Who says I have to show my actual work here in the blog any time I post something? ;-) Yes, I made some new bird images during the extreme cold weather we have here since a few days but today I liked to browse through my archive and dig out some “unfinished business”. This photo was made in September 2012 in Rocky Mountain National Park. It was a rainy and windy day but the views were stunning and the dynamic of the clouds during and after the rain showers was unbeatable.
I follow the blogs of many photographers and the link list on the left side of my blog is only a fraction of all the websites I visit frequently. All of them provide education and inspiration, and most of the time it is just fun to read what other photographers have in mind. One blog I never miss if a new post is released is the one of Moose Peterson. He is certainly the photographer I learned the most from for my wildlife and landscape photography. His writing style is fun to read and he inspires me greatly.
One of his recent posts was titled "Can One Click Tell The Story?" and he answers that question with a great image of the Grand Canyon and a video sequence that makes you understanding his thoughts.
I haven't been able to go out and shoot during the last four days but I still have some unfinished business on my hard drive. The photo above was made last September in Rocky Mountain National Park during a rainy day and a fast moving cloud scenario. I have several shots of this mountain range and they are all ok, but this one, taken at a brief moment when the sun kissed the mountain in the foreground while anything around got really dark, is the image that tells the story of that day and it is the only one I like to show you. No, I haven't asked myself the question "Can One Click Tell The Story?" while I was making the click but I'm sure will in the future. Thanks Moose!
You probably know the feeling after you have something created and accomplished that it is still not finished in one way or another, or that there is still potential for improvement even if you like the results. This is what happened to me with the image I show you today. It is from last years trip to the Rocky Mountains and the first version was made in full color. You can click HERE to see the color version of this photograph. I liked how the picture conveys the drama of this weather situation, with lots of rain and a short break through of the sun. The color version lives from the color contrast between the green of the grass in the foreground and the different shades of blue in the clouds. I received some good words about the photo in one of my online galleries but I still had the feeling that the first version did not reveal the essence of this particular moment. For my taste it still had too much information. The approach I'm taking now with this black and white version is to reduce everything just to the light and luminosity. For me it reflects the mood of this moment much better and now I have the feeling that I came a little closer to a final result that I like to print and hang on a wall.
I'm still not done with sorting through my 2012 archive. The Rocky Mountain Elks were one of the reasons that we really wanted to visit Rocky Mountain National Park last year. We had plenty of encounters of these wonderful animals and have enjoyed watching them very much. The best time to see them is quite often during the evenings, which at the other hand can be quite a challenge with exposure. Using a tripod is highly recommended for managing the low light situations.
I have posted several times this fall about our visit in the Rocky Mountains. I still have images that haven't been shown in either of my galleries. Can't resist to show you the American Pika again today because I just watched a documentary about the effects the warming of the earth has on this little critter. It is not easy to get really close to the pika but this photo shows their natural habitat, the boulder-covered hillsides above 8,000 feet altitude.
The other animal is a Golden-mantled Ground Squirrel. It was on the watch, not far from the trail on a grassy hillside. It almost seemed to pose for us... ;-)
The background in the pika picture has natural lens blur that separates the animal from the background nicely. Not as good as with a fast and much more expensive f/2.8 or f/4 lens, but the Sigma 50-500 f/4-6.3 still delivers a decent result here. The grassy background in the squirrel picture was much more distracting and so I used a blur filter in Photoshop to improve the result in the upper part of the photo. Still not perfect but I believe it is a feasible solution to work around the limitations of this lens.
We had a good amount of much needed rain this weekend. I used the time for several photography related projects (see my post from yesterday) and finally thought it is a good time to post some "water pictures" from our recent trip to the Rocky Mountains.
The first shot was taken above the Copeland Falls in the Southeast corner of the National Park. I made quite a few clicks, knowing that each picture would look differently by using a variety of different exposures from 1/20 to 1 second . The creek was in the shade of trees and the absence of bold colors made me process the image in B&W. It was the pattern, created by air bubbles in the flowing water and revealed by the long exposure, that I was after and 0.7s at f/16 created a desirable result for me. As always, NIK Silver Efex Pro2 is my software of choice for processing a B&W image.
The second image was taken after a hike higher up to Ouzel Falls. Despite a heavy overcast and even some rain sprinkles some light was left and revealed the colors of the surrounding rocks. I liked this one better than a B&W version I made and I want to share with you.
I wish all of you a great week.
I'm sure you know the feeling when you have postponed something for a long time and after you got it done finally you get into a great state of mind. That's how I feel today. It bothered me since quite some time that my photography portfolio could not be opened on an iPhone or iPad, because the portfolio was created with flash galleries and those don't work on Apple's devices.
Beside updating my portfolio and creating a new design I made finally the switch to html-galleries which will work on Apple's mobile devices as well.
Please feel free to have a look at my new LANDSCAPE and WILDLIFE portfolio by clicking on the tab PHOTOGRAPHY PORTFOLIO on the left side bar. I hope you enjoy! :-)
I got all excited when this Northern Harrier landed in a broken pine tree at Timber Creek Campground on the Westside of Rocky Mountain National Park. We had already an eventful day behind us, had just declared "beer time", and enjoyed the warm evening sun in our camping chairs. The camera was still mounted on my tripod because an elk herd had just entered the campground and I was hoping for a good shot of the big bull elk that tried to keep his harem together.
I moved slowly step by step towards the harrier any time the bird turned its head away from me. I believe it is a female and she let me come pretty close. The picture is slightly cropped to keep some ugly branches out of the frame. I had to dial in -2 EV exposure compensation in order not to blow out the feathers on her breast completely.
It was a nice way to wrap up a wonderful day and a valid reason to interrupt "beer time", don't you think?... ;-)
These two photos were made during a little hike around Bear Lake in the evening. The lake is at an altitude of 9,475 feet but can easily be reached by car or one of the shuttle buses, provided for the visitors in order to limit traffic in Rocky Mountain National Park. The sun was already behind the surrounding mountains but the aspens had a glow that was hard to resist. The beauty of aspens in the fall is stunning and I looked for patterns on the mountain slopes and in the lake. I hope you enjoy.
It is not easy to identify a grouse and I'm not 100 percent sure if I'm correct in this matter. According to iBird PRO, a terrific app that I use for bird identification, the Dusky Grouse and the Sooty Grouse were considered to be the same species, called the Blue Grouse. In 2006 the American Ornithologist's Union split them based on DNA evidence. Beside iBird PRO I use several books to identify my bird encounters. However, this time I'm not really sure and if you have a different opinion I like to hear from you and would appreciate any professional advice.
This photo took a lot of efforts to get the shot. This female grouse was not very shy but wandered constantly around between rocks and trees laying on the ground. The light was low and I had to dial in ISO400 in order to get a shutter speed of 1/60s. The D300s was handhold and I tried to stabilize the lens by leaning against a tree. I got several sharp images but my choice to publish this photo was based on the background. The Dusky Grouse rested briefly on a rock in front of some other boulders and no twig or dead branch disturbed the scene...
