Wait for It!..Seeing the light

After getting literally washed out on my attempt at a waterfall shot, My family and I enjoyed a great dinner with my brothers family at his home in American Fork. Fortunately my brother lives very close to the Mt. Timpanogos Temple, and as we ate dinner I kept on eye on the sky. Why you ask? Because I noticed something happening to the remnants of the thunderstorm we had just endured, specifically that the clouds were breaking up, especially towards the western horizon.

I don't think I would have been so keenly aware of the approaching sunset and light if not for two very big factors. 1st - I'd been skunked earlier in my photographic plans.  2nd - I was inspired by an image of the Mt Timpanogos Temple that had been shared a week or so prior by the amazing Utah Photographer Jeremy Hall, who also happens to live in the same general area as my brother (give or take a dozen miles) After seeing his image the week before, a nugget of an idea to get a similar shot had lodged itself into my wee brain. As I sat munching on a very tasty Brat I resolved to run up the hill to the Temple and see just what might happen.

I grabbed my wife, and we left the kids behind to play with their cousins. After parking at the north lot we walked to the front of the Temple and set up across the street on the east side.  I set up the D7000 on my Benro Tripod looking west directly at the front of the temple.

[caption id="attachment_492" align="aligncenter" width="800" caption="1st shot - HDR from 9 exposures 8:19pm"][/caption]

As you can see the light wasn't very spectacular, the clouds were gray, and a little flat and because the Temple was backlit, so the dynamic range was too large to make a single exposure look decent. I decided to shoot HDR to grab the entire dynamic range, I also noticed that the spot of gold near the sun was opening up and I needed to be patient. I plugged in the Promote Control and waited.

[caption id="attachment_483" align="aligncenter" width="517" caption="Temple Steeple Close Up - HDR of 9 exposures"][/caption]

I took this close up of the Angel Moroni statue on top of the temple while I waited for the light. (I grunged it up a little in Photomatix)

[caption id="attachment_493" align="aligncenter" width="800" caption="My 6th shot - HDR of 9 exposures 8:28pm"][/caption]

Here you can see that after only 10 minutes the color is starting to spread out behind the temple and you can see some structure in the clouds as the sun goes down. If all goes well those clouds should light up really well...

[caption id="attachment_494" align="aligncenter" width="800" caption="my 11th shot - HDR of 9 exposures 8:32pm"][/caption]

Look at the difference that 5 minutes makes! The color is really starting to develop and deepen, and what first looked like featureless gray clouds have really started to show texture and depth. I was getting excited, add 3 more minutes and we get this!

[caption id="attachment_495" align="aligncenter" width="800" caption="12th Shot -Boom goes the color! - HDR of 9 exposures 8:35pm"][/caption]

Then this!

[caption id="attachment_491" align="aligncenter" width="800" caption="18th shot - HDR of 9 exposures"][/caption]

This was the shot I had envisioned while sitting at my brothers home. I was pretty sure that if the clouds cleared from the horizon long enough this type of sunset would occur so I clicked away, (being a newbie means I over shoot) it was funny because right around this time a few cars pulled over and you could see people sticking their phones out the windows to take the shot I wonder if they would've done so if I hadn't been set up taking pictures? (bet they don't look quite like this one though)

I moved to the south to get a 3/4 view.

[caption id="attachment_484" align="aligncenter" width="800" caption="3/4 view - HDR of 8 exposures"][/caption]

I'm thinking of entering this image into a contest. My only regret is that the street starts to dip on the south side instead of getting higher, what I would've given for a cherry picker to get a higher vantage, then I could've included some great mountains in the background as well.

We crossed the street again and from right along the fence on the south side I took these images.

[caption id="attachment_489" align="aligncenter" width="800" caption="South side view - HDR of 9 exposures"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_490" align="aligncenter" width="800" caption="Wider south side view - HDR of 9 exposures "][/caption]

I decided as it got darker to go back to the front of the temple and I grabbed a few more shots from the corner again.

[caption id="attachment_487" align="aligncenter" width="800" caption="Temple lights come on - HDR of 9 exposures"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_486" align="aligncenter" width="800" caption="View from in the grass on the front corner - HDR of 9 exposures"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_488" align="aligncenter" width="800" caption="Getting dark - HDR of 9 exposures 8:58pm"][/caption]

So that's it, my last shot of the night was at 8:58pm. So all in all I shot for 39 minutes of fast and furious shooting with a tripod and a Promote Control hanging off of it, I couldn't have done it as quickly if not for the help of my wonderful wife. (I'll be making a holder for the Promote Control because letting it hang from its cables is no good) I was glad that I "saw" the light evolving earlier, and that I took the initiative to go find the shot I wanted. My work schedule prohibits me from shooting the "Golden Hours" very much, so it's always a treat to be able to play in its beautiful light.

Here are two of the mid or "0" exposures showing why I went with HDR - the dynamic range was really too much. You can see the blown highlights, blocked up shadows, and washed out colors in both images.

[caption id="attachment_500" align="aligncenter" width="650" caption="Mid exposure examples of 1st and 12th shots"][/caption]

Happy Shooting!

PS: I wanted to share this blog post I read Monday that parallels my experience, and has more validity to the concept of waiting for the light than my own.

The Best Laid Plans...

Our Lagoon Amusement Park trip started out great, I even got to try out my DIY camera sling strap (aka: Cheap Black Rapid strap).  However as the great  John Steinbeck wrote"the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry"  We usually split up and I follow my son and his friends while my wife will take our daughter to the kiddie rides. I had hoped to take a lot of action pictures and while I got in a few it soon turned out that my wife was getting motion sickness this time around, and my daughter needed me to ride with her.  I left the boys alone and spent the next 9 hours riding rides I'd rather have photographed, but here are a few shots I did manage to get. Nothing spectacular, although I did finally try out Continuous Focus 3D tracking and it was amazing to see how well it did given the extreme motion of a roller coaster at 200mm zoom. All shots were in JPEG as I didn't want the hassle of converting RAWs of snapshots.

The ancient "White Roller Coaster" a rickety wooden classic that'll rock n roll you!

The sky coaster goes from the north end to the south end of the park

The "Wicked" pure Terror/Joy AF-C 3D tracking!!

Waiting in a shady spot I snapped off a 3 frame HDR of the line area of "Wicked"

Reminder-Look behind you for a shot, this was at the "shady Spot" near "Wicked" 3 shot HDR handheld

The Cliffhanger - Sometimes you don't get wet, but this time...

3 shot Handheld HDR of Colossus

The drop on Colossus heading into the double loop

Making the Turn into the cyclone spiral near the end of Colossus

The entrance features a great water attraction that's irresistible to kids.

It's not a decoy that duck's real, and quite the poser

Here's your sign...

Apparently Lagoon promotes marriage...well it is Utah.

Some young parents, one of my few "People" shots

My girls!

almost an amazing shot, I should've moved 2 feet to the right and gotten all 3 clearly

The Dragonfly swings - 3 shot HDR handheld!

The "Spider" was closed, a 3 shot handheld HDR again from my "Shady spot"

The massive Ferris Wheel at the north end of the park - 3 shot HDR handheld

Ferris wheel gondolas at 200mm - 3 shot HDR handheld

The view from the top of the Ferris Wheel - a little faux tilt shift poorly done

Exit left...

So that's all I have to show you of our fun little trip. I basically had to put the camera down and be a Dad first which I never mind doing.

Speaking of which, Happy Fathers Day to all you Fathers and future fathers out there. Lets keep up the good work making memories with our families and saving them as photos.

Macro On The Cheap - Zeikos Extension Tube Set Review

So I went on a little accessory spending spree last week and ended up buying a few things to outfit and expand my D7000 a little. Now the best accessory to any camera is a new lens and I did that already with the addition of  a 50mm f/1.8 I'll talk more about that later, but today I wanted to share with you the cheapest way to get into Macro and still get some good results all without having to shell out mega $$ for a dedicated Macro lens.
Like many photographers I spend way too much time trying to learn everything possible about this crazy addictive hobby/obsession and at some point I stumbled upon the term "extension tubes", (I've used these in my astrophotography although they're configured a bit differently)  these are basically rings you add between the camera and the lens to adjust the focal distance of a lens to make it focus at much closer distances. Most normal range lenses focus around 1-2 feet, and even farther out for the larger tele-zooms.  Using an extension tube or set of tubes you can shrink this down to mere inches. Here's the best part - they work on most lenses, and they're cheap!
While cruising through Amazon on this buying spree I was exposed to the "you might like this" scrolling bar and noticed a set of Kenko Extension tubes they looked great and cost $170, I did a little research into the brand and found good reviews but I also found an alternative set of Macro extension tubes from Zeikos that only cost $79!
Add to cart!! They arrived a few days ago and I've been taking pictures of  my wife's wilting Mothers Day flowers, and I have to say I am really impressed by how close I can focus with these tubes on. The set is comprised of three tubes (rings) of different lengths 12mm, 20mm, and 36mm that can be used alone or in any combination. The great thing about these are that they contain the electrical contacts necessary to enable the use of autofocus and metering. My 50mm f/1.8 will even autofocus through the tubes which  requires the cameras autofoucs motor to work, don't ask me how it works through three extension tubes, that's voodoo magic to me but it works.
Here are a few shots showing the flowers using various tube combinations and some wide scene shots to give you some perspective.

Here you see the three extension tubes next to my D7000

All three tubes and my 50mm f/1.8 as I shoot the Daisy

Here's the result of all 3 tubes on a 50mm @ f/22

How about some HDR shots?!

A purple Daisy backlit with the 12mm tube on a 50mm @f/5.6

Backlit petals of a Yellow/Green daisy 20mm extension tube with a 50mm @f22

The same Daisy from the front

Here's a regular shot of the smallest flower with all 3 tubes shot @f/22

The smallest flower in the arrangement, shot with all 3 tubes @ f/22

The set up for the small flower shot with all 3 tubes

As you can see you can get very close using these extension tubes. They're made of plastic but have metal components including the mounting rings, one thing to note is that you must mount the tubes onto the camera before mounting the lens onto the tubes (per instructions). They started out pretty stiff but have loosened up just a little so it doesn't feel like I'm going to squeeze my lens into an oval getting it on, they mount onto the camera and each other very easily, only the lens takes some effort.
I look forward to using these often, especially with my 18-200mm which I just haven't had the time to try out yet.
Happy CHEAP Macro shooting!

Benro Tripod Review (Cheap Sticks)

So I want to do gear reviews from time to time and although I wanted to eventually do a  review on tripods,  I felt a need to write one sooner due to this Blog/Podcast post I read/listened to here: http://www.photography.ca/blog/2011/04/26/tripod-photography/

First off let me say that I absolutely love this podcast! It’s very informative, fun to listen to as it’s not too long,  and Marko keeps it moving quickly without any rambling, or useless chatter. I always enjoy it when the episodes randomly play on my MP3 player at work. An added bonus is his accent which makes me chuckle everytime I hear him. J/K Marko! The major points of his advice are these: 1-Don’t go cheap, 2- Don’t buy on the internet, try out the tripod at a local store, 3-Buy one with a seperate head-again don’t go cheap. 4-Carbon Fiber to save weight.  He really hammers home the advice to not just buy it after reading reviews online but to absolutely go try it!!

I completely agree with him on all these points! That being said I pretty much broke everyone of them! That happens when you’re on a budget, I can hear you now saying “hey dummy you just bought a $1,500 camera and you can’t afford a $800 tripod and $400 Head?” Yeah that’s exactly what I’m saying,  it took me 4 years to save up for the camera and honestly I just don’t have the  patience to wait 4 years to save up for an expensive tripod and head. Also I’m of the opinion that most Photography related items are highly overpriced and it’s very disheartening to see those prices and know that you really need these things, so anytime I can “stick it to ‘em” I will. Plus I’ve got glass to buy… (don’t get me started on those prices)

So onto the review, even though I live in a decent sized city (Salt Lake City, Utah) and we have a number of really great photo stores, none of them carry off brand tripods and I wasn’t going to waste my time looking at tripods outside of my price range which was $200 or less. I think if you can do that you definitely should try before you buy, or even just to see what options you want, or to find the right height. Since that option wasn’t available to me I had to rely on online reviews and for the Benro tripods there are a few, although I wish there were more available so hopefully this one will be useful to someone who is looking. After reading and watching as many youtube  video reviews  as I could find and there were plenty of pro’s and cons given I settled on this tripod the Benro A-298 M8 I chose this model due to it’s cost, abilities (covered later) and its height. As Marko says you should get a tripod that fits your height, and even with only two of the three leg sections extended I’m able to use this without much bending.

Benro A298M8 and cheap Vivitar at full height

Here we see the Benro with my old Vivitar VPT-2400 tripod this is one of those el-cheapo tripods you get at Walmart for ~$20 I’ve had this for 10 years and it’s worked great for my little point & shoot camera. But there was no way I was going to trust my D7000 to that! It actually fell over once with my P&S on it during a windy day while I was trying to get a group shot of the family on one of our excursions, this is what happened to the  camera:

Thankfully it still worked for the next 3 years, but I will never trust my D7000 on it.

The Benro has these features that helped me to pick it: 1- It collapses to a small size – 22″ without the ballhead, but is still the right height for me when extended (I’m 5’9″). 2- Weight,  Even though it’s not Carbon Fiber it’s still pretty light – with the ball head on it weighs 5lbs.  (Benro has a Carbon Fiber version) 3- the Flexpod arm which allows you to swing the camera out from the center line using the removable/reversible center column.  Some additional things I’ve found since using it is that it’s sturdy, and everything moves really smoothly. I also found that I like the twist locks ( I haven’t gotten them really dirty yet so we’ll see if I still like them after some more exposure to elements) andI love ball heads but more on that in the next review.

Benro A-298 M8

Benro A298M8 compared to Vivitar VPT-2400

The Flexpod arm holding D7000 with a 18-200mm Legs are opened to the middle angle

The flexpod arm shoing underside of center column and ball head locking screws

Center column inverted - D7000 and 18-200mm

Legs opened at widest angle

Only top 2 leg sections extended - My usual formation

Leg spreader lock openedLeg spreader lock closedBox, Bag, and accessories: Spike feet, Allen wrench, carry strap, Warranty cardTwist leg locks

Leg spreader lock closed

Twist leg locks

Box, Bag, and accessories: Spike feet, Allen wrench, carry strap, Warranty card

The included bad is very nice but just a bit too small to fit the tripod with ballhead

almost fits!!

In conclusion: Nice tripod, but what do I know I’ve used a piece of junk for 10 years?!

I have no buyers remorse whatsoever, and I’m quite pleased with the sturdiness and finish. I really hope that the influx of these lower priced tripods and other accessories will start to drive some pricing competition into the photography marketplace because it really needs it.  If you have any questions please feel free to contact me: newd7000user@gmail.com

Happy -sturdy- Shooting!