So what did I shoot this fall with my camera? A bunch of things. I will start with my trip to Rocky Mountain National Park.There’s a lot of thing to focus on there. From majestic mountain vistas to Elk everywhere. I even got a couple shots of a moose, a rare site in Colorado. Of course the little animals like squirrels, Marmots and Chipmunks that would come right up and sit on your lap looking for a handout. It was great entertainment to say the least.

The elk were in rut and so that made for some great shots of bulls battling for the right and also to protect their harem. I saw some great battles and I’m still wondering how these big bulls can clash like they do and not break off those huge racks they tote around. I saw what is called a Royal. Actually I saw several. They are male Elk that have seven points on one side so that would be a 7×7. This is a very big boy. It was interesting watching how they acted and what they did this time of year in an environment that was so easy to access. In one of the valleys that had a road into it the people would come in the evening when the Elk would leave the tree line and be more accessible to viewing in the open field. They would bring their camp chairs and some sort of beverage and watch the show. I would hear, “ Daddy Daddy, what are they doing? Uh well son, they are mating, Boy, he sure has a big wiener! Bobby, his mom said. Well he does, Bobby said back. Anyway, life behind the camera in the field when there’s an audience.

My next trip was to Monument Valley. This is a must for landscape photographers. I found though that if you are going to go for any length of time that you should do a little research and visit some of the other sites around the general vicinity. There is Natural Bridges National Park. Make sure to plan a day there and bring a good set of hiking boots. Then you have both Goose Neck State Park and Valley Of The Gods that are very close to one another. A nice day trip.

Monument Valley itself can be seen in a general way in one day. If you have a 4×4 I recommend making the scenic route on your own especially if you are there to take photographs. They do have tours but you will play hell trying to get the Indian driving the truck to stop when you see something you want to shoot. In fact, the tour vehicle when going through the valley is more like a amusement park ride with your tour guide trying to get the loop done quickly so he can pick up another load and of course make more wampum. I would highly advise getting a compressed can of air to take along. This is a very dirty place and take care when changing lenses or you will have a lot of work to do in Photoshop removing spots. This is mainly because the Indians drive around so fast on these dirt roads that it kicks up a cloud of dust. Oh, did I mention that this is all on Indian reservation land? So no drinking! Well I won’t tell the chief if you won’t.

So if you make the trip have fun. I hope you enjoy my images that I gathered up on these to trips. They can be found in gallery Brand Spanking New until the first of the year and then they will be distributed to three other galleries, The Mountains, Critters, and The Desert. So until next time take care.

Wigs

I like shooting in the summer. I don’t have to carry extra batteries because it’s so cold that it sucks the life right out of them. I like the summer because there’s color and not the drab black and white look of the winter. I like the summer because of all the variety there is to take photographs of.
From macro to big vistas to numerous sporting events, there’s always something to point the lens at.

I purchased a long lens last winter, Canon 600mm f4, and had a great time with it last spring shooting birds of prey. Most of these birds seem to go elsewhere around this time and now it’s more of a challenge finding things to shoot with it. I’m sure if I just had that lens and a camera body I would find things to shoot. But one of my real joys is pulling out the MP65-E macro and going out and capturing images of bees and other insects. This lens has quite the learning curve, but with some time behind it and practice the results are quite amazing. This lens does one thing; takes close up images and will not even focus farther than a few inches. Its tedious work and you could spend the better part of an afternoon shooting one hundred frames and get a half dozen usable images. But it’s all worth it to me and I really like the results.

Humming birds are another challenge that is fun to shoot. They just won’t hold still long enough to get the shot! Well I do get some but it is still really hard. I have a feeder right outside the back door and they swarm it when I’m not out there with my camera. Different store when I’m standing there though. They get a bit nervous and move in and out very quickly. I like to use a flash to stop the action and they are not real big fans of that thing. they are just one more thing I can point the camera at and it gives me another challenge to achieve.

So that’s my summer so far and it’s been fun. It won’t be long before we go into the fall color mode again and hopefully some travel time to other shooting locations. My fall post will follow this and my adventures in photography to other places this fall. So take care and happy shooting.
Wigs

It’s been a long cold winter but things are finally starting to thaw out. It won’t be long before I can start getting out and shooting on a more regular bases. I am still working on captures that I shot last fall in the desert and inserting them into my Grand Spanking New gallery when I can, so please visit this gallery to see some of my latest achievements.

I have added a couple more tools to my equipment this winter. I have a new Canon 7D that I’m excited about. I am also very excited about the purchase of a Canon 600mm L f4 with all the bells and whistles. My plan is to work on more wild life and a new gallery called Birds. I can’t wait to get started on this new adventure and as soon as it gets warmer and the birds come flying back to the mountains I will dive in.

So that’s about it for now. I still have about another month of the winter scene so it’s time to get the 5D Mark II cleaned and ready for the warmer months. I hope you all like some of my new photos and please feel free to comment. Also all my captures are for sale and if you see something you really like please contact me by e-mail to discuss pricing.

Thanks for the visit, Wigs

But back to the fall season for a bit. I must say I had some really good exposure to some of the best desert landscape in the world this fall. I’m talking about the desert in and around Moab. I would recommend taking a jeep or renting one so that you can get back into some really beautiful country. Oh by the way, if you stop out there in the middle of nowhere and have lunch and happen to have a beer, just leave the empty cans out there in all that beauty. Of coarse there’s no trash cans within miles but if you put them back in your vehicle and a ranger rides by on his mountain bike and pulls over for a chat and see them, busted! He will write you up for open container and there’s no way of talking out of the $125.00 ticket. Not very good public relations I would say. Of course I don’t really mean leave them out in the desert, just hide them in the car if you see a ranger. This happened to my friend and I on our last trip.

I like going to Moab in the fall because it’s not too steamy and the sunsets start to come a little earlier. There aren’t as many people around in the late fall and the price to stay somewhere is less expensive.

If you are interested in shooting one of the most famous shots in the world, Mesa Arch, you better get there early. This is a morning sunrise shot and my friend and I thought we would be the first ones there, NOT! It was barely light when we arrived and there were ten cars in the parking lot already. It’s a short hike over the hill to the arch but when we got there it was like a photography club meeting and there was little room to set up the tripod. Elbow to elbow was the view I had. I got lucky and a fellow offered to let me in. I really needed to be to the left, but the guy in that place was seven feet tall and 300lb. He wasn’t smiling either. I told him his mama was calling and I got a look that wasn’t one of happiness, so I just waited until he left.

This is a spectacular shot. When the sun comes up it causes the underneath side of the arch to glow almost a cherry red. The background is way down on the desert floor with sandstone and red rock walls with towers spreading out as far as you can see. One of the best captures of all time I think.

Arches National Park is just full of beautiful scenery. I highly recommend a couple of days in there and that will give you a general idea of what and where to shoot. But to really get those WOW shots you need to spend a week in there. You need to pull over at all the pullouts and get out to take a look. I can guarantee you that there’s a picture at every one of them.

Dead Horse Point is another place to visit while there. The view from the end of the butte you will not forget. The story about how it got its name I will leave to you to find out when you visit.

Well I could go on and on about this magical place and if you have never been there and you like taking pictures you gotta go. If you have any questions about this area just Google it and there’s a wealth of information available.

So until next time, keep your eyes peeled for that one in a lifetime shot.

Take care, Wigs

The whole event starts with the scrub brush which starts its change about ten days before the Aspen trees start their change. If we’re lucky, like we were this fall, they will keep their color when the trees come in. This has a lot to do with how much moisture we had this summer and how much we are presently get now. If there’s moisture, then we may see the whole place looking like it’s on fire at the same time and that’s the best of all worlds for me and other photographers that flock to the mountains to record the event. Also remember, the higher up you are the earlier the leaves start to turn to their fall colors.

Each fall when I’m out on these shoots I always come away with a little more knowledge about how to expose these images better. I’ve played with all parts of the photo and where to take meter readings and although each shot has its best exposure, I’ve found that for the tree to look as natural as they were when the image was shot, I meter the trees themselves as the average and work with the other colors in post processing. Of course taking multiple shots never hurts either.

I also really like the back-lit shots of the trees. It’s almost like an explosion going off when the sunlight filters through the trees. A good average meter reading works well for this type of shot. When there’s a breeze it’s just an amazing sight. The leaves when fluttering in the breeze send out a sparkling of light like little lights going on and off. Of course in a still image this is hard to show, but if you have your video camera with you I would get some footage of this event.

The best time to be in the Rocky Mountains for this most beautiful event is the last two weeks of September. I find that the last week of that month to be prime. If you make plans to visit the Rockies during that time you won’t be disappointed. Just remember that when you are driving, not to hold up traffic and be safe when viewing. If you see something you really like, pull over and get off the road. It’s really hard to get a really good shot when you’re moving down the road.

Well I hope this writing will help you plan a shooting trip to the mountains for the fall color changes. If you have any questions, feel free to drop me a note and I will try to answer your questions. Take care and have a great photo experience wherever it may be.

Well August was a busy month for me and most was spent on my other job, teaching folks how to fly fish. I did dive into macro photography in a big way this summer and I’m enjoying it very much. You might have noticed that I added a new gallery, It’s A Small World, and it has some of my new macro shots of bees, bugs and little things in it. This is a real learning curve and the more I play around with it the better the results. One of my macro lenses is the Canon MP-E 65mm. This is a dedicated macro lens that has a range of 1-1 through 5-1. You will need plenty of patience when playing around with this one. The Depth Of Field, (DOF) is very shallow and getting a sharp shot can be a tedious endeavor. To get good results I have found that a ring light (flash) really helps. I use the Canon MR-14EX and it helps stop the action which is a must if you want a tack sharp image. Also with this lens one must get really close to the bug to get in focus. Using a small aperture no bigger than f11 is recommended I have found. I shoot in manual mode and the settings are 200/sec @ f11 if your camera will allow this. With the bees, I’ve found that if you hang around where they are for awhile, they will get use to you and you can literally stick the lens in their face and they won’t get ugly. I haven’t been stung to date, but I’m sure it will happen one of these days.

There are other macro lenses out there and the price tag can be less than the MP-E 65 which is quite pricey. If you think that you would like to get into this really interesting aspect of photography I recommend that you look into acquiring one of these specialty lenses. Also think about getting a book on the subject or visit the web for information. There is plenty of it out there to be had and with a little study you will be happy with your results from the get-go.

Well that’s it for August. I do my best to post new pictures in Brand Spanking New gallery as much as time allows. So thanks for visiting my photography web-page. I hope you like my work and feel free to comment.Please come back sometime in the future and have a great day.

Wigs

I’m just back from my trip to California and I have some new stuff posted on my web photo gallery. I took my time going out so I could capture some moments along the way. My trip took me through some beautiful country in Utah, Nevada and California. I really didn’t have much time to shoot because I was on a schedule, but as I said, I took a few days going out to stop and get a shot or two in those very unique places. I took the camera out just over the boarder between Colorado and Utah as the sun was coming over the horizon and captured a great sunrise shot looking east. As I continued towards my first designated photo stop in Capital Reef National Park, I had several pullovers and setups for what I think were very good photo opportunities.

I finally made Capital Reef and the plan was to hike to Hickman Bridge, a very beautiful arch in the park. When I got out of the truck to start getting ready for the hike, I was attacked by little bugs that I was familiar with from a trip the previous spring to Rabbit Valley Colorado. These little Gnat like bugs bite and can swarm you in seconds. If you are in this area in the spring and find yourself swarmed by these little devils, don’t take them lightly. Their bite can last for weeks; they itch a lot and cause nasty sores where you were bit. At least they do on me. Bug spray helps, but I still was getting bit. So the hike was out of the question and I will have to do the Hickman Bridge shot when I have proper protection.

The trip continued to route 12 that takes you through Boulder Utah. This is a very scenic drive and I highly recommend it. Boulder is a small town in a very beautiful place. It reminds me of the Flintstone and where they lived. There really isn’t much there in the way of places to stay, eat or visit but it is surrounded by beautiful landscape.

As you continue on Route 12 you will find yourself on the Grand Staircase in Escalante National Monument. This road is very unique in that it travels along a ridge where it drops off on both sides into canyons with little streams and vegetation. There are campgrounds in the canyons and the whole area is very beautiful. One could spend days in this area hiking and shooting photos but be prepared because it is a very rugged area.

After leaving the Escalante area the next stop was Bryce National Park. Here is another place to spend days hiking and shooting but I was running late and was limited to the time I was able to spend there. I will make the trip again and put the time in there in the future. I did get some opportunities for late afternoon early evening shots in a place just outside of Bryce to the west in a place called Red Canyon. I was staying in Panguitch Utah for the night which is very close to these parks and a bit cheaper than staying in the motels around the park entrance. I needed to secure a place to stay before it got too late, so I went in to Panguitch and got a place and then jumped back in the truck and headed back to Red Canyon for the magic hour before sunset. I found some really nice shots and spent my time until the light was gone shooting the red bluffs that were all around me.

After spending the night in Panguitch I headed out for my second day on the road with my final destination being Las Vegas. The plan was to go through Zion National Park but when I got to the East gateway into the park I found that there was road work being done and I couldn’t get through during the day. So I continued on down Route 89 to a turnoff that takes you through Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park. If you are headed on through to Saint George you can make the connection this way. There is a bit of a dirt road just over the boarder into Arizona, but it is a well maintained road. The drive is very interesting also. There are many places to pull over and capture the beauty of the area with your camera. It’s very peaceful and quiet because the route isn’t driven much that I could tell. This was a very nice alternative to not being able to go through Zion.

After coming out on Route 389 I headed west towards Saint George and then on to Vegas. While on the way to Las Vegas on I-15 you will pass through the Virgin River Gorge. I didn’t stop on this trip, but I have on trips this way before. The geology in this area is quite unique and offers many photo opps. The magic hours would be the best time to shoot this area during the warm light and long shadow times.

Just off interstate 15 in Nevada about half way between the boarder and Las Vegas there is a place called Valley Of Fire. It is a state park and I highly recommend the detour which is about an extra hour’s driver. It loops back to I-15 and takes you through some very beautiful desert scenery and unique geology. The one problem I was encountering was that it was very hot, about 110F, and moving my camera in and out of an air conditioned truck was causing condensation to develop on my lenses. What I finally did was to wrap the camera in a towel for protection and put it in the back of the truck bed which worked great. It was just too hot standing out waiting for the lens to become un-fogged. Again, there are great opportunities in this park for photography and I highly recommend the detour.

The rest of the trip was spent doing what I went to California in the first place to do. I did have time to shoot some, but my time was spent mostly taking care of business. So that was my trip to California in the spring of 2010. I hope that some of my suggestions that I made in this writing will help you if you are fortunate enough to make the same trip through this magnificent country. Some of the photos that I took on this trip can be viewed now in the “Brand Spankin’ New” gallery on this web page. I will be adding more as they come available and they will remain there through July. Thanks for looking and I hope you will mark my page on you favorites list on your browser.

Take care and happy shooting! Wigs

If you have never been there and you are planning a trip to Yellowstone, give yourself a lot of time for photos. And even if you did, you will find that you didn’t plan for enough. We were there for about five days and the both of us had our own subject matter in mind. Giaco was really interested in shooting wildlife shots while my goals were more along the lines of scenery shots, so being ready for one or the other was difficult some times. One thing I learned is that when you have one camera body and your subject matter can change in a heartbeat, there are a few things you can prepare for ahead of time. Being ready to shoot wildlife when riding around in the car was number one. If I saw a great scenery shot, well it wasn’t going to run away. Also having ball-head quick release plates in place is a must. One on the camera body and one on the telephoto ring mount so you don’t waste time unscrewing and screwing the plate on lenses and camera bodies. I found that only having one might cause me to miss a shot. Of course my friend Giaco had two bodies and was on those shots while I was still trying to get set up. Sometimes he would be walking back to the car while I was just walking out to get some shots of the bear, duck, bison, eagle, etc and he would say, “where are you going, it’s gone already”. NICE!

So if you don’t have two bodies, think about what setup will work the best for what you are doing and what will give you the best results before the shot is starring you in the face, hopefully not a Grizzly Bear . I think it’s another body for me.

Unless I want to jump in the truck and drive to where it’s starting to get green, it’s still pretty B/W around here. There’s still a lot of snow on the mountain and mud season is in full swing. The bugs, flowers, birds and things I like to point my camera at will soon be out my back door and the sooner the better. I got a lot of new toys over the winter that I’m just dieing to play with. One of the new things I got is a Canon 65mm MP-E f2.8 Macro. This lens will be a challenge, but I’m up for it. I’ve done a lot of research on the use and technical application of this unique lens. There is a lot of very good information about how to use this lens and get good results on a web page that I came across. The address is http://nocroppingzone.blogspot.com. This page is John Kimbler’s page and it’s just chalk full of amazing photos of little creatures and especially Bees. I can see that this project will be quite the learning curve and I will try and keep you updated when I have some time behind this lens.

The other toys in a nutshell are accessories like the Canon EF 1.4X II Extender, Extension tubes (I got all three), Canon MR-14EX Ring Light, Adorama Focusing Rack, GND Paine filters and filter holder, Canon EF 15mm 2.8 Fisheye (very cool), OSN carbon fiber tripod with a Giotto Ball Head. This all goes along with my camera and lenses. I prefer the Canon 5D Mark II and I have an assortment of L lenses for it.

Well this is my first post on my page and more of an experiment in the land of post make on web pages. I will try and keep it update with my adventures and new tricks I have discovered on my travels. I am leaving for Yellowstone in a week or so with my friend Gerd to photograph wildlife and scenery. I’m hoping that it’s spring up there. After that will probably be my next post. I hope you enjoy my page and galleries and please comment if you would like.

Thanks Wigs.