Unlike all previous years I went to Shenandoah National Park 3 times in October. I think all other years I've only gone once, usually on or about October 20th.
This year I went in very early October and there was no fall color, just green. And on this visit I hiked up Hawksbill Mountain, and that was also a first. I've always taken the easy approach to SNP and shot from the road, from the overlooks and walked very very little, almost not at all exploring. But this year was different, and the hike and views were good. It was a bit of a scouting trip to see what the views would be like, as well as a good day of exercise, hiking with ~3 cameras, ~4-5 lenses, and a tripod.
Then I went back on Saturday October 22nd. The fall colors were late arriving, and according to the SNP fall foliage reporting page, it was here finally, in gloriously fine colors here, there, and all over... It was much better on the 22nd, but it was also very windy. Like, 50 mph windy, so a good bit of the turned leaves were blown off. The SNP site did it's report on the 21st, and probably described views of foliage that had subsequently fallen from the trees by the time I got there. But as with any day out in nature, exploring, and hunting for cool images it was worth it.
My new found routine was to get to SNP ~45 minutes before sunrise (6:30am-ish) and then drive along Skyline Drive and see what the sunrise might do and pick a spot. The sunrise wasn't as spectacular as past ones, mostly cloudy but still great to be out. And I just checked to see what the images looked like from sunrise in my edited folder, and there was nothing. So I checked my lightroom app to see what happened and it was ok, and I did bulk edit hundreds of RAW files in to TIFs and then in to HDR TIFs. I do that in bulk to save time and see what comes out, and then if I like an image either post process that HDR file, or start over the process it fresh with unique settings for that group of source files. Part of what I was disappointed with from the files is that due to the wind and slow shutter speed I used a lot of the images have motion/blur and that didn't seem appealing at least so far...
Anyway, I shot as normal for much of the morning, and was among a number of photographers all shooting sunrise from the same overlook. Then after a little bit everyone had left and I was the only photographer still there. At this point I realized there were probably many more images to be had if I just slowed down and looked for different things, and kept an open mind.
I shot leaves gathered in the corner of one part of the stone wall. I hopped over the wall and shot some of the trees, leaves, rocks, etc. I shot the road with the wall, and used the wall and it's graphic line to lead the eye in to the image... And then I started to also focus on the wall and the smaller details. There were a handful of vines and growing plants on the wall itself.
When I go shooting to a place like SNP I bring a lot of gear, multiple bodies, multiple wide angle lenses, a zoom or two, and occasionally a macro lens. The below images was taken with a D4 and 24-120mm f/4 lens. I've had the D4 for a while, and 24-120mm is new to me, and I got it used less than a year ago - it has a nice smallish aperture, and good close focusing distance. As I was playing around, I realized I could get the background blur to have the color of the leaves and that would complement the stone wall and vine in the foreground. I like the resulting image, and managed to get some other varieties of the same theme later in the day with different plants and background that I may still share.
If there's a point or take away from this blog post it is to keep looking and exploring, and be open to seeing images that you didn't plan on taking or didn't immediately reveal themselves. And also don't just go with the crowd - I could have easily left the overlook and moved on when I noticed everyone else had done that.
Searching for something different I started to explore around the overlook for something other than the big views:
After sunrise and this area, I drove south on Skyline Drive and then hiked Hawksbill Mountain. I took this image after being up there for a while (HDR) and posted it already to flickr...
-Jon
Updated with more images I processed and shared after writing the above post:
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Sunday, October 30, 2016
Fall in Virginia - Foliage shooting 2016
Monday, July 5, 2010
DC Fireworks July 4th 2010
From http://natureandwildlifephotography.blogspot.com/
Yesterday was the 4th of July and I made my second serious attempt to shoot the DC fireworks.
Like any major event downtown or nearby Washington DC it takes the right mindset and a plan to avoid unplanned pitfalls or something which might make the night a bust. For the 4th of July the things to plan for are the spot to shoot from, transportation to and from there, and having the right gear and supplies to make it somewhat comfortable.
I was leaning towards trying to shoot from near the Iwo Jima Memorial and did just that. I started surveying the area, road closures, access to various places around 1PM - a full 8 hours before the fireworks. I parked in a grassy area setup by the park police near the entrance to Arlington National Cemetery when heading north on the George Washington Parkway. By 2:30 or so I had walked to the Iwo Jima Memorial and picked a spot in the shade to wait and finalize my plans from. By around 7PM the area started to get fairly busy and I picked my final spot - where I took this shot looking back up the hill from.
For supplies I packed a Gatorade, 4 frozen waters, a soda and some trail-mix.
read more...
For gear I packed my D300 and D300s, 80-400mmVR and 18-200mmVR and my two tripods. I also had a cable release and stereo microphone. Last fall I got a VariND, a variable Neutral Density filter and I brought that, and a circular polarizer too. I also brought a bag chair, and a couple of camera bags to carry the stuff in. In all I probably had like 30 pounds of stuff, maybe more.
I posted this one last night right after I got home. It might be the best of the night I got.
What Worked Well
The gear I picked was enough. Lol, I brought a ton, but I did leave another camera home (Fuji S5) and a video camera. Since I knew I'd be walking a lot and heading back to my car in the dark, I didn't bring my 200-400mm. It is a great somewhat fast lens but is huge and weighs a lot. The 80-400mm worked better because I had a ND filter for it, and could shoot long exposures without having to stop down to f/18 or more and go past the sharp range of the lens (and avoid highlighting dust spots on my sensor).
Part way in to shooting I had to adjust my exposures a bit and remembered something from a podcast I had just listened to regarding low ISO. Nikon makes the ISOs below 200 low-1, 2 and 3. The reason these are low is that below ISO 200 the camera doesn't perform as well, possibly with more noise than at ISO 200. So I adjusted my ISO up to ISO 200.
The VariND on the 80-400mm lens also worked well. I wound up using it to adjust my exposure once I was setup and rolling. I chimped some shots, and increased the ND a bit.
While reviewing last year's images I realized I was not zoomed in nearly enough. This year I made sure to try to get tighter shots, more full frame. Part of my thinking was that fireworks are set off all over the country, but the thing that makes seeing them in Washington DC so special is the surroundings / the monuments, the Capital Building, etc. I did way better than last year, but it wasn't until almost the end that I zoomed in on the 80-400 past around 250 or 300mm.
What Didn't Work Well
Operating two cameras led to many more shots than what I could have done with just one camera. However I think I did two things wrong. I had the tripods very close and touching eachother, or at least the stuff I had hanging from the tripods (to add weight) were touching. This led to shooting with one camera and adjust the other and moving that first camera a bit. I have some images that show movement in the camera.
I shot in manual focus on both cameras. This speeds things up, prevents focusing on close trees and makes for consistency. However, I didn't pay close enough attention on the 18-200mm and D300s and a large group of early shots are out of focus, focused closer than what I wanted.
Shooting two cameras at the same time isn't something I've ever done like this, so all in all I did ok.
What I Might Try Differently Next Year
Shooting from near the Iwo Jima Memorial was pretty cool. I got the shots I wanted and had planned for. Getting all 3 Washington icons in tight formation was what I'd seen in my minds eye.
Next year I might see about shooting from downtown DC or somewhere else. I've seen some shots from behind the Capital building looking west that were very good, and made the Capital build the major "dc" element...
Saturday, May 29, 2010
Maybe more than the photos
From: http://natureandwildlifephotography.blogspot.com/2010/05/maybe-more-than-photos.html
Having taken a lot of images where the reward is the image itself, a nice shot, and not much else I've thought about trying to do some good. I've toyed with the idea of helping out at a rehab center, or volunteering here or there. But, I know that's not my calling, at least not right now.
My passion is taking photos. It gets me up at 3am, it makes me drive hundreds of miles. Over the last few years I've had requests for images sent to me via flickr. They have fallen in to three main categories:
#1) for profit groups that want free images.
#2) for profit groups that want images but have a few bucks to spend. And finally
#3) non-profit groups that want images for free and are working on a good causes, be it conservation, preservation, or something like that. Helping animals, the environment, habitat restoration or preservation...
-click for more-
Of those 3 types of requests I ignore #1 requests. #2 requests I've only pursued a few, usually it is not worth the hassle to me, I'd rather be shooting, editing, etc. One in particular I put in a bunch of hours working on it and it didn't pan out, so I felt like I had wasted time. #3 requests are my favorite. I can do what I like (take photos) and provide them for free to a good cause so they can do their thing. I've given images to the Fish and Wild Service, National Parks Service, The Nature Conservancy, a singing zoo act / guy, a group trying to study the impact of something or other in Greenbelt Maryland... And probably a bunch of others that slip my mind.
Today I went out shooting with a couple of people that help with rehabilitating raptors. Linda and Kurt are good folks that care and put in the time doing the work with the animals. Today was a day where their hard work, and the work of others, paid off. They released 6 birds back in to the wild.
My part today was to watch and learn, and to take photos.
They released 3 Red-Shouldered Hawk, 2 Red-Tailed Hawks, and 1 Broad-Winged Hawk. It was pretty cool.
Here are some shots. I plan to give them to the folks involved so they can promote their work, and get support, funding, etc. I guess what I realized in regards to their work (before and again today) is that I'm a photographer - that's what I do... I've wanted to help with the birds, rehabing or volunteering. It is just not what I am motivated to do. And probably not what I am good at. So,, I'm going to spend my time becoming a better photographer, and as I find the way to - helping good causes.
If you are like me, but not a photographer, and not someone that can volunteer with the raptors - there's one thing you can do to make a difference. While driving don't litter. Don't toss any type of food items from your car. Many if not most injured raptors are struck by cars. The way I've heard it recounted to me - prey animals feed on these items, and raptors lock in on the prey (squirells, etc) and will fly to catch them with no regard for the cars or trucks on the roads. So, don't toss any food type items from your car.
Even a banana peel.
Updated
Here's a Broad-Winged Hawk being released also...
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Chasing Light - Plan, Update, Fail...
From: http://natureandwildlifephotography.blogspot.com/
The below image is a good example of how the sun can peek through a narrow opening. Sometimes clouds have a well defined edge. The below is from a Sunrise at Bombay Hook Refuge in Delaware. At the time I took it I realized that the amazing light was only going to last for the brief period of time while the light painted the underside of the clouds and the land.
Another time this setup played out was at Portland Head Light in Maine. The good light and photo oppertunities all took place pre-sunrise. The light was sneaking over the horizon and hitting the underside of the morning clouds. This day by the time the sun had actually risen, it was over. Once the clouds got in the way there was nothing special to see or photograph.
With those two days as the setup...
The last two night here in Maryland we had cloudy and rainy forecasts. I went to Great Falls Monday evening, and nothing special materialized. I was hoping for some breaks in the clouds, some magical light. My visit lasted an hour or so, and I took maybe a hundred or two images. It was a decent trip, but no photo gold that night.
Then Tuesday morning as I left for work I already knew the evening weather forecast was for 60% chance of rain. In the morning the skies looked pretty mixed, and rethought if I wanted to visit Great Falls, and still decided not to. By late afternoon however I saw that the cloud cover had a pretty well defined edge on the west side. The potential for the sun lighting the clouds from underneath during the sunset existed. So I left work, got my camera, and went to Great Falls. During this visit it rained a little and was just pure gray. There was absolutely nothing special to see. And I couldn't see any cloud-edge from the river's edge.
I left.
Then from the DC beltway, about 10 minutes later - at sunset, it HAPPENED! The sun peeked through, and there was about 2 or 3 minutes of MAGIC LIGHT!
I'm not sure what the lesson is, because it was my flexible nature that made me change my plans not to go in to plans to go. And then based on observations of the current conditions I gave up. Exactly what I hoped would happen did, but I out thought it and I left. Fail. Lol. I guess the lesson I will hope to learn is that when planning sunset shooting, I will be sure to stay until the actual time of sunset, because it can be hard to judge that final few minutes.
What bugs me is that the two examples above, the photos, are the precise same thing except during sunrise. They were both awesome, and lasted just a few minutes. Had I driven a hundred miles to shoot sunset (or sunrise) I would not have given up so easily. For me Great Falls is about a half hour drive.
Here's a nice sunset from the VA side that was taken a couple years ago.
Nikographer.com / Jon
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Tuesday, April 29, 2008
About Nature and Wildlife Photography Blog
I'm going to use this blog to share thoughts on camera technique, wildlife observation, and photography in general.
I live in the Maryland/Washington D.C/Virginia area shoot landscapes, zoo animals, wildlife, birds, etc. I generally keep my travels to within 2 hours one way from home. There's so much to see within that radius: Bombay Hook NWR DE, Blackwater NWR MD, Susquehanna River / Conowingo Dam, Maryland Zoo, Washington D.C. Zoo, Great Falls National Park, Mason Neck State Park VA, and many many more places...
You can view my photos here on flickr:
These are a few of all time favorite photos:
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