Learning All The Time

Seems like every time I go out shooting I learn something new, even without trying.

I wanted to capture the misty effect you can get with long exposures of several seconds or more with waves on the beach.   When I took this shot it was still too bright for a long exposures.  In order to get the longest shutter speed possible I set my ISO as low as possible (100), my aperture as small as possible (f/22), and added a neutral density filter to the front of my lens to cut the light even more.   I further slowed my shutter by making sure I exposed for the sky and not the sea stack.   I was able to get a 15 second exposure even shooting into the sunset.

Sea Stack Sunset

When I looked at the LCD display on the back of my camera I thought I had captured what I was after.  The waves on the beach blurred into a smooth misty surface that reflected the colors of sunset.  Good for me!

When I was working on this photo just now I realized my mistake, the results of which you can see in this close crop of the trees on top of the sea stack.

See the ghost image of the tree tops?  Obviously the camera moved during that 15 seconds when the shutter was open.   Then I remembered.  To get the shot I wanted without the sandy beach I had to set my camera out near the water.  I had my camera on my tripod, which I set down in the sand and composed the shot.  I waited for the waves to be where I wanted them and started the exposure.   What happened next was comical.  The waves did not stop just below my tripod but continued up the beach and around the tripod legs.  Anyone who has stood at the edge of the surf knows what happens.  The wave washed the sand out from under the tripod legs, which then settled into the sand.  The comical part was me with my hiking boots running from the waves while leaving my camera and tripod in the surf.   Some of my photo buddies who were there with me chuckled at my antics.

Lesson learned - make sure the camera is on a solid surface and is not going to move during the exposure.  Beach sand and waves do not make a solid surface to shoot from.

I had fun trying the long exposures and will try again when I get a chance.  I'm sure I'll learn another lesson in the process.

The Benefits of Mentors and Encouragers

Everyone needs to spend time with others.  God has made us to be in relationship with other people.   It's the way we we're wired.  We gain from spending time with people who mentor and encourage us to be better at what we do and to be better people.   This applies to all areas of our lives, including fun times doing what we love.

I am blessed to have a wife who encourages me to spend time with my photography hobby.  She is the one person I most want along when I go out taking pictures, and she doesn't even bring a camera or take any pictures herself.  Not only does she encourage me but she mentors me in my photography as well.  I've learned that when she says "come over here and take a look at this" I need to see what she is looking at.  Some of my best photographs came about when June saw something and pointed it out to me.

I also have several good photographer friends that I enjoy spending time with and learning from.  

Harold Ross

They encourage me and teach me when we take off on a journey in search of photographs. My friend Harold Ross invited me to spend last Saturday with him in the Smokey Mountains, on the Blue Ridge Parkway and where ever the Lord led us.  I've not gone out to take landscape or nature photos many times in August because I thought it was not a great time.  I thought the flowers were gone or almost gone, the skies would be hazy, and the creeks low or dry.  He encouraged me to go out and was I glad I did!

We found waterfalls in great light, wildflowers in abundance, and flocks of butterflies.  Because he encouraged me to get out I have 19 new photos to share in the Appalachian Travels August 2013 folder.

Every time I go out with Harold I learn about a new place to shoot, new wildflowers, and new photography ideas and techniques.  

If you don't have friends to share your love of photography with then I suggest you join a local photography club, take a class, or look for other opportunities to make new friends.  Then get together, go out, mentor and encourage each other.   It's one of the best ways to improve your photography.

Laurel Falls in The Great Smokey Mountains

Estatoe Falls in NC

Historic Sites Of Washington and Oregon Coast

When we visited Washington and Oregon we went in search of landscape and nature photographic subjects.  We found those in abundance but we also enjoyed visiting several of the historic sites along the southern Washington and northern Oregon coasts.

Checkers Anyone?

We visited the old historic Fort Nisqually Historic Museum, the WW II Fort Stevens, a four-masted steel barque sailing vessel that ran ashore October 25, 1906, several light houses, and even stayed in an old historic inn.  Later we stopped and wandered the streets of historic Port Townsend and Fort Warden.

Fort Nisqually in Point Defiance Parkthe first European settlement on Puget Sound, was a bustling center of trade that expanded into a large-scale agricultural enterprise. is a great place to spend a couple hours.  Experience life in Washington Territory during the fur trade era.                                              

The Peter Iredale is the wreck of a fort masted ship that ran ashore in 1906.  Today all that's left is the rusting steel ribs like an ancient beast.

There are numerous lighthouses along the coast, most are easily accessible.

I was surprised by the old World War II forts along the coast.  We explored Fort Stevens and discovered an old radar installation being swallowed by the rain forest along the coast.

We only scratched the surface.  You could spend days exploring the historic sites in this area. 

Peter Iredale

Chetzemoka

Yaquina Head Lighthouse

These photos and many more are available on line on The Siggins Photography website Check them out and let me know what you think.

Life On The Rocks - Common Murres

I'm not a fan of the beach (just ask my family) but the coast of Washington and Oregon is very different from what we are used to on the coast of Florida and the Carolinas. The Pacific Northwest coast has numerous coves, bays, rocky coast lines, and even waterfalls.   One feature I found interesting is the sea stacks, which are blocks of erosion-resistant rock isolated from the land by sea. Sea stacks begin as part of a headland or sea cliff. Relentless pounding by waves erodes the softer, weaker parts of a rock first, leaving harder, more resistant rock behind.

Three Arch Rock

Three Arch Rock is an example of a Sea Stack about 1/2 mile off the Oregon shore near Oceanside where we spent a couple nights.  Another example is Pillar Rock off shore of the Cape Meares National Wildlife Refuge.  We could get closer to this rock and get a good look at the residents of this inhospitable place.

Pillar Rock at Common Murres

Common Murres are penguin-like birds that live in the cooler northern oceans.   Common Murres nest on the tops of these sea stacks in colonies so dense that there may be 20 nesting pairs in one square meter.

Close Quarters

Nesting on a Blue Egg

Common Murre eggs are pointed at one end; when pushed, they roll around in a circle, preventing them from rolling off into the ocean. The variation in egg color and markings allows parent Murres to recognize their own eggs when they return from sea.

These birds are abundant along the coast, which makes them easy targets of eagles.   We talked with some birders at Cape Meares and learned that eagles will swoop down and grab a baby or even adult right off the rock.  Sometimes they will land just a few feet away to eat their meal right in front of the other birds.  

Later that day we were down at Yaquina Head Natural Area in Oregon when we heard Sea Gulls making a racket and chasing a young Bald Eagle.  You can see this eagle has a Common Murre in it's talons and blood and feathers on his beak. 

 

The surprising thing is it was the Sea Gulls that were harassing the Eagle.

Life is pretty rough on the rocks.

If you're interested in seeing more photos from our trip to Washington and Oregon and hearing more about the photography, join me at the Twin City Photo Club in Bristol Tuesday September 3.  I'll be doing a program using photos from this trip.

Check Your Background

Don't worry, I'm not talking about a background check where your skeletons are dug up and shared with your perspective employer.   I'm talking about the background in your photo compositions.

When composing a shot it's easy to focus all your attention on the subject and let your mind tune out the distracting elements in the composition.    Unfortunately, those distracting elements will be very noticeable when you get home and bring the photo up on a computer.   Those things you never noticed can ruin a photo.

Here's a recent example.  My dad grows Orchids as a hobby.  While visiting this last week I took a few minutes to go into the yard to see what I could find to shoot.  This bloom was particularly pretty, but a good spot for an Orchid to grow is a bad spot to photograph it.  There was a wooden fence and the bright wall of a neighbor's house behind it as you can see here.

I was shooting with a 300mm telephoto lens that I stopped down to f/4 to minimize the depth of field and blur the background as much as possible.  In this case the flower and the fence were too close together to blur the fence enough.   The solution was to get low and shoot up at the flower.  By doing this I was able to take the fence out of the picture and just have the neighbor's house in the background.  The house was much brighter than the flower so I exposed for the flower, which made the wall appear to be solid white, which is a pretty nice background in this case.

I think the second shot is a more pleasing composition.  Anyone looking at it will look at the flower and not be distracted by the background.

The background is not the only thing to watch out for when composing your shot.  Watch of objects that stick into the photo from the bottom, top or sides that can be distracting.  In the shot below the railing for the bridge I was standing on was included in the lower left corner. 

In the last example a cut log is showing up in the bottom of the photo.   It was actually the remains of an old bridge but does not seem to fit in the forest scene and should be eliminated.  Sometimes you can eliminate a distracting element by picking it up and moving it.  Other times, you have to move yourself and recompose to eliminate the distractions

The best thing to do when composing is to slow down and look.  Move around and see what other compositions you can come up with. Finally, watch out for the background and other things that can distract from the main subject.

Oh, the Places You'll Go!

“You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. You're on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the one who'll decide where to go...”
― Dr. Seuss, Oh, the Places You'll Go!

 

The sage wisdom of Dr. Seuss can be applied to outdoor photographers.   We will go places and do things that may seem absurd to most people.  We go in directions that normal people would just shake their heads in wonder if we really "have brains in our head". While on vacation, June and I will get up an hour or two before sunrise, stay out until well after sunset and go hard all day long.   When doing that in the Pacific Northwest in June sunrise is before 5 AM and sunset is after 9 PM, which makes for a very long day.  Between those hours an outdoor photographer will spend hours in one spot sometimes photographing the same subject and other times just sitting and waiting for the light to change.  These extended times in one place can be separated by a mad dash to get to the next spot at just the right time.  On an easy day we might go back to the hotel and sleep for a couple hours in the middle of the day.  After a couple days of this we might take our nap just about anywhere like my friend Chuck Barnes.

Chuck Recharging

 

 

I am blessed to have a wife who is willing to put up with my craziness.  Not everyone is as lucky as I am.

 

When we get to the places we have decided to go that day we may do things that make people wonder what made us "decide where to go".  One example of our craziness is what I consider the best way to photograph a waterfall -- standing in the creek or river below the falls, often with the camera a few inches off the surface of the water.  Sometimes this water is spring snow melt, making it not too many degrees above freezing.   By getting to places at the right time and getting into the best place for a shot we can come away with interesting compositions, such as this one of Bridal Veil Falls in the Columbia River Gorge.

Bridal Veil Falls

 I took this at the end of the day when we were both pretty tired but the light was good for shooting waterfalls so off we went.

Shooting Munra Falls

Earlier in the afternoon we had seen this guy taking photos at Munra Falls.  We ran into him at Bridal Veil Falls as well.  He was younger and had more energy than I had left and was climbing over boulders and through the stream to get the best shot.

I'm hoping to hike to some falls in Virginia  this Thursday morning with a photographer friend.   If we're lucky, it will be foggy and raining.  The best conditions for taking photos of waterfalls, streams and forests.   Oh the places we will go!

Lost in Port Townsend

On the last day of our 17 day trek across Washington and Northern Oregon we had a full day to enjoy ourselves on the way back to the Seattle - Tacoma airport.  We visited a few places in Olympic National Park that we had missed earlier, checked out some tide pools looking for sea life, and visited the Jardin du Soleil lavender farm in Sequim.   All along we had the airport programmed into the GPS so we knew exactly how long it would take to get to the airport from where ever we were. 

You can click any of the photos to flip through larger versions.

One of our stops along the way was Port Townsend.   They advertise themselves as a victorian seaport with a maritime heritage and a touch of urban chic.  National Geographic calls Port Townsend one of the most sophisticated places west of Seattle   It reminded us of downtown Asheville NC.   We explored the town for a while, ate at The Elevated Ice Cream Shoppe, and wandered the streets.

There were some people set up selling some things (we weren't sure sure what and didn't stick around to find out).   One lady had a bunch of old dirty bottles lined up on a bench.  Behind her was a boat with bicycles arranged on top that were wrapped in Christmas lights.  The bottles were interesting but I guess that bicycle art looks better at night.

There are a number of signs painted on brick walls of the historic old buildings, including an old Bull Durham sign.   I find these old signs to be very interesting and the older the better.

Some the most interesting parts of the old historic buildings are in the details, such as this old door.   Old and weathered I wonder how long it's been there and what has happened in Port Townsend during it's time.

We stopped at an old historic home that is now an Inn. The Ann Starrett Mansion was built in 1889 and is a beautiful Victorian home painted in pastel pink, red, blue and green.   Some stairs going up to a porch caught my eye.  The diagonal line and flower pot repeating pattern make for an interesting composition.

After we left Port Townsend we stopped at Port Gamble then headed for the airport.  A short while later we realized our GPS had routed us to a ferry.   We knew nothing about the ferry, the schedule, or where we would end up so we decided to take a different route.  The GPS then routed us to another ferry!   It took us a while to get back to the main road because we had wandered farther afield than we thought.  Lessons learned - allow plenty of time, don't rely 100% on a GPS and bring a good map as backup.  In the end we had just enough time to get to the airport and catch our flight home.

I hope you enjoy these photos from Port Townsend.