mm focal length
ISO 200 with 0 EV exposure
No flash, AV mode, center weighted

Texas Renaissance Festival #3

2010-11-25T23:14:00.000-06:00

This guy took his job seriously. I used a Matt Kloskowski quick and dirty technique to create this pseudo HDR. I wanted a gritty look for this guy.

Texas Renaissance #2

2010-11-24T14:00:00.003-06:00

There are any number of good photographic subjects to pick from at the festival. What do I look for while walking around...the eyes are the first thing I notice. Do they have a nice smile, a strong face, a unique outfit, etcetera etcetera? I always come back to the eyes.

This young lady was with one of the gypsy troupes. Steve S. and I spotted her off by herself in a contemplative mood. She caught our eye and we asked to shoot her.

Burned in some of the distracting areas to her left and right. Dodged the whites of her eyes and sharpened them a little. Used a Lightroom 3 adjustment brush preset on her irises.

Canon 24-70mm F2.8L
@70mm
ISO 200
1/200@F2.8
Manual mode with external flash in softbox
Pattern metering mode

A Funny Thing Happened While at the Texas Renaissance Festival...or not.

2010-11-23T21:33:00.001-06:00

Okay, maybe it wasn't funny. It was more like a stupid thing I did with my camera and lens. We were making contact with all the camera club members in front of the gates, talking about what the plans were once we got inside. I was checking my cameras, placing fresh cards in them and making sure they were formatted.

I had set my camera bag down on a concrete bench while doing this, with the top half unzipped but closed. It contained my second body and lens, Canon 50D with Canon 70-200mm F2.8L IS zoom mounted on it. I had finished checking my Canon 5D with Canon 24-70mm F2.8L, slung it on my shoulder and for some reason reached down and picked up my bag.

What do you think happened then? Clunk, clunk while rolling out of the bag onto the concrete bench is what happened next. It doesn't stop there. After the clunks came the thunks as it rolled off the concrete bench onto the concrete grounds. The funny part here is that everyone else heard it too. All my camera club members and some other innocent witnesses to the event all gasped and said uh oh about the same time.

The only thing I did was look down and think, hmmmm that's not good. Seriously, what do you do? It's too late if anything happened to them, so why scream now. I calmly picked up my camera gear, looked it over for damage, opened the card slot to install a card to format (which it did) and proceeded to take some shots. It worked like nothing ever happened and I shot with it most of the day.

The only thing I could find wrong was a small scratch on the lens hood. Now something could happen later, but for now I figure I dodged a bullet.

Texas Renaissance Festival

2010-11-22T22:42:00.003-06:00

It's been some time since I posted anything. I made the annual Bay Area Photo Club field trip to the Tex Ren Fest, along with about 10 other members. Steve S. and I hung out all day playing with one flash mounted softbox and some natural light.

This photo is John. It was toward mid-afternoon and there was a complete overcast. The light was kind of flat so Steve and I punched it up a little with the softbox. I saw John standing there, looking around and told Steve he looked like a likely candidate to shoot. I thought he had a nice profile and a strong face.

We approached John and asked if we could take some photos. He very nicely said yes, and indicated he was only looking for his missing staff. He had lain it down somewhere and someone picked it up. We should have moved him to another location, but he was keeping an eye out for his property and this was the only high spot to look down on the walkway below.

We tried to eliminate the harsh gray clouds by placing him in front of the pillar of the arena. It helped but did not get rid of them altogether. We shot from his right side. As we were leaving I noticed his earrings on the left ear and asked if I could shoot several more photos. This is one them.

I cannot tell if the color is right as I'm working on my laptop. My computer at home was disconnected to install some new carpet, so I'm not sure if it looks okay or not.

Father & Son

2010-10-03T20:16:00.002-05:00

We were invited to eat lunch with my son and daughter-in-law for Sunday. It was in recognition of our birthdays and a chance to see our grandson for a little while. I typically bring my camera gear with me for any opportunity to get a prize winning photo of our grandson.

This photo was actually taken right before we left. It was taken in natural light coming from a large south facing window about 15 feet away. I had to remove a few things from the photo and do a little tweaking to improve the shot. Adjustments were made in Lightroom 3 with some help from Photoshop CS5.

I find the finesse tools for healing, cloning, dodge and burn to be easier to work with in Photoshop than Lightroom 3. I applied LR 3 noise reduction to the whole photo, but only used local LR 3 sharpening on the eyes. I did use a selection in PS CS5 to remove a little red from my son's face to balance his skin ton closer to his son's red cheeks. I applied some fill to lighten the shadows between my son and grandson created by the directional window light, in particular between their faces. I used the LR 3 adjustment brush to dodge the eyes slightly along with a slight tweak to the irises using a downloaded preset.

Exposure: 1/160@F3.5
Focal length: 59mm
Exposure bias: 0 EV
ISO 800, no flash
Aperture priority
Meter mode: Pattern
Canon EOS 5D + 24-70mm F2.8L

Fall Photos

2010-09-30T20:45:00.002-05:00

Sorry for not having posted for awhile. I think I was feeling a little burned out. Besides maintaining my blog; I have my website, my camera club website (Bay Area Photo Club), my duties as President of said club along with a full time job.

They are all a labor of love (even my job). If it wasn't for my passion for photography and wanting to help others I probably wouldn't have the energy to do it all. It barely leaves me any time for my photography, which pains me dearly.

Well, let's get on with the topic. My VP of the club presented a very good topic at our meeting the other night on Fall Photography. I gave him one of my photos from an ill-fated trip to New England in October 2005. It happened to be the only decent photo I took on the whole trip. The reason being the floods that started about 6 hours after leaving Manchester, New Hampshire on the way to Wolfeboro, New Hampshire.

The next time we saw the sun was when sitting in the airport to leave, about a week later. During that week, several very old earthen dams and many houses in New Hampshire went MIA as a result of all that water. We did get to eat some very good food and see many lighthouses in Maine and Massachusetts, though conditions were horrible for photos anywhere we went. Leaf peeping took on a whole new meaning on that trip. Most of the peeping was looking at dead leaves flush to the ground as a result of taking a beating by the wind and rain.

Anyway, here's my photo, along with a second rendition courtesy of Color Efex Pro 3.0. Color Efex Pro is a plugin for Lightroom 3 now, which is what I used to process the photos.

Exposure: 1/15 @ F9.5
Focal length: 55mm
Exposure bias: + 1/2 EV
ISO 100
Canon EOS 10D with Canon 28-105mm
Adjusted clarity +15,vibrance +15 and saturation +10

Chelsea #3

2010-09-04T23:25:00.000-05:00

Does anyone like this version of the photo from my previous post? Why do you like it? If you don't like it, why? I used a blue filter preset in Lightroom 3. I also lightly tweaked a few things. See if you can spot what major change occurred as a result of the blue filter preset, that was an issue in the first one.

Chelsea #2

2010-09-01T21:41:00.001-05:00

Here's another shot from the flash photography and portrait session with Chelsea. We got several different looks from this setting, especially with the hat. It added a little air of mystery and mood to the photos. This is another one of Chelsea's favorites and mine.

I believe we only had one light from her left on this shot. It was a SB800 in a small Photoflex Litedome xs softbox.

Exposure: 1/125@F3.5
Focal length: 70mm
Exposure bias: 0 EV
ISO 100
Exposure program: Manual
Meter mode: Pattern
Canon EOS 50D + 70-200mm F2.8L IS

Processed in LR3 and minor healing in PS CS5. Cropped in LR3 to fit 8.5x11 for a borderless print.

Chelsea

2010-08-30T22:05:00.004-05:00

I shoot portrait and flash photography on occasion with some good friends (Larry Patrick and Steve Schuenke) from our camera club (Bay Area Photo Club). We try different types of flash photography, usually with some very cooperative models, as in this case with Chelsea. In exchange for her time we provide her with full resolution photos for her portfolio.

In the following shot we wanted to try out some reflection shots while Chelsea was in the pool. We had one pool light turned on that opened up the color in the water, also placing a little backlight on her. I actually darkened it in processing to place more emphasis on her.

We had two SB800's on small stands, one on each side of her head. The flashes had light modifiers that directed the light to either side of her head. We had one SB800 in a softbox and mounted on an extendable paint stick. The light was camera left as I faced her, just out of the picture.

I was lying down on my stomach, shooting just over the edge of the pool. Autofocus was playing havoc with me as we were not using modeling lights. I had to up the ISO to 400 to focus, as it was already dark. I hit it dead on after a little herky jerky fun with autofocus.

The only issue I have with the shot is her bathing suit showing in the water. I think it distracts some from her gorgeous eyes. I still like the shot, as does Chelsea.

Exposure: 1/90 @ F2.8
Focal length: 70mm
Exposure Bias: 0 EV
ISO 400
Exposure program: Manual
Meter mode: Pattern
Canon EOS 50D + Canon 70-200mm F2.8L

Processing was in Lightroom 3 with some very minor spot healing in Photoshop CS5.

A Hot Day at Brazos Bend State Park

2010-08-08T17:50:00.002-05:00

You ask the question...why wouldn't it be hot in Texas in August? You would at least think one could hopefully slide through the heat by starting at 6:00am. Okay, it was wishful thinking on my part. The heat was exacerbated (I know, that's a big word requiring me to look up the correct spelling) by the humidity and the fact that I had sprayed myself with skeeter spray, albeit a milder version (Skintastic) of the stuff.

Anyway, my son and I gave BBSP a whirl early Saturday morning in the hopes of getting something exciting and worthwhile to shoot. Unfortunately, the wildlife also considers this the dog days of summer and are busy doing much of nothing for the hopeful photographers.

I did manage to get a few decent sunrise shots, which I have included in this post. The rest of the time I just turned over my big gun (Canon 500mm F4) along with my tripod setup, so my son could try out the previously owned (sounds better than used) Canon 40D that he had recently picked up. He, of course, shortly became filled with equipment envy and proceeded to mutter something about coming up with a way to make more money. It happens to the best of us.

These were both shot handheld with my Canon 5D with 24-70 F2.8L. The lake (40 Acre is its name) was absolutely still and the colors were really nice. This was taken right before sunrise. I had noted the sliver of the moon and decided to include it in the second shot.

Exposure: 1/13sec @ F6.3
Focal length: 70mm
Exposure bias: 0 EV
ISO 200
Aperture priority
Metering: Spot
Bumped the exposure up 1/4 stop in LR2
Lightroom 2
Adjusted clarity (+28), vibrance (+19) and saturation (+9). Created and 'S' tone curve and set to Camera standard under Camera calibration.

Exposure: 1/13sec @ F6.3
Focal length: 45mm
Exposure bias: 0 EV
ISO 200
Aperture priority
Metering: Spot
Lightroom 2
Everything the same as above, but no exposure adjustment.

Leaving Las Vegas #3

2010-08-03T22:01:00.001-05:00

Another shot of the in-hospital landscape we passed over on the way back home. It's also one of the few shots without the wingtips in the photo. These photos are truly noisy when blown up to 1:1, so they don't appear to be any good for printing. I can always try and see how they actually print out. I used the clarity slider twice to create more defined ridges and edges in the landscape. I used the Canon SX110 IS Point and Shoot for all the aerial photos and any on the trip. I did bring my Canon 5D with 24-70 F2.8L, but never pulled it out. I just didn't want to stand out in the crowds and lug it around all day.

Leaving Las Vegas #2

2010-08-01T14:55:00.001-05:00

I took a series of shots throughout the flight back to Houston. I probably had more of them right after takeoff as the weather and clouds were more conducive to getting them. We ran into storms on the way back and the pilots skirted around them the whole trip back. I really wanted to catch some nasty looking clouds on camera, but we ended up flying into the clouds instead of over them. The tops were too high to fly over.

One thing to keep in mind about the photos: I'm shooting at 2:30pm. While the landscape is harsh, it looks even more so in the middle of the afternoon with such harsh lighting. Any shadows are provided solely by clouds.

Click on the Lake Mead link to read about the white rings around the lake and what it means to the residents of Las Vegas. They are facing a severe water shortage problem as a result of reduced snow melt from their last few winters. The lake is only at 39% capacity. I suspect at some point it will impact the amount of water available to the Las Vegas Strip and its ability to draw visitors to the water attractions will diminish over time.

Flying over Lake Mead as we leave Las Vegas

Lake Mead shoreline

More Lake Mead shoreline

Last of Lake Mead in the upper left corner. Pretty in-hospital landscape, wouldn't you say? Reason number 2 why my wife doesn't want to drive it. I still think it's beautiful. Maybe not from a car though.

Canyons and cliffs outside of Vegas. I know we pass by the Grand Canyon going out but the pilot didn't announce anything as we went over this piece of land.

Leaving Las Vegas!

2010-07-31T15:01:00.000-05:00

Okay, in reality we are already back home. The next series of posts were taken with my wife's point and shoot on the flight back. I have always intended to take some altitude shots off the wings of our Southwest flights, but never seem to have the camera in hand before buckling up for takeoff. On this trip I made sure I had one in hand before sitting down.

Noise is always an issue with the smaller sensor on a P&S camera, but for DOF they typically cannot be beat shooting hand held. I needed everything in focus from front to back, and this camera gave me that, especially shooting through a dual paned plastic window.

I really like the upturned wing tips that most all Southwest planes utilize now. I pretty much wanted to include those tips in all my shots. The one liberty I took was shooting everything in aperture priority. This allowed me to set the maximum aperture myself, which on this camera was F8 while shooting at ISO 80.

This is just after takeoff. We were about to fly over Lake Mead, which is the largest man-made lake in the USA. Las Vegas is surrounded by mountains and desert on all sides, so in seconds you go from lush green to desert. I still don't know why my wife will not let me drive us to Vegas...

This shot was actually several minutes into the flight after leaving the only green you'll see until later in the flight.

Aaargh matey!

2010-07-25T15:14:00.001-05:00

You never know what you will see on the Las Vegas strip while walking the various shops located in each hotel. The Venetian's Grand Canal Shoppes are no exception. These two fellows were hawking watches from their window seat in this store.

I was shooting everything with my wife's Canon SX110 IS (point and shoot). I had it set on aperture priority, so I had some control over the photos. The only issue of course is depth of field is much deeper than your standard DSLR, making things a little harder to control said DOF.

Processed both in Lightroom 2.7
Applied a vignette in an attempt to reduce background clutter

More Birds from BBSP

2010-06-28T19:48:00.002-05:00

I managed to process a few more birds from my BBSP trip from two weekends ago. Both are snowy egrets. They are very photographic and fun to shoot. I warmed up the bird in the top shot. When I set the white balance using the eyedropper tool in Lightroom 2, the bird in the first shot was a beautiful white, but the background turned pretty blue. The second shot was warmed up a little, but handled it better for some reason.

Exposure: 1/750 @ F4
Focal length: 500mm
Exposure bias: 0 EV
ISO 200
No flash
Aperture priority
Meter mode: Pattern
Canon 50D + Canon 500mm F4L IS
On tripod

Exposure: 1/500 @ F4
Focal length: 500mm
Exposure bias: 0 EV
ISO 200
No flash
Aperture priority
Meter mode: Pattern
Canon 50D + Canon 500mm F4L IS
On tripod