Mo Black & White

Not sure what inspired the recent yearning to turn everything into a black and white photo, but it's kind of cool. I have been surprised which ones I think have worked and what ones have failed. I like B&W because it accentuates the shapes in the image, which would other wise be lost in color, or at least over looked.


G10, f/4, 1/160 sec, ISO 80, 6.1mm


D700, f/18, 0.4 sec, ISO 200, 240mm

Black & White Kauai

I just can't get enough of Kauai, someday I'll move on, but not yet!! Michelle went to bed early tonight so I decided to try my hand at some black and white conversions. All these shots were done in Lightroom, using the greyscale conversion tool.


D700, f/18, 5 sec, ISO 200, 18mm


D700, f/20, 1 sec, ISO 200, 35mm


D700, f/20, 5 sec, ISO 200, 14mm


D700, f/18, 1/60 sec, ISO 200, 14mm


D700, f/14, 40 sec, ISO 200, 14mm

Spooky Snowmobile ride

Had a little scare on Friday when we went for a part day snowmobile ride up Bountiful. At the beginning of our ride we dropped into the head of Heartscrabble and to make a long story short I was caught in an avalanche as I was re-entering the bowl. When the slab broke loose all around me, I was not able to maneuver at all, and was rushed straight down hill into a band of dense pine trees. Looking ahead of the slide, I was not able to see a line threw the trees, it was not a good feeling. I was able to beat the moving snow to the tree line and then bailed off my sled, and scrambled to the lee side of a large tree. Thank goodness my friends were watching and were there in seconds. I was pretty shook up, but, it was a good reminder for all of those present that we need to be more careful. Needless to say I was very content with just taking pictures the rest of day. Luckily my sled sustained only minor injuries and my emotional damage should heal in time. Here are some pics from the days events.


D700, f/14, 1/400 sec, ISO 200, 18mm


D700, f/14, 1/400 sec, ISO 200, 18mm


D700, f/16, 1/320 sec, ISO 200, 14mm


This is where my sled stopped, right at the leading edge of the slide.




This is a look from where the slide came from


This is a shot from the adjacent slope, of the slide.

Kauai, Seascapes

I got up every morning at 5:30 or 6:00 to enjoy the sunrise, at was absolutely amazing!!


D700, f/22, 1.6 sec, ISO 100, 31mm
This is probably one of favorite shots of the trip, this was shot threw a 8 stop neutral density filter, 2 stop circular polarizer, and a 2 stop split neutral density filter to block out the sky. Very little if anything was done in post.


D700, f/13, 48 sec, ISO 200, 14mm
It was pretty much dark during this exposure, no post lightening at all, but it took 48 sec during the exposure.


D700, f/20, 0.6 sec, ISO 200, 35mm
To slow the shutter down enough to blur out the water, I again had to shoot through my 8 stop filter, 2 stop polarizer, and 2 stop split filter. This is one reason mornings and evenings are so wonderful.


D700, f/20, 6 sec, ISO 200, 14mm


D700, f/18, 0.4 sec, ISO 200, 24mm


D700, f/22, 1/80 sec, ISO 200, 14mm


D700, f/18, 1/200 sec, ISO 200, 70mm


D700, f/20, 0.6 sec, ISO 400, 18mm


D700, f/20, 2 sec, ISO 200, 14mm


D700, f/18, 30 sec, ISO 200, 14mm


D700, f/18, 1/125 sec, ISO 200, 14mm
This was the first time I really wished I had a wider angle lens, I don't like the crop with the horizon in the middle, but I couldn't bring my self so crop out the sky or the see. Thus the last photo in the post.

Kauai, Sunsets

We were usually very busy in the late afternoons and evenings but we still found time to enjoy a couple of cool sunsets. Michelle was even kind enough to allow me to photograph a few sunsets while she was getting ready, it worked out great.


D700, f/7.1, 40 sec, ISO 250, 21mm
This shot was taken pretty much after dark


D700, f/13, 30 sec, ISO 200, 24mm


D700, f/16, 1/15, ISO 200, 14mm


D700, f/2.8, 3 sec, ISO 200, 16mm
Grand Hyatt

Kauai, Whales

I had no idea Kauai was going to be so awesome, I took just over 2,800 photos during our vacation. One of the things I was most excited about, was the new underwater housing I got for our Canon G10. It proved to be well worth the money. Catching a photo of a whale in action, while being thrown around by the sea is no easy feet, especially if you want that photo to be in focus! It was a lot harder than I thought.


D700, f/7.1, 1/500 sec, ISO 200, 270mm
This was a male whale attempting to get the attention of nearby female.


D700, f/7.1, 1/800 sec, ISO 200, 270mm
Here a calf partially breaches just after her mother, to bad I missed the mom, she came right out of the water!


G10, f/2.8, 1/60 sec, ISO 80, 6.1mm
It may not look like much, but this is the mother and calf that swam right under our boat. By the time I swithed cameras, and pushed my little G10 under the water for some luck shots, we had drifted farther away. According to my camera, this whale was 70 yards away. I had no idea what to do, I just pointed it in the general direction, and hoped for the best.

Cool or Creepy

I had this great idea, but i'm not sure if it flopped or not. I had visions of it being so cool, but I'm doubting the outcome. I originally made this banner for our family blog, but i'm not sure it is cool enough? Maybe it's the text, maybe it's the layout, i don't know. but I spent so much time creating it, I wanted to post it somewhere. It was fun taking pictures of the kids, they really got into it. It was pretty easy, one off camera strobe hard left of subject triggered wirelessly from camera flash. Anyhow cool or creepy, you decide.

Farmington Bay

I surprised Hunter today and took him out to see some Bald Eagles, He had a riot! He used my spotting scope while I took some photos. Somehow I need to figure out how to get a real long lens. Hunter would get so excited every time he spotted an eagle, he was even doing an awesome job of panning the spotting scope all by himself and making some impressive finds. Here are some shots we got today.

Birding

Went out to Farmington Bay this afternoon with Troy Parkin. We saw a ton of bald eagles, but they were so far away. Got this shot right off the side of the road. Overcast light made it hard at these distances but these shots turned out good enough to share.



I had no idea this bald eagle had a fish in it's claws, till I zoomed way in on my monitor. This shot is way cropped in, this the lack in image quality.

Januaary 25, Snakecreek

Had a very interesting ride today, my sled was not running up to par, but we finally had some killer deep snow. Unfortunately we spent more time than usual on the roads, the moguls turned out to be more like small hills and valleys. We had a fun large group today, 14 sled total. We only had one minor casualty, a broken shock, but no lame ducks. We all got our cardio in for the day, that's for sure. My back may never be the same. No extreme shots today, this shot is very ironic, the only groomed trail we saw, was just out of bounds on the Snowbird ski resort. We were not allowed to cross the border.

The Little Man

The little man has been climbing up on everything, he thinks it's so funny. It's scary when he climbs up the gate blocking the stairs and knocks it over. It's pretty much a 50/50 if he goes backwards onto the floor, or forward and goes for a ride down the stairs. Poor kid! He sure is growing fast!!

Winter Scape Panoramas

Inspired by Matt Draper, here are a few panorama images. 5-6 Images were stitched together in Photoshop, Lightroom was used for color correction, sharpening, and vignetting. I took these shots while helping with the MY11 Polaris Assault Camp extravaganza on Jan 14-16. We need way more snow, but there is never a lack of sweet pictures to be had in the high country.

Here is a view of Timp from the East.

Valley Fog can be very cool, if you are not in it.

MY11 Polaris shoot

Lots of cool pictures and video to be had in the back country. It has been a while since I have had the opportunity to pull out the camera in the mountains. Can't wait till we get more snow.

Here are some cool trees.

D700, 1/1250 sec @ f/16 ISO 640

This Mega Camera was used on the Polaris shoot.

This remote controlled chopper is a really expensive video camera. It is piloted by two fellers. the first one flies the chopper, while the second one controls the tail of the chopper and the video camera. It was quite impressive to watch it in action, I can't wait to see the footage this Hilo captured.

Here the assistant get the Hilo ready for action. This is extreme RC at it's best.

Temple square @ Christmas

Took the kids to Temple square to enjoy the lights. Kids did great, thankfully it wasn't too cold. People were standing in line to take this shot, thought since everyone else was taking it, I might as well too. Hopefully the full frame sensor and a 14mm lens brought something new to the shot.
Hand held, ISO 3200, F2.8, 1/160 sec. No post picture work to remove grain or artifacting from using High ISO. Love the D700.

Final Hunt of 2009

The 2009 huntin season is now over. We closed out the year with a couple of great buck. Mac and Johnny Gebbers where a pleasure to hunt with again. We had a riot! We recovered this deer after wounding it the day before. We trailed it for well over a mile and it took 8 1/2 hours to track it down.

Took these shots with a Canon G10, a very nice point and shoot camera I picked up because my big SLR is just heavy.

Johnny made it happen on this buck, after one of our other hunters missed it days before. Mac, Johnny's dad, helped radio us in on the awesome buck, Thanks Mac.

Not a bad buck for the last day. Definitely a go home happy buck.