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!

Exp: 1/640s @ f/5.6, ISO 200
Gear: Canon 40D, 300F2.8L

Sitting here watching it snow made me think about being in sunny and warm Alaska last July.  This shot was taken on the bear viewing trip that I went on.  We were on location in the middle of a partly sunny day so the lighting for furry critters was less than desirable.  Alas, I was there with the bears so not much else to do other than make photographs.  I did get a lot of shots I’m very happy with.  For this one I used Lightroom’s adjustment brush to bring the bear’s face out of the shadows and darken down the grass in the background.  Without these adjustments the image was very flat and the bears face was lost.  Hope you enjoy this shot, it was a blast making it.

(click the image above for the wallpaper size image)

Exp: 1/640s @ f/5.6, ISO 200
Gear: Canon 40D, 400F5.6L

The other day I was putting a photo book together of the images that were shot on my trip to Alaska this year.  While I was doing this I also was looking at a collection of images for a book for my Yellowstone trip in 2007.  The thing that was really struck me is the difference in the impact and composition of the images between the 2 trips.  This was a really nice surprise.

I have a couple things that I want to try in my photography in the coming year.  So stay tuned to the blog as the blog is one thing that I want to be more active.  I think if I make more posts that I’ll also shoot more (other goal).  I started this blog in Jan 2008 and only posted 32 times.  My goal for 2009 is to make 52 posts.

Well I’m looking forward to 2009 and all the photography that it will bring.  Happy New Year!

Exp: 1/640 sec @ f/5.6, ISO 400
Gear: Canon 40D, 400F5.6L

Winter has definitely arrived here in NE Ohio.  But I thought I’d post a shot I took back in October.  It was taken the day of the annual wood duck festival. There were quite a few other photographers there that day and luckily the ducks didn’t disappoint.  I was able catch this guy shaking the water off his wings.  I used LR2 to bring the water down about 1/3 of a stop this makes the duck stand out more and makes color in the water look more saturated.  Click the image above for a desktop sized image.

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: 1/1000sec @ f/7.1 ISO 400
Gear: 40D, 400F5.6L, Handheld

It’s been a few great days here in Alaska.  Thursday I went bear viewing, had an amazing time and today’s whale watching tour was worth every penny.  On our way back in from the point we came across a female and a calf that put on quite a show.  The calf is pictured breaching above.  I’ve updated the Gallery with the images from the bear viewing and the whale watching.

Widescreen wallpaper of the whale

Here is one of my favorite bear shots:

Exp: 1/1000sec @ f/5.6, ISO 200
Gear: 40D, 70-200F4L @ 200mm

Exp: 1/400 sec @ f/8.0, ISO 500
Gear: Canon 40D, 400F4L

So, have you ever wondered what happened to your beloved goldfish when you set him free to live out his years in the beautiful pond in the metroparks?… This scene was quite comical and drew a crowd because the heron was not about to give up this trophy and I don’t blame him.  That is probably the biggest goldfish I have ever seen.  It had to have been 10in long.  The poor great blue heron tried for 20 minutes and at one point dropped the fish before it finally managed to finish off it’s meal.  A great blue heron are normally around 4ft tall and can have a wingspan of 5 1/2 ft.  Most of the time I see the herons catch very small 1-2 inch long fish out of this pond and never goldfish.  Needless to say I’m never bored photographing at the North Chagrin Reservation.  Click the image above for a larger version.

Exp: 1/500sec @ f/5.6, ISO 400
Gear: Canon 40D, 400F5.6L, Handheld

I finally got around to processing the rest of the images I shot at the zoo back in the beginning of the month. I came across another lion shot that I thought came out pretty good. I’m always surprised when I’m lazy and don’t process images right after they were shot, I tend to find images that I might have overlooked. The above image got overlooked because it was a part of a large series of images I shot of this lion. I think I’m going to make it a new work process to wait a little bit to process a whole set of images. It tends to make me much more willing to delete images that just don’t meet my own standards or have a composition that works.

The most interesting things that I’ve learned about photography in the past few months are the creative aspects. In the past I’ve been too focused on getting the shot, “is my exposure set right?”…”is my shutter speed fast enough to stop my motion/the subject’s motion?” I’ve started to slow down and be more methodical about how I shoot. I believe this is a side affect of the fact that I’ve started shooting in manual mode. This requires me to set the aperture/shutter/iso. So once my exposure is set the only thing left to do is take the image. I now do much more composing and seeing new images that I wouldn’t have before. Hopefully this will lead to a more creative set of images in the future…

Click the link below for a wallpaper sized image.

Widescreen

Exp: 1/200 sec @ f/4.0, iso 640, 113mm
Gear: Canon 40D, 70-200F4L

Here is a quick post from last Friday at the zoo.  The only really interesting thing about how this shot was taken is that persistence was used.  We visited the koala exhibit and couldn’t see the joey but decided to stop by on our way out and were rewarded for our trouble.

Exp: 1/400 @ f/5.6, ISO 400, 400F5.6L, converted to B&W in Lightroom

Today I had a productive day at the zoo.  I got some pretty good shots.  It was overcast so that made me do a lot of shooting at higher ISOs.   The cooler weather made for some very cooperative subjects.  I was fumbling a bit with the camera today. So I definitely need to get out and shoot more.  Photography, like everything else, you need to keep practicing to stay on your game.

Widescreen