After the Flood: A Return to DeSoto National Wildlife RefugePosted by drfl on January 16th, 2012

Technical Details:
Canon 5D Mark II, 70-200 f/4l @ 91mm, f/8, 1/320 sec.

For years I have visited DeSoto, my family often in tow. My eldest daughter, Riley loved to run the halls of the visitor center and look at the artifacts of the old Bertrand steamboat that had met its end in the mud and muck of what became DeSoto lake. I would occasionally visit by myself, finding a quiet solitude on the Cottonwood trail or on the shore of the lake.

The flooding of the Missouri this past spring, summer and into the fall affected lives, changed landscapes, and even modified the course of the river. Nuclear power plants stayed shut down, roads and highways were under water and destroyed, houses and farms were devastated. DeSoto was among the areas that was hit hard. The lake rose several feet and aerial photographs showed a large body of water covering the land that once existed in the former oxbow of the Missouri River.

The water has now receded. A week ago I returned to photograph it once again with a friend, Jayson Alder. Today I am presenting some images from that trip. I invite you to also check out Jayson’s blog to see what he captured as we hiked along the Cottonwood trail. I would also like to thank him for letting me use his 100 2.8 Macro lens. I really don’t need any help in wanting more equipment, but I must say the lens performed well. From the short time I used it, I do recommend taking a look at getting one if you are interested in doing some macro. Right now I use a 50 CM lens which works well, but you have to be close to your subject and it autofocuses ssssllllloooooowwww. Of course, it is one of only two lenses that remain from Canons original EF lineup from the 80s! The faster focus and longer distance of the 100 2.8 Macro was nice!

Technical Details:
Canon 5D Mark II, 100 2.8 Macro, f/8, 1/125 sec.

Technical Details:
Canon 5D Mark II, 70-200 f/4l @ 145mm, f/7.1, 1/640 sec.

Technical Details:
Canon 5D Mark II, 100 2.8 Macro, f/7.1, 1/125 sec.

Technical Details:
Canon 5D Mark II, 17-40 f/4l, f/16, 1/8 sec.

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: Winter Prairie SunsetPosted by drfl on January 21st, 2011

Last week I mentioned that I have given myself two challenges this year.  One is to create more black and white photographs.  The other is to become familiar and master the nuances of my new 24mm TS-E II f/3.5L Canon Tilt-Shift lens.  In college I had the opportunity to use a medium format view camera and with that equipment I had access to tilting mechanisms that allowed modification of the plane of focus.  In this post I will not go into how it works, the Scheimpflug principals, etc., (See this article for that) but sufficed to say view camera landscape photographers have been using this function for years to get everything in focus from near to far with a large aperture.  So what are the pros and cons, why did I decide to purchase this lens, and for what work do I plan to use it?

(Read on for more!)

Read the rest of this entry »

(Sun)Flower Week: Day 5: Sunstar SunflowerPosted by drfl on September 24th, 2010

Technical Details:
Canon 5D Mark II, 50 CM, f/22, 1/250 sec.
Plains Sunflower, OPPD Arboretum, Omaha, Nebraska

(Sun)Flower Week: Day 4: Sunlight SatellitePosted by drfl on September 23rd, 2010

Technical Details:
Canon 5D, 50 CM, f/9, 1/2000 sec.
Plains Sunflower, OPPD Arboretum, Omaha, Nebraska

(Sun)Flower Week: Day 3: Warmth and LightPosted by drfl on September 22nd, 2010

Technical Details:
Canon 5D Mark II, 50 CM, f/10, 1/1250 sec.
Plains Sunflower, OPPD Arboretum, Omaha, Nebraska