Minor Insights & Ramblings

Images from the Road

Sun, 6 Sep 2009 18:28:01 -0400

As I work my way through a mass of raw images from my travels this summer, I will share them in (hopefully) a more timely fashion than in the past. These images are from the Palouse region of Eastern Washington. The Palouse region produces the majority of the soft wheat grown in this country. It is a vast agricultural region where crops are planted from horizon to horizon. And while the agricultural is 21st century, the pace of life seems to be from another time. I had not planned on visiting this area, but went on the sound advice of a very generous Oregon photographer. I absolutely plan to return. Future entries will cover the rest of my travels through Alberta, British Columbia, Vancouver Island, and the Olympic peninsula of Washington.

Birds of a feather . . .

Sat, 18 Apr 2009 17:44:08 -0400

. . . hanging out together. My seasonal mob of painted buntings had a special visitor for the past week. This indigo bunting was content to hang out with them while waiting for whatever feathered creatures wait for this time of year. Possibly just a tourist passing through.

A Day in the life of an Everglades Pond

Sat, 19 Apr 2008 15:53:08 -0400

I know,I know . . . this is supposed to be a photo of the month. Let’s pretend this is a time-lapse image. A day in the life of an Everglades pond. And not a very exceptional pond . . . small, shallow, and muddy. But this is just the sort of a pond wading birds love. And under the right conditions, just the sort of location that nature photographers love. This particular muddy little pond is singularly unexceptional for most of the day and most of the year (see images 1 & 2). However, in the spring, on certain evenings, the lighting can be magical. A combination of low angle, warm direct lighting from the setting sun, and strong reflected light off the trees sets the stage, but only for about an hour. On this day the light lasted from about 5:00 to 6:00 pm. That’s when the taller trees to the west of the pond cut off the direct sunlight and, within 20 minutes, the reflected light. But what an hour! So many birds moving back and forth in the water, it was sometimes hard to stay focused on any specific shot. The last images (6 & 7) show almost all reflected light from behind the birds. At this point, shutter speeds dropped dramatically and it became a challenge to get sharp images at low iso settings. I shared the small shoreline with 8 or 9 other photographers (there can sometimes be more photographers than birds) and would guess (from the sound of the blazing camera shutters) that, in the golden hour, we easily shot 8,000 images. A good time was had by all!

Welcome Entry

Fri, 18 Apr 2008 11:20:26 -0400

Welcome. Like most things in life, this site is in flux, evolving, and temporary. If you have a particular question for me, I'll be happy to share whatever I know about the subject with you. If you'd like to know how, or where, I shot an image, drop me a line at jackh@wildlightphotography.com. The first Photo of the Month entry should be online by Sunday. And if all works out as planned, several Everglades panoramas.
More to come soon.