VOTE-Oregon Wild Outdoor Photo Contest

I am entering the Oregon Wild Outdoor Photo Contest and need your help to pick the five photos to submit. Please vote in the sidebar survey, or by commenting, and vote for five please. Voting ends August 1st. Here are my candidates:

The Horseshoe

Marys Peak Trees

Mt. Hood From Marys Peak

Broken Top

Odell Lake from Eagle Rock

Clear Lake Rainstorm

Metolius Chipmunk

Watson Falls

South Sister Pano

Mt. Bachelor Thru The Buttercups

Mt. Bachelor Meadows
(And let me know if you think this is too bright, I have other exposures)

Proxy Falls Trails

Mt. Jefferson at Dee Wright

South Sister with Flower

Proxy Falls

Proxy Falls

Upper Proxy Falls
Shutter Speed: 1/4
Aperture: 8.0
Mode: Manual

Overall, this was a decent day shooting wise. We got to the waterfalls early in the morning around 9 AM, and we were the first ones in the parking lot. First we went to Upper Proxy Falls, and I had forgotten how impressive it is in person, yet frustrating a photographic subject: its thin, difficult to frame, and even in the early morning the contrast issues between brightly lit trees and the dark soil was apparent. This made it difficult for me, but even more difficult for the "auto" feature on the camera. In the few shots I took with it, the lighting was horrible.

Still I managed to get some good shots, and more importantly learned how to use shutter speed and aperture in tandem to get the right lighting and effect.

Proxy Falls Panorama
Shutter Speed: Mixed
Aperture: 5.0
Mode: Landscape

Proxy Falls (or Lower Proxy Falls) was really to brightly lit to get great shots, and I don't really like the view from high up. It really is much more gorgeous in person, and you don't get that even in a panorama like this one. When you get down closer, you can get better shots.....but the problem becomes tiny drops on the lens. They don't show up at 1/100 speed, but they do at 1/4, creating undesired raindrops on the camera lens. Still the area right under the falls is a beautiful series of cascades over a variety of fallen trees, covered in mosses and ferns. I did get some cool shot there like this one:

Cascade Below Proxy Falls
Shutter Speed: 1 sec
Aperture: 8.0
Mode: Manual
Color Filter: Positive Film

As you can gather by the longer shutter speed, it was quite dark, and I actually took shots with even lower speed (2.5 sec) that turned out well. The lowered speed creates the effect that the water is hitting something hard when in fact it's just hitting a (relatively) deep pool.

At any rate, it was well worth it, and by the time we got done with Proxy Falls it was starting to get hot, and starting to get busy. (Including two photographers who had far better equipment and more experience than me. Their advice: master software manipulation of the photos.) I suppose the lesson is go to Proxy Falls when its overcast: it will have better lighting for photos and fewer people out hiking.

Outside of that, I did take a whole series of pictures of all the trail signs, in sepia tone, which I really am falling in love with (probably too much).

Gallery: Return from Silverton

Poppy Fields
This is a framing issue for me. I like the way a photo of flowers or dense vegetation looks when framed so that nothing else appears....it looks more colorful. Unfortunately for my purposes, Google Earth would not accept this as there is no landmarks in the photo. Still I like it. B


Mt. Jefferson from Detroit Lake
If I'm honest the picture seems like a waste. Mt. Jefferson is quite impressive here, but would be more so if the lighting was better. The snow doesn't seem that differently colored than the sky, and the three layers of trees having fading colors looks ugly to me. D+


Mt. Washington and Blue Skies
Anyone care to guess I shot this with a blue filter? I like the effect, although there's too much of it, and it makes it looks a bit "70's" to me. But the framing is good, I like the sense of size of the sky. B

Mt. Washington Black and White
Same photo as above yet the framing seems off on this one....too much sky. Still the contrasts between the trees are more apparent, and Cascades always shoot well in black and white. B-

Sparks Lake Sign and South Sister
For the record.....I generally hate sepia tone as needless gimmicky or downright pretentious, but I liked the way the sign looked in this one. Lighting is a bit off, it needs to be lighter. B


Mt. Bachelor Meadows
This is what happens when a great photo gets made into merely a good one. I took 74 photos with different angles and lighting, and while I like the framing, I just couldn't get the brightness of the yellow flowers right. I also worried about the snow getting a nuclear glow. If anything though I learned the camera viewfinder makes the scene look brighter than it actually is. I assure you this is a great photo that turned out to be a good one. B


South Sister Panorama From Elk Lake....

Below are the photos used to make the panorama on the title bar. I was thrilled with how it turned out...I didn't use the panorama feature on my camera because I think this is more fun and I'm a bit skeptical about that. The stitching of the photos has a slight, but barely noticeable flaw near the left of the summit, and that software error is the only thing keeping this from being a straight up A. Thus A-

(The pics are in reverse order from the way they were taken.

Shutter Speed and Waterfalls: An Example

Shooting waterfalls is fun. It's pretty easy to get some cool effects, and nearly impossible to get a bad shot. Here are some simple tricks I played with shutter speed to get the shot I wanted. I have a Canon which technically is a high end point and shoot, and not an SLR. I'll get the model number soon.

Photo #1
Shutter Speed: 1/100
Aperture: 3.5
Mode: Landscape

This is essentially the waterfall as it is shot in Landscape mode. A good shot for realism, although not the best shot I got. I like the framing, the trees give context and hints to the size of the falls, although the "leaf glow" is a bit bright.

Photo #2
Shutter Speed: 1/60
Aperture: 8.0
Mode: Manual

Obviously this shot is way too dark at least in terms of the waterfall, although it captures the "leaf glow" on the trees quiet well. Notice there is no "mist effect" at this speed yet. Although the shutter speed is longer than photo #1, it is darker because it is taken in manual mode.

Photo #3
Shutter Speed: 1/15
Aperture: 8.0
Mode: Manual

This shot getting closer to the "great shot" but it shows how far you can be despite being so close....in my opinion, the slight "mist effect" that the waterfall is showing with lower shutter speed actually makes it uglier than before. It looks more like a lack of focus than a cool effect to me.

Photo #4
Shutter Speed: 1/4
Aperture: 8.0
Mode: Manual

This is the best shot in my mind, and I say that with full knowledge that the lighting isn't right and the plants are way too bright. Still, the "mist effect" draws your eyes away from that, and that's what makes it great. I love it in color, but here it is in black and white (taken in black and white, not altered afterward) where it just loses something to me.

McKenzie Pass Preview

South and Middle Sister
West of McKenzie Pass Summit
August 2008

Some roads have this misfortune of becoming over-traveled, ugly manifestations of all that is wrong with modern American society. McKenzie Pass is not one of those roads. If speed and safety is what you look for in a road, do not take this one. If beautiful scenery and tight turns excite you, this is the road for you. McKenzie Pass is hard to maintain, barely open to cars, and full of nausea inducing turns. But I can tell you, this is the most exciting sign in Oregon this time of year:




My mother and I are driving McKenzie Pass this Saturday in her new truck, and I am eager to 1) take a break from studying for the Oregon Bar, 2) mess around with the camera, and 3) get some good shots to enter in this contest. Contests are always interesting, and while I doubt I will get a good enough shot to win anything, it's only $5 to enter, goes to a good cause, and you never know how good your photos are.

McKenzie Pass presents a number of potential subjects for myself: Upper Proxy Falls, Lower Proxy Falls, virtually every Cascade Mountain in Oregon, lava fields, forests, small animals (chipmunks), and twisty, curvy roads.

My main ambition for this trip is to get a great shot at Dee Wright Observatory through the observation windows. Dee Wright is a lovely FDR era building made out of volcanic rock, and the observatory has windows opening on to specific Cascade peaks with a label.

I tried to get a shot of this with my old point and shoot in 2008, but it didn't turn out well.

You have no idea North Sister is visible through this window. My hope is to get the lighting right and get both the plaque and the mountain in one shoot.....preferably in black and white. I don't think color would add much to a photo like this, and the contrast in a black and white photo would be very cool. Obviously the challenge is lighting.....and I hope to figure something out to get both in frame and lit well.

Hopefully all turns out well.

Peace.......