Slickrock and Shadow

Full Moon Setting as seen from Phantom Ranch Beautiful moment of the full moon setting between peaks and reflecting off the surface of the Colorado River.  This moment happened half-way through the trip.  I'd photographed continually but I was not expecting to do any night photography.  But when something this beautiful happens, the photographer deep within jumps within me and I must answer.  Picture this:  early morning, quiet, slightly cool with the river sounds bouncing off the canyon walls.  I wake up to this but it's still dark, except it's not that dark because we have a full moon.  I see it.  I put on my glasses and I see it  better.  The moon is setting, it's beautiful and it'll be over in a flash.  I spring to action:  open pelican box, grab camera, grab remote cable release, grab tripod and begin running to the edge of the river to capture the reflected water.  The moon moves quickly and I got this one...

Using the 5D Mark IV is a breeze. I got a new Canon 5D Mark 4 (5D Mark IV) 6 months ago.   I’ve put my Canon 1Ds Mark III into semi-retirement.   I thought it might be worthwhile to compare the two exceptional cameras.   If it’s possible to love a piece of magnesium alloy housing mirrors and computer chips, then I loved my 1Ds Mark III.   I still do.   After shooting for half a year, I discovered my new 5D Mark IV can do everything my 1Ds Mark 3 did and more.   What can it do better than the 1Ds Mark III?   Here’s my much-anticipated list of my favorites: TOP TEN THINGS I LOVE ABOUT THE 5D Mark IV: 10.   Touchscreen can be used for menus, zooming, shutter, focus and much more. 9.   Optional battery grip:   you can go "big camera" or "small camera" as you prefer. 8.   Fast frames per second with a larger buffer for those large files. 7.   Multiple Speedlite control remotely from the touchscreen! 6. ...

Headshot portraits are out of this world with the Canon 85mm f/1.2 L lens Portrait photography is an opportunity that every serious photographer will face at one point or another.  Friends and family know how serious I am about photography and ask about getting their photos taken.  This is always a wonderful opportunity and I look at it as a very enjoyable service.  I also hope to do the best possible and provide a professional portrait as good as anything they could obtain anywhere. The gear and style of shooting is very different from landscape photography.  Instead of methodically setting up a heavy tripod in the silence of the wilderness, I find myself talking and shooting quickly so that the subject does not become overly tired from posing.  Instead of wide-angle lenses with very small apertures and long shudder speeds, long telephoto lenses with wide apertures and very short shudder speeds are used.  There is no time for a tripod. Late in 201...

Portrait As I landscape photographer, I get plenty of practice shooting trees, rocks, streams and clouds.  Things that move in circles and against gravity are foreign to me.  That's what kids do. I had the pleasure of taking some family portraits last week for some family members.  When I get the call to take someone's photo, I always reach for one lens:  Canon 135mm f/2.0 L.  This lens is so fast, so sharp and so accurate in getting the picture that I want.  Some people say the "keeper" rate is very high with this lens and I heartily agree. In one of the moments where she stopped briefly, I was able to focus, compose and shoot. In keeping my lenses straight from one another, they get nicknames.  This one is the "movie star lens" because it makes everyone look fantastic!

Lines of composition at White Pocket This will be a more technical entry featuring the sandstone wonderland of White Pocket.  I'm still sorting through and picking out the "keepers" from my photo trip there last month. Sharpness and vignetting are two key photographic characteristic related to aperture.  When setting an aperture, a very small opening such as f/16 tends to reduce vignetting and enhance the depth of field (how much will be sharp and "in focus" whether near or far from the camera).  This attitude of "I'm going to get the maximum depth of field" attitude works well for some and I've used it for years.  This is especially helpful in the corners of a photograph (where sharpness tends to deteriorate).  This problem is pretty exclusive to wide angle lenses. I changed wide angle lens from Canon's 17-40 f/4 L to the more pricey 16-35 f/2.8 L specifically to get more corner sharpness.  The 16-35 is sharper and I've not re...

Snow Leopard at the San Diego Zoo Going to the San Diego zoo causes 2 big problems for a photographer:  what animals to focus on, what lenses to bring. Of course easy answer is to see "all" of the animals and take "all" of your equipment so that you can be ready for any situation. However that is very impractical in my situation. I was traveling with my family. This included my son, who is in a wheelchair.  He becomes tired and need some pushing every now and then. There are some enormously steep hills in the San Diego zoo which would be extremely dangerous without some help. Therefore I needed to have enough free hands to help with him. Plus we wanted to have fun as a family. That was the primary goal. Lens choice:  one could make a case for simply taking an all-purpose lens. Something that will zoom out to wide angles as well as work for close-ups. The most practical lens that Canon makes for this is the 24-105mm f/4 L.  I have this and use it often but t...