So you may have noticed a change to the blog. With recent fantastic events coming up I wanted a blog theme that had two sidebars to provide more information more quickly. My good friend, awesome photographer, and book writer has put the time in to guide me through and even tweak the blog to see what you do today. I hope you find it familiar, but with a sharp edge.

On top of the blog changes the fantastic news is that I will be teaching photography technique with a photo walk soon once a month for at least three months. The dates, location and details can now be found in the right panel section marked “Events.” I will have the other two dates firmly very soon. The price of admission is free so you have nothing to lose and you may just learn a lot more then you thought you knew about your photography! Plus I am there to answer all sorts of Q&A in the field as we will shoot images all along our walk.) So what are you waiting for? check it out! Go ahead I’ll wait

Excited? I sure hope so. It’s going to be a great program and I am really looking forward to meeting my readers and to share our passion. If you have any questions please let me know. I am testing the waters with these classes and your input and experiences will help shape them for the future! If turn out is high and requests for more advanced learning grows then we might just do some classes on HDR, lighting, post production who knows… The possibilities are limitless.

To put the icing on the cake I also wanted to bring you a really cool technique I performed in Photoshop. I call it Image Overlay Sequencing. It is the process of taking many photos shot in a single sequence and overlaying them within the same scene. It is exactly like the sports sequences as multiple frames are displayed as a snowboarder flies across the half pipe. Our subject today? A young bighorn sheep that descends down a cliff-side fighting gravity. How they do it amazes me. I shot many frames, but it didn’t all come together until I used this technique. I hope it pushes your photography into new areas. Let me know if the quality of the video is an issue. In the meantime I will work on a higher quality video. Enjoy!

Updated; hope it’s better. Gotta work on making that mouse movement smoother.

With winter basically upon us in the northeast unique and frozen landscapes arise. I was browsing a fellow photographers blog and came across an image of a frozen waterfall. I was inspired to go out and find some of my own. I also have been wanting to get up to Kaaterskill Falls in Catskill State Park. It is a two tiered falls (totaling 260ft) that is the tallest in NY State. If you’ve ever been to the falls it’s a goddamn tourist heaven in the summer and on weekends. So I chose the best time, worst weather and conditions to go see it. We went on a weekday to lower the amount of people (just us until we headed back) in the lot. The lot only holds maybe 15 cars, but I have seen them line the small road and even a tour bus! Disturbing really. Any how the weather was a challenge within itself. Layering up was the key. It was 25 degrees with 20-30mph winds making it below zero to the skin. All shelled up we headed down the road to get to the trail head (yep its down hill along the road side to get to the trail head.)

I kid you not when I said we were the only ones. It had snowed a day or so ago before we got there and it also had some nice sleet mixed in there. So we were making our own trail in at least 6inches of snow that was frozen solid on top. A half a mile hike (sound small; its not in this weather!) loaded with lots of steep increases and decreases in altitude; pushing you to your limit in winter. We are not the most fit people in the world, but I was amazed we made it back :-p

One awesome thing about this trail is there is a waterfall at the beginning of it all! The falls at the entrance of the trail are filled with fantastic opportunities. This is only half of it.

Along the way there is no shortage of streams and views. The only issue is walking my fat butt back up the rocky hills when I can’t see the floor. We had to make sure to conserve our energy and after a while we focused strictly on getting there.

I limited myself to shooting from the trail after a while as I said earlier. This however left no shortage of photographs to be made. This little number caught my eye as we took one of many breathers. Probably the #1 reason I was taking shots when we were underway.

The one thing I like about shooting black and white is the ability to push the highlights to the max. You blow a highlight? So what?! Doing it all in balance is all that matters. If you have highlights make sure you have shadows. Need that counter too pull it together.

One of the sweetest sights to my eyes that day. No not the falls, the end of trail sign! Just kidding.

This was the sweetest sight to my eyes. 100% pure bliss. We had to hustle as Dina’s feet were numb (despite her boots being rated to -40 and wearing liners+smartwool!.) Are short time there however was like nothing else. It was just us and the waterfall. You couldn’t hear a thing but the sound of all that water slamming and rushing across the bedrock. As the wind blew it in all sorts of directions the finer particles would flurry down and brush our faces. It was an experience I will always remember and spending it with the one you love/care about just makes it that much more special (sorry for the mush.)

The wind was taking all that water and just throwing it outward. The scarier part was the crash of huge amounts of ice crashing down from the top tier. Twice we heard what can only be compared to as thunder rumbling through the valley.

As you can see below I was all geared up for this adventure. The temperature was no joke. There are a few precautions when taking on this weather. The two biggest rules is proper layering and making sure you have water. It is no joke that making a mistake without cell phone reception in a remote and less traveled location can be fatal. For the layering I started with a baselayer for both my upper and lower body. Then fleece pants and a  fleece top. Don’t forget about your feet; use liners and a warm wool type sock. Wigwam makes great ones I use myself. Next depending on the severity is my shell material. For my jacket and my legs! This will cut the wind and greatly improve your warmth. I was also wearing a balaclava on my head as you can wear it three ways. It’s also less dorky then a ski mask. For carrying your water use a reusable bottle such as a Nalgene. I used my SIGG by mistake and it being metal my water began to freeze.

Settings were simple. I stopped down to around f/22 with an ISO range of 100-200 to drag that shutter. I got about an 8th of a second and it did the job. If your shooting JPEG and don’t have the pleasure of using RAW later make sure to check your white balance. Using auto WB will make everything look very grey/blue. Dialing in cloudy or shade will help to warm up your images. Shade might run the snow a tad orange so watch out for that.

As for gear I didn’t do all that much. The D300 is weather sealed and so is the di-gps pro I use. Gloves help to keep out the cold and the freezing touch of your tripod. I had lowepro’s top loader 75AW with all my gear and my setup mounted on my tripod over my shoulder. I want to go over some huge advice about using a tripod in snow. If you sink those poles into the snow be prepared for them to SNAP. I don’t speak out of caution, I speak out of experience. I was out in Yellowstone on my 3rd day of the trip and guess what happened? Yep, one of the branches snapped clean off. We won’t talk about my reaction Thank fully Gitzo was nice enough to replace it free of charge under warranty. The reason for this is due to the location you slipped the legs tips into will not be the same as the destination. You may say duh, but as you push downward they sprawl outward leading to your problem. You can buy snow feet for your tripod legs or make the span of the legs much more narrow finding a proper balance in stability and diameter. When it comes to batteries I carry 3 with me at all times. One in the camera, one in the grip, and one in\ my pack. I checked my battery during the hike and they took about a 6% dip from the cold. Satisfactory to me. So as long as your prepared and have the proper gear get out there and make those images happen!

P.s. The saying “Cotton kills” is something to live by come winter. Cotton will not wick away your moisture and will keep your sweat next to your body. This is why we seek out fleece and wool. Fleece and baselayers contain a majority of polyester in it. When water touches our body heat loss is increased by 25x! Something I don’t have to tell you can cause disaster.

We pulled in to Provincetown today with beautiful skies and a healthy breeze. Grub was a priority and we headed on down to our favorite place to chow down. The Lobster Pot. If you’re ever in Provincetown..GO! As for the hope? Tomorrow they are calling for 20-30mph winds and we might not go out to see the whales . Here’s hoping!

This was taken without a polarizer at -.7 exposure compensation and f/5.6. I don’t recall the speed. I saw the trolley coming for me so I quickly crossed the street and hit rapid fire with the shutter. Ran it through the Nik filters you see above and voila.

Hey everybody. I don’t know if you have done this, but it sure makes my life a heck of a lot easier. Especially if you don’t label each individual photo or file as to what it’s specifically about. I did some google searches and wanted to find a way to make the blue .PSD files from photoshop visible as a thumbnail showing me what it is actually of. I have done this for the RAW codecs for quite some time now, but not .PSD. Unfortunately I don’t have a before picture, but the after picture is something like this:

As you can see this makes life a heck of a lot easier. I don’t want to take credit for this as I am merely a messenger when it comes to the .PSD codecs. I looked for all sorts of info and got lots of complicated options. This site here provided the zip file to download with the proper .dll file and where to place it. It’s three easy steps and a restart to get it to work. It took a restart for me, but maybe not for others. If you can find your programs file folder in you C:\ drive this should be a piece of cake for you. Just to quote the directions so you know what you are getting into:

The solution is very simple and takes less than a minute to implement. You don’t need to even reboot Windows. The change is immediate.

1. Download the file, photoshop_thumbnails.zip (62kb)

2. Copy psicon.dll to C:\Program Files\Common Files\Adobe\Shell – if this folder doesn’t exist create it

3. Run Adobe.reg

4. You now can view PSD files in Thumbnails view within Windows Explorer.

And a direct link to the download can be found here (you will get a prompt to ask where to put your downloaded zip file.)

As for the RAW files Microsoft has been generous enough (shocker I know) to put out these ‘preview handler’ codecs for multiple camera formats including: ArdFry, Canon (Direct), Nikon(Direct), Olympus (Direct), Panasonic (Direct), Pentax (Direct) and Sony(Direct). The link to the site with all the information is here. What’s real nice is these are all put into nice little .exe self installer packages making our lives easier. Now with that I hope this quick tip has made your lives just that bit more easier as well.

An example using RAW files.

*Always make sure your computer is backed up and be careful when editing the registry. Use at your own risk.*

I’ve always read about getting lower to utilize how fine the depth of field can be with a super telephoto (usually 200mm+.) By getting lower and getting eye level with your camera is key. It puts the film plane parallel with your subject making the area of ‘acceptable focus’ appear closer together. In my want to ge a ground pod I did my usual Google search. I saw one model for 100$ and another for 200$. I don’t know about you, but this seems like an awful lot of money for something I may or may not use often. At least yet. It was hard to find too many how-to’s out there. In search of motivation however I came across this page here. It was exactly what I wanted and eagerly set to work to figure out what I would need.

Here are a list of the items I used:

• Drill using a 3/8th bit
• Incredibly cheap skillet with the ability to remove the handle
• metal washers with a 3/8ths hole in them
• rubber washers with at least a 3/8ths hole
• 1  3/8th 1″ hex bolt
• 1 3/8th threaded nut
• Gorilla glue
• A weight or set of clamps
• Safety Goggles and gloves

The reason you see 3/8th being used for the bolt, washers, nut, and bit is because the thread that my ball head uses to connect to a tripod is of the 3/8ths standard and not the 1/4th you are used to when mounting your camera to its quick release plate. So do make sure to check that. You will also want to experiment with the amount of metal washers you will use and that will directly effect the length of the hex bolt you will use. I brought the ball head with me to the hardware store to make sure how many washers I might need. At only 24cents or so a washer I got a few extras. In order to figure how many washers and the length of the hex bolt you will need will depend on your neck comfort. Put the ball head on the floor and lay down with your equipment attached. Peer through the viewfinder and see how your neck feels. This will tell you if you will need it higher or lower. This will help you in determining proper height. You might be laying low for a while and you wouldn’t want to ruin your neck.

When looking for a skillet  you want something that isn’t hard and anodized. The cheaper the better. Remember to look for a screw near the handle so it’s removable. It might leave a nub, but to me it makes no difference. Aluminum was my pan of choice and the drill bit went right through. I price shopped to find the cheapest skillet. I noticed single pans seem to go for around 15$. I lucked out at JcPenny where they had three skillets at 7,9, and 11 inches together for 15$. I went with the 11inch skillet for the best in stability. A nine inch diameter just felt too small in order to support larger lenses. Don’t rush purchasing everything if you want to save some cash. Take advantage of sales wherever possible. More particularly with the skillet.

The first thing I did was glue one of the washers along with the bolt to the skillet. I wasn’t sure if the gorilla glue would hold up as there is a lot of force when screwing in the ball head, but so far so good. The key is using Gorilla glue because it expands filling spaces and creating a fantastic seal. Now when using the glue be careful to not get it on your skin, fingers or anywhere else, but your project. Also remember that a little goes a long way. This glue will expand 3-4x its original size. Plus always follow the directions to get the best seal.

An example of how little it takes. This expanding glue really helps too as it will fill the grooves that are on the bottom of your skillet (if your skillet has them.)

Now you can keep all these items loose, but personally I don’t want to fumble with all that. I want a solid piece I can deal with.

I wanted to glue the washers together this way with a little glue. Not too much as there isn’t that much space between the washers. Make sure to clamp them and that the 3/8ths hole stays clear and straight. I decided not to glue the red washes you see above to the metal as I may want to change them or find a better solution for washers in the future. These are  a tad thick, but all I could find at the time. I am on a quest to find flatter and wider ones. It doesn’t appear to effect my stability of the lens on my ground pod if your curious.

The order in which they are stacked goes: a rubber washer first, then the metal washer stack and finally one more rubber washer. I did this feeling there would be better grip.

You could carry around a wrench if you want. They are dirt cheap at any hardware store. I happen to have a bunch of them laying around. I tossed it into the trunk of my car in case I need it. The Gorilla glue has held up so far and I haven’t required it. I haven’t tried to twist until the glue may give, but I did not spare it any mercy making the ballhead fit snugly.

Your final product. I have found it to work great. I didn’t want to post this until I had some sample images. It slides perfectly and not having a round headed bolt doesn’t appear to be an issue in the sand. Possibly an issue on hard surfaces? I can’t imagine it would be too bad as it is still low lying.

This ruddy turnstone was hanging out amongst the terns on the shore at high tide.

A parent common tern has caught a fish and waits to feed it her young (blew that opportunity.)

One of the young terns still in their immature plumage. You can see the bill turning from black to an orange. The chicks will wait on the shore as their parents go out to find food.

As I hope you can see in these images the benefit of getting low to the ground through use of the ground pod. It’s even better if you have a faster aperture lens and longer focal length. Instead of paying 100-200$ you can make this ground pod for around 30$. That is on the expensive end too if you don’t have some of the tools needed. For drilling a hole you might be able to find a metal or machine shop to do it for you for cheap as well. The great thing about this is that whether you are using a wimberly head, or a modern ballhead they all have panning abilities that can still be used. You lose no functionality from being on a tripod to my knowledge and all for such a cheap price and a days work. I hope this helps you to get out there and give an extra edge to your images!