Preparing

Yesterday my friend Deigh sent me a link to a website featuring long exposure, black and white photography.  He’s good at pointing me (and others) to places I would miss if left to my own devices.  I’m fairly sure that the opening image on the site, a shot from Iceland, was a lot of the incentive to share the site with me. He also knows that I love this type of image… glassy water surfaces, clouds in motion, high contrast.  Since we are on our way to Iceland soon I am trying to figure out what camera gear to take if my hopes, perhaps too high, are to come back with shots that show the stark beauty of Iceland that I’ve seen so many times in others’ photos.  It isn’t necessarily easy for me to reach these decisions.

Some thoughts so far:

• We will be day hiking anywhere from 2-8 hours.  My gear, including a small laptop, will be on my back.  Weight matters.
• We will be in Iceland in July when the sun stays out most of the day.  No northern lights this trip.
• We can expect wind.  Traditional advice is to take a heavy tripod if you want to get long exposure images.  I admit to being totally on the fence about what tripod to take but bought a little Siuri carbon fiber tripod and ball head with hopes that it will make do.  Initial tests say that I’m dreaming but I have not given up on it yet.
• Waterfalls everywhere.  My hope is to come back with image files that can be made into something other than postcards.  I’m operating on the assumption that we will be able to have time to actually linger at some locations rather than just hike through. I’m studying famous waterfalls in Iceland so I can be somewhat prepared for compositions that I can avoid due to their popularity (ease?). Time will tell.

The gear so far:

• D700 without the add-on battery pack.
• Nikon 28-300 f/3.5-5.6 lens (same one that went to India)
• Nikon 20 mm f/2.8 lens
• 2 and 3 stop graduated neutral density filters with 77mm adapter and holder
• 8 stop variable neutral density filter
• cable release
• diGPS camera unit
• CF cards (1-16 gb, 4 -8gb)
• Toshiba Ultrabook laptop with Lightroom 4
• Card reader
• 2 Western Digital Passport 500 gb external hard disks
• Siuri T1250SX carbon fiber tripod
• Siuri ballhead
• Lowepro Photo Sport 200AW back pack (love it)

My biggest concern is tripod stability and shake due to the anticipated winds and my generally crappy technique.  So I’m training myself to the degree that I can.  Today I ventured down to the Portland waterfront to see if I could get a sharp photo from the gear if I expose for 20-30 seconds or more.  Joints on the tripod tight?  Check.  Cable release? Check.  Mirror lock up?  Check.

It’s a start.  I’m thinking that another neutral density filter may be needed to get the real sense of cloud movement (and water) that I want.  My friend Eric uses a 10 stop filter to great effect.  The image from Iceland that Deigh pointed me to was made with a 13 stop neutral density filter in place.  Filters are light but not cheap.  I’ll keep experimenting and hope to land in Iceland with a lot more confidence than I have now.

A quick Gorge hike

When we visit Iceland in a few weeks I anticipate taking many photos of waterfalls… the country is famous for its outrageous abundance of falls.  I also expect to visit falls when the light is harsh and not really the best for photography.  To prepare ourselves and my photo skills we hiked up Eagle Creek in the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area today.  It was a short hike and we got to Metlako Falls (~100 feet high) as the light was starting to bath the western canyon walls. No cloud cover to diffuse the light but at least the sun was not directly on the water. We stopped long enough to take a few shots of this iconic Gorge falls before heading on to Punchbowl Falls.  As always, you can click on the image to see a larger version.

A short distance upstream from Meglako Falls is a true Gorge icon… Punchbowl Falls.  I’d been to the falls before but have always turned away since to view the falls in a grand fashion requires wading and I’d not been prepared for that in the past.  Today I found that someone(s) had constructed a small, 1 rock wide, path out into the stream to allow dry foot access to a view.  While this is not necessarily the best view it did allow me to dance around a bit and set up a shot.  Again, we got there just before the light would have made the shot way to contrasty to succeed.

I visited with another photographer who I assume was a visitor to our area.  He had expected there to be a trail down to this waterfall.  He had attached his polarizer and was moving out onto the rock path as I turned around to join Dianne for the hike back out to our car.

This was a classic, beautiful day in the Portland metro area and the trail into the Falls was pretty heavily populated by a variety of hikers heading in.  Everyone had a smile on their face and seemed to be enjoying the day.  Why not?

Out and about

It seems that at least once a year I get together with Deigh to venture out with cameras in hand.  Yesterday was such a day. We had a general plan of attack for the day… visit Rowena Crest to see if the flowers wanted portraits made, then to Panther Creek Falls north of Carson, Washington and finally a hike into Elowah Falls.  Well, the wind was strong on the Rowena plateau so we looked around for some calmer areas in the lee of a ridge and timed shots to minimize movement as best we could.  The sun was BRIGHT and the clouds were absent.  My original thoughts of making portraits of balsam root and lupine against a white background using a “field studio” vanished as we drove to Rowena and I saw the wind working on the trees.  I settled for wandering and grabbing images that appealed to me.

I happened on an unusual plant growing out of a pile of basalt.  While I have no idea what this plant is, it reminded me of some exotic trees I saw on the Art Wolfe video about Madagascar.  Strange and intriguing pattern in this plant.

We headed for Panther Creek Falls and found the trail after a short stop in Carson, WA to get some water and a snack.  The last time I was at the falls was years ago and I’d heard that the Forest Service had developed a platform to view the falls.  Previously, I scaled down a small cliff using a rope that had been left by a generous person(s) to access the creek and a view up into the falls.  The viewing platform provides a good view and I was really pleased to see that the trail into the area had not been upgraded and enlarged.  I did not venture out to see if the rope was still in place.

Part of my intent on this trip was to gain experience with a new travel tripod and head that will go to Iceland with us.  Since I will be carrying all the needed gear on my back each day in Iceland I’m semi-determined to figure out how to pack the gear and to work out any wrinkles prior to the trip.  I found a few wrinkles yesterday.  Once I got set up on the platform I found I could not pan the ballhead.  Say what?  It worked just fine on the desk at home.  I compromised my tripod placement to get the rough framing I wanted but I was mentally planning how to return the head back in Portland.  As we left I found that I had tightened the head too tightly onto the tripod legs and that once loosened a bit the head panned just fine.  Of course this was after the session.  I also learned that the little carbon fiber legs shake at the least disturbance.  I forgot the cable release that will be essential equipment in Iceland if we want sharp images.

Our plans to visit Elowah Falls disappeared when I turned right instead of left. After driving a few miles in the wrong direction we opted to just keep going and I suggested Ponytail Falls near Multnomah Falls.  I’d been there the week before as part of my hike to Triple Falls and I knew that the hike in was fairly short but uphill.  I was most interested in the exercise and some more experience with the pack, tripod and ballhead. Everything worked much better than it did at Panther Creek.  Without the cable release I was using the self-timer in the camera and even then I was getting enough vibration to know that I am going to have to be very deliberate with the setup once in Iceland.

On the way out to the car Deigh had the misfortune to have his camera and 16-35 lens eject from his pack and land on rock.  Tore the lens right off the camera.  YIKES. I took away a lesson from this unfortunate event… if a pack has two zipper pulls it is probably safer to zip them to the bottom of the pack rather than to the top.  I think that Deigh’s pack had weakened over time and the zippers worked their way down as he walked and bounced down the trail.  Gravity and physics at work.  He has a new pack now and the lens is in for a hopeful repair.  Not the way either of us wanted to end a nice day.

Gorge-eous green

Di and I will be doing a lot of hiking to prepare for our trip to Iceland but until she finishes the Hippie Chick Half Marathon this Saturday she’s sticking to a training regimen that does not include trail walking.  I gathered up the new Lowepro pack and the camera gear I expect to take to Iceland, put on the new boots and headed out for a short 4 mile ramble into Triple Falls along upper Oneonta Creek in the Columbia River Gorge.  I find that the new Lowepro Photo Sport 200 pack works really well.  I’ll get the gear stowage figured out eventually but came back impressed with how solid it felt with a tripod attached and carrying nearly everything I anticipate will be aboard in Iceland. I’d kind of sworn off Lowepro packs due to their zippers but this one works well and has the room to store personal gear as well as the camera and a laptop.

Here are a couple of shots from the hike today.  As always, you can click on the image to see a larger version. The initial shakedown is over and now we’ll get serious about some feet and body conditioning with progressively longer and more challenging hikes in the weeks to come.  Stay tuned.

Super moon and much more to come

We traveled to Bozeman, Montana to celebrate our youngest grand daughter’s first birthday last Friday and Saturday.  This is a BIG story that deserves to be told in a proper way.  Since we spent 12 hours on the road yesterday driving home I have many photos to edit and prepare for sharing.  The birthday story and photos will come soon.

I did not want to lose any more momentum on the “super moon” theme though so I processed a few frames from our experience.  A short story to go along with this photo.

Friday night we were seated at the dining room table in the house we had rented between Bozeman and Belgrade, MT.  We’d had a great family day involving both or our sons, 2 grand daughters who share May 4 as a birthday, one daughter-in-law, my 97 year old Mother and my sister.  The word “wonderful” keeps coming up as the most appropriate adjective for that day.  We were just sitting and talking when Chad pointed out the window and noted that the full moon was outside.  I turned around and jumped up from the table to grab the camera and tripod.  About a half hour later I rejoined the table group. I knew that the super moon was coming but, honestly, family was THE priority… until I saw the moon outside.  Luckily, my family understands me and tolerates my camera habit.  I shot several versions of the moon rising near some trees in the front yard.  Not ideal but better than nothing.

Saturday was the big birthday party at the rental house.  After the crowd thinned down it was back to our family members at the onset of dusk.  I really wanted to get a shot of the true “super moon” with snow capped mountains in the foreground.  Derek and I jumped in the car and headed toward Bozeman and a higher elevation viewing spot in a neighborhood.  We cruised the development looking for the best vantage and ended up back at the main road.  I checked The Photographer’s Ephemeris (TPE) on my phone and found that the moon would rise further down the ridge than what I wanted but I was committed to the spot and didn’t know of another, better place.

As Derek and I settled in to wait for the moon to rise a truck drove past us and turned around, came back and parked by us.  Now it was me, Derek and Chad sitting and waiting for a moon to rise.  Frankly, my evening was complete before the moon showed.  Having the opportunity to be with both of my sons when they were relaxed and able to just sit and talk without any distractions of work or, pardon me, family, was a great moment.  We watched and enjoyed the stares we got from passing motorists who must have thought we had some wildlife sighting or such.  I kept visiting the camera on the other side of the road to check exposure and framing but my heart was with the guys sitting on the tailgate of Chad’s truck.  This is the type of experience that reinforces how fortunate we are.

The guys were torn by being there or back at the house with their grandmother and mother  though.  They took off to return to the house but I hung in there for another 20 minutes until saw the moon rise right where TPE said it would… behind a cloud and way too far away from any suitable composition.  I flamed out on the whole shoot.  Such is life.

Yesterday morning we woke early for the long drive home.  Derek and Gina were traveling in their car and Dianne and I in ours but we had a few minutes over coffee and cereal as the new day began.  Of course the Super Moon was setting in the west over what I think is the Madison Range.  The camera and tripod came back out of the car and I set up on the back porch of the rental house.  My hope was that the moon would set over the snow capped peaks but I shot it for about 30 minutes as it came into the frame with the mountain range.  Of the shots there are two that stand out for me.  Of the two, this is my favorite.  The Super Moon, snow capped mountains and a weekend of totally rewarding family immersion filled me with thoughts and warm feelings as we packed and drove away.

 

Eastside Esplanade

My thanks to everyone who commented on the post “Color”.  I never know what is going to elicit some sort of response and this one surprised me a bit.  Encouraged by the feedback I went back down to the Esplanade to shoot the rust patterns with more deliberate purpose and with a tripod to help get sharp images.  Anyone who has ever stood on the path that runs along the bottom of the Steel Bridge knows that vibrations and movement are more common than calm.  I think it is probably possible to categorize runners into broad categories like “heavy footed clompers” or “I may be heavy but you can’t feel me run by”.  Pretty amazing to see how some folks just never created a vibration and others set the whole bridge swaying from a great distance.  Even some light people create big vibrations.  That has to be running style and I don’t envy their joints in the future years. But I digress.  It’s just that timing shots to minimize vibrations from runners, bikers and the procession of trains and buses and cars crossing the bridge meant that I had a lot of time to just stand there and observe.  Hence my unscientific survey of “clompers” and “feathers”.

I shot the front of the boat from as many angles as I could.  It has an amazing array of patterns across the bow and the side of the ship.  I tried to find compositions that emphasize color patterns and textures. We’ll see how these pass the initial screening here at home before I post any online.

I also shot the bridge beams with their rust and rivet patterns.  Very different stuff really and I kind of enjoyed watching people try to figure out what the heck I was doing.  Lots of strange looks but only a couple of people actually stopped to talk or ask questions.

On my way back to the car I found an interesting view of the city across the river.  For now that view will be the only image posted to the blog.  More to come if they pass the test of processing and edits by a trusted editor.

Color

I just returned from downtown Portland where I walked around while Dianne and a friend did a 12 mile training run on the waterfront.  I’m testing a pack for the trip to Iceland so the camera came along for the outing.  I wandered across the Hawthorne Bridge and into downtown.  Then, after a leisurely coffee I headed into Saturday Market and across the Steel Bridge to the Eastside Esplanade and then south to the car and to meet Di and Audrey.

I think it is interesting that my friend Deigh posted a blog entry today titled “A Colorful World”.  It’s an interesting combination of chard and crayons to emphasize color.  His post takes on more interest to me since the one place that I stopped to purposefully take a picture was at the east end of the Steel Bridge where a tanker is tied off to take on grain.  Whoa…. what a color explosion on the bow of this boat.  I couldn’t help myself.

Click on the image below to see a larger version.

Other than some contrast adjustment and some sharpening, this is the image straight out of camera.  The colors were intense.  I don’t know exactly what the colors are but I do know that I love the mix of cool and warm, the textures and varied patterns.  A rather fun find I think.

 

Reentering Facebook… slowly

I dropped off Facebook over a year ago and really did not miss it and the associated concerns it generates.  Then I realized that I had frequent interest in some of the postings that Dianne was getting on her FB page.  I particularly wanted to reconnect with some of our friends in India and many of them seem active on FB.  So, I re-established my presence on FB.

Just so you know, I am going to do this slowly.  I immediately got a bunch of requests to friend people and, for now, I’m ignoring most of them.  It’s not that I won’t friend them at some point but for now I just want to see if I can get comfortable with the mechanics and vocabulary of FB.  Hence, if I haven’t friended you please don’t take it persoanlly… .it’s me, not you.

So, after a bit of coaching from my friend Deigh I am writing this post to let you know that I’m crawling back onto FB and to see if I can actually make a blog entry show up on FB.  This is one of the necessary first learning experiences for me.  If it comes together seamlessly then YEA.  If not, well, hmmmmm.

Here’s a photo to round out the test.

Casual Sunday

It is a rare and much appreciated sunny warm Sunday morning in Portland, Oregon.  We are definitely ready for this after a spring of gray and drizzle/rain.  As I sat eating breakfast I was looking at the orchid that Katy gave us the other day.  I don’t tire of looking at these beautiful plants.  Then I noticed the shamrock sitting on the table in indirect north light.  Again, this plant just seems to be really enjoying spring.  I thought, hmmmmm, orchid, north light, hmmmm.  You know what’s coming.  In the space of about 15 minutes we had set up a background and put the blooms on the counters and exposed to even light.  Single source of light wrapping around the flowers and the plant.

As always, you should be able to click on an image below to see a larger version of the photo.

I had told Dianne that I was going to take a photo of the flower.  She chuckled.  Later she asked if I had been keeping count.  OK, it took a few to get the exposure and compositions that I wanted.  Work the scene baby, work it.

As I was about to quit I thought about shooting the shamrock again but the background was just too dark to work well without some other lights.  I gave up that idea and grabbed Di’s boquet of tulips instead.  Bingo.  Love it.

Now I move outside and get rid of some other plants weeds in harsh direct sunlight.  I guess this warm weather has some downside too.  Whatever.

 

Found friendship

Establishing a new friendship is a wonderful thing in anyone’s life, I think.  I marvel at how we connect with people… some stick and some move on. I never really know when a simple bit of conversation and eye contact might turn into a durable friendship.  Our friends Eric and Traci come to mind.  Happenstance brought us together to watch and photograph a sunset over Portland.  Today, we enjoy their friendship and appreciate being a part of their lives on occasion.  Anndee is another one who I met in a lighting class and found a friend who brings new thoughts and experiences to my life. Other friends have come through our work lives… lots of these people, really.  Perhaps it is that we spend more time with people in the work environment and that allows us to build an awareness of their character and qualities. Of course, some of the people one encounters never “stick” as friends.  It’s amazing, really, how we filter our lives.

And then there are the people who not only become friends but who lead us to yet other new friendships.  A cascade of relationships with common friends is really rewarding. We are in the initial stages of what could be one of the most interesting and rewarding new friendships I’ve had in some time. It all starts with our friend Shyamal who Dianne befriended at work and who became a dear friend to both of us.  It is Shyamal who provided the incentive to visit India where we formed friendships with many others, particularly a few who “hosted” us in different parts of India.  One of these people is a remarkable man by the name of Bhaskar Das.  Bhaskar is one of the truly nice people on earth and brings a lot of passion and experience to his friendships.  We are fortunate to call him “friend”.

Our circle of friends centering on Shyamal expanded recently as we worked together to find a way to get him a camera memory card and Dianne some fresh pashminas from India.  The exchange was facilitated by a wonderful young lady named Katy who used to live near Shayamal in Portland and who thinks of him as a brother.  Katy was heading to Nepal to volunteer as a physical therapist and then to vacation in India for a few weeks.  She agreed to shuttle the camera memory card to Shayamal and to bring the pashminas back to us.  Katy entered our lives over tea in SE Portland and we believe she will be one of the people who “stick”.

But it gets better.  Katy was fortunate to have Bhaskar lead her on a trek into the Himalayas from Darjeeling and show her the Neora Valley.  Her sister, April Ruth, joined Katy at the last minute and shared the time with Bhaskar.  We knew that these ladies would love Bhaskar and that proved to be the case. We met April Ruth and Katy for tea on their return to the USA and found that the short visit was not nearly enough.  They accepted an invitation to dinner and we began to plan a menu of Indian food to get us all focused on our common experiences.

Last night Katy and April Ruth showed up with a gift that immediately told me that there is a lot of connection between us that I had not thought could be there.  They brought us an orchid.  Now, visitors bringing us an orchid has history in our house thanks to our friends Deigh and Jon and Barbara.  I absolutely love the delicate features of an orchid.  The new one offers a pastel palette of colors that deepens into saturated colors as you descend into the flower’s interior. The plant is rich with blooms and a few buds to extend the beauty soon. Yes, I took a few photos of the orchid today.  I can hear our friends in Medford laughing… can’t I Jon and Barbara?  I promise to be a bit more restrained with this one though.

So, Katy and April Ruth joined us in a goal of bringing our friend Bhaskar to the USA to teach and learn. We hope to design and build a sponsored program for him to get here and in which he can see parts of the USA, climb a mountain or two and exchange his passion for outdoor adventure as a means to enrich children’s lives and build a durable appreciation for nature and its wonders.

Thanks, Katy and April Ruth.  Your gift will be a centerpiece of our daily lives for a long time. Both the flower and your friendship enrich our lives.