Wichita Mountains Trip 2012...

Well its here--November. It seems like just yesterday we were wearing our short sleeved clothes and finishing out our summer tans. Actually that was about a week ago. We have broken/tied with a few record high temperatures so far this month. Another La Nina year brought us less precipitation and warmer temperatures. This past Sunday was an exception, however. A strong cold front was pushing its way into TX/OK and would bring a familiar blustery wind that reminds us why we stay at home curled up next to the fireplaces/space heaters. Winds sustained around 25mph and gusts as high as 40mph certainly doesn't sound like good photography weather. For whatever reason we decided to forgo basic survival instinct and brave the chilly weather (remember it was 86 degrees last week) in pursuit of the last fall colors in the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge. I have been to the mountains a few times for fall photos and almost every time I've been too late. Story of my life...

My mother and I loaded up our gear (ie camera equipment, jackets, sunglasses, McDonald's milkshakes...y'know just the essentials) and drove out towards Lawton, OK. We arrived at our destination and began scouting for potential locations for sunset photography. Lake Quanah Parker has always been a reliable location for sunset photos. After driving around and not really seeing much of anything (occasional Northern Harrier, bison, and other typical refuge wildlife) we settled on exploring Elk Mountain and the Sunset trail. We hiked about halfway up for some pre-sunset photos.

On top of one of the boulders off the Sunset trail. We had a great view of the park and a nice warm light over the rocks.

Not a bad view from up here.

We had good position on some of the other mountains, but the sun was still very high up . A lot of  my shots like this had sun flare and other problems. The solution? Get down low and use the terrain to my advantage. I used the rock on the right side to block out the sun.

The backlight worked well against the cactus and other vegetation.

Lens flare was a real problem facing this way, but the scene couldn't go unrecorded.

While we were in great position for some sunset photography I still had my hopes set on Lake Quanah Parker. Around 4:15 or so we start to head towards the lake. But on our way there I have to stop and photograph some wildlife.

Bison that is. There were about five bison just off the side of the road.

Every once in a while they would turn themselves into the good light...

...but most of the time I was having to deal with the strong backlight. I used to in my favor for this shot.

This came to me as a surprise. The bison just laid down (I assumed he was just resting) and out of  nowhere he started rolling in the dirt. You can see the dust cloud pretty well again because of the backlight. I wasn't expecting this and I was unprepared. My shutter speed was too slow which caused the blurry leg.

 More of the bison.

He laid down again and opened his moth. I'm  not sure why, but I took the photo anyways.

This is one of my favorites from that evening. I was lucky to capture the bison sticking his tongue out at me. As if he was challenging me to capture his expression.

The bison started to get closer to our vehicle. This was a challenging exposure . Half of the bison is in shadows and the other half is in direct sunlight. I metered right at the transition point and over exposed by a +1/2 stop. I was able to keep detail in the highlights while retaining the shadows.

It was almost time for the sun to set and we were still planning to go to Lake Quanah Parker. We had a little time before the "golden hour" so we went to explore around the Osage Lake trail. We searched for fall foliage--which was the purpose of this trip. We have been to Osage Lake before, but we couldn't remember what was down there. What's down there? At that time a whole lot of nothing. We didn't even see a lake. One thing I did run in to was the fall foliage we were looking for. Was it a spectacular cluster of red, gold, and orange leaves? No. But, there were several areas where there was still color...and that is what telephoto lenses are for.

I captured this shot at the Osage Lake parking area. I used a (borrowed) Sigma 150-500mm lens  for this shot. The telephoto lenses compress the scene. The dead tree in the foreground is a lot farther away from those trees in the background.

Probably my favorite capture of the trip. The color in here is crazy. Before I get accused of manipulating the colors let me clear--I used a long exposure (aprox 2sec) to absorb all the colors. I had to take several shots as the wind kept blowing and rendering the leaves a blurry mess.

You just gotta love scenes like this!

I shot this one with my old Nikkor 135mm f/2.8 AIS lens. This lens is almost 40 years old and its a sharp as  a tack!

I loved that little toppled stump in the foreground up against the trees in the background.

The sun is setting just at the horizon now and we blast our way to Lake Quanah Parker, but we're a little too late the sun sets behind the mountains. But I still manage to capture some long exposure shots in the dusk. By this time the wind had picked up to 30mph with some stronger gusts, and wind coming off that lake was COLD!

Mountains in the sunset light

Shooting across the other side of the lake I see some bison coming up for a  evening  drink.

I enjoyed watching the shadows and light dance around the face of the mountain.

I think it was around this shot I lost the feeling in my fingers. Oh well, it was worth it.

With our fingers nearly frozen and our pride in shambles we submit to Mother Nature's wintry embrace and retreat back to the warmth of our heated vehicle. I thought about getting some night shots maybe with some star shots, but it was too cold. Driving out of the refuge I ask my mother to stop for just a few more shots and I capture the silhouette of the mountain range.  

The clouds add some scale to the mountains and bring a nice balance to the overall composition.

What a great way to end the day of a long overdue photo journey.

I want to say thank you to my mother for driving me and sharing in the experiences that day.

2012 Timelapse Preview...

Here is a video I made of the 2012 storm season. This is just a preview of a larger timelapse project I'll be working on.

Enjoy the video.

-Ben

An Assault of Color...

What is it about certain photographs that make us step back and say "Wow!" Sure, a great composition and a good subject can make for a interesting image, but it seems like emotion, tension, and repetition speak more to me. I love photographs that make me do a double take. I am generally satisfied with my photography, but I have very few that actually make me proud. I have recently been storm chasing (as usual) and chased for almost a whole week around Texas. I was sitting at home editing my photos from 5/28,5/29, and 5/30. I was almost out of gas in my car and was tired of driving. While messing around on Facebook my friend Nathan Ralston called me. "Hey, man! You out chasing?" I had no idea there were storms in our area. I wasn't expecting anything until after midnight. He told me to check out the radar where a supercell near Hollis, OK was moving south at about 25mph. I really didn't want to drive out to storms that were going to crap out on me, but since Nathan called I went ahead and got my gear together. Needless to say, we came across the supercell just as it started to bow out. We captured some incredible photographs of a rather normal structured storm. The light from this sky was amazing and we had great contrast on the storm. Constant flashes of lightning kept bursting from the green hail core with the occasional boom of thunder echoing through the prairie.This is my favorite photograph from the chase. "Assault of Color" is the only way I could describe the shot. There is so much polarity in this capture. The warm sunset light meld with the cool blue/green hues from the rain shaft and then a well placed CG strike interrupts the downdraft with a hot flash creating an anchor point for the viewers eye. The variation between cool and warm tones creates a since of tension in the image and the lighting in the middle really drives it home! My eyes don't sit still when I look at this photo. I can't look at just one thing! It was a mediocre chase, an unimpressive storm, and a short photo shoot. But, man was it worth the drive this is probably my favorite shot of this year's chase season.

Let me know what you guys think.

Thanks.

-Ben

Morning Person...

I am NOT a morning person! The photo below proves that. LOL. I am starting a new series titled "Breakfast". This was an idea that I've had for a while, but finally decided to put in action. The set up was fairly simple. I had two RPS studio SB 120 heads: one positioned to my right and one on the floor behind me (as a backlight). The most difficult thing about this was getting the timing on the egg right. It was a grueling process, but the shot (and the pancakes I made with the eggs) was totally worth it. 

Self portrait showing my disdain to mornings...

Gobstopper Madness...

I was browsing through some photos I have taken this year looking for the images I will select for the "Top Ten Storm Photos of 2011" when I came across these images that I never posted. I meant to write up this article last month when I took the photos, but I think the late season chase opportunities distracted me. Anyways, I decided to revive these forgotten images and share them with you. The thing that I remember most about this series was it was just plain fun! I really like doing high speed flash photography and what better way to settle that craving than with some delightful hard candies. Read on to find out how I capture these gobstopper images.

Enjoy.

-Ben

Gobstoppers: A long time favorite candy from my childhood.

Here is my "Gobstopper" rig. You can see there really isn't anything special. A. Box of Everlasting Gobstoppers, B. Clear glass filled 2/3 of the way full *or 1/3 empty if you're a pessimist.* C. Blue piece of construction paper that serves as a contrast background. D. My beloved Nikon D300 with my Nikkor 55mm AIS micro f/2.8 lens. E. Nikon SB600 flash connected via SC-29 TTL cord and light stand. The flash is currently set to 1/2th power for background and back light. F. Promaster 7500EDF flash set on 1/8th power (or 1/15,000 sec). This flash is also being shot into a silver umbrella for a little less harsh light.

Timing is key to shots like this. You really have to understand shutter lag and how it affects your camera. What is shutter lag? Shutter lag is the elapsed time it takes the shutter to open and close after the button is pressed. Don't know what your camera's shutter lag is? No problem. Here's an easy way to figure out shutter lag. I used http://online-stopwatch.com/ for this (no I am not getting a sponsorship for adding a link. Though I think I should, though...Hmm...) Set you camera up to a medium shutterspeed. In this case I used 1/60th. Start the timer and wait for the stopwatch to reach ten seconds. As soon as you see it turn to ten seconds take a photograph of the screen. Notice that it doesn't say "0.00.10". That's because of your shutter lag. Look in the milliseconds box. That is how long your camera took to take the photo. I would recommend taking about 5-10 shots so you can get an average.

My shutter lag averaged around 216 milliseconds. Once you understand the shutter lag the timing becomes a little bit easier.

Gah! Just a little to early on this one.

Whoops...too late.

I will go ahead and take this opportunity to remind everyone that it is important to hit your mark.

BAM! There we go after the first three shots I was able to get the timing right. Not bad.



I had a little trouble with focusing. So I got a spoon and put it about halfway in the glass and focused on the spoon. The small aperture (f/11) gave me enough depth of field so that as long as I got the Gobstopper in the glass it would be in focus.



Once I got the timing down it was time to add some color and drama. I really liked how this shot came out.

Splash! Lots of color and action in this shot. I basically took about a fist full and dropped them in the glass.

I plan to do more on this series and get some better lighting for the scene. I'm glad I ran across these today. Otherwise, they would be lost in the hard drive.

May and June Storm Chase Photos...

Whoa! It has been SOOOOOOOOO long since I have posted anything on the blog. Its not that I haven't been taking pictures. I have been taking quite a few pictures, but I have been very busy with work. So here's a special treat for y'all. This a collection of my favorite captures from each of my recent storm chases. I will also have the chase reports on my storm chasing blog soon.

Enjoy.

-Ben

 May, 19th 2011: Oklaunion, TX

 May 22, 2011: Muenster, TX

 May 23rd, 2011: Archer County, TX

 May 24th, 2011: Wichita Falls, TX blowing dust

June 14th, 2011: Birthday Chase Iowa Park, TX

June 18th, 2011: Microburst damage Muenster, TX

Shoot the Moon...

It has been quite a while since I have posted anything new. I have been very busy lately with the new Metro Photo and haven't really had much time to go out shooting. The good news is the storm season is a little less then a month away. The weather here has been excellent for the past few days and while I was home last night I couldn't help but be outside. I love it when the seasons begin to transform. It was a beautiful clear evening with temps around 70 degrees and a nice breeze from the south. I had to get out and take advantage of this spectacular weather. I ran back into the apartment and grabbed my gear and as I headed down the steps I looked over to the east and saw the moon rising over the horizon. I had taken many moon pictures before, but this time I wanted to do something different and break away from the monotony. Here are some of the captures.

Enjoy.

-Ben

 A technically correct moon exposure. Since the moon reflects most of the sun's light the exposure would be close to that of sunny sky. In this case we use the "Sunny 16" rule. The rule states that when photographing a clear blue sky use 1/film speed as the shutter speed. In this photo I used the "Sunny 16" rule which gave me an exposure of 1/200, f/16, ISO:200 While this is a nice photo, I felt it didn't represent what I saw and desired to capture.

 

 Opened up the aperture by 2 stops and now we can see more of the foreground and background while retaining some detail in the moon. The sun was setting and the sky became a beautiful blue-purple color. This was a little better, but not quite what I wanted. The only solution was to slow down the shutter.

 ...And change the focus. Instead of looking at the moon as the subject I replaced it as the background and used the silhouettes of the tree branches for my foreground. I really liked the look of the photo and it was different, not something that I try to do when photographing the moon.

This was my personal favorite. This was the best photo that told the story of the evening.  Calm, cool, and peaceful.