Photogaboutit

Five years ago today, I was engaged in a stare down with a giraffe. I'm writing this, so I guess you know who won. Sometimes it's fun to look back and see where we were on this day a certain number of days ago. So I thought, where was I ten years ago? I looked at my photos and realized that I hadn't even bought my first digital camera until April of 2003. Maybe I've got some slides from those days? Who knows. Well, how about five years ago? It turns out that five years ago today, I was down in Florida visiting my parents along with some other close family. Not only that, but my father had arranged an afternoon at the White Oak Plantation . The conservation center there cares for a number of threatened species in what seems to my untrained eye to be pretty nice accommodations. Rhino, running nose, eating. 'nuff said. Okay, the first thing that I'm going to do after I get my first million will be to install a bowling alley in the hous...

I'm a bit of a night owl and I often get to bed later than my wife. I don't think the dogs mind a bit. Um Tigran, you're gonna have to move.

I stay awake at nights thinking about shooting the aurora. I'm sure if I lived in Fairbanks, I wouldn't think much of it, but it's rare that an auroral event occurs when it's dark, cloudless, moonless, and a clear northern view. Apparently, a huge display happened yesterday. Unfortunately, I didn't realize it was happening until the afternoon. The moon was out and was bright, so I just couldn't see it very well and I also think I missed the main event. A northern view from a short way up the old Ascutney ski area. A crescent, but extremely bright moon was still high in the western sky, dimming the effect of the slightly noticeably red aurora on the right. Although the aurora was bright, the moon can easily overpower the amazing display at these relatively lower latitudes. (Mt. Ascutney, VT, St. Patrick's Day, 2013, Sony a77, iso 800, f/2.8, 30sec) That being said, I always love night photography, and I decided an accessible northern view could be eas...

I'm finishing up editing and processing the images from the third part of the trip to South America. While doing this, I ran across these images, taken in succession. Here is an example where I feel digital photography can be instructive. You can play with compositions in the field and have an immediate review. The iterative process is ramped up a notch, and often you can come away with an image that has had some real thought go into it. I'll use the captions to explain my thought process for this one.  My final image, the third in the series, is my favorite. Let me know, which image do you like the best? First Try : So, I started off using the rule of thirds and layering. By this I mean the rock in the foreground on the left is one layer, the field and ridge line combine to make the second layer, the and mountains are in the background. But something wasn't right. Nothing really felt like it was the subject of the image. The sky didn't add anything and the ...

Last Thursday (geez, has it been that long?!) we finally received a much needed dump of snow. Well, that's not quite accurate. The mountains received snow. The valleys...well, let's talk about the mountains. Air-udite Dartmouth Professor Nick Reo, grabbin' some hang time. Yahoo! I'm enjoying it too Nick! No, it's not you. This image is black and white. But mostly grey. When the snow is thick, a foot can feel like two. And that's a good thing! Better than a day at the office! Specifically, let's talk about Magic Mountain. Without a doubt, my favorite ski area in southern Vermont and one of the best in the east when the snow is right. Located in Londonderry, Magic mountain is a true New England ski area. Not a resort. With two slow double lifts, although they usually only run one, since they pretty much both go to the top, Magic Mountain is all about fun winding trails on natural snow, steep terrain, secret glades and no crowds. No...

When backpacking for long distances, it's a given that unwanted things will happen to your camera. If you hike with the camera strapped on your front so as to always have it at hand, as I do, it can become the first point of contact when falling. (I always bring an extra compact camera and many lens caps on these trips.) A rock and my camera met with unfortunate consequences. Luckily, the digital viewfinder turned out to be a savior, as I was able to do everything in the viewfinder that I could do on the screen, including reviewing images. On the circuit hike in Torres Del Paine, I was packing up the camera in it's lightweight case and it slipped from about waist height. In the case, a rugged body, low drop height, I was sure nothing had happened. But when I opened it up, the rear lcd screen was smashed. Now I love that screen, especially since it's articulated. When hiking with a heavy pack, it's easy to shoot down low or up high without having to strain. More...