New Blog Site

If you're looking for my latest photography blog postings please go to blackburnimages.blogspot.com. I've moved my photography postings to this new site. Thanks, and I hope you find something useful to read. Enjoy!!!

Why is this so hard...

Dang, just realized that I haven't posted anything since late March (2009)! This really shouldn't be that hard, but I guess it is like exercise programs... easy to get fired up and started, but very few folks keep it going. I'm promising myself I'll do better... at least 1 post a week!!! More soon... I PROMISE!

Good reading!

Check the articles from the good folks at www.lensrentals.com (you can access via their RSS feed at http://www.lensrentals.com/feed/news.xml). I've found their articles informative and interesting and cover a wide range of subjects.

Also, I'd highly recomment these guys if you are looking to rent some equipment. I've rented from them a few times, have recommended them to friends for other times and have nothing by good words regarding their service!  

Enjoy!

Warner Park Wildflowers

Bloodroot bloom, Edwin Warner Park, 22 March, 2009

The weather is turning more Spring-like with each week and this past week-end (22 March) I ventured over to Edwin Warner Park to see how the wildflowers were progressing. It still seemed early as daffodils are in full bloom and the bluebells are just starting to peek out.  I did find a couple of interesting subjects including this bloodroot bloom along the road to Bluebell Bend. I also spotted a couple of snakes sunning themselves along the rock walls, but they would scoot before I had a chance to get set for any kind of shot.  Another week and the bluebells should be in full bloom.

Yosemite National Park

Sunrise at Valley View, Yosemite National Park

Click here to see my photos from Yosemite, February 2009.

This is my account of a recent trip to Yosemite National Park to try and photograph the "firefall".  If you're not familiar with this phenomenon, it is a brief period of time (late February) when Horsetail Falls flowing off of El Capitan becomes backlit by the setting sun. Here's an article that describes the phenomenon in detail: www.michaelfrye.com/articles/horsetail.html 

A friend of mine and co-worker, Mike Auer accompanied me. It turns out that Mike is an aspiring film maker and wanted to get some good video shots of famous outdoor icons. In addition Mike is an avid outdoors guy and I've enjoyed many discussions with him about backpacking, hiking, bicycling, etc. 

 

We flew out of Nashville on Thursday, February 19th and were meeting up with my brother, Tom in Sacramento. We flew through Ontario, California and kudos to Southwest for getting us on an earlier flight to Sacramento. When we got to Ontario our original flight had been delayed for a couple of hours. We spent the night at Tom's house and then headed to Yosemite on Friday morning. I was anxious to get to Yosemite as the weather, while sunny on Friday, was forecasted to deteroriate over the week-end meaning the chances of good light at sunset would diminish.

After a quick visit with my sister, Elinor, over morning coffee we headed to Yosemite and made it to the park about 3:30p. We took the quick route to Yosemite via Highways 99 and 120.  Highway 49 is much more scenic but can be quite a bit slower with its numerous 2-lane sections and lots of twists and turns.  We checked into our hotel (the Yosemite View Lodge) which is just south of the park in El Portal. We headed back to the park to scout the prescribed location for photographing the firefall - the El Capitan picnic area off of Northside Drive. To my amazement there were about 40-50 cars parked at the picnic area and at least 75 photographers staked out around the vicinity. 

We found a spot with a decent view and set up, but our hopes were dwindling as late afternoon clouds were blocking the late sunlight. There was a decent amount of water coming over the falls as there had been a major snow storm earlier in the week.  There was about two feet of snow in the valley. We waited out the sunrise, but unfortunately no color, but we enjoyed the party-like atmosphere among the photographers at the picnic area.  We drove to the Awanhee Hotel and celebrated being in Yosemite with a beer and formulated some plans for Saturday. 

We made an earlier night after dinner at the hotel and got up with plans to catch the sunrise at Valley View in the park. I knew this was a busy week-end for photography in the park as I had read of numerous photo workshops and groups being in the park - all probably with the main intention of photographing the firefall. There was a bit of light and color at sunrise and we were joined by 20-30 photographers along the bank of the Merced River trying to capture the view of El Capitan and Cathedral Rocks in the morning light. After the sunrise we headed to the Swinging Bridge area and there were a couple of interesting subjects there. Some small, bare trees covered with frost and ice formations along the river's edge kept me occupied. We joined the late breakfast crowd at Yosemite Lodge for some breakfast and then headed to Yosemite Falls. The upper falls had some nice ice formations on the rock due to the spray freezing on the rock, but it had clouded up again and everything was a shade of gray. I really didn't find much inspiration (photographically) at the falls.

Some other photographers had told us that the rocks and cascading water made for some good subjects along Bridalveil Creek just below the Bridalveil Falls. I did find some interesting shots from one of the stone bridges that crosses the creek on the trail from the falls down to Southside Drive.  The light was very "flat" so I kept imagining my shots in black and white. I tried a lot of long exposure shots trying to capture the moving water in that silky, flowing way.  

We headed back to the El Capitan picnic area with slim hopes of some light at sunset. We had rented snowshoes from REI and we explored a bit in the woods around the picnic area looking for possible better viewing angles of the falls. It was pretty obvious that the heavy clouds were going to block the late afternoon sunlight, but we were hoping for that small sliver of clearing on the horizon to let the last minutes of light shine through. Again, our luck didn't prevail and got even less light than the night before.

It started raining late on Saturday evening and the temperature was too high for it to turn to snow.  We awoke Sunday morning to a constant drizzle of rain. We spent most of the day photographing a lot of gray scenes around Cook's meadow. I wasn't too optimistic about my shots as I had a hard time getting the contrast I wanted in any of my shots. We dined a couple of times in the bar at the Yosemite Lodge and can attest to the fine food and beverages. Most welcome was the roaring open fire that they had going!  We drove up to Tunnel View for "sunset" hoping that there might be some dramatic storm clearing opportunities, but once again the gray prevailed and nothing very dramatic developed.

Monday morning we arose, once again, to rain and we headed to Tunnel View for our last shots before heading back to the Sacramento area. We were hopeful that the weather forecast was correct - they were saying the storm would be clearing out and that it would happen earlier rather than later. Again, we weren't real successful but I was getting in the habit of seeing the gray landscapes in black & white.

We headed out of the valley, back to Sacramento as Mike and I had a late afternoon flight to catch back to Tennessee.  Of course the weather broke as we were driving through the central valley and there were some great puffy clouds with patches of blue sky.  Oh well, there is always next year!

Reelfoot Lake - eagles

Captive bald eagle at Reelfoot Lake visitors center.

Click here to see my photos from Reelfoot Lake, January 2009.

Two photographer friends and I traveled to northwest Tennessee and Reelfoot Lake with hopes of some good opportunities to photograph bald eagles and any other wildlife that might present themselves. Reelfoot Lake is a unique environment - a very shallow lake that was partly formed by earthquakes of 1811-1812. The lake includes a lot of swampy area with vast tracts of farm lands surrounding it. Read more about the geography and history here. The flat terrain and easy access to a good bit of the shoreline would be helpful in spotting and photographing wildlife and lake edge scenic views.

We left Nashville on Friday afternoon (January 23rd) and made the trip in about 5 hours (including a leisurely dinner stop in Dyersburg) via I-40 and Highway 412. We stayed at the Cypress Point Resort, a modest resort that caters to fishermen and hunters.

I had arranged guide services with David Haggard, a long-time Reelfoot park ranger and naturalist, that I had found via web searches looking for Reelfoot eagle viewing. David met us before sunrise Saturday morning and took us to many of the spots around the Lake and along the Mississippi River levee where he had recently seen eagle activity. I felt the day got off to a good start when, as we were photographing sunrise from a pier on the southern shore of the lake, a couple of eagles flew close overhead and hovered in the steady northerly winds. The temperature was in the low 20s with the wind-chill in the single digits. We were prepared, for the most part, with plenty of layers, hats and gloves, and chemical hand warmers.

We spotted 30-40 eagles during the morning, but, unfortunately, none that presented good photographic opportunities. I was photographing with a Nikkor 300mm f4 and a 1.4 teleconverter while my friend, Keith, had rented a Canon 500mm f4 that he used with a 1.4 teleconverter. We did get to witness a pair of eagles land in a nest on the levee, but our view to photograph was pretty obscured with tree branches. We saw a group of 6 or 8 eagles feeding off an animal carcass in a flooded field, but we couldn't get close enough to get more that a small dark object in our viewfinders. We also witnessed a flock of pelicans flying across the lake, but the most impressive site was the thousands of snow geese that landed in small flocks about 150 yards from shore and then took off all at once.

Saturday afternoon our guide let us into the eagle cage that houses two captive eagles at the vistors center. The birds were very tolerent of our efforts and it was impressive to see the birds close up. To have an eagle with a 5 foot wingspan flying towards your head is enough to get your heart racing!

After a short afternoon break we headed back out to try and get some sunset shots in an area off of Walnut Log road. This area has some nice cypress trees in the water that you can frame with the setting sun. The temperature was dropping as darkness started to settle in and we were tired (and cold) from being outside most of the day so we headed to dinner at one of the local recommendations (Boyette's) and then retired to the motel.

Sunday we again got up before the sun in an attempt to capture sunrise. We headed to the Blue Basin area and were treated to 10 minutes of "fire in the sky" just prior to the official sunrise time. It was cloudy (Saturday had been cloudless all day) and there wasn't much color besides grey to everything. We drove back to a few of the places that we had spotted eagles on Saturday, but figured that, since there was much less wind, the birds were high-flying. We only saw a couple of eagles fly overhead at sunrise for all of Sunday. After breakfast we decided with the poor light and forecast of freezing rain moving into the area that we would head back to Nashville.

Reelfoot Lake offers a tremendous amount of photo opportunities and I'm hoping of making a trip back in mid-summer. Our guide had noted that mid-July is a good time to photograph wildflowers, blooming water plants, and ospreys that have taken up residence at the lake.

Here's a few of my shots from our Reelfoot Lake week-end: blackburnimages.com/albummaster.aspx?g=reelfoot2009

Nikon Auto Focus

OK, I'll admit it... I have to know how technology works (to a certain level) when using cameras, computers, etc. I guess my brain is wired for both right and left sides. I feel I have a creative, "artsy" side, but also have a "details" side... Anyway, I figured it was time to really come to grips with the auto focusing capabilities of my Nikon D200s. Rather than spit out any detailed information here I would recommend the following articles:

http://www.nikonians.org/html/resources/nikon_articles/body/d200_multi-cam1000_af/nikon_d200_multi-cam1000_review_2.html
http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/nikon-focus.shtml

I'm also the kind of person that has to read articles such as the above several times (and then again two weeks later when I try to recall something specific), but also need the hands-on experience to reinforce what I'm attempting to learn.

Anyway, my brief recap on auto focus... most cameras (digital SLRs) is that most people (including professional photographers) use 10% of a cameras capabilities. This includes all the auto focus capabilities. Today's cameras (and the D200 is not even latest generation) are very sophisticated "computing" devices. So my best advice is to read and play... read some more and play. For me, I have to keep using something to keep it fresh in my mind so, hopefully, I will be experimenting more with Nikon's auto focus features in the near future.

Europe photo kit - how did it work.

Here's what I took on my recent 13-day tour of Great Britain (England, Scotland, & Wales) with a quick note on what worked and what didn't.

Nikon D200 body (without battery grip) - worked fine and I shot raw the whole time.

Nikon 18-200mm VR lens - not fast, but a great "walk around" lens that covers the gaumut. Used this lens 90% of the time and if lived up to its billing. When I had my camera around my neck this was the lens.

Nikon 12-24mm DX f4 lens - when I need a bit more than the 18mm. Used this a few times, but not enough to justify taking it. The 18-200mm covered what I needed most all the time.

Nikon 50mm f1.4 lens - for inside when I need the "speed" of the f1.4.  Used this one in some places where I couldn't/didn't want to use flash.  I did find myself missing the "zoom" ability though.

Nikon SB400 flash - nothing fancy, but small and light weight.  Exactly what I needed. I'm glad I didn't have the bulk of the SB800.  But it would be nice to have a flash that I could use "off-camera".

2 extra batteries (3 total) - Nikon EN-EL3e with a charger. More than plenty. I never did run out of juice!

Compact Flash cards - two 8 GB cards and one 4 GB card. - Again, more than enough for what I was doing.

3 sets of NiMH AA batteries (12 total) with charger. - Overkill. I never used these as the SB400 flash never drained the akalines I took for it.

All the above carried in a Lowepro Slingshot 200 AW bag. - This worked fine was about the right size, but would be nice to have a bag I could put my laptop into for train rides, etc.

Manfrotto 724B Digi tripod with ball head. - Worked fine, but next time I'd probably replace the ball head with something that had a quick release plate. I like the fact it has a bag with a strap - that was handy.

Laptop - Lenovo x61s with 320 GB 7200 rpm harddrive, Windows Vista Premium, Lightroom 2.0.  It seems to be a great travel laptop, but just wish it had a built in CD drive! Also will boot to Ubuntu (Linux) if I need a quick boot just to access the Internet.  Worked extremely well especially with the extended battery.  LR 2.0 is awesome and I paid to upgrade my other machines as soon as I got home.

16 GB flash drive that will be my backup drive.   This worked fine. All my images fit onto this one drive, but I had a 2 GB one as an extra just in case.

Can't think of anything else I'd take next time except a remote switch for the long exposures used for night and twilight shots.

Google Earth - how they do it!

Read the following article and found it very interesting!

http://www.popphoto.com/popularphotographyfeatures/5511/google-earth-how-they-do-it.html

Yellowstone in Winter - Eagles in Tennessee

I wrote about the PBS Nature episode "Christmas in Yellowstone" last year about this time, but I have reiterate about it now. When I came home from England I had the pleasant surprise that my media center PC had recorded a repeat showing of this show! Again, I am inspired!!! I really, really want to go to Yellowstone for a winter photography trip!

I did a bit more research on the photographer featured in the show, Tom Murphy and suggest you check out his web site: www.tmurphywild.com

In an effort to make myself get out and photograph more, I am scheduling a trip to Reelfoot Lake in northwestern Tennessee in late January in an attempt to photograph bald eagles. I'll report more on that as the time draws near. For now, I just hope the weather cooperates to let us get out and do some photography that week-end.