Photo of the Week

October 18, 2010January 14, 2013

Great Horned Owl (Photo of the week)

A great horned owl sits on a tree branch at dusk, surveying the area for potential prey.

This week’s shot was taken near Bishop, CA in an open field with a nearby stream. Although I was out shooting landscapes, I had my 100-400L mounted on a second body and slung over my shoulder. I was glad I thought to bring this “just in case” setup. You never know when you’ll run into wildlife!

Some friends alerted me to the owl’s presence, and as I got closer, I was presented with two problems, both relating to the lighting conditions. First of all, the sun was setting behind the tree in which the owl was perched. This created a strong silhouette of the tree branch with the owl. Sometimes silhouettes can work well with birds, especially if there is a strong graphical element to the shape of the bird. That wasn’t going to work here, because the shape of the owl was a simple oval – nothing interesting there. Moving closer to the tree and beneath it shielded me from the setting sun and allowing my camera meter to expose properly for the scene.

Now I was presented with the second lighting problem – it was getting dark. I had my landscape tripod with me, but I had ditched it as I started stalking closer to the tree. I knew I wouldn’t have had time to set up my lens on the tripod anyway, so I was stuck hand-holding. I checked my camera-recommended shutter speed (I often shoot in aperture priority), and knew that I couldn’t hand-hold at that speed and keep the image sharp. So I did what any modern digital shooter would do – I cranked up the ISO. I knew I could at least have a chance of recovering the photo from excessive noise. There is no salvaging a blurry photo.

After I had fired off a few shots, the owl decided he would rather have a little more solitude and flew off to another perch. It was very serendipitous to have run into this bird – if I had gone out specifically looking for a great horned owl, I’m sure I never would have found one.

October 12, 2010January 14, 2013

Columbia Gorge Wind Power (Photo of the week)

The white spires of a wind farm stand out against a darkening sky, Columbia River Gorge, Oregon

On my way through the Columbia River Gorge last month, I was passing some of the new wind farms in eastern Oregon and decided to get a few shots. The sun was setting and the lighting was very flattering for the massive turbines. Although it is a crowded market, the demand for alternative energy stock photos is large, and it was little effort on my part to stop and take a few shots. In fact, all of the photos below were taken from a moving car on the freeway (don’t worry – I wasn’t driving)!

Silhouetted wind turbines stand out against an Oregon sunset, Columbia River Gorge, Oregon — Silhouetted wind turbines of a wind farm stand out against an Oregon sunset, Columbia River Gorge, Oregon

Wind turbines line the cliffs along the river, Columbia River Gorge, Oregon

October 6, 2010January 14, 2013

Eagle Creek (Photo of the week)

A long exposure turns the flowing water of Eagle Creek to silk, Eagle Cap Wilderness, Oregon

On the last evening of my recent backpacking trip to Eagle Cap Wilderness, I had some time to photograph Eagle Creek, which was close to camp. Through a combination of the late hour of the day and my polarized filter, I was forced to use a slow shutter speed.

When photographing movement (especially water), a slow shutter is often desired, so I decided to accentuate the effect by setting the camera to ISO 50 (instead of my usual ISO 100 setting for landscapes). This gave me a shutter speed of 6 seconds at f/16, rendering to the rushing water into a smooth abstract. The polarized filter took all the reflective sheen off of the vegetation, allowing the green bushes to pop.

This image could have benefited from a slightly wider angle lens. Unfortunately, after much internal debate, I had decided not to bring by 17-40mm lens along on the trail (purely a weight issue). I use the 24-70mm lens for most of my backpacking work, but in the future, I will probably carry the wider lens with me for occasions like this.

Below are a couple more shots from the creek.

The surface of the water appears to be smooth, due to the long exposure. Eagle Cap Wilderness, Oregon

This shot was taken above Eagle Creek, looking down at the water, Eagle Cap Wilderness, Oregon

September 27, 2010January 14, 2013

East Eagle Creek Canyon (Photo of the week)

Painted cliffs descend to a mixture of fir and pine along East Eagle Creek, Eagle Cap Wilderness, Oregon

This week’s photo was taken on a recent backpacking trip to Eagle Cap Wilderness in north-eastern Oregon. The trip was so scenic that I’m still wading through many great photographs, creating a photographic trip report (so stay posted). This shot was taken on the last evening of the trip, as we were working our way down the canyon from the headwaters of East Eagle Creek. The setting sun lit the western-facing cliffs in soft light. I was doubly blessed that in the afternoon, the gray skies broke up into fluffy white clouds, giving the sky a little texture.

This shot is a great example of what RAW capture from a digital SLR can achieve. The most important aspect to keep in mind when finding the right exposure, is to make sure not to blow out your highlights. Once a highlight is blown, there is no information to recover in the image file. To prevent blowing out the highlights, I use the histogram and adjust the exposure compensation up or down as needed. In this case, I was at risk of the clouds being overexposed, so I had to dial back the exposure to -1 EV. The resulting histogram actually showed that I had overexposed the image just a little, but I knew that was okay, because I was shooting RAW. I brought the file into Lightroom, and used the Recovery slider to bring the detail back into the clouds.

Now I was faced with a very dark foreground. The Fill Light slider helped with that, but the sky was still brighter than it appeared to my eyes in real life. Enter one of Lightroom’s best features, the Graduated Filter. This allowed me to darken just the exposure of the sky, bringing the whole image back into balance.

Shooting RAW gives me the most flexibility to make important image processing decisions on my computer after I get home, rather than relying on the camera manufacturer’s automated algorithms to run in camera while processing the RAW into a JPG. If there is one aspect of digital photography I would recommend, it is learning about and understanding the benefits of shooting RAW. If your camera has this setting (even many point-and-shoot cameras now have this), use it. There will be more work to be done after you get home, but the resulting images will make that effort well worth it.