Playing With Shots

Billings Airport, a regular stop for me, was the destination for two of these pictures.  (Top) Great Lakes Airline Beechcraft 1900D N192GL poses for me on the ramp with the wide stretches of country north of Billings in the distance beyond.  (Bottom) Northwest Airlines Airbus A320-211 approaches at 168kts and is frozen in a short exposure.  (Middle)  While Rimview Hall is often times a place of consternation and disorder, quietness is found in the subtle colors of the courtyard.  Narrow depth of field is illustrated here.

Unfortunately, my long exposures are lacking and need some refining.  Hopefully this is something I can continue to work on and have ready by the end of the week.

Patrick J. Henderson's High Camera

Link to High Camera

I confess, as an aviation student, aerial photography sends chills up and down my spine.  To see nature, landscapes, and the world as I see it and so few others do speaks to me on my level.  As a native Virginian, there's only one name I tend to think of when it comes to aerial photography, and that's Patrick J. Henderson.  A native of Chincoteague (those who don't hail from the Mid-Atlantic will know that name from the book "Misty of Chincoteague"), Henderson loves shooting aerial landscapes of Eastern Shore towns and examples of his work can often be found for sale throughout that region to tourists, offering stunning images for buyers to take home in hotels, gift shops, and antique stores throughout this ecologically-unique part of the East Coast.

Henderson captures the legendary Chincoteague Pony Penning from a vantage point that its most likely never had throughout its illustrious history.  The Pony Penning is an annual event on the Eastern Shore, marked with a carnival throughout the tourist town where it takes place, and is attended by horse enthusiasts from all over the world.  Local lore has it that the feral ponies that reside just over a small channel from Chincoteague (on Assateague Island, which is a national park) were shipwrecked from a Spanish galleon sometime in the 1500s.  The fact that this still can't be disproved merely adds to the romance of the event and drives the prices for the pony auction into the somewhat absurd.  The "Saltwater Cowboys" round up a set number of young ponies every July, herd them over the channel to Chincoteague, round them up, and sell them at auction.  Regular destinations from there include Japan, Germany, Canada, and all over the United States.

Henderson's shots of this event need to be seen to be believed.  His camera work is solid--his exposure time captures the waves rolling in from the Atlantic Ocean perfectly (as a good Virginian, he shows them as they actually are, not as inland tourists would like to imagine them, a trick that probably could have been possible through some creative exposure timing), and his depth of field allows for a beautiful horizon line beyond Assateague Island.  The romance of the event is increased thanks to these pictures, and this event--where nature and the wild truly interacts with humanity--does need to be seen.

Four potential shots

This weekend, I anticipate shooting four different pictures with short and long exposure time, one with narrow depth of field, and one with wide depth of field.

I am hoping to get a picture of the valley where Billings sits as a wide depth of field shot, primarily because I want a good picture of where I'm now living for loved ones and friends back in Virginia.  A good place to set up for this shot is the Couch up on the rims, not far from the airport.

While I'm up there, I also hope to shoot a short-timed exposure of a Great Lakes Aviation Beechcraft 1900D taking off from the airport.  While I'm trying to shoot more nature than man-made objects, I think capturing the rotation of a beautiful turboprop aircraft moving at quite a swift speed (as the B1900 does at takeoff) will be good practice for hopefully catching birds later on in the semester.  My obsession with aircraft doesn't hurt my desire to photograph them, either.

For a long exposure, I'm planning on capturing a segment of the Yellowstone River down by Laurel on Friday where the water is a little swifter and leaves, sticks, and other assorted pieces move through very rapidly.  After seeing examples of running water and long exposures, I want to try my hand in this.  I also like the thought of shooting the moving of stars, but I'll start with the water.

My narrow depth of field idea is perhaps a little bit trickier than these other ones.  There is a (relatively) tame black rabbit that lives on the side of 24th St. W near the Rimrock Auto Sales dealership that rarely (if ever) moves much.  I think having a narrow depth of field with the traffic and suburban landscape behind blurred may create an interesting effect as I focus on the rabbit in the grass.

RAW files

Luminous Landscape article

There are many different choices to consider when deciding which file format to shoot on the DSLR.  As I previously had no idea what the pros and cons were of each, this article provided some valuable information on which direction to go.

While JPEG files are smaller and more of them can fit on a memory card, it is clear that their format is not as high quality as shooting in raw format.  The final pre-edited format is a 12-bit image, as opposed to an 8-bit JPEG image.  It is far superior in quality and contains thousands of brightness levels (sometimes even thousands per every couple of f-stop levels) more than the 8-big JPEG image.

I don't mind investing in an additional memory card or two.  It is the higher quality photo that I am in search of, and it is clear that shooting in JPEG form will not provide that.  Every camera shoots in raw mode anyways; it is, in essence, a gimmick to convert the file into JPEG format directly on the camera and not after the raw image is edited.  It would serve me little purpose, although as a natural space-saver, it is a trap I could have easily fallen into.

Super-telephoto Lenses

Photography is certainly not an art form to be done on the cheap, and the super-telephoto lens is one of the most expensive pieces of equipment the wildlife photographer will own.

While they have many features that make them ideally suited for the wildlife and outdoor photography trade, perhaps one of the best is the concept of Image Stabilization Sharpness.  Both Canon and Nikon make lenses with this feature, designed to restrict vibration and keep the lens in place while shooting.  The result is that shutter speed is increased a full two to four stops with this technology.

When is having Image Stabilization important?  The optimal times for shooting wildlife are at the beginning and the end of the day (dawn and dusk), and having the ability to shoot at these slower speeds means the amount of time a photographer can spend shooting is increased.  While the cost of these lenses may at times border on the obscene for the amateur photographer, the old phrase "you can't buy time" has perhaps found an exception.

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Nature Photography

Yes, I confess, I started off reasonably clueless as to how a professional photographer goes about their business.  Armed with only desire and something resembling an eye for the aesthetically pleasing, I have set off on my quest to learn how this all actually happens.

Tim Fitzharris' National Audubon Society Guide to Nature Photography is certainly worth its sticker price for aspiring amateur photographers in part because of the author's detailed checklist on supplies necessary for working in the field.  My previous experiences in the field consisted of taking a can of bug spray, my Kodak point and shoot camera, and possibly five dollars for state park entrance fees.  While I probably will not be shooting for the same duration of time as Fitzharris and can thus ignore some of his equipment recommendations (i.e. walkie-talkie), taking his advice and buying a vest seems like a wise investment.

His tips on Winter Photography were also important for someone who comes from a climate such as Virginia, where extreme winter temperatures are quite uncommon.  As I will be conducting a fair amount of shooting during the changing seasons in Montana, I will have to follow tips such as choosing zippered and well-vented jackets instead of layering up, as the equipment will be heavy enough as it is.  Fitzharris' tip on keeping the small hand-warming chemically-based packets in gloves is a great idea, as well.  I have not given much thought to them since my high school football career finished years ago, but perhaps it is time to reacquaint myself with their inexpensive heating while out in the field for hours at a time.

Finally, I was thrilled to see that Yellowstone National Park is best for shooting in September, which means there are still a few weeks left to get out and see its sublime natural color and the changing of the season in relative peace (as tourists have mostly left for the year).  Reading this section inspired me to plan a weekend trip towards the end of the month and try to catch a colorful morning meadow as the author described.

Reading this book has not only informed me as to what I need to know to further pursue the field of nature photography, but also inspires with its images and gently prods me into action with the promise of becoming better at this craft.  I'm thrilled that it's getting to be about that time where I go out and shoot for myself.

Night Landscapes

Link to Luminous Landscape article on night landscape shooting


In my opinion, no natural setting on earth is ever quite as romantic without the stars, moon, and other celestial bodies dancing overhead.  Unfortunately, capturing our favorite night scenes properly can be a real problem, as proper light is to photography as water is to fish.  This article talks about how digital photography has changed that; now, we can see the instant results of our shooting and tinker accordingly.  For someone who would love to get some night shots over the coming months, my eyes perked open with great interest.

Of particular note was the "Rule of 600" that the author discussed.  When one needs to determine the longest possible exposure for any set focal length lens, the quickest method of doing so is to set the focal length as a denominator beneath 600.  The resulting figure will give you a rough estimate as to what your longest exposure should be (i.e. the author was using the Canon D60 with a focal length of 22mm; thus 600/22 = 27.27 repeating, or just under 30 seconds).

In the end, the author concluded that the Canon D60, with its 30-second exposure (the longest possible before the stars begin to streak) can take passable (if not wonderful) night landscapes, and provided an example of Ontario's Lake Muskoka beneath the Big Dipper.  The image was parallel with the type of night landscapes I hope to shoot, and thus I was willing to look closer at Canon's D60 despite its somewhat restrictive price range.