Canon 5D Mk IV field trip

Canon 5D Mk IV, EF 70-200 f/4 L IS, f/7.1, 135mm, 1/5 sec 

So far so good with the 5D Mk IV, finally got to take it out for a shoot, even though the conditions weren't ideal, I made the trip down to Mt Rainier. Though the Mountain wasn't in full view I was treated to some nice views of Little Tahoma, clouds swirled around its peak and I tried out the built in intervoltometer, its nice to have that feature built in now, instead of having to dig in to my bag for my remote. The 30 mp is ideal for the extra room to crop and the dynamic range is really exceptional. It renders black and white very nicely, less artifacts in the sky when you push the blue channel. Clouds are rendered especially well with the new sensor, a great subject to test a camera on.

Canon 5D Mk IV, EF 70-200 f/4 L IS, f/11, 121mm, 1/80 sec

The shot from Kerry park is one of my favorite places to shoot a cityscape and an excellent place to test a camera, I know it so well I can easily judge a cameras IQ when shooting here. Colors are the same Canon colors I've come to love. The detail in these images is quit amazing.

Lightroom 6.7 was released last week which supports the 5D Mk IV, quick work by Adobe. File sizes are quite large and it does take a bit more time to download from my CF card. However that's not a big issue compared to the whole process.

For both of these images I used Live View with the touch screen controle. Live view is something Canon is very good with and implementing the touch screen feature makes it almost seamless. Metering is as usual, excellent, especially with live view.

Shadow noise is what every one wants to know about, so far I'm very pleased, no more color noise or banding in shadows, noise that does appear after pushing shadows is very fine grained and un-obtrusive. Canon  has done a great job on this new sensor and I'm very pleased with the results so far. Further review of the 5D Mk IV will be upcoming. Stay tuned.

Ross

Images In Light

Getting low to the ground

Image: 5D Mk III, EF 24-70 f/2.8L II, 35mm at f/16, 1/50th sec, tripod.

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Image: 5D Mk III, EF 24-70 f/2.8L II, 28mm at f/16, 1/13th sec. tripod.

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Getting down low and looking before you set up your tripod is how a lot of my images are taken, I wish I had shot this with my tripod fully extended so I could demonstrate the difference, but let me tell you it was huge, there was a guy from California (tripod at eye level) next to me, taking a similar shot as me, when I stood up to see what the reflection was, the top of the mountain was just barely reflected in the water, my camera lens was about 8 inches off the ground, tripod legs spread out fully 90° from the camera and ball head.

I did point out the reflection to him, but he would have none of that, oh well, I tried, we did however commiserate for a time before heading down the trail.

It doesn't have to be a lake, a tarn or a snow melt or stream will work, bend over and check before setting up a tripod, most reflections are down low.

Image: 5D Mk III, EF 24-70 f/2.8L II, 30mm at f/16, 1/50th sec. tripod.

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No reflection but again I was down low getting my lens in the Alpine Heather, maybe 1 foot off the ground here focusing on the heather and shooting stopped down to f/16 for depth of field.

Ross

Images In Light

My favorite place to shoot

Image: 5D Mk III, EF 24-70f/2.8L II, 70mm, f/16, 1/20th sec, tripod.

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Image: 5D Mk III, EF 24-70f/2.8L II, 70mm, f/11, 1/30th sec, tripod.
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Image: 5D Mk III, EF 70-200 f4L IS, 200mm, f/4.5, 1/250th sec, ISO 400.
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Most photographers have a favorite place to shoot, mine would have to be Mt Rainier National Park.

The ever present Mountain in these parts is Mt Rainier or as we call it "The Mountain", it has attracted me from a very young age and I'm a regular visitor to the park in all four seasons, I ski in the winter and hike the rest of the year, I even managed a summit back in 2000 with a group of friends.

When I go hike the Mountain I usually come across wildlife of some kind, this time it was a mother Black bear and her two cubs, but this is one of my favorite weeks to be on the Mountain, the Bloom is in peak near Chinook pass and I chose the Naches Loop for this days hike.

Image: 5D Mk III, EF 100f/2.8L IS, f/7.1, 1/125th sec, hand held.

Image: Upper Tipsoo lake, x100s, 1/280sec at f/8, ISO 400

The hike starts and ends at Tipsoo lake, so I started there at sunrise and completed the hike 2 1/2 hours later, I highly recommend it if you go to Rainier, fall will be especially nice as well maybe the first week of October to catch the fall colors

Image: Mountain Anemone, 5D Mk III, EF 100f/2.8L IS, f/3.5, 1/4000th sec, hand held, sky background.

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Ross 

Images In Light

"The Mountain"

Image: 5D Mk II, 70-200 f4 L IS

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"The Mountain" as we call it around here, or Mt Rainier, is not a very accessible mountain in the winter. This year I picked up cross country skiing, which brings me new options for getting in to remote areas in the winter, it also makes me consider new options for light weight gear.

We spent a night at High Hut which belongs to the Mount Tahoma Trail Association (MTTA) at $15 P/P a night its pretty nice with a view that cant be beat.

Image: High Hut, Canon s100.

High Hut can be seen at the end of this ridge on the left

A tough ski in but the ski out was fantastic, hope to be back here again next year for another great trip.


Ross Images In Light

Spring in September

Image: 5D Mk II, 16-35 f2.8 II L, 29mm at f16, 1/50 sec, no filter's.

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Image: 5D Mk II, 16-35 f2.8 II L, 16mm at 1/25 sec, no filter's.

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Spring in September ? at Mt Rainier, yes. Extremely unusual weather this year in the Pacific NW left snow in the high country a lot later than normal, this pushed the bloom out almost two months, normally we would see flowers like this in late July.

Last year I was shooting fall color at Mt Rainier on October 12th, this year spring flowers on September 10th.

Regardless, it makes for a great time to be at the Mountain, bring bug spray, suntan lotion and keep an eye out for bears in the Bench lake area, the blue berries are ripe and the bears love them.

Ross

Images In Light

Winter at Mt Rainier NP

Image: 5D Mk II, 300 f4 IS at f4, 1/2500 sec, iso 100

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Well I bumped in to my old friend at Mt Rainier NP a couple weeks ago, hes not scared of people so I assume he has been fed in the park by tourists, I think he's the same one I've seen a few times, each time he's a different color, above his transition to Red Fox is almost complete, even though there is still a huge amount of snow in the park, below is the black and silver phase in Jan of 2009.

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Of course Mt Rainier was there in all her glory, this time she appeared to me in Black and White, a short snow shoe up the trail from the Paradise parking lot.

Image: 5D Mk II, 70-200 f4 IS L, f11 at 1/640 sec, iso 100
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I hope to be blogging a bit more in the coming weeks, its been a pretty busy and rainy winter, I have not had much chance to get out and about, I was snow shoeing just the other side of the Hwy 2 Pass this last weekend and got some good light its amazing that it can be so cloudy here and I can drive just 2 hours and its a sunny winter wonderland.

Ross

More Fall at Rainier

Image: 5D Mk II, 70-200 f4 IS L, f11, LV, 3 stop GND filter
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Image: 5D Mk II, 70-200 f4 IS L, f11, LV, 3 stop GND filter
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Image: 5D Mk II, 70-200 f4 IS L, f6.3, LV
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Better light prevailed on this trip to the mountain, the fall colors are fantastic. Every trip to Mt Rainier, the mood is different, the light never the same, that's one of its best features.

Ross Murphy Images In Light

Fall at Mt Rainier National Park

Paradise Valley
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Paradise
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Paradise Valley
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If you have time in the next week to visit Mt Rainier, I highly recommend you do so. Mt Rainier puts on a fall show that's hard to beat, rivaled only by the spring bloom, in ways as good as the fall show in New England.

The color is coming mostly from Blueberry bushes that grow all over the Cascade range, the bears go through this like harvester machines, fattening up for their winter long sleep and can be seen at the park stuffing their furry faces full of over ripe blueberrys.

Black Bear fall 2009
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It was overcast for my visit but I hope to be back for some good weather this coming week end, the color should last another week.

You may also get to see a black and silver phase Red Fox I have seen on a couple of recent shoots at Mt Rainier.

Winter 2009
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Ross Murphy Images In Light

New Work

Mt Rainier
5D Mk II, 24-105 f4 IS L at f22, 47mm, LV.
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Mt Adams
5D Mk II, 70-200 f4 IS L at f16, 200mm, LV.
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Wow, its been a busy summer of working on my house and doing my day job, I have not had much time for photography, but at last my house is done and I can get back to making images, the mountain snow has cleared out and I can get out and do some hiking and get some needed exercise and do some image making.

Spent Sunday up at Mt Rainier National Park, hiking up to higher elevations to also escape the 90 degree weather we are having in Seattle, no clouds or great sunsets, but still a beautiful place to be, even with out a camera.

I hope to do a trip almost every week end, now through mid October. A trip down to Cannon and Ecola beaches maybe Shi Shi beach, Mt Baker (Kulshan) the Columbia river Gorge and back to Rainier of course and hopefully a trip up to the Enchantments.

Get out and shoot, hope to have some new images up soon along with my article on live view (LV).


Ross Murphy Images in Light

Fall at Mt Rainier NP

Image: 5D Mk II,300 f4 IS L at f4,spot metered, ISO 400, 1/250 sec click to view larger

Image: 5D Mk II, 16-35 f2.8 L II, 18 mm at f16, 3 stop GND soft, click to view larger.

Image: 5D Mk II, 16-35 f2.8 L II, 33 mm at f16, click to view larger.

Again another day of bad weather at the Mountain, was only able to get 5 shots off with the Mountain in the image, but it was still better than a day in the office, ran in to a black and silver phase Red Fox and a Black bear on this trip and enjoyed a quiet hike in Paradise valley, pretty much all to my self, the colors where a little beyond peak up high but still nice lower on the Mountain. The weekend before I got snow, so a little better this trip.

Ross Murphy Images In Light

Winter Forest

Image: B and W Forest, 5DMkII, 70-200 f4 IS L at 116 mm, f11

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Well, what I thought was going to be the last chance to shoot fall color at Mt Rainier, turned in to a cold a snowy day with the temperature right at 32 deg. Paradise valley (above) was cold and moody, it turned out to produce some interesting compositions including this on that I cropped to remove the trunks of the trees and the square format worked nice. See the full image here.

Ross Murphy Images In Light

Wide Angle With a Telephoto

Image: 46mp 4 shot portrait mode panorama 5D Mk II, 300mm f4 IS L.
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Rope teams, 100 % crop, center left near summit
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Rope teams, 100 % crop, center right near summit
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Medium Format territory resolution stitch in CS4, this 46 mega pixel image, 4 shot portrait mode panorama was stitched and blended together using Photo shop, shot with a 21 mp 5D Mk II and a 300mm f4 IS L. whats amazing about this huge image is what can be seen when zoomed up, the 2 lower shots are examples, the upper of the 2 you can see the 7 rope teams as they make there summit approach above Disappointment Cleaver and the lower shot shows 5 or 6 teams near the top of Emmons Glacier. The native print size for this image is 17" x 30" and could easily be up sampled with CS4 to 24" x 40" and that is a very large print, almost to the point of becoming to expensive to mat and frame with good quality materials, one needs a buyer for this first that can appreciate the value of a good frame and mat, before dropping $300 - $400 on the frame. The mountain range in the fore ground are the Cowlitz Chimneys.

Ross Murphy Images In Light

Wide Angle Landscape Shooting

Image: Mt Tahoma (Indian Name) 5D Mk II, 17-40 f4 L, 29mm @ f16, 1/6 sec. 3 Stop GND

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Shooting wide angle landscapes is one of my favorites, I have found that the key is to have a foreground subject that is tack sharp, the shot should feel balanced weight wise and if possible use the rule of thirds, this is where the new tilt/shift lenses should excel. prints from these types of images can be a challenge but when you get that shot where it all comes together the wide angle landscape can be gorgeous hanging on your wall. A GND filter is a big help in this type of image, I want to spend my time in the field not behind a computer trying to put HDR's together, I spent maybe 5 minuets putting the above image through Lightroom and CS4.

Ross Murphy Images in Light

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