Category Archives: Photography

Missed ’em

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This is what I was hoping for last night; however, I spent the evening dozing off with an ice pack while waiting for an unsettled atmosphere to suddenly flare up. Horsing around with my boys, I managed to acquire a huge, swelling bruise that I needed to tame before any late night excursions. Thankfully, it worked…but I did end up sacking out for the night.

This photo is from the last time Northern Lights abounded in North Dakota: 2005. It’s partially responsible for me getting a digital camera in the first place. I spent the previous solar maximum in the 1980s hanging out at Double Ditch with friends while breathtaking displays filled the sky overhead, and I wanted to capture the moment. Then, as if my purchase had single-handedly extinguished the sun, the solar activity period waned and I’ve waited ever since. I only got a handful of Aurora Borealis photos before things quieted down. Needless to say, I’ve been waiting as anxiously as all those scientists who’ve been scratching their heads and wondering why the solar maximum has taken so long to return!

Hopefully, now that I’ve almost totally ditched this head cold and managed to bring down the swelling of my brand new shiner, I’ll be able to hit some of my favorite spots and put to use some of the best tricks I’ve learned in astrophotography over the past six years. Naturally I’ll be treating you to the results as soon as they manifest – I hate posting recycled content!

Not what I was looking for, but satisfying nonetheless

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I love old pieces of equipment like the one pictured above. I was out on a photography mission, one in which I came back empty-handed, but I spotted this little gem beside the road during my travels. As it turns out, I caught it just as the sun was starting to splash its pre-sunrise color across an otherwise dreary landscape.

My photographic mantra is that any photo trip is a success if I come back with even one image that I like. That holds true for trips like this one, where I was looking for a very specific shot but couldn’t find the location…I came back with a few different shots that I really like, so I don’t really mind that they weren’t the one I was looking for.

The photo I originally sought evaded me, but only because I got a late start. The sun sets pretty early right now, even though the days are steadily growing longer. Next time, I’ll head out earlier and hopefully get lucky, stumbling upon the photo I’m chasing!

One more time, with feeling

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I had lots of fun family time this weekend instead of roaming with the camera, but I did want to sneak in a quick 2012 shot. Since I began this blog site in January 2006 I have always found a way to nab a quick shot of the capitol with its windows declaring the new year. During that time I’ve just about shot every available angle of the thing, but I was able to grab something a little different this time around.

I did go out after midnight, chuckling at all the other like-minded souls roaming the capitol grounds with their cameras, but I found the experience lacking this time around. The reason for that is the clear sky; it doesn’t reflect any light on the capitol, so in order to properly expose the windows one must underexpose the building even more than I’d like. That almost gives the 2012 an appearance of floating in midair. Here’s where my “technical creativity” kicked in: I figured I’d let the sun help me out.

I packed up my gear this morning before sunrise, got into position, and waited for the sun to give me just enough scattered light in the atmosphere and on the capitol tower without competing with the 2012 in the windows. It was a fine balance, and I actually set an intervalometer to sit and take shots every 30 seconds so I could catch the right window of time, and that was that.

The shot above has the windows lit with the new year, the tower and town are visible, the sky is a nice blue, and it looks like everything worked as planned. Also important is that I think, out of all the people who photographed the building, I have a very unique photo.

Happy New Year!

I was getting really bored with being able to feel my fingers, so…

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I decided to hike up to the top of Fort Lincoln with a friend for some shots of the decorated blockhouse! The fort to the east had been equipped with Christmas lights, acting as a beacon to those traveling south on Highway 1806 or across the river in the Fox Island area.

I have a pass for the park, but not a key for the padlock on the gate at the bottom of the hill…so it was time to walk. The walk up the hill was exhilarating, with the brisk winter air and the workout of trudging through the shallow snow most of the way. I was amazed at how clear the sky was and how crisp and bright the stars appeared as a result! Once we got up top, the breeze picked up and the temperatures seemed to drop. We had time for a few quick shots before deciding to work our way back down to the truck.

Of course, I had to stop for one other shot on the way back: the constellation Orion over the southwestern blockhouse. You can spot the constellation most easily by locating the “belt” of the hunter, which is formed by three very bright stars right in a row. This constellation doesn’t appear in the North Dakota skies until fall, peaking right around now, and will disappear slowly over the southern horizon as we approach summer. I used my mammoth MagLite, the model fueled by six D-cell batteries, to paint the blockhouse with light.

Now I’m back at home, snug and warm, and had a couple of satisfying photos as a result. Now it’s time to snarf some Pizza Rolls in honor of Jeno Paulucci and go to bed. As I will say every day until Monday, Merry Christmas!

Thanks to the barren trees

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My friend Kyle posted a photo he took with his phone this weekend which inspired me to stop at the capitol near sunset yesterday and snap this quick shot. To the best of my knowledge I’ve never captured this perspective on the capitol; it’s totally obscured by foliage for much of the year.

My little boy told me this weekend that he likes the leafless, dead looking trees because “it means Christmas is coming.” I’ve learned that they also open opportunities to photographers as well!

Changing your mode of thinking…about color, that is

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The photo on the left is one I took a little while ago on the tracks for the Fort Lincoln Trolley. This year’s flooding has once again washed out the tracks in spectacular fashion. I didn’t really like the way I left the color last time, so I decided to use one of my favorite color correction techniques: working in the Lab color space.

By working in a different color space and applying curve adjustments to various channels, one can quickly and easily perform color manipulation and/or correction to areas of a photo without having to try to mask out certain areas. For instance, those dead trees would be a nightmare to “cut out” if I wanted to just adjust the sky around them.

By switching to Lab color I can adjust the various color balances smoothly using splined curves rather than having to mask areas of adjustment. That also allowed me to “push” the sky to more of a blue-violet while bringing out the reds and browns of the grass and rusted rails. Not only that: it’s fast and easy. The photo adjustment above took only one step and about thirty seconds.

I was inspired to share something Photoshop-related here and on our photo club website at www.bismanphoto.com after I got a surprise email tonight…I won third place in a contest that I’d forgotten that I’d entered and am going to receive some nice Adobe swag in the mail soon. Photoshop: the gift that keeps on giving!

By the way, if you like photography you need to join www.BisManPhoto.com. It doesn’t matter whether you are just starting or are a professional, or if you’re taking photos on a phone instead of an expensive camera. Everybody’s welcome, and we always have a blast. Tell ’em I sent ya!

Photo buddy

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What’s the best way to enjoy a break in the cold weather? Grab a camera and head out into the wild with Daddy! My boys are quickly tiring of their Fisher-Price and V-Tech cameras and wanting to use one of Daddy’s “big cameras.” So far they’ve been very careful with the expensive equipment. One thing my fancy cameras don’t have that their toy cameras do: games!

Quality time

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It was a busy weekend, even with Friday off, but I still managed to sneak in some one-on-one time with each of my children. My boys like photography as much as I do, and their little toy digital cameras are not as appealing as Daddy’s “big” cameras. My four year old and I took a little venture northward to see the sights and stop for a couple of photos. As you can see above, he really gets into it.

Here’s one of the images he brought back. I did the color processing in Adobe Lightroom, but this is his work. I first started putting cameras in little guys’ hands so I could get a glimpse at how they see the world around them, but was quickly impressed that they are holding the camera level and composing some pretty nice shots!

Photography can teach a lot of skills and other lessons, so I plan to encourage them to keep up with it as long as they find it appealing. Besides, it’s a great opportunity to spend time together. As PJ told me on this trip, “hiking is all about taking pictures and being with Daddy.” I couldn’t agree more.

Hiking at “oh dark hundred” pays off

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I alluded earlier to a hike I took before sunrise with my friend Matt in order to get some nice sunrise photos. The skies were clear when we departed, but by the time we’d hiked up the hill to the blockhouses of Fort Lincoln there was very little clear sky available. Nevertheless, the sun came through for us as it maximized the sliver of unobstructed sky to the east, beaming color through in dramatic fashion.

After grabbing shots from several different angles, I decided to do an abbreviated time lapse. Since I had other things going on, I was not prepared to get the entire sunrise, but I could see that the sun was going to emerge through another slender gap in the clouds. I hastily set up for it and, although it’s short, I thought it looked pretty decent when looped a couple of times:

Between the photos and this short little time lapse, not to mention great company, rolling out of bed at 5:30 in the morning was well worth it. I think I’ll sleep in tomorrow, though…it’s been a long week!

Photo walk results

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Well, the gang all met up last weekend for the Bismarck-Mandan portion of the Worldwide Photo Walk, and a grand time was had by all I talked to. Followed up by a brief gathering at Mocha & More, the walk consisted of meeting at the historic Depot and then wandering around on foot for two hours. Here’s an eclectic mix of the things I found that morning:

I found this really neat antique stroller in front of a little antique shop on Main Street. I applied a little bit of a vintage treatment to the photo.

This aging cross sits atop a church near downtown, I think a Presbyterian congregation if I remember correctly.

The aforementioned antique shop had a stack of picture frames outside on the sidewalk, so I grabbed one and took a quick photo of the Mandan Depot.

I call this one “Rural Amalgamation” – only in a small midwestern state will you find the American flag, a pristine John Deere tractor, and a mystical wall painting all in the same spot.

I found this really cool droopy tree just a couple of blocks north of Main Street. I parked myself on my back under the tree with a very wide angle lens to get the shot.

The way the tendrils of the tree drooped toward the ground was very eye catching from afar, but the best angle to capture then was directly underneath them.

Mandan’s historic downtown buildings have some interesting features, many of which are better viewed up close.

Something a little more modern, this six-pack of windows formed a nice geometric progression.

Next year we’ll do it again, I’m sure. Last year’s walk was in July, we’ll see what we come up with for 2012. It’s interesting to walk around your own town and try to come up with something unique that may be interesting to others around the world. We grow so accustomed to our own surroundings that forcing yourself to see it is unique and interesting is a very worthwhile exercise.