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.

Hits,Fireworks & Rain

July 24 is a holiday in Utah, we celebrate the arrival of the Mormon pioneers into the Salt Lake Valley in 1847.  Since it fell on a Sunday this year (and we keep the 7th commandment) we celebrated it on Monday the 26th with a family outing to our local AAA Baseball team the Salt Lake Bees (affiliated with the Anaheim Angels).

I had fun finding out if they would allow DSLR's at the game and after quite a run around and many conflicting answers, and definitions, along with a plea from me to post the info on their website, I finally received an email from the stadium manager stating that all cameras were allowed  but no tripods or monopds, and to be respectful of the other fans ie: don't hit them in the head with your camera. Great so I could take my 18-200mm but tough luck on the fireworks. I tried anyways but.. well, you'll see.

OK so hand held with a f/3.5-5.6 lens and low light and to make it worse what daylight we had was falling fast as a storm moved in.

We reached our seats and I took a metered reading switched to manual and fired off an 11 shot pano:

[caption id="attachment_392" align="aligncenter" width="800" caption="17 shot Panorama @18mm, f/3.5, 1/400sec, iso 200 Stitched in Autopano Giga"][/caption]

We were just off the backstop netting so we had to keep an eye out for those foul tip nose breakers. Just as an aside panos at 18mm gets nasty due to its vignetting, it just about killed Photoshop so I used AutoPano instead and it did a better job removing the vignette.

Here's a3 shot sequence of the first pitch:

[caption id="attachment_394" align="aligncenter" width="630" caption="Coming forward..."][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_395" align="aligncenter" width="630" caption="The throw..."][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_393" align="aligncenter" width="630" caption="The follow through"][/caption]

Love our seats! Those were taken at 200mm, f/5.6, 1/400sec, iso 800 in continuous high mode, and using back button focus 3D tracking.

BTW that's Matt Palmer pitching and he did a great job!

Here's the Mascot the lovable and uber friendly Bumble:

[caption id="attachment_397" align="aligncenter" width="570" caption="The Salt Lake Bees Mascot "Bumble""][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_398" align="aligncenter" width="530" caption="Mascots get to watch the game as well"][/caption]

That little bit of sun you see on Bumble was the last we'd see of it.

Here are some random shots...

[caption id="attachment_399" align="aligncenter" width="630" caption="yummy!"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_396" align="aligncenter" width="630" caption="Some random couple doing the Facebook "hey were here at the game and here's our crappy cell phone pic to prove it" shot."][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_401" align="aligncenter" width="530" caption="I made the big screen! This was about 2 stops under exposed thank goodness I was in RAW"][/caption]

How about a few "action" shots?

[caption id="attachment_402" align="aligncenter" width="630" caption="A Tacoma Rainer player almost gets tagged leading off of first too far."][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_400" align="aligncenter" width="630" caption="I believe I can fly..."][/caption]

We got a triple off that play, the fielder missed the bounce and pick up off the wall.

So by now it was getting a bit darker and I wanted to get some Panoramas from other areas of the park before it was too dark, so I headed out to left field.

[caption id="attachment_406" align="aligncenter" width="800" caption="A 3 shot Hand Held HDR from Left field."][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_412" align="aligncenter" width="800" caption="Hand Held HDR Panorama from Left Field. 6frames x 3brackets=18 shot panorama!"][/caption]

See the rain coming?

Here it is:

[caption id="attachment_411" align="aligncenter" width="630" caption="Raining"][/caption]

Some creative umbrellas for the dedicated fans:

[caption id="attachment_414" align="aligncenter" width="630" caption="Programs work, at least for a little while."][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_413" align="aligncenter" width="630" caption="Plates! These were my favorite."][/caption]

We chickened out and hid under the 2nd deck overhang until it stopped just after sunset. (I'm still babying my D7000) However before it stopped completely we got a nice treat that I just couldn't capture very well but I tried.

[caption id="attachment_415" align="aligncenter" width="800" caption="Rainbow(actually a double - but very faint) Handheld 3 bracket HDR"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_405" align="aligncenter" width="800" caption="The Bees at bat - 3 bracket Hand Held HDR"][/caption]

I headed out to right field to try and capture what little color I could in the sunset from there with less than stellar results, sure could've used a tripod!

[caption id="attachment_416" align="aligncenter" width="800" caption="Looking from the right field fence - 3 bracket Hand Held HDR"][/caption]

Well lets do a pano, but it's too dark now to bracket hand held that many shots so it's a "normal" pano.

[caption id="attachment_417" align="aligncenter" width="800" caption="A poor sunset from the right field General Admissions area"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_404" align="aligncenter" width="800" caption="Looking down the 1st baseline - 3 bracket Hand Held HDR"][/caption]

That's one of my favorite shots from the night! Wish I'd had a 300mm.

[caption id="attachment_403" align="aligncenter" width="800" caption="The walk of shame - 3 bracket Hand Held HDR"][/caption]

This poor guy! Notice how no one's looking at him, they're all looking at the Tacoma dugout, and I'm mad I missed focusing on him but check out the umpire doing the whole "does my butt  look fat in these pants?" thing in the background.

OK so we win the game - Yay!

After a little wait for the wind to settle they put on a nice fireworks display. I did my best but I had no tripod, just a camera bag on my lap jammed up agaist the seat back infront of me, and the guide wires for the backstop netting in the middle of my view but here ya go with a few I liked.







And my favorite fireworks shot which was a semi accident. I was zooming in to recompose (All with the camera in my lap so I was just guessing) and after changing the zoom I waited for a blast and I wiggled the camera to settle it into the bag for better support and I liked what it did to the firework.

 A fun night with the family and my wife and I extended our vacations one more day so we could go hiking with my brother and his family, but that's for next time...

Happy Shooting!

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.