The Lesson

It looked to me like a lesson as I took these shots of pelicans on the breakwater near Lakeview Dr. in Slidell, near where Vera's restaurant was prior to Katrina.

Really, the bird on the right is saying, "Are you watching this time?"

Pelicans are truly beautiful fliers and fishers even if they do look a little goofy.
EXP DATA for both: 1/2000 @ f/9, ISO 800 with the Canon EOS 5D Mk2 wearing a Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM lens. I used spot focus and metering and brought out some detail in Adobe Lightroom 4.

How To Have Foggy Photo Fun

First thing to do is get to where you expect some good shots in the fog. I did that easily living as I do in the suburbs of Slidell, LA, very near the shores of Lake Pontchartrain.

I really expected to get some interesting looks at the lights of vehicles crossing the interstate bridge about 1/4 mi. from where I was standing but I couldn't see their lights in the fog so I moved on to expectation #2, the birds. The gulls and pelicans were mostly as still as the morning air. Ripples were occasionally created in the water by passing boats. I had fun developing the shots from this morning in Adobe's Lightroom 4. EXP DATA: 1/50 @ f/10, ISO 640. The Canon EOS 5D Mk2 was wearing Canon's 100-400mm f/4-5.6L IS USM lens.

Time now for some developing fun.

The Majestic Crow

My trip to the Big Branch Marsh last week was for the purpose of getting good shots of our local birds doing their beautiful thing in the wild. I got those but I also got this shot, one of several, of a big old crow looking pretty cool as it came in for a landing on one of the cypress stumps.

This was shot with a Canon EOS 5D Mk2 wearing a Tamron 200-500mm lens.  

exp data: 1/1000 @ f/8, ISO 400 using spot metering and spot focus

The Big Branch Marsh is actually in (who'd guess) Big Branch, LA, about 1/2 hour West of Slidell using the surface roads that get you to the entrance to the boardwalk. The boardwalk takes you out into the marsh of which a small part is seen above. I haven't explored very much of the marsh but I plan to and expect to have more cool shots to show you in the weeks ahead.

When And Why Hire A Photographer

I describe myself as a photographer for hire but I'm not sure that communicates what I do. I don't know of a recognized category for someone who specializes in people and things in their natural surroundings and events as they naturally happen.

It could be a retirement party for a founder of the firm. There will be toasts and hugs and stories and family and friends, etc. My job is to get shots of everything and everybody while the guests all have their fun. Some will pose and others will try to avoid the camera. My job is to get great looking photographs of the posing and the shy but also of the activities and the spirit of the event.

Let's Look At The Big Picture

To look at the big picture in the same size frame as all our other pictures we need a wide angle lens. I just purchased a used version of the widest lens available for my Canon EOS 5D Mk2 with it's 35mm sized sensor. It's the Sigma 12-24mm f/4.5-5.6 EX DG HSM, a lens that's no longer available new since Sigma has replaced it with a second version at the same focal lengths. Since I intend to use this lens infrequently I was happy to save a few hundred dollars on this one even though the image quality is not as fine as that of my more frequently used Canon L series lenses. Here's a look at those focal lengths just so you know what I'm looking at.

 exp data: 1/500 @ f/11, ISO 200, 12mm

Yes, I'm shooting my own shadow but that's one of the references you can use to see the difference in the views at these 3 focal lengths.

 exp data: 1/500 @ f/11, ISO 200, 17mm

exp data: 1/500 @ f/11, ISO 200  24 mm

A Young Bird Ducks Out

I spent a couple of hours bird watching at the beautiful Big Branch Marsh National Wildlife Refuge yesterday. I'll be back when the foliage is more green but I was in search of birds and I saw a bunch. Among the most interesting was this young egret who seemed less than thrilled to be sharing a part of the swamp with that wood duck to the left of center. You can see the wood duck is partially hidden by a cypress snag that's much closer to me and out of focus.

You may remember Prof. Francisco Piedrahita, a visitor from Columbia, who was missing for a couple of days in the Jean Lafitte Preserve and then rather magically appeared. In the New Orleans area this was news. That duck on the left is what he was said to be seeking.   My Canon EOS 5D Mk2 was wearing my good old Tamron 200-500mm f/5-6.3 SP AF DI LD (IF) lens. I have no idea what all those letters mean but I've had this lens for many years and felt like giving it some use. I didn't use a teleconverter because I wanted to save all the available f/stops and the teleconverter costs me 1.5 stops. Read on to see why I wasn't disappointed on this shoot. exp data: 1/2500 @ f/8, ISO 400 for this and the next 3 shots.

Again I'm High On My ISO

I'll repeat yesterday's exercise showing you a series of shots made at increasing ISO settings only this time with a dark sky which should display the noise a bit more.

 Here I'm using my Manfrotto 055X and 391RC2 pan head. PROB tripod and a Canon remote shutter release so I can shoot at 1 sec shutter speed, f/11, ISO 100. That dark sky looks pretty smooth even on my 24" iMac.