Perseverance

Image: The Silver Forest, 5D Mk II, 24-105 f4 IS L, 1/13 s at f11, 3 stop GND filter.

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Perseverance paid off this morning, I stayed down at Mt Rainier over the weekend and there where no clouds for my first two shoots, this morning I almost rolled over and went back to sleep , but I had set 2 alarms on my watch, one for 4:00 and one for 4:05, so I dragged myself up to see the sunrise at "Sunrise" and to my surprise, the clouds started to roll in, a little earlier would have been nice, but hey we take what nature gives us. I had good light for about 2 hours of shooting, the above image was taken from with in the Silver Forest.

Ross Murphy Images In Light

More on Cropping

Upper Image: 5D Mk II, 24-105 f4 IS L, Lower Image, crop from upper, click image to view larger

Cropping an image is not something I normally do, my aim is to full frame an image in the viewfinder, but often we end up with some unwanted object, especially when shooting super wide angle scenes (quit often a tripod leg), or maybe we are focal length limited, as in bird photography, the above image of the Seattle Aquarium was shot with a 5D Mk II and a 24-105 f4 IS L at 77mm and is just for illustrating the ability to crop, especially when viewing for the web. I think part of the Art of photography is trying to get it right in camera and doing as little as possible in post production. Trying not to go outside the bounds of what was done in the darkroom and not outside of reality, I have seen a lot of HDR images that are just so unreal, they get posted on line as if it was something the author of the image actually saw. I think as photographers we should strive for that "wow" image, just not at the expense of reality.

Ross Murphy Images In Light

Crop Power with the 5D Mk II

Who needs a crop camera when you can get perfectly good shots and crop them later, the top image was taken with a 5D Mk II and an EF 300 F4 IS L in Costa Rica last March, the bottom image was a 100% crop at 2808 x 1872 or approximately a 5.2 mp image that will print at 12 x 18 when carefully up scaled, both have been down scaled here to 800 x 533 for web viewing. Well a 50D would have probably come away with a better image as far as pixels on the bird, however this was taken at ISO 1250 and no noise reduction was used in camera or PP. DPP was used for post production, it was shot at such a high ISO because it was cloudy and raining, the 50D would have a hard time doing that and coming away with an image this clean. I would like to have a 1.3 crop camera like the 1D Mk III but more mega pixels and better noise levels than the 5D Mk II and we may see that very soon.

Ross Murphy Images In Light

More Time Lapse

Some very interesting work done here looks like a perspective lens and time lapse, the narrow depth of field gives objects a very toy like look and the time lapse is masterfully done
Ross Murphy Images In Light

Landscapes in Motion

Image: Mukilteo Ferry, 5D, 24-105 f4 IS L, Variable Neutral Density Filter f11, 15 sec.
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Image: Ecola Beach 40D, 24-105 f4 IS L, Variable Neutral Density Filter, f11, 30 sec.
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Implied motion:
Adding the feeling of motion to an image can be an interesting way of presenting your interpretation of the scene and sometimes gives pretty wild results. Make sure you have a fixed object of interest in the image and shoot a long exposure, don't worry to much about sharpness but be sure to use a tripod and a filter that allows for a longer exposure, get creative this can be done with many things, from flowers in a field to airplanes departing an airport.

Ross Murphy Images In Light

Switching to Mac

Image: stream, 5D2, 24-105 f4 IS L, f11, .6 sec, CPL and 3 stop GND.
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Switching to a Mac was something I have been wanting to do for a long time, my PC died on me a few weeks ago so I took the plunge, after some research of course. I use LR, CS3, DPP and ACDsee, these needed to work or have an equal on the Mac side. Lightroom no problem its cross platform, CS3 ; I had to get a cross platform upgrade to CS4, $200, ok. Digital Photo Pro again cross platform, no problem. ACDsee; well that one turned out its in beta test and may be a while, so I needed a photo browser and to the rescue came Photo Mechanic, great cross platform photo browser. So the stage was set, getting a Mac was harder than I thought it would be, the Apple store would not give me the same price for an upgraded Mac Pro as I could get on line, by a long ways. so after some headaches and running around I ended up at The Mac store, which is not owned by Apple, they configured my computer and I was on my way. I tell you I could not be happier so far, all my software works, and it is fast and has a clean interface, easy to learn, just wish I had done it sooner. Ended up with a Mac Pro quad core 2.66 Ghz, 6 GB of DDR3 RAM, I priced out a top end PC and they are very close in price if you put all top end hardware in a PC like they do in a Mac. So I say if your thinking about it, go for it, get a Mac.

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God Rays

Image: Puget Sound, 5D2, 24-105 f4 IS L, f11, 6 sec, Variable ND.
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God Rays, I think this at least in recent times was coined by the late climber/photographer Galen Rowell, also known as Crepuscular Rays, they make an excellent enhancement to any landscape image. The saturation and smooth water come from the Variable ND filter and the 6 sec. exposure.

Ross Murphy Images In Light