Posts Tagged eldorado hills
Stormy skies
Posted by Doug Otto in Photography on February 3, 2010
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Sometimes good nature photography requires some suffering. In the case of this image, the suffering translated to very wet pants on a cold windy day.
I told much of the story of this image in a previous post. After witnessing a break in a large storm that had just passed through, I grabbed my gear and headed to the foothills above Sacramento. Although not raining when I arrived, shortly thereafter a cell developed and the rain started coming sideways. I ran to the car, and started going through my gear:
Rain cover for the camera; check.
Hat; check.
Umbrella; check.
Waterproof jacket; check.
Rain pants; oops.
The umbrella helped keep the front element of the camera dry but with the raining coming down sideways, it did little to keep my dry. It only took a few minutes for my jeans to be completely. The rain stopped after about 15 minutes but the wind coming through my cold, wet, pants reminded me of the event for the rest of the afternoon.
I could have hid in the car until the rain subsided but I’d have never gotten this shot. Being warm and dry isn’t always all that it’s cracked up to be.
I’ve been doing most of my shooting with my 7D but I wanted to go wider than the 24-70 would go on that body so I switched to my 5D for this shot. As much as I like the features and viewfinder on the 7D, there’s just something about a full frame sensor that can’t be duplicated.
Cheers
Storms are opportunities
Posted by Doug Otto in Photography on January 21, 2010
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In Sacramento, we have it good. Compared to the rest of the nation, we really only have 3 seasons. What we call winter would be welcomed in much of the country. When we do actually get a bout of weather, people panic. After a steady stream of very wet storms, this week was no exception. The newspaper and every local news station had their redshirt character doing a spot outside, getting blasted by storm while telling us the obvious; it was raining.
For nature photographers, weather is an opportunity. Frequent readers of this blog often see me lament the blank blue skies that plaque California. While great for picnics, cloudless skies make for boring photography. Weather, especially right after a storm, can absolutely make a scene. Such was the case with this shot.
Last Monday, we got hit by a very wet storm. Around 2:30PM, we got a partial break that looked like it might last for a few hours. I threw my gear in the car and headed up to the foothills in the hope of catching a great sunset. About 20 minutes after I’d arrived, Gary Hart, pulled up behind me; completely unplanned. After shooting a while, we consolidated cars and headed down the road. With an eye on the developing sunset color, we found a spot that he’d shot at previously. On a fairly narrow road shoulder, we set up and tried our best to keep from being run over. At one point a friendly California Highway Patrol officer stopped by and told us: “I know it’s pretty, but you’re going to get killed.” Thankfully he was wrong and we both got some great shots.
To get this capture I used a Singh-Ray 3 stop reverse graduated neutral density filter. This special filter has a dark band in the center and slowly transitions to clear. For sunsets, on a fairly straight horizon, it’s a great tool. Bringing down the brightness at the horizon, the filter allowed me to get a good exposure on the rest of the sky. The same result could have been had by combining multiple exposures during processing but it’s always more rewarding to do it with the camera.
Cheers
Simple is good
Posted by Doug Otto in Photography on July 11, 2009
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It’s easy to over complicate landscape photography. There are rules about foreground, depth of field, where to put the horizon, etc. It’s good to know all of those things but sometimes simple is good. This image is a perfect example of that. I did use the rule of thirds to place the tree and the horizon but there is essentially no depth of field and nothing in the way of foreground. I like it nonetheless.
I made this image one morning up in the foothills to the East of Sacramento. I was actually standing on the hill pictured in my Orion and Oaks image. The reason for the trip was to shoot the full moon setting over Sacramento but the angle wasn’t right. Since that wasn’t going to happen I started to look for something else to capture. I spotted this tree way off in the distance, all by itself on a ridge. It was so far away that I had to use my Canon 100-400, zoomed all the way to 400mm, to get the shot. The exposure was 1/160 sec at f / 22 and ISO 100. Depth of field wasn’t an issue but I knew that I needed the narrow aperture to get the rays from the sun. The effect is actually caused by the pattern that the aperture blades in the lens create. At a lower f/stop it wouldn’t have been there.
The exposure was straight forward but the capture wasn’t. I set up shortly before the run came peaking over the ridge. When the first hint of light came over I realized that I’d misjudged my location and it was well to the left of the tree. I grabbed all of my gear and when running, like a mad man, down the hill so that I could get another shot at it. The second try is what you see here. I’m certain that it was a pretty comical scene to watch. It’s probably just as well that no one caught it on video.
Cheers
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