Spring!

In anticipation of graduation, I found some images of springtime!
From 30 Vibrant Examples of Spring Photography:
These have really good use of a narrow depth of field to emphasize the subject.
From Judd Patterson Photography:

Final-Photos Not Presented

Mountain Bluebird
This bluebird was searching for insects in the snow, along with some other birds. I kept waiting and waiting to catch one flying, and this was the best one.
Shutter: 1/800sec
Aperture: f4.30
ISO: 80
Focal 60.00mm
Photoshop: Brightened, cloned out specks of dirt in the foreground snow and background ice.

















Overhanging Icicles
This is an ice overhang on the Lamar River where the bluebirds were feeding. I wanted to capture the icicles, but also be able to see the snowflakes falling.
Shutter: 1/800 sec
Aperture: f4.00
ISO: 80
Focal: 31.50 mm
Photoshop: none





















Mountain Prayer Flags
These are prayer flags on the top of Grizzly Peak at Red Lodge with the Beartooth Mountains in the background. I spent a lot of time trying to get both the flags and mountains in focus, and since the wind was blowing the flags around still having a fast shutter speed.
Shutter: 1/1250
Aperture:f4.00
ISO: 80
Focal: 28.10mm
Photoshop: Cropped to portrait orientation, took out tree on bottom left hand corner.















The Prairie at Sunset
This is the prairie at sunset. It was taken on the Nature Conservancy Ranch, and I really liked the amazing golden light and the stormy skies.
Shutter: 1/320 sec
Aperture: f4.00
ISO: 100
Focal: 7.30mm
Photoshop: none





















Canada Goose
This Canada goose picture was taken on our class trip to Yellowstone in the Gardiner River. There was a pair that were feeding along the waters edge, and after many failed shots, I got this one coming up with his mouth open and water spilling out of it. I did have to crop it more than I wanted to get the other (blurry) goose out of the picture.
Shutter:1/400 sec
Aperture: f4.30
ISO: 200
Focal: 60.00mm
Photoshop: Cropped other goose out, cropped to portrait orientation, brightened water drops.











American Dipper
This dipper was in the Gardiner River in Yellowstone as well. I liked this image because the dipper is looking into the river, the bubbles in the river make it interesting, and the bird looks like it is about to move (which it was).
Shutter: 1/400 sec
Aperture: f4.30
ISO: 80
Focal: 60.00mm
Photoshop: none













Mallards Take Flight
I was taking pictures of the geese on the Gardiner, when Anne kindly spooked these two mallards and I was able to catch them. My shutter speed wasn't fast enough to stop the motion of thier wings, but it was fast enough to catch thier eyes sharply, so the motion looks good, instead of just blurry.
Shutter: 1/640 sec
Aperture: f4.30
ISO: 200
Focal: 60.00mm
Photoshop: Cropped in on right side, removed blurry bush from foreground.















Cloudforest
I had to put in one last Costa Rica picture. This one is a little abstract, but the way the sun was hitting the rain was incredible, and the slower shutter speed elongated the drops just enough to stand out against the bromeliads on this tree.
Shutter: 1/125 sec
Aperture: f4.30
ISO: 80
Focal: 60.00mm
Photoshop: none













Prairie Vista
This was taken while driving back from the American Prairie Foundation/the Nature Conservancy. The prairie was just starting to green up, and I really liked the cloudscape with the new green. The shutter speed is high for a landscape because it was taken from a moving car.
Shutter: 1/500 sec
Aperture: f5.00
ISO:100
Focal: 6.00mm
Photoshop: Cropped up on the bottom to eliminate blur, cloned out reflections in the window.





















Say's Phoebe
This bird was one of several phoebe's flying around the American Prairie Foundation headquarters, but the only one that was in the grass instead of on the buildings. When I set this shot up the bird was sitting on a piece of grass, but as I was taking the picture it took off, but I still managed to get it in the frame! the bottom wing is a little blurry, but I like the expanse of grass for a background.
Shutter: 1/1250 sec
Aperture: f4.30
ISO: 100
Focal: 60.00mm
Photoshop: Cropped in a lot on the right side, removed a wire fence that ran through the center of the frame.

Final - Photos Presented

Montana Wildlife





















Elk
This photo was taken at Tower Junction in Yellowstone. There was a small herd of bulls, and I was trying to shoot them interacting, but my favorite photo was this one of an elk just gazing off.
Shutter: 1/320 sec
Aperture: 4.30
ISO: 80
Focal: 60.00mm
Photoshop: Cropped to portrait orientation, cloned out snow trails in the background sagebrush.






















Killdeer
This was taken along the Lamar River in Yellowstone. I had the shutter speed as high as I could despite the low light because the bird was moving so fast and so often. It finally stood still outlined against the snow and I got this shot. I really like the simplicity of just the killdeer and the river rocks.
Shutter: 1/1250
Aperture: f5.00
ISO: 80
Focal: 60.00mm
Photoshop: the snow was a very gray color, so I adjusted the levels until the snow was pure white, cropped to portrait orientation.












River Otter
This photo is cheating a little-It was taken at a zoo in North Dakota. It was still a very active otter though, and I had a lot of fun getting this head shot with the background blurred out.
Shutter:1/200 sec
Aperture: f4.30
ISO: 100
Focal: 60.00mm
Photoshop: Cropped in so it was not centered, but more towards the right of the frame.






















Red-tailed Hawk
This was taken also taken in Yellowstone. I saw the hawk land and shift around in the tree. I got my camera out and focused on it, when it gave an alarm call and took off, somehow I managed to capture it at the moment of take off.
Shutter: 1/400 sec
Aperture: f4.30
ISO:80
Focal: 60.00mm
Photoshop: cropped to portrait orientation.














North American Porcupine
This picture was taken at the Nature Conservancy Ranch. She was a very cooperative porcupine, so we were able to get close and I was able to set up this shot where her head is at an angle and there are no tree branches blocking her face (which was surprisingly hard to do).
Shutter: 1/250 sec
Aperture:f5.60
ISO: 100
Focal: 42.50mm
Photoshop: none











Mountain Bluebird
This picture was taken along the Lamar River in Yellowstone, there were several bluebirds and chickadees darting over the side of the ice bank, so I got down the see what they were doing and got this shot of a male sitting on a rock. I liked the contrast of bird, rock, ice and water.
Shutter: 1/320 sec
Aperture:f4.30
ISO: 80
Focal: 60.00mm
Photoshop: none





















Lone Tree
This photo was taken near Forchett Bay near sunset. There is some sort of bird at the top of the tree, but I really just liked how the light silhouetted the entire tree. It was taken in color, but it looks black and white which I also like.
Shutter: 1/2000 sec
Aperture: f6.30
ISO: 80
Focal: 60.00mm
Photoshop: Cropped to portrait orientation.






















Desert Cottontail Rabbit
This photo was taken on the Nature Conservancy Ranch, it was hiding under some abandoned farm equipment and at first we thought it was a skunk, but when it darted out it was just a rabbit. It froze, and I took this picture when it turned its head just enough that I could see its eye.
Shutter: 1/500 sec
Aperture: f4.30
ISO: 80
Focal: 60.00mm
Photoshop: Cropped to portrait orientation, removed some grass in the foreground.








Barrow's Goldeneye
This photo was also taken along the Lamar River. The flock let me get very close to them, and I took a lot of good shots, including some of their courting behavior. This one, however, was my favorite because of the background snow and ice.
Shutter: 1/800 sec
Aperture: f4.30
ISO: 80
Focal: 60.00mm
Photoshop: Cropped up on the bottom and down on the top, straitened the horizon line.

















Coyote
This coyote was running along the road outside of Tower Junction in Yellowstone. I got some really good shots, but the road made it look pretty ugly. I waited until it finally jumped up into the sagebrush and took several shots, this was the only one with both the coyote in focus (the big snowflakes confused my autofocus) and his eye visible.
Shutter:1/500 sec
Aperture: f4.30
ISO: 80
Focal: 60.00mm
Photoshop: Cropped in, changed levels to make snow pure white, removed sagebrush in top lefthand corner.







Canada Geese
This picture was again taken along the Lamar River. I was attempting to shoot chickadees, but startled this pair of geese and was able to get them both in flight and with thier mouths open!
Shutter: 1/1250 sec
Aperture: f5.00
ISO: 80
Focal: 60.00mm
Photoshop: Cropped up on the bottom and down on the top, brightened slightly.






















Bighorn Sheep
This picture was taken on Rescue Creek Trail in Yellowstone. A large group of rams were grazing along the trail, and two kept charging each other. As I was skirting them, they continued to charge, and this one looked up at where I was and I was able to get this candid shot of him.
Shutter:1/1250 sec
Aperture: f4.30
ISO: 80
Focal: 60.00mm
Photoshop: Cropped to portrait orientation.













Mallard
This was taken at Josephine Lake in Riverfront park. It's not the most exciting bird, but I like the lighting and detail you can see in the plumage, and the slightly blurry water around his beak. I spent a while watching this flock and finally got a picture of this one with his bill in the water.
Shutter: 1/800 sec
Aperture: f4.30
ISO: 80
Focal: 60.00mm
Photosohp: none












Pronghorn Antelope
This was taken near the Roosevelt Arch in Yellowstone. At first I was just trying to get a close shot of the antelope, but I zoomed back out in order to get the landscape and the the other two groups of antelope in the background.
Shutter: 1/640 sec
Aperture: f3.50
ISO: 100
Focal: 18.10mm
Photoshop: Increased contrast and saturation.





















Song Sparrow
This was taken at Norm's Island, and the bird was extremely hard to see, I only knew it was around because it was singing. I played for a while getting a non-cluttered backgound, and finally ended up just getting it to blur out.
Shutter: 1/640 sec
Aperture: f4.30
ISO: 80
Focal: 60.00mm
Photoshop: Cropped to portrait orientation.












Common Raven
This was taken in Cinnabar Basin on the way out of Yellowstone. Two ravens were hopping around in this field, so I took several pictures and waited for one of them to glide: this was the result.
Shutter: 1/1250 sec
Aperture: f4.30
ISO: 80
Focal: 60.00mm
Photoshop: Increased contrast on raven's wings.





















Mule Deer
This deer was part of a herd of four, all of whom had gone up this hillside before her. I focused on her, and waited for her to follow her herd, and sure enough she bounded up the hill and I got this shot.
Shutter: 1/1000sec
Aperture: f4.30
ISO: 80
Focal: 60.00mm
Photoshop: Cropped to portrait orientation.





















Sharp-tailed Grouse
This was part of a sharptail lek we surprised at sunset on American Prairie Foundation land. There were eight or nine males displaying, and even though this one is not, I really liked the light on him and how it brough out the patterns in the plumage.
Shutter: 1/100 sec
Aperture: f4.30
ISO: 80
Focal: 55.90mm
Photoshop: Cropped in and cropped to a portrait orientation.





Beaver
This was taken in Riverfront Park. The beaver was swimming in the shade for a few minutes before going into the sun, I liked this picture of it because of the blue reflections in the water, and how you can see its face and tail clearly.
Shutter: 1/640 sec
Aperture: f4.30
ISO: 80
Focal: 60.00mm
Photoshop: Cropped up on the bottom and down on the top.














Prairie Sunrise
This photo is cheating: there is no visible wildlife in it. It's just a beautiful sunrise on American Prairie Foundation land. We were up early to watch sage grouse leks, but this scene was to our backs. I used a fill flash to light up the first row of sagebrush.
Shutter: 1/250 sec
Aperture: f2.80
ISO: 100
Focal: 6.00mm
Flash: -2.00
Photoshop: none

Wildlife Photography Ethics

Encountering wild animals is an amazing experience, but in photographing (or just sightseeing) there is a certain point where you are impacting that animal by being too close, using noises to attract or disrupt it, or even (depending on the animal) using a flash.
This Code of Ethics Article sums up 11 key points to use when photographic wildlife. Some of the tips, like don't bait the animal with food, seem obvious, but others like thinking about cumulative impacts are worth thinking about.
As a potential example, this photo (winner of the 2008 National Geographic Photography award in animal behavior) looks like it was taken at night, but both animals eyes are displaying photopic (daytime) type retinas instead of scotopic (nighttime) type retinas meaning more than one flash strobe had been used. It is an awesome photo, but who knows what affects the flashes may have had on these animals?

Birds in Flight

I've been working a lot on shooting birds, especially in flight, and have run into a lot of difficulties, but some successes too. Here are a few shots that I have taken recently.












I took this picture at Norm's Island on Monday, I like how you can see a nice profile of the gulls head while it is turning, as well as the very brown background to contrast with the white plumage. I did have to crop down a lot, and wish I could have gotten closer.

















This osprey was gliding over the Gardner River, and I managed to get a shot off before it flew off. It's a little dark (which I will fix in photoshop when I have time) and I cropped it a lot as well, but I like the blue sky and clouds in the background.

















These bluebirds were part of a huge flock foraging along the Rescue Creek trail. There are only two or three in flight, but I used a narrow depth of field and like how the birds fade out in the background.

Portrait Photography

In preparation for Thursdays class of outdoor portrait photography I looked around for some outdoor portraits that I liked. Here is what I found:








This photo comes from David Hansen at http://www.davidhansenphotography.com/portrait.html.
I like the different angle and the use of the environment.









This photo is from digital-photography-school.com with a tip article. A lot of the article was for SLR cameras, but it did have some good tips about background and lighting that anyone can use.

Night Shots and Easter

For my night shot Anne and I went out around Rocky's campus to play with our cameras settings and flashlights. For this picture I had my camera on shutter speed priority mode with the shutter speed at 15 seconds, aperture at f3.20, ISO at 80, and a flash a -1 2/3.





















For Easter I was in Yellowstone, and this picture of the Catholic church in Gardiner at sunset with the storm and fresh snow on the surrounding mountains summed up the combination of outdoors and religion that Easter has come to mean for me.















This picture was taken last Tuesday at about 11:45 during a rare break in the clouds. I had my camera on shutter speed priority mode and the shutter speed set to 15 seconds and the aperture at f7.10 and the ISO at 100. I like how the moon is still, but because of how windy it was that night, the clouds are in motion all around it.