Rob’s Hot Shots: PEI Set 2 – A Little Less Simple

Posted by on Nov 27, 2011 in Equipment, Filters, Hot Shots, Landscapes, Musings, Prince Edward Island | 7 comments

Rob’s Hot Shots: PEI Set 2 – A Little Less Simple

I wonder how many thousands of tourists walk by North Rustico Beach in PEI National Park on a yearly basis? During high season, I suspect that 1000s of snapshots are taken on the beaches of the park, and you figure that North Rustico Beach, being right at one of the entrances of the park, would mean that many other photographers have captured these scences. Yet, a 15 minute Google Image and Flickr search yields no images even remotely similar to these two.

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Rob’s Hot Shots – PEI Set 1: Simplicity

Posted by on Oct 22, 2011 in Filters, Hot Shots, Landscapes, Prince Edward Island, Summer, Technique | 10 comments

Rob’s Hot Shots – PEI Set 1: Simplicity

During our June vacation in Prince Edward Island, we were greeted with rather foul weather for the first  6 days – heavy cloud cover, strong winds, drizzle and rain. The light was flat, and the beautiful colors of the PEI landscape were not to be seen… Typical Maritimes weather, but not in mid-June! This weather forced me to get a bit creative, and gave me a great opportunity to test out my latest filter: the Lee Big Stopper, a 10-stop (!!!) neutral density filter, which slows down exposures by a factor of about 1500.

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Single-strobe Hummingbird Photography

Posted by on Jun 30, 2011 in Flash, Technique, Vermont, Wildlife | 7 comments

Single-strobe Hummingbird Photography

G’day Everyone,

Conventional wisdom recommends using several strobes for photographing hummingbirds.  Typically, hummingbird setups employ two strobes at about 45 degrees either side of the bird and level with it, a top and bottom light, and one or two additional strobes to light the background.  My brief note here is not intended to refute the merits of this standart technique, not at all.  Indeed, most circumstances will require a number of strobes to properly illuminate the scene and freeze the wing motion, especially in the field when one is not entirely in control of all the variables, i.e., flash to subject distance, the distance between the main subject and the backgroud, ambient light, etc.

However, under certain conditions, it is possible to capture outstanding images of hummingbirds with a single strobe…and a little help from the sun.

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Camera Hunting with Remote Setups – Epilogue

Posted by on Apr 28, 2011 in Cameras, Remote Setups, Technique, Vermont, Wildlife, Winter | 0 comments

Camera Hunting with Remote Setups – Epilogue

G’day Everyone,

In this final briefing of our experiences using high-quality game cameras to produce publishable images of otherwise elusive wildlife, I’ll cover the important considerations for placing the cameras in the field, that is, for locating field sites with a reasonably high potential for yielding usable images of the intended subjects, and I will also provide you with some pointers on properly positioning the cameras. Though I will use our experience with bobcats to illustrate our techniques and provide examples, the concepts I outline here are generally applicable to virtually all wildlife.

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Camera Hunting with Remote Setups – Game Camera Considerations

Posted by on Mar 3, 2011 in Cameras, Equipment, Remote Setups, Technique | 2 comments

Camera Hunting with Remote Setups – Game Camera Considerations

G’day Everyone,

In this long overdue follow-up to my introduction to remote setups (see http://www.sojournsinnature.com/blog/?p=1551#more-1551), I’ll outline what I’ve found to be the most important considerations when purchasing a game camera.

Game cameras have been popular for some time, notably with hunters who use them not to produce publishable photos but to locate game, hence the common name for these devices. I don’t mention this to point out the obvious but to emphasize that, given their usual application, these cameras are not necessarily designed to produce gallery-quality photos. As a professional nature photographer, I have to produce images I can sell to editors and enlarge to frame for my galleries.

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