Silver Creek Pano

It keeps snowing here!  Lots of small pulses and lots of grey skies.  An inch or two yesterday.  An inch last night.  2 to 3 inches forecast for today and snowing and socked in at the moment.  I have been out and about trying to get better at panos.  The pano below was taken and put together yesterday.  It is immediately upstream of the HWY 20 bridge.  It is comprised of 12 images each of which was taken at 24mm.  I used 24 mm to see what kind of distortion (bending) I would get.  I use Photoshop CS5's photomerge tool to put the pano together.  The file size is 141 mb and 27.6 megapixels.  The best advice I have been given so far is to shoot vertically (portrait rather than landscape) so as not to make the pano too long and narrow.

 

Also, to check out the Nature Conservancy's blog for Silver Creek go to:  http://idahonaturenotes.blogspot.com/

One of my images was used there and mentions the fact I got stuck in a snow drift...  It won't be long before the hill above the Nature Conservancy closes to car traffic.  It's a little dicey at the moment.

"It is better to travel hopefully than to arrive."--Robert Stone, Outerbridge Reach

 

Last Day Of the Season In The Nature Conservancy

Today was the last day of the season for fishing on the Nature Conservancy Section of Silver Creek.  I spent the morning through the early afternoon down there.  It started out around 9 degrees and crept up to around 20 when I left.  I saw two midges in the snow on the bank.  That's right, two midges.  Had I stayed a little longer perhaps I would have seen 6 more...  In any event, it was a wonderful way to spend the final day of the season there.  And yes, a few nice fish were caught to top it off.  While the fishing may be closed through the winter in the Preserve, it is certainly worth heading down with skis or snow shoes and tromping around.  Plenty of birds, elk, etc...  We are pretty fortunate to have access to such a marvelous place.  Thanks go out to The Nature Conservancy!

Also, I am now profiled on the MidCurrent Web site within the fly fishing photography section.  Check it out, it's a great site:  http://www.midcurrent.com/flyfishingimages/photographers.aspx

 Panorama of the oxbow within the Nature Conservancy

 

 

 

 

 

Moving Water And Ted Talks

Have you checked out Ted Talks (http://www.ted.com/talks)?  It is quite a remarkable site with intriguing, inspiring, creative, funny, contentious, informative talks on many, many different topics.  I often find myself clicking on the option, most inspiring.  I have been thinking about and talking about the John Wooden clip for some time.  So, here are just two to start with including John Wooden touching on true success: 

http://www.ted.com/talks/john_wooden_on_the_difference_between_winning_and_success.html

http://www.ted.com/talks/steve_jobs_how_to_live_before_you_die.html

 

And on a photography note, here is an image of moving water:

 

 

Spring Creek Ice

Here's an image of ice forming on Stalker Creek. The rich colors in the water are quite a contrast to the shelf ice and the blanket of winter-white snow on the ground.  Stalker Creek along with Grove Creek forms Silver Creek.  Generally the closer to the source of the spring the more constant the year round temps are and it is not very often that Silver Creek in the Nature Conservancy section gets ice all the way across the surface.  The ice on Stalker Creek where I took the image below had only crept out 10 or so inches at the most.  We received about 7" more inches of snow today and it has, as I write this, cleared up and the temps have dropped.

 

Sledding

Here are a few more fun shots.  Sledding in the front yard.  If you are thinking of fishing Silver Creek, we have through Tuesday to do it as the Nature Conservancy section closes on December 1st.  Silver Creek does stay open through Feb. below the HWY 20 bridge (think Willows and Point of Rocks) and all year below HWY 93.  From what I have observed lately the browns have finished their spawning business and have moved on.  I have not seen anything in the way of bugs/hatches outside of blowing snow...

 

 

The Nature Conservancy cabin taken on 11.26.10.  It's a 4 frame HDR (High Dynamic Range) image. 

Cappuccino

One of my favorite things to drink.  A cappuccino...  Here are a few images from Italy taken a few years back.  A bar and a cappuccino from that bar.  Cortona, Italy.

Happy Thanksgiving!

 

Spindrift

Just about a foot of new in Hailey by this morning.  Some showers through the day and by now, early evenning, the mercury is dropping fast.  High tomorrow is expected to be around 7.  Sun Valley will be open for skiing on Thanksgiving.  In any event, here are two images from late this afternoon as the wind was picking up and the sun dropping.   Spindrift on top of Della in Hailey.

I converted both of these images into black and white using Nik's Silver Efex Pro which is now available in 64-bit mode.  I really cannot say I notice any speed difference using Aperture 3 between 32-bit mode and 64-bit mode.  I toggle between the two due to a few plug-ins I use which are only 32-bit compatible.  I upgraded from Aperture 2 to Aperture 3 about a month or so ago and have found the upgrade ($99) to be far better for many reasons.  A couple of factors are:  Aperture 3 does basic video and you can incorporate that into pretty cool slideshows all within Aperture 3.  The brushes are another great addition.  The list goes on...

 

 

Fun Shots and New Snow

Here are a few fun shots.  A little new snow with more on its way.  As I write this--10 PM Monday night--it's starting to snow quite hard.  By Wednesday the high is supposed to be 7.  "If you want to explore, don't start with a plan." -- Jay Maisel

 

"HDR" Light

I am not talking about light for making HDR images (High Dynamic Range), I am talking about light that is loaded with information.  Socked in light.  Grey and low and generally kinda blah weather.  Could be raining or misting or snowing or about to be any of those.  The shadows are almost gone and the highlights are far less intense.  The image of the aspens below is essentially straight out of the camera.  It's a RAW image and I just adjusted the levels and that's it...  Not a phenomenal image, but hopefully it shows what shadowless and highlightless (can't be a word but I'll use it anyway) light can do...

We are getting snow here.  1" to 3" today.  1" to 2" tonight.  4" to 10" Monday.  3" to 5" Tuesday.    We'll see...

Fox Creek bridge on the Big Wood River.

Visual Push Ups

Strengthening your shooting ability is getting out and shooting every day.  That's what I am doing.  More often than not, though, I am left dissatisfied or frustrated for any number of reasons both tangible and intangible.  A great New York photographer, Jay Maisel, refers to getting out daily as, "visual push ups."  He says with a smirk, "You are still going to be frustrated, but frustrated on another level." 

 

Travertine wall.  Mammoth Hot Springs.

Warm meets cold.  Mammoth Hot Springs.

Silver Creek Pano

Here's a pano of Silver Creek I took and generated yesterday.  I use Adobe Photoshop CS5's photomerge tool.  Stitching together 76 RAW images took a minimum of 2 hours on my computer.  I just left it working and did other things.  After stitching the images together the single file is now 173 mb and 59.8 megapixels.  I used my 50 mm prime lens, shot at f8 and used auto exposure lock and auto focus lock(AE-L & AF-L). 

 

Yellowstone In November

OK, here are more images from my recent trip over to Yellowstone.  While I do a limited number of guided fly fishing trips over there in the summer and fall, it's pretty amazing to see the park from a non-fishing perspective when very few visitors are there and when the landscape is morphing to winter.  While only one road remains open to car traffic through the winter--Gardiner to Silver Gate--there's still plenty of terrain to get to by foot or by skiing as the winter snowpack accumulates.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Boiling River, Yellowstone

Here's an image from the mouth of the Boiling River at the Gardiner River.  It's really an incredible spot.  About a 1/2 mile walk each way on a well used path along the Gardiner River.  My kids could have stayed in it for hours and hours.

On a fishing note, as a result of the hot water dumping into the Gardiner River, many trout seek out these warmer temps during the winter.  Large browns also migrate up and out of the Yellowstone River to spwan here into December.  I did see one large spawning redd.

 

These rams are now grouping together and starting their annual rut.  They'll be fighting for superiority through January.

Lots of open space between Sun Valley, Idaho and Yellowstone:

A small patch of grass thrives in the travertine terraces of Mammoth Hot Springs:

 Mammoth Hot Springs:

A Bald Eagle looking for prey above the Gardiner River:

iPhone's Tilt Shift Generator

I have yet to upload any images from my recent trip to Chico Hot Springs and Yellowstone but I have a few images taken with the iPhone and edited with the Tilt Shift Generator application.  This app has quickly become my favorite photo app for the iPhone. In addition to digitally "shifting" an image, you can change: saturation, brightness, contrast and vignetting.  All in all, it's a great app.  More to come after I upload pics from my camera...

 NE entrance to Yellowstone at Gardiner:

 

 

 

 

 

    4 Winds Saloon.  Butte City, Idaho:

 

 

Coffee Cup

Here's an image taken with the iPhone of a 12 oz. coffee cup and natural light through a window.  Carrying the iPhone around is quite different than carrying a DSLR around as the iPhone is almost always in my pocket.  It certainly is fun to see what you can do with a camera phone.  All post processing was done on the phone as well.

 

I am off to Chico Hot Springs, Gardiner and Yellowstone starting tomorrow for about four days with my two sons.  All of us have been looking forward to this annual trek to the park when most of the roads are closed with very few people around.  The road from Gardiner (North Entrance) to Silver Gate (North East Entrance) stays open year round and is a beautiful drive.  I found what looks to be a fabulous cabin in Gardiner on the Yellowstone River where we will be staying for a few nights.  I'll report back if it is worthy of a repeat. 

 

Here are two images of Fall color taken yesterday on the Wood:

 

 

 

Bridge on the Big Wood River:

 

One last image taken with the iPhone.  Two lost teeth...

Tilt Shift iPhone Photography

OK, so I am a little obsessed with the tilt shift application for the iPhone. I checked out Silver Creek today and it was cold with a slight but raw east wind. I did not take a single image at the creek. I was hoping for a final shot at a few baetis images and did not see one. Browns are still spawning and nobody was around. I then checked out Cedar Bend Preserve on the Wood. I took three images there with the iPhone and edited them with the tilt shift generator application. That's it...  Keep in mind while the title of the application says, "tilt," the application is only capable of a shift effect.  Additionally, the app lets you control saturation (you can desaturate to black and white), contrast, brightness and vignette.

 

Missoula, MT

Here are two quick clicks I took today with the iPhone camera in and near Missoula. I used a tilt/shift application--which I think is pretty cool to mess around with. It's called, Tilt Shift Generator. It's worth checking out... Anyway, the Superman hood ornament is pretty emblematic of Missoula and the second image is of a favorite stream of mine; a tributary to the Blackfoot River.

Silver Creek In November

Spectacular weather here with highs in the sixties and sunny and slated to last through the week.  I fished Silver Creek today with nobody around and good baetis from about 1 to 4 PM.  Fish were rising prior to 1 PM just without any consistency.  Should be good stuff all week.  Enjoy it while it lasts...