June 10, 2009
Hey friends,
For many years now, I’ve been taking a vacation during the first week of June. Not only does this coincide with my birthday, but early June tends to be very nice weather-wise and is great for nature photography. Coincidentally, this is the same week as the Green Mountain Nature Photography Workshop takes places, and for the third year in a row, I headed down to northern Vermont for 5 days to be co-instructor of the workshop.
I know, I know, many of you are scratching your heads about this. Why on earth would I want to “work” during my vacation? Why would I choose to get up at 5:00 or 6:00 in the morning for 5 days? Truth is that for me this is not work, and getting up early is worth it. I love to share my passion for nature photography with others, and I happen to have pretty good technical know-how regarding photography and equipment, so it is a pleasure and a thrill to help others in their photographic journey.
So on Friday May 29th 2009, my first day of vacation, I headed down to Vermont to hook up with my friend and photo partner Gustav. Sadly, my wife Johanne had to stay in Montreal, as our 13+ year Labrador Retriever, Gryphon, no longer travels well and gets too stressed when we are away. Many thanks to my darling wife, who did not make me feel bad about leaving her behind.
I’ll reserve a detailed day-by-day description of the workshop for a future blog post next spring… For now, I simply wanted to share a few of my favorite images with you. I’m deliberately choosing images that are different from my previous 2 trips to the workshop.
Four Corners Falls – Missisquoi River – North Troy, Vermont
Canon EOS 5D MkII
Canon EF 17-40mm f/4 L lens at 21mm
ISO 100, 0.5s at f/20
Filters: Singh-Ray Gold-n-Blue Polarizer
Gitzo GT3541LS Tripod with Really Right Stuff BH-55 Ballhead
Read more…
Posted by Rob under Filters, Landscapes, Macro, Spring, Vermont, Workshops & Tours | Comments (2)
May 5, 2009
For those of us less cold-hardy than the Rob Servranckxs of the world, unless I’m sojourning somewhere south of South Carolina, the camera gear does tend to gather some dust between the time the frost is on the pumpkin and the woodcock returns to the meadow. (In case you’re picturing me supine on the couch reading model railroad magazines between November and April, I’ll let you know that I finished writing my first novel while the snow was drifting and the wind was rattling the windows.) Rarely, I’ll be in the field as early as mid-March, keeping vigil by an otter hole in the thinning ice of Belvidere Pond or in my blind on a clear morning hoping to intercept a courting gobbler and catch the light show of the rising sun playing on his iridescent plumage.
Wild Turkey (Jake)
Canon EOS 1-D Mark ll N
Canon EF300mm f/2.8 L IS lens
1/100″ @ f/6.3 at ISO 400, spot metering
Gitzo Studex tripod with Wimberley Head
Read more…
Posted by Gustav under L'Ile Bizard (Quebec), Musings, Seasons, Spring, Vermont | Comments (1)
April 11, 2009
It was about the time we first heard the woodcock peenting – the male’s plaintive mating call that sounds like a creaky floor board – in the meadow below the house this spring that Freddie and Michael’s pond thawed. About a quarter of a mile north of us, Freddie and Michael are our nearest neighbors. Their post and beam house sits, much like our house, at the top of an expanse of open field that descends gradually down to a large, federally protected wetland. The pond lies half way between the house and the wetland and toward our side of their property.
Freddie and Michael are ideal neighbors. They bring us fresh rhubarb from their garden which we, i.e, my wife, Cheryl, gives back to them baked into strawberry rhubarb pie, though, she has to cut the pie in half and bring it to them the same day she bakes it otherwise I’ll usually forget that I’m only supposed to eat half of the pie. And I’m welcome to rinse off our dogs, Aldo and Bela, in the pond after they’ve been chasing frogs and tadpoles in the wetland or for all three of us to take a cool dip after I’ve been toiling around the homestead on a hot summer day. As ponds go, Freddie and Michael’s pond is of medium size, about 100′ in diameter, not overly landscaped but with a fairly dense copse of alders, birches, aspens, and some scotch pine along the south bank that blocked the view of the water from our deck except in winter, of course, when we could see through the bare branches of the deciduous trees but when the pond was merely a circular impression in the austere winterscape between our house and theirs. Then, last fall, I noticed yellowish stumps gleaming in the afternoon sun where some of the alders and birches had stood. Seems, a family of beaver had moved from the wetland into the pond.
Beaver & Branches
Read more…
Posted by Gustav under Equipment, Spring, Tripods, Vermont, Wildlife | Comments (4)
March 8, 2009
Hey all,
I’ve been thinking about what to write for the March blog entry. My initial thought was to write about winter photography. You know, as a counterpoint to Gustav’s Solstice 2008 entry, where the self-proclaimed “winter wimp” whines about the cold, dark days and freezing extremities… Use ‘em or lose ‘em, my friend! 
I’ve not abandoned that blog idea. I will eventually be writing about the joys of winter photography, and the gear and clothing I use to stay safe, comfortable and warm. However, with the Green Mountain Workshop being only 3 months away, I thought I’d use this space to make a shameless self-marketing plug.
Truth is, neither Gustav nor I are very adept at filling this workshop. This boggles my mind… but then, marketing just ain’t our thing, photography is. This workshop is probably the best “bang for the buck” nature photography workshop an aspiring nature photographer can take. Seriously… Why? Well, let me just tell you the ways! (Or ask one of the previous years’ participants.)
We do not have a specific agenda or time schedule – we go with the weather, the flow, and the requests of the participants. When weather cooperates, we maximize the time in the field for hands-on work. When rain hits, we’ll retreat indoors for work on digital workflow, image processing and photography theory. And with the purchase of a new large tent/greenhouse, we’ll able to shoot insects and plants without getting wet even if the rain does not let up!
Although I can’t tell you exactly what we’ll be doing in the 2009 version of the workshop, I can still tempt you by writing about some of the fun stuff we will do and learn. Take a look at my 2008 Green Mountain Workshop blog entry for a day-by-day account of the photo activities and wonderful meals we had last year.
Moss Glenn Falls – Granville, Vermont
Canon EOS 20D with Canon EF 17-40mm f/4 L USM lens at 31mm
1.3s at f/16, ISO 100
Singh-Ray Gold-n-Blue Polarizer
Gitzo G2220 tripod, Really Right Stuff BH-55 ballhead, cable release, mirror lock-up
Read more…
Posted by Rob under Spring, Technique, Vermont, Workshops & Tours | Comments (8)
February 5, 2009
The captain skillfully eased his lobster boat close to the leeward side of a small island about a half a mile out of Witless Bay on the Avalon Peninsula, a jut of land that dangles, like a hanging chad, from the southeast corner of Newfoundland. Pointing the bow into the current, he steadied the boat as the ebb tide sucked the ocean out from underneath us. Meanwhile, we adjusted our apertures, shutter speeds, and auto focus settings then aimed our lenses upward at the hundreds of Atlantic puffins adorning a grassy cliff that towered over the starboard gunwale. Nesting puffins poked their colorful orange beaks out of their burrows in the soft, crumbly soil. Courting pairs stood on tussocks and ledges alternately throwing their heads backward and flashing the brilliant yellow linings of their mouths at one another – the puffin’s form of spooning. Overhead, against a clear blue sky, a fury of stubby wings frantically flapping and tangerine-colored webbed feet tucked way back on stocky little bodies extended from the cliff like a phalanx of ants streaming from an anthill as puffins winged out to sea and as many returned some, but certainly not all, with hauls of capelin or krill or hake or herring clamped in their beaks for their hungry chicks.
I braced my back against the side of the wheelhouse, handheld my camera and shot wide open at f/4 with a 1.4x on my Canon 300mm f/2.8 IS lens, on aperture priority, evaluative metering, and +1 exposure compensation. Autofocus was set on AI Servo with CF 17 set to 2 (13 point expanded activation) to enable me to keep the birds in focus. I was hoping to get a shot of a puffin in flight with a beakfull of fish.
Bull Caribou with Harem
Canon EOS3 with Canon 300mm f/2.8 L USM lens
1/90″ at f/4, Kodak E100G
evaluative metering, aperture priority
Gitzo G1340 with Wimberley head
scan from a 35mm slide on a Nikon Coolscan 4000
Read more…
Posted by Gustav under Newfoundland, Participants' Photos | Comments (8)
January 2, 2009
Happy New Year to all!
Before getting to the “meat” of this article on using the Sing-Ray the Gold-N-Blue polarizer, let me give you a quick update on my new Canon EOS 5D MkII camera. I’m mid-way through my 2008 Holiday break – a full two weeks off work, and it feels great! I was supposed to be spending a lot of time outdoors, enjoying my new Canon EOS 5D MkII camera, snowshoeing and cross-country skiing…
Alas, the weather has been most uncooperative, with lots of rain and freezing rain over the beautiful snow, cloudy skies, very high winds (blowing at 100km/h as I’m writing this on December 28th, 2008), slippery and icy conditions, etc… [sigh]… I did go out a whole three times to enjoy my new camera, but 95% of the images I’ve taken with it so far were indoor “test” shots. I am absolutely thrilled with the image quality of this camera. The 5D MkII is everything I was hoping it would be, so let me share a couple of shots:
Snow Covered Trees in Winter
Canon EOS 5D MkII with Canon EF 24-105mm f/4 L IS USM lens at 47mm
1/25s at f/14, ISO 100
B+W Polarizer
Gitzo G1340 tripod, Really Right Stuff BH-55 ballhead, cable release, mirror lock-up
Gryphon
Canon EOS 5D MkII with Canon EF 70-200mm f/4 L IS USM lens at 81mm
1/50s at f/5.6, ISO 1600(!)
Gitzo GT3541LS tripod, Really Right Stuff BH-55 ballhead
Read more…
Posted by Rob under Filters, L'Ile Bizard (Quebec), Technique, Vermont, Winter | Comments (6)
December 28, 2008
G’day Everyone and a joyful, fulfilling, and positively memorable 2009 to all of you.
I read somewhere that the number of Christmas cards one gets every year can portend how many people might attend one’s funeral. Bah humbug! Cheryl and I don’t send out Christmas cards and what you sow, so shall you reap. If the number of cards hanging over our front doorway is any indication of the size of my future funeral, than I’d like to thank that person, in advance, for showing up and would they please make sure that the camera clutched in my cold hands is on aperture priority, ISO 400, and the flash is set to fill flash, -1 stop. That ought to be about right.
Sorry, I don’t mean to bring grim tidings but I’m turning 55 tomorrow and, well, mortality is bearing down on me. Now, when I pick up my guitar and sing Bruce (Utah) Phillips’s plaintive lyrics, “Each year is like a rolling freight train and cold as starlight on the rails.” I can actually feel the rumble of the train in the pit of my stomach. I trust it’s a distant rumble; I have many miles to cover and goals to reach before the fire in my boiler goes out.
B&O Centennial Slips Through Seal Cove Tunnel
on our ceiling layout. All but the sky and moon are real. As for the sleigh and reindeer, that depends on whether you believe.
Canon EOS -1D Mark II N with Canon 300mm f/2.8 L USM lens
4″ at f/16, ISO 400, 550EX Speedlight on full bounced off white ceiling
evaluative metering, aperture priority
Gitzo G1340 with Wimberley head & cable release
Quite frankly, I prefer to stay in touch throughout the year. I look forward to writing this blog as much as I enjoy planning my field work. Hearing from of those of you who receive these missives is as fulfilling as getting a good shot. Really.
Read more…
Posted by Gustav under Musings, Winter | Comments (7)
November 30, 2008
Paraphrasing Henry David Thoreau, one’s connection with the natural world is indirectly proportional to the amount of stuff one schlepps into nature. By that measure, a homeless soul sleeping in a city park is more connected to the grass and trees and earthworms burrowing under the leaf litter than any of us nature photographers for whom “being in nature” actually means capturing nature on film or a memory card. Certainly, any professional nature photographer, myself included, measures the success of a sojourn in the wild by the number of saleable images we extract from the locations we visit and, in order to do that, we necessarily have to bring along a lot of very expensive stuff. What’s more, if owing to bad weather or uncooperative wildlife we don’t get any useable images at all, well, it’s as if we were never there.
Green Mountain Boys
Nikon FE2, Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 lens
Polarizer
1/125″ at f/16, ISO 100
manual metering, sunny 16
handheld
scan from 35mm slide
Read more…
Posted by Gustav under Musings, Shows & Exhibits | Comments (1)
November 9, 2008
G’day Everyone,
A frequent question at presentations and exhibits is whether or not I have a favorite photographic location and if so, where it is. I suppose most folks expect me to describe some exotic locale far from home, likely requiring hours of intolerable air travel with its associated trevails, then a day or two of tiresome paddling along a murky river through a dense, foreboding jungle, the air humming with malaria-transmitting mosquitoes, the shores fringed with crocodiles longer than the canoe.
Autumn at Tamarack Brook
Canon EOS 1-D Mark II N, Canon EF 17-40mm f/4 L USM lens at 17mm
Moose 81A Polarizer
30 seconds at f/19, ISO 100
evaluative metering, aperture priority
Gitzo G2220 tripod, Bogen 3047 head, cable release
Read more…
Posted by Gustav under Fall Foliage, Shows & Exhibits, Vermont, Workshops & Tours | Comments (1)
October 19, 2008
Johanne (my wife) and I decided to take our vacation 1 month later than usual, so that I could do some “fall colors” photography. My intention had been to join Gustav for a couple of days on his Fall Foliage Magical Mystery Tour, and I was really looking forward to shooting streams and waterfalls in autumnal colors. However, Gryphon, our 12 1/2 year old Labrador Retriever, no longer travels well and gets stressed when we leave him at my parents house for more than a few hours. Gryphon has given us a lifetime of love, devotion and loyalty, and the very least I can do for him is to make his life as happy and comfortable as possible. Which means staying at home…
I decided to stay in the Montreal area for my photography, and expected to do short “day trips” to various locations. Note to self: there’s no point in driving to a general location unless you really know the area well, or have a specific destination in mind… My first “day trip” to a beautiful area just west of Montreal ended up being nothing more than a pleasant 4 hour drive in the countryside. Not a single picture taken. Additionally, most areas just outside of Montreal peaked about 2 weeks early this year, and the trees were mostly bare by the start of my vacation, limiting my choice of destinations.
So, remembering Dorothy’s famous words: “There’s no place like home…” I decided to stick to nearby areas that I know soooo well. There are no “grand vistas” in the area, so my compositions would need to focus on shapes and patterns, small tree clusters, and colors. The key is to find clean, interesting compositions, simplifying the shot as much as possible to make it appealing.
Maple Trees in Fall Colors
Canon EOS 20D with Canon EF 70-200mm f/4 L USM IS lens at 168mm
1/30s at f/8, ISO 100
Hoya Moose Polarizer
Gitzo G2220 tripod, Really Right Stuff BH-55 ballhead, cable release, mirror lock-up
Read more…
Posted by Rob under Fall Foliage, Filters, L'Ile Bizard (Quebec), Technique | Comments (0)