2017 RETROSPECT / 6

For my retrospect about the month of June I have to revert to one of the best wildlife moments last year. While leaving the Green Island Wetlands at the Mississippi River the evening of June 9th I discovered four young raccoons having dinner in a mulberry tree. I have written in detail about this encounter in the blog and if you like to see the photos and read the full story I posted back in June 2017, feel free to click the link right here: http://www.exnerimages.net/blog/2017/6/10/a-gang-of-four

We photographers can talk about the technical aspects of photography all day long or get lost in overanalyzing our pixels, but it is important to have some fun while shooting, even if the results are not more than a “learning experience” sometimes. The good results will come with the passion we apply to our own photography. Watching the young raccoons was priceless and the only way to make these images was to crank up the ISO setting to 640 due to the very low light. Not my usual style for wildlife photography, but who cares if the technical side of the photo is not perfect but the story telling aspect reflects the fun I had while taking the pictures.

DEADWOOD, SOUTH DAKOTA, SALOON NO. 10

Nikon D750, Nikkor 16-35mm / f4,  1/3 s, f/8, ISO 1000, @ 16 mm

You can’t travel to the Wild West without visiting a bar once in a while… Gosh, Joan had to twist my arm very, very hard to get me into Saloon No. 10 in Deadwood, South Dakota. OK, you knew that was a lie… 😉 We were actually drawn in by an actor who played the old west legend Wild Bill Hickok in a little reenactment in the back of this bar. Lots of fun!

The photo of this charming bar, with all its memorabilia, was made after the performance and until that moment I didn’t know that I can handhold 1/3 s exposure time without a tripod 😊. Thanks to all the gimmicks, like vibration reduction in the lens and shooting with ISO 1000, the photo turned out OK, not tack-sharp, but sharp enough. But who knows, maybe a couple beer works better than any “VR” in a Nikkor lens…😉