A travelers wishes
What a bad blogger and host I have been. How could I not have posted anything during the entire month of October? It’s not like there isn’t anything going on in October what with Halloween, harvest parties, the changing colors of Fall. I gotta do better than this. So for my first post in November I give you “Boots and Reflections”.
We planted a garden this year. Nothing special, just some tomato plants, cucumbers, eggplants and failed spinach and lettuce. It’s a small garden of 2 raised beds which are partially shaded most of the day (hence the failed lettuce and spinach) but it’s the only space we have to plant. The tomatoes have pretty much taken over the garden at this point and we have a mega load of red and yellow cherry tomatoes. The cucumbers are doing better than last year (we’ve harvested 3 so far with many more developing on the vine) and I can’t see the eggplants right now as the tomatoes have overgrown their baskets and engulfed them. We didn’t plant any sunflowers this year but apparently we didn’t need to as what we planted last year laid seed and we ended up with two sunflowers in the middle of the garden. Here are a few shots I took the other night. More can be seen on my Flickr site.
Took the camera out to experiment shooting fireworks. I’ve never shot fireworks before so I was curious how it would all turn out. Below are a few of the better shots. I used a 5D Mark II on a tripod with remote cable release. I shot these at ISO 100, bulb mode, manual focus, f/16. When I heard the canon go off I would activate the shutter, wait until I saw a good burst of firework and then close the shutter. It took a bit of practice to get the timing down just right. Leave the shutter open too long and you end up with too much streaking and not enough definition, close the shutter too soon and you don’t get the full explosion. The tripod and cable release are a must for these kinds of shots. If you have any questions I would be happy to answer them. Thanks for looking.
More on Flickr
So along with my Phottix wireless remote (see previous post) I also purchased a Phottix TR-80 remote switch with digital timer. I purchased this with the sole purpose of using it to create time lapse movies from digital still images (see post on Timelapse) using the interval timer and long exposure settings. This remote has a similar function to the Canon TC-80N3 but at a fraction of the price. There are 4 different modes: Self-Timer, Interval Timer, Long Exposure and Exposure Count Setting. With the self-timer you can set the time delay before the picture is taken which works just like the self-timer on your camera. The difference is that you can adjust the time delay to anything between 1 second and 100 hours. With the interval timer you can program the camera to what intervals it will take a photo. So for example if you wanted to take a photo once every 2 minutes you would set the interval timer to 2 minutes using the handy job wheel on the side. With the long exposure mode you can take an exposure up to 100 hours. With the exposure count mode you can select the number of exposures that will be taken up to a total of 99. And the real cool thing is that you can combine different modes. So say for example you wanted to take a 4 second exposure every 14 seconds you would set the long exposure to 4 seconds and the interval timer to 14 seconds. One thing to mention is that there is no power button so the remote is always on. However, the expected life of the battery is 3 years so it probably isn’t an issue. I’m planning my first shoot here in town soon and will post the results and my experience from start to finish here in this blog.
I shot this sunset at Waldo Lake during a family camping trip. Waldo Lake is a large natural lake, approximately 31 miles east of Oakridge and 70 miles from the Eugene, Springfield area. Waldo is located at an elevation of 5,414 feet in the Oregon Cascades. This was a 30 second exposure shot with a Canon 20D. Later that night there were some big thunderstorms that rolled through the area. We heard what sounded like a freight train off in the distance that seemed to grow closer with each passing minute. The sound turned out to be heavy wind that soon hit the trees surrounding us. We laid in our tents in the dark with the sound of heavy rain, the occasional flash of lightning and the trees swaying back and forth, creaking like an old wood floor. We huddled in our refuge hoping the top of a tree or a large limb wouldn’t break off and crush us in our sleeping bags. Eventually the storm gave way to a gentle rain and the sound of water droplets on the nylon skin of our tent put us to sleep.
It’s Tuesday and that calls for a Two-fer (yes, two posts today). This was an image I took over Thanksgiving. Shot at ISO 800 with a Canon 20D.
According to Merriam-Webster’s Online Dictionary “Desire” means to “long or hope for”. That is exactly what I was feeling when I stopped in my local Shutterbug store and talked with the Canon Rep there who was showcasing the new Canon 5D Mark II. Holding this new camera in my hands completely defined desire for me. I’m sure the look on my face was the same as a puppy staring at a dog bone with drool running out of his mouth. I’m pretty sure I wasn’t drooling but I came close. I’m not going to rehash the technical specs on this camera, like the 21MP sensor or the HD video capability, but I will say that it sure felt good in my hands. What didn’t sound so good was the Canon Rep telling me it was about a 6 month wait before he got any more in this area. Sounds like the waiting list is quite long as people who want a smaller frame camera with the capabilities of a 1D series come out of the woodwork to get their hands on it. I guess my “desire” will have to wait a bit longer.
Spent a great day out shooting photos along the Aufderheide Memorial Drive, specifically French Pete Creek (It is said that this stream, which is an important tributary of the South Fork McKenzie River, was named for French Pete, an early day sheepherder, who ranged his band in this area) and Roaring River. While most of the leaves are gone the creeks and rivers were still beautiful to shoot. Over the next several days I’ll be posting a few photos as I go through a process them. Hopefully there will be at least a few good ones to share.
Here are some cool timelapse reels of Los Angeles and San Francisco. The first was taken with a Canon 20D. I’d like to try this with my 20D. I think all that is needed is a 20D or other digital camera, a sturdy tripod and a remote timer switch (Canon) which allows you to control the interval of shots as well as the exposure. $136 seems pretty expensive but I’ve seen cheaper knockoffs that have gotten good reviews, on eBay for around $50. I believe they are called the Phottix Timer Remote C3.
You can check out the time reels HERE
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