hughes mountain – A Thousand Acres of Silphiums

Playing Around with Infrared

I have had some opportunity lately to try for infrared landscapes with my converted Canon 5D mkii. There is still so much I want to try with this, but between summer laziness and a lack of time and opportunity, I get by with what I can. The image above was taken in an Illinois woodland.

I found this white oak in the same woodland and it screamed for the IR treatment. I’m still getting the hang of processing the images from the “supercolor IR conversion” of this camera. Although the basics are simple, I find the plethora of options one has in processing these files to be a bit intimidating. I’m trying to go a little more on the subtle side with these, but there’s a fine line between just enough and too much.

These final three images were taken at Hughes Mountain C.A. – a place that I find begs for the infrared photographic treatment. These were taken on one of the evenings of potential for extra color from the Sahara sandstorms. There was nothing extra for the sunset due to these storms other than increased haze, but the high clouds made for interesting skies in IR.

Finding green plants in the glade areas is important in getting the contrasts for an IR image. This hasn’t been a very wet summer but there was some green still left among the rocks. Optimally, it would be best to try in late spring to early summer to get this setting just right.

So these were some of my first serious attempts at IR landscapes with the newly converted camera. If you have any suggestions for improvement, particularly in the processing area, I would be grateful to listen.

-OZB

Fast Action Photography

landscape

No, I do not mean catching a bird on the wing or some split second sports action in camera. Sometimes the landscape photograph has equal timing requirements and this one will serve to remind me of what could have been and to be ready and prepared whenever in setting. I hiked to the top of Hughes one early spring evening with the full kit. Arriving at the top, I was a bit disappointed in the lack of clouds for a potential sunset shot, but I can never be in the dumps at this location no matter what nature is presenting. So I just decided to sit and enjoy the silence and see what may come my way. Not paying much attention I suddenly noticed a fairly small, beautifully pastel-colored cloud popped out of nowhere and was positioned in the perfect place, just in a perfect frame along with blooming Service Berry in the foreground. Of course the gear was where it was nice and safe – all wrapped up in the camera bag. I could tell this cloud was ephemeral and sprang into action.

Pulled the tripod off and extend the legs, unzip, pick lens, attach lens to camera, attach polarizing filter, attach shutter release cord, attach camera to tripod, shoot, I forgot the graduated neutral density filter, which one do I need, OK, how to compose? Compose? Just hurry up! By the time I had everything ready and was hitting the shutter the cloud has diminished by more than three fold and lost all of that wonderful color. I then identified that irritating high pitch noise I was hearing. I was screaming.

Crystallofolia & Armadillos: Hawn State Park Presents its Inspiration at Every Season

macro, wildlife

I spent a fantastic Saturday hiking and making images in the Missouri Ozarks yesterday. Any day, even a bad day, in nature beats about anything else I can think of doing. Some days I barely take the camera out of the bag, instead concentrating on hiking, birding, botanizing, etc… Other days, like yesterday, it took me close to six hours to hike the North loop of the Whispering Pine Trail of Hawn SP because I stopped so often to set up the camera or observe some wildlife.

Technical details: Canon EOS 7D camera, EF100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM lens, ISO 100, f/14, 1/13 sec

My primary photographic subject turned out to be these exquisite crystallofolia, or “frost flowers”. I have wanted to get some pictures of these things for a while now but they can be quite difficult to find, needing specific requirements to form. I could spend a few paragraphs attempting to explain this mysterious and ephemeral natural wonder. Instead, I will lead you to the well-written document by Missouri’s own Ted MacRae.

Technical details: Canon EOS 7D camera, EF100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM lens, ISO 100, f/18, 1/6 sec

As the title of this post suggests, Hawn SP is a destination of mine at least once a season. I have rarely visited this spot in Ste Genevieve County and gone home without seeing something new, something extraordinary or at least come away renewed. There are no shortages of photographic potentials and it is one of the closest spots to St. Louis where I really feel I have gotten away from it all. Even on the busiest days it is rare to come across other people on the trail.

Technical details: Canon EOS 7D camera, EF100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM lens, ISO 100, f/18, 1/3 sec

Getting near the trailhead on the way back I heard some rustling in the leaves. I followed the sound to what at first looked like a large opossum. I was pleasantly surprised to find it was an armadillo! This was the first live armadillo I’ve seen and photographed. When I came across this guy my camera was of course attached to my tripod and strapped to my pack. I had Canon’s new 100mm f2.8 macro L lens attached at the time. I did not think I had much time before this guy slipped up and over the ridge she was heading up where I would lose her to the poor light on the north-facing side. Therefore, I did not try and swap lenses to something a little more useful for this type of encounter such as the 70-200mm or 400mm. Of course when focus is sharp, this lens has no equivalent in sharpness and image quality; however, autofocusing this lens under this situation was challenging to say the least. I’ve read reviews saying this lens was a slow dog for autofocus, but that’s not what we buy macro lenses for, is it? Anyway, besides a larger portion of focus failures than I’m accustomed to, I guess I managed to grab a few images that I am relatively happy with.

Technical details: Canon EOS 7D camera, EF100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM lens, ISO 320, f/4, 1/250 sec

Like many small mammals in the Missouri Ozarks, Armadillos have poor eyesight and must rely on their hearing and smell. The section of the trail where this took place had a fair number of Oaks and of course at this time of year the forest floor was covered with a noisy blanket of dry fallen leaves. I made enough of a racket running up the hillside that she was definitely aware someone was following her. She often stopped and listened and as the previous image shows, she would raise up on her hind legs to get a good whiff of the potential predator on her tail. Thankfully, I’ve been told I smell almost exactly like an armadillo, so she probably was not too alarmed by my presence.

Technical details: Canon EOS 7D camera, EF100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM lens, ISO 320, f/4, 1/800 sec

As usual, I reluctantly left Hawn in the early afternoon and proceeded to my evening destination – Hughes Mountain Natural Area, which is another place that never disappoints (although I still haven’t had too many interesting skies like I hope for). I knew there would be a full-moon rising shortly after sunset and had a few poorly conceived ideas about what I wanted to do. I took some images of the sunset and watched as the brightest, reddest and coldest moon I have ever seen rise almost directly opposite the sky from the sun. In the end, it got too cold too quickly. I played around with the moon in some images but I doubt I got anything I’ll be happy with. I believe this image is showing the four hills that make up Buford Mountain and Bald Knob to the South-west of Hughes Mountain. I’m still not close to have the sunrise/sunset images I’m looking for from Hughes Mountain. One of these days everything will line up and I will hopefully get closer to what I am after.

Technical details: Canon EOS 7D camera, EF24-105mm f/4L IS USM lens @ 65mm, ISO 160, f/11, 3.2 sec

Overall, another fantastic day. I’ll be trying to rest my legs today.