This color got me out the door (and away from early morning computin').

This color got me to put on my duck poop protection boots and walk to water's edge before the clouds moved in and the sun never came out again today.

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Jen and I drove up Whitney Portal Road and on the way back to Lone Pine we excitedly jumped out of the car and played with our cameras. This was the day before we met we met Ray, Ann and Melissa and drove up Cottonwood Road to camp out before our Mt Whitney backpack last summer.

Almost missing the sunrise I sprinted across Hwy 395 and caught some first light on Mt Whitney. The color was intense but I wanted to see what a Black and White conversion would look like.

Here is the color version of another shot. Wish I'd gotten here sooner and taken my time to shoot. My settings were: 1/30 sec at f/13, ISO640 on the Canon 7D. Lens-EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 IS USM lens.

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I knew so much less in 2009 when I shot this photo at a workshop.

I’m ready and looking forward to capturing some pretty images while away in Banff, Canada at a workshop I leave for February 17th.

p.s. After talking with my friend, I realized I implied I didn’t like this photo. I do. It’s all the behind the scenes confusion and frustration I experienced from generally being so inexperienced during this time that lead me to upload this photo.

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Today I gave my friend Susan and sister Ginny the wedding photos shot on Xmas Eve and New Year’s Eve. Phew. Working the photos is the hardest part. But Art came running when I called asking him to help me with the photos in Lightroom. Watching Art work on the photos taught me tons. I’m realizing I need to be around photographers, shooting and learning as they work their photos in post production. I dream of having a mentor. I don’t know how to find one. Any ideas?

Sunrise colors last week.

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Tomorrow is my sister Ginny’s birthday and I know she will be very happy to hear from me that her son and daughter-in-law’s photos will be available tomorrow. Art taught me a lot more about Smugmug (where I’ll be uploading both Susan/Andrew and Zane/Jerami’s wedding photos). I never knew how to tell people the process on how to download photos from this site of mine without having to pay for them.

In the Tools menu I will click on download all photos from both weddings. Then Smugmug will send me a zip file link full of the photos. Then I can just send on to the wedding parents and bride and groom this zip file link so they can download the 300+ megabytes of photos. I believe this will only cost 99 cents for the one download of all the photos. People will also be able to download individual photos themselves from Smugmug by clicking on a photo and selecting the download option on the popup menu.

Art Suwansang, my savior!

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I’ve started taking notes, hoping maybe something will come to me on my own about how I can do better with my exposures while trying to stop action in low light without upping the ISO so much.

EF70-200mm f/2.8L IS (IS off-on tripod) USM +2.0x

2 stops lost using the 2.0 X teleconverter
Needed this ISO 1250 (Kept this ISO consistent for the entire shoot)But this ISO wasn’t even getting me anything.
Fast shutter speed (800) necessary to stop bird motion but then I needs wide open aperture which totally limits dof and total bird focus impossible.
Using this lens and converter on a shady morning is near impossible to get my single subject in focus.

Shot mostly at 1/800 sec, f/5.6 @ ISO 1250 at 400mm – photos too dark
Those photos shot at 1/640 sec are a bit lighter, but I still need to figure out if I can even use this gear combo in low light.
1/500 sec at f/6.3 and 265mm lighter but almost too washed out/lacking contrast.
1/2000th sec at f/7.1 270mm Tried aperture priority for a blink of an eye. Got confused.
1/800th at f/13 320mm – when it got a little lighter, but still overcast.
1/640th at f/13th 400mm – better.

Photos are exposed correctly for the white birds but the overall shot is too dark and drab.
The white egrets are difficult to shoot because of the extreme range in light and dark.

Next time I shoot the egrets:
Treat shooting the egrets to learn. Take a series of different exposures of the same shot to study and learn from the exposures in post.

Up and out early dark but the color was hidden by the clouds right after this early shot. The workers had their lights on the machines used for cutting the greens.

I cropped and blew this photo up to show the fish the egrets eat.

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From inside my home I watched the birds for 10 minutes without picking up my camera and shooting (per they plan for the next week). But I see now that doesn’t count……sitting inside and watching for 10 minutes.

It never dawned on me until I was viewing shots later in Lightroom that I’d set up and was shooting into the dark side of the birds for the most part (opposite side of where the sun was hitting the birds). It’s the golfers fault though. It’s the season and the golfers just keep playing all day long, and the only open area I could stand and not get hit, (Ray told me about the spot and how the course marshals had let fishermen fish there) and not be in the golfers way, forced me to remain stationary with little freedom to shoot from a better vantage point. With all that said I had not realized when I was shooting I lacked the right light to bring out good color. I did enjoy the backlighting though. Too bad fill in flash doesn’t go so far.

I googled egrets and their behavior. I went to JC Compton’s site. He shows and tells much of the story of the mating dance that must be going on right now. I like JC’s photos.

After reading JC’s description of the Egret’s behavior I’m going to have to pay more attention to whether the birds are fighting for food, courting or having sex.

The birds are within 100 yards of our home. Not bad.

I spent too much time on photography today and not anywhere near enough time on the list I had on my desk of things that needed to get done. But……..I had a good day:-)

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The beginning of a short window of color on our hike this morning.

It's at about this vantage point on our hike that the color, if we have color, is a perfect photo backdrop. The girls know I'm going to ask them to assume some unique pose. This morning Jen does a handstand on some rocky ground while Ann holds her vertical for THE shot.

Jen and Ann. Jen was getting a little nervous about being late for work, but still stopped with Ann because the color had peaked as we resumed hiking since the previous shot. We were out of ideas and didn't have much time to think of any. The girls just started being silly as they jumped around. THIS was THE shot.

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With little time before getting ready to meet my workout trainer, I ran out in pjs to photograph the incredible color display this morning. Hand held at ISO 1000.

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Jerami and Zane the night before they were married.

It's official.

I am now uploading probably 80 gigs of photos from the nail and spa day for the ladies, to the wedding rehearsal at the All Saints Catholic Church, followed by an incredible dinner at the Wildhorse Grille at Talking Stick Golf Club and of course the Wedding and Wedding reception back at the Arizona Golf Resort (were many of the guests stayed), and lastly a short break before we all were invited to the bride’s mother’s house for a mighty fun evening centered around beer pong! There was a BBQ planned today but Ray and I opted out to drive home hoping to avoid the holiday traffic.

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