Lake Huron Sunsets

We had some interesting cloud structure this week and I drove down to the lake to try capture the sunset. The sun had already disappeared when I arrived and I only had about 45 minutes of light left so I had to setup quick.

A couple things to note for these images. Long shutter time is essential to getting a good exposure low light. Long shutter time = tripod, no exceptions. It is also important to know your camera and tripod well to quickly change compositions and camera settings. Bring a flashlight to help you see.

The first image was taken around 9:30pm. I wanted to frame along the waters edge and chose this location to put the large rock in the foreground to add some interest. I wasn't paying total attention to my surroundings and almost ended up with a soaker - almost!

17-40mm at 29mm, f22 @ 20 seconds

The second image is around 15 minutes later, approximately 9:45pm. Again composed with a large rock in the foreground and the shoreline at an angle. For this image, I used my flash to fill in the foreground to maintain detail. I hand held the flash and just manual fired it about 5 or 6 times at different spots around the rocks. Notice I framed this vertically. Remember what I said earlier, know your camera and tripod well - it minimizes the fumbling around and lets you focus on the composition and details. Also notice the exposure time - 17 additional seconds longer to compensate for less light.


17-40mm at 17mm, f22 @ 37 seconds

Finally, this last image was taken at 10:01pm. There was not much colour left in the sunset but the blues in the sky are now deep. One thing to note here is that I am shooting approximately an hour after sunset, it is now pretty dark but this can make a dramatic image. Worth sticking around for, don't you think? Often people take a few shots when the sun is still in the sky and then put the camera away once it starts to disappear. Something to think about.

17-40mm at 17mm, f22 @ 95 seconds

Cheers,

Rob

Canadian Geographic POTW

Well I have to pat myself on my back in this post. This image was chosen for Photo of the Week (POTW) on the Canadian Geographic Photoclub website.

You can see it and the other POTWs at the following link:

http://photoclub.canadiangeographic.ca/cg/PhotoOfTheWeek/PhotoOfTheWeek.aspx

I had borrowed a 100mm macro lens from a good friend and testing it out. I came out on my deck looking for various and assorted insects and this fly was sitting on the railing of our deck.

I handheld the camera with the lens resting on the railing for stability. I went to minimum focus distance and rocked back and forth to fine tune the focus. One of my first images with this lens so I guess I got pretty lucky.

And I was happy that it stayed around for a few frames before flying off.

Cheers,

Rob

There are lots of new Canada Geese families in this area and the goslings are growing fast. There are several families that reside near where I work and I brought my camera with me to take a few shots last week. Here are a couple of images from that day. The adults were keeping a close eye on me and the little guys were busy pecking away at the grass. The one little one in the second image below was in deep grass and near the top of a little hill so that just it's head and neck were showing above the grass.

Country Roads

Here are some images from this past week as I was driving to an appointment. I had my camera with me and it was a cloudy (and rainy) day so the light was not too harsh considering it was mid-day. I travel through a lot of country roads and there are ample opportunites for pictures. I had to shoot in tight to keep the grey sky out of the pictures.

This driveway caught my eye as I passed by going to my appointment. I stopped on my way back. It was raining at the time so I had to stay in the car and shoot hand held resting the lens hood on the partially rolled down window for stability.



This young bull was laying in the grass but facing away from me. I could not get a good image until he stood up and seemed to stand there posing.



This next image is cropped to remove an annoying fence post that was covering the black cow at the back end.



The next two images were taken from a hill overlooking a field in a valley. Quite beautiful actually. The vertical shot is zoomed in tighter (195mm) than the horizontal (125mm).