Exp: 1/500, f/8.0, ISO 200
Gear: Canon 40D, 500mm F4L, 1.4x, cropped to ~6MP

Some days luck just isn’t enough.  I spent the weekend in Florida attempting to watch and photograph the STS-127 Shuttle launch.  It was scrubbed on Saturday just before we boarded the tour bus to Kennedy Space Center due to lightning strikes the previous night and then again about 30min before the second attempt to Launch on Sunday do to thunderstorms encroaching on the 20 mile safety zone.

I was setup on the NASA causeway, which is the closest the general public can view a launch which is about 6-7 miles out.  Because the launch was scrubbed 2 days in a row NASA decided that they would not allow people onto the causeway for the Monday attempt so I called my trip to an end.   Now I’m sitting in my basement watching NASA TV to see if Endeavour would go today.

So it is a case of being there, being ready, and no fireworks.  That’s how it goes, I’ve been pretty lucky in the past because for the most part on every trip, I’ve come back with a good set of shots. I’ll just have to try again.

Exp: 1/250s @ f/5.6, ISO 400
Gear: Canon Rebel XTi, 400F5.6L, Handheld

Today I’m sharing an image with you that won first prize in the waterfowl category in the Wood Duck Photography Contest.  It is a contest held by the Cleveland Metroparks during their annual Wood Duck Festival.  I took this image last year but reprocessed it because the background was a little too hot.  But with the extra touches it doesn’t distract from the main subject.  Hope to see some of you at the festival!

Exp: 1/250 sec @ f/5.6, iso 640
Gear: Canon 40D, 500F4L, Propped up on car window

Here is a shot that was still on my camera from my trip to Yellowstone. This was taken along a dirt road that followed the road out of north entrance but on the opposite side of the river. It was a very rough road I’m glad i was driving a rental car and not my own. The pronghorn are here because it is a lower elevation than the park. This makes it much easier for these smaller animals to ride out the winter. There was a pretty good herd of them, many more than I had seen in the summer time. Pronghorn are known to be the fastest land animal in North America and second only to the cheetah in the world. They are capable of sprinting at 45mph and can sustain these speeds for much longer than a cheetah. For your last part of your science lesson is that although sometimes called pronghorn antelope, they are not part of the antelope family. Pronghorn are the only living species of their family.

Exp: 17mm, 8sec @ f/13, iso 100
Gear: Rebel XTi, 17-40F4L, Circular Polarizer, Tripod

This is a shot from back in October after a short hike back to Blue Hen Falls. The falls were not much more than a trickle but the swirling leaves makes this shot interesting. I used the polarizer for 2 purposes, the first was to knock out some of the reflections in the water and secondly to lengthen the exposure time to get enough movement in the leaves. Click on the image above to get a larger version.

On a side note I haven’t been doing a very good job posting articles so in the next couple weeks I’m going to make an effort to post more. As always if you like something here on the site and would like a print don’t hesitate to drop me a line you can find my contact info on the main site www.williamsebastianphoto.com