This mornings sunrise was captured at Leesylvania State Park. I returned to the pier this morning hoping to capture the sun in the arch. It looks like it is just a matter of time (probably about another week or so) before the sun will be in the correct position to eclipse the opening.

This morning as I was driving to my location at 6:15AM I was wondering why people were zooming by me on the road. Then the reason came to me. We were already well in to civil twilight and they were not in position to take a photograph! Wow, that seems like the story of my life lately. My alarm went off at 5AM and all I could do is slap at it. Needless to say, I wound up hitting the snooze and did not roll out of bed until 5:35AM. Cutting it close to get anywhere with in reason. I wound up settling on Leesylvania State Park. I had been wanting to get back there with the 14mm to see what it would look like.

Well I got there late and did not have much time to plan. I hit the beach and started shooting straight away. I brought a second body so that I would not have to change lenses but that only made things more awkward. I struggle with this a lot when I am shooting field sports. I still have not found a rhythm for shooting with two bodies. I guess I just need more practice.

Anyway, I struggled to get in a zone and was getting a little frustrated again. I need to get it in my head that I MUST get to my location early and give myself a chance to get in sync with the scene and the environment. The frustration did not last long. I smiled and thought to my self that any amount of time shooting - even if it isn't going well - is still more satisfying than anything else I do. I spent a lot of time walking the shore looking for new angles and enjoyed the beauty of the morning. The colors this morning were great and I loved watching the transition from night to day.

Canon 1Ds Mark III, 14mm, f/11, ISO 100, (EF14mm f/2.8L USM II)

Canon 1Ds Mark III, 14mm, f/11, ISO 100, (EF14mm f/2.8L USM II)

This evenings image was captured outside of Catlet, VA. I am not exactly sure where I was. Today at 16:30 I just started driving and chasing the sunset. I headed out through my usual near by sunset haunt of Vint Hill. With out a real destination in mind my plan was to just drive until something struck me (and there was a reasonable place to pull over).

I saw ton of great farms along the route but none of them had a good place to pull over without really trespassing on the property. I continued on and the sun was setting fast. I was now within 15 minutes of the scheduled sunset when I saw a small church right next to a small farm. The sun was already going down behind the trees and it was now or miss another one.

I grabbed my camera with the 16-35 attached and my tripod and ran over to the field. I snapped a couple of frames, but then I realized that shooting wide was just not going to work here. As I stood there, group after group of geese were coming in for a landing on apparently unseen pond behind the barn. It was beautiful.

I had been listening to a lot of Martin Baileys podcasts lately and was liking all of the images that he makes. He shoots a lot of nature (swans and the like) and uses the 70-200 for a lot of his work. Well I am glad I brought mine along. I ran to the car and came back and switched lenses. The long lens allowed me to get in tight underneath some power lines and to frame the shot of the geese landing just in time.

A side note: Martin Bailey offers all inclusive photo workshops to Japan and as soon as I save up enough money I would like to try one. Check out his work and the podcasts at: Martin Bailey Photography.

So this turned out to be an outstanding place to watch the sunset. I am going to return here another day to try and get some more shots of the birds landing. My assumption is that this is probably a daily occurrence this time of year as the birds settle in for the night. Cheers.

Canon 1Ds Mark III, 1/125 sec at f/8, 155mm, ISO 100, (EF70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM)

Canon 1Ds Mark III, 1/125 sec at f/8, 155mm, ISO 100, (EF70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM)

Canon 1Ds Mark III, 145mm, f/11, ISO 100, (EF70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM), 4 frame HDR Conversion

Canon 1Ds Mark III, 130mm, f/11, ISO 100, (EF70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM), 4 frame HDR Conversion

This evenings photo was captured in Washington D.C. of the U.S. Capitol Building. I was impressed with the number of police that were there watching me. I guess it makes sense. Some guy lurking around in the dark all dressed in black with a black hat and gloves carrying a carbon fiber tripod which looks suspiciously like something else. My first shot was from just above the reflecting pool where I was illuminated by flood lights from the capitol police cars as they circled around and then converged on the area. They passed on by and eventually took a place around the corner where they continued to watch me.

After I crossed the road and walked through the barricades left over from the inauguration additional police appeared. These men were up on the terraces that are part of the Capitol Building itself. I found a good central location and proceeded to capture some images with them watching me intently. I guess the areas that I was walking were kind of dark and who would think that anyone would be taking photographs that late at night.

Well I grabbed a few sets of brackets and then high tailed it home so that I could meet my 12:00AM deadline to post the picture. The police did not bother me at all. They did not approach me or question what I was doing. They were just watchful. This is a good thing. It made me feel safer just knowing that they were there.

In this image you can still see a lot of the scaffolding that is left over from the Presidents inauguration. This treatment was intentionally HDR intense to create a kind of metallic look and introduce the leading lines that you see in the grass. It is amazing how much detail that can be brought out by extending the dynamic range. My friend Rodney has an image that was of the president taking his oath of office and it is very clear and close. He must have been right down front near the center of this image. He made a great image. Me, I did not want to fight the weather having spent the day freezing on Saturday. I wish i had gone but I am sure it was a long day for a lot of people. Cheers.

Canon 1Ds Mark III, 29mm, f/8, ISO 200, (EF16-35mm f/2.8L USM II), 2 frame HDR Conversion

Canon 1Ds Mark III, 29mm, f/11, ISO 200, (EF16-35mm f/2.8L USM), 5 frame HDR Conversion

Just some thoughts after thinking about this image and the other frames that I captured last night.

What I realized this morning is that I did not capture enough frames with this set. When capturing the shadows, I need to make sure that there are enough frames to capture the detail there. I think that what happened when I merged to HDR is that there were gaps in the information (detail).

The other thing that I had changed in my work flow was that I switched to manual and therefore the man in the loop caused a bit of lag in image capture. When I started shooting this scene the light continued to fall off even though it was late in the evening. When I arrived, I was able to expose at f/11 for 30 seconds at ISO 100 and 10 minutes later I had to go to ISO 800 to be able to capture the same exposure. This and the fact that I was only grabbing 3 frames contributed to the problem.

So the issue may not have been the ISO per se, but the post processing that tried to make something out nothing (you can't create detail if it is not there).

There is kind of a dilemma when you are trying to post a "quality" photo a day (not that I have achieved any kind of quality yet) and you wait to the last minute to try and capture an image and that is compounded by being called home early for some reason or another. Not a big deal really, just a little frustrating. There has been at least 6 times to date that I would not have posted anything because the image was either of poor composition, quality or not an interesting subject. I really need to sit down this weekend and come up with an overall plan to keep the images interesting and organized by some sort of theme.