Spirits of Winter
G’day Everyone,
While I consider myself a druid of sorts I’m not prone to numinous tendencies. Then again, I have my moments.
I was photographing snow geese at the Dead Creek Wildlife Preserve in Addison, VT on a bitterly cold morning a few autumns ago when I happened to glance away from my camera. My eyes were tearing in the biting wind and I had to wipe them every few moments. As I turned to swipe the sleeve of my fleece jacket across my face, I was confronted by the transfixing stare of a snowy owl.
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.
Read MoreRob’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.
Read MoreGetting High in Glacier National Park
G’day Mates,
Several years ago, a client purchased all the spaces in our Kenya tour for the privilege of having an exclusive experience, to have me all to himself as it were, and learn all the field technique and digital processing he could absorb during the two-week safari. It was a sublime adventure for both of us; Peter, the client, felt he got his money’s worth (He could be driving a nice sports car for what he paid for that exclusive experience.) while I regarded the tour as a magnificent, once-in-a-lifetime event. Let’s be honest, being in the company of kindred spirits in some of the world’s most remarkable natural locations doing what we love to do is always a precious gift. I never take it for granted.
Read MoreSingle-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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