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donedwards2019_7

Nov, 2020

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Same photographer See all Behind The Lens

Near the end of an early morning shoot I did an HDR capture of the notable "mouse hole" the sea wall at Pescadero.

Early morning shoot at Pescadero on a foggy day. Saw another photographer in the distance.

The bay at dawn.

Baylands Nature Preserve.

Palo Alto, CA

A long exposure shot of a pier in the pre-dawn light.

Shoreline Park at dawn on a foggy day, right about when the clouds thinned enough to let the sun through.

An HDR processed shot of Pescadero Preserve taken on a foggy morning in January 2011.

Trees, alive and dead along the banks of a creek. One of the few photos I mad B&W. Trying to emphasize the textures in this one.

Wooden structure on the beach at Pescadero, CA.

Hummingbird in flight pollinating a flower.

Behind The Lens

Location

Don Edwards San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge Environmental Education Center. I set it up on a floating platform in the slough which gave me a 135 degree view of the water.

Time

About 8:30AM, Thanksgiving morning, cold as cold can be. 15 minutes before the batteries gave out.

Lighting

Natural light, golden hour. Normally this gives you the best outdoor light of the day. Facing towards the sun gives you dramatic contrasts. Facing away gives somewhat flatter lighting but really brings out the colors. For this shot, I really liked this particular frame.

Equipment

Canon 40D with an 18-55mm walkaround lens. Nice sturdy tripod. Also brought a cable remote but it didn't work :(

Inspiration

On holidays I like to visit photo sites early in the morning. In the case of Don Edwards, I'd already taken landscapes from all over this park but I thought I could improve on my earlier work by shooting at the golden hour. I managed to get into the park itself about a half hour before sunrise.

Editing

I process almost all of my landscapes as HDRs. I use darktable to apply lens correction and if necessary, correct white balance (I actually prefer Canon's Digital Photo Professional, but it's not available on Linux), and Luminance for tone mapping. I usually generate a mantiuk and fattal image. Then I use GIMP to find the "best" way to combine them, and play with the sharpness and saturation.

In my camera bag

If I'm shooting outdoors I normally take: Canon 40D, walkaround lens, telephoto birding lens, some tiny pieces of grey card and various odds and ends. And of course, a tripod. A couple of times I brought a flash unit while taking bird shots. It can be interesting if you get close enough to the subject.

Feedback

Half the battle is being in the right place at the right time. Find a location you think would be interesting, and scout it ahead of time to make sure there won't be any obstacles. For equipment have a camera which allows the use of "creative mode" (Av,Tv,manual) and manual white balance and a lens which can give you reasonably wide shots. You'll also want a tripod, especially if your shot is longer than 1/30" or you use a post-processing technique which combines multiple shots of the same scene.

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donedwards2019_7

Behind The Lens

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