— Dane Creek

Canon 5D Mark II, 70-200 f/2.8 IS II. 200mm, ISO 100, 1/200 sec. @ f/4.5.

We were driving down a back road somewhere around Colfax, WA, when I saw a hill. I can’t remember if we were driving at the time, or if we’d stopped to shoot some of the fields, but it didn’t matter. As soon as I saw the hill I smiled and took a picture.

What’s so special about the hill? Well, it reminded me of this shot from the Lemaire Channel in Antacrtica that I took in January 2009:

Canon 5D Mark II, 70-200 f/2.8 IS. 95mm, ISO 400, 1/500 sec. @ f/7.1.

I’m not quite sure what it is about that shape but I see it everywhere. In fact, I shot a third copy of it while we were in the air flying over Steptoe Butte. I just didn’t realize it until I was back in the motel room doing image review.

Canon 5D Mark II, 70-200 f/2.8 IS II. 95mm, ISO 125, 1/500 sec. @ f/2.8.

Perhaps I should print all three of them and hang them on a wall together!

Canon 5D Mark II, Canon 14mm f/2.8L. ISO 400, 1/80 sec @ f/4.0.

It rained a lot this weekend. With the help of terrific weather reports from Weather Underground we made the most of it. Careful timing meant that we were on beaches exposed to the elements when the weather was (somewhat) drier. For the heavier periods of rain we retreated to the cover the forests around the coast.

The Hoh Rainforest is a very popular area for tourists to visit, but a very difficult place to photograph well. The forest floor is incredibly messy and finding shots that aren’t just a jumble of garbage is tough. It’s even harder when you decide in the parking lot to only take along a 14mm lens!

The vine maple above is the one worthwhile image from my trip in the rainforest. But man, what an image. I was grinning like a fool when I saw it on-screen, as I immediately knew it would be come B&W. But what kind? B&W images, at least when printed, are never truly black and white. The paper selection will add a warmth or coolness to the image, and the toning options are limitless.

My first pass at printing the image is much like you see above. A slight bronze tone to the highlights, with the shadows left as black. I printed on the new Red River Polar Pearl Metallic, Epson Exhibition Fiber, and Ilford Galerie Gold Fibre Silk to which I preferred, and the Ilford GFS was the clear winner. The Metallic was wicked cool, but just not right for the image, and the EEF wasn’t quite warm enough.

There’s more to come though. At some point I will print this as a digital negative and do a lith print of it to see what happens. David has also invited me to come over to his place to do a platinum/palladium print as well. I can’t wait!

Keyboard box camera, magnifying glass lens, textured plexiglass “ground glass”. ISO 500, 1/100 sec.

As part of the long weekend I’m back on the Washington Coast, hoping to finish a series of photos from Second Beach, WA. At the moment the weather is not so promising: lots and lots of rain today. Outlook for tomorrow and Sunday is slightly better, which hopefully translates into some decent shooting opportunities.

On the drive over to the coast I took my new Canon S90 for a spin, but in a somewhat unconventional way. David brought along a keyboard box with a piece of textured plexi and a magnifying glass lens. I stuck the camera into the box and started shooting.

This is going to be a very, very, fun trip.

Canon 5D Mark II, Lensbaby Composer with Zone Plate. ISO 800, 1/125 sec. @ f/19.

From a photographic experience the trip back to Manitoba was largely a non-event. As I’m sure many of you can relate, often times hanging out with family takes precedence over photography. Such was the case with this trip

I did manage to take a whole bunch of photos of new birds, but none of them were really interesting from a photographic perspective.

About the only “real” photographs I took were six quick shots from the Halfway Tree. What is the Halfway Tree? Well, it’s the tree that’s halfway between Brandon and Winnipeg on the Trans-Canada Highway. Anyone who ever grew up in Brandon knows the tree.

Is the photo spectacular? Nah. Does it have sentimental value? Yes, definitely. Sometimes those are the most fun photos to shoot.

Canon 5D Mark II, Lensbaby Composer, zone plate optic. ISO 100, 1/15 sec @ f/19. 

My apologies for the lack of posts from Death Valley, but the Internet is both flakey and I’ve been incredibly busy. If we’re not waking up at some ghastly time (4am yesterday, 4:30am today), we’re either shooting, reviewing, or eating.

Yesterday was a tough day for me personally. I just didn’t feel the vibe in the morning (Zabriski Point) and our afternoon location was sand dunes. Having shot White Sands National Monument in the past it was hard to get excited about more sand. I did try to make the best of it though by going for shots that were different than undulating dunes with ripples. You’ll have to wait until later blog entries to see what I came up with, but I was pleasantly surprised and the feedback from others was positive (far more so than the crap I shot at Zabriski Point).

This morning we shot Badwater. It was awesome. 4:30am was, in hindsight, half an hour too late to get up, but I managed to get a spectacular shot of sunrise. Again, you’ll have to wait for a later blog entry for details!

For sunset today we shot Artist’s Palette. I didn’t get it. Some people were super excited, but to me it was more sharp hills with some colour. It will be interesting to see what people came up with, because I only shot 63 frames and I’m pretty sure they’re all junk.

My big success today was with the Lensbaby (photo above). For the first time I knew what I wanted the outcome to be, knew what Lensbaby widget would do it, and knew what it would look like when it was done… before I took the photo. That’s the first time I’ve managed to do that with the Lensbaby, instead of just shooting around and hoping something works.

What I like most about the image is it takes a very stark and barren place and brings a touch of colour and fun to it. I was apprehensive about including the photo in the review over lunch today, but figured I’d spice things up. I’m glad I did, as the image was very well received.

That’s all from Death Valley for now. Time soon for dinner and then sleep.