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2010 First Light Photo Workshops Online Newsletter
April / May
COLORADO CONTACT INFO
With a move back to Colorado, new contact info is available. Of course, website and e-mail will stay the same. First Light's new mailing address is P.O. Box 2123; Castle Rock, CO 80104. As of now, we have a contract on a house in Castle Pines that we hopefully be moving into in late May or early June. With just staying in temporary housing for the time being, no home phone number is available but I do have a new cell phone number, which is 303-601-2828. I'm trying to have this with me most of the time
NORTHERN LIGHTS RECAP
This year there were only two weeks of northern lights workshops due to the travel schedule of the people we stay with on the northern leg of the trip. As per usual, the weeks were full and as always, everyone walked away with shots of the aurora borealis. The streak continues where I have not had a week in which we did not have any activity at all.
Week one had the best aurora action as there was activity three nights. Week two had to wait until the final night on the northern leg to see and photography the aurora. Week one also had a great wildlife week. The biggest excitement came when a wolf crossed the road in front of us and then took a seat in the trees and sat and looked at us for a brief period of time. Several people were able to get shots of it and the shot below is from the person who happened to be seated in the front passenger seat. It's not a full-frame shot, but it's a shot of a wolf in the wild in northern Alaska.
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Also seen and photographed during the first week was a lynx, a very cooperative red fox that came very close to the whole group as it was outside the vehicle and sat and posed for several minutes, ptarmigan, dall sheep, caribou and we saw a golden eagle on the road having leftovers of a rabbit. We also saw a pine marten chasing a rabbit all over the place.
Weather for the trip was incredible with clear skies day and night for the full two weeks. The only exception was our last Friday night in Fairbanks for week two when we were going to head out again as the forecast was really good for an active aurora.
The best aurora night was the first of two nights on the northern leg in week one when there was a good bit of purple in the aurora. A very active show went on for quite a while, allowing everyone to get quite a few really nice shots. The brightness was also very strong for both weeks so that shorter exposure times could be used and more shots to be taken.
One sequence that was nice was when a couple of us looked at our shots and there was a shooting star going through the image. Of all the aurora shots I have taken in seven trips to Alaska, this was the first one that had a shooting star in it.
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FLORIDA RECAP
Change will be coming to the April Florida workshops starting in 2011 after I did a couple day visit to Gartorland in Orlando prior to the scheduled tripp this year. In addition to stops at Fort Desoto, honeymoon Island, several other hidden spots and now a boat ride to Bird Island in Coffee Pot Bayou, at least one day and possibly two will be included to this spot that continues to get better nesting activity year after year.
The extremely cold winter that Florida experienced this year, the coldest in history, nesting activity started later than previous years. Evenso, the amount and variety of birds at Gatorland were quite impressive. While I was there, the list of nesting birds included wood storks, roseate spoonbills, great egrets, snowy egrets, cattle egrets, little blue and tricolored herons, and limpkin.
What's great about this area is that you can get a one day photo pass for $30 and split it between two days, using the evening of day one and the morning of day two to take advantage of the extended hours for those with the pass.
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At the time I was there, a wood stork nest that had decent accessibility had several babies in it that you could get out to in the morning when the sun was on the correct side.
The boardwalk at Gatorland is a lot longer than the area where the bird photography is great. Only about half of the boardwalk is productive for good bird photography. And with nests as close as just two or three feet away, large lenses aren't a must have item. I did have and use my 600mm lens quite a bit for the birds on the opposite bank.
The pond to the east side of the boardwalk is where some good flight shots can be taken as birds are flying to and from their nests. I used a 100 - 400 for these and that was more than adequate. Many people there had a 70-200mm lens on their camera and they probably got quite a few good shots, but a little more length will result in more photo ops.
A full day here is necessary to take advantage of all that is there. The morning is best for the birds to the west of the boardwalk as well as going to the back side of the wood stork nest. Evening offers good light to the nests east of the boardwalk and the flight activity.
In talking with Mike Godwin, who runs the photo program there, the rookery is active into August and September. The weather at this time of year is not that great for standing around for several hours thiough. April and May are prime times for here and you can get mast everything you want in one day, but two days will make sure you get what you want and more. This is why it will be part of the 2011 workshop and beyond.
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ALASKA BEAR
TRIP WORKSHOP
(2 spots left)
After quite a bit of research, a 2010 bear trip dropped right into my lap, and a great one at that. The dates of the trip will be August 9 - 19. This will be a boat based trip which a couple of people have been asking about and it will include stops at some of the most popular destinations in Southeast Alaska - Pack Creek and Anan Creek. The trip will start out from Juneau and finish up in Wrangell. the price of the trip ($$4,695) will include a night in Juneau before the boat leaves and a night in Wrangell to do a little bit around there for departures the next day. The trip detail page will have a full itinerary but some of the highlights beyond Pack and Anan creeks include glacial fjords, whales, a Stellar seal lion rookery where there are also harbor seals, orcas and plenty more. But, the main emphasis will be on the bears and we will get a good bit of action at multiple stops to concentrate on some great bear activity as the time of this trip coincides with a very productive salmon run.
FALL NORTHERN LIGHTS WORKSHOP ADDED
2011 FALKLAND ISLANDS (possibly only 1 or 2 spots left)
The 2011 Falkland Islands trip will be for two weeks, Jan. 8 - 22 and for now the cost will be $6,495. Yes, that's a lot of money but it's well worth it. Right now the exchange rate is a bit less than the last time I did this trip and I'll keep an eye on it and if the rate changes favorably I might be able to drop the price by a little bit. If you want to sign up for the trip and pay in segments I can work with you on this. As of now there are three confirmed for the trip with the chance of two others signing up so the trip might be full. But, as everyone knows, the first to get a deposit in has a spot reserved.
The trip will feature stops at four different islands as well as the king penguin rookery on the main island. I have visited all of these spots and everything that can be found on all islands can be found on these. We will have several opportunities for the black browed albatross as well as the southern elephant seals and all penguin varieties and numerous other birds.
After the trip I'll spend three or four days in the Torres del Paine area of Patagonia. I'd like to do some exploring for adding a workshop there the following year so anyone interested in doing this let me know as it will pretty much be a split of the expenses for all who want to do this. So far two people have more or less committed to doing this. All this will cost is a split of expenses between everyone who signs up.
2011 NORTHERN LIGHTS DATES
Dates are now set for the March 2011 northern lights trips. As of now there will be three weeks and the dates will be Mar. 5-12, Mar, 12-19, and Mar. 19-26. If you sign up for the first week there is the opportunity to go to Anchorage first to see the ceremonial start to the Iditarod sled dog race on the 5th before flying up to Fairbanks later that day. As in past years, theese trip will more than likely fill up and fill up early so sign up early if interested.
iPhone / iTouch Applications - TideGraph
Want to find out the best time to schedule a trip where tide activity is important? Trips to the Oregon Coast for doing tide pools or to Florida for wanting to get the most action of wading birds at low tide at sunrise and / or sunset are two very good examples of needing to know when low tide is. The application TideGraph allows you to find a location and pick the dates you want and it shows you what times high and low tides will be. There are certain times and places where there are two low tides a day and if you can schedule trip when these coincide with both morning and evening shooting times you're set as there will be more activity than when a strong high tide is present.
DIGITAL
/ MARKETING CORNER
The changing face of ISO
By
Bob Dean
The newest digital cameras are touting ISO numbers that stretch the imagination. Back in film days the very idea of shooting a film with an ISO (or ASA for the seasoned photographers in the club) exceeding 10,000 was unheard of. Now a good many digital SLRS exceed that by staggering amounts. How can we properly utilize this new tool? Recent magazine articles have addressed the use of ISO as a creative tool in ways we've not seen before. The ability to get decent saturation in very low light is the first thing that comes to mind, secondly we can crank up shutter speed and freeze action with reasonable depth of field in ways we only dreamed of in years past. OK, what are the drawbacks to this great tool? As with everything in this field, there are tradeoffs. As I have mentioned before in articles and in the classes I teach, ISO does not change the sensitivity of the sensor, it changes the overall "system gain".
Let's get into the details! The digital sensor, by its very design, has a system gain which simply put defines the amount of electrical current generated by a given amount of light striking each pixel (photons to electrons). The engineers designing these sensors call this parameter "native sensitivity". The electrical circuits that takes these extremely tiny signals and boosts them to a usable level are called amplifiers. The signal coming from the amplifier (at this point it's an analog signal, related more or less linearly to the amount of light striking the sensor) is routed to another circuit called an analog to digital converter. This circuit takes the signal and converts it into a digital form. The number of bits that you see referenced in a lot of literature comes from the design of this circuit. The mor ebits, teh more information (light level) conveyed to the processor. The ISO setting DSLRs controls the gain of the amplifier. If the ISO is set to the "native sensitivity", the camera is pretty close in sensitivity to the equivalent ISO of film. This is essential the optimum setting for gain. As ISO is increased, the gain goes up and along with it, any noise in the input signal as well as noise generated by the amplifier itself. If the ISO is reduced below the native sensitivity, the signal gets attenuated a bit and some information is lost, impacting the saturation of the image. The software in the image processor can do quite a bit to alleviate the negative impacts of noise and to some degree the reduced information, so deviating from native sensitivity is manageable.
So how can we translate this into something usable? Well first you need to find the ISO for your camera that corresponds to the native sensitivity. You can use that as a starting point for your shooting and increase or decrease as the situation dictates, but at least you'll know that starting point. How to find out? Good question. It took a while but the "conventional wisdom is that Canon native sensitivity is at ISO 100 while Nikon tends to be 200. I'll bet some internet searching can produce better as well as conflicting numbers but such is life in the digital age. I searched on "native sensitivity + Canon + 7D and got 342 hits on Google. Many had additional links and a good many had wrong information!
Set your camera to its native value, move the ISO up and down, and see for yourself the variability in images. Hint- You probably won't see a lot until you get to the extremes. Once you know, you can then use ISO as a creative control with more understanding.
HUNTS PHOTO GEAR SPECIALS
Gary has now set up a special page on their website for specials they send out to clubs and workshop groups. You can access the page of specials at http://wbhunt.com/specials/. Be sure to check it frequently as things do change. When I do get announcements of special note I'll get that info sent out.
You can contact Gary Farber at 800-924-8682 ext 2332 or by e-mail at digitalguygary@wbhunt.com or Kathryn at knazzaro@wbhunt.com. The old 800 still works, but they have modified the connection system with the new number.
