January 2006

WIMBERLEY HEAD UPDATE
The new Wimberley heads for large lenses are now available for shipping. After numerous delays, the first batch of heads went out last week. I'll be getting mine in the next day or two and will be taking it with me to Arizona later this week. I'll let you know what aI think of it next issue. If interested in getting one, let me know and I'll get an order form sent to you. There might be a waiting list but if you use the order form I provide you will get quicker shipping of the head.

DIGITAL CORNER
DIGITAL WORKFLOW - I had a question from a subscriber and regular workshop participant asking if I could explain my digital workflow pattern as well as my storage methods.

With digital camera sales now outpacing film camera sales - and fewer new film cameras going into the market - workflow is now a very important subject. There is no exact and perfect system to workflow, or as some would like to refer to it as workslow, so each person has to find out what works best for themselves.

Based on what method of shooting is used, refer to last month's article on RAW VS JPEG, the amount of work involved is different for each person. I'll start with my method of filing and storage.

In the field there are a couple of options as to how you store your images based on how much flash card storage you have. If you have enough memory with you, it's best to wait until you get home to download your cards. I have 8 GB of cards and can shoot roughly 1,100 images in RAW before having to download any cards.

If you do have to download, you have have several options. Delkin has a product called BurnAway that allows you to burn DVDs while on the road. In addition to this, you can use a device such as a FlashTrax which can hold up to 80 GB of files as well as having a 3.5" viewing monitor. The other choice is to take a laptop computer with you and load your images on it and even do some work with the photos on the trip.

Once back home, the process I use is to download my media onto my desktop computer. I'll then sort through the images and delete any that are obvious throw aways. With shooting in RAW mode only, I'll then create a set of jpeg files that I keep on my desktop for quick reference and review. I'll then create tiff files from the RAW files. While this does take a while to do, I usually start this process when I have other things to do and let the computer do its thing. I'll then back up the RAW and tiff files onto both DVDs and an external hard drive. I'm now on my second external drive and it's only a matter of time before this number increases. On rare occassions I'll only put the RAW files on the external and then create tiff files as needed. This dual backup allows for safe knowledge of knowing I have these important shots available in two places should something happen to one media format. I never keep the RAW or tiff files on the desktop computer as it's only a matter of time before the computer crashes and data is lost.

As for a catalog system, I use a two-step approach. On my desktop computer, I have one folder called PHOTOS that is on the desktop for easy access. In this folder I have numerous other folders for keeping the jpeg images filed. These are sorted by state or subject, i.e. Alaska, Colorado, Florida, Wildflowers, Birds and so on. Within these folders are other folders based on a naming convention that relates to what the folders are called on DVDs and the external drive. These names usually include the subject or location of the shoot and the month / year. This allows for easy access to the RAW and tiff files for use in submissions or other use. On my external drives I have a label that shows the starting and ending date of the files stored on it.

Back on the computer, I only work with a backup file so as to keep the original file in it's native and original form. This applies even to the jpeg files. What I do with the files depends on what I'm doing regarding the final destination. If I'm doing a submission to a stock agency or magazine, I follow their guidelines and provide either jpeg, tiff or both with the specs and information they desire. With working from a copy of the original, I'll then file this material onto CDs for reference as to what I have out at different locations.

For my file management, I typically use Photoshop 7.0 or Elements depending on what I'm doing. Elements has a better batch process than 7.0 for some work and that's usually the time I use that program. In Photoshop, I'll do my cleaning up of the image and put in the caption, keywording and copyright information.

With shooting so many images, I only do this for the images I'm sending out or printing as to do this for every image I shoot would take too much time. In Photoshop, there is an order I follow as to the steps to clean up the shots. As noted in last month's article, when you shoot in RAW, you have to sharpen and fix your levels for contrast and saturation.

In Photoshop the first adjustment you should make is with cropping the file as this is the least destructive function. The next thing to do is levels to adjust your contract and color. It's also a good thing to keep in mind to do things in small sections as opposed to doing things globally. The last step I'll do is to sharpen the areas I want to bring out. Instead of using the sharpen filter, use the Unsharp Mask. These are the parameters you should work from: Sharpen - at least100%,
Radius - 1.5 to 2.5 and Threshold - 2 or 3.

After doing this work I'll then add the file information if needed. Again, always work from a backup of your original file so that you still have that available in case you want to do something different in the future.

NANPA CONFERENCE
The annual NANPA conference is just around the corner in February in Denver, Colorado. I'll be having a booth at the trade show so make sure you stop by and say hello. I'll be at Booth 30. Also, if anyone is planning on getting into town early you might want to schedule a visit to the Colorado Urban WIldlife Photo Club. The club meets the first Tuesday of the month and information can be found on the club website at www.couwpc.com. If you will have a vehicle, info on where the club meets is on the website. If you need a ride, contact me and a ride will be arranged.

MERRITT ISLAND REFUGE UPDATE
I received the following e-mail from a friend in Florida and thought everyone might be interested in reading his information on the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge.

Andy - I just wanted to pass on something we noted on our visit to Merritt Island yesterday. We were surprised to find that the Bio Lab Road has been closed to northbound traffic, possibly in an attempt to reduce congestion on this "major thoroughfare". We have been using this road for years and never had a horn blown due to cars not being civil in their driving it.

This road is one of our favorite for viewing gators, though the count was low yesterday possibly due to the 50 degree temps and 40mph winds. However, while we attempted to enter the area from the South, after paying our day entry fee, as the road is within the Canaveral National Seashore boundary, we found it was posted "Do Not Enter" from this end.

Later in the day, we accessed it from the North, however it came to our attention that by doing so, we "would not have had to pay the fee" as the pay booth is inland from the intersection of the Bio Lab Road and the access road from the pay station to the seashore area. When leaving there is a bypass lane, which we also used as we had paid the fee, for those not wishing to get additional information from the "ranger".

Another point of this is that we use our car for a blind on quick trips, such as this one was. In order to cover as much area as possible and get as many images as we can. By making it a one way route, southbound, the prime images of the gators and the pond for birds end up on the passengers side of the vehicle, thus making it difficult for the driver to shoot. Small inconvenience, except that shooting from the passengers side does not offer the same comfort as from the drivers side.

It would be nice if the National Park Service and Fish and Wildlife would consider photo needs in their decisions. However, the bigger point is that it would be good if they would consider the lost revenue of having access restricted to the point of not requiring payment for those using such routes. While this was the case before the decision to make the road one way, it is highlighted as all traffic using the road now avoids the payment of fees if they so choose. While most of us will pay our fair share, some of us will find ways not to and having the Resource Managers making it so easy just doesn't seem logical.

Just to keep you posted of the photo opts in the Sunshine state! ; > )

It was in the low 50's with winds of 40+ mph when we were there. Most of the birds were grounded and those that were had a hard time standing! But we did get some good shots in some quieter areas. The bird count was good, though we only saw five gators.

Mark Fuge

FLIGHT OF FANCY
Bosque del Apache was as good as it ever is. If you've never been there and like to do bird photography you have to schedule a visit, espeically for flight shots. The world of digital makes shooting there much easier and cost effective. With birds coming in a taking off from the fields you can keep your finger pressed down and firing away. There's still an art to getting good flight shots, but you don't have to worry about conserving film now.

Mornings were a bit strange this year as the large numbers of snow geese on the main lake were doing their mass take-off about 15 to 20 minutes before sunrise, usually around the time the other large groups were coming in. Even without the good light for take-off, the shooting was still quite good with roadrunners, pheasant and coyotes providing other good subjects in addition to the snow geese and sandhill cranes.

The refuge is in the process of doing some work on the south loop in hopes of having some feed fields down there. Depending on how they set these up, the lighting angle could be difficult as the possibility of the birds always being backlit could cause problems.

 

SUBSCRIBER WEB SITES
Want to see some wonderful photography? And from all over the world? You need to visit Dick Erickson's website. There are shots from lots of other locations as well. Nice website and even better photography. The site can be found at www.dickericksonphotography.com.

Send me your web address and I'll get people directed to your website in a future newsletter.

February / March 2006

WIMBERLEY HEAD UPDATE
The new Wimberley heads for large lenses are now available for shipping. After numerous delays, the first batch of heads went out last week.I used it doing waterfowl in Arizone in late January and it's really nice. The new design makes it very easy for adjusting the panning know. The shorter dimension and new plate design make for easier storage in your camera bag. If interested in getting one, let me know and I'll get an order form sent to you. There might be a waiting list but if you use the order form I provide you will get quicker shipping of the head.

DIGITAL CORNER
Color Management - Part 1 (Notes from the recent NANPA Conference)

Obtaining accurate color in digital prints or on screen is a major frustration for many photographers. An image looks great on screen but when it's printed, the color is not the same at all. Or, you've edited your images to perfection and have posted it on your website or sent it to a client and now it's too dark or bright.

Sound familiar? The first place to start is with your monitor. Unless you have an accurately calibrated display you're only guessing that what you see on your screen is what other people will see.

Monitor calibration software - There are a number of options available for calibration of displays. The Mac includes a software calibration system, and Windows users of Photoshop and Photoshop Elements have the Adobe Gamma utility available. The drawback to using either of these tools is the measuring tool - your eyes. Because you're using vision to set properties, there will always be some variation between the optimal settings and what you perceive to be correct. Still, using software calibration is much better than ignoring your display settings completely.

Mac - These come with the Display Calibration Assistant, which is located under System Preferences Displays. Choose Color and select Calibrate to get started. Use Expert Mode to give you as much control over the process as possible.

You'll go through five steps to determine your monitor's settings, each focusing on different aspects of luminance. The next step is to select a Gamma setting. The Mac has historically used a gamma of 1.8. This give you better shadow detail at the expense of saturation in your colors. Choose the PC Standard setting of 2.2. This is in fact the Native gamma for most LCD displays, including the Apple Cinema displays.

Nest is the target white point setting. Use D65, or 6500 K as the color temperature. This will give you the most neutral and accurate whites possible. Complete the process by giving your profile a name and letting the Assistant set it as the default profile.

Windows - Find the Adobe Gamma utility by selecting Start > Setting > Control Panel > Adobe Gamma. This works much like the Mac tool where you set the luminance values by making adjustments to red, greem, and blue boxes on the screen. Be sure "View Single Gamma Only" is not checked and the "Desired" setting is "Windows Default" which is 2.2.

Now, make adjustments to the three color boxes until the solid and striped areas blend as much as possible. Next, set your "Hardward White Point" to 6500 K, and "Adjusted White Point" to Same as Hardware. As with the Macintosh utility,. you'll save this profile and it will automatically be used by your system.

Considerations for screen to printer include:

1) RGB on a monitor is active color, emitted by a source
2) Printers use CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow plus black) and it's a subtractive process
3) Printers use 4 colors, even if they have 6-8 inks, the basic four colors are all that's really there.

When calibrating a monitor the Gamma adjustment is better than nothing but far from perfect. Your eyes and ambient light changes can have an effect.

LCD should be calibrated every 1-2 months or when some change is made to the environment, hardware, etc.

A side shield on a monitor is good idea. Reduces ambient light glare

Display resolution should be set to the units native for best images, everything else is scaled. You can find native on the literature or the mfg's website. Set the default to this in Windows - 1280x1024 is common

2006 WORKSHOP ADDITIONS
Just to give you a heads up on what's new in 2006, look for trips to Arizona to do cactus in bloom at Saguaro National Park and the Sonora Desert Museum area. While there recently I found some really good spots where the arms fold down to the ground for some nice shots with them in bloom.

Another new trip on the schedule will be to southern Texas for using blinds at one or two ranches. The ranchers in that part of the state are opening up their property to photographers and have blinds set up at some great spots for getting some unique birds and other wildlife. I'm heading there in April for a scout trip to numerous of the ranches to find one or two that will offer the shooting opportunities.

These trips will probably fill up fast so let me know if you're interested and once I have the dates set you can get signed up early.

ARIZONA CACTUS COUNTRY

I had the opportunity to go to Arizona recently with someone who has been on several trips with me. He had just jumped into digital with both feet and wanted some help with getting everything figured out. He said he had the car rental and hotels covered so how could I pass up an opportunity of a trip where I didn't have to do any of the setting up of things and driving. Just show up and have fun shooting.

After a couple of days in the Phoenix area shooting ducks at the Phoenix Zoo and the World Wildlife Zoo, we headed south to do the cactus. If you're ever in the Phoenix area and want to get some very interesting exotic ducks go to the Workd Wildlife Zoo west of town. Several ponds provide some good shooting opportunities.

While the ducks were nice, it was the morning and evening shooting with the saguaro cactus at Saguaro National Park and the Sonora Desert Museum that were really fun. I had not thought about going to this area before but am very glad I had the time to go as the sunrises and sunsets here are beautiful

It's very easy to get lost in your photo work here and realize you've been out there for two or three hours when it seems like you just got there. With so many subjects all around you just roam around in the desert and find compositions that strike your fancy, Because of the countless cactus in front of you, this area makes for a great place to go to work on expanding your photographic eye looking for interesting compositions.

Add the light element to it and you have a great place to go to work with light angles, silhouettes, and details of light and shadow. It's because of the great opportunities of working with light and composition that I'm adding a trip here to my schedule in 2006. Add to these elements the cactus in bloom, and my trip next year will be a really good one.

As with most national parks, the visitor center here offers a good film about the area. Not having cactus before, except for the sunrise shoot that morning, the film provided some great ideas of what to look for. I don't always watch the short films offered at visitor center's, but this time I thought it would be interesting and it was well worth the little bit of time it took to watch.

What makes this area really nice is the added attraction of the Sonora Desert Museum. With several building housing different exhibits you can spend an entire day here after doing a sunrise shoot of the cactus. A hummingbird room and a bird room with many other interesting subjects provide some good shooting of something a little different to add some spice to the trip.

Each day a program is given about some different birds outside with handlers letting them fly free. The day we were there they had numerous Harris hawks flying around allowing for some nice flight shots of birds you seldom see in the wild. No need to take your big glass for this. I used my 70-200 with a 2X and was able to get some really good images.

In addition to this, there is a great cactus garden here with multiple types of barrel cactus and other types. There aren't many bad places here so it's worth a full day of shooting between sunrise and sunset shooting.

A big thanks to Jim Conley for inviting me along for a great week of shooting.

SOFTWARE
I've recently picked up a couple of software packages to help with your digital workslow. One is called Panorama Factory and the other DCF Full Spectrum. While I've played alittle bit with Panorama Factory, I haven't done much with theFull Spectrum as of yet.

Panorama Factory is one of the top programs for stitching images together to create a large panorama shot. It walks you through the steps making for very simple usage. If you ever want to do some panorama work this is the program to get. It only takes a couple of minutes to create a shot from your files.

When doing panoramas, it's best to shoot a series of vertical shots, anywhere from 4 to 6 or more, and then let this program work it's magic.

SUBSCRIBER WEB SITES
Send me your web address and I'll get people directed to your website in a future newsletter.

LOWEPRO BAG GIVEAWAY - FREE
Now that the free word has your attention, how would you like to get a new LowePro backpack? One of the new ones with rollers. LowePro is offereing one workshop participant the chance to get a free backpack. After you have been on one of my workshops this year send me your best shot (or two) and at the end of the year the person judged to have the best shot will win the bag. So there is no bias in the judging I will have one or two other people do the judging so they won't know who submitted the shot. If you've already been on a trip this year get them in. If you're deciding on whose trip to go on, keep this in mind.

2007 CALENDARS
I'm still taking pre-orders for a 2007 calender I'm havaing published. The images have been selected and I'm waiting for a couple of clients who will be purchasing bulk quantities to place their final order. If you know of a company that would like to provide customers with 2007 calendars at a very good bulk rate have them contact me. For now, individual calendars can be purchased for $6 for a limited time. Go to the Trip Payment page to buy yours now.

DIGITAL CORNER
HOW PHOTOGRAPHERS CAN MAKE PHOTO BUYERS' LIVES EASIER (Notes from the recent NANPA Conference)

The following are notes from several breakout sessions where photo editors were present and different conversations came up as to what should we as photographers do to make it easier for photo buyers. Also included are other tips to help the photographer.

From Bill Jaynes, publisher of Inner Reflections calendar - He does a lot of web searching to view different peoples' websites. He likes those that have larger images on them so he can get a better feel for what the quality is.

Several audience members then chimed in that putting large images on their sites leaves them vulnerable to theft. A large size, low-res file was suggested but these can still be used for some applications. Each photographer with a web site must weigh the risks of providing a larger image size to the actual threat of theft. Watermarks are one way around this.

Unidentified photo editor - Wants a match print with the image being purchased. Likes going through websites where many photographers have their work displayed and can search for specific images needed. These sites include many stock agencies and photo portals. One of these she mentioned was IPN. While the initial cost for this site is a bit pricely, $595 set up and then $195 a month, many photo editors use sites such as this for finding photos and subsequently photographers to work with.

Bill Thompson, photo editor, BirWatcher's Digest - Prefers digital over film for a variety of reasons ranging for ease of review and no need for color separation of slides. Goes through Vireo for a lot of images he needs that he can't get through his core group.

Jane Kinne - Begs everyone to formally copyright all photos that are placed on your website.

John Nuhn, National WIldlife - Send a match print with each submission. Print them on glossy photo paper so they can get a good first view of the shots sent.

Ernie Mastroianni, Birder's World - Every bird has been photographed; wants better shots than are already available.

QUESTION FROM AUDIENCE - Do buyers prefer using Corbis or Getty to find the images they want?

Unidentified editor - Preferes calling bird photographers he knows first. Will use pbase.com next. Won't use Corbis or Getty because they are too expensive - $300 minimum for a photo.

John Nuhn - Uses Corbis but also goes to his core photographers. Sometimes will do a Google search for the photo he needs.

Smithsonian magazine - Ises Corbis a lot because they have a lot of natural history material and then goes directly to the photographer after first usage.

Bill Jaynes - They're too expensive. Is always looking for new sources because so many stock agencies have gone under.

GENERAL NOTES

Provide full-size images for review. Put fixes in adjustment layers. Show editor your ideas but keep a base layer with the untouched file. Flat TIFF files are best if no adjustments are needed.

Portfolio submission of 20 to 40 of your very best shots.

Submit via CD with name phone and email on the disk. Include a cover letter and a digital proof sheet with straight forward file names (max 8 to a page maybe even 4). Include a brief bio of yourself.

Slides in plastic sheet. Good to have some information on the sheet as to quantity, subject, etc.
Controlled conditions, captive, etc. is OK but should be mentioned. Feeders are not controlled conditions

Slides vs. scans? Slides win

Color, hue, sharpness are OK without mentioning

Hi Res jpeg usually OK most of the time if the image is sharp

Portfolio should show your overall style.

KNEE SURGERY UPDATE

Thanks to those who have contacted me to see how I am after my recent knee surgery. The doctor ended up doing more than was originally scheduled to my recovery time is a little longer than I anticipated or hoped for. Besides the torn meniscus (cartilage) they ended up doing a lateral retinacular release as well as a couple of other things. The release is what has put the recovery on hold. This will keep me on crutches for at least two weeks and weak for a bit longer.

This won't keep me from any of my upcoming workshops on the Oregon Coast and to Alaska for the eagles, but it might slow me down a bit. If you notice I'm not taking gear with me on a given session don't worry about it as I'll still be there offering tips, ideas and other suggestions.

SOUTH TEXAS RANCHES - NEW FOR 2007

With another scout trip out of the way, I'm glad to announce two new trips for 2007. In addition to the new Saguaro Cactus in Bloom trip I'll add, I'm also going to have two trips to several of the south Texas ranches for birds and other wildlife. The first will be the last week of April and the second will be in mid-October.

While many species will be available at each time, differeent migratories will be there in April and butterflies will be coming through in October. The varviety of birds you will see will amaze you. While there, I was able to photograph 20 new bird species I did not have in my stock. This was in addition to numerous snakes and a very wary bobcat.

While sitting in the blind at one ranch something caught my eye from off to the side. I looked over and was looking eye to eye at a bobcat coming in to the water hole. He knew I was there (yes it was a male as the ranch owner looked at the photos and said so because of the shape of its head) as he kept his gaze fixed on me the entire time it came to the water and left.

During the two minutes and three seconds I was shooting the bobcat I was able to squeeze of 80 shots. I think I like this world of digital. In my latest article in F8, I talk about passion in photography and what stirs you. Well, the sight of this bobcat walking in for a drink really got my blood flowing. It's not too often you get a chance to come across this.

Unfortunately once it settled in at the water hole the best shots are just for reminders because it situated itself behind a perch that is set up beside the hole. I was all the way on the left side of the blind so I couldn't reposition myself so I took the shots anyway. It's better to have a shot that's not perfect than not to have any shots at all.

The timing couldn't have been better for this to happen. The person showing me around the ranch was on his way out to get me and saw the bobcat at just about the same time I did and stepped back so he wouldn't be seen, allowing me to shoot away. If he had shown up 30 seconds earlier the cat would not have made its way to the water hole.

While there, I visited six ranches but will use three for the two trips as they seemed to most productive and best designed for photo workshops. The three are situated not too far from each other but there will be some moving around between each ranch. My plan now is to start off with an evening, full day and morning at one ranch before moving on to another. That gives two mornin and two evening sessions at each ranch with ample opportunity to get all the shots wanted at each location. We'll stay at one of the ranches and at hotels for the other two.

The ranches are set up to have multiple morning and evening locations and can accommodate my full compliment of six participants. If I do get six people signed up I'll have a second leader so that each group will have someone nearby to answer questions.

If interested in either of the trips, contact me now to reserve a spot. With such great photo opportunites and the abundance of guaranteed subjects, these should become popular trips.

To tease your appetite, the following is a list of some of the birds I photographed - harris hawk, caracara, painted bunting, golden-fronted woodpepcker, pyrrhuloxia, kiskaee, green jay, scaled quail and many more.

SUBSCRIBER WEB SITES
Subscriber Bill Young has provided his website info to let others see his work. Based in Colorado Springs, CO, Bill has a good collection of both wildlife and landscape photographer. I just have one question - where did you get that beaver shot? You can check out his website at www.figurativephoto.com.

Send me your web address and I'll get people directed to your website in a future newsletter.

June 2006

LOWEPRO BAG GIVEAWAY - FREE
Now that the free word has your attention, how would you like to get a new LowePro backpack? One of the new ones with rollers. LowePro is offereing one workshop participant the chance to get a free backpack. After you have been on one of my workshops this year send me your best shot (or two) and at the end of the year the person judged to have the best shot will win the bag. So there is no bias in the judging I will have one or two other people do the judging so they won't know who submitted the shot. If you've already been on a trip this year get them in. If you're deciding on whose trip to go on, keep this in mind.

DIGITAL CORNER
What’s all the noise about?

Back in the days of film photography, we worried about grain in our images. It was the wisdom of the time that the faster the film, the more pronounced the grain and the less sharp the image. Exposure times, film processing parameters and such had some impact but that was really a second order effect. The guys in the green and in the yellow boxes were constantly working to improve grain structures to reduce the impact of faster speeds on image quality. That was then, this is now.

The digital revolution has introduced the photographer to the wondrous technologies of electronics and digital signal processing. But, one of the things we now must deal with in our photography is noise, or as some authors call it, digital grain. Let’ discuss its sources and how to deal with it.

What is noise? It’s all of the additional extraneous signals that come from the sensor, the analog electronics and the digital circuits in the camera that show up in our images (and usually have a negative impact on the image). This is particularity visible in images of large single color such as the sky.

Noise has a number of sources. These range from dust on the sensor to the intrinsic errors in converting an analog signal to a digital data stream.

Dust on the sensor is the easiest to understand but can be quite difficult to control. Point and shoot cameras have a pretty good sealed environment around the sensor so dust is normally not a problem, but if you do get dust problems, correcting the root cause can be tough. Digital SLR’s are much more prone to sensor dust but most have a “clean setting” that allows the photographer to blow away dust (carefully!). The other sources of noise are a bit more technical, but let’s start with light striking the sensor. Light comes in little packets call photons. When these little guys strike the sensor they are converted to electrons which are then used to generate the electrical signals containing image data. Since the sensor is warm (that is at a temperature above absolute zero) other “thermal” electrons are generated just by the heat. These electrons create a baseline signal (noise) that contaminates the image information. The signal coming off of the sensor is very small and cannot be effectively used by the circuits that convert the analog data to digital information. To remedy this, analog amplifiers are used to boost the signal. The background noise is amplified as well as the image data plus the amplifier adds its own noise contribution. The amount of amplification is controlled to a large degree by the ISO setting on the camera. The higher the ISO, the more the noise contribution. Higher ISO means the camera will use less light to generate the image. Less light means less signal from the sensor (fewer photons converted to electrons), more amplification is needed and the ratio of signal (image data) to noise is less. This shows up as higher noise or grain in the image.

Another noise source, one that’s easier to relate to film grain is the inherent nature of digital imaging. The process of producing a digital image means we are taking an infinitely variable light spectrum and converting it to discrete pieces of information. The first place is the sensor itself, made up of a fixed number of sensors, not unlike the grains in film. The analog data generated has, as we’ve seen, a noise component. This signal is then once again digitized into discrete pieces of data for processing. Each time this analog to digital conversion takes place, information is lost and edge detail is compromised. When the signal is then compressed into a jpeg file, more information is lost.

So, we have a lot of noise sources. How can we deal with them? The component and camera manufacturers have done very good things to reduce the impact of noise on our images. The first is the development of larger and larger sensors. Larger image sensors have more light gathering capability with a constant noise level. A 6 mega pixel sensor that is APS size generates more effective noise that a larger full frame sensor. The second, and probably most important improvement, is the noise reduction software in the camera itself. This “post processing” activity in the camera (with the RAW data) actually removes a lot of the noise from the signal, producing a cleaner and more grain free image.

What can the photographer do to reduce noise? Well, first use a camera with the biggest sensor you can afford. Unfortunately for the wallet, this usually means a digital SLR. If that’s not in the budget, then shop for the camera with the biggest sensor you can get and do research on the quality of the camera manufacturer’s noise reduction software.

With any camera, the following tips will also help.

1) Shoot at the lowest ISO setting you can for the conditions. Remember, this means less amplification and more light converted to image data.

2) Try to avoid very long exposures. The longer the shutter is open, the more total sensor noise is generated.

3) Use the lowest compression setting you can (high resolution jpeg has less inherent noise than low resolution – but it takes more storage space).

When you do get your images on to the computer, there are several really good noise reduction software packages available. Do some research and see what you can find. More are coming out every day.

Dealing with digital grain is really not that much different from film grain. Learn the causes and the remedies and keep on shooting.

Thanks to Bob Dean who wrote this article for the Colorado Urban Wildlife Photo Club newsletter. Bob will be coming on board as a second leader for First Light trips. We're trying to add one for 2007. Locations Bob is quite familiar with include the California Coast, Tasmania, Monument Valley, Texas Hill Country and numerous others.

OREGON COAST

While the weather was unseasonably cool and overcast, this year's Oregon Coast trip still produced plenty of shooting opportunities for those in attendance ranging from lighthouses, beach sunsets, wildlife, wildflowers, harbors and more. The biggest disappointment came when we got to Newport and the Yaquina Head lighthouse was covered over for repair and restoration.

The trip began with an evening shoot in the town of Bandon of fishing gear before heading to the beach for sunset. By far, Bandon has the best landscape along the coast for its group of sea stacks to include in sunset shots. While the sunset was not beautiful, it still provided for some good work with some soft light reflections along the shoreline as well as trying to capture some wave action.

After spending the night in Port Orford, it was down to the beach in the morning for more seascapes. A drive up to the old Coast Guard facilities brough a mother and two young and very cooperative black tail deer. She hung around the area and seemed to want to pose for everyone and their cameras.

A drive to Gold Beach found some sea lions hauled out in the harbor and some seals on the nearby beach. A drive to a favorite spot along the Rogue River found numerous wildflowers in bloom with the foxglove proving once again to be a favorite subject. These flowers have a unique shape to them and wonderful detail making for great subjects.

That night another journey to Bandon Beach was in store in hopes of a better sunset than the first night. While the sky did cooperate more than earlier, it did't erupt in orange like it has on past trips.

The next morning had us leaving our base in Port Orford for our drive north to Newport. On this leg, a stop at the Coos Bay harbor and marina is always in store as this is one of the best on the coast. The rhododendrons were in full bloom at the nearby memorial park and offered great shots of those and the American flag in the background.

Several other stops along the way made the long drive evjoyable with highlights including Heceta Head lighthouse and some more wildflowers.

Once in Newport and finding out about the lighthouse being covered, our attention focused primarily on tide pools the remainder of the trip along with a visit to the puffin area at the Oregon Coast Aquarium. The harbor in Old Town also brought about some active and very cooperative sea lions.

The tide pools and cobble beach are areas that can make for a full trip by themselves. We visited two different tide pools in the area but the one at Yaquina Head was by far the best and most productive. Too bad the tide has to come back in to cut the amount of time spent at these wonderful spots.

TIDE POOL PHOTO TIPS - Check the tide tables for an area before you go and try to time your trip for the lowest negative low tide possible. By doing some online searching you can find this information out. The lower the tide the better.

Try to get out to the tide pool at least one hour before low tide and even up to 90 minutes or more. Typically the best stuff is a little further out than closer to shore. Go out as far as you can and then keep working your way out as the tide goes out. No matter how far out the water is, always keep an eye out for sneaker waves. These are waves coming in that will come further than the others. They will occur and you will get wet if you don't watch for them.

I usually head out with two lenses and some other accessories. A macro lens seems to work best but sometimes I use my 70-200mm with extension tubes to allow for closer focusing. A cable release is also recommended.

Even though the tide is out, you'll be shooting through water, that's why they're called pools. These little pockets of water are what all the creatures call home, whether it be sea stars, anemones, sea urchins and whatever else you run across.

Because of this two items help create the best shots - a polarizer and something to block the light reflecting on the water. A poncho, jacket, difuser or umbrella can be used to shield and block the light. Even on an overcast day you'll find these are very helpful in getting your best shots. Make sure the entire area in the viewfinder is covered otherwise a hot spot will occur and will be quite noticeable. Using these helps cuts down on the hazy look you'll sometimes get.

Try using as deep a depth of field as possible. Because of water movement and sea anemone fingers floating around you might need to open up to get a faster shutter speed. The more depth you have the more detail you'll get in your shots, though, especially when using a macro lens.

Because of having more depth of field, use a tripod. It allows you to free up your hands to hold whatever type of shield you use.

 

2007 SCHEDULE
My 2007 workshop schedule is close to final completion. Still working on some pricing and may be getting one more added with a second leader, but here is how the year is shaping up. If interested in signing up early, save $100 off the cost be e-mailing me before July 31.

• February 15 - 19 Arches Star Trails at New Moon, $1,195
• March 3 - 10 Alaska Northern Lights
• March 24 - 29 Birds of Florida
• April 22 - 29 South Texas Birds
• May 11 - 14 Saguaro Cactus in Bloom
  • May 14 - 16 Bird add-on to Saguaro trip
• May 22 - 28 Oregon Coast, $1,795
• June 10 - 15 Glacier National Park, $1,695
• June 19 - 23 Eagles of Alaska
• July 1 - 4 Colorado Mountain Goats
• July 7 - 11 Grand Tetons
• July 14 - 18 Colorado Wildflowers, $1,495
• August 11 - 15 Rocky Mountain National Park, $1,595
• September 1 - 7 Bears of Alaska, $3,695
• September 28 - October 3 Colorado Fall Color, $1,595
• October 11 - 15 Fall on the Blue Ridge Parkway
• October 20 - 23 Historic New Mexico
• October 28 - November 4 South Texas Birds
• November 8 - 12 Arches Star Trails at New Moon, $1,195
• December 1 - 5 Birds of Bosque del Apache, $1,395
• December 8 - 12 Colorado Bighorn Sheep, $1,295

CONGRATULATIONS
Katherine Morgan, of Boca Raton, has been honored with BEST IN SHOW for photography at the HORTT45 opening at Artserve. Renowned for presenting the best of the region, the famous HORTT45 Exhibition is in its 45th season of celebrating the visual arts in South Florida.

Juror Tom McPherson, Director, Mobile Museum of Art selected two of photographer Katherine "Katy" Morgan's works for the HORTT45 and one for the Salon des Refusees.

HORTT 45, the areas oldest and most prestigious juried show, has teamed with the Broward Art Guild, Broward County's oldest arts organization, and sponsored by art-loving individual and corporate donors committed to advancing the cultural life of South Florida.

The photograph "...cooperation" is getting the judges' attention as it won the Best in Show in the New York Times exhibition "Parallels 2006 Journeys" as well as Community Foundation of Palm Beach & Martin County's "People Helping People" juried competition.

July / August 2006

LOWEPRO BAG GIVEAWAY - FREE
Now that the free word has your attention, how would you like to get a new LowePro backpack? One of the new ones with rollers. LowePro is offereing one workshop participant the chance to get a free backpack. After you have been on one of my workshops this year send me your best shot (or two) and at the end of the year the person judged to have the best shot will win the bag. So there is no bias in the judging I will have one or two other people do the judging so they won't know who submitted the shot. If you've already been on a trip this year get them in. If you're deciding on whose trip to go on, keep this in mind.

DIGITAL CORNER
Sharpening an Image in Photoshop

The digital age has been both a blessing and a curse to photographers. In the 'old' days we would use a loupe to look at our slides and if the image was a little soft it found it's way to the trash can. Now, though, a soft image out of the camera is somewhat expected, especially if you shoot in the RAW mode.

Sharpening an image in Photoshop is now one of those workflow, or actually 'workslow', steps that is required in order to get the shot just right. The following are some tips and order for sharpening your files.

All digital files need some sharpening. Raw files need more sharpening than jpeg files. Sharpen should be the last step done. Only apply sharpening one time to an image as it's quite destructive to the file. If you don't like what you did, Undo it and do it over again.

When evaluating sharpness in your images it's important to set the image size to 100%. Otherwise, you aren't seeing an accurate representation of the image.

Avoid sharpening when your image includes a lot of fog. The reason behind this is that there are no sharp edges or detail to the subjects in the photo.

Leave the background image layer untouched and use adjustment layers and additional image layers to perform all adjustments to the image.

Don't oversharpen areas that emphasize noise such as where sky and subject meet. Isolate small areas to sharpen.

Increase the threshold to between 3 and 10 to reduce the effect of sharpening on noise.

Output workflow - Do your adjustments in layers then do Image > Duplicate and give it a name - or 'copy' added to the file name. Flatten the image by choosing Layer > Flatten Image. Sharpening applies to only one layer so this is why the multiple layers need to be flattened. Resize the image to the desired output size and resolution (300 dpi for print or 96 or 72 dpi for on-screen usage). Now is the time to do the sharpening.

Unsharp Mask - While not the most user friendly, this is the primary filter to use to sharpen your images. The filter consists of three settings - Amount, Radius and Threshold.
* Amount - Intensity control. Increasing the contrast along existing contrast edges. The higher the setting the more the contrast will be increased. Don't overdo it and produce crunchy edges.
* Radius - The most important of the settings. Controls how far the edge contrast extends from the actual edges. Don't do too much so as to create a halo around the edges.
* Threshold - Basically provides a noise control feature. Use it to maintain smooth textures. The lower the number the more sharpening to all of the surrounding pixels. The higher the setting, the fewer pixels altered.

Once in Unsharp Mask you can click on the preview to show what the image area looks like without the sharpening applied - a before and after.

The amount of sharpening you do is based on the output. For digital programs, go with what looks best on the screen. For prints, over sharpen just a little bit as some sharpness will be lost in the printing process due to the way the ink is put out on the paper.

The settings are going to be different for almost every image. High detail and low detail shots also have different starting points as to the amount of levels used.

High Detail Images - Lots of texture and sharp edges. Set a Radius of between 0.4 and 1.0; start with an Amount of between 200% and 300% and use a low Threshold range of 0 to 4.

Low Detail Images - Not a lot of strong texture and edges are gradual. Set a Radius of between 2.0 and 3.0; Amount of between 75% and 125%; Threshold of between 8 and 12 because you want to maintain the smooth textures.

Average Images - Radius setting between 1.0 and 1.5; an Amount of between 125% and 175% and a Threshold of between 0 and 8.

Another way to determine the correct settings is to find the best Radius setting and then adjusting the Amount and Threshold. To do this, set the Amount to 500% and the Threshold to 0. Now adjust the Radius up and down to get the desired halo effect for your image. After finding the best Radius, now work on the Amount to get the desired detail. Finally adjust the Threshold. Click inside the Unsharp Mask preview box to see the before and after changes.

WILD ABOUT FLOWERS

Things weren't looking to be very promising for my wildflower trip this year. A couple of very hot and dry months did not bode well for fields of flowers on this year's split trip between Ouray and Crested Butte, CO. Conditions can be deceiving, though.

Starting out in Ouray, we made several visits to Yankee Boy Basin where the flowers were as good or better than they've been the pastthree years. While not the best I've ever seen, there was plenty to keep everyone on the trip satisfied with both close-up work as well as landscapes with flowers in the foreground and mountains or waterfalls as a backdrop.

Another stop was to Clear Lake, a spot very high above Silverton. While it takes a bit longer for the wildflowers to reach peak in this area, the setting is one of ht most beautiful in the state. A nice waterfall and mine shaft and ruins made for a couple of stops on the way up to the top. The breathtaking - in more ways than one - views always provide for a good full morning of shooting before heading to Silverton for a late lunch.

Every afternoon and evening brought clouds, lightning and bits of rain while in Ouray. While this is no fun for a photo shoot, the dry conditions of the previous month welcomed the respite quite a bit. Those on the trip thought I was a bit crazy one evening when the lighting was dancing around the area when I said to load up for a drive up to Yankee Boy Basin.

While what I had hoped for, some lightning shots or a rainbow appearing, the rain eventually stopped and some light came out for a short while making for a great session.

The next morning had us leaving our base in Ouray to head up and over Cinnamon Pass to American Basin. On the way to American Basin we stopped at the old mining town of Animas Forks and near the top of the pass for some shooting. Everyone really enjoyed the buildings at Animas Fork and finding different ways to include them in good compositions. A batch of flowers created a good foregound for some of the shots.

 

While there weren't a lot of flowers at the top of Cinnamon Pass, there were enough to make for some good shots of flowers along the edge of a stream. The one disappointment about this area was that the Continental Divide sign at the top of the pass was missing. The poles were there but the sign is now probably hanging in someones home. Just below the summit of the pass was a snowfield where one participant want to get out and have her picture taken in the snow.

The drive down had us stopping at American Basin, which was by far the best flower spot on the whole trip. The basin was the best I had ever seen it but conditions made it tricky to get great shots. Clouds kept hiding the sun for landscapes and views of the mountain to ridges, but that made for a bit of standing around and waiting for the ideal shot. A slight breeze also made for waiting for a momentary stop for macro work. Even with the less than ideal conditions it was gorgeous in the area.

The next stop was Crested Butte. Overall, the area was a bit disappointing. Typically there are several great fields of sunflowers in the area but these didn't present themselves. The area around Emerald Lake was about the best in the area in terms of amount and vairety of flowers. Even Washington Gulch Road, which always has a good field of flowers, was basically empty.

The aspen grove further up Washington Gulch Road proved to be a popular spot. There is a great stand of apsens here that are spaced nicely in order to get shots of tree trunks creating a tunnel effect. A mix of cow parsnip and sunflowers added some nice color to the area.

Showing the lack of flowers in the area, Paradise Divide had next to nothing in terms of flowers around the lake. Evenso, this is one of the best landscape spots in the area and everyone found stuff to work without too much of a problem

The highlight of the Crested Butte area came as we were leaving and heading back to Grand Junction. I drove out during the midday break the day before to see if there were any flowers along the Kebler Pass Road near The Dyke area. There were so that was going to be our last stop on the final morning.

What added to this spot was the addition of some horses. During the summer months many people park their trailers here to camp out and go for horseback rides in the area. Someone had a very pretty painted horse and I went and asked them if they could take the horse into the field of flowers for some shots. They were eating and let me take it out there myself.

That provided the participants with some nice shots. After taking the horse back and getting ready to load up and leave, several people came by on their horses and I asked if they could make a pass or two on them riding behind the field of flowers. They obliged, making for some great shots to finish off a good wildflower trip.

Next year's wildflower trip is scheduled for July 14-18 based only in Ouray. We'll be spending time at each of the locations mentioned about from the area as well as a couple of other spots that time did not allow for on this trip.

2007 SCHEDULE
My 2007 workshop schedule is close to final completion. Still working on some pricing and may be getting one more added with a second leader, but here is how the year is shaping up. If interested in signing up early, save $100 off the cost be e-mailing me before July 31.

• February 15 - 19 Arches Star Trails at New Moon, $1,195
• March 3 - 10 Alaska Northern Lights
• March 24 - 29 Birds of Florida
• April 22 - 29 South Texas Birds
• May 11 - 14 Saguaro Cactus in Bloom
  • May 14 - 16 Bird add-on to Saguaro trip
• May 22 - 28 Oregon Coast, $1,795
• June 10 - 15 Glacier National Park, $1,695
• June 19 - 23 Eagles of Alaska
• July 1 - 4 Colorado Mountain Goats
• July 7 - 11 Grand Tetons
• July 14 - 18 Colorado Wildflowers, $1,495
• August 11 - 15 Rocky Mountain National Park, $1,595
• September 1 - 7 Bears of Alaska, $3,695
• September 28 - October 3 Colorado Fall Color, $1,595
• October 11 - 15 Fall on the Blue Ridge Parkway
• October 20 - 23 Historic New Mexico
• October 28 - November 4 South Texas Birds
• November 8 - 12 Arches Star Trails at New Moon, $1,195
• December 1 - 5 Birds of Bosque del Apache, $1,395
• December 8 - 12 Colorado Bighorn Sheep, $1,295
  

September 2006

WEB TRAFFIC ORIGINATION
I'd appreciate for those who receive my online newsletter if you could let me know where you found out about my website as I'm doing a study on web traffic origination. For those who have received it for quite a while I know it might be hard to remember, but if you could state from which magazine, website or other source you found my website I'd really appreciate it. Send an e-mail stating how you found my site.

YELLOWSTONE IN WINTER - JANUARY
I've had someone ask about a Yellowstone in Winter workshop. Although I'm not formally adding it to my schedule, I will set up a trip there in January if I can get at least three people who would like to do this. I've been there once before and it's an amazing area in winter. Contact me my mid-October with your interest and I'll work out the dates and prices.

LOWEPRO BAG GIVEAWAY - FREE
Now that the free word has your attention, how would you like to get a new LowePro backpack? LowePro is offereing one workshop participant the chance to get a free backpack. After you have been on one of my workshops this year send me your best shot or two and at the end of the year the person judged to have the best shot will win the bag. So there is no bias in the judging I will have one or two other people do the judging so they won't know who submitted the shot. If you've already been on a trip this year get them in. If you're deciding on whose trip to go on, keep this in mind.

2007 CALENDAR UPDATE - pre-orders please contact me
2007 First Light calendars are going to the printer later this week or early next and will be ready for shipping about two weeks early. Those who placed a pre-order for them please contact me as the database I had with names and addresses crashed recently. If you would like to purchase multiples to give as gifts please let me know and a bulk order rate will be worked out. Want to give them to a group of your employees, large orders will also be discounted.

DIGITAL CORNER
Digital Photo Resources - By Bob Dean

We are deeply into the digital age in photography. If anyone is still skeptical, then just do an internet search on DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY LEARNING and a search engine like Google will provide over 28 million hits, and that is just the filtered English language sites. Well over twenty million digital cameras were sold in the US in 2005 and the growth in sales is slowing, indicating that the digital camera market is maturing – meaning digital is the standard and film cameras have pretty much been replaced. We are all looking for resources to help with ‘going digital’ or improving our skills in digital photography. This month we wanted to take a look at how to dig out the good resources, both on line and in print, which can help.

First, let’s address the basics. The craft of photography has not changed, just the tools we use. The concepts of composition, exposure, and creativity are as important today as when we used film as a medium. The classic books by the best teachers are still valuable. But where can we go to get help for digital issues such as white balance, noise reduction, etc.? There are literally hundreds of books being written every year on digital photography, and the critics are close behind in evaluating them. Check out the photo magazines or their websites for book reviews. In our investigation, most books are pretty close to each other in what they cover. The standard approach is to set the stage with how digital works, how it differs from film, how to use the digital specific creative controls and then the authors typically go into standard photographic lessons on composition, etc.

Most of the books also address how to fix your images on the computer. We are now seeing a bit of a backlash from the experienced photographers, as they spend more and more time in front of the computer monitor. The hue and cry is to get back to basics, expose properly, compose well, and all of the other stuff we did with film. Then you don’t spend all that time fixing problems that were eliminated in the camera.

But we digress. Before you spend your money on digital photo books, classes, or lots of cool software, try the free information route first. Remember we opened with the tens of millions of Google hits? Well, here are a few that we found had good, free information, tips and ideas. Some of these are pretty basic, some get into quite a bit of detail and several provide additional links for more information. We tried to limit the sites to those with minimal advertising and offers to sell stuff, but the internet is now a commercial tool so buyer beware.

http://www.kodak.com and go to consumer photography and taking great pictures. This site has pretty basic stuff but it’s well done.

http://www.photo.net/learn Covers film and digital with some interesting stuff on toning.

http://www.lexar.com/dp/tips_lessons/index.html This commercial site has lots of good stuff in lesson by lesson format.

http://www.shortcourses.com Good stuff but embedded sales links

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/ A wealth of information with links to all kinds of stuff.

http://www.nyip.com/ Get past the ads and go to the reference shelf

http://www.shutterbug.com/techniqueslp/ Like most magazine sites, this provides access to a lot of past issue articles.

Bob Dean is joining First Light to lead photo workshops. In 2007 he will lead just one trip, the May 13-18 California Coast and Wine Country trip, an area he has visited quite a few times. In subsequent years he'll be leading more trips including some interesting locales such as Tasmania, possibly Europe and several around the United States. Bob has been doing photography for more than 35 years and has taught photo classes through the Denver Museum of Nature and Science.

AUGUST SNOWS - Mountain Goat Trip Update

The recent mountain goat trip got off to an inasupicious start on Friday night when we were met by the national forest people part way up Mount Evans stating that the road was probably going to be closing shortly due to snow and ice at the top. We made the drive to the top and only the last 3/4 of a mile was where there was a little bit of sloppiness on the road. Our Texas participant braved the wind and cold temps to get out and grab a few scenic shots of the mid-August snows.

As we were heading down the road crew was on its way up to close the uppoer portion of the road. They eventually closed the whole road that night. Resorting to 'Plan B' that next morning because I had a feeling the road would be closed, we headed back into the Denver metro area to find some foxes. No one on the trip had ever seen these elusive animals and we went to a spot that pretty much ensures a spotting of them.

While they were a bit skittish this day due to coyotes that had been coming through recently, we did see several foxes and several people were able to grab a couple shots of them. The area for foxes is one that has them very used to people and they're out every morning for several hours. Once in a while a coyote will come into the area and kill whatever fox it finds to eliminate competition for a common food source. When a coyote does hit the area, the foxes usually go into hiding so as not to be seen.

Back opn Mount Evans there was some nice evening light at the bristlecone pine forest where some time was spent before the light disappeared behind the mountain. It waass then back to the top for some storm cloud and mountain shots at sunset.

Sunday finally had the goats making an appearance. While driving to the top there were several groups spotted that were a good distance off the road and people wondering why I wasn't stopping. With a good size group way off the roadway I knew there would be some near the road near the top of the mountain.

I know that at 14,000 feet, the walk out and back to the first group would be too much for people from low elevations, the drive to the top was worth it as a group of about a dozen goats were working their way to the top. I dropped people off above where the goats were so they wouldn't have to much climbing to do and they found out why.

The goats still continued their climb and so did the people on the trip. Having to go up just one section of about 40-50 yards seemed like a mile-long trek. We then drove to the top as several of the goats had already made it up there and the rest were sure to follow.

Once at the top we were able to walk around some fairly even terrain and everyone was more than pleased with the opportunities the goats provided. Besides the goats, foxes and bristlecone pines, a nice cascade and an old Victorian town were photographed and everyone had a good time.

Next year's mountain goat trip is scheduled for the July 4th weekend so road closures due to snow and ice should not be a problem. That's not a guarantee, though, as I have been snowed on every month of the road's open season - late May into September maybe early October.

2007 SCHEDULE UPDATE
The 2007 schedule is fully complete and can be viewed on the workshops page of the website. A couple of changes have been made from what appeared in the last newsletter so be sure to check it out. A word about the Northern Lights trip in March. I already have 8 people asking about that trip so if you're interested in attending please sign up early as this trip looks like it's going to fill up early. This trip can't accommodate more than 6 due to the amount of bed space available on the northern leg. If you'd like a brochure mailed to you let me know and I'll get one sent off when I receive them in the next week or two.

SUBSCRIBER WEB SITES
Subscriber Chuck Hockenheimer has provided his website info to let others see his work. Chuck's site is about his wedding and portrait work but there are probably plenty more of you out there who do this type of photography to pay for your love of outdoor photography. Take a look at his work and you might find something to help you out. You can check out his website at www.andrewsbayphotography.com.

Send me your web address and I'll get people directed to your website in a future newsletter.

November 2006

LOWEPRO BAG GIVEAWAY - FREE
Now that the free word has your attention, how would you like to get a new LowePro backpack? LowePro is offereing one workshop participant the chance to get a free backpack. After you have been on one of my workshops this year send me your best shot or two and at the end of the year the person judged to have the best shot will win the bag. So there is no bias in the judging I will have one or two other people do the judging so they won't know who submitted the shot. If you've already been on a trip this year get them in. If you're deciding on whose trip to go on, keep this in mind.

EARLY NOTICE OF SPECIAL 2008 TRIPS
If you like planning way ahead for a special trip, you might want to put several trips on that list for 2008. In 2008, First Light is broadening its borders to outside of the United States. In Janaury, two very special trips will be scheduled. I'm heading down to the Falklands this January to do a scout trip for nesting penguins, sea lions and plent of other birds and wildlife. A formal trip will then be scheduled for the following January. This will not be one of those $10,000 plus trips you see that bases off a boat and goes to numerous locations. This will be much less and base on two of the islands.

As announced in the last newsletter, Bob Dean is coming on board to lead trips for me. I've know Bob since moving to Colorado in early 1992 and he's an excellent photographer and teacher. In January (maybe February) 2008 he will lead a trip to Tasmania. Bob visited this unique island earlier this year and found numerous spots that will make for a great trip. In future years Bob will lead trips to Europe and other North American spots.

The third opportunity to go abroad in 2008 is a visit to the old world and Italy in specific. The trip will primarily be around Venice and the surrounding area. I'm doing my scout trip there in April and the trip will probably be around the same time next year so as to miss the major tourist season and the large crowds.

Dates and prices will be available shortly after my scout trips so look for the announcements and sign up early for these exciting new trips.

DIGITAL CORNER
Panoramas Made Easy

When we look at the world around us, we see things more or less in a panoramic perspective. Our peripheral vision is pretty mucxh 180 degrees. Our photographs, on the other hand, capture just a small portion of what we actually see in front of us. Many times we want to zoom in tight to capture just a small part, but there might be a time when getting everying in front of you captures the true essence of the scene.

Maybe you've hiked out to Delicate Arch for a sunset shot but when you've looked at the image it wasn't quite what it was when you were there. Maybe you've had a beautiful fall color scene in front of you with mountains spreading across from left to right and lots of beautiful color in the foreground. To capture it fully, the best way to do this is by taking a panorama of the whole scene.

In days gone by, special cameras would be needed. Or, lots of time in the darkroom to bea able to create the image you want. With digital, though, it's a lot easier to create a panorama of whatever scene you want and quite easily at that.

The first step is the taking of the photograph, or to be precise, taking a series of photographs. To do this it's best to use a larger lens, something in the range of 100mm to 200mm and shoot a series of vertical images. By shooting vertical and using more images, you get greater detail in each of the shots as opposed to just two or three horizontals.

You have to have a bit of an overlap between each shot. I usually try to have at least a 20% overlap and you can go up to 33% or more. You don't have to be exact with each shot because the software you use will be able to match the overlaps. What you do want to try and get as close to exact as possible is your horizon line. This is where your level on your tripod head comes in handy.

Take at least five images to create your panorama. The more you hvae the larger your image as well as the file size. I've found that 5 or 6 seem to work best for getting everything in the shot that's in front of you.

Do not use special filters, especially a polarizer as they will cause differences in the tonality of the sky, which will be quite evident in your final image. If you use a zoom lens for the series of shots, keep it at the same focal length throughout otherwise you won't have a good match. You also want to keep the same exposure settings for each image. Do a test of the different values in the shot and set a good compromise manually. Do not move the tripod once it's set in position. Just rotate the head to create the series.

What to use to create your panorama once the shots have been taken? Photoshop CS2 has a function in it that will create a panorame for you called Photomerge. It's access by doing File > Automate > Photomerge. While this works nicely, a program like Panorama Factory I feel does a much better job. It's pretty straight forward in how it works and walks you through a serices of several steps to create a seamless stitched image. You can go to www.panoramafactory.com and downlaod a sample version of it or buy it for $69.95. It's a fun program to play with and you can create some very interesting shots with it.

The following shot was taken with 5 images and processed with Panorama Factory.

RIGHT PLACE, RIGHT TIME

So much with good wildlife photography is being at the right place at the right time. Some of this can be fairly predictable - elk rut at numerous locales in the Rocky Mountain West, snow geese and sandhill cranes at Bosque del Apache, and numerous others you can probably think of. It's those happenstance occurances that make doing wildlife photography enjoyable.

On the recent workshop to the Tetons and a couple of extra days in Yellowstone with one participant where two of these came into play for us. Sometimes these happen in front of your eyes while others you hear about something going on. Both of these were the case for two unique shoots.

While in the Tetons, the water flow coming out of Jackson Lake Dam was cust back by 1,000 cubic feet per second. This resulted in the lowering of the Snake River around Oxbow Bend quite a bit lower than it usually is. For most, this isn't a big concern. But, if you're a beaver and you have a lodge built along the bank of the river it means being left high and dry at a location we were told about.

With it already into fall, this also means needing to build a new lodge before the snows start coming and gathering material for a new lodge would be harder to come by. Thus, beaver activity lasted longer than usual into the morning. Like clockwork, there was activity at the new lodge site until about 9:45 each morning.

The best thing about this was the fact that the lower water levels providied a seat along the bank about 15 yards or less from the new lodge and beaver activiy. Finding beaver in the wild is not the most common of sights, let alone predictable activity any morning you show up.

Our group along with numerous other photographers were making appearances in order to get some nice shots of the beavers swimming around, dragging material onto the new lodge, and doing some nice posing for everyone.

One time we were there when we were treated to a special moment in time. With beavers in front of us, a bull moose approached from the left. Off to the right was another moose with several cows as it was mating season. The moose on the left made its way across the river towards the other bull. What ensued was about a 10 second fight between the two. right after this, five trumpeter swans took off from the river and flew overhead, making for a special moment none there will forget.

In Yellowstone at Gibbon Meadows we came across a nice elk that was feeling at the pull-out. While there photographing it, a coyote in full sprint came across the road and out into the field. We had not noticed it before, but there was another coyote out there a ways eating on a carcass. The new coyote chased it away and began its meal.

After some time of shooting the lk, we were wanting it to cross the street and leave the area so we could walk out and photograph the coyote having breakfast. It did so after what seemed like an eternity and we slowly worked our way out to the coyote. After 45 minutes of working the coyote we figured we had enough shots of it and walked back to the vehicle.

We just happend to be there at the right time to see the coyote running out there, proving that timeing is everything when it comes to seeing some good wildlife activity.

2007 SCHEDULE UPDATE
The 2007 schedule is fully complete and can be viewed on the tours page of the website. A couple of changes have been made from what appeared in a previous newsletter so be sure to check it out. A word about the Northern Lights trip in March. I already have 8 people asking about that trip so if you're interested in attending please sign up early as this trip looks like it's going to fill up early. This trip can't accommodate more than 6 due to the amount of bed space available on the northern leg. If you'd like a brochure mailed to you let me know and I'll get one sent off when I receive them in the next week or two.

SUBSCRIBER WEB SITES
Subscriber BiHoa Caldwell has provided her website info to let others see his work. There's not a lot of photos on her site but she's just getting started. Every website starts out small and grows from there. You can check out her website at www.bihoaphoto.com.

Send me your web address and I'll get people directed to your website in a future newsletter.

December 2006

EARLY NOTICE OF SPECIAL 2008 TRIPS
If you like planning way ahead for a special trip, you might want to put several trips on that list for 2008. In 2008, First Light is broadening its borders to outside of the United States. In Janaury, two very special trips will be scheduled. I'm heading down to the Falklands this January to do a scout trip for nesting penguins, sea lions and plent of other birds and wildlife. A formal trip will then be scheduled for the following January. This will not be one of those $10,000 plus trips you see that bases off a boat and goes to numerous locations. This will be much less and base on two of the islands.

As announced in the last newsletter, Bob Dean is coming on board to lead trips for me. I've know Bob since moving to Colorado in early 1992 and he's an excellent photographer and teacher. In January (maybe February) 2008 he will lead a trip to Tasmania. Bob visited this unique island earlier this year and found numerous spots that will make for a great trip. In future years Bob will lead trips to Europe and other North American spots.

The third opportunity to go abroad in 2008 is a visit to the old world and Italy in specific. The trip will primarily be around Venice and the surrounding area. I'm doing my scout trip there in April and the trip will probably be around the same time next year so as to miss the major tourist season and the large crowds.

Dates and prices will be available shortly after my scout trips so look for the announcements and sign up early for these exciting new trips.

DIGITAL CORNER
Color Management by Bob Dean

Digital photography has added a lot of new “buzz words” to our vocabulary. One of the most misused or perhaps least understood is “color management”. Discussions of color management lead to more terms like color space, rendering, sRGB, and so forth. We figured a brief foray into the realities of digital color is warranted, so we can utilize the new tools we have.

What does color management mean? Essentially it’s the catch-all term that describes the process of making sure the colors of your subject are displayed the way you want them on the medium of your choosing, and that you can achieve that result consistently! First let’s define a few terms:

Color space is the portion of the color spectrum that is available to the output device (monitor, printer, etc.) for display of the image. In other words, how many colors can you hope to reproduce.

Rendering is the software process of converting a RAW image into a usable file in a specific color space. This word comes from rendition. Another techie convolution of the language.

Color space -. The first step in color management is determining the color space in which you want to work. Remember that RAW files are “rendered” to the color space by the camera’s internal software or the post processing software in your computer. If you shoot only RAW, the rendering must be done in the post processing on your computer. If you can select multiple output files such a RAW plus jpeg, you can specify the color space for the jpeg files.

You should select your color space based on the planned use of the image. Most digital cameras will allow you to select Adobe RGB or sRGB. Adobe RGB has a slightly larger gamut of colors and is less saturated than sRGB. Adobe is more closely correlated with ink jet printers. If you are more interested in viewing your images on a monitor or projecting them with an LCD projector, the slightly smaller color gamut and more saturated sRGB color space is better. Post processing programs also allow CMYK color space which is more suited to publication formats. It’s possible to create different files from the same RAW image in various color spaces using the computer’s RAW conversion program (Photoshop™ as an example).

Calibration of your computer’s monitor - What is calibration and why calibrate? This reason is very simple; it allows you to get prints out of your printer that look just like to image you saw on your monitor screen. OK, what if you don’t print your images but send them out to others for printing, use in magazines, contests, and so forth? Calibration has been compared to such mundane things as getting your car aligned or flossing your teeth, not required but very good practice. When you send a digital file out for any purpose, you really don’t know if the next person down the line will do proper color management. If you know you sent out the best file possible, then the next user will start with a superior product and you’ll have a much greater probability that your image will stand out.

There has been a lot of talk about LCD monitors not being very good for calibration since they drift quite a bit over time and temperature; this was true a few years back newer models are much better and can be calibrated as good as the old CRT models.

The first step in calibration is looking at the monitor. There are whole books written on this subject. In order to calibrate your monitor, you might consider the purchase a calibration product that includes software and a sensor. Many of these packages are available priced from under $100 to several hundred. A little bit of research on the internet will allow you to pick the right one for you. There are also more manual tools, some free, that allow a degree of calibration using the computer’s internal tools and specific light sources.

A really good website with lots of links to information, manufacturer’s sites and a good starting point for monitor calibration is: http://www.normankoren.com/makingfineprints1A.html

Take a look at this site and get started doing better color management of your images!

WHAT YOU LEARN WHEN YOU SEE A PICTURE

Part of the excitiement of doing photography is looking at your shots. That's alot easier today with digital in that you can look at them later that day if you have the time. Whether it's through a loupe of a slide or on a computer screen, every once in a while you get a shot back that makes you look at it in amazement.

Such was the case with a shot from two recent trips. Getting the action is one thing, but getting some action that you can't believe what you see is another.

While in Florida in November I spent several morning and evening session at Fort DeSoto State Park where we go on my workshop to that area in March. I was getting some good shots of wood storks, threatened piping plovers, roseate spoonbills, a bittern and some of the other regulars that call this area home.

While some snowy and reddish egrets were feeding at low tide, a group of gulls were being quite frisky in trying to make the egrets drop their catch in order to try and get an easy meal. Acting like bald eagles who would rather let someone else do the fishing and then steal the catch, the gulls were quite persistent in pestering the egrets when they caught a small biat fish.

I knew I had captured a good sequence of shots of a gull going towards the head of one great egret but didn't know how good until I looked at the pictures later on. It seems the gull latched on to a shrimp the egret had caught but did not want to give up. As it flew in and grabbed it and kept flying, its momentum flipped it over resulting in the image shown below. Oh to have had the camera just a little bit more to the right, but I had it positioned right for what I thought was the good action.

I had never seen anything like this before. It happened so fast it's nice to have these 8.5 frames a second going at full bore. Yes, the gull did end up with the shrimp as the next shot in the sequence has it flying awaay with it in it's mouth.

The second event came on my bighorn sheep workshop. On our first session out there was a group of about 15 bighorn sheep gathered together for the rut. Unlike elk where one dominant bull doesn't want any other bulls anywhere near his harem, bighorn sheep will have two or three rams hanging out in the group with their ewes.

This creates some interesting behavior as you have multiple rams doing sniffing to see if the ewes are ready, multiple rams doing lip curls and more importantly the chance for multiple rams fighting. As we watched the group feeding in the snow in front of us, the main group of ewes and young started working their way off to the left.

The three rams in this group stayed put. For the next 30 to 45 minutes the rams put on a show of head butting back and forth. While with some animals it's easy to tell when a certain behavior is going to happen, this isn't always the case with bighorn rams and head butting. They can be standing just three feet apart and all of a sudden they ram heads, nor warning, no clue, nothing.

Other times when they're 10 to 15 feet apart you can tell when they're going to go at it. This is what we were looking for in order to get that moment of impact shot or a shot just before they hit.

While getting numerous shots of the actual impact and just before impact, one shot stood out more than the others. On this shot, one of the rams rear legs were about six inches off the ground just before impact. This happens so fast when you see it you never notice what position their bodies are in. To me, it seemed odd that it would be in this position. Upon thinking about it, though, it seems like this would be a good position as this forces its weight and momentum towards its rival.

Oh well. The things you learn when you review your images that you didn't know before. Photography is all about learning. A lot is about your equipment today, but you can still learn a lot about your subjects. Which will help you the next time you go and shoot the same animals.

NORTHERN LIGHTS TRIP
I already have several people signed up and a bunch asking about that trip so if you're interested in attending please sign up early as this trip looks like it's going to fill up. This trip can't accommodate more than 5 due to the amount of bed space available on the northern leg and I currently have three people signed up.

SOUTH TEXAS BIRDS TRIP
This is another trip that looks like it's going to fill up fairly early so if you have an interest in this trip contact me to reserve a spot.

SUBSCRIBER WEB SITES
Subscriber Bill Menzell has provided her website info to let others see his work. Lots of photos on his site covering a lot of subjects. You'll probably have to go back a couple of time to see everything. You can check out his website at www.takingmytimephotography.com.

Send me your web address and I'll get people directed to your website in a future newsletter.

PREVIOUS YEARS ONLINE ISSUES

• 2005 Newsletters
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Andy Long firstlightfoto@aol.com

 

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