WORKING AGAINST THE GRAY

Is there still some story telling in a photo if nothing but a gray overcast with fog, and as a result snow that looks gray, dominate the scene? At least I gave it a try last weekend during our annual ice fishing event with friends up in the Northwoods of Wisconsin. I was hoping for some great light moments, but they never came this time. One way to suppress the overall gray is to find some colors. The nicely stacked fire wood beside the cabin and a little bit of fresh snow draw the attention away from the gray sky.

In the second image negative space was used to depict the contour of the lake shore. In addition the dark spots of the slushy snow on the ice of Fay Lake tell the story of a gray and relativ warm winter day.

AGAIN AND AGAIN

Theodore Roosevelt National Park, North Dakota

I hope you had a good start into the new year. May it be a good one for all of you!

For many photographers the period between Christmas and a new year is often time to reflect on the work of the previous twelve months, by naming maybe personal favorites, or by looking back into the archive and finding pictures that may have been overlooked.

I kinda do the latter and open my first blog post in 2016 with an image that has clouds and sky as its subject. This was something I wanted to do more in 2015 and I did. It didn’t always work out the way I thought it would. Sometimes you may come across a great sky but have no foreground or interesting skyline. Other times you think you are in the right place, at the right time, and then the clouds dissolve or the light suddenly becomes crappy. The only way to do it is being out there and try it again and again...

SUN IS OUT, FINALLY

Nikon D750, Nikkor 16-35mm / f4

A very chilly morning today after a relative warm Christmas but for the first time this weekend the sun came out and the sky cleared. We are in Cherokee in northwest Iowa and spent the weekend with our family. A daily habit is a walk around Spring Lake, located in a nice park of the city. 

The Nikkor 16-35, f/4 was on camera and choosing f/16 created the sunburst effect and depth of field throughout the whole image. The photo doesn’t have a clear subject but the long shadows of the trees on the ice triggered my desire to make this picture.

THERE ARE REASONS

Missouri River, near Bismarck, North Dakota

The photo was made on our way home, just southwest of Bismarck, the capitol of North Dakota. There are reasons why getting up early in the morning may lead to a desired image. Pitching the tent next to the Missouri River made it a lot easier to be on site before sunrise. A few minutes later a beaver swam down the river. Those are the moments when you realize, being in the right place, at the right time, is not solely due to just having a lucky day…

CANONBALL CONCRETIONS

A few days ago I “bothered” you with a black and white photo from a small part of Theodore Roosevelt National Park, called “Canonball Concretions”. I considered to post another picture of this wonderful geological formation sometime. So here it is, color contrast and interesting shapes! Stopping down to f/10 helped to get a decent sharpness for the foreground and the rock walls in the back. Don’t take me wrong, we loved the light on those eroded formations but a few clouds would have made it perfect. As always, we have to work with what is in front of the lens, not what we wish it would be with...

For those of you who like to know more about how the “cannonballs” are created, here is the link that will give you the answers much better than I can do: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concretion

SPARSE FALL COLORS

Theodore Roosevelt National Park, North unit

The grasslands of the Dakotas are not a prime destination if you want to shoot nothing but fall colors. However, any time we saw a Cottonwood or any other tree that had some fall colors we stopped and tried to integrate it in a landscape photo. Nothing tells the story of fall season more powerful than the changing colors of leaves.

EXTRACTING THE SUBJECT

South unit of Theodore Roosevelt National Park, North Dakota

Sometimes it needs a different approach to extract a subject from its surroundings. Here it is clearly the cloud that is my subject, but by using a mid-range or wide angle lens this was not obvious. The cloud would have been a small band above the horizon. I zoomed in at 500 mm with the Sigma 50-500, usually my workhorse for wildlife photography, and suddenly the cloud really became the story telling element in the photo. Sure, this photo is about a mood, but without the interesting cloud it would have been just another plain sunset picture.

CHOOSING BLACK & WHITE

Nikon D750, Nikkor 16-35mm / f4, @ 16 mm, 1/200s, f/10, ISO 100

Although the moon is in the picture it wasn’t the light source for this image. The setting sun painted the rugged slopes at “Canonball Concretions" in Theodore Roosevelt National Park orange. It sure was a great color contrast with the steel blue sky, and I may show some color photo of this place sometime. I saw this photo in B&W already in my mind while pushing the shutter button, and I like the result...

BADLANDS, BUT GREAT MOMENTS

Nikon D750, Nikkor 24-120mm / f4

Badlands are a type of dry terrain where softer sedimentary rocks and clay-rich soils have been extensively eroded by wind and water. They are characterized by steep slopes, minimal vegetation, lack of a substantial regolith, and high drainage density. (source: Wikipedia)

What this classification doesn’t include is the beauty you can find in these landscapes. We spent a big part of our vacation this year in Badlands, in South, and as well in North Dakota. It is easy to get spoiled by some of the more iconic parks here in the United States, but we had some very stunning and almost unexpected moments in the Dakotas. This photo was made one early evening in the North unit of Theodore Roosevelt National Park. Down in the valley is the Little Missouri River, shallow and always very muddy. At this time of the day it became a very essential part of the photo. Walked back to the car with a smile in my face...

ROUGHLOCK FALLS

Roughlock Falls is in the Little Spear Fish Creek Valley in the Black Hills. It is one of the places that are liked by tourists and you can get close safely to the waterfalls on well built boardwalks and bridges.

A few days ago I posted an article called “Communicating Motion”. Today’s image was made with the same technique, a combination of multiple shots into one image. The camera can do this automatically and the Nikon D750 is able to combine up to three shots. Other, more expensive models, are able to work with up to ten shots. To be honest, I’m very happy with the results. It takes some test shots to find the best exposure compensation. The interesting thing is that no two pictures look alike and that leaves you some room for your creative process. I have photographed waterfalls before, mostly with a neutral density filter in front of the lens for a long exposure time, which creates the silky look of the water. The goal with both techniques is to tell your own story about motion of the water and to reveal the beauty of a waterfall or creek. The advantages of the new way are that you don’t need any filter, the colors seem to look better, and most important you can shoot these kind of pictures even in bright daylight.

EARLY SNOW

I don’t remember that we ever got so much snow in November within a day since Joan and I live here on the bluffs above the Little Maquoketa Valley. It sure looked pretty in the morning and even later, just before sunset when these photos were made, there was still some snow in the trees.

The farmer who works the small fields along the Little Maquoketa River, was a little late with the harvest of his corn this year. I saw the combine and tractors with trailers Friday morning getting the job done. Well, it was obviously not too late and the people that “plowed” the fields with their snow mobiles just a day later must have thought the same. I know, the sun in this picture is a little “burned out” but I wanted this picture for today’s story. I can promise you it will not end up in my portfolio… 😉!

Down in the valley the Heritage Trail, follows the highway to Dubuque, Iowa. The snowmobilers were obviously very happy about the early start of the winter season and used the trail heavily. The photographer found his pleasure in the light of the evening...

COMMUNICATING MOTION

Our next campsite was in the Little Spearfish Creek Valley, which is located in the northern part of the Black Hills. The forest is denser than in Custer State Park and we were higher up in the mountains.

This arm of the creek was running not far from our small camp site and it was the right subject for trying out a new technique I recently learned from an article by Moose Peterson. It is about creating a long exposure look for moving water in order to communicate its motion. Without attaching a neutral density filter or very long exposure times we can achieve this look even in daylight under relative bright light conditions. The trick is to use the multiple-exposure function that is built into some cameras. If this triggers your interest, click on the link for the whole article. http://www.imagechaser.com/creating-long-exposure-look-without-wait-nd-filter/

The interesting thing is that not two pictures look alike and at home, in front of our computer screens, we can choose the pattern of blur that we like the best. After reading Moose Peterson’s article, about a month before our trip, I really was eager to try this new technique and finally along the Little Spearfish Creek, with its waterfalls and cascades, I found the perfect “testing ground”…

JEWEL CAVE

As a visitor of the Black Hills you have several options to visit a cave. We decided to see at least one and our choice was Jewel Cave, which is also a National Monument. There are books and websites out there that will tell you every geological and historical fact about this cave. We really enjoyed this visit and all the information we got from a very passionate ranger during our tour in the cave. Don’t miss it if you ever go to the Black Hills!

Within a few minutes being in the cave I figured out that it is impossible to catch the magnificence in just one “signature photo”. Instead I approached it with just composition and color in mind. I did not want to make just documentary shots. When the ranger asked who would volunteer to be the last person of the tour, to make sure nobody is left behind, my arm went up immediately. I may have missed some of the ranger talk, but being the last one leaving any part of the cave gave me a little more time for the extra shot without being pushed by another person.

The first image was made with the help of a speed light, which was used to throw some light into the foreground by pointing it towards the ceiling. Everybody who has a phone in their pocket can be a photographer these days, and I really believe this is a very good thing. As you can see in the lower right corner, I have not been the only one who was impressed by this cave and tried to capture the moment.

No flash light here, and by exposing strictly for the highlights, the black space around separates the viewer from this side track of the cave. Shapes and colors are talking.

This geological formation is called the “cave bacon”, and if you have ever watched how a piece of bacon changes its color if heated up in a pan, you know why… Oh boy, my good friend Anja will love the “meaty part” of this blog post…😉

DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES AT MOUNT RUSHMORE

Nikon D750, Nikkor 16-35mm / f4

If you go to the Black Hills for the first time you probably want to see Mount Rushmore National Memorial. It is impressive and definitive worth a visit. We had done this before a few years ago and skipped it this time. However, there are some interesting viewpoints around that give you a good opportunity to see the four presidents from different angles and perspectives.

The first photo was taken at a parking lot along the road that goes around the monument, called Profile Viewpoint. We didn’t have very many clouds during our time in the Black Hills, but here the deep blue sky and some white clouds brought some dynamic around the face of George Washington.

Nikon D750, Nikkor 24-120mm / f4

Another good point to stop the car was behind one of the road tunnels south of the memorial. In both images the Ponderosa Pines lead the eye to the subject and provide some color contrast to the blue sky and clouds.