Archive for the ‘Nature’ Category:
Hoarfrost in Minnesota
Today marked a milestone of sorts – it’s the first time in two years that we had a heavy hoarfrost and I didn’t have a prior commitment that kept me from going out to shoot it. I anticipated we’d get some last night since a pea-soup fog rolled in last evening. When I woke up this morning and saw the crystalline world outdoors, I bundled up and headed out to the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum.
The tough part about shooting there in the winter is that they close off the 3-mile drive to motor vehicles. That means a hike in the snow to get anywhere. Framing up a shot without the snowbank along the road meant trudging through 2 feet of snow with a full load of camera gear. The conditions were perfect – the sun didn’t burn off the frost and the fog rolled out leaving it nice and clear.
Strangely, this picture is not black and white. With a white sky, lots of snow, and dark tree bark there’s almost no color in the picture. A slight blue cast to the snow is about the only giveaway that it’s not black and white.
Vital Stats: Canon 5D Mark II w/Canon 17-40 f/4L @26mm ISO 200, f/13, 1/250 sec.
The Purple Rose of Spring
In honor of the winter-like weather the Californians seem to think we are having here in Newport Beach, I’m putting up a powerful image of spring. Seriously, I saw a guy yesterday wearing a stocking cap and scarf in 70 degree weather. It’s a simple image made from our Easter bouquet shot with very low depth of field (that’s the blurry background) focusing on the center of the flower. I also made a point of not centering the flower that is in focus – I put it on one of the 1/3 lines on the side of the image. On top of all of that technical mumbo-jumbo, I just think it’s a really pretty, peaceful image.
It’s also a sneak preview of one of the images to be shown at my gallery opening on November 6th at the Mill District Art Gallery in Minneapolis!
Vital Stats: Canon 5D Mark II w/Canon 24-105mm f/4L @ 105mm ISO 400, f/4, 1/60 sec.
By The Dawn’s Early Light
Believe it or not, I didn’t get around to downloading this image from the camera until about a week after my trip. When Heather and I were out at Whitefish Dunes at dawn, we brought my old 40D as a second camera in case Heather wanted to shoot. As the sun came up through the mist over Lake Michigan, I set up the 40D on my gigantic studio tripod (I don’t have a lightweight 2nd tripod) and tried for a sunrise shot. Since I only shot a few shots on the 40D, I forgot there were pictures on that compact flash card. Imagine my surprise when I downloaded this picture!
Technically, this was a big challenge. Shooting directly into the sun brings out the worst in a lens since lens flare can occur. I also had to contend with heavy fog that hadn’t quite burned off – which you can see along the tree line. To deal with the wild dynamic range differences between the sun and the shadowed tree line, I used a 3-stop graduated neutral density filter. I also shot three images bracketed at +2, 0, and -2 EV so they could be combined as an HDR.
Vital Stats: Canon 40D w/Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 ISO 100, f/16, .6 sec. +/- 2 stops
Whitefish Dunes
This shot was a first for me – it was the first time my wife came with on a dawn shoot. We were in Door County for our 5 year wedding anniversary – and I couldn’t resist trying to get a little work done while I was there. Fortunately, this spot was a reasonable walk from the road since bushwhacking into unknown territory in the dark is always an adventure. This spot is on the north end of Whitefish Dunes State Park in what is called Cave Point County Park.
The Spooky Tree
There are lots of cool things to shoot at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum – pretty much every place you aim the camera. This cool gnarly spooky-lookin’ tree hadn’t quite got leaves yet this spring when this picture was taken making it look all that much more spooky.
Vital Stats: Canon 5D Mark II w/Canon 17-40 f/4L @ 17mm ISO 100, f/16, 1/25 sec.
Looking Towards Lanai
You have no idea how deadly this shot really was. The cool looking black rocks at the bottom of the pictures? Slick as glass. To really get a good shot here, I had to wander way farther out into the slick glassy rocks than I really wanted to. One wipeout would have left me with some serious abrasions and a dead camera soaked in salt water. This shot was taken in Kehei on the island of Maui. The island of Lanai makes its appearance in the background.
Noontime at the Oasis
I now understand why a place of respite is called an oasis. This little cluster of trees is located at the end of Borrego Palm Canyon – a hot dusty rocky place where we spent every morning shooting brittlebush. At the entrance of the trail, there is a rather grim sign that sternly warns you to bring two liters of water per person because many have died in the canyon.
Personally, I had one Nalgene bottle full.
Honestly, it wasn’t that big of a deal. It was early March and though it was warm, it certainly wasn’t dangerous. Still, after a 1.5 mile scramble over boulders, I was getting dry. Once we reached the oasis at the head of the canyon, the temperature dropped 20 degrees inside of it and the humidity went way up. Amazing!
Vital Stats: Canon Powershot G9 @ 7.4mm ISO 80, f/4, 1/250 sec.
Every Rose Has Its Storms
I really can’t believe it didn’t storm up into something nasty last night – it was Africa-hot around my house last evening. The skies looked pretty nasty right around sunset, too – so I had to run out and shoot SOMETHING! Being that I was watching the little ones – I was pretty limited on what I could do. I was going for an HDR with the roses in the front and the nasty sky in the back. It didn’t come out exactly how I wanted – but I still like it. It’s really tough to get the sky looking like that!
Vital Stats: Canon 5D Mark II w/Canon 17-40mm f/4L @ 17mm ISO 100, f/16, +/- 2 stops HDR
Coyote Canyon Verbenas
One last shot from the Anza Borrego shoot from this spring. This one was taken in ‘the mother lode’ – a cache of flowers about 2 miles off the road that we found while hiking. This shot was a little right of a few others I’ve shown. The goal behind this one was to get a lot of purple. A day later, all these flowers were gone due to the heat.
Vital Stats: Canon 5D Mark II w/Canon 17-40 f/4L @ 40mm ISO 100, f/18, 1 sec.
Farm on the Hill
I’ve seen this shot every time I’ve driven through the Arboretum. I finally had the opportunity to shoot it as we were setting up for a birthday picnic. I’d still love to go back and get it right at dusk when the light is better – but I’m happy with how this turned out. This shot was about 3:30 in the afternoon – at 7 it would have been magical. To frame it up right, I had to use a LOT of lens – I had to stack my 70-200 with a 1.4x extender and zoom it ALL the way in.
Vital Stats: Canon 5D Mark II w/Canon 70-200 f/4L + Canon 1.4x II extender @ 280mm ISO 100, f/11, 1/40 sec.