2016 Landscape and Nature Favorites

It's hard looking back on the year and reviewing your favorite photos.  Each photo has a meaning behind it and a reason why you took it.  Take for example, one of my waterfall photos.  I had a day to go on a hike with my kids.  It wasn't so much about the photo but the first time my kids had ever seen a waterfall in real life. The meaning behind that particular photo is more about the memory of the hike with my boys than the actual photo.  I did have a few like that this year.  Take for example my first entry from this year.  It was extremely dark, so the boys were all able to see the milky way clear as day without all of the light pollution of the city.  They were fast asleep when I went back out to do this star trail.   I was also able to capture the following photo for some very special people in my life that had never seen anything like the photo I provided them.

M's Pub, a famous building burned in a massive fire earlier this year.  I was able to stop by and capture a couple of photos as the OFD worked hours on end to put out the blaze.  The frozen building left behind made for a beautiful photo.  My first trip to Arizona made this years pictures.  I was amazed at the sun bursting to light behind the red mountains.

The hawk photo is a staple in my yearly pictures.  We have a couple that get really close during soccer games, so I always spin for a shot.  This year I happened to catch the moon in the photo.  The ginger bread man in the tree was a dedication to a young boy who passed.  I thought this was a touching tribute in the trees of the arboretum.  The old 370 barn was a sad photo.  This barn was famous as it was one of the last standing embodiments of the old days of Omaha.  This barn was torn down and the property sold to make way for a commercial development.  It was a lonely reminder of the past in an area booming with new development.  This may have been my favorite photo of the year.

I caught the Perseids meteor shower this year.  While I only caught a couple of meteors, my favorite photos of the night were the two panoramas of the milky way I was able to capture at 3 in the morning.  Also took a photo of the first supercell this year.  That was an interesting experience.  Disney was in there.  Last but not least was the first Husker game for my oldest.  That one I am going to print big, not because it was the best picture but rather the meaning behind it.

I did do some other photo stuff this year and those hold a place in the memory bank as well, but these are my nature and landscapes for the year.  I hope everyone had a wonderful year and hope to continue to provide you with more of a view from my lens in 2017.

Filter Painting

It has been a little while since I had the time to sit down and actually gather my thoughts long enough to write something on my blog.  It is nice to be able to put some thoughts down on paper (or computer if you will).  Something I have been wanting to do for the past couple of months is write a post about something I really enjoy doing.  I have stated in the past that I have always enjoyed photographing sunsets.  Sitting there watching the sun leave the horizon puts thoughts at ease if only for a moment.  Listening to nature, the rustling of leaves, the wind whistling through branches of the leafless trees, birds chirping, provides a calming effect.

One way I make the experience more enjoyable is a technique of using filters to increase the exposure time of your shot.  This way you capture all of the movements associated with the setting sun and clouds as they pass.  Having said that, I usually only come back with a handful of images due to the length of time it takes to capture the photo, but the quiet of sitting and listening is worth it.  I don't know how many of you are old enough or have caught reruns of a show on PBS I use to watch called "The Joy of Painting with Bob Ross".  When I was growing up I use to watch it just before I took a nap and being out during a sunset reminds me of that show.  So quite and peaceful.  Yet, when the day is done you have something beautiful.  This is why I call my long exposure sunsets, "Filter Painting".

Once I am home and have viewed what I captured that day, I then begin the fun part of the picture taking experience, Post Processing.  Most people do not like this portion of the picture taking experience, but I really enjoy it.  In fact, I see many photographers skip this portion all together.  I shoot all of my photos in RAW format.  This means that the file you have contains all of the RAW data from the photo and you can use it as you will.  If you shoot JPEG format, the camera cooks the image for you in the cameras processor and spits out what it thinks your photo should look like.  I like the control I have over my images in RAW.  This way, I can make the photo how I saw it when I was there not the way a computer decided it should look.  I usually take 20 minutes a photo when adjusting landscapes.  You really have to pay attention to the details of the photo.  If you happen to over look something, blowing it up on print will bring out your mistakes and landscapes more than not are going to be printed large.

Enough talk for the day, here are a couple of my recent Filter Paintings.

Clouds Make a Difference

The past couple of days I have made an honest attempt at one of my New Year's resolution for photography.  I have been actively trying to take more photos of sunsets.  Finding a great spot in a metropolitan area is very tough to come by.  Houses and power lines make it very difficult to get a great looking sunset.  Using a very wide angle lens does help minimize their view in your photos but if you look close enough, they are there.  Having said that, I do believe sunsets can be some of the most dramatic scenes whether you have those items in the photo or not.  The other thing that makes a great sunset are clouds.  Clouds are the difference between "wow that's a nice photo" to "HOLY CRAP that is AWESOME".  Clouds hold the color of the sun as it falls below the horizon line and the prism effect it gives on the clouds is amazing.  The sun falls causing an instant orange glow like fire over the clouds.  Sinking lower, it then turns to a lovely pink.  These are the best sunsets to capture on film or your digital sensor.  Sitting, watching the sun fall, also gives you a sense of peace.  I think that is what I most like about it.  For an amazing 15 to 20 minutes, you are witnessing something spectacular and that is tough to get in this fast paced world.

I digress.  The original focus of this post was to talk about how clouds will make a difference in your sunsets.  For the people who read my blog, visit my website, or follow me on Facebook, you have probably seen my post from the last sunset.  To capture that sunset, I observed what way the clouds were moving in the sky and set up to have the sun and clouds coming straight at me.  I wanted to add some drama to separate my sunset from others that I knew were out taking it that evening, so I attached a 10 stop neutral density filter to my lens.  This filter cuts 10 stops of light from reaching the sensor, thus giving you a much longer shutter speed.  You must use a tripod and remote release for this type of photo since the exposures can last up to 2 minutes.  Doing this allows the clouds to move in the frame and give the appearance of moment.  I tried this on the sunset last evening also, but the clouds were dissipating quickly and they weren't really moving.  I did shoot the sunset with a 6 stop neutral density filter in hopes to catch some cloud movement, but there wasn't much of any.  Additionally, the cloud photograph was taken at 12mm since the clouds were moving so rapidly and the stretched far into the frame.  The second was taken at 24mm to try and get as much of the clouds in the frame as possible.

Below is the difference between clouds in your photo and without.  So the next time you want to shoot a sunset, try for some clouds.