Here are a few images I shot last night from Galena Summit. There was fortunately a bit of an inversion as the temp on top was 15˚ and it was -1˚ on the bottom. With the exception of the star trails image, I shot at 12,800 iso at ƒ2.8 for 30 seconds.
Silver Creek Preserve Pano
Here's a pano I shot last spring but never got to it. Silver Creek Preserve and Thunderstorm. It's a 3 image pano taken with the Nikon 24 pc-e lens.
Silver Creek, Idaho Landscape
I drove down to Silver Creek yesterday to take a look at a bunch of things including the water clarity and ice factor on Silver Creek near Picabo. The wind blew out of the east with high clouds. Temps were right around 32˚ and the dirt roads were still frozen enough so as not to become a muddy mess. The water clarity is good with some siltation. Ice is limited to the banks. The more off color it gets the better the streamer fishing seems to be. Too windy to notice any midges. Silver Creek downstream of HWY 20 stays open through February.
iPhone Photography
Iraq War Photographer Ben Lowy recently said something to the extent of, "when technology made for the masses is used our society says you can't make art with it." He is speaking of the critique some photographers get when using a camera phone. He was interviewed by Mark Seliger on Mark's show, Capture.
A Nordic ski track I often ski swings by this hill. I don't often bring my 35mm camera when I ski but I do bring my phone. Captured with the iPhone 5 and edited using NIK's Silver Effex Pro and Adobe's CS5.
Catch Magazine Cover Image
The new issue of CATCH magazine went live this morning and an image of mine is on the cover. The shot was taken in early November on Silver Creek.
If you have not seen CATCH, here is the link: CATCH MAGAZINE
Big Wood River Ice
Big Wood River Ice Abstracts:
Ordinary Landscapes
So I now have a title for a really broad project I am working on. It's, Ordinary Landscapes. My goal, with whatever camera I have at the moment, is to take an image of a pretty ordinary landscape, and to have the viewer loose him or herself in it. Could be color, could be black and white. Doesn't matter.
Both of the images above were taken with the iPhone 5 and edited in Adobe Photoshop CS5.
Below is an image of a print in the sand. My son Charlie asked me to take a picture of his footprint on a recent trip.
Here is a link to a Vimeo video which was a 2012 TED Talk and is called INSIDE OUT Project. First, here is the link to the video: http://vimeo.com/42287790# It is a fascinating talk on pasting large portraits in public places around the globe. A very large Palestinian portrait is pasted alongside an Israeli portrait on the wall of an Israeli base. Who is who? Just watch it...
Should you become more intrigued, click on INSIDE OUT Project
Fly Fishing Photography Inspired By Nature
Along with three other artists, I was featured in a short video created on behalf of The Nature Conservancy that was recently on display at BAM (Boise Art Museum). Produced by ComDesigns, this video showcases four artists inspired by nature. ComDesigns donated their time to shoot and produce this short piece. As a fly fishing photographer and a fly fishing guide, I am a strong supporter of The Nature Conservancy and in particular the Silver Creek Preserve essentially located in my backyard. Without places like the Silver Creek Preserve the public would loose out on access to one of our country's premier spring creeks. Not only that, but The Nature Conservancy is spearheading a project on Silver Creek, that in my opinion will positively effect the entirety--not just the Nature Conservancy section--of Silver Creek by most importantly reducing water temps and mitigating siltation issues. Check out the Silver Creek Preserve site for more info regarding what is called the Kilpatrick Pond Project. The Silver Creek Preserve is for everyone and is one of my favorite places to photograph, guide, fish, walk, bird, canoe, etc...
Making a Panorama
What is a pano and does a camera simply spit out the final product? Absolutely not. I have put together a short piece on a simple panorama--pano for short--I recently put together of Loon Point in Santa Barbara, California. Having the software to stitch a pano together is imperative (given you are shooting digital). I use Adobe's Photoshop CS5. There is other software out there but Photoshop does a remarkable job with this task and it does so much more. Other than the software, it's pretty seamless.
A pano is simply two or more images stitched together. In this case, it is three images. I took the above three images knowing I would later piece them together for a panorama. My camera was on a tripod. Remember to lock the focus so as not to have a different focal point in each shot. I choose to focus manually for most landscape panos. Also, lock in your exposure. Setting the camera to full manual mode helps eliminate the easy mistake of forgetting to lock the exposure. You generally don't want a different exposure for each image. Level the camera. I use a bubble level that fits in the camera hot shoe.
In the case above I used the Nikon 24 mm tilt/shift lens. You do not need a tilt/shift lens for panos. Using the shift function for a pano is pretty useful though and eliminates finding the lenses nodal point. For the sake of simplicity, we'll skip what tilt/shift lenses are and can do. Really Right Stuff has a great explanation on finding the nodal point of a given lens for making panos and explains what a nodal point is. Here is the Really Right Stuff link.
OK, after running the three images through photomerge in Photoshop CS5, I essentially got this. You want to select "flatten" in Photshop after generating a pano and possibly crop the image if there is "dead space" in the new pano. "Dead space" will show up if you have not leveled the camera properly and/or have not found the nodal point of the lens... Keep in mind, it is possible to fill in some dead space using "fill" and "content aware" in Photoshop CS5 and newer.
I do not edit any of the images until after generating and flattening the pano in Photoshop CS5.
All I did to the image above was make a basic levels adjustment and add a small amount of vibrancy.
My nearly final steps were dodging and burning in Photoshop CS5. I use a Bamboo Tablet by Wacom to essentially brush in where I would like to dodge and brush in where I'd like to burn. I generally set the strength slider in dodge or burn to 1% to gradually make the changes. I also slightly sharpened the image. That was it, until I showed this pano to my youngest son who is eight. He said, "Could you get rid of the seaweed on the sand? It's pretty distracting."
So here is the final version sans seaweed. I used the content aware eraser in Photoshop CS5 to very slowly erase the seaweed. I also used the Text component of Photoshop to add my watermark and then reduced the opacity of the text so that it doesn't stand out too much. That's it.
Idaho Open Range
Here is a recent image of an Idaho landscape near Mountain Home, Idaho. The horse added an animate touch to the desolate and rather bleak area. It's on the cold side here in Ketchum today with the start to the ski day at 11 below zero.
Santa Barbara Eucalyptus
I have been driving by this particular eucalyptus grove in Santa Barbara for years. It's in an open space area and while it seems like a small public space coming from Idaho, it's really a gem that goes relatively unused except the occasional neighborhood dog-walkers. On this particular day it was drizzly with fog and there was a lot of contrast; from the darkest tree trunks to the light in the fog to the grass and the details in the better lit eucalyptus trunks. I have shot this particular grove a half dozen or so times over the years and each time I have gone back I have refined how I will look at it the next time. For example, next time I am there I will look for a foggier day and choose earlier in the AM. Simple and mysterious is what I am looking for. Bruce Lee once said something like, "The greatest form of sophistication is simplicity itself."
The pano above is comprised of 3 images taken using the shift function on the Nikon 24 pce lens. I shifted horizontally and also tilted down about 5 degrees to get more of the foreground and the center tree in focus. The above pano was taken on a different day than the top image.
The FlyFish Journal
Here's an image of my youngest son, Charlie, in the new edition of The FlyFish Journal. Although it's a small image, he was pretty stoked. Perhaps this will inspire him to get out on the water a little more and if I'm lucky allow me to take a few images... If you have not held a copy of The FlyFish Journal, you really should crawl on all fours to Bellingham, Washington to grab an issue (or order one online). It's reader supported which means very few ads and lots of content including great fly fishing photography.
Santa Barbara, California
I just got back from a couple of weeks in Santa Barbra, California. Every sunset I managed to see was completely different. We had a menacing but benign storm roll through one evening and many virtually cloudless sunsets.
Egret & Loon Point
Santa Barbara Beach Images
Here are a few longer exposure images of Butterfly Beach in Santa Barbara, California.
Nikon D3s & Nikon 24 pc-e lens. Images taken on a tripod.
Loon Point
Loon Point Sunset. Carpinteria, California.
Dried Rose Leaf Diptych
Macro Winter Rose Hip Images
Inspired by little things, I noticed a touch of color on a single dessicated rose hip in my garden today. Have to include one color image and one in B & W.
Adobe's CS5 For Black & White
I love discovering a new method of editing or anything photography for that matter. While the method of converting RAW images in Adobe's CS5 via the channel mixer to black & white is not new or even close to new, it is my new favorite black and white workflow. I also love using the dodge and burn brushes as well for richer blacks and whiter whites. I highly recommend checking out Lynda.com and watching Chris Orwigs Photoshop tutorials. He's a phenomenal instructor who invokes inspiration and is also really good at simplifying a humongous program like Photoshop. He incorporates lots of great quotes from writers to philosophers and photographers. Here are two older images of mine reworked.