The End

This semester has definitely been a blast! My knowledge of how to use my camera has greatly improved, and I feel like I'll be able to continue taking pictures and improving my skill. What I'm most exited about is my confidence in being able to take great shots while climbing. No more blurry mountains in the background, or dark faces.

ISO 100  35mm f/18 at 1/13 sec.

Tripod used

 ISO 400  200mm f/7.1 1/50 sec.

Handheld

  ISO-100 18mm f/8 1/60 sec.

Tripod used

 ISO-400 70mm f/7.1 1/500 sec.

Handheld

ISO-100 135mm f/5.6 1/30 sec.

Tripod used

 ISO-100 90mm f/18 1/8 sec.

Tripod used

ISO-100 28mm f/5.6 1/125 sec.

Tripod used

ISO-100 28mm F/7.1 1 sec.

Tripod used

ISO-100 28mm f/18 1/15 sec

Tripod used

  ISO-100 135mm f/6.3 1/13 sec.

Tripod used

ISO-200 200mm f/8 1/250 sec.

Tripod used

 ISO-400 70mm f/10 1/125 sec.

Handheld

 ISO-400 70mm f/9 1/25 sec.

Handheld

ISO-100 65mm f/5.6 1/50 sec.

Tripod used

 ISO-100 28mm f/18 1/6 sec.

Tripod used

 ISO-100 75mm f/16 1/8 sec.

Tripod used

 ISO-100 28mm f/22 1/60 sec.

Tripod used

 ISO-100 28mm f/9 1 sec.

Tripod used

 ISO-100 28mm f/22 1/25 sec.

Tripod used

 ISO-100 50mm f/16 1/10 sec.

Tripod used

 ISO-100 28mm f/9 1/13 sec.

Tripod used

 ISO-100 28mm f/16 1/13 sec.

Tripod used

 ISO-100 28mm f/13  1/8 sec.

Tripod used

 ISO-100 135mm f/29 15 sec.

Tripod used.

 ISO-100 70mm f/5.6 1/125 sec.

Tripod used

 ISO-100 28mm f/16 1/2 sec.

Tripod used

ISO-100 28mm f/20 1/2 sec.

Tripod used

ISO 100- 47mm f/13 1/5 sec

Tripod used

ISO-100 28mm f/22 1/3 sec.

Tripod used

ISO-100 24mm f/22 1/6 sec.
Tripod used

Throughout this semester I used one camera, a Canon Rebel Xs, and a few different lenses. The first (and one used the majority of the time) was an EFS 18-55mm f/5.6 (the lens that came with the camera), after my 18-55mm exploded at the end of October, I bought a Canon 28-135mm f/3.5 IS USM, and the third lens I used was my dad's Canon EF 70-200mm F/4 L I USM.

All the editing was done in Adobe LightRoom (most in 4.1). As far as editing, I seemed to do similar things to all of my photos. I usually left the temperature setting left "as shot" if the photo was taken in the snow, but "auto" if the picture was in a warmer setting. As far as exposure goes, I usually adjusted it a bit ( I seemed to generally make pictures darker). Often times I adjusted shadow, but almost always left black and whites alone. Clarity I bumped up around +20-+30, however in one shot I used +100. In colors I always adjusted saturation and luminance (just to taste). In most of my pictures that include sky I added a filter to. I know I used spot removal in 4 of my pictures and cropped 10 of them.

Getting Motivated to Go Shoot!

I was motivated enough to, after the little snowstorm, head up to Zimmerman trail and mozzy around In hopes of taking some nice photos. I did, indeed (in my opinion) get some shots I thought where OK. And, had I not take a single shot worth my time, it would have been worth it! I had a blast walking, sitting, crouching, laying, and slipping in the fresh layer of snow! It was definitively a worthwhile way to start my morning! I had a really hard time finding any landscape scenes, however I found plenty of interesting macro-type scenes. I found out I really like ice, I never realized just how amazing it is, until I found some ice sickles and decided to try my hand at shooting them. Over all was a blast, and totally worth it, I think I took 4 pictures I'm going to use in our final. So, I hope to venture out a few more times, and try to rack up my 30 shots!

Photographing the Milky Way!

http://www.outdoorphotographer.com/images/stories/2012/nov/reeder/lead.jpg

With the art show coming up, and trying to find a picture that might actually stand a chance at being at least entered, I've been in search of some ideas of a picture I might be able to take in the Billings area, that would be unique! While looking over Octobers issue of Outdoor Photographer, I came across an article on getting shots of the Milky Way! I immediately fell in love! The galactic fog (if that's what you want to call it) I find to be such an amazing look, as well as the darkness beneath it. I think this is going to be a fun challenge, finding a spot to try and make a picture like this(making sure it's dark enough), as well as trying to figure out where to see the Milky Way in the sky, and what time of night to do it! Reading how to do this in Nature Photographer as well as on a Photography blog, I realize it really isn't all that hard! I just need to get a camera body who's ISO can be set to much higher setting then my camera [ um...Dave? :) ].

http://www.photographyblogger.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/4999906554_cae999cc40.jpg


http://photocdn.photographytalk.com/images/stories/milky-way.jpg

If anyone wants to maybe turn this into a fun outing, let me know!
These 3 sites have plenty of nice tips on getting a shot like the ones in this post, as well as setting to use!!
http://www.outdoorphotographer.com/how-to/shooting/yosemite-range-of-light.html

http://www.photographyblogger.net/how-to-photograph-the-milky-way/

http://www.photographytalk.com/photography-articles/1705-photography-tip5-techniques-to-photograph-the-milky-way-part-1

No Pain No Gain!

Yesterday was very amazing! Rain and clouds always make me super happy, but sadly during the nicest part of the day I was unable to go out and try shooting! I did however try to go shooting on my way home that morning (before the storm broke up, and the dramatic clouds scattered the sky). I decided to go the back way to Laurel, and check out the Yellowstone River. As I was driving, I found a really cool section of river with a nice background (free of signs of people), a nice beach, and really vibrant trees canopying over the water. I drove a bit further and found a pull out, grabbed my gear, and started hiking back toward the river.
Maybe I'm just a big baby, but I like to blame it on the weather and my lack of proper elemental protection...in other words  it was rainy, and I was not dressed properly (wait...didn't we read about that like the first week??). I walked to the place I first noticed the scene...and realized it was in the middle of the bridge...(I'm an idiot sometimes), and with my camera's lens  some house on the bluffs above the river could not be cut out. I then realized, the only way I could get the shot was to wade into the middle of the river, and take it from that vantage point (I'm probably over exaggerating  if I would have spent some time I might have found a way to get a nice shot). I was tired of holding the umbrella above my camera, and  my glasses being constantly bombarded with rain...so like the man I am, I simply gave up and went home.

At home I was thinking about how the heck some photographers get the shots they do, (be it in storms, water, near dangerous animals, or what ever potentially difficult setting you can think of) and how I could learn how to get the shot I want, without having little things get in the way. My first thought was, if I had just brought my photo vest I would have been set! It's like Batman's utility belt right...? OK  in all seriousness though, how do you get a unique shot, when the world is in the way!

Well, on the subject of rain, the website below has some tips on shooting in the rain, and how it can be used.
http://www.thephotoargus.com/tips/great-tips-for-shooting-in-the-rain/

This guy doesn't really have any photos of what he did, but you can get an idea of what you need to do for a good shot. Think outside of the box, and not be afraid to spend time doing what you have to do for the shot! Even if that means almost being struck by lightning!(Not really... I've been caught in thunderstorms before...I will probably avoid going willingly head first into one.)

http://kentweakley.com/blog/things-done-for-photo/

http://www.thephotoargus.com/inspiration/42-awe-inspiring-photos-of-extreme-weather/

I found it hard to get actual examples of people getting crazy shots (maybe that's because no one is crazy enough to take pictures of someone trying to get the shot of tornado ,or a hurricane, or what ever it may be). But this video, although goofy, does an okay job at getting to my point. You have to be willing to do something unique, to get a unique shot!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRb-G8YTqFg

The photographer standing next to the lion is definitely photo shopped  so I'm not responsible for anyone being eaten by wild mountain beasts. :P

This little article I found I thought was useful. It was a great reminder of what we already learned about gear safety, and had some nice new tips I think might come in handy in the future.
http://digital-photography-school.com/how-to-protect-your-camera-in-extreme-conditions

OK...well editing the photos shown below did not work at all! I ended up making them really fake looking, not to mention somehow colored them with funky blue...Maybe I had better try this week at tweaking them to be pleasing...not horridly ugly.

OK, now it is time to work on photo editing! Seeing as I do not have Photoshop, I'm super exited that RMC does! The computer lab will be my new friend, and I plan on trying to edit all my photos from over the summer! Dave mentioned that using RAW pictures was a good thing to do, so I'm very happy almost all the photos I took since I bought my camera have been in RAW format!

Alright! My plan was to edit these two photos as my first attempt at learning how to use editing programs, sadly I was not paying much attention when trying to get these to RMC and only have JPG instead of RAW to work with....My plan is to later (once I figure things out) edit the same photos using RAW photos, and edit this blog post to show before and afters. This should be fun! I can't wait to see how badly I can mess these photos up on my first go at it!

Since school has started, I'm beginning to miss the mountains very much. I've been so busy with work and life in general that I haven't been able to get out and enjoy what I love. I decided to look through some photos of a few backpacking trips I went on over the summer and noticed that I was at many very beautiful streams and did not photograph them to all of their potential. I'm hoping that next weekend I'll be able to get out and go for a hike, and most of all practice my photography of moving water! I really want to get some softened streams or waterfalls, as well as work on staging a scene, like removing twigs from the background and maybe even tossing a few leaves in the water to 'spice' things up a bit.

Above are some pictures I took in the Crazy Mountains on the way to Thunder Lake. My pictures do nothing to capture how awesome a place this was. I want to be able to look at something like this, and take my time figuring out where and from what angle I should use to make a pleasing photograph. If I had a polarizing filter, had softened the water, and included some sky (as well as had a tripod) this might have turned out slightly better.