Hyperfocal distance

Here's another early morning shot from Graveyard flats in Banff. I used a GND filter to reduce the overall dynamic range, and a circular polarizer filter to cut through the light bouncing off the surface of the water and allow you to see the beautiful stones at the bottom of the pond clearly. The sun had climbed high enough in the sky to require a shorter shutter speed here (0.5 seconds at f/16) - but the surface of the pond was absolutely still, so a longer shutter speed was unnecessary.

The question then, is this... why I am using f/16? Why not shoot at f/8 or f/11, since I know that's where my lens works best? The reason I chose f/16 is because that gives me a hyperfocal distance of about 0.5 m with my focal length at 12mm ... so objects just .25 m away will be in sharp focus!

At f/8 - that near focus point will be about half a meter away... not close enough to get those rocks in the foreground sharp. I have my tripod low to the ground, here... just about .25 m from the closest rocks. I could have gotten even closer with f/22 - but I want my aperture as close to f/11 as possible, since that's where I get my cleanest shot.

All right - no more technical stuff. Sorry about that. ;)

I took several shots that morning, and I'm not sure which one I like best. I've processed four and deleted the rest - and I'll add them all to a new Canada gallery once I've finished the rest from the trip. I'm having such a great time working through these photos!

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!