Month: November 2012

Something Interesting Happened on the Way to the Venetian

This is quota thing is going to put me in an early grave. With the new year coming there might have to be some slight modifications. But that is over a month away so back on the computer to finish up the last post of the month. As with the previous post, this one is courtesy of our trip to Vegas although this one isn’t about wildlife photography…. rather landscape photography.

You may not know that Linda is a Peter groupie.. EEK! backspace backspace backspace… start again. You may not know that Linda is a big fan of Peter Lik. That actually doesn’t sound a whole lot better but before your mind goes somewhere it shouldn’t, Peter Lik is a pretty famous outdoor photographer. Linda has been following his work for sometime now likely due to the association with her own interest in landscape photography. If photographers can have groupies, Linda could be the president of his fan club. She watched all his shows on the Weather Channel (long story) and an avid follower of his blog until it shriveled up and died (probably got quota’d out hehehe). Now days she is on his mailing lists and forums to keep up on the latest releases and happenings in the photography world. The fact that he considers Vegas the headquarters of the Lik enterprise was very much on Linda’s mind leading up to our trip out there – a strange fact seeing as he is the son of Czech parents and raised in Australia. She even managed to find all of his galleries out there as well as the address for his corporate offices. Clearly there was going to be treks through some snooty studios and a road trip in our future.

Since we were staying at the Palazzo we decided to head over to the Venetian gallery first. Sure enough, they had his classic works as well as some new pieces adorning the walls. I rarely openly comment on the works of professional photographers in fear of offending someone or ballooning egos, but in this case, I’ll make an exception. His work is quite stunning!  This especially holds true if you appreciate landscape photography and a proprietary printing process that makes his images pop right out of the frame. I really can’t explain what it is about his shots, but if you are not impressed when walking in his galleries you might want to have your pulse checked. True to our other experiences in gallery stores, we were quickly greeted by one of the sales associates. The next two+ hours was quite the event.

We would approach a picture, the salesman would start to say something about it and Linda would quickly proceed to explain the entire background on it – where it was shot, how it was shot, when it came out, in some instances the camera he used and what hat he was wearing at the time. The associated was damn impressed – me, more worried she was going to quit her day job, buy a jeep and start camping out at remote sites Peter was planning to shoot. During the course of the walkthrough, we also learned a tremendous amount which included insights into how some of the shots were taken (that Linda was not aware of), some advanced information on some release cycle changes and the logarithmic pricing based on percentage of the total release size. I recall from other gallery walks that the staff was continually throwing out percentage numbers and had no idea what that meant … actually my guess was some kind of bonus they were getting per sell. Not exactly true. The percentages represent what band of pricing the picture is currently selling at. Shots in the early cycle go for a lower price which jumps significantly when it gets to the 80’s 90’s and heartstopping sold out. As luck would have it, the image I really like is selling well and is now priced at 60K. Oh well, there’s always the lottery or more appropriately in Vegas – a lucky pull on the Mega bandit. Note they had Linda’s favorite picture of Peter’s on the wall as well.

And then we came to the last picture. The recently released Zebra shot. I do no remember how large this particular picture was, but it was easily 2 meters square. The neat thing about this is it is his first wildlife release and more intriguing to me.. his first shot taken with a Nikon (800 I think … Linda can verify). Not to often when a professional artist sees the light and switches sides – take that Canon lovers! From a collectors perspective, this shot has a lot going for it – two firsts in the same shot. We looked at it for awhile and commented it was interesting – maybe not the word to use in a gallery. The salesman started scurrying around and mentioned something about “going to do something for us”. We didn’t think much about it and started backtracking on a couple of pictures which included another look at Linda’s favorite shot. A few minutes later we look over and that huge zebra shot was making its way down the aisle with a pair of legs sticking out from under it. Ummm, looks like things are going to get more interesting. After quite the struggle, he gets it inside a viewing room and proceeds to change all the lighting around to show the different effects it has based on the level of light – again, another stunning feature of whatever process he created to print these babies. Linda and I bantered back and forth about how we were looking for something to hang on our fireplace but eventually came to the conclusion that the whites and blacks would blend too much with our river rock… that and the part I didn’t say – I just don’t think the shot is that great but I could just be a jaded wildlife photographer. The next 30 minutes is somewhat of a blur but our banter turned into some serious discussion which led to the idea that more color would do the trick and the next thing I know we are looking at Linda’s favorite picture in another viewing room. Lights down, lights up, stand close, stand back, sit stand and all we can say to each other is WOW. I’ll make a long story short(er), but you probably saw this coming a lot earlier.

hit the jump to read about the rest of the experience

Continue reading Something Interesting Happened on the Way to the Venetian

Birds of the Concrete Jungle

Yikes, I’m once again cutting it close … verry verry close this month.  After this post I’ll still have another to go and right now not sure what that is going to be.  But that is in the future and I’m living in the now.  Recently we had the opportunity to visit Sin City, our home away from home.  We have been using Las Vegas as a launch pad for photography shoots.  If you recall a few years back we hit Zion (link here) while we were out there and this year we had similar plans to hit some scenic sights with a little less driving.  Turns out I was able to do some bird watching while hanging out on the strip!

First on the list is the very entertaining Barmingo.  This particular bird is rarely seen in the daylight preferring instead to spend its time at local happy hours and whatever hot new club is all the rage.

Basically being inebriated for a most of it’s adulthood, this particular bird has evolved into a clever self-preservation posture.  Thanks to the lack of control of it’s legs, it spent the early years stumbling on every curb and uneven tile in the city.  This proved a painful burden on the body which developed a permanent pink hue from all the bruising.  Unfortunately, due to not having an means to stop itself, the beak took blast after blast from the ground resulting in the bulbous appendage we see today.  Somewhere along the line it figured out it could prevent a lot of serious injury by adopting a different posture – one that allowed it to maintain better balance by placing the weight of the head over center mass and giving a much cushier landing should it stumble off the bar stool.  There is still one feature that has not changed

They can’t hold their liquor.  Quite sad really – they could have been so much more…  As a word of caution you might want to reconsider playing in any local Vegas fountains – they tend to be covered in Barmingo vomit.

Hit the jump to see the rest of the birds we found hanging out in the Concrete Jungle we call Vegas

Continue reading Birds of the Concrete Jungle

One of These and One of Those

Greetings all!  Since I’ll probably not be posting again until after Thanksgiving, I’d like to wish everyone a happy Turkey Day (well, guess not so much from the turkey’s perspective) and safe travels if you are out and about.  Today’s post is a two-for of sorts.  Not only do you get to see a … umm a “this” but you also get to see … uh well umm a “that”.  As you can tell, I’m not entirely sure what they are.  There are a few guesses but, in truth, hoping my highly knowledgeable and gracious readers (the butter-up) can help out.   Begging is an option if needed – my pride is already dashed from flipping through bird books and slogging through the web for a staggering amount of time.

The first bird comes to us from Banner Marsh back in September.  We were heading down to Emiquon to catch the pelicans that were migrating through.  We had some time to spare so hit the Marsh first.  As soon as we pulled in I noticed something wading far out in the water.

It kind of looked from the shape like a stilt (link here) but it was clearly at the max reach of the Beast even with the Tele. Hand holding that glass on such a distant subject is difficult at best and not conducive to crispy shots.  My apologies, but these are the best that could be done with them in the digital darkroom – I did not want to mess up any coloring on the bird since it hasn’t been really identified yet – also had to do some major cropping just to make out the bird.

Hit the jump to start the guessing on this bird and to view the second subject of this post

Continue reading One of These and One of Those

The Thrill of Shooting Babies

RELAX! RELAX!… that’s just a clever hook to get you to walk in the door.  Although I’m comfortable behind a handgun or rifle, I was referring to my other hobby – “shooting” wildlife with my CAMERA.  Clearly the big game and birds dominate our photo outings, but every once in awhile we are lucky enough to have the smaller subjects drop by the house for some quick posing.  This is exactly what happened back in June.  I was piddling around (Linda’s words) when I stumbled upon one seriously pissed off raccoon.  Now I am not a big fan of adult raccoons firmly believing that they are one evolution away from throwing us off the top of the food chain.  They clearly spend their free time thinking of clever ways to wreak havoc on our house – especially the bird feeders (and not wasting it on Internet searches for Hank Williams Jr.)  .  Fortunately for them, I have a golden rule – The Young Shall Not Be Harmed Nor Adults In Company Of Their Young.  I know the consequences when they become adults, but everyone should have a right to enjoy the innocent years.  The 8 baby mice that I came across in our propane tank lid resulting in having to spent 45 minutes rounding up and coaxing their mom to lead each to safety last month can attest to this (probably should be some commas in that beast of a sentence).  I know that some will make it to adulthood to drive me nuts but convictions are convictions.

I’ve had enough encounters with raccoon mothers to know when babies are close.  Like this one they turn nasty and start hissing and baring their teeth.  Due to being an evolution away, they eventually recognize their shortcomings and try to draw the danger away.   If you simply stand your ground they eventually give up and head for safety.  Don’t be fooled, they do not go very far but create enough distance from you that you tend to forget they are out there.  Whenever this happens I start looking to the trees to see what was worth trying to protect.  One thing their mother’s always teach their offspring – when in trouble take the high ground.  This eliminates a large number of threats around here and cats pretty much want no part of this game.  Sure enough, not far from where I was standing was this:

How cute is that!  As much damage their parents have done around here I’m going to get a little benefit.  Linda happened to come out of the house at the same time so I had her grab the camera.  Raccoon babies are excellent photographic subjects.  They tend to stay stationary and have a cute factor that is through the roof.  The struggle with this one was getting the composition right – no matter which angle I took there were leaves in the way (not too surprising since we do live in the woods).  The wind was also blowing adding another factor to the mix.  A few minutes into the shot we were greeted with another surprise.

Score – double cuteness.  They were fairly calm about the whole ordeal likely due to the fact I’d come upon them before and let them pass without harm – no camera then though.  Our attention kept them very alert.  Their ears were nicely tuned forward and for the most part they kept those eyes wide open (very glint friendly).  See that paw clinched onto the tree?  Should this particular baby make it to adulthood, that paw will be continually testing all my bird feeder protections.  Note, when looking some information up on these critters I was shocked to learn that they do NOT have an opposable thumb yet since I was a kid always thought they did – another childhood education fallacy in the vein of the Brontosaurus and Pluto – they may actually be more than one evolution away now.

There’s more (literally) .. hit the jump!

Continue reading The Thrill of Shooting Babies

Concert Recollection: A Christmas Shredfest

Since once again SNL is pure crap (with the exception of Maroon 5 tonight), I’m back in post mode.  For a change, tonight we have a recollection from an event that happened a mere 2 days ago.  Norm for these is at least a month or two later.  That is self imposed wanting to give some soak time to see what really left an impression.  If I still remember it then it is probably something that struck me as interesting… and gives an excuse for any embellishments that might creep in ha!  The sad truth of it is two days seems like a month with the pace going on around here lately so it fits the model anyway.

So Thursday night Linda and I went to see Trans Siberian Orchestra.  This has become a traditions of sorts since we’ve made an effort to see them for the last 6 or so years (maybe more).  If I recall, last year we saw their show in the January timeframe which was entirely too late – once Christmas is past, the desire to see Christmas themed shows drops faster than Charlie Brown trying to kick a football.  This year they passed through on the other side of that equation – a week before Thanksgiving.  The merchant bastards have all but destroyed Halloween and Thanksgiving holidays making it more tolerable I guess.  The good news is they promised a whole new show!  So the first question is … have you ever been to a TSO concert?

If you said “No”, then you are probably in for a surprise…. and you might want to call up your shrink since you have apparently started talking back to the web.  If you were like me, you assume any show with Orchestra in the name would consist of curved rows of penguins performing a synchronized ballet with strings and wind instruments playing technically perfect classical music – probably Bach, Mozart and others from the days of cinched up waists and powdered wigs.

Let’s see:

  • Penguins – umm I guess you could call them tuxes but rented from Alice Cooper’s closet
  • Curved rows – there were 8 seats in the corner of the stage
  • Strings – definitely, the traditional kind and the 6/4 string axes
  • Wind instruments – not so much
  • Classic music – yes.. well, technically, just imagine that sheet music being kidnapped by heavy metal rockers, given enough coke to stay up a month straight, percolated in a vat of pure energy and then spit out on a wall of light, smoke and fire.

Get the impression this isn’t your everyday trip to the symphony.  Nope, this is really an all out assault on the senses.  At the beginning of the concert members come out on stage to hand out a huge (literally) check to a local charity.  They have done this ever since they started playing and a nice touch especially in these trying times.  One dollar of every ticket (not the walk ups) is given back to the community – this year it was over $6K for the Children’s Hospital which was very fitting based on the story line of their new show.  The other key part of this pre-concert event is they always ask who has never been to a TSO concert.  I think this is purposely done for everyone in the audience that has seen their show before – it points out the people we should keep an eye on.

These are the people that become either a little panicky or excited the minute the show starts.  Why is that?  Well, that is when the stage starts revving up, the backdrop begins to shimmer, the chillers push out the heavy fog, the light pods raise up high into the air, the digital backdrops begin their bombardment of visuals and the lasers (that’s right.. .lasers) start tracing the stage.  First new item of the show, a huge timepiece begins moving across the stage … spewing fire.  Back to the newbies.  At this point, there is really only two expressions.  There is either absolute panic that they made a wrong turn somewhere and they are about to be sacrificed to some metal god or pure relief that being dragged to this event isn’t going to feel like the dentist.

Hit the jump read and see more of the show!

Continue reading Concert Recollection: A Christmas Shredfest

The Good and the Bad of Big Glass Depth of Field

Greetings all! I am finally getting back on my feet after the month from hell. Once all the adrenaline and excitement wore off from the race and party I started realizing what a toll it all took on my body. Even with my customary week off relaxing (yep, no running, and no work on Project Auuunoold) I still couldn’t shake the aches and pains. The next week started and I was beginning to get concerned. Figured I’d start the rebuilding process this week … back on the core to get the body fixed up and stretched and a little biking for cardio is starting to work their magic. Still not ready to run yet but due time, due time. In the meantime, thought I’d toss out a quick post.

Tonight’s topic is that very tricky subject of Depth of Field (DoF). To be honest, this is one of those photography topics I am trying to get a better understanding of – primarily because I’m constantly fighting it out in the field especially with the Beast. My quick and dirty definition of DoF is the measurement of how much distance will be in focus (sharp) for a given set of exposure, glass and camera specs. I still have a lot of learning to do on this subject so there will not be any expert advice here – I’ll certainly come back on this subject once I get read up on it some more. The good, or the bad depending on your point of view, is that you can see the effect pretty easily.

Take a look at some shots from a shoot Linda and I took back in July. We were out at Jubilee and due to lack of birds was spending my time on anything else I could find that had wings.

So there I was with my standard birding setup which consists of the Beast (200-400mm) coupled with the 1.4 Tele on the D7000 (1.5 crop sensor).  These shots were taken at around the 3.6 to 3.8 m range hand held… and people wonder why I continually workout.  These dragonflies were all over the place darting to and fro so I decided to get a little small subject focusing practice in.  When the subject is smaller than the central focus region, the glass tends to walk a lot, especially the long glass.  So there I stood happily shooting away.  That happiness lasted until I got home and started assessing the output.  Notice anything glaring wrong with the first shot?

The right wings are nice and crispy, but what the hell is up with the left side?  Was that particular wing moving at the time … doubtful, they tend to move both sets of wings in unison from what I have experienced and the 16oo ISO would have compensated for that anyway.  The problem is in the focus parameters.   My depth of field is not encompassing the full thickness of the subject.

I was fighting the glass to keep it on target and firing away on fast multi-shot so there were plenty of other examples to explore.  Hit the jump to see more examples of DoF.

Continue reading The Good and the Bad of Big Glass Depth of Field