Chukar, Capitol Gorge, Southeastern Utah
About this photo:I don't consider myself a wildlife photographer. To me, those are the folks with massive lenses that go trudging off into the wilds with backpacks full of gear, or sit hunched in a blind for days waiting for an opportunity. Not me - too lazy, too impatient. But I do appreciate the beauty and grace of the critters we share this planet with, and over the years have acquired some images of them that please me. The Capitol Gorge Chukar is one of them.
Capitol Gorge is a deep canyon cut into the Waterpocket Fold, a geologic feature made of beds of sandstone, the erosion of which has created the spectacular cliffs and canyons of Capitol Reef National Park.  It was May 2008, and our pickup had acquired a respectable coating of red dust driving the dirt road along the bottom of the gorge. While passing a cutbank on the driver's side I thought I had seen a biggish, plumpish bird pecking around under the brush at its edge. I slowed, stopped, and picked up the camera. Backing up and expecting to see nothing but desert where I had glimpsed the bird, my heart sped up when I saw it was still there. Seeming not to notice me (vehicles make great blinds - see my December 14, 2011, post) it went about its business while I snapped a few shots. As often is the case, it wasn't until later that I realized that for once, I had capitalized on a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
A Bit About the ChukarThe Chukar is a partridge whose native range is Eurasia, from Israel and Turkey, through Afghanistan to India. It is the national bird of Pakistan, and in Punjab (a region straddling parts of Pakistan and northern India) is considered a symbol of intense and unrequited love. It has been introduced widely as a gamebird worldwide, including western united States. (Wikipedia link) I've heard from hunters that they can be an exasperatingly difficult bird to hunt.
Technical:Nikon D801/160 sec at f/5.6May 8, 2008Nikkor 18-200 Vibration Reduction lens at 200mm.Processed in Lightroom 3
What Went Right:

• Having the camera available and ready to go with juice in the battery, space on the card, and the right lens attached.
• Vibration Reduction - a shutter speed of only 1/160 second is risking blur due to camera movement at a focal length of 200mm.. The VR lens probably saved the image, although resting my forearms on the window ledge helped hold the camera steady.

What Could Have Been Better

• Not much - I'm pleased with the image.
• But I should have made more exposures - I only took about six frames - probably still influenced by the film days.
• The chukar feeds in small coveys - waiting around might have revealed more birds and different compositions.

Prints of my images may be obtained via TonysVision.com

Paddling Newport Bay, from nature preserve to the realm of the 1 percent

The family gathering at Matt and Mary's in Reno

We snicker, or shake our heads sadly, at the tourist whose idea of taking in Yosemite is to drive up to Tunnel View, stick the camera out of the window for a moment, then drive off without even getting out of the car. That may be fine, we think, for a casual snapshooting tourist. But our vision of a real landscape or wildlife photographer involves a man/woman encumbered with a healthy dose of L.L. Bean attire, camera equipment in a backpack, sturdy carbon fiber tripod, and chunky hiking boots, stealthily heading up a rugged trail, their mind crammed with knowledge of geomorphology and wildlife habits.

But actually the vehicle is a respected bit of photographic equipment. Ansel bolted a sturdy platform on top of his to achieve a viewpoint with added height. I've often climbed on top of our little Minnie Winnie motor home for the same reason. Perhaps not the same level of results.

In the realm of wildlife photography, a few of my most satisfying results have resulted when not even leaving the driver's seat. The thing is, a vehicle makes a wonderful blind. Critters are used to them. Vehicles can generally be depended upon to stay on the road, and not throw rocks, chase, or otherwise interfere threateningly with their making a living the way humans might.

A few years ago I decided to head out in my pickup on a misty morning. I'd been seeing some deer among the oaks lining the golf course in our community, and I had the idea of an image of trees receding into the mist with some deer sprinkled attractively in the composition. Instead I came upon this pair resting in someone's front yard. I had a 70-300 mm lens on my Nikon D-80. Staying in the truck I was able to back up a bit, then pull forward a bit, to get the composition just right without disturbing the deer. I like the quiet, misty feel of this image, the warmth some of the colors add to the misty day, the way the shapes of the doe's and buck's heads juxtapose just right, and the way he receeds into the mist. I'm sure that if I had left the truck to compose, all I would have seen in the viewfinder would have been oaks and mist.

Yesterday on the way back from errands, my wife and I enjoyed seeing a beautiful egret that has made itself at home fishing the two ponds adjacent to the entrance to our community. At home I put my 300 mm lens on my D300 and headed back to the pond. Thanks to paved parking areas and roads adjacent to the ponds I was able to move slowly around, working the best light, as the egret did his work. After reviewing the first images I realized that the dark background provided by the water was resulting in a bit of overexposure and loss of detail in those bright white feathers. So I backed the exposure compensation down to minus 1. I used the seat back to help steady the camera. The window sill can work also, but as accustomed as this bird is to passing vehicles, I was cautious of being too obviously a human by appearing in the window. Some OK photos resulted - how could they not with such a beautiful creature to work with. But then it raised its wings for balance as it stepped into some deeper water, and my finger thankfully reacted almost without thought.





Prints of my images may be obtained via TonysVision.com

Bud's La Salle
My wife and I made the short trip today to Bud's Automotive - dropping off the 10-year-old F150 pickup and picking up our 11-year-old Explorer. Bud has been caring for both as long as we've owned them - about 10 years. I had a discussion a few years ago with our gravel delivery and grading guy about the available options for automotive maintenance in our small northern California Foothill community. His comment was that there were three; "Crazy, Grumpy, and Stupid". Awhile ago we made our move from Crazy to Grumpy, and have never looked back. 
Thing is, he isn't. Or else he has mellowed with age. I think he is close to my antiquity - and in the vicinity of three-score and ten I guess we all finally figure out how to accept what life throws at us and be grateful for it. So we share our thoughts about retirement - he's down to working four days a week, I'm down to about the same. It's kinda good to grow old with your mechanic.
So every few months we make these trips down the windy road to his place, narrow enough at the bridges that you stop at the wide spot to let the other guy through, waving his thanks and hello. Today was another in a long series of clear fall days, with that low warm light. A time of year that brings with it a reminder that all things pass. So I pulled out my G12 for a few snaps. 
Working over those snaps, and dumping them onto a Facebook album, I was reminded of a photo essay I'd done of a vintage car with a wondrous patina that he had pulled into his lot several years ago. Those kind of vehicles, as well as restored versions, tend to show up at his place. Which is why he is the only mechanic to have ever layed hands on my TR6.
Anyhow, the photo essay. I love that format, because it allows one to explore a subject with a series of images that describe it more fully than a single one could. Here 'tis - click the slideshow and then the full screen options - it's just a couple of minutes worth and I think you will enjoy . . .
http://albums.phanfare.com/isolated/9Efo5Gjb/1/5383469

Prints of my images may be obtained via TonysVision.com

I'm hesitant to part with stuff. Things that may come in useful sometime, or perhaps create a link with the past - and who I am. I hang onto stuff such as a bin of galvanized pipe fittings. When I try to convince myself it should be recycled I recall that recently I used a short piece with an elbow fitted as a tool to break loose a stubborn fitting on my vintage car. Lumber and plywood cutoffs from past projects, deemed special for some reason, accumulate in garage corners, providing environmentally friendly habitats for black widow spiders.

I don't think of myself as a hoarder because occasionally the desire for order counterbalances the need to hang onto stuff. In the past the solution to the accumulation was to buy more plastic bins and build more storage shelves. Since there was no more space for additional shelves, and stuff was beginning to spill out onto the floor, it was time for a more creative solution. I needed more space for fun stuff like projects on my TR6. Time to go through those bins, sort, and toss.

Thus the last couple of weeks have seen dozens of plastic bins hauled out to the driveway. Trash and treasures appeared as I dug to the bottom of every one. Among the treasures was a beat up shoebox filled with aluminum Kodak 35-mm film cans. In each can was a tightly coiled roll of 35mm negatives, representing the early part of my years at San Rafael High School, when I had joined the camera club, and real instruction was beginning to feed what would be my lifelong love of photography. Each can had a numbered blue label. Somewhere, I thought, must be the key. And sure enough, a few days later it turned up buried in yet another bin. Oh, the joy.

Camera Club outing, Point Reyes, 1954
Scanning these long-coiled negatives will likely require mounting them in glass carriers, but I'm looking forward to revealing the treasures - family trips, camera club outings, even some 16-mm photos taken in school with a little "spy" camera.

The wrap up from all of this? I guess, don't worry about being a hoarder, especially if it includes family memorabilia. These are things that remind us who we are. And those plastic bins do a great job of keeping the stuff, useless and otherwise, safe from moisture, dirt, and rodents.

Tony has taken to giving us a wild, twangy, flourishing rendition of the theme song to his favorite TV show.

That title sounds like one of those little amateur photography pamphlets Kodak published in the 1950's. By the time I was 15 I had acquired several of the pamphlets, as well as my Dad's Argus C-3. In 1956 my folks were outfitting us for a three-month, cross-country trip in our travel trailer. For that trip, in addition to the camera and a couple dozen rolls of Kodachrome, I had received a pair of clip-on, polarizing sunglasses. To me they were magical, the way the sky darkened and lightened, and colors became richer as I tilted my head this way and that as we headed east through the pines of the Sierra Nevada on Highway 40 over Donner Pass.

My Dad's 1952 Plymouth and 18-foot Mainliner trailer
From those Kodak pamphlets I learned the exposures to use for night scenes of the Jefferson and Lincoln memorials. I also learned that a polarizing filter can be used to darken the sky, or to reduce reflections from most surfaces. 
The polarizing filter is still a magical tool, one of the few filters I still use. Digital photography has other ways of obtaining the effects once provided by the colored filters used for black and white photography, and the color correcting filters used with color slide film. But a polarizer is still always with me when I am photographing, since it can produce effects that no in-camera-processing or post-processing can achieve.
Polarized light is magical. Bees even use it to navigate, according to what I read. Normally light waves vibrate in all directions. But some of the blue light from the sky vibrates in only one direction - it has become polarized as it has reflected off of particles in the atmosphere. Or something like that. Light also becomes polarized when it reflects from a non-metallic surface. Why not from a metallic surface? I really don't know. But photographers can use this phenomena to bend light to their will. 
A polarizer can prevent polarized light from reaching the sensor. Thus polarized skylight darkens to become a deeper blue, and glare from surfaces is pretty much eliminated. The glare reduction thing is pretty useful when photographing foliage in sunlight. Leaves look a richer green, and the color of flowers is deepened. In addition to darkening blue skies and cutting glare, polarizers can also reduce the effect of distant haze.
The glare-reducing effect can be striking in the fall. Here's a photo of the two maples that have grown to frame our garden gate. The sun is coming toward the camera from the left, and there is a lot of glare from the leaves:
Without polarizing filter
In the photo below I've added a polarizing filter, and rotated it until the color from the leaves appeared richest.
With polarizing filter
In addition to the deeper color of the leaves, the sky has also become darker. And there is another useful effect which is a bit more subtle. Notice that there is a bit more detail in the fence.If desired, there is enough detail there now that it could be enhanced a bit by post-processing. (Both of these photos are JPEGS straight out of my Nikon D300.) The reason for the increased shadow detail is that by cutting glare, the highlights in the scene have been darkened, and the overall contrast has been reduced, allowing an exposure that provides just a bit more light from those shadows.
If you don't have a polarizer, then get one. I use them even on point-and-shoots that don't mount filters by holding it in front of the lens, after first noting the orientation that gives the best effect. So get one and play with it. I'll bet you will have as much fun as I did with those clip-on sunglasses.
Some links for more reading about polarizers and polarized light:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polarizing_filter_(photography)
http://www.dslrtips.com/workshops/How_to_use_polarizing_filters/reduce_haze_deep_blue_sky.shtml
http://www.nikonusa.com/Learn-And-Explore/Photography-Techniques/gl1uy3i0/1/Polarizers-Add-POW-to-Pictures.html

Just a few snaps from TG

A true tale for Grandchildren and Grandparents - from Christmas 2001Audio Version


Once upon a time - well, actually about the third week of December in 2001 - Grandma and Grandpa were talking about Christmas, and Grandma said to Grandpa, "When shall we get a Christmas tree?" Here it was just a few days before Christmas, and there was no Christmas tree in their house. "Let's go down to the Christmas tree farm on Saturday morning and cut one," suggested Grandpa. "Do you think we should wait that long?" asked Grandma. They decided that even though it would be just a couple of days until Christmas, that would be OK, since the Christmas tree farm had the nicest, freshest, Christmas trees. But Grandma asked Grandpa if the weather would be OK. The weather had been getting ready for Christmas, too, you see. Some days were sunny and cool, but other days were windy, cloudy, and rainy. A day like that would not be good for walking through the forest of trees at the Christmas tree farm, looking for just the right tree to cut and take home. Grandpa thought about lying on his belly under a tree, with cold water dripping on the back of his neck while trying to push the saw back and forth. Grandpa said to Grandma, "I think the weather will be OK on Saturday".

But when Grandma and Grandpa got out of bed on Saturday morning the weather was not OK. It was dark, stormy, and rainy. Grandma said, "I need to go shop for more presents for our Grandchildren." Grandpa, who had been having trouble walking through their little house for the last few days because of all the presents already purchased for Grandchildren, just said, "OK, I'll take care of the tree".

So Grandma got into her car to drive the twisty road through the canyon and across the river to town to find more presents for grandchildren. Grandpa got into his pickup to drive the short distance to the Christmas tree farm. Even though it was raining he was OK with going to the Christmas tree farm, because they might have hot apple cider there, and besides, he got the best deal anyway because he didn't have to drive the twisty wet road to town where there would be lots of other people driving around trying to buy presents for Grandchildren. He even remembered that Grandma had reminded him to find a Christmas tree that was not too big - it should be just the right size. But when Grandpa got to the Christmas tree farm the gate was closed. And there in the rain was a sign, painted with a pink spray can, that said, "CLOSED FOR THE SEASON".

So Grandpa thought, "OK, I'll just drive a few miles up the road to the lumberyard. They will have Christmas trees for sale there that have already been cut, and I won't have to drive through the canyon to town where so many people are driving around looking or presents for Grandchildren. But at the lumberyard all of the Christmas trees had already been sold. So Grandpa thought, "OK, I'll just keep driving the few more miles to Georgetown. I'm already halfway there, and even though it is a small town, they will still have Christmas trees, and besides there won't be lots of people driving around looking for presents.

So Grandpa drove his pickup through the rain and the forest to Georgetown. The little town was all ready for Christmas. There were bright bows and garlands on the porch railings in front of all the fine old buildings. There was even a huge Christmas tree with lights set up right in the middle of the town's main street. But there were no Christmas trees for sale, because everyone in Georgetown had already cut their trees in the forest, taken them home, and decorated them.

So Grandpa drove back down through the forest in the rain. He drove past the lumberyard where all the Christmas trees had already been sold. He thought, "Fine, now I will have to drive the twisty road through the canyon to the big store in town where everyone is driving around looking for presents for Grandchildren."

Inside the big store Grandpa walked through the aisles crowded with shoppers.  In the garden center Grandpa finally found a few left over Christmas trees. He smiled, thinking he would find a tree just the right size to finally take home and then he could have lunch and a nap. But the smile went away when he saw that the trees were locked inside a cage-like enclosure, and were not for sale. A saleslady told Grandpa that was because everyone already had their trees, and Grandpa should have shopped sooner. But maybe, she said, the trees would be put out in front of the store marked down for late shoppers.

Grandpa was walking sadly through the store, thinking he would not want to come back later, when he saw Grandma among the crowd of shoppers. He could tell it was Grandma because she was pushing three or four big red shopping carts full of presents for Grandchildren. Grandpa told her the sad story of the failed Christmas tree hunt. They talked about what to do, and decided maybe they didn't even need a Christmas tree this year. No one was coming to their house, since they were going to Reno to see their Grandchildren. Then Grandpa wouldn't have to carry the big boxes of christmas tree stuff up and down the stairs, and besides, he had just finished putting all the stuff away from last Christmas a few weeks ago, and why should they be slaves to tradition anyhow.

So they both drove home in the rain over the twisty road, put their toes up, and rested their eyes for a while in front of the cozy fire, and thought they had put the matter of a Christmas tree to rest also. But later on, when the day was turning into evening, Grandpa realized he was feeling a little bit down. And Grandpa looked at Grandma, and saw that she wasn't all that happy either. They talked about what was wrong - why shouldn't they be happy, since they knew they would soon enjoy being with their Grandchildren. That's when they realized that they needed to have a Christmas tree. Maybe the people at the big store had taken the trees from the locked cage and set them outside for sale. Would any be left?

Grandma and Grandpa got their coats and drove back in the dark through the canyon on the twisty road to town. And there, in the shadows in front of locked doors of the Garden Center of the big store, Grandma spotted two Christmas trees, and a sign that read, "FREE TREES". One of the trees was just the right size. The other was very small, and had a kind of funny shape. Grandma and Grandpa were pleased to have finally found a Christmas tree that was just the right size, and were getting ready to take it home, and leave the funny little tree for someone else. But then they thought, "Would any,one else want the little tree, or would it be left there alone in the rain and the dark?" Just then a puff of wind came around the corner looking for something to do and knocked the "FREE TREES" sign over - SPLAT! - right on its face.

Grandma and Grandpa looked at each other, smiled, and put the little Christmas tree into the truck and took it home along with the one that was just the right size. Both trees were decorated with lights and ornaments and strings of popcorn and cranberrries, but the little Christmas tree was set in the place of honor on top of the trunk in front of the big window. And Grandma and Grandpa put their toes up in front of the cozy fire, while the rain splashed outside on the windows, and smiled some more.

A nice little clip of Tony playing in the near the waves

Tony makes himself a shocklingly good sandwich. His first self-made sandwich ever. Dana is the photog.

I visited the Graegle area of Plumas County in Northern California this weekend. The excuse for this adventure was the great weather, an opportunity to photograph fall color, and mainly an assignment to photograph a fly fisherman for a possible cover of the 2012 edition of the Plumas County Visitor's Guide. I've had some great adventures doing covers for previous years issues.

After the morning shoot I stopped by at the Western Pacific Railroad Museum in Portola. Besides being fun for anyone who gets excited about trains (and who doesn't), there is lots to photograph. There is color, texture and pattern to exercise the photographic vision, and it is so wild that one is tempted to let go and simply have fun with it all. Which is what I did, both while photographing, then afterwards at the computer

What's more fun than a colorful caboose? The photo below is pretty much right out of the camera. Well, it is a stitched panorama. Since I was too lazy to change to my super wide lens I took a photo of the top half and merged it in Photoshop with the bottom half photo.  
Not a bad image, and with a fair amount of impact. But wait, there's more . . .
The fun begins with some over-the-top High Dynamic Range (HDR) processing. This was possible because I had taken three images at one-stop exposure intervals, keeping the aperture constant and varying the shutter speed. My camera, a Nikon D300, shoots bursts at about 6 frames a second, allowing this to be done handheld maintaining the images in good enough alignment that the software can merge them.

 I have two options for HDR processing. An old standard is Photomatix Pro. It has lots of control options, which if applied carelessly can lead to an exaggerated, I.e., unreal look. Kind of like a Thomas Kinkade painting, light reaches deep into shadows while still magically revealing texture detail. The other option is the HDR tool in Photoshop, where a more acceptably photographic look results from the default options. I went the Photomatix Kinkade route.

Then back into Lightroom for more fun, where the Vibrance and Clarity sliders got cranked all the way up to "11" - and beyond. Lastly into Photoshop CS5, for a strong dose of Filter>Artistic>Poster Edges.
 You'll find more of the results of my railyard and post-processing adventure (including the reputed world's largest diesel locomotive, The Centennial, on my web site, Tony's Vision. 
Not satiated with color at the railroad museum, I headed north into the pines, aspens, oaks, and big leaf maples along the Beckworth-Genesee Road. You'll find some fall foliage shots in the Awesome Autumn section of the Plumas County web site.

Cal and Dan of the Sacramento BSCC invited me to drive down to this event with them. Great fun to see all the cars, talk to folks, and take pictures as always.