Rain

Image: 5D Mk II, 70-200 f 4 IS L, 70mm at f11
National Elk refuge, Jacskon Hole, Wy.

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Image: 5D Mk II, 70-200 f 4 IS L, 200mm at f11
Jackson Hole, Wy.

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Rain, hard to capture a good image on those rainy days when your surrounded by hills and mountains, but its as good a time as any to get the camera out and capture a different type of image. The only thing here is exposing on the clouds and bringing the foreground up in post if need be. Lightroom does such a good job though, these just needed a bit of Luminance adjusting in the yellow and orange.

Ross

Images In Light

Last of the Fall color

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Fall color is fading fast in the Cascades, these shots where taken just out side Plain, Wa. near Lk Wenatchee.

Ross

Images In Light

Three Days in The Tetons

Cathedral Group, 2 shot panorama.

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Image: 5D Mk II, 300 f2.8 IS L, EF 1.4x, f11, 1/320 sec.

Image: 5D MkII, 300 f2.8 IS L, iso 400, f3.2, 1/200 sec

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Image: 5D Mk II, 300 f2.8 IS L, EF 1.4x, f11, 1/100 sec

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Image: 5D Mk II, 70-200 f4 IS L, 70mm, f16, 1/2 sec.
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Image: 5D Mk II, 16-35 II L, 16mm, f11, 1/160sec.
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What to do with three days in the Tetons ? hmmmm, so much to see and do, not really enough time for back country hikes, but there are so many places to shoot and a lot are right off the road.

Places like Snake river overlook, Oxbow Bend, Schwabackers Landing, Mormon Row, the list goes on, one place I love to shoot is Cathedral group with a 300mm lens, this an impressive set of peaks, including Teewinot, Grand Teton and Mt Owen, viewed from the north.

The Barns of course at Mormon Row or the classic Ansel Adams shot from Snake river overlook, not enough sunrises on this trip, so I'll be going back, maybe a winter shoot next time.

Best time to go, Fall, followed by spring, then winter and finally summer, well maybe winter will move up on the list : ) that's the only time I've not been there.

Not far from the Tetons is the Wind River Range, another impressive Rocky mountain range, the Cirque of Towers at Wind River is high on my list of future treks.

Wyoming has some of the most beautiful scenery in the Rockies and wildlife abounds like few other places.

Ross

Images In Light

Fall is here

Image: Mt Shuksan, 5D Mk II, 300 f2.8 IS L, f11, 1/500 sec.
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The Saddle above Bagley lake Basin

Fall is upon us, although the color is a little delayed this year due to weather. I decided to go looking for Black bear on the Chain Lakes loop trail at Mt Shukson, so I decided to bring along my 300mm brick, which is a lot of weight to carry for a short hike, but if I wanted a bear shot I needed a minimum of 300mm, so I loaded up and headed for the pass above Bagley lakes. At 90 oz. this lens doesn't go in my pack very often, but this is the time of year to see bear.

This is a beautiful hike, bear or no and in this case, no was the operative word, but the views of Mt Shuksan and Kulshan (Baker) more than made up for packing that big piece of glass up the side of a mountain.

The second and third shots above are crops of the first and you can view them at 1600 pixels on the long end by clicking on them, I did this so you can get an idea of the resolution this lens has. It is an incredibly sharp lens from f 2.8 to f 16, definitely the best lens I have ever shot with, the detail in the glaciers is incredible when viewed full size , it makes it very easy to crop images from 21mp to say 12mp and still be able to print large images, great for wildlife photography.

The 2nd to last image shows the fall color starting to come in at the higher elevations and the last image a snapshot of my position with my s-95. With a dusting of fresh snow on Shuksan it wont be long until the lower elevations in the Bagley lake Basin start seeing the blueberries turn to crimson and red and orange and.............

Time to dust off the snow shoes.

Ross

Images in Light

Wildlife Photography

Jasper NP, Red Fox: 300mm at f2.8, 1/250 sec, ISO 100.
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Jasper NP, Big Horn herd, isolated young: 300mm at f2.8, 1/1600 sec, ISO 100.
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Glacier NP, Ground Squirrel: 300mm at f3.5, 1/1000 sec, ISO 100.
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MT Rainier NP, Red Fox: 300mm at f2.8, 1/2000 sec, ISO 100
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Yellowstone NP, Raven: 300mm at f4, ISO 100.
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Wildlife photography for me has always been secondary to my landscape work, but I have now come to embrace it, mostly due to the experience I have gained over the course of, well, many years. Showing my age a little : )

The main thing I have learned, is to shoot as wide open as you can, why ? several reasons; Shooting at a wide aperture allows you to shoot at faster shutter speeds and lower ISO's, wild animals are often seen at dusk or dawn and with lower light, ISO values start to rise, in order to maintain a fast enough shutter speed you may need to shoot at ISO 800 to get to 1/250 of a sec.
at f2.8.

See this ISO 3200 image or this ISO 1600 image and here at ISO 100.

Whether or not its low light or the animal on the move, a wide aperture will help with the shutter speed or low ISO.

The main reason though is subject isolation, a wide aperture like f3.5 (just short of wide) on a 300mm f2.8 lens is great for blurring the background and some times the fore ground, which makes the subject stand out , if you look closely at the first fox, I had to pick him out amongst the grass and clover and to make him stand out, I needed the foreground and background out of focus. Another benefit on long primes, your lens is at its sharpest in the wider range of apertures.

Where to focus ? always on the eye, very important to have at least one eye in focus.

Also great for portrait photography.

To sum it up, you should end up with sharp, low ISO images, with good subject isolation when shooting at or near wide open.

Aperture diagram courtesy of Wiki

Ross

Images In Light