Bruce McCammon Photography

I’ve been to the Ridgefield NWR many times in the past.  I’ve driven around the loop alone and with friends.  I’ve been there at sunrise, sunset and midday.  You never really know what to expect but it rarely disappoints.  Yesterday I went mainly to get familiar with a new lens in preparation for a trip to the Bosque del Apache in mid-December.  Even though you are restricted to your car while touring the Ridgefield NWR you frequently get closer to birds than I’ve ever experienced before.  At this time of year I expect more birds than I saw.  Maybe it was that the ponds had been drained or there were hunters shooting nearby but the few birds that were seen were clearly more wary than I’ve seen before… faster to fly away and generally at a greater distance from the road.

Herons seem to be a fixture at Ridgefield.  I’ve never been there that I have not seen at least 3…. more often than not there are dozens, give or take.  This trip brought me 4 herons and bunch of red winged blackbirds along with a red tail hawk and a harrier.  Pretty slim pickings but fun none the less.

This heron was on the job early in the morning.  I’m not sure if it was really hunting already or just waking up.  It was about 50 yards from the road and I knew that it would be small in the frame.  I shot a few horizontal images and a few vertical and then proceeded on my way.  As I started my second circuit of the drive through the refuge the heron was still there and had not moved as far as I could tell.  I always marvel at the patience these birds exhibit.

When I got home and processed the pictures from the day I kept coming back to this one.  Maybe it’s the foggy feel.  Maybe it is the geometric design in the trees around the perimeter of the scene.  I knew that putting the bird in the lower right third was a good thing but I didn’t realize how the image would inherit a “painterly” feel from the soft light and shallow depth of field.  I enjoy the image and will probably print it out for critique at the camera club next month.  Until then I’ll be practicing panning birds with a lens that ’s larger than anything I’ve ever owned before.  Much to learn… throw me in the briar patch!

Anyone who follows my blog knows that my color vision deficiencies can be a tad frustrating at times.  Most of the time being “color blind” is nothing at all.  Other times, like right now with fall foliage showing their seasonal colors, not being able to see reds or oranges accurately is pretty much a drag.  Poor Dianne, I bet she answers me a hundred times a day when asked “how about that one?” or “any color over here?”    She fills in the blanks for me and keeps me from posting images of dead leaves that I think look really colorful.  I’m grateful for her patience with me.

I was fortunate to be able to visit the Wenatchee National Forest yesterday and the day before.  I had a room in Leavenworth, WA and about 4 hours of work to do for the Forest Service on Wednesday morning. The color started for me as I climbed the pass on I-90 coming out of Tacoma.  It continued on Bluet Pass as I neared Leavenworth.  The larch just seemed to scream at me to stop, climb the hill across from them and take a photo.  I learned later that the nifty little lens mount that I have for my tripod has developed into a problem and no longer steadies the camera when I am taking photos manually.  Drat… nothing like trying to make sharp photos with a camera that wiggles and rocks if touched.  I was lucky to get a few sharp images but I suffered from the goofy lens mount throughout this trip.  Many potentially nice images are now digital memories thanks to my lack of recognition of the problem before I got too far along in the trip.  Lesson learned but I’m looking for a solution.  My son the mechanical engineer may get a parental request when we see him in Bozeman next week.

Larch on Bluet Pass

The Icicle River watershed is a wonderful place to roam around in the evening.  The light was fading fast and my stomach was telling me that I should be looking for some food.  My head and heart won out and I stayed until dark knowing that the restaurants would still take my money once I showed up.  While the light was flat, the colors were great.. if you like yellows… I do.

Icicle River

The next day I spent time with a friend who still works for the Wenatchee National Forest.  Matt drew the short straw and got the assignment to take me into an area where a problem road had been decommissioned and turned into a trail.  The main goal here was to keep the road from adding sediments to the Wenatchee River and, thereby, screwing up the fish habitat.  Salmon were working in the riffles when Matt and I walked in to take the photos.  The darn light on the river kept me from getting any decent photos of the fish and their redds (egg nests) but we both enjoyed watching them do their thing.

I said goodbye to Matt about lunch time and headed my car back up the river to where we’d seen some folks doing fish surveys.  I figured I’d try again to get some photos of the fish and the redds.  Oh yeah, there just happened to be a serious amount of wonderful color along the Wenatchee River as well.  Darned if some of it didn’t find it’s way into my camera’s memory.

Wenatchee River above Leavenworth, WA

Wenatchee River

Today woke to fog and “cloudy bright” light.  I’d been going to the Japanese Garden to check on colors for the past couple of weeks but had not been terribly impressed.  Seems you just can’t hurry some things.  I headed back to the garden this morning and was greeted by several other photographers toting tripods and a variety of lenses.

(taken with my iPhone)

Of course I had to play as well.  Here’s one take of the tree that I brought home.

Portland Japanese Garden

I continued to roam around the Garden for another hour and decided that my patience had run thin with waiting for all the other visitors to move out of the viewfinder frame.  I may come back another day soon during “member hours” so the crowd will be minimized.  The following images are all multiple shot panoramas and capture some of the iconic (eg, done before) scenes in the garden.

Portland Japanese Garden

Portland Japanese Garden

It seems that I frequently look to others for wisdom about how to make better pictures.  I lean on David duChemin (http://www.pixelatedimage.com/blog/) a lot.  I really enjoy his images and his writing style.  Just tonight I bought his latest ebook “Drawing the Eye” and will be studying it in the coming days as time allows.  I always seem to learn something from a majority of posts by Joe McNally.  It is really interesting to read his words during and immediately after spending a week with Jay Maisel in NY.  I have to respect Mr. Maisel for what he has done and what he is but it sure seems that his New York personality runneth over at times.  Hey.. to rock McNally back on his heels has to be a serious punch to the ego.  I’m going to be watching McNally for how he put this experience to work.  I would have loved to just been a fly watching the two of these guys walking and shooting the streets of NY.  Funny.. I’ve seen McNally’s images, or a sample of them, but I haven’t seen any of Maisel’s…. hmmm.

I’ve been reading about composition, lighting, processing… my head is full.  Last weekend we had the good fortune to shoot two wonderful young people”s  high school senior portraits… thanks Clifford and Hannah.  You rock.  For me there is nothing quite like a session of “let’s see what you’ve got” to reinforce that time with the camera is probably more important than time with the books.  Dianne and I seem to have fallen into a rythm while working with seniors and we enjoy it.  Creative use of backgrounds and light to make the young folks look their best pushes us.  Anyone who’s done this knows how challenging – and fun – it can be.  When I sit down at my computer and smile at images running by every 3 seconds I know it’s been a good day.  Then I slow down and critique the images for quality… sharpness, background, light, exposure, pose… they all matter. That’s where I learn.  If I can see a light in their eyes and they seem to be saying “this isn’t so bad” then I feel successful.  Sure, we could push the envelope more in posing and settings but for right now I’m comfortable with trying to make sure I get their eyes sharp and that the background pushes them to the front and doesn’t absorb them.

So tonight I have some time on my own and I thought I’d dive back into the files to play a bit…maybe practice some post-processing techniques I’ve been reading about.   I landed on some images from one of my favorite places, Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge.  This image came from a trip on a winter morning when I was alone and had time to spend doing what ever it took to get what ever I was after.  How’s that for a long way of saying “wandering at will”?

Leafless trees.  Fog.  Clouds.  Grasses.  No birds.

Graphic elements come to the front and I know from past experience that the layers of trees can be really eye catching.  I said it was winter so you can imagine that the dominant color was gray.  It was calm and not raining.  I had a thermos of coffee and, being restricted to the car during the drive around the refuge, I was warm.  No grand sunrise.  No amazing colors.  Just quiet neutral tones.  Smells like black and white to me.

So I seem to be a bit possessed with a desire to get a good pano shot of the moon rising over Mt Hood with the city in the foreground.  If you follow this blog you’ve seen many other attempts and read other stories.  When Dianne and I came home from a great dinner at Derek and Heidi’s place… thanks for turning 13 Riley!….. we both commented about how clear the night sky seemed.  Hey, it’s been Portland gray for some time so the clear sky was noteable.  I knew that the moon was still mostly full but wasn’t sure where it would come up relative to Mt. Hood.  What the heck, we got home, packed some camera gear, and headed back to Pittock.  It wasn’t too long until we saw the moon coming up.  There was a low cloud layer and the moon was way north of Mt. Hood.   At least it was in view.

Shortly after we arrived and finished setting up a young couple wandered into the area with cameras in evidence.  It’s not unusual to have the company of other photographers but these two approached with smiles and friendly conversation.  We quickly put the Canon/Nikon debate to rest and set about shooting.  As we shot we laughed a bit about many things.  It was fun to just enjoy the moment with them, get to know them a bit and continue the quest for the elusive shot I want so badly.  So, thanks Tracy and Eric (pardon any spelling errors, please).  You made our evening a lot more fun that it would have been otherwise.

Oh yeah… there is a pano that extends far enough to the south to include Mt. Hood but the mountain was so dim and faded that it really doesn’t warrant posting.  HDR didn’t help either.  This simple 2 shot pano seems to work best for me.  Another time… the quest lives on.

The cameras have been busy the last few days.  We shot a wonderful wedding in White Salmon, WA on Saturday, a cyclocross race featuring our oldest son making his comeback to the sport on Sunday and our annual Fall color drive/hike on Monday.  Monday’s drive took us to familiar places… Sahalie Falls, Koosah Falls, Proxy Falls, Dee Wright Memorial, and Sisters.  It’s interesting to compare the colors from year to year and we always seem to find something new.  As we drove up the Santiam River east of Salem we realized that we were on the front edge of any colors that might happen this year.  No worries… it’s more about being out there than it is about “hitting it right”.  We stopped at Sahalie and were fortunate to have a few moments of cloud cover to bring the scene into a decent range of light for a few photos.  Then on to Koosah which appeared to flowing at much lower volume than I ever remember.  The McKenzie River is a fantastic stream with clarity, color and character.  I never tire of looking at and into this river.  I thought it would be fun to capture some of the movement in the river and found a nice setting.  I settled in for about a half hour of playing with bubbles and movement.  Of the images captured I like this one the best.  It’s a 5 shot HDR composite so you get some additional movement in the bubble/foam traces due to the multiple exposures as well as the long exposure time of each of the 5 images.  I really enjoy the submerged logs in this shot as well as the quality of the bubble traces when viewed in full resolution on the monitor.  Digital photography sure allows us to do some wonderful things.

We headed for the Proxy Falls trailhead and made the short hike into the falls… walking casually and looking for nice colors.  I’ve come to trust Dianne’s judgement on “pretty” vine maple color since I can’t tell the difference between “pretty red” and “yuck”.   This group caught her attention and I stopped long enough to take several different compositions.

We were alone at Proxy Falls and I decided to hike upslope to a new vantage point that I had not used in the past.  Proxy is probably one of the most photographed waterfalls in Oregon and there are some wonderful images of the falls.  The view of the falls from the base is becoming more congested with vegetation and it’s a challenge to get a good composition from down low (IMHO).  Climbing up the channel seems to open up the view.  Going to the base of the falls put me in a totally different situation and I was pleased with what I saw in the view finder.  I put my widest lens on the camera and started shooting.  I tried several different compositions and shot all of them at a variety of shutter speeds to get different effects in the flowing water.  Too bad I didn’t remember to take a cloth to wipe the lens periodically.  Almost all of the last 10 images are ruined by waterdrops on the lens… dumb move and one I won’t make in the future since I’m going to make a checklist of gear and technique to have with me anytime I’m near a waterfall.  This image has a couple of spots that I wish weren’t there but is still pleasing to my eye… blemishes and all.  Next time….

We came down the old McKenzie Highway to Sisters where we settled in with a nice bowl of chili.  We decided to go home via Government Camp with a hope for a nice sunset shot of Mt. Hood over Trillium Lake.  We knew the storm was on the way but it seemed like a good idea.  As we got closer to Mt. Hood we knew the shot was doomed…. clouds covered the middle of the mountain and our view of the top was totally eliminated as we got closer.   No worries.  We headed for home and arrived in time to watch the second episode of the latest Ken Burns series on National Parks… more wonderful photos to enjoy.   Yes, we’re enjoying retirement!