Tad Gielow Photography

Mount Rainier National Park In The Rain And Snow

Mount Rainier –National Park In The Rain And Snow

My wife and I were planning a road trip from our home in Los Angeles to Seattle, Washington to spend a few days visiting our daughter.   On my itinerary was a day photographing in Mount Rainier National Park with the goal of visiting Paradise high up the slope of the mountain.  

The day for our trip arrived with some rain and what I hoped might be some snow at Mount Rainer.   I set out early in the morning with Dan, who had signed on for an all day Personal Workshop to learn more about his DSLR camera.  During the two and a half hour drive from Seattle to Mount Rainer we talked about the fundamentals of exposure:

• Aperture - The amount of light to hit the camera sensor.  Its like adjusting the blinds of a window.
• Shutter Speed - The length of time the shutter is open allowing light to hit the sensor.
• ISO - The sensitivity of the sensor.  Sensors have improved greatly over the past few years  and the problem of noise at high ISO setting has been greatly reduced, making ISO much more useful.
• Depth-Of-Field - Using the Aperture to control the sharpness in front of the behind the area of focus.

As we entered the park, we found ourselves in a lush forest of moss covered pine trees and a scattering of other trees showing off their fall colors.  

We slowly drove up a valley looking for interesting areas, we must have stopped at every turn-out because of something fun to explore, like the photographs above and below.  

With the temperature in the low thirties, we would jump out the car, grab the cameras, rain gear, run into the forest, photograph for a while, and then get back to the warmth of the car.

As we drove further up the mountain the light rain gave way to welcome snow, making it much easier to photograph as the snow can be brushed off the camera before it melts.

 

Higher up the mountain we encountered this large field of snow covered rocks that I thought made an interesting abstract image of positive and negative space.

 

One of the most popular places in Mount Rainier National Park is Christine Falls, named after the daughter of P. B. Van Trump who made the first documented ascent of Mount Rainier in 1870.  Years later, in 1888, he guided John Muir to the summit.

A little farther up the road, Dan spotted a lone maple tree in the midst of snow covered pines seen in the photo at the top of the post.  We spent quite a while taking in the surreal scene before we headed up the mountain toward Paradise. During the summer, the Paradise lodge and visitor center are teeming with people there to take in the beautiful alpine meadows and cool mountain air.   With the snow falling, the parking lot was near empty and the lodge was closed for the season, but it was still a gorgeous place to be.

PHOTO TIP:

Photographing in the rain and wet snow can be challenging because one usually needs a extra hand to hold an umbrella over the camera.   A solution is the AquaTech Sport Shield.  It fully covers the camera and lens and has small windows so you can see the lcd window and other key controls.   There is also an sleeve for your right hand to operate the camera while keeping everything dry, even in pouring rain.

Weekend In Mammoth

Weekend In Mammoth

My wife and I were able to get away from the heat of Los Angeles recently and spent a weekend at the Tamarack Lodge on Twin Lakes by Mammoth Mountain.   Things did not start out smoothly as we arrived late and spend almost an hour trying to find our cabin in the dark with a rather poor map.  After almost an hour of searching, we finally settled in after midnight.   We awoke in the morning to a glorious day in the Sierras and spent the day exploring the area and making use of the many miles of bike trails the run through the forest between the numerous lakes in the area.  The second night, we turned in early so we could be up at sunrise to take a walk around the lake in the morning light.

Just a short distance from the cabin we found this boat dock on the perfectly still lake. Normally when photographing a scene like the one above, if I set up to properly expose the sky at the top, the reflected image in the lake would be way too dark.  Setting the exposure for the reflected sky would create a almost white sky at the top.  

The answer, a Graduated Neutral Density Filter.  These filters are indespensible for situations like this.  In my camera bag, I always carry two Singh-Ray Galen Rowell Graduated Neutral Density Filters.  These filters are darker on the top and clear on the bottom with a transition that is either hard or soft.  The image to the left shows a three stop hard transition filter and a two stop soft transition filter.  I used the two stop soft for the photo about and set my exposure for the sky at the top.

Another way to accomplish this would be to take two photographs, one exposed for the sky at the top and one exposed for the reflected sky and use Photoshop the combine the two.   Coming from years of photographing with film, I still prefer to get it right in camera.

A little later at another spot of the lake, we looked across to see that smoke from fires at the nearby campground settling over the area.  Again, I used the two stop soft graduated neutral density filter and added a polarizer to control the reflection coming from the lake as I wanted to capture some submerged roots, logs, and rocks.

On our way back to our cabin we walked through a patch of beautful tiny flowers and I just had to stop, break out my macro lens and have some fun.

The size of these tiny, delicate flowers is very decieving, this clump is only about two inches wide.   To capture this, I very carefully set up my tripod so as not the disturb the many other plants around and oriented the camera so that the front of the lens was just a few inches away so the clump of flowers would fill the frame.

Although the weekend started out a little rough, it sure ended up being a wonderful and peaceful get away.

Things To Do While Waiting For The Light

Things To Do While Waiting For The Light

Sometimes you may find yourself in a beautiful place waiting a while for that golden light before the sun sets.   I used one of those times to try out a my new Singh-Ray Vari-ND Variable Neutral Density Filter.   With this filter one can vary that amount of light hitting the sensor from two to eight stops, providing a lot of creative control of exposure.   This is important because the sensors in digital cameras are generally more sensitive to light than film, and therefore it can be difficult to get the long exposure times needed to give water falls that feeling of motion.

I set up my tripod and camera to photograph the same water fall over a wide range of exposure times to see the difference.  Here is my series of fourteen photographs using ISO 200.  Which one do you like the best?

f3.5   1/320 sec   No Filter

f4.5   1/200sec   No Filter

f6.3  1/100sec   No Filter

f/9   1/50sec   No Filter

f/13   1/25sec   No Filter

f/18   1/13sec   No filter

f/11   1/8sec   Vari ND

f/16   1/4sec   Vari ND

f/16   1/2sec   Vari ND

f16   1.0sec   Vari ND

f16   1.3secs   Vari ND

f16   2.0secs   Vari ND

f16   3.0secs   Vari ND

f16   4.0secs   Vari ND

Using the Vari ND filter allows for much longer exposures and a lot of creative choices that are important for photographing flowing water.  One issue I had was the undesirable vignetting(the dark areas in the corners of the photos caused by using too wide an angle of view and the filter edges become visible in the frame) when I added the Vari ND filter.  But for the purposes of my test I chose not to zoom in to avoid it because I wanted to keep the exact same field of view for all the photos.

 For this test I liked the one that was at 1/4 of a second.

 

Camping Trip To Joshua Tree National Park, Part 2

Camping Trip To Joshua Tree National Park, Part 2

On Saturday morning we were up early and took a quiet hike out to Desert Queen Mine and then out to Barker Dam.   At mid morning we took a chance and drove through Jumbo Rocks campground to see any sites were available and we got lucky to find a great spot.   After we returned from an afternoon hike to Lost Horse Mine the golden light of sunset was hitting the rocks that bordered our campsite.   Sometimes the light just comes to you!

On Sunday morning we drove towards to southern portion of the park and stopped at the Cholla Cactus garden that marks the boundary between the higher elevation north and the lower elevation south.  I explored the garden looking for a Cholla that I could photograph fully backlit by the sun.

Exposing for the sky I found that the Cholla was a bit too dark, so I thought I would try my collapsable reflector/diffuser, to reflect some sunlight back into the cactus gives the photo a little more punch.  I chose the gold reflector over the silver to accentuate the sunlight.

I then removed the reflection material and used the diffuser to soften the harsh light and capture the spiny details of the Cholla flower before it blooms.

Years of Sunsets At Point Mugu

Years of Sunsets At Point Mugu

One of my favorite places to photograph is the rocky sea shore area adjacent to Point Mugu State Park, California. Every so often the weather is just right with offshore breezes that push the usual foggy marine layer twenty miles out making the Channel Islands visible from the shoreline. This combined with some high clouds can make for dramatic sunsets.   My most recent trip did not start out promising because the fog was thick as I drove along Pacific Coast Highway from Malibu towards Camarillo.

With the fog hiding the islands I thought I would try a spot above the fog that I had found a couple of years ago.  What I found was that the fog was moving south away from my location leaving a clear view of the islands. The photo at the beginning of the post shows Anacapa Island a little of Santa Cruz Island. I switched from a 80-400mm(set at about 200mm) lens to a 18-200mm and set it at about 20mm to bring out the gorgeous colors of the sky.

For the next photo, the tide was coming in providing some nice crashing waves, but the sun was overpowering the sky. I used a rock outcropping to block the full sun along with two graduated neutral density filters so that the foreground rocks would not go completely black. A two stop soft edge and three stop hard edge were combined and rotated at an angle along the rock line.

On this day there were very few clouds so I concentrated on using the interesting rock formations as a foreground element. Again, I used five stops worth of graduated neutral density filters, set right at the horizon, in order to bring out details in the foreground rocks.

 

Sometimes the marine layer is offshore and blocks the Channel Islands from view. I looked for a opportunity make the ocean more prominent. Once again, the use of graduated neutral density filters set at the horizon allows more light for the foreground waves and water while darkening the sky to provide a better overall balance of light.

I will keep going out the Point Mugu, even if the photographic possibilities are slim, because one never knows what will happen and just getting out to the fresh salt air is so relaxing and uplifting.

Station Fire A Year And A Half Later

Station Fire A Year And A Half Later

It has been eighteen months since the devastating fire that burned to over a third of the Angeles National Forest and now that one of the main roads is now open I decided to drive up and see first hand how how the forest is recovering.  I had intended to go to one of my favorite spots, the Chilao Campground area that is at the transition between the lower altitude chaparral and the higher elevation pine forest.  I never made it up there because I kept stopping because of something interesting.

First I stopped a few hundrend yards from the Monte Cristo Ranger Station to take in the almost full moon rising over a rock outcropping with a yucca tree on its summit.

A couple of miles farther up, I hiked out a few hundred yards from the road to Big Tujunga Creek.   It was great the see a lot of water flowing indicating a good amount of winter show and rain.   

Continuing my journey up the canyon I pulled over when saw a ridge of burned pine trees with the moon rising over them and thought there might be an interesting composition with those two elements.   Within a few feet of leaving the road on foot, the ground was still black from the fire, but the forest is slowly coming back with a lot of new growth of the native manzanita, oak and numerous other flora.   I made my way to a point where the ridge of burned pine trees was directly below the rising moon and a other burned out trees were in the foreground.  I made the photo at the beginning of this post by purposely underexposed by about two stops so that the sky would darken to a deep blue and the trees would be in silhouette to give the photograph a lonely, spooky feeling.

 

Joshua Tree Reflections And Abstracts

Joshua Tree Reflections And Abstracts

I awoke this morning and was catching up on the news when I spotted a story indicating there would be full moon this evening and that it would visually be the largest of the year.  I packed my gear and drove the two and a half hour drive to one of my favorite places, Joshua Tree National Park.   Along with the full moon,  I was hoping that with all the recent rains in Southern California the lake behind Barker Dam would have a good amount of water in it.

With the lake almost full and very little wind, I thought I might try to create some interesting abstract reflections where it takes the viewer a few moments to figure out exactly what is in the photograph.  At first glance, it may look like some sort of aquatic animal, but it is indeed, just a rock.

For these two photos, I noticed that the sun was almost ninety degrees from my point of view, perfect for getting the maximum impact from a polarizing filter.
	The left side photo uses some polarization so the parts of the tree under the water are visible. The right side uses a bit less so that the reflected clouds are more visible.

 

Finally, the moonrise. I was searching for a Joshua Tree with about fifty yards of clear view so I could use my Nikon 80-400 Zoom to magnify the moon with a Joshua tree in silhouette. The cloudy horizon required a lot of patience and moving around to find an interesting composition, but the moon finally poked through the clouds and provided an eerie moment.

Flowers And Depth Of Field

Flowers And Depth Of Field

I was working in the front yard earlier today and found this flower that had just opened up in the warmth of the day.  I have yet to identify it, do you know what type it is?  

Anyway, I grabbed my camera and tripod, a necessity, and thought I would experiment with depth-of-field to get some variations in sharpness.  Photographing in ones own backyard is an invaluble way to get to know your equipmment, in this case a Nikon 105mm f2.8 Micro lens.   I set up so that the lens was about three inches from the flower and carefully focused on carpel in the very center of the flower. 

With the aperture set f/10 there is less than 1/2 an inch of DOF which throws the anthers out of focus as well as the petals.  I liked how the lack of sharpness in the petals brings your eye right to the center. 

 

Stopping down to f/13 the anthers are much sharper sharpness while the petals are still soft enough to bring the view to the center.

At f/20, there is more sharpness to the petals, although those on the left side are softer indicating that the film plane was not quite parallel to the flower.

 

For this photo I changed lenses to my Nikon 18-200 3.5-5.6 and backed up about 7 ft away and set the zoom at 200mm.  At  f/10, almost everything is sharp. 

Conclusions:  Depth Of Field can be tricky to control, but it also provides numerous artistic possibilities for the same subject matter.  Also, be sure to use that Depth of Field preview if its available on your camera.