I Keep Going Back!

Over the last three years, I've gone numerous times to the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge just outside of Brigham City. I have gone at least twice each of the last few years to observe the fall and spring migrations that stop along the wetlands that surround the Great Salt Lake. It has a tremendous diversity of birds. Sparrows, Water fowl, raptors... it's an amazing and peaceful trip. Well, of course my camera is ALWAYS co-pilot on trips to the refuge. I do have to say that it has gotten easier to shoot and I better understand the surroundings, the wildlife and even my camera.

I used my Nikon D300 (which I hope to replace with newly-announced D600) and also used my Sigma 120-400mm f/4.5-5.6 zoom lens. I've written about it before, but I think it's worth mentioning again. It does have an image stabilizer in it, but I feel that it performs a lot better with it off. I feel like I get a higher number of sharper images, which is what I want when I'm investing a lot of time and effort into such an endeavor.

My tips for getting good photos here? Drive along the tour route slowly. Keep your eyes peeled! Get out and walk around quietly. Talk to the rangers at the visitor center and on the refuge. Sit and wait, let the birds come to you. Additionally, use the Web site, and call ahead. Find out when the birds are active... when they're moving around and looking for food. This is usually going to be early morning, but you get dramatic lighting and a lot movement. Nothing new... but it does work.

Panorama with my 50mm

For the last several years, I have been delving into the world of panorama photography. The main lens I have used has been the Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8 . This is an amazing lens, and you can get broad-sweeping panoramas with it at 14mm. However, lately, I have been using my 50mm f/1.8 . While I have been very unhappy with this lens' performance in a studio setting, it has served me well in landscape photography.

Below are a couple of the panoramas that I recently shot with my 50mm lens. Immediately below is a petroglyph that can be found on the McConkie Ranch outside of Vernal, Utah. I was just several feet away when I snapped this panorama. It's a 60-photo, 49-degree (FOV) HDR panorama. Just a side note: It's a quick trip to the ranch from Vernal, and it's a great place to see ancient rock art, if you're into the natural history gambit. I am.

The next pano I shot was of Independence Monument, located in Colorado National Monument. This gem of park can be found just outside of Grand Junction, Colo. While I was a few feet away from the rock art, I was several hundred feet back from the rock monuement. Both are panoramas but the distance from camera to subject make for a dramatic difference in the photo composition.

To see what I use to shoot my panoramas, go... here!

Photographer's Deja Vous!

I took this photo of Norwegian speed skater Mikael Larsen at the Olympic Oval in Kearns, Utah, on Jan. 21, 2012:

Apparently, three years earlier, I took this photo as well (cue the Twilight Zone theme):

Same skater, skating for the same country, shot by the same photographer, using the same equipment... only the date has changed!!

Success Rate

I am an evolving photographer! How do I know... because as I once lived by the "spray and pray" philosophy of shooting, as of Jan 21, 2012, I'm a lot more selective about holding down the shutter release button on my camera. I came to this realization when I went to the Essent World Cup of speedskating here in Salt Lake City. I found a sweet spot at the apex of one of the turns and busted out my (now defunct) Nikon D300 (with the MB-D10 battery pack) and my Sigma 120-400 f/4.5-5.6 lens with the hopes of photographing some of the best speedskaters in the world, in addition to many of the Olympic hopefuls.

Per my last post, I turned off the image stabilization mechanism and decided to be slightly more judicious in my shooting. With the battery pack, my camera fires of about 6 frames per seconds. My original philosophy was to hold the shutter release button down and find the best one, maybe two, images from each burst. However, my success rate was horrible. I'd come back with some 1200 photos and find maybe 50 good photos. Ultimately, It felt like I wasn't giving the lens an opportunity to focus as I tracked the subject.

When shooting sports, my camera settings are as follows: Continuous Focus; Short Tracking; and I use the secondary focus button on the back of the camera (not the shutter release button). So, with the focus settings in place, OS off, I did several short bursts as each skater negotiated the bend. Having the OS off netted sharper images, and the shorter bursts allowed the lens to focus faster as I tracked the subject.

At the end of the day, I still came away with 900 photos and found that close to 200 of them were in focus, sharp and framed appropriately.

Battling the "OS"

I guess it's that time of the year again... when I clean up the cobwebs that reside on my blog and update it. I guess that also means I'll be in the mood to update this space for a month before it goes stagnant for an undetermined amount of time!

Today... I'd like to talk about image stabilization, my experience with it, and ultimately what I've decided to do in the short-term.

Living in Salt Lake City, while that phrase alone harks upon numerous stereotypes and assumptions, has some incredible photo opportunities. One such opportunity came about two weeks ago when US Speedskating held the US short-track championships were at the Olympic Oval in Kearns, Utah.

It was a two-day competition, free for spectators, and on the first day, I took my Nikkor 80-200 f/2.8 (old-style, no VR) and my Sigma 120-400 f/4.5-5.6 which has image stabilization. I used the Sigma exclusively both days, finding that it was netting me the journalism-style images I was looking for:





However, when I came home and dumped the images on to my server, I felt that a lot of my shots were decent but more soft that I had first thought. At the behest of a friend, I turned off the image stabilizer on my Sigma lens on the second day of competition and found that my success rate went up. I felt like I got sharper photos and that the focus was more consistent:





This afternoon, I decided to try shooting nature shots with the Sigma lens, sans image stabilization. Again, I was a lot happier with the results. I ventured to the Farmington Bay Bird Refuge because in January and February, it's a popular hunting ground for the American Bald Eagle. I decided to use my Sigma lens again, since birds of prey tend to avoid high-traffic areas, and to use it with image stabilization off.

While I wasn't able to capture solid shots of Bald Eagles, I was able to get some nice photos of raptors hunting for some lunch:

My overall assessment: use image stabilization only in dire situations. I find that I get more consistent results if I mount the lens on a monopod and work the old-school technique of stabilizing the camera to prevent camera shake.