Things, they are changin'....

After a solid run on Blogger, I have decided to move things over to a wordpress account that will share the same domain as my website. You can find future posts at rphphoto.wordpress.com.

This content will remain in place, just not updated any longer.

Shoving off...

Tomorrow I'm flying out to rendezvous with the NOAA research vessel Ronald Brown for a two week deep sea coral mission. I'll be assisting with the research efforts and photo documenting the various life encountered during the trip.

I won't be able to update this blog or post any photos due to security issues. However, one of my work colleagues will be updating the mission's blog for the NC Museum of Natural Sciences,which you can follow here:

http://deepcoral.wordpress.com

Chasing the light...

Every time you trek out to capture an image you hope that it may land on the cover of the next hot issue of a local magazine or orders will flock in hand over fist. But the unfortunate fact is that many times the weather just doesn't come together as you want it to.

I've been fighting for good light over the past year and I've only had a few occasions in which it has actually worked in my favor. Not to say that those images are immediately destined for the computer trashcan, but more so that it becomes a personal learning tool.

Below are two examples from this past fall that have failed to come together as I imagined. First off is my trek with fellow photographer Scott Hotaling of Light of the Wild Photography to the top of Chimney Tops on the Tennessee side of Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The skies were almost completely overcast and it was beginning to thunder on our way up and the trail. As we climbed tot he top, it looked as if the cloud bank to the west would begin to break up.

Shortly before sunset, the clouds hadn't changed much and we noticed a fog beginning to roll through the valley and heading our way. As the light began to dwindle, we were overcome by the fog racing up the hillside and significantly decreasing our visibility. Within a few minutes of packing up our gear the skies opened up we navigated down the rock face and walked the entire trail in the rain.



The next situation was on our way into GSMNP for sunrise when we noticed the cloud breaks in and around the Newfound Gap area. We made a quick decision and headed up to Clingman's Dome, a popular and iconic spot within the park. We drove as fast as we could up the 8 mile winding road to the parking lot. As soon as we arrived, we made a few quick arrangements and made a dash up the hill to the observation tower.

The mixed cloud cover helped create a scene and things were looking promising as civil twilight began. As I searched for compositions along the horizon, the side light was mediocre and things from straight on were tough to compose given our location.

Here are two good shots taken from this location, but they are not what I would call 'the next level.' Creating images of the next level is what every photographer should be seeking to accomplish.

The Canon EOS 7D

I'd long ditched crop sensor cameras. My first Canon DSLR was a 40D and it was great, especially since I was shooting a whole lot of macro. Then, I made the move to a 5D and even though owning a 50D for a short period, I've been exclusively shooting the 5D for over a year now.

I decided that with the advent of HD video, advanced AF features and weather-sealing that I'd bite the bullet and pick up a 7D. My first impression is that it fits in your hand as well as a 5D, and its roughly the same weight. Of course the big and clear LCD is something that will spoil you when you've been using a much older version.

The AF is really grand (although I've never thoroughly tested a 1-D series camera) and you cant go wrong with 8fps in good light with a high percentage of keeper shots. I do think that the 18mp is a bit much, but it seems the megapixel war is never ending.

The ISO performance of the 7D is nice, a bit better than my old 50D and quite usable up to around ISO 1600. This is no low light monster, and from the results I see from the 5D mark II, I long to try one out

The video option is very cool and just through my hand-held adventures I like the added feature. One thing I've recently found out through discussion is that the 7D has a full time auto-gain feature, meaning it will hone in on the loudest thing in the vicinity. This can be a pain if you're trying to focus on something specific or use it for dedicated HD video purposes. You can offset this by recording sound separately, but that gets pricey. This is not an issue with the other HD DSLRs , the 5D Mark II and the 1D Mark IV.

In the end, I really like having this camera in my bag, I think mainly because I was missing a second body. However, I think what is likely to happen is that I'll be trading the 7D in towards a purchase of a 5D mark II for the better image quality, larger sensor and slightly more tuned video functions.

I strongly believe it is true what they say - once you go full frame, you'll never want to go back!

Impressions....

Its nice to dabble with new ideas and techniques. One thing I stumbled some nature and landscape photographers doing was using the zoom out motion on their lenses during a long exposure to create some dramatic effects. It almost appears to be warping time and space, as if you expect a wormhole or some other astronomical anomaly to occur as you look at the image.

Fall color presents a great time to play around with this technique, and here is just one of the images I captured while experimenting in the Smokies. This one is aptly titled Autumn Impressions.



Next time you're out and about and are looking for something different, break out your zoom lens (it works best with a 70-200 or something similar) and twist away.

Autumn in the Smokies

I've been traveling in my days off back to western North Carolina to photograph fall color in the Smokies and the surrounding areas. This year's weather conditions led to a rapid change in color and less than superb color in many areas. However, I was able to get out and find some interesting compositions and begin formulating a plan for next year.

Stay tuned for various images from the trip, I'll be posting more with details behind the shots.


This image titled Tree of Life is from the Cataloochee Valley of Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Fog filled the valley, and elk roamed through the grassy fields. Its the rut for them, and males are competing for females. Although the elk weren't very cooperative for photo ops, I enjoyed capturing this star-burst through this very charismatic tree.

Canon 5D, 70-200 f/4L IS, @70mm, f/22 1/40 sec, ISO 200 Tripod

I've had a chance to try out the Canon 7D, and I'll be posting a small review of this camera. So far, i've been impressed, but I will say once you've used a full frame camera, its hard to go back to anything else.

Stay tuned for more!

Still playing catchup...

I never thought I'd get this far behind on photography related items, but oh wow things have been very busy as of late.

The website is up, but I forsee some significant changes coming in the future. But for now, its a basic source for some sample work regarding my nature/landscape photography. Check it out at http://www.rphphoto.com

I have just signed on as an independent contractor with the company F-Stop Gear, makers of adventure photography packs and accessories. I've had my F-Stop Tilopa for 6 months or so, and love it more and more each opportunity I'm out in the field. They've recently released a new pack called the Loka, which I'll likely be picking up as well.

I'm currently flirting with the idea of adding in a Canon 7D to my bag since I'm getting more interested in capturing outdoor recreation to broaden my portfolio and shooting experiences.

Here are a few recent shots from outings in the Pacific Northwest, hopefully I'll be doing some live updates as I venture out for fall color in North Carolina.

Where have I been ?!?!

its been a while but I've been super busy and I'm currently in Colorado wrapping up a visit with friends and checking out a few photo ops. Here are some quick edits from this trip (whatcha think of the photo borders ? I'm trying something new):


The clouds above Long's Peak (above photo) finally opened up as I thought my hike up Ute's trail was a complete wash. The winds were around 20-30mph and the air temp was a toasty 43F. A Singh Ray Vari-ND and a 3 stop grad ND allowed me to capture a 'growing' effect from the slow moving clouds.



The first time I ever laid eyes on a capture from Dream Lake I told myself that was one of the must see spots for my personal 'list' (I think I'm too young for a bucket list, but maybe its on that one too). This was from early July, but I hear that its a great snowshoe hike in for an icy lake with the alpenglow on Hallet's Peak.


I was fortunate to get to Alberta Falls after hitting Dream Lake earlier in the morning with the light not glaring down. I worked my way down the embankment along the rushing river to get a better perspective. A mix of hand-holding a 3 stop grad ND, trying to block water spray, keeping a sure footing and actually snapping a usable photo was damn near impossible, but I was a very happy shutterbug when I downloaded this one.





So I flopped on the Bluebird Lake hike - we arrived much later than expected and the winds were absolutely unbearable for photography. On the way back out, I was able to capture some cuddly yellow-bellied marmot playtime on the boulders near the trail.

The Roan Highlands

A preliminary edit of the predawn light along Engine Gap in the Roan Highlands. This was my first visit to this area, but I can definitely say I'll be back. The middle of June boasts the best time to visit the area when the rhododendron are blooming on the balds. For those up for the adventure, I'm told wintertime holds its own treasures here...

Rushing Water

lush moss encompasses a large river rock as water flows quickly through a series of cascades on the Oconaluftee in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. I was first unsure how I liked this image, but its definitely going on the wall in the apartment. I'm looking forward to my return to this river during the fall of the year, I can imagine the effects of fallen leaves in the water under long exposures.

Fluid Serenity

An intimate perspective of one of the two cascades at Soco Falls near Cherokee, NC. I really love this shot, and another reason why I love carrying my 70-200L lens. The area all around this set of falls was slick and washed out, which made it tough to maneuver around for a different perspective. Although Scott Hotaling was able to work his way to a very unique perspective to showcase both tiers of the falls, I was happy with this capture.

Islands in the Sky II

as the light shifts with the rising sun, an orange hue is cast over the mountains and the rising fog. Such a classic scene from the park, but I never get tired of seeing it.

Bridgeview - Oconaluftee River

Water flows downstream on the Oconaluftee River in GSMNP after a light rain. This is a well known bridge location in the Smokemont region of the park, and I believe this is a similar capture from one of Nye Simmons' photos. He's a phenomenal nature photographer who has done extensive work up and down the Appalachian Mountains.

Springtime on the Oconaluftee

Water flows smoothly after a light spring rain on the Oconaluftee River in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. I could have honestly spent days on this river, the greens were so lush and overcast conditions were playing into our favor. This is such a lush, pristine waterway untouched by the never ending progress of the world today.

Islands in the sky....

At sunrise clouds break and fog rolls through the Appalachian Mountains along the Blue Ridge Parkway. The site we originally wanted to visit was fogged in heavy, and remained so for the entire time we stopped to shoot (we could see our first choice location from the spot we ended up...)

Not too shabby, although a bit more mountain breaking through would have made a more complete image.

Waterrock Knob

an early morning capture from the Waterrock Knob overlook of the Blue Ridge Parkway on a cold spring morning. The clouds didn't build to the point of creating a truly dynamic sunrise, but I'll take it for now. Hopefully this fall there will be a return to this vicinity, and I hear the sunsets here are much more impressive!

Many more images to come from my recent trip, stay tuned!

Return to Hanging Rock

I waited until the greens were really in before coming back to this very cool site. Here are a few shots from the trip.

quick snapshot

Did some scouting along the Blue Ridge Parkway - still about 3 weeks out from some nice green foliage showing up, but I plan on returning to this site during better 'conditions' to shoot this section of the falls

It's been a while!

Wow, things have been very busy and I've been caught up in so much the past few weeks. I am still waiting to get my computer back from Dell, but I was able to have the data recovered for free from my HD. Unfortunately because of all of this, the website and printing has been on hold.

I've been working to get my prints featured in a local gallery back in my home town. Things should be a go for my prints, both framed and sleeved, to be available at Bohemia (http://bohemianc.com) in West Jefferson, North Carolina. I will likely feature 8x12 and 12x18 inch prints in white mats.

I will attempt to post a few recent photo edits (the old computer is somehow still able to run CS3) from Stone Mountain, Hanging Rock and Cullasaja Gorge.

If you are interested in any prints, peyton.hale@gmail.com is the best method of reaching me.

Off trekking & updates...

I'm headed out in the AM to Stone Mountain State Park, North Carolina's largest state park and one of the eastern most sites for waterfalls. I'll be putting my Singh Ray Vari-ND filter to work on some of the more famous waterfall sites and maybe trekking into some areas for some sunrise/sunset and night time photography. I plan on stopping through Hanging Rock State Park to shoot the upper and lower Cascades and maybe a final stop on my way back to Raleigh to shoot the sunset from atop Hanging Rock :).

Look for updates next week after I get back and begin processing some of the images.

Looks like I'll be taking a quick trip to Culesaja Gorge in southwestern NC in a few weeks to meet up with a few friends and shoot some of the remote streams in the area. Colorado is in the works for June (although late July in the San Juan Mountains is a great time for wildflowers) and August may hold a week in Washington state exploring in and around Mount Rainer.

Keep checking in for more!

"Red Pyg"

an 8x10 print, matted and sealed, will be donated to the NC Herpetological Society to raffle off for the upcoming Reptile & Amphibian Day 2010 at the NC Museum of Natural Sciences March 13, 2010. All proceeds will go to benefit this non-profit society geared towards education, research and conservation of North Carolina's diverse herpetofauna.

Website in the making and more...

A friend has graciously offered to work on a custom website for my photography, so I hope to have this up and going sooner than later. Although, this means I need to get myself out and taking more photos.


I also plan on donating some prints, either 11x17s or 13x19s to some upcoming events to be raffled off to raise money for various organizations. More to come on this soon.

New gear on the way...

After much deliberation, confusion, and scratching my head for an weeks on end I made the plunge for the Singh Ray Vari-ND 77mm filter to use in my landscape photography. This filter gives you up to 8 stops, allowing you to blur aspects of motion in your photos. This will work exceptionally well in shooting waterfalls, oceanscapes, and so forth. I decided to go with the Vari-ND rather than the Vari-N-Duo for both price (~$100 difference) and the fact I can mount my thin circular polarizer to it and control glare as needed.

I hope to post a full review on this filter after I get back from Stone Mountain State Park shooting the Cascades and Hidden Falls at that location.

Canon EOS 50D w/grip - Sold.

Enjoy Josh!


I think I'm going to focus on full frame for now until I get some revenue built up to work with wildlife. under 10k clicks (probably about 7k), slight scratch around the ISO button from loading/unloading the camera with the 500L back in January. perfect otherwise. I'll include a 2GB Sandisk Extreme III card with it as well.

More photo stuff...

Just letting everyone know that photos are now available in the store at the NC Museum of Natural Sciences. Select 8x10 prints are there now, with more hopefully to be featured and I should be expanding to 11x14s for the store.

Prints - Soon available!

Finally, I've got the Canon PIXMA Pro9000 Mark II printer up and running with good proofing results. I am planning to begin cranking out 8x10", 11x17", and 13x19" prints. All will come in a precut mat w/ backing board in a clear sleeve. I can negotiate prices if you are ordering multiple prints.

Base prices* for now will run as follows (does not include shipping costs):

8x10" - $25
11x17" - $50
13x19" - $70

*these prices are standards and do not reflect the price of each print - please inquire about any select piece of work until the site is up and functional.

B|W images – Eno River

 

Made a quick trip to the Eno River State Park today to check out some new parts of the park.  The water level was up and a bit dingy, and the light wasn’t playing in my favor.  I started playing around with B/W in camera settings and liked what I was getting.

Here are a few images from today.  I had to work at the smallest apertures  the 24-70L and 70-200L would give me plus my Heliopan circular polarizer.  I can’t wait to get a Singh Ray Vari-N-Duo filter!

Enjoy

Canon releases new Rebel T2i with 1080 video and 18MP

DPreview has an initial report with photos of this new camera. More can be seen here:

Canon Rebel T2i at DPreview.com

Vista's blogger...

I blame this crap-o-la program for a lot of grammatical errors....from now on I'll be doing this exclusively from the web or with plenty of review time....

ugh, going back to make some structural changes on the more recent posts...stay tuned folks.

End rant.

Inspirations…

Ever wonder what drives a person to do what they do? World renowned photographer Art Wolfe has stated that Ansel Adams was a big inspiration in his work as a nature photographer. Ansel laid down a foundation for nature photography today, meticulously working in a darkroom dodging and burning his exposures to create incredible images during his era. Today we are able to merely plug in our memory card and in a few hours we can upload, process, post and print a day’s work.

From my few years behind a camera, I owe a lot of my inspiration to groups of nature photographers that readily post their adventures and photographic tinkering to online forums. I can say with confidence that my learning curve in all aspects of photography has increased exponentially with my time spent reading and interacting at FredMiranda.com. This site has to be one of the most well rounded sources of information for all genres of photographers at various skill levels.

Recently I picked up a copy of Outdoor Photographer Magazine, thumbing through and stumbled upon a great article featuring photographer Ian Plant (www.ianplant.com). Ian’s work is a collection of once in a lifetime photographs that wow and awe their viewers. I’ve become particularly interested in the way he’s captured the landscapes along the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia. Along with Ian, his colleague Jerry Greer is a very inspirational contributor to their nature photography community Mountain Trail Photo (www.mountaintrailphoto.com). This site is a phenomenal resource for photographers interested in creating stunning images of the natural world. Although their photo workshops can carry a hefty fee, I think in all regards it would be worth it.

It has been nice having friends and coworkers that have been involved in the hobby for some time or working towards pursuing photography as a career. They have been those folks I turn to for answers, for the ability to interact with new equipment hands on, and to help me in the pursuit of regional photo opportunities. I still have to say the one person that I owe thanks to for me picking up a camera is a local wildlife photographer with a knack for working with reptiles and amphibians. The next time you come across a copy of Wildlife in North Carolina, you may find one Todd Pusser with the cover shot or writing and photographing for an article on the natural history of North Carolina’s wonderful wildlife.

Thanks Todd, for inspiring me to adopt a serious hobby and strive to become better day by day. My bank account however, scorns our friendship!

"Negative ghostrider, the pattern is full"

Ugh, still processing photos and finding more that I like. A leftover from the snow geese session - these two were on the approach to the flooded fields. Crappy light that day, but its one of the better selections during my opportunity with these awesome birds.

Moving forward

I hope to purchase a professional photography account soon, likely from the folks at Zenfolio (http://www.zenfolio.com) so that I can begin showcasing my work in a more professional manner and allow interested parties to actually purchase photos through the site - Thus the banner added to the top of the blog :)

I've also been debating on migrating this blog over to Tumblr, seems to be a bit more user friendly and I like what I've seen so far. Not guaranteed, I'm just thinking about it....

I am currently working to plan a 2 or 3 day waterfall trip to western North Carolina this spring, primarily one site in Ashe county, a few sites in Wilkes and Watauga counties that are in close proximity to one another and accessible. This may potentially turn into a workshop if it works out well, but no promises. If you're interested and serious about putting in some significant shutter time and some early mornings, please contact me.

¡Bienvenidios Panama! – Part VII – End of the mainland

We stood at 430m, looking up into a steep hillside with dense vegetation and seemingly endless darkness just beyond the tree line. Welding a machete, Lalo took up the hill, our guide telling us that he wanted to explore this area, that maybe there would be better habitat and the chance to find our bushmaster. My feet weren’t looking forward to this hike – the undergrowth restricted us in our direction, ducking and sometimes nearly crawling through the leaf litter to avoid thick vines and low branches. In any environment in North America, I wouldn’t have thought twice about what I was doing. This being my first time in Central America, it was constantly running through my mind that anywhere I put my hand could potentially be a resting place for one of the common venomous species, the eyelash viper, Bothriechis schlegelii.

Eyelash vipers are a polymorphic species, ranging from a brilliant solid yellow, reddish green, to a mottled brown. They easily disappear in their surroundings, often residing 1-2 meters above the ground waiting to ambush lizards and frogs. The majority of human encounters with this species seems to be from trudging through the rainforests. Although the venom from these vipers isn’t known to be life threatening, bites to the hands, arms and even the face have been reported resulting in necrosis of the tissue around the bite location.

I think I would have had a difficult time weaving through this labyrinth of trees and vines without any gear, but I was cursing my choice to bring a small camera store with me. My pack created a very high center of gravity on these hillsides, and trying to limbo under branches just made things worse. I was slipping, sliding, damn near falling down in an area I could barely see 10 feet in front of me. Our guides and the rest of our group kept trudging on, I was doing all I could to keep up with them. Between the trail coming up and this horrific hillside, I’d probably rolled my ankles a dozen times by now. Still, the only thing racing through my mind was that the next limb I grabbed while slipping or my fumbling through the forest was going to lead to a bad introduction between me and an eyelash viper in the trees or a fer-de-lance on the ground.

just as we were trying to navigate our way around a steep hillside, our guide was flipping small debris on the ground and he paused and took a step back. He’d caught a glimpse of something under a leaf, took a step back and flipped it again. Lying there in a wonderful example of camouflage was a juvenile hognosed viper, Porthidium nasatum. These small vipers are somewhat common in Central America and are one of the contributors to envenomations. This find as a very cool encounter and pretty much worth all the agony I had just put myself through. We kept on searching after a few moments of relishing our late night find, but nothing else turned up.

I was thoroughly relieved when we decided to make our way back down to the trail we’d ascended on. Although some of the group and our guides were still searching out snakes and frogs along the trail, I was very eager to get back to the SUV. I worked my way down the trail, waiting for the others to catch up. Fortunately, the finds that I missed out on were more common species, but I still regret not taking more time that evening to contribute to the searching and photographing. We all began to move down the trail, only pausing to search the large rocks along the path.

By the time we made it back to the car, I nearly collapsed. My ankles has swollen so much I had to loosen my boots before getting into the car. I think we all were spent, obviously me more than others. After shedding my pack and each of us throwing back about a gallon of water, we all began to crack smiles and laugh about our hike. We hadn’t found what we’d hoped for, but the experience was a great one and was one of the best parts of the trip.

Green eyes don't lie...

It's nice to see wildlife that doesn't have an outstanding fear of humans. This cormorant was cooperative on a cold morning at Lake Mattamuskeet NWR. Gotta love those emerald eyes!

Rewards....

That's what you get for putting in the extra effort, going the extra mile, getting up earlier than you want.

An American avocet wading in the shallow edge of North Pond at Pea Island NWR in the early morning light:


A semipalmated plover on a small beach near Oregon Inlet in the warm morning light on a very cold day:


you can click on each image to enlarge them. Enjoy the rewards.

Double starbursts

I was fortunate enough to capture the double starburst effect while trying to photograph the iced over Lake Mattamuskeet.

It was well worth standing in 30F water for an hour and a half to photograph this shot and some others I'll be posting below:

The "anti-sunset"...

A fun new term learned today from some seasoned landscape photographers....

Thought I would quickly share a recent photo from my coastal NC trip from the Pea Island area showcasing beauty often ignored...this was opposite the setting sun along NC 12.


Once I have some more time I will be posting (I promise!) more Panama info and then a summary of my recent winter excursion.

Until then, keep shooting!