Knee Deep In Landscape Photography

I typed "landscape photography" in Google's image search engine and I get hundreds of beautiful landscape photos.  I looked at these inspiring images and places with awe and wonder.  Prior to learning photography, I asked myself, "How am I going to capture an image like that? Where is that place?  There's no way I can do something like that!  You need a super-duper high-end camera to take that shot!"

I've been shooting for a couple of years now and when I see these well composed and well exposed landscape shots, I tell myself, "I can do that!  f16...long shutter...on a tripod...nd grad filter...shutter release cable...etc.   That's easy to do.  It's just a matter of being at the right place and at the right time."  Hahaha.  Not so fast!  Being a landscape photographer is not as simple as it looks.

Not only do you have to find the right scenery.  You also have to think about the environment.  Is it foggy, dusty, windy, misty?

If it's any of those, get ready to clean your lens every other minute!  Or find a way to cover the lens prior to taking the shot!  It was a PITA.  I had a great spot to shoot but I deleted that whole set of images when I saw it in my computer.  I was looking forward to showing it to you! Oh well.  I'll do a better job next time...

Aside from the environment, you have to think about your gear.  Don't leave it in the car when you are parking in the middle of nowhere!  Cover it up.  In this case, don't flaunt it if you've go it.

It's also about timing.  Once you arrive to a spot that you like, take a deep breath and look around.  Think of the camera settings while you  assemble your gear.  Picture in your mind what you wanted to capture.

Do you know where I captured these images?  Well, do ya???  Maybe these will give it away.

I had a great time in Oahu.  Almost every evening, I walked around the city.  Carrying my camera bag and my aluminum tripod.  And each morning, my shoulders ached!  But it was all worth the hassle!  I finally took some pictures that I envisioned.  But I still have a lot to learn and gear to buy (Wifey, please let me buy it!).

Remember, don't forget to turn around or look down!  I was intrigued at what I found.

This is a great example of being unprepared...  I'm not going to tell you why!

And this is what happens when I'm bored...

And oh by the way, having the top of the line gear helps... If you have the money, get it.  I sure don't.  I shot these with my Canon 40D, 10-22mm, and 100mm.  Buy the top of the line lenses if you can.  You'll be buying camera bodies faster than replacing a high quality lens.  Lastly, here's my first timelapse.

Thanks for checking out my blog.  I haven't shot that much lately but I'm hoping this will change in the next few of weeks.  See you around!

500

This is Bigma!  Get it? "This is Sparta!" vs "This is Bigma!"; 300 vs 500.  Ahh never mind...

On to today's topic.  A friend of mine let me borrow his Sigma 50-500 (non-OS) [aka Bigma] lens for Canon bodies.  All I can say is not bad at all (if you know how to use it!!!).  The first time I used it, I hand held it standing up...not a good idea.  This beast of a lens is freaking heavy!  Eventually I got the hang of it.  I sat on the asphalt and used my knees as a bipod (there's a joke here somewhere that I'll leave alone).

As you can see in the images above,  I definitely needed to use a tripod or monopod for this big boy.  No matter how stable I thought I was, ghosting was still noticeable.  I was shooting at ISO 800 f7.1 1/400 at 500mm.  The rule of thumb is suppose to be your shutter speed must be 1/used focal length.  Maybe I should follow it...haha.  The idea is to use the lowest ISO possible to obtain the best image quality.

 At times, I followed the rule of thumb and it turned out nice.

The image above is from my visit to the San Diego Wild Animal Park.  A day before the San Diego visit, I tested the Bigma near a horse ranch in my neighborhood.

These were taken late afternoon.  I had to bump it up to ISO 1600 for a decent shot at 500mm f5.6 1/200 on a monopod.

I was lucky that day...  I saw a few minutes of horse play.  Those 'stangs do bite!

By the way, to give you an idea how far I was from these horses.  Below is a close up (500m):

What's the opposite term of a "close up"?  "Open up"?  Anyway, the image below is fully zoomed out (50mm):

That's the power of the 500!  Both images were not cropped and were minimally retouched (pretty much fresh of the camera).  A couple of days later, Airwolf decided to check out the horses too.

I took a few more shots.

Afterwards, a family decided to visit the horses.  I couldn't help it so I took one "street" style photograph.

I was able to get closer to these curious creatures and took pics using my Canon 50mm 1.8.

They are bigger than you think when you stand next to them.  Why did I have a long face?  It's because I wish I had a carrot that day...

I took one last shot using the Bigma and left the horse ranch, wondering what will happen to these wonderful creatures.

Do you smell that? *cough* *cough*  It smells like progress... aka smog aka air pollution aka when I win the lottery, I'll move out to Hawaii and breathe fresh air every day.  Maybe.

I enjoyed using the Sigma 50-500 (non-os).  I would like to borrow it again for a surfing competition event at the beach.   Are you reading this NN?  Haha.  Thanks for reading.  WOohoo for blog post numero 10!