Different Views Can Add to the Story

Posted on April 17, 2009 | Leave a comment
Old Cabin Closeup by Gary Hamburgh - All Rights Reserved

Old Cabin Closeup by Gary Hamburgh - All Rights Reserved

While traveling in Whitman County recently I came across this old cabin. I stopped by the side of the road and hiked about a half mile to a closer vantage point. I was very interested in getting close to the cabin to see what was inside. Unfortunately there was nothing of interest inside so I decided to take a close-up to show the aging shingles, wood and the barrels as seen in the image above.

As I started to leave, I felt the urge to show a bit more of the setting  from a different perspective. This view shows some of the surrounding landscape and the old cabin that looks to have been deserted for quite some time. This is shown in the photo below.

Cabin and Barrels by Gary Hamburgh - All Rights Reserved

Cabin and Barrels by Gary Hamburgh - All Rights Reserved

As I moved farther away I decided to include the truck pictured below which shows at least someone had been there in the last decade or so. Each of these perspectives from a different viewpoint adds a bit more to the tale of the old cabin. In your photography try to include different angles and focal lengths to tell a more complete story.

Cabin and Truck by Gary Hamburgh - All Rights Reserved

Cabin and Truck by Gary Hamburgh - All Rights Reserved

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Posted in Palouse Landscapes

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Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS Review

Posted on April 16, 2009 | 1 comment

ef100-400_45-56lisu_586x2251

EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS

I have owned this lens for over two years and it has been a real workhorse for me because of its versatility. This is not the sharpest, fastest or most convenient lens that I own but when I combine what it gives me shot after shot it is indispensable to me. I will discuss some of the things I don’t like about the lens and then talk about its positives.

The push pull zoom is something I still don’t care for. It takes both hands to manipulate it if it is in a locked position. Fortunately I haven’t had any of the dust problems that some people have talked about because of this design, but I find it to be inconvenient. Also the lens for me seems a bit slow on the auto-focus. This has become very evident to me when I am trying to lock on a bird in flight.

Now to the reasons why it has become my favorite walk-around lens. The tremendous versatility it provides because of its zoom range is valuable to me. I find that I use this lens for shooting landscapes as well as wildlife. I may have the lens mounted on a tripod capturing an image of the patterns and textures of the terrain when I notice a bird come into my vicinity. I can immediately adjust to capture that image without changing my lens. This has even become more of an advantage as I have changed to the 5D Mark II with the full frame sensor. I really enjoy being able to use the 100 mm at its full focal length for the landscapes.

The lens is also fairly light to hand hold and the IS feature works very well. The images are sharp and only start to soften slightly as I use the maximum aperture f5.6 at 400 mm. You will find it is important to remember to turn off the IS when you mount it on a tripod and turn it back on again when you hand hold. I fail to do this once in a while and the image sharpness does suffer.

Below are some images that I have taken with this lens in the Palouse that shows its versatility.

Road to the Clouds by Gary Hamburgh - All Rights Reserved - ISO 200 f/13 1/320 200 mm

Road to the Clouds by Gary Hamburgh - All Rights Reserved - ISO 200 f/13 1/320 200 mm

Ring-necked Pheasant by Gary Hamburgh - All Rights Reserved - ISO 800 f/5.6 1/250 260 mm

Ring-necked Pheasant by Gary Hamburgh - All Rights Reserved - ISO 800 f/5.6 1/250 260 mm

Red Combine by Gary Hamburgh - All Rights Reserved - ISO 200 f/10 1/500 400 mm

Red Combine by Gary Hamburgh - All Rights Reserved - ISO 200 f/10 1/500 400 mm

Red Barn with Fence by Gary Hamburgh - All Rights Reserved - ISO 250 f/11 1/500 120 mm

Red Barn with Fence by Gary Hamburgh - All Rights Reserved - ISO 250 f/11 1/500 120 mm

Mule Deer in Flight by Gary Hamburgh - All Rights Reserved - ISO 1600 f/5.6 1/250 400 mm

Mule Deer in Flight by Gary Hamburgh - All Rights Reserved - ISO 1600 f/5.6 1/250 400 mm

I would highly recommend this lens to anyone wanting a good quality walk-around zoom lens. Thanks to its versatility and portability,  I think you will find it will become one of your favorite tools as well.

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Posted in Palouse Landscapes, Wildlife in the Palouse

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Explore and observe

Posted on April 14, 2009 | 1 comment
Old Barn and Windmill by Gary Hamburgh - All Rights Reserved

Old Barn and Windmill by Gary Hamburgh - All Rights Reserved

While traveling in the Palouse, I am constantly staying alert for a new barn or location. There are literally hundreds of miles of gravel roads that many times have old abandoned homesteads with houses, cabins, barns and all the outbuildings. These can provide a great opportunity for images.

The barn pictured at the top of this post is one of those deserted homesteads. It is readily accessible as it is located near the junction of Highway 12 and Highway 127 about 30 miles north of Dayton. The barn is visible from the road and after about a quarter mile walk you come to the main house on the homestead. The windmill as well as other small buildings will provide many opportunities for photos. One word of caution, be aware of rattlesnakes that can be found in these areas.

Many times it is not possible to get a property release in these situations due to the fact that the homestead had been abandoned many years before. Hopefully you also can be rewarded with new finds and opportunities as you explore.

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Image adjustments with Color Efex Pro 3.0

Posted on April 12, 2009 | Leave a comment

I have been using the Nik software Color Efex Pro 3.0 plug-in for Aperture for a couple of months. It has become an integral part of my workflow on many images. I will be showing a couple of adjustments to an image that I feel are valuable and very easily applied with this software.

I enjoy shooting large agricultural equipment in the working environment so that is what I will use for the demonstration of this program. My favorite equipment company for images is John Deere because the bright green and yellow colors always stand out so well against the landscape or sky. The first image below is the original image as it was captured.

Combine at Work 1 by Gary Hamburgh - All Rights Reserved

Combine at Work 1 by Gary Hamburgh - All Rights Reserved

In the 2nd image I added a polarizing filter that is available in the Nik software. This filter has several adjustments available. They are set to the following defaults:

Rotate – 90%

Strength – 100% (60%) In parentheses it shows the opacity that I set for this image.

These adjustments with this filter give a little more pop to the image and also takes away some of the glare.

Combine at Work 2 by Gary Hamburgh - All Rights Reserved

Combine at Work 2 by Gary Hamburgh - All Rights Reserved

In the 3rd image the tonal contrast filter was applied. The adjustments that are available are shown with their defaults and my adjustment in parentheses.

Highlight contrast – 30  (15)

Midtone contrast – 30 (15)

Shadows contrast – 30 (20)

Combine at Work 3 by Gary Hamburgh - All Rights Reserved

Combine at Work 3 by Gary Hamburgh - All Rights Reserved

I feel this filter gives a little more definition to the image. Each of these adjustments was slight but each one helps to enhance the image as I had seen it. I hope these adjustments are clearly demonstrated event though the images are small.

This software program has many other filters which are easy to apply and the opacity can also be adjusted. Another important feature is that you can apply multiple filters as I demonstrated to the same image. I hope you have found this information to be useful and consider adding this useful program to your workflow.

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Backup for peace of mind

Posted on April 11, 2009 | Leave a comment
Barn at Sunset by Gary Hamburgh - All Rights Reserved

Barn at Sunset by Gary Hamburgh - All Rights Reserved

As a photographer you are always being told to backup your files because your storage media will fail at some point. A good plan is so essential as I found out yesterday afternoon.

One of my 1 Tb external hard drives failed with no warning. On that drive was a 930 gig Aperture library with thousands of images. Fortunately I had just backed up that library the night before to an Aperture vault that I have on a Drobo storage device with four 1 Tb drives. I was able to restore my library to a new 1 TB drive that I had not been using. It took approximately 13 hours to complete the restore but at least I was able to recover the data.

I have always been concerned about a failure and am very glad that at least I have one level of backup that was helpful. This near disaster has gotten me to thinking that maybe I need a more complete plan than I currently have in place.

Here is a link to an article Backup In Progress by Any Ihnatko that talks about making a backup plan. This is just one such article on an extremely useful website mydl.me that is hosted by Scott Bourne and Andy Ihnatko.

Follow Scott on Twitter – http://www.twitter.com/scottbourne

Follow Andy on Twitter – http://www.twitter.com/ihnatko

I hope you will take their advice and also learn from my experience that a good backup plan is essential because at some time it will save you from disaster.

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Simplicity can be dramatic

Posted on April 10, 2009 | Leave a comment
Storm Clouds over Lone Pine by Gary Hamburgh - All Rights Reserved

Storm Clouds over Lone Pine by Gary Hamburgh - All Rights Reserved

One of my favorite towns in the Palouse region is St. John. This small town is located on Hiway 23 about 2o miles from the town of Steptoe. The main reason I enjoy passing through this town is because of a large pine tree that grows in the middle of an open field as you leave town traveling southeast. The tree is solitary and appears to dominate the landscape.

Once as I was passing through the town the sky was very dark with a pending thunder storm but the field and tree were being illuminated with the evening sunlight. The simplicity of this lone tree and the dramatic contrast with the stormy sky provided my eyes with a feast. As I captured the image and viewed it later, I realized the simplicity in elements is what made this image come together for me.

As you travel through St. John, hopefully you will have the same connection with this large solitary tree that I have experienced

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Farming by Air

Posted on April 9, 2009 | Leave a comment
Swooping In by Gary Hamburgh - All Rights Reserved

Swooping In by Gary Hamburgh - All Rights Reserved

One of the things I enjoy seeing in the Palouse are the crop dusting planes as they maneuver their way around the fields. Much of the fertilizer and chemicals are applied with this method.

In the photo at the top of this page, you see a pilot getting into position to dispense a load of dry fertilizer onto the terrain. I had talked with this pilot at a small airstrip near Colfax a few minutes earlier. He had given me directions to get into a position where I could observe him doing his work.

Generally the times you will see the planes applying the chemicals is in the early morning as the air is usually calmer at that time. If you want to watch a form of aerial acrobatics being put to good use in the farming process, travel to the Palouse and enjoy.

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Farm equipment adds to the composition

Posted on April 8, 2009 | Leave a comment
Patterns of Harvest by Gary Hamburgh - All Rights Reserved

Patterns of Harvest by Gary Hamburgh - All Rights Reserved

I have found that while photographing the contours, patterns and textures in the Palouse, it can be interesting to include some of the machinery that helps to create the landscape. Just including a tractor or combine during harvest can tell a completely different story.

The picture above shows a combine at work during the wheat harvest. It always amazes me as I watch the very steep terrain these harvesters are capable of negotiating. Notice the dust that is present in the image. Areas where farming takes place are usually dusty so be ready to protect your equipment as you are shooting. Also wear boots as many times you may sink in above your ankles in the dirt as you walk the terrain.

I generally try to talk with the farmer or driver of the combine and ask a few questions to show interest in what they are doing. Many times they will ask me if I would like to look inside or I have even been given rides at times in the cab. This gives a completely different view that most people don’t have the opportunity to see.

To give you an idea many of these combines have a system that allows the cab to remain level no matter what the terrain. In addition the newer ones have electronics on board that give critical information such as the number of bushels per acre that is being harvested. The information can be downloaded later onto a computer. Of course air conditioning and music are available as well. If you get the opportunity to visit the area, interact and you may enjoy a ride as well.

As you travel the Palouse look for opportunities to utilize the farm machinery whether it is new or old, working or just standing idle in a field. These large pieces of equipment can add a new story to your images about the work that takes place in the creation of these artistic vistas of farmland that we enjoy.

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Housecleaning can be valuable

Posted on April 4, 2009 | 3 comments
Evening Light in the Palouse by Gary Hamburgh - All Rights Reserved

Evening Light in the Palouse by Gary Hamburgh - All Rights Reserved

It seems to me one of the hardest things for photographers to do is to edit our own images. With the lower cost of storage space, it is easier to buy a new hard drive than it is to actually delete images. I have had several people tell me that they don’t get better sitting on your hard drive.

With this suggestion in mind, I took on the task of sorting through images reevaluating and deleting  what I have stored. In so doing I was able to clear some valuable hard drive space.  Even more important to me I found several images that I had taken last year that I had not even evaluated. The image at the top of this page is one example of what I found. The task of evaluating actually turned out to be fun as I was able to see the possibility of these images being of value to me.

Keep in mind that housecleaning can be great for gaining space as well as finding images that you definitely need to reconsider. I guess the final thought would be evaluate, delete, edit and gain.

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Posted in Palouse Landscapes

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Visit Local Sights

Posted on April 3, 2009 | Leave a comment
The Codger Pole by Gary Hamburgh - All Rights Reserved

The Codger Pole by Gary Hamburgh - All Rights Reserved

While visiting the Palouse you will encounter in some of the small towns a landmark or statue that has significant meaning to the residents of the town. In Colfax, if you ask a local what are the sights of interest I almost always hear “Have you seen the Codger Pole?”

This Pole is located in the middle of town and as you drive down Main Street you can see it from your car. I would suggest getting out and exploring the Pole and the sign that tells the story. Below in the photo, I have included the sign that tells the legend.

The Codger Pole Legend by Gary Hamburgh - All Rights Reserved

The Codger Pole Legend by Gary Hamburgh - All Rights Reserved

These side trips can be taken during the middle of the day while you are waiting for the evening light to photograph the landscape of the Palouse. Exploring the small towns and getting a feel for the culture can provide some very rewarding experiences for you.

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