Back in the States

Sorry folks! I would have loved to update my blog regularly during our stay in Canada, but I had very little access to the internet. And I was having entirely too much fun. This was, without question, one of our best trips ever. The landscapes were gorgeous, the skies were stunning, and the company was great fun. I have hundreds of images to work through, and I'm thoroughly looking forward to processing them. I hope you'll all be patient with me! :)This is a shot of Anemone occidentalis - better known as "Tow-headed Baby" or "Western Anemone" - from Sunshine Meadows in Banff National Park. (Forgive me... I love those fantastic Latin names. I have to admit, though - I look them all up. I don't have a clue what this stuff is called off the top of my head. I guess I just like to pretend I'm smart.) Although the vistas were fantastic, the light was pretty harsh. I found myself noticing small details. The drops of dew on this flower remained only because the flower was in the shade - which meant I had perfect lighting for a macro shot. It takes time to get a shot like this one just right... the flower is blowing in the wind, and focusing for macros can be difficult.

I used my 180mm macro lens to get nice and tight - and made sure the setup was secure on my tripod before worrying about focus. Although standard auto-focus works well enough for wide angle shots, I needed the more precise live-view auto-focus function to make sure focus was spot-on for such a small subject. I had to wait for the wind to die down as well.

I bumped up the ISO to 400 for a faster shutter speed - and managed to get a nice, clean shot at 1/30 sec. I chose f/5.6 to get just enough depth of field... I wanted those droplets nice and sharp, but the background completely blurred.

I'll post lots more from this trip as soon as I can. Hang in there - I'm trying to get caught up! :)

Sledding

Shooting moving subjects isn't as difficult as you think. You'll need a fast lens - like our Canon 135mm f/2.0. A wide aperture (f/2.0) allows us to capture more light than would be possible with a narrower opening - which means we can use a faster shutter speed to freeze the action. This shot was taken at ISO 100 with a shutter speed of 1/800th of a second, and the aperture set at 2.0.

We were happy to have overcast skies to work with - so you won't see blown highlights or shadows that lack detail in this image. We overexposed the shots in camera just slightly - since we knew the white snow would confuse the light meter. I'd recommend taking a couple of test shots, and checking your histogram now and then as the light changes.

If 1/800 sec isn't fast enough to capture your action shots (a speeding baseball or racecar perhaps) - you can increase your ISO to compensate. Most SLR cameras handle high ISO situations relatively well - though I'd hesitate to go beyond ISO 1600 without a really excellent camera. You'll get more noise the higher you go - just be aware of that. You can check out your camera's ISO capabilities by reading some online reviews or taking a few test shots on your own.

I'm in the process of cleaning up my hard drive. I'm afraid I have entirely too many photographs on this poor machine. :) I'll be busy with that for a good part of the day - and then it will be time to back up the system. I'd like to get all that done before the holiday. Wish me luck!