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Just got back from a week long vacation in Stanley, Idaho, as well as camping for a family reunion. Which is why I still don't have the July calendar up yet. Luckily, I did shoot some fireworks in Stanley, so I'll probably put it up tomorrow.
Stanley is a beautiful area. I think I have more shots that turned out well, but these two were the first to immediately grab my attention after I dumped my memory card. Thank goodness for polarizers... now I just need a wide-angle lens that has better optics than my kit. Which would be virtually any other wide-angle lens. Wide angle lenses are expensive though. So for now, I'll settle for the kit.
click to enlarge, or see it on Flickr
Aperture: f/22
Shutter Speed: 1 second
ISO: 100
Focal Length: 18mm
Tripod
click to enlarge, or see it on Flickr
Aperture: f/10
Shutter Speed: 1/5
ISO: 100
Focal Length: 18mm
Tripod
I'm a little disappointed in the depth-of-field on the second one. Should have gone narrower than f/10; the mountains are not crisply in focus. Guess I won't be printing that one as a 30x40.
More to come as I find more time to dig through the photos in the last card dump. And I'll try to remember to get that calendar up tomorrow as well.
Up front, I'll apologize for not getting posts out recently. I was gone on a hike all day Friday and Saturday. On the bright side, I got a few good photos on the way. Also, if the weather decides to cooperate instead of snowing again (yes, in MAY), I'll have a new calendar out tomorrow.
Anyway, here's my favorite photo from the trip.
click to enlarge, or see it on Flickr
Aperture: f/11
Shutter Speed: 1/250
ISO: 100
Focal Length: 18mm
Handheld
I love the way the clouds look when you shoot at a wide angle. One of the first lenses I will buy is a really, really wide one for shooting breathtaking landscapes.
This was taken about 2/3s of the way through the 18-mile hike. It was grueling, and it really put things in perspective for me when I could be standing on top of the most recent hill, take a photo like this, and then realize that about an hour or so previous, we were beyond the farthest mountain visible in the shot. I'm glad I did it though, it was a cool experience.
First of all, an exciting announcement: I finally buckled and bought a Pro account on Flickr. The cool part of this is, (among other things) I can now upload my photos in their original resolution. Woot!
So one thing I learned while reading up on how to take better landscape photos is that you need to consider the foreground of the shot as well as the background. Having one point of interest in each area of the photo allows for a better picture that people are more inclined to look at for a long time.
click to enlarge, or see it on Flickr
Aperture: f/11
Shutter Speed: 1/250
ISO: 100
Focal Length: 18 mm
Monopod
I'm not as happy with this photo as I was with this one, but it didn't turn out too bad, and it's a good one to illustrate this concept.
This is one of the best landscapes I think I have ever produced.
click to enlarge, or see it on Flickr
Aperture: f/11
Shutter Speed: 1/250
ISO: 100
Focal Length: 18 mm
Tripod
It really needs to be viewed as large as possible. I wish I could offer more than 1024 pixels wide, but yeah, Flickr. The custom black & white controls in Lightroom and shooting in RAW made all the difference here. I'm seriously considering getting this printed in a large-ish size.
Sorry for not giving you all a heads-up before I left, but for spring break, my family went to Capitol Reef National Park in southern Utah for the last few days. I took about 3.5 GB worth of photos, mostly in RAW, and I've just barely started to scratch the surface with putting the good ones through Lightroom and Photoshop. So don't be surprised if my posts for the next like, two weeks are all Capitol Reef photos!
click to enlarge, or see it on Flickr
Aperture: f/11
Shutter Speed: 1/200
ISO: 100
Focal Length: 18 mm
Monopod
I found myself using the 18 side of my 18-55mm kit lens far more often than I ever have in the past. I also found myself wishing for a lens hood on many occasions. Hopefully lens flares that occurred won't be too difficult to take out when it comes down to it.
