Idaho Falls (The Falls)

About a week ago I had the opportunity to takeoff as a family for a little vacation to Idaho Falls. There I found some great opportunities for pictures at the falls. I thought that today I will take a moment and share some of the pictures from that trip. I hope everyone had a great summer and had a great opportunity to take pictures. Now that fall is starting to show up there is going to be more opportunities for pictures involving many colors. which for those to start anytime around you if they haven't already. Feel free to share pictures you may have of fall colors in your area as they start to arrive. Fall for for photography may be one of my favorites.

Air Show Part 2

A few weeks ago I went to an air show in Great Falls Montana. For this post I wanted to share some more pictures from the air show. This time the pictures are some of the static displays from the show including the B-1 Bomber. It is always fascinating to get to go to events such as this. With this event they made it so that we could see military equipment from the Army, Air Force, and Navy.

So if you have an opportunity to go to any type of military show or air show these are great places to be able to take pictures. Other festivals and events that may be occurring in your area including fairs if there is still any going on near you are also fun places to practice taking pictures.

So when you have a chance go out, take advantage of what is happening around you for opportunities to take pictures, and be sure to have fun while doing it. Photography is all about having fun, especially if you have family that you can take with you, and enjoying the outdoors.

Army

Navy

Air Force

Wonders for editing

Can you believe it's already August. That means fall is just around the corner and a whole new world for pictures with the wonderful variety of colors. But that is not for a little while yet.

Today we are going to look at editing once again. There has been one program that since I have started writing this blog I have learned a lot about how to use and it can make large differences in the finished images. These pictures are not some examples of some of my better stuff but it is a good example of what Light Room can do. This is a program that I checked out a text book from the library to help better learn the program. Below is some before and after edit examples to show what can be done. 

For those without access to Adobe Light Room other free editing programs can do similar stuff but I can't say to how great an effect. 

So till next time continue to enjoy your summer and be sure to take your camera because you never know where that next great picture may be.

Before - Under exposed image                                                            After - with corrections

 Before - again Under exposed Try to find the dragon fly.

                                                                                          After - Cropped and exposure adjusted                

                                                                                                  unfortunately the dragonfly is blurry. Try photographing one sometime its a challenge. 

Before - some areas under exposed some over exposed                

    After - Able to adjust different    

                                                                                                      area while brightening the shadows        

So as you can see a bad picture that you take does not mean it is destined for the recycle bin. It may take some time and little work but images can be salvaged.

Great Falls Air Show

Over the weekend I had an opportunity to go to an air show featuring the United States Air Force Thunderbirds, which provides great opportunities for photography. Whether it is planes on the ground set up for people to look at or looking towards the skies for high flying acrobatics and aerial stunts. One of the trickiest parts to photographing an air show is the speed which the planes are moving providing the challenge of tracking a plane that may be moving at 300+mph and having your shutter speed set right to be able to freeze the object for a clear picture. The other big challenge is trying to focus at that speed. This is a situation where auto focus can be both your friend and enemy. I'll discuss tricks that I used for focusing on objects in a field of blue in future posts. So if you have a chance to check out an air show I would highly recommend it. If you want to see the Thunderbirds who put on a spectacular show check out the link above to see where the closest show to you may be.

Be sure to enjoy your summer and take your camera with you. Even if you are not planning to take pictures you may find that you want to. So go out take lots of pictures and as always be sure to always be safe in your activities. 

Rule of Thirds

When you go out and take photos a rule to remember to help compose your pictures is known as "The Rule of Thirds". Dispite the fact that you may feel that the subject of your photo should be centered, if the subject is located in one of the thirds, it will help the image provide parts of the story, as in showing a subject entering from one side or leaving towards another side. If you check the menu on your camera you may find the your camera has a setting to display a grid to help you see your screen in thirds to help you visualize the rule to help use it in your photography. 

Next time you are out taking pictures try experimenting with positioning including the use of the rule of thirds and see what this can do for you photography. 

So grab your camera and head out and take pictures and remember to always be safe in you photography activities.  

Here is some examples of how the Rule of Thirds can be used,

With this picture you can see how the plane is taking up the left 2/3 of the image leaving the right 1/3 for you to visualize the plane to move into knowing it is about to take off.

In this picture, it is broken in to 3 parts. The right 1/3 of the Fram has the jeep driving out of the frame while in the center 1/3 you have a plane moving from left to right. This can be told by the left 1/3 of the from being empty showing everything in motion to the right of the image

Some times when you are photographing fast moving objects the Rule of Thirds is hard to get. Even if objects are centered sometimes it can still make for nice pictures such as the one above. The trick is you just don't want to shoot every picture centered. Try experimenting, you may be amazed at what this one little trick can do.

Planning Shoots

When it comes to doing photo shoots, it doesn't hurt to do some planning in advance if you can. One of the things to think about is the time of day to do the shoot. Think about where the sun is going to be compared to the subject you are shooting. Try to plan to take the pictures so you are not shooting with the sun directly behind your subject. Another thing to think about is weather. If it is cloudy you won't get as bad of shadows do to the light being more diffused and spread out by the clouds compared to the harshness of the direct sunlight. Also later evenings can give nice golden tones to the picture. So next time you are planning to go out and take some planned pictures with the family or friends keep this in mind and plan ahead for the best lighting and take great looking pictures.

So go ahead and go out and take some great pictures and have fun while doing it, don't forget as always be safe in everything that you do.

Here is a few more pictures from the trip I took to Yellowstone.

Lake Store 

located along the shore of Lake Yellowstone in Lake Village

Hamilton Store

located lower portion of Old Faithful basin near Old Faithful Inn

Old Faithful Inn

Still learning

There come times where people like me still have to learn. Yes, even I do not know everything yet. With programs like photoshop continuing to evolve and cameras continuing to become more complex, you have to continue to learn the operations to make the best image possible. One way to learn is by going to your local library to check out books. One that I got recently is on working with photoshop lightroom. 

I also like to get books that give tips on how to photograph other types of things. You can find books that give tips about how to photograph different things. An example is this book, How to photograph everything. 

So if you are looking for something to read that can help you develop your photography skills head over to your local library and see what you can find. The above book would be a great one to look for. So on your way out to take those pictures, go to your library and check out a book on photography. 

4th of July Photos

With the 4th of July coming up I thought sharing a couple of tips on photographing fireworks displays could be fun. The biggest thing that can make photographing fireworks complicated is that you are shooting in a low light situation with a extremely slow shutter speed which means the least little movement to the camera will show up. if you have a basic camera, you should check your presets and see if there is a fireworks setting. This is becoming a regular feature on basic camera presets. It is also showing up on a few DSLR cameras.

If you have a DSLR camera shooting in manual mode is the best way to photograph fireworks.

Here are the settings that you would want to use to get the photos

ISO 100 or 200

Apature f/11 or f/16

Shutter - This one is a little more tricky. If you set it to a bulb, manual release and use a remote you would hold the shutter for 2-5 seconds. The camera has to be on a  tripod for this. you could also set it for a 2-3 sec shutter speed. This is a long exposure but it should work well.

Do not use Auto Focus. Set your focus at infinity

Set Daylight White Balance

Turn off Noise Reduction

NO FLASH

Needed Equipment

Camera, Charged Battery, Tripod, Remote Shutter release, Memory Card

If you have a program at home to edit RAW photos this is the best format to shoot since it gives you the most flexibility for editing and manipulating your photos.

Hopefully you are able to take your camera out and get some photos of the celebrations near you using these tips. After the 4th I will show you what I come up with. This will be my first time using these tips so it will be fun for me to experience this myself as well.

So grab your camera, head out have fun and take some photos. Remember to be safe in all your activities as we begin to approach the 4th of July weekend.

The image below is not mine, it is used from freeimages.com

Yellowstone Water and Thermal Features

Other then animals another great feature of Yellowstone is the thermal features. As you may or may not know, Yellowstone is situated on top of a large super volcano that provides the heat for all the thermal features located throughout the park. One thing that makes a difference when you attend the park regarding thermal features is water level. In the spring some of the features will have a higher water flow for springs and fountains or longer displays for some geysers.

There are also some other water formations that are not geothermal that are worth looking at as well. The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone is carved out of sandstone making a long canyon with a couple of large waterfalls with in it with view posts to be able to see them from. This is one of those sights you just have to take the time to see when you are there. Like with other water features this to is affected by water levels and in the spring the winter runoff brings the flow of the Yellowstone river up making the falls a spectacular display.

Here is a few pictures of a couple of geysers and the "brink of the upper falls"

Here is a shot of Tower Falls. This is located on the north east end of the park on the grand loop road. It is worth stopping for a look.

This is what the boardwalk around Old Faithful Looks like about 20 min prior to an eruption in late spring. Come mid July that will look empty as peak visitation season really starts to hit.

Beehive Geyser, Not as predictable as others. Erupts about once a day with 15-20 min warning located in the upper geyser basin near Old Faithful Geyser. Easily visible from the boardwalk

 

Old Faithful Geyser, Located in the Upper Geyser Basin. Viewed from boardwalk along the geyser Most building bordering the boardwalk has estimated time of next eruption. Lots of seating, but go out as early as possible for best viewing area.

View of the upper falls from "Brink of the Upper Falls" viewing platform. Just follow signs off the grand loop road on the east side of the park for viewing area. Easy 1/8 mile hike, it has really pretty stone stairs leading down to the viewing area.













If you have the opportunity to go to Yellowstone remember to keep in mind safety is the most important thing to make a memorable trip. Stay on boardwalks and marked trails because danger lurks just beyond and just under the earth crust in the geyser basins and hillsides are not always stable beyond the trail near the canyon. So go out, have fun, be safe and bring back some great memories.

Bears in Yellowstone

If you are lucky when you have an opportunity to go to Yellowstone you will get to see a bear. On my trip I got to see two bears both with cubs. The first was a black bear. These are the smaller of the two I saw, but can be just as mean especially when protecting cubs. The second bear I got better pictures of  and is a grizzly with two cubs.

The most important thing to remember when photographing bears wheather or not they have cubs is stay a safe distance. While bears look big and slow, they are a really fast animal. I've personally seen them charge across a field and was amazed by the speed the produce. With the black bears, I aplologize that the pictures of the cubs didn't turn out. It was disappointing when I got home, but that's part of photography, especially shooting manual and not auto. But for me the pictures are worth the risk in the end with the good pictures, and I'm still learning too.

If you make it to Yellowstone, to see a bear, if you see a late group of people stoped on the side of the road, find yourself a safe place to get off the road and go check what everyone is looking at. The is a chance that they are looking at a bear. There is also a chance it could be another animal but it is always worth looking. You never know what you might find.

So if you manage to find bears be sure to shoot from a long safe distance, 100 yds is suggested minimum. So whenever you have the chance, grab your camera head out and take some pictures. Just remember to always be safe in your adventures. 

The are the black bear, the cubs where in the tree. They are a little blurrier because I was shooting in low light with a slow shutter speed. This causes the possibility that the images are not as focused as you would like. The very last picture is one of the cubs coming out of the tree.