Blue Sky!
So, Courtney and I took the dog for a walk, and I drug along the camera. I was hoping to try out a new neutral density filter that I made (out of a welding lens…). I was going to post the results here, however, I didn’t like the composition of the shot and it’s definitely not worth posting. I’m still experimenting with this new technique, and hope to have some publishable results very soon!
I was able to do some more testing with a new gizmo I picked up for my camera in preparation for my upcoming trip to Houghton, MI in the upper peninsula. I’m happy to report that the doo-dad is working fantastic, couldn’t be happier! In the few short days that I’ve owned it, it has allowed me to do some things with my camera that weren’t even close to possible before.
But, since this isn’t supposed to be a “blog”… Here’s a quick grab-shot of the first blue sky we’ve had around here in what feels like months.
AdoramaPix
Just ordered a print for my buddy John from AdoramaPix. I use these guys for all of my prints, and they do an outstanding job. This image looks fantastic on the Kodak Metallic paper from AdoramaPix! The aluminum skin of this P-51 pops out of the frame! I have a 24×36 of this shot on my bedroom wall, and I couldn’t be happier with how it turned out! Hopefully John will like his too! Let me know if you guys would like a print! cjendelman08@gmail.com
Canadian Coasties
Haven’t been out much with the camera lately. Took the dog for a walk this afternoon and snapped a few quick pics of the passing Canadian Coast Guard Icebreaker CCGS Samuel Risley. Not my favorite photo ever, the skies were soupy and overcast today. 
Monster!
This is a shot of my cousin Derek competing in the 50 yard breaststroke last weekend. I was down there shooting for another club, and lucked out that Derek was there that day too! None of the swimmers from my club were competing in his heat, so I was able to scoot over to his lane and snap a few pics. There was an error with the timing system in his lane, so I’m unsure if he hit his time goal, but I know he was incredibly close to making the cut for his age groups state competition! He’s gonna be a monster when he gets to high school!
Barred Owl
Found this guy lurking about in some of my files from Florida, not the greatest shot, but I like it. I stumbled upon this barred owl by accident as I took a shortcut through the woods back to my truck. I was originally after wading birds such as egrets and herons, and didn’t have much luck with them that day. I was just walking down the path through the trees, and happened to look up at the right time. Two giant eyes staring back at me. Pure luck.
Swans in the St. Clair River
Was able to get back out with the camera this afternoon, and was able to get some glass on a group of Mute Swans in the St. Clair River. Took a few minutes for them to get used to me being there, but they soon got back to preening and eating. These swans, and most birds/wildlife in general, really don’t like you approaching them quickly and head on. If you’d like to try this, take your time, move slowly, and let them get used to you being there. If they stop doing whatever it is that they are doing to stare at you, you’re moving too quickly, and they’re about to leave. With this group, I’d move slowly towards the waters edge at an oblique angle to the flock, sit down every few feet, and take a few pictures. They quickly began to ignore me, and kept about their business. By approaching this way, you can eventually get very close to the wildlife without spooking them away from their food source. Everybody wins.
Cardinals at the feeder
This afternoon we had a few cardinals come into the feeder, grabbed this quick shot out the window.
How To Win a Race With a Freighter!
I guess I should share the story of how I got this image, I find it kinda humorous. Now that we’re approaching February, the shipping season is really slowing down. I check ais.boatnerd.com a few times a day to see what traffic might be on the river that I can point some glass at. It is very rare that something will be in the area late in the afternoon on a day with few clouds. These conditions provide the “look” that I’m going for in the image, and as most of my visitors know, winter in Michigan doesn’t provide many days without overcast skies. So, it’s rare that all of these things fall together. This image happened on a day where the conditions were just about perfect, so I anxiously checked the AIS several times as late afternoon approached. Boatnerd has a handy ETA tool allowing you to calculate what time a ship will be at a certain place on the river, and the Saginaw was due to be at my chosen location at roughly 4:45 pm. I hopped in my truck at around 4:30 and leisurely made my way over to where I wanted to be that day. I like to get to the spot a few minutes before the ship so that I can be ready, and get a few images of it off in the distance. I was trying out a new location that would provide the background in Canada that I want, without making my entire freighter images collection look like it was taken from the exact same spot. As I turned north onto River Road, I glanced to the South, and there was the Saginaw about a quarter mile down river.
Woops…
I had mistakenly calculated the time of arrival for the Saginaw at a different location I’ve used that is a mile North of where I wanted to be that day. So, obeying all local traffic laws *wink wink* I hauled a** drove to where I wanted to park, slid into the parking lot, ran back across the street, jumped the guard rail, ran/slid/stumbled down the snow covered hill, scaled the side of the elevated boardwalk, aaaaaand I forgot my gloves in the truck…
What was supposed to be a calm adventure at the St. Clair River quickly turned into barely beating the ship to my chosen spot, and it’s not like I can ask them to stop, back up, and say cheese!
On a less cheesy, more serious note. If you’re into photography, or would like to be, this is a great example as to why you should have all the settings you think you might need already dialed into your camera before heading to your location. Before I left the house, I already had the lens I needed attached to the camera body, ISO set to 200, Aperture Priority, F8, Raw + Jpeg image capture, auto white balance and Vivid for the Jpegs, Continuous Autofocus, and Continuous High for the frame rate. This habit has saved my butt on several instances, and I surely would have missed the Saginaw that day if I had to fiddle with camera settings or change out lenses.
Hope you like the pic, thanks for visiting!
New Photos!
Hey Everyone! Thanks for all of your support and comments! I finally was able to get back out with the camera today, and took a couple images that I feel are worth sharing. I’m not 100% happy with the Cardinal image, but I’ve got a few ideas to get some glass on them again soon. I don’t have time to get the other image from today up yet, but look for it on my Scenics page within the next day or two! Once again, thanks for visiting!
Almost Done!
Adding the last few images and making a few final layout changes, until then here is a shot of the Mackinac Bridge that I took yesterday 12-30-12. Happy New Years everybody! Click the image for fullsize.
caseyendelman 