Our adventure seemed liked it only started yesterday. However, tonight is the end of an trip that spanned thousands of miles over 12 days. The adventure began in Alaska with a visit to Denali National park and ended with a relaxing weekend in my new favorite city, Vancouver. In the middle was a cruise to celebrate my folks’ 40th wedding anniversary (Congrats team!). There are gigs worth of images and several great stories to tell over the coming months. Look for a week’s worth of posts that will tell the story of our flight to Denali and the landing on a glacier at its base. Personally, I am having a hard time waiting on that one. I can’t wait to share it with you! For now, I wanted to share an image from the beginning of the adventure, our trip into Denali National park by bus. If you ever have the chance to visit this park, take it. It is an incredible place. If you do visit, I have two tips for you. 1) Expect bad weather. That way you aren’t too bummed out when the clouds shroud Denali. Only 30 percent of the folks that visit actually see the mountain. Don’t worry, there is still an incredible amount of wildlife to experience. We saw 6 grizzlies over the course of our trip. This leads me to my second tip. 2) Bring long fast glass!

Capture Notes:

Nikon D700
Nikkor 80-200 AFD
Lexar UDMA

Processing Notes:

Capture – 1 image
Sized for web
LightAsMagic.com

It started out like any other Saturday morning. Wake up early, make some coffee, head to the darkroom, and process a week’s worth of images. This has been my standard operating procedure for the last couple of months and it seems to work pretty well. I will dive into my holding project entitled “On Deck” and grab and couple of stacks that I want to process and post for the next week. Everything is quiet, the coffee is bottomless (which isn’t necessarily a good thing), and I’m taking a stroll down memory lane as I review images and remember the great times while making them. I was on my second cup of coffee when I began to process this image. I finished it well after the coffee pot was empty. Not only were the clouds a bit of a struggle, the canyon walls (both left and right) were riddled with Chromatic Aberration. The left side was plagued with magenta fringing on the vertical lines and the right side was spotted with a touch of blue fringing. To solve this problem, I processed the images where the problem was prevalent. This was the the two overexposed captures from the bracketed sequence. However, the CA really became an issue because once the right side was corrected, the left side was worse and vice-versa . Eventually I was able to establish a reasonable balance and carried on with my standard HDR/Tonemapping process. Now that I think about it, I might have been better served to process each problem image biased towards the specific CA fringing (one for magenta the other for blue) and then blended the two images together prior to processing. Hmm…a more appropriate tile would have been, Never Retreat, Never Surrender, and Hindsight is 20/20? Next time!

Scene: This image of the Canyonlands National Park, outside of Moab Utah, was shot on a short hike, about half way down from the mesa above.

Capture Notes:

Nikon D300
Tokina 11-16 ATX Pro
Gitzo Traveler

Aperture: f/22.0
Focal Length: 11 mm
ISO Speed: 200

Processing Note:

Capture – 8 images @ 1EV
Adobe Camera Raw – Raw conversion (CA correction on 2 images)
NX2 – Raw conversion on 5 images
Photomatix 3.2.9 – HDR/Tonemapping
NIK Define 2.0 – Noise reduction
Photoshop – Curves adjustment global
Nik Color Efex Pro – Tonal contrast
Photoshop – Lens correction (CA fix)
Nik Define 2.0 – Noise reduction selective to sky.
Nik Color Efex Pro – Correct color cast, still wasn’t happy, so I cooled it down a bit.
Sized For Web
Nik Sharpener 2.0 – Display 50%
LightAsMagic.com
….ugghhhhhh

A bit of departure a from the norm here at LightAsMagic.com, however I thought someone out there might benefit from it. Over the weekend, I noticed our bleeding hearts were in bloom and I wanted to make a ‘thank you’ print for the friend who gave them to us. I grabbed my 105mm Micro VR and snapped a quick image, then another, and another, and another. As I have mentioned in a previous post, I began to ‘work the composition’. Just short of the kitchen sink, I threw everything at it. Why not, film is cheap these days! I selected these 3 images as an example of my approaches.

The first image was the metered exposure, the one the camera told me was the right one. It is the one I will probably print and give to my friend. I think she will like it. After the light began to shift, and a slight shadow was cast on the bleeding hearts, I noticed that the most pronounced heart was highlighted by a single ray of sun. I quickly changed my camera’s light meter to ’spot meter mode’ and dropped the exposure compensation by a full stop. My intent was to exaggerate the light’s idea. It worked, and I made an image my wife really likes. Finally, my vision became less focused on details and more on colors and shapes. I grabbed the focus ring, manually focused in front of the flowers, and achieved the final image. You can probably guess, it is my favorite, which is usually the case. I rarely like the first image I make.

The Metered 'Thank You' Print Exposure.

The Spot Metered (-.7 EV) Exposure. My wife's favorite.

Colors and Shapes Exposure. My favorite.

When your good friend calls and asks “Are you getting this?!?!” You don’t ask what? You grab your camera a head out! That is exactly what happened last night. I got the call, grabbed my gear, and headed up the hill, realized I forgot CF cards, cursed like a sailor, headed back down the hill, ran into grab a my cards, startled my wife, headed back up the hill, and made some images!

Stay tuned for iPhone Friday tomorrow. I have a few new coupon codes to offer as well as a couple new features that I have added to the site. You can probably find them now, but I normally try to package all the news and notes into Friday’s post.

Capture Notes:

Nikon D300
Nikkor 16-85 VRII
Gitzo Traveler

Exposure: 18
Aperture: f/8.0
Focal Length: 16 mm
Exposure Bias: 0 EV
ISO Speed: 200

Processing Notes:

Capture (1 image)
Adobe Camera Raw – Process .NEF
Photoshop – Cropped a bit of the sky out.
Sized For Web
LigthAsMagic.com

After a 5 hour drive, 1 hour of which was being stuck in a traffic jam, we finally broke clear of the weather and horrible drivers. I tend to over hydrate while driving, so a quick break was in order. Boy, we couldn’t have picked a more beautiful location. I kicked off my flip-flops (we were in the desert 4 hours earlier), strapped on the boots, and grabbed my D300. Click, Click, Click….then off to the restroom!

Capture Notes:

Nikon D300
Nikkor 16-85 VR II
Gitzo Traveler

Focal Length: 70 mm
ISO Speed: 200

Processing Notes:

Capture (3 images @ 1ev)
Photomatix (HDR/Tonemapping)
Nik Sliver Efex Pro – BW Conversion and Vingette
Nik Color Efex Pro – Glamour Glow selective to water
Sized for web
LightAsMagic.com

Underprepared.

A stand of trees I have worked with before, caught my attention again. I probably tried 20-30 images as I was experimenting with various panning timings and techniques. I settled on this image because I enjoyed how a touch of detail was retained in the background. In order to capture the detail and still achieve the motion, I would turn the shutter over, pan quickly, then pause.

Click..Pan..Pause…Review….Click….Pan…..Pause…..Review…..until I got it right.

Capture Notes

NIkon D300
Nikkor 70-300 AFS VR II (VR ON)

Exposure: 0.5
Aperture: f/32.0
Focal Length: 100 mm
ISO Speed: 400
Exposure Bias: -1 EV
Flash: No Flash

Processing Notes:

Capture 1 image
Aperture – Raw processing (including definition and contrast boost)
Sized for web
LightAsMagic.com

Sorry for the quick post, but the weather is beautiful and I need to get back out to make some images.

Capture Notes:
Nikon D300
Nikkor 16-85 VR II
Gitzo Traveler

Aperture: f/11.0
Focal Length: 85 mm
ISO Speed: 200

Processing Notes:

Capture (9 images @ 1ev)
Photomatix (HDR/Tonemapping)
NIK Define (Noise reduction automatic profile)
Nik Color Efex Pro (Tonal contrast selective to the fence)
Photoshop (2 selective curves adjustments)
Sized for web
LightAsMagic.com

The Book Cliffs are located just on the outskirts of Grand Junction CO. They face the Colorado National Monument. That puts the town of Grand Junction smack-dab in the middle of both, making it a landscape photographers dream destination.

I would like to get back there soon to spend an entire weekend working with these incredible mountains. This image was from a photo-walk sandwiched between a 5 hour mountain bike ride in the desert and some margaritas with the A-team.

Capture Notes:

Nikon D300
Nikkor 70-300 AFS VR II
Gitzo Traveler

Exposure: 0.001 sec (1/1000)
Aperture: f/5.0
Focal Length: 165 mm
ISO Speed:200

Processing Notes:

Capture (1 Image)
Photomatix (HDR/Tonemapping)
Nik Define 2.0 (Noise Reduction)
Nik Silver Efex Pro (B+W Conversion)
Sized for web
LightAsMagic.com

Lately I have had a bit of full frame/big glass envy. I have my kit, and I’m very happy with it. But there always seems to be something I would like to add or upgrade. At least for me, this desire (rationalized as an artistic need) is that fact that I don’t ever want to let an image get away. I want to be prepared, with the best possible toolset, for when ‘that’ image presents itself. It is when I find images like this, shot with a sub $150 camera, that I remind myself that its not about the gear, it’s about being there. There is no question that great gear will help, but it won’t help you if you aren’t out chasing it.

Capture Notes:

Panasonic TZ4

Processing Notes:

Capture (1 Image)
Nik Silver Efex Pro (High Structure Red Filter)
LightAsMagic.com

I was racing the clouds home, just hoping there would be enough light left to grab my camera. Once home, I grabbed my gear and headed up to a nearby bluff to make some images. In my haste, I had forgotten to take a pair of gloves. After shooting about 20 images, the scene was just starting to peak. I switched my camera in to manual focus and tried to flip the switch to spot meter. At that point, I was rudely awakened from my creative haze by the realization that I could no longer feel my hands. The cold air and howling wind had completely shut down my dexterity. I didn’t let that stop me, I kept on shooting for another 10mins or so. It wasn’t until I was back in my truck driving home that I slowly began to regain feeling….and boy I felt it. It was like two hammers were crushing my thumbs. After about 2 blocks of screaming in pain, everything was back to normal and I was excited to download the new images.

Capture Notes:

Nikon D300
Nikkor 70-300 AFS VR II

Exposure: 0.008 sec (1/125)
Aperture: f/4.5
Focal Length: 90 mm
Exposure Bias: -1 EV
ISO Speed: 200

Processing Notes:

Capture (1 image)
Nik Color Efex Pro (Procontrast)
Nik Viveza 2 (Structure boost to the puffy white clouds)
Sized for web
LightAsMagic.com