The Hunt

The last image made during my stupendous weekend, a 30 minute exposure, ended with the lens dewing up. The dew on the lens causes the star trails to soften at the end which I really like. But the dew also makes the tree soften which is not quite so desirable. But I like the image with all of it's softness. The glow off in the distance is Thunder Bay some 40 mile further up the North Shore in Canada.

On the drive home Sunday afternoon I was reflecting on the weekend. Photography, for me, is like a hunt, always looking for an interesting image to capture. Sometimes you find a gem and other times a plain old rock. It takes alot of energy, both physical and emotional, and believe me it is not an easy pursuit.

It dawned on my that while I was out hunting for images I wasn't always seeing what I was looking for, taking time to stop and enjoy the feast before my eyes. In particular Saturday night/early Sunday morning I found myself totally involved in the experience of being outside on the North Shore at a place scared to the Ojibwe people under a canopy of stars engaged in quiet conversation with someone equally happy to be there. I commented to Travis that this reminded me of the time when I used to do this alot more when I realized that I was doing it again, right NOW. I felt so much peace and tranquility, nourishing food for the soul.

I've often subconsciously stopped and enjoyed my surroundings. Many a morning I have risen to make photographs of the sunrise but found myself enjoying the start of a new day with my camera still tucked in my camera bag. After all capturing images in ones camera is not the only capturing method. Capturing them in your body, your mind and your soul is often much more memorable. It is photographing the stars at night, that gives one he opportunity to capture those two images at once. Just be aware that a 30 minute camera exposure could easily become a 60 minute exposure if your body, mind and soul exposure is longer than the cameras.

Roger

Nighttime on the North Shore

This was a weekend from which life long memories are made. Night time shooting is something I have just recently begun to pursue with more than casual interest. A few weeks ago I dipped my toe in the water and this weekend I took the plunge. With great weather, a scared place and a fine friend few things could top the experience of the last two nights.

The first image was the first exposure I made on Friday night. The moon was scheduled to rise at midnight. This was a "quick" 30 minute exposure before the moon was due to make it's appearance.



Friday night turned into Saturday morning and the moon rose behind some clouds. As the clouds moved thru the sky the moon danced in and out playing with the light, the shadows and reflections. The second image of just a little over 2 minutes, gracefully smoothed the movement of the clouds.



The first night ended with a cloudless sky and the moon shining down lighting up this magical place. Another 30 minute exposure puts the stars in motion around the North Star. Fog lay off in the distance threatening the rest of the shoreline.

Tomorrow Saturday nights adventure.

Roger

Just have to boast a little

OK, it's not a picture that I'm going to print, mat and frame. But it is a picture of where I'm going to do the last two of those activities, mat and frame.

I previously did my matting and framing downstairs on top of an air hockey table. There wasn't any storage space and my back would kill me after working over it for a short time. There was something in my mind that would be alot better.

I did some research on the internet and got some good ideas. I knew I wanted storage for mat board and foam core board as well as framing sections and glass so I concocted this configuration. I knew it was going to be really heavy so I constructed it so all of the shelves would easily slide in and out. I was kinda crossing my fingers when I started building it from the simple plans I put together.

As with most on my projects there were some unforeseen obstacles butt I was able to overcome them. My biggest concern was following the suggestions of other matters and building it to my height, 4" below my elbow. I'm 6'4" and 4" below my elbow is pretty high. Well I've done some matting and framing on the table and it is quite comfortable working.

In the end I find it quite functional and really a nice work surface to work on. Now I need to go out and start marketing my work and putting the table to work :).

Anyway I just had to show off my creation, thanks for listening.

Roger

Star Trails at Grand Portage

Last weekend I joined Travis to do some star trail photography. Travis has made some amazing images at night so who better to learn some tricks of night time photography from.

Grand Portage, where Travis lives, is an excellent spot for star trails. It is far away from a really large metropolis, Thunder Bay is about 35 miles to the north and with long exposures casts a slight warm glow, and on a moonless night the quantity of stars is mind boggling. It reminds me of the time I spent looking at the heavens in the 70's at Lost Valley, a Boy Scout camp secluded in the mountains of Southern California.

We setup our cameras in Travis' yard, I attempted to focus as best as possible, opened the shutter then went inside to talk photography. This first exposure was at ISO 200, f/4.0 for 42 minutes using my 24-105mm lens at 24mm. During the exposure the dew had collected on the lens which made for an interesting blurring at the ends of each star trail.



The second image was made in Travis' back yard pointing right at the North Star. My EXIF information says the exposure was 3.8 minutes which obviously is not the case due to the length of the star trails. ISO was dropped to 100, everything else stayed the same, so I'd guess the exposure to be around 70-80 minutes. What I find amazing about this image is when viewed at 100% the sheer number of stars leaving trails is just astonishing. Living on the outskirts of a large metropolis like Minneapolis and St. Paul, the light obscures the awesomeness of what lies around us.

As Forrest Gump once said, actually it was his mother that said, 'Shooting star trails in like eating a box of chocolates...you never know what you're going to get', or something like that. Once you close the shutter there is a moment of anticipation just before hitting the review button to see what you get. It's a moment I'll be repeating again in the future.

Roger

(Be sure to click on the images to see a larger version.)

DIC Photo of the Day - Snow Geese

'Snow Geese' was selected as the Picture of the Day at the Digital Image Cafe for today, May 21, 2009.

Bosque Del Apache, New Mexico, New Years eve day, there can be no better place to be (at least for me). Birds by the thousands giving one photo op after another. It was such a neat place, I plan to return again at the end of this year.

Snow Geese were the most notable of all the bird species that call this their winter home. They traveled in large flocks, although you wouldn't necessarily know that by this image, that seemed to have a mind of it's own.

This image was made in the evening as a flock of snow geese were gathering at one of the many ponds in the refuge. These waterfowl as well as Sandhill Cranes fly into these ponds every evening where they sleep protected from their predators.

Roger

Nighttime in the Badlands (Revisited)

It dawned on me that this is supposed to be a night shot. As with sunshine images one can over expose moonshine images, just takes a little longer to do it. So I've darken both images shown in the previous post. (At least you can see the star trails now)



Any better???

Roger

Nighttime in the Badlands

These images were inspired by my buddy Travis who seems to shoot at night as much as he does during the day.

After shooting sunset on Friday, after a long trip from Minnesota, Dale and I decided to do some nighttime shooting with the help of the moon, which was full. I've shot at night before but generally in the hours before sunrise. We stopped at three locations on the way to our hotel in Wall, SD. This was the first, and best, of those locations. As I mentioned the moon was full but we were kinda guessing when it came to the terrain.

This image was actually a test shot with my 24-105mm lens at ISO 1600 with a 2 minute exposure at f/5.6. My desire was to make a much longer exposure to get longer star trails with this image validating the exposure.



Here is the second image, same lens but the ISO was cut back to 200 and the aperture was reduced to f/8 which yielded an exposure of 32 minutes. The noticeable changes are the length of the star trails as well as the better defined shadows in the first image. I prefer the first image, which one do you prefer?

After two more stops we set off to our hotel, getting in after midnight and having to wake the night lady to check us in. That was the fastest checkin I've ever had. We were so beat we decided to skip Saturdays sunrise and get some sleep.

BTW, these images are straight from the camera with no changes made by me.

Roger

Badlands, First Image

Dale and I spent a long weekend in the Badlands of South Dakota. We drove out Friday and were treated to a full rainbow on the way back to the park from Interior. I can not remember seeing a rainbow with such vivid colors, it was mesmerizing.

I had put my 24-105mm lens on my camera before leaving home so was able to respond quickly when the rainbow appeared. My 17-40mm lens would have given me the extra width to capture a full double rainbow but I'm not complaining.

This was the very first image of the weekend, what a great way to start.

Roger

DIC Photo of the Day - Offering Candles

This image was made in the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, France. What a wondrous place this is. Churches have a photographic draw for me and here in St. Paul and Minneapolis we have two great examples of Beaux Art architecture. As a native Californian the St. Paul Cathedral and the Basilica of St. Mary just blew me away with their size and symbolism. When I went to Europe I wasn't prepared for the massive Cathedrals and Duomos there. The first I experienced was Notre Dame. These candles represent a microcosm of artifacts and activities that occur in this magnificent place.

Roger

First Video Uploaded

I mentioned the other day that I had made some videos from my Canon 5D Mark II. Without any real video editing software, at least software I'm willing to reinstall on my computer, I'm kinda stuck with what came out of the camera, speaking primarily of the length of the video. Fortunately, I made one video that is only 10 seconds long, as opposed to 5 minutes, so it lends itself to sharing on Smugmug.

The video can be quite boring, depending on your prospective, but as I mentioned it's only 10 seconds long so it shouldn't put you to sleep. This is one of a few of my favorite spots along the Cascade River along the North Shore of Lake Superior. From this rock the water thunderously passes by so to get the whole experience of being there you have to turn the volume up to the max.

Just a warning. A future video will be of High Falls on the Pigeon River separating the US from Canada. For this video you not only need to turn your volume to the max but you also need a spray bottle of really cold water to spray in your face as you watch the video. Of course you'll also have to go outside in 20 degree temperature to really get the feel of the scene but we won't take it that far.

The first video can be found here: Cascade River video.

Roger