Exp: 1/20 sec @ f/4.0, ISO 100
Gear: Olympus E-P1, Leica 90mm Tele-Elmarit-M, Tripod

Spring is slowly coming to NE Ohio so I’ve been refreshing the look of the website.  I’m replacing the galleries with iPhone friendly controls.   Keep an eye on the blog.  I have something pretty cool coming up soon.

Exp: 1/320s @ f/10, ISO 200
Gear: Canon 40D, 400F4L DO, handheld

Well 2009 was pretty eventful I visited 2 more national parks, Grand Canyon and Yosemite.  Three of my images were published in David Busch’s Digital Photography Bucket List: 100 Great Digital Photos You Must Take Before You Die.  You should check it out.

Along those sames lines I was able to go out and shoot the Reno Air Races.  This was a trip on my own bucket list.  The image above was taken out on the pylons.  Shooting the racers is very challenging. The planes are moving fast but a slow shutter speed is required to not have stopped props.  So good panning technique is necessary for sharp images.  For this image I dusted off Silver Efex Pro applying a red filter to give drama to the sky.  Click the image above for a desktop size image.

Exp: 1/2s @ f/8, ISO 200
Gear: Canon 40D, 17-55F2.8 EF-S @38mm, tripod, remote release

I took a day and stopped in Yosemite National Park on a recent business trip.  Only having a day decided I’d make the most of my time. I started along the upper part of the park making my way down to the valley for lunch. After a short hike I drove up to glacier point for sunset. This shot is the last one I made long after the sun had set. Everyone was heading back to their car but I was still shooting. A couple stopped me and ask what I was doing and after showing them the back of the camera they said. We didn’t even notice the beautiful colors. One thing photography has taught me is to slow down and notice things that are happening.  Especially to be sensitive to the light.

Exp: 1/50s @ f/5.6, ISO250
Gear: Olympus E-P1, Leica 50mm f/2.0

A lot of people write about “zooming with your feet” and tell you to go out an buy prime lenses.  Instead of doing this I thought I’d explain my experience using prime lenses.  The major advantage I get with using prime lenses is visualization.  I know that at a certain distance from a subject it is a certain size.  From experience I know how the frame will drop around that subject when I bring the viewfinder up to my eye.  This makes for a much more fluid process of making images.  There isn’t any fiddling around with the zoom ring to try to include or exclude portions of the image to frame it like you saw it.  So when I see the image its very easy to adjust the exposure and capture the frame.  I didn’t have to look around the viewfinder to look for things sneaking in on an edge or for some funny merger ruining the image.  I’ve captured what I saw and can bring that back the viewer.

My other thought is that it feels much more natural to shoot with a prime lens.  Which makes sense because our eyes are fixed focal length.  As we move around the world we change our perspective on an object.  Shouldn’t we do the same when we are photographing?

Here’s a little activity just to see how you’re really using your zoom lenses.  Go through your images and see what focal lengths you are actually using.  This may surpise you, it was a surpise to me.  Even though I have an infinite number of choices along the zoom range of a lens most of my shots were taken at either the widest setting or the most telephoto setting.  How is this for you?

Exp: 1/80s @ f/2.0, ISO 100
Gear: Olympus E-P1, Leica 50mm f2

We’ve had some relief from the rain here in Cleveland for a few days so I’ve been able to get out and enjoy the nice fall color we’ve had this year.  As it happens many times this shot was taken after my primary subject, tinkers creek gorge, wasn’t all that spectacular.  So I turned around and started walking down along the road.  It wasn’t long until a came across this bundle of leaves sticking out away from everything else.  I knew this would make a great subject for the short depth of field of this lens.  I’m quite happy with how this lens renders the transition and bokeh.  Because this lens is mounted to the E-P1 using a mechanical adapter it operates completely manual.  You might think this is a downside I find having manual control over the aperture and the focus makes using the E-P1 a very different but rewarding experience.   Since I have independent dials for focus, aperture, and shutter (wheel on back of camera) I can make changes by touch.   This kind of control allows the camera to melt away and I can concentrate on making images.

Exp: 1/25s, f/8.0, ISO 200
Gear: Canon 40D, 17-55F2.8 @ 21mm

There are only a few things that can top a chance to spend a morning with a great sky photographing airplanes.  Clad in my bright yellow ramp vest to avoid getting run over by fuel trucks I got up close and personal with this F-15.  I photographed it with a wide angle lens to take in as much of the sky as possible and I got low and up close to the plane so that it was large in the frame and so the wings didn’t hide the peaks in the distance.  Even at 1/25th of a second I got a nice sharp image because of the image stabilized lens.

Exp: 1/200, f/10, ISO 200
Gear: Canon 40D, 70-200F4L IS @ 200mm

Over the last couple days I was able to go out to the National Championship Air Races in Reno, NV.  It was a great experience.  If you’re an aviation buff like I am and you haven’t been out to Reno make sure you get it on your list of things to do next year.  The aircraft on display and that race are like nothing you’ve probably seen before.  Between the corsair, bearcats and clip wing mustangs there’s something for everyone.  Since this was my first trip to Reno I was welcomed by the seasoned photographers many more than happy to share tips for the best places to stand.  I’m definitely never going to forget standing out on the pylon having 7 AT-6′s racing straight at me … yeah I got the picture.

Check the blog next week I should have a link to an album of the shots I took, right now I have about 3000 more images to go through.

Exp: 1/125 sec, f/8.0, ISO 100
Gear: Olympus E-P1, 14-42mm @ 19mm

Well I’m back relaxing in the hotel after a 3 day kayaking trip on the lakes around Saranac Lake, NY.  Since we were kayaking I wanted to keep my photography equipment to a minimum, at least that what I’m telling myself, it was just an excuse to put the E-P1 through it’s paces.  So I threw the E-P1 in a medium sized SealLine Padded Storm Sack dry bag that I picked up at the outfitter and start paddling.

The E-P1 takes some getting use to after using a DSLR.  I probably need both hands to count the number of times I tried to put it up to my eye to find there wasn’t a viewfinder.  Do I miss the viewfinder? Not really the live histogram more than makes up for it.  It really allows me to nail the exposure.  I was going through the images in Lightroom and I’m expecting my normal test shots for a given subject as I’m dialing in the exposure and I find only one perfectly exposed image in it’s place.

The above image is no exception I had the camera set to manual mode and framed it how I wanted and just dialed the shutter speed up until the bright part of the clouds just kissed the red highlight section of the histogram.

All and all it was a great trip I got some good shots but also missed some shots. Mostly due to a combination of shooting from a bobbing kayak and learning how to use a new camera.  The E-P1 is a winner in my book, it has good image quality, handling, and features in compact package.  I’m pretty sure it will become my camera of choice on future kayak/backpack/or other assorted outdoor adventures.

Exp: 1/25s, f/4.0, ISO 1600
Gear: Canon 40D, 500mm F4L

Thanks to my friends Amie and Todd, I was able to make this image last night over near their house.  This is a pair of juvenile  barred owls that were actively begging their parent for food.  This made them much easier to locate but they were still very hard to find in the dense trees.  I lucked out and was able to make this image.  Pushing the camera equipment and my skills to the limit.  If you noticed in the exposure stats I was using a very, very slow shutter speed for such a long lens.  Most of the time you don’t want to be shooting any slower than 1/500 sec.  I also had to use noise ninja to clean up the image since it was shot at ISO 1600 and cleaned up a branch that was distracting.

It feels good to be back out shooting again.  Unfortunately I have to send the 500mm back to Lensprotogo Thursday it’s a nice piece of equipment.  Thanks again Amie and Todd for the help finding the owls and the great stir fry!

South rim of the Grand Canyon

Gear: Canon 40D, 17-40F4L @ 21mm
Exp: 1/800s @ F/8.0, ISO 200, CPL

On a recent road trip across the country I had a chance to stop at the Grand Canyon for the first time. I didn’t have too much time there but the above shot was my favorite shot of the set. Unfortunately the time of day wasn’t the best for shooting so I had to do some work to add contrast and definition to the far side of the canyon and compensate in the sky for the dynamic range. The person standing on the ledge in the left of the image give perspective and scale, you may need to click the image for a larger version to see them.