Ruby Beach

I'm feeling a bit guilty about neglecting my blog this summer. I'm sorry about that. I try to make sure my priorities are in the right place when my children are home from school... and that means that I'm most likely to be found in the pool or the park during the day. I love having my kids home during the summer, but it means that I have very little time for wilderness photography - or updating my website or blog.

I hope you'll all put up with my absences until the end of August, when the kids are back in school. I'll have quite a lot of catching up to do - but I can't complain. This is what life is all about.

I did manage to process a shot a few weeks ago... this one is from our trip to Washington state. Ruby beach is fantastic - and the light was awfully nice that night. :)

I hope you are all having a wonderful summer - wherever you are.

Today in Brief

Showers for grownups, breakfast, beach, lunch, beach, pool, showers for kids, dinner, bed. A bit of sunburn despite enormous amounts of sunscreen. Five miles of hiking between parking lots and beaches. Six very happy and very tired children. We're having a fantastic time - but for some reason, I don't feel like I'm on vacation. :)

We did get some fun pictures - which I'll process when we get home.

Ouch

My son (age 11) broke his little finger today, so we spent a good part of the day at the urgent care center. He's ok - though it's pretty painful. Poor kid - I don't think he'll be playing basketball at recess tomorrow. :)

I did get some work done this morning - mostly cleaning up and backing up my system. It was necessary to get that done before I could move on to some of the other tasks I have on my list. But I did process a few images - just the ones that caught my eye and were a quick job. The image you see here was shot in Arizona. I love the circles in the sandstone... such a beautiful contrast between these smooth little circles and the jagged lines that run through the rocks. To me, they look like little round moons orbiting some gigantic orange planet.

Photographing Kids?

One question I regularly get from new photographers is this: What lens do you use for photographing the kids? Of course, it's not an easy answer every time - since the kids do a lot of different things, and the best lens depends upon the situation. Still, I do have one lens that I use more than any other when it comes to capturing my children in action. The Canon 135mm f/2 L USM lens. Why? Because it's fast, sharp, and not as expensive as other L series lenses from Canon.
If I want to capture my children in the pool or on the soccer field, this is the lens I choose. I can't jump into the pool and I have to stay off the field - but the 135 lets me get right into the action. If I'm shooting outdoors, I choose an overcast day if possible - that way I avoid blown highlights and shadows with little or no detail. Shooting at f/2 allows me to use a fast shutter speed, too - so I can capture the kids in motion. It also gives me a shallow depth of field - my kid is in focus, but everything else is soft. Perfect. :)

If you are shooting moving subjects, consider using the AI Servo focusing system (Canon EOS cameras). AI stands for Artificial Intelligence - the camera automatically adjusts the focal length in relation to the speed and direction of the subject. It's not perfect, but it sure helps when your kid won't stand still!
And then there are those school functions that take place in a dark auditorium. Your flash doesn't reach the stage, your sitting in the tenth row... and your kid is a grand total of two dark little pixels when you print your photo for grandma. But not with a wide lens like this one. I open it up to f/2 again, adjust the ISO as necessary, and shoot without the flash. I couldn't be happier with the shots I got of my son's graduation from preschool - and his friends parents were thrilled to have some closeups of their kids, too.
I use this lens for school plays, concerts, weddings, parties, soccer, and swimming - and when I don't want to be right in a kid's face. You can capture some fantastic "close-up" candid shots from across the room - without disturbing your subjects.

Grand Tetons

We're in Grand Tetons National Park, right now. Taking a break from hiking to give the kids a rest. I would have liked to take a few minutes to write sooner, but the kids keep us pretty darn busy. :) On our first day here, we took the kids on a 4 mile hike. They had a good time - but we had to turn back before we reached the lake we were headed for, since it was getting late. The following day, we hiked out to Jenny lake and then to Inspiration Point. About six miles. Our five year old was pretty tired after that - but he made it all the way. I was pretty dang proud of him. That's no small hike for such a little guy! Actually, I'm proud of all of them. They got some very delicious ice cream after their long hike - and then the little one took a nap in the car. :)

Today, they did a third hike. Another five miles or so. They got to take off their shoes and play for a good long time in an icy cold lake - so everyone was happy.

Tomorrow, we'll be headed for Yellowstone. I think the kids are ready for a few hours in the car. :)

Sleeping Rainbows

The Indians call this area The Land of the Sleeping Rainbows. It's in Grand Staircase - Escalante National Monument in Utah. We've been here a few times, now, but this is the first time we were able to capture such spectacular skies. The land is equally impressive, though. The mountains are striped with unbelievable shades of green, gold, white, and red - and lines that reach as far as the eye can see. As one of our students from our last Utah workshop so aptly put it... "Fan-freakin'-tastic." :)

I won't be getting much work done this week. My kids are home from school and we're spending as much time as possible out of doors. Three of them have swim team every weekday morning, and we spent a few hours in the pool this afternoon too. They spent the rest of the day playing in the woods - and we'll go catch some frogs and crawdads after dinner.

We'll be heading for Yellowstone National Park next Wednesday. We're taking all six kids, so I can't promise any blog posts. But I'll try for a few. This trip won't be about photography, either... it's about the kids. So, although we may get a few shots here and there, we'll spend most of our time exploring the park. The kids are very excited. They are used to long trips, so we aren't too worried about the plane trips or the long drive from Denver to the park. We're more concerned about losing someone. Ah well - if they get lost, they can join a bison herd... and that's one less mouth the feed. :)