Cloud chaser

Nikon D300s, Nikkor 24-120mm / f4

We had a gray day for the most part today. It was until late afternoon when finally the clouds broke apart and the sun came out. Time for me to go cloud chasing. The wind was blowing and as a result the clouds moved fast and the light changed constantly. Eastern Iowa is not Yellowstone and finding a great vista can be quite a challenge. I believe it is important to pay more attention to the details in the landscape here to make it work.

It was the hint of light that hit the trees in the foreground for a moment that made me stop the car, get out, and compose the image. As much as I like shooting landscape from a tripod, in situations like today it just slows you down and you may never get the shot you see developing in front of you. Of course, the colors were not bad either today but this is the kind of image I wanted to make.

Wrong lens, but didn't miss the shot

Nice weather today but unfortunately other things required more attention today than my photography. There was just enough time in the late afternoon for a quick trip to a couple boat landings at the Mississippi River. I had the Sigma 50-500 mounted to the camera in hope for some birds of prey but did not have much luck. Normally I don't use the range below 150mm focal length for landscape photography. Other lenses in my bag do a better job in this range. However, when I saw the Cassville power plant mirrored in the water of the Mississippi and at the same time a big ice floe drifted by, I made a few clicks. Nothing crazy, just lovely light… A few seconds later, as the sun went deeper down, the light lost its magic and was not the same anymore. I'm glad I didn't waste time to change the lens. I would have missed the shot...

Lightroom 4.0 Beta - I'm already hooked...

Nikon D300s, Sigma 150mm / f2.8 APO EX DG HSM

As many photographers these days who rely on Adobe's Lightroom software for all or some of their post processing I have downloaded their Beta-version of LR 4. It is out for trial and testing since a few weeks. If you are not familiar with this software but you would like to give it a trial, this is your chance now. The Beta-version is free but will expire March 31, 2012. It is expected that then the final version will replace the Beta-version. You can find it on the Adobe website.

I have used Lightroom since version 1.4 and I still think it is great. I use other software and plug-ins for my workflow as well (like Adobe Photoshop CS4 and most of the NIK plug-ins), but every post process of an image starts in LR. With every new version released this product became better every time. Critical things, like noise reduction and pre-sharpening of a RAW file, have seen big improvements over time. If I work with an image for a second time that may have been processed before some time ago (five years in digital photography are a very long time!!), I usually start from scratch and use the latest RAW converter and rendering engine that comes with Lightroom. Having a much better understanding about the post process now, plus better software leads always to a better result. Well, almost always, an image that is not sharp from the very beginning will still not result in a tack sharp photo. And I have plenty of them… ;-)

Beside many other new features Lightroom 4.0 Beta has some changes in the develop module. Some sliders are now differently named and  seem to have a much more subtle response. I used this photo of some actually pretty dull looking clouds over our neighborhood to try out different settings. I ended up with this contrastive look. It is not just one slider, it is a carefully chosen combination of several settings that boosts the contrast and luminosity in this picture. Give Lightroom 4.0 Beta a trial, you may get addicted… ;-)

Nature clicks #80 - Great light, easy click

I did an inspection of our timber behind the house today in the afternoon. The snow is rapidly melting, the Black-capped Chickadees started their mating calls, and it felt a little like spring. If you are a frequent reader of my blog you know that I always look out for special light situations. The sun got diffused by a few clouds and the trees around but suddenly I saw a spot at one of our Red Cedars that got hit by a sun beam. It boosted the colors of the wood and revealed the texture of this wounded tree trunk. I was glad to have the camera with me, the clicks had to be made fast. Finishing was done in NIK Color Efex Pro 4. I love what this software does for my photography.

Nothing spectacular today, just made me feel good… :-) Have a nice Sunday!

Way I like to head

Below Clingmans Dome, Great Smoky Mountains

As the mild winter progresses I'm still in process to reorganize and clean my photo archive. I know that I will not have much time for this job when the birds start to migrate south again and I want to be out shooting every possible minute. The best part of this task is to look at some photos from a distance in time and to make choices about publishing.

This one is not really that old yet, it is from last year's trip to the Great Smoky Mountains. We just returned from Clingmans Dome, the highest summit in the Smokies, back to the parking lot when this cloud caught my attention. Why did I choose this one? It is the direction I try to head with my landscape photography. It is not about black and white, it is about story telling drama in the sky. This photo can be repeated over and over again with a boring blue sky and will always look the same. Most postcards are this way. It is unique with this particular cloud, and this is what makes the difference, at least for me.

Ice fishing fun and a little bit photography

We finally got the winter here in Iowa and have some snow on the ground. However, I would have seen snow anyway, because it was the weekend for the annual ice fishing trip with friends. For the sixth year in a row we went to the Northwoods in Wisconsin. The ice was not as thick as other years but nevertheless still thick enough to drive on. I usually take my camera with me but photography was not the top priority last weekend.

My fishing luck wasn't really great. I caught a couple Northern Pike but they were small and I didn't keep them. "Fisher king" was my brother in law Don, who pulled two 28 inch Northerns onto the ice. It was my pleasure to make a few clicks of him with his catch.

Nikon D300s, Nikkor 24-120mm / f4

The main reason why I take my photo gear on the ice is the never ending hope to catch some great light. I always have one eye on the sky, especially during the time around sunset. The image above tells the story about a great final of a wonderful day on the ice of Fay Lake in Wisconsin.

Warm but crispy winter light

Nikon D300s, Nikkor 24-120mm / f4

Yesterday I was in southern Minnesota. I left home before sunrise and returned right after sunset. I love this kind of business trip here in the Midwest, especially if the weather is so mild and the road conditions are reasonable. I enjoy driving through the little rural towns in Iowa or Minnesota, where the time sometimes seems to stand still. But we all know this is just an illusion.

The sun was still an inch above the horizon when I approached the town of Guttenberg at the Mississippi River. Just north of town is this little peninsula reaching into the river. I have seen it completely flooded before but yesterday the rays of the setting sun gave it a wonderful warm touch and the icy blue of the water made for a nice color contrast. I had only a minute to make a few clicks before the shadows of the bluffs on the Iowa side of the river took it all away.

Clouds made the difference

Nikon D300s, Nikkor 24-120mm / f4

As you can see, we still don't have any real winter weather with snow here in Iowa this year and the colors in the landscape are not  really exciting. At least the clouds that were moving in last Monday created an interesting looking sky and this is reason enough for me to frame a landscape photo. I really took time to think about this image when I composed it in my viewfinder and I knew I would go for black & white in post processing.

Landscape texture with the Sigma 150mm / f2.8 APO EX DG HSM

Nikon D300s, Sigma 150 / f2.8 APO EX DG HSM

I like when a landscape picture goes beyond the usual postcard look. It is sometimes easy to get carried away by just snapping the skyline picture, that clearly shows where the click was made but is exact the same photo everybody shot there before. During our vacation in and around the Great Smoky Mountains we spent some time in the Pisgah National Forest along the famous Blue Ridge Parkway. During one of the numerous stops along the parkway I saw an opportunity on this mountain slope. I really like how the reflected light from the tree trunks creates vertical texture on the different colored bands of trees. It may not be seen on a postcard but it is definitely the direction I like to move with my landscape photography. I wrote some time ago about using the Sigma 150mm / f2.8 EX DG HSM for landscape shooting (here) and this was another good opportunity to use the potential of this very sharp lens. It is the only one in my photo bag that allowed me to isolate this patch of trees across the valley.

New layout, more space for images

Clingmans Dome, Great Smoky Mountains,   Nikon D300s, Nikkor 24-120 / f4

It was overdue. It always bugged me that the size of my pictures in this blog was so small. Sure, 620 pixel at the long side is big enough to see what the image is about, but I know my blog is the #1 showcase for my photography and I like to push the compromise between file size and display quality towards the latter.

Another reason I expand the space here is that I like to streamline my workflow. The blog is not the only place where I publish my images. I have my galleries hosted at the Pbase website and I also show some of my pictures at the German Fotocommunity. At all these websites I use about 950-1000 pixel length for my photos. The idea is to use 900px for all three from now on. This still leaves me the chance to add a white border around an image without exceeding a length of 1000 pixel. Because of the black background in the German Fotocommunity I like to add a white border and they will automatically downsize your image if it goes beyond the 1000px limit. The automatic downsize goes along with a big loss in quality and I don't want that happen.

Finally I added a share-button for any of the social networks out there or for sharing by email, just in case you may like something you find on this blog ;-) To make a long story short, I hope you will enjoy the new format here, despite the fact that it may take a few seconds more to load the website. Thank you for stopping  by!