Photo Friday: Morning Over MorainePosted by drfl on January 13th, 2012

Since the winter hasn’t really come yet, I feel the need to go back to my Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado photographs I captured in May just to get something wintry. Yes, May for a winter feel photo and 50s for January in Nebraska. Different for sure.

Technical Details:
Canon 5D Mark II, 24mm f/3.5L TS-E Lens, f/11, 1/3 sec., 2-stop Singh-Ray Soft Grad
Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado

Website UpdatesPosted by drfl on August 29th, 2011

While I’m always adding new work to my website, sometimes its hard to find the recent images. Usually, I just place new items into the galleries in areas that I think make sense and when I do thumbnail reviews they usually make sense – to me. A common feature of many photography websites is a new work gallery, so I have added it. To view my most recent photos be sure to check it out – Go to the Photography Galleries link and click on the “Recently Added Photos” section. You might even spot a new image or two (such as this Steller’s Jay Photo)!

Technical Details:
Canon 50D, 300 f/4l + 1.4tc, f/5.6, 1/320 sec.
Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado

Photo Friday: In The Light Of A New DayPosted by drfl on August 5th, 2011

In January and February I reported that I had acquired a new lens – the Canon 24 TS-E II f/3.5L. I made a complete report regarding the capabilities of this lens in my post Photo Friday: Winter Prairie Sunset. On my May trip to Colorado I was very excited to try out the capabilities of the lens. I’ve mentioned using the tilt feature on some images from Colorado, but in today’s post I utilized both the Tilt (for DOF) and the Shift (for stitching). To capture this scenic winter landscape, I knew I had to place the lens horizontal as a panoramic created by using a vertical shift might be distorted by the moving water as panoramic stitching often has issues with movement. Horizontally, the water and movement would be in one frame and the sky in another. I started with the lens centered on my image – that is the mountains were placed exactly center on my composition. I then tilted the plane of the lens until everything was in focus. It was at this point that I placed my filters and shifted the lens down. I captured the first image and then shifted the lens up, careful to make sure there was some overlap in the image and then capturing the second image.

Back in Photoshop I merged the two into one big 36 megapixel image. This makes an astounding large print due to the ability to tilt, the sharpness of the lens, and the added megapixels. While I would love every image to be like this one, the right conditions definitely presented themselves for this capture. I must say, this is one of my favorites of the trip, not just for the beautiful scene that nature gave me, but also for everything falling into place technically. Really, I recommend this lens to anyone wanting to capture grand landscapes, but it takes time and patience to understand all the nuances of the lens.

One added bonus – people are sometimes looking for a horizontal or vertical representation of a scene for a particular use. This image has the benefit of being a 24 megapixel vertical (2:3 ratio) photograph

or a 20.5 megapixel (2:3 ratio) horizontal.

Not bad for offering choices!

Technical Details:
Canon 5D Mark II, 24 TS-E II f/3.5L, f/14, .5 s, 3-stop ND-Soft Grad, 2 images stitched
Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado

Photo Friday: Hunting for BreakfastPosted by drfl on July 29th, 2011

For today’s Photo Friday, I’ve decided to switch it up a bit and post a wildlife image from Colorado. As I have mentioned before, I crossed paths with numerous coyotes. I really wanted to capture one hunting and had my opportunity on one of the last days of the trip. In this image, the coyote attempted to pounce on his prey, only to find that the little critter had quickly descended into his hole. Not one to give up yet, he started digging into the opening a bit. This didn’t last long, however, and he left defeated, but it was certainly a great spectacle to watch.

Technical Details:
Canon 50D, 300 f/4l + 1.4tc, f/6.3, 1/640 sec.
Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado

Photo Friday: Giants ObscuredPosted by drfl on July 1st, 2011

As I mentioned last week, this post is an image of the area near Dream Lake after a night of heavy snowfall received in mid-May in Rocky Mountain National Park. This location is not far from the previous image, maybe normally a 10 minute walk, but in the deep snow, it took about a half hour. While I did make it all the way to the lake itself, it was nearly completely covered in snow and the conditions prevented me from setting up my tripod. By walking back a little bit, I found this enclave which allowed me to grab some images of the fierce weather conditions and the peaks of Hallet and Flattop as they appear, slightly obscured from the blowing snow.

Technical Details:
Canon 5D Mark II, 17-40 f/4l @ 40mm, f/9, 1/320 sec.
Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado

Double Feature Photo Friday: The Long Sunrise and Long’s ObscuredPosted by drfl on June 24th, 2011

Technical Details:
Canon 5D Mark II, 24mm T/SE, f/8, 1/25, 3-stop Grad ND Singh-Ray Filter
Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado

After a fairly heavy snowfall the day before, I decided to climb up to Dream Lake to capture the recent snowfall with the sunrise. This was one of the hardest hikes under 1 mile (One way) that I have ever undertaken. The snow was deep, I had no snowshoes, and the wind and snow blew fiercely. To boot, I had to cross Nymph Lake and the snow was up to my waist. Needless to say, the snow combined with the weight of my gear caused my progress to be slower than I had originally calculated so I did not make it to Dream Lake before the sun grazed the mountain tops. I was, however, in a position to have a spectacular view of Long’s Peak. I did make it to Dream Lake eventually, which I will present next Friday.

Technical Details:
Canon 5D Mark II, 17-40 @ 34mm, f/8, 1/320
Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado

On the hike down, I stopped to capture this view of Long’s Peak still obscured by the blowing snow and clouds. It was a serene morning filled with quiet solitude, although I did see one snowshoer ascending a different route as I was descending.