This is what our front garden looks like in the Spring, April and May
Spring Garden Highlights: Flowers and Tips for April and May
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Explore the Da Vinci Petroglyph Panel in the Virgin River Gorge
The Da Vinci panel is in Virgin River Gorge in the Arizona strip, between St. George UT, and Nevada.
Exploring Gunlock State Park: Stunning Spring Waterfalls
Gunlock State Park is a state park of Utah. It adjoins the 266-acre Gunlock Reservoir that impounds the Santa Clara River. The park is located approximately 15 miles northwest of St George.
Continue reading “Exploring Gunlock State Park: Stunning Spring Waterfalls”Stunning Sunset at Fire Lake: Ivins, Utah
This is an image I took of Fire Lake Reservoir on March 5, 2023 at sunset
Continue reading “Stunning Sunset at Fire Lake: Ivins, Utah”Capture Stunning Reflections in the Red Cliffs Reserve
Quail Creek Pool Reflection
Image Details
The Red Reef Trail in St. George, Utah follows Quail Creek to a pair of waterfalls that are at times completely dry.
The Red Reef Trail follows the Quail Creek drainage as it enters the Cottonwood Canyon Wilderness. Ten of thousands of visitors hike this first 0.6-mile section of trail each spring when snowmelt creates short cascades of water that pools in slickrock bowls.
The trail head starts at the Red Cliffs Campground. The best spot to park, is near campsite #2, if you can get it. Parking is extremely limited, so go midweek or very early in the morning or late in the day or you will struggle with parking.
It’s 2.2 miles out-and-back and it’s an easy trail for kids. The trail passes old cottonwood trees, an alcove with Pictographs, and reflection pools in the creek.
Continue reading “Capture Stunning Reflections in the Red Cliffs Reserve”
View Two Waterfalls in the Red Cliffs National Conservation Area
Image Details
The Red Reef Trail in St. George, Utah follows Quail Creek to a pair of waterfalls that are at times completely dry.
The trail head starts at the Red Cliffs Campground. The best spot to park, is near campsite #2, if you can get it. Parking is extremely limited, so go midweek or very early in the morning or late in the day or you will struggle with parking.
It’s 2.2 miles out-and-back and it’s an easy trail for kids. The trail passes old cottonwood trees, an alcove with Pictographs, and reflection pools in the creek.
The waterfalls were totally dry in December and January but rain and snow came in February and the water is still flowing headed into April.
If you hike the trail stop, at the alcove on the way to the waterfalls. I will cover the alcove, pictographs, reflection pools, mountains, and other areas of Red Cliffs in following posts.
Continue reading “View Two Waterfalls in the Red Cliffs National Conservation Area”
Explore Grafton: The Most Photographed Ghost Town
Grafton is a ghost town, just south of Zion National Park in Washington County, Utah, United States. Said to be the most photographed ghost town in the West, it has been featured as a location in several films, including 1929’s In Old Arizona—the first talkie filmed outdoors—and the classic Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. The nearest inhabited town is Rockville.
To get to Grafton, you cross the Rockville bridge built for the National Park Service in 1924 to provide a link between Zion National Park and the North Rim area of Grand Canyon National Park.
Image Details
Continue reading “Explore Grafton: The Most Photographed Ghost Town”
Exploring the Rockville Bridge and Grafton Ghost Town Near Zion
The Rockville Bridge and Grafton Ghost Town are just outside Zion National Park. The bridge was built for the National Park Service in 1924 to provide a link between Zion National Park and the North Rim area of Grand Canyon National Park.
The bridge was designed by the U.S. Bureau of Public Roads for the Park Service, fabricated by the Minneapolis Steel and Machinery Company, and erected by Ogden contractor C.F. Dinsmore. The bridge spans 217 feet (66 m) in a single span, using a steel twelve-panel Parker through-truss.
The Rockville Bridge was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1995.
Image Details
Continue reading “Exploring the Rockville Bridge and Grafton Ghost Town Near Zion”
Photography Tips for Quail Creek State Park Reflections
Standing In the Creek
Quail Creek State Park is very close to where we live. It’s a small but popular park for fishing, boating, kayaking, and hiking.
Quail Creek reservoir was completed in 1985 to provide irrigation and culinary water to the St. George area. Most of the water in the reservoir does not come from Quail Creek but is diverted from the Virgin River and transported through a buried pipeline.
Two dams form the reservoir. The main dam is an earth-fill embankment dam. The south dam is a roller compacted concrete dam, constructed to replace the original earth-fill dam that failed in the early hours of New Year’s Day 1989.
The maximum depth of Quail Creek can reach 120 feet, so it is cold enough to sustain the stocked rainbow trout, bullhead catfish, and crappie. Largemouth bass, which is also stocked, and bluegill thrive in the warmer, upper layers of the reservoir.
Image Details
Continue reading “Photography Tips for Quail Creek State Park Reflections”
Sunset Photography and Reflection Tips at Quail Creek State Park
Park Overlook at Sunset
Quail Creek State Park is very close to where we live. It’s a small but popular park for fishing, boating, kayaking, and hiking.
Quail Creek reservoir was completed in 1985 to provide irrigation and culinary water to the St. George area. Most of the water in the reservoir does not come from Quail Creek but is diverted from the Virgin River and transported through a buried pipeline.
Two dams form the reservoir. The main dam is an earth-fill embankment dam. The south dam is a roller compacted concrete dam, constructed to replace the original earth-fill dam that failed in the early hours of New Year’s Day 1989.
The maximum depth of Quail Creek can reach 120 feet, so it is cold enough to sustain the stocked rainbow trout, bullhead catfish, and crappie. Largemouth bass, which is also stocked, and bluegill thrive in the warmer, upper layers of the reservoir.
Image Details
Continue reading “Sunset Photography and Reflection Tips at Quail Creek State Park”
Capturing Bond Falls: Photography Tips for Waterfalls
It takes four things to get a good Autumn image of Bond Falls: Good color, good flows, good technique, and clouds. Images of Bond Falls do not look good in the sun.
Bond Falls
Continue reading “Capturing Bond Falls: Photography Tips for Waterfalls”
Exploring Au Train Falls: How to Make Beautiful Waterfall Images
There are numerous waterfalls in Alger County Michigan, also home of Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore.
Weeping Wall
Continue reading “Exploring Au Train Falls: How to Make Beautiful Waterfall Images”
Discover Sable Falls: A Hidden Gem at Pictured Rocks
Sable Falls is best if the water level is not too high. Sometimes these huge potholes are completely underwater.
Continue reading “Discover Sable Falls: A Hidden Gem at Pictured Rocks”
Exploring Pictured Rocks, a Spectacular Spring Wildflower Location
Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore is one of my favorite spots on Lake Superior. The park is carpeted with wildflowers at the end of May and early June.
The road to Miner’s Castle is a particularly good spot. I took these images in light rain.
Continue reading “Exploring Pictured Rocks, a Spectacular Spring Wildflower Location”
Tips for St. Louis Canyon Canyon and Wildcat Canyon Waterfalls in Starved Rock
St. Louis Canyon Waterfall
I took that image hiking with a friend this past Autumn. I have been to this spot at least a dozen times but this past Autumn is the first time I made what I would label a good shot.
Starved Rock State Park is in Utica, Illinois. The park is about 2 hours away from Chicago.
My favorite times to visit, in order, are Autumn, Winter, and Spring. Summer is too crowded and the waterfall flows are typically minimum.
I have covered the area in previous posts extensively and will wrap up Starved Rock in two posts, this being the second to last.
Continue reading “Tips for St. Louis Canyon Canyon and Wildcat Canyon Waterfalls in Starved Rock”
Tips for Photographing Cascade Falls in Matthiessen State Park
Matthiessen State Park is located in central LaSalle County, approximately 4 miles south of Utica and 3 miles east of Oglesby.
Continue reading “Tips for Photographing Cascade Falls in Matthiessen State Park”
Photograph Beautiful Reflections in Giant’s Bathtub, Matthiessen State Park
Matthiessen State Park is located in central LaSalle County, approximately 4 miles south of Utica and 3 miles east of Oglesby.
Continue reading “Photograph Beautiful Reflections in Giant’s Bathtub, Matthiessen State Park”
Mastering Focus Stacking with Glorious Tiger Lilies
Tiger Lilies put on a long show in July and early August in my garden every year. They are not deer resistant. If I did not spray these flowers, I would not have any.
Feature Image Details
I made these images following an afternoon rain. For this type of image to work, you need deal calm and I do mean dead calm, not just for a second but for minutes.
For this set of images I used a my Canon 100MM Macro F 2.8 Lens at 1/4 life size.
This is a fixed focal length macro lens. It’s an excellent lens for butterflies and small insects.
That’s a blend of 10 different images, each focused on a different rain drop or portion of the stem. Even with the varying focus spots the background is out of focus. That adds to the image, I wanted the key elements to be in focus and the rest not.
Focus Stacking
All of these images are focus-stacked.
I used Helicon Focus to blend them.
For comparison purposes, here is one of the frames, un-stacked.
Single Image – Not Focus Stacked 
The detail on the leaf at the right is missing and only one of the drops is in focus. Helicon focus did superb on this set, better and faster than I could do myself. For that I can thank the calm wind.
I did not want the background to be in focus, just the raindrops and foreground leaves.
Depth of Field
Depth of field on close-up images is extremely shallow. The only way to get a completely sharp image is to focus stack.
Helicon Focus works best with stationary objects. Mountains don’t move but flowers do.
I took this set of images on a very calm day with little wind.
See links number 2 and 6 below for a focus-stacked Green Tree Frog and focus-stacked coneflowers.
More Mish Garden Images
- Mish’s Garden Springtime: Bleeding Hearts, Tulips, Daffodils
- Mish’s Garden: Green Tree Frog on Bromeliad
- Mish’s Garden: Alliums and Iris Early Summer
- Mish’s Garden: Roses and Clematis Blooms
- Mish’s Garden: Columbines
- Mish’s Garden: Purple Prairie Coneflowers – Working With Helicon Focus
Equipment List
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Mike “Mish” Shedlock
How to Photograph the Bodie Ghost Town at Night with the Milky Way
The Bodie State Historic Park is a genuine California gold-mining ghost town.
Visitors can walk down the deserted streets of a town that once had a population of nearly 10,000 people. The town is named for Waterman S. Body (William Bodey), who had discovered small amounts of gold in hills north of Mono Lake. In 1875, a mine cave-in revealed pay dirt, which led to purchase of the mine by the Standard Company in 1877. People flocked to Bodie and transformed it from a town of a few dozen to a boomtown.
Only a small part of the town survives, preserved in a state of “arrested decay.” Interiors remain as they were left and stocked with goods. Designated as a National Historic Site and a State Historic Park in 1962, the remains of Bodie are being preserved in a state of “arrested decay”. Today this once thriving mining camp is visited by tourists, howling winds and an occasional ghost.
Access
- Winter hours 9am to 4pm (November 4th to April 15th)
- Summer hours 9am-6pm (April 15th to November 3rd )
In the winter, you may need a snowmobile to get in. The road is not plowed.
The only access at sunrise, sunset, and the interiors of the building is by permit. The cost is steep but worth it. My wife Liz and I went on a photography tour at $800 a pop.
The tour gave us access at sunrise, sunset, and the interiors of the building at mid-day.
Feature Image Details
I used a Canon 11-24 F4.0 L lens at 20mm, F4.5, ISO 6400 for 61 seconds. Stars will streak beyond about 20 seconds so I shot them separately with a star tracker then merged the images.
The formula for determining when stars will stop looking like points if governed by the formula e = 400/FL.
E is the exposure time in seconds. 400 is a constant from experience and FL is the focal length of the lens in mm.
The result of this image would be 20 seconds. My exposure was 60 seconds.
Barbershop Interior
Boarding House
We did not have access to that building. I took the above shots through a window.
They were taken with a Canon 16-35MM F4 L Lens at 16mm and 19mm continuing the streak of very wide angle images.
Firehouse
Additional Bodie Images
- Bodie – California Ghost Town – Wheaton and Hollis Hotel – Sunset.
- Bodie – California Ghost Town – Wheaton and Hollis Hotel – Interior
- Bodie Ghost Town – Boone Store Shell Station and 1927 Dodge Graham Pickup Truck
- Bodie Ghost Town – Sam Leon Saloon
The first two articles discuss the importance of very wide angle lenses and tilt-shift lenses for photographing Bodie and the interiors of buildings in general.
Wide angle lenses were used again in this set.
Eastern Sierra Area
- Mono Lake, California, Eastern Sierra, Sunset for my favorite Mono Lake image of the trip.
- Mono Lake, California, Eastern Sierra, Sunrise
- Panum Crater Shadows, Eastern Sierras
- Chemung Mine – Ghost Town – Masonic California – Milky Way
- Chemung Mine – Ghost Town – Masonic California
- Bristlecone Pines – Patriarch and Schulman Groves – Milky Way – Inyo National Forest – California
Equipment List
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There is much more coming up: Sam Leon’s saloon, the morgue, the Methodist church, a Shell gas station, the schoolhouse, the barbershop, other buildings, and milky way shots at night.
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Mike “Mish” Shedlock
Chemung Mine – Ghost Town – Masonic California – Milky Way
The Chemong Mine, founded in 1909, is located near the ghost town of Masonic, CA. It was torn down and rebuilt three times. The structures were eventually abandoned in 1939. By the 1950s the nearby town of Masonic was abandoned also, leaving Chemung to fade quietly into the dust.
Feature Image Details
I used Canon EOS 5D Mark IV camera coupled with a Canon 16-35MM F4 L Lens at 16mm. It’s a composite image. The Milky Way was taken separately but this is the correct position of the stars.
I use an iOptron start tracker to take long exposures without the stars blurring. The camera slowly rotates with the stars. I have a second EOS 5D Mark IV Canon body with Canon’s low-pass filter removed, invalidating my warranty, but granting me an extra stop of light. With the iOptron star tracker, I can easily take 2-minute exposures without the stars blurring. The end result is milky way images with far more stars than the naked eye can see.
But if you are tracking the stars, the land is blurry because it isn’t moving. One needs to blend images if using a star tracker.
These images were taken on September 12.
In late August and September, the Milky Way is nearly vertical. The core of the Milky Way is visible only for a short time after sunset this time of year.
In April, the Milky Way takes on a rounded appearance and is visible only very early in the morning (think 3AM or so). In summer the Milky Way is diagonal.
The core of the Milky Way is not visible from October through February.
Additional Chemung Mine Images
If you are visiting the Mono Lake area and the ghost town of Bodie, this ghost town is right in the area and worth a visit. Unlike Bodie, there are no hour restrictions. At your own risk, you can enter the buildings.
Bodie is far better preserved and there are many more buildings. But the hours at Bodie are restricted and you can only enter the buildings on a private tour.
Mono Lake Area
- Mono Lake, California, Eastern Sierra, Sunset for my favorite Mono Lake image of the trip.
- Mono Lake, California, Eastern Sierra, Sunrise
- Panum Crater Shadows, Eastern Sierras
Equipment List
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Coming Up: An Ancient 5,000-year-old Bristlecone Pine forest followed by the Ghost Town of Bodie.
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Mike “Mish” Shedlock
Iceland: Jökulsárlón Ice Beach and Glacial Lagoon
The Jökulsárlón lagoon and ice beach are among the world’s most magical places.
They were featured in 007 – James Bond A View to a Kill (1985) and 007 – James Bond, Die Another Day (2002) according to the Iceland Travel Guide 8 places in Iceland you will recognize from famous movies.
The answers to the three questions you are most likely to ask are as follows: Yes, Yes, Yes.
- Yes, the ice really is that blue. Glacial ice is compressed and has a different crystal structure that makes it look blue.
- Yes, the water is cold.
- Yes, I got wet, which is why I can properly testify to the previous question.
Feature Image Details: Canon 16-35MM F4 L Lens. I shot at ISO 500 at 24mm for 0.8 seconds at F16. If I had to pick one lens and one lens only, this lens would be at the top of the list. I see things from a wide angle perspective.
The color of that sky lasted only a few frames. Here are a couple more images right before the sky turned.
The third image looks like it’s black and white.
Five Keys
- Getting very close to the subject
- Willingness to get wet
- A tripod
- Taking exposures of about 1 second or so
- Waiting for the right moment. Experience shows the right moment is just as the waves are receding.
When the waves are coming in, the ice is moving and it will be blurry. Grab the shot as the water recedes and hope the weight of the ice keeps it in place.
Warning
The ice is dangerous. If a big wave comes in, get out of the way. This ice is dangerous. It can break your tripod, or leg, whatever it hits first.
Aurora Borealis Jökulsárlón Glacial Lagoon
We were in Iceland for 8 days in March of 2017. We only say the Northern Lights on two evenings. The above image represents the weaker of the two by far.
Additional Iceland Aurora Images
- Iceland Northern Lights, Snæfellsnes Peninsula, Búðir
- Iceland Northern Lights, Snæfellsnes Peninsula, Búdir, Búdakirkja Church
- Iceland Northern Lights, Snæfellsjökull National Park, Malarrif Lighthouse
Second Trip
This was our second trip to Iceland. We returned specifically to see the Northern lights. We caught a very good display on the last evening (the above links).
Here are some links of Jökulsárlón Ice Beach and Glacial Lagoon from our first trip to Iceland during the Summer Solstice.
- Iceland in 16 Days: Day 3-4, South Region, Jökulsárlón Ice Beach
- Iceland in 16 Days: South Region, Day 3-4, Jökulsárlón Glacial Lagoon
- Iceland in 16 Days: Day 3-4, South Region, Jökulsárlón Arctic Tern Nesting Site
- Iceland in 16 Days: Day 3-4, South Region, Jökulsárlón Lagoon Elder Ducks
Equipment List
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Mike “Mish” Shedlock
Horseshoe Lake, Illinois Sunrise, Bald cypress and Tupelo trees
Olive Branch Illinois, in Alexander County, is the home of Horseshoe Lake, not to be confused with Horseshoe Lake in Madison County.
Horseshoe Lake is an oxbow lake in Alexander County, Illinois. It is the site of Illinois’s Horseshoe Lake State Fish and Wildlife Area, a state park 10,645 acres (43 km2) in size. A remnant of a large meander of the Mississippi River, it is today a shallow, isolated patch of water located near Cairo and the southern tip of Illinois.
The Alexander County lake has major problems with siltation. During the Great Flood of 1993 the river tried to shift back to the Horseshoe Lake meander, but returned to its modern channel after the flood subsided. Much of the lake resembles a swamp or bayou. This is one of the northernmost parts of the natural ranges of the Bald cypress and Tupelo trees, which are found on the shoreline of the lake. Another tree found here is the swamp cottonwood. There is a good growth of the flowering American lotus.
Feature Image Details
The feature image shows Bald cypress and Tupelo trees at sunrise.
For the image, I used a Canon 16-35MM F4 L Lens at 30mm, for 1/8 of a second at ISO 400, f16.
Tips
- The key to reflection images such as these is for the water to be in the shade.
- Play around with various exposures and time durations.
- Get low to the water! Sometimes you cannot see any reflections unless you get low. Find a composition you like, then set up the tripod in that position.
Here are some more images from the same morning.
I like the above image a lot. It distinctly shows the Bald Cypress trees. It was taken with a Canon 14MM F2.8 L Lens. I did not have my tilt shift lens with me at the time. It was in the car. Had I walked back to get it, I would have missed the shot.
The trees were hugely pointed in, but I corrected the perspective in Photoshop. A Canon TS-E 17mm f/4L Tilt-Shift Lens would have been about perfect.
Here’s a clip of what it looked like as shot.
Perspective controls in Photoshop are amazing but it is better to use the right lens.
Glorious Sunrise
The above image was taken with a Canon 100-400 MM F 4.5-5.6 L Lens. I seldom carry that lens, simply because of the weight. I had it with me because I knew there were opportunities like this.
Hatfield vs McCoy
Horseshoe Lake is not a “family destination”. There are few services and unless you are interested in photography, fishing, or birding, there is little else to do.
The above images are recent and digital, but here’s my story from twenty years ago that highlights the issue.
In the immediate area, there was then and there still is today precisely one place to eat, and it’s in a bar. I sat down at the bar and asked for a menu.
Then I made a mistake: I asked the person sitting next to me a question about the number of the geese in the fall. This was the resultant conversation.
Me: Is this an average year for geese in the area.
Him: Do I know you?
Me: I’m Mike – cutoff
Him: Are you from the DNR?
Me: I’m Mike – cutoff
Him: I did not ask you who you are. I asked if you were from the DNR.
At that point, he pulled out a gun, pointed it at my head and said If you are from the DNR I’m going to blow you away.
I assured him that I was not from the DNR and he put the gun away.
I should have immediately left at that point, but I had already ordered dinner and waited for it. The man who pulled the gun on me started talking to the person next to him. The other fellow mentioned that his daughter was dating someone who he did not know.
As you might imagine from this, our “hero” said that if his daughter was dating someone he would know when he got up, where he went, and would stake him out until he knew everything about him.
The next day, I filled up at a gas station and a young kid came out to pump. This was not self-service yet. I told the kid what happened and he laughed.
He then said: “I am not surprised. In fact, if anyone sees me talking to you, I can get in serious trouble.”
The moral of this story is please do not try to talk to anyone in deep Southern Illinois unless you know them.
Equipment List
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Coming up next: Another new destination.
Mike “Mish” Shedlock
Death Valley: Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes Sunset
Death Valley National Park is a phenomenal study of erosion, weather, geology, sand dunes, salt formations, and huge spring wildflower blooms on rare occasions.
This post covers Death Valley Sand Dunes, specifically the Mesquite Flat dunes.
The dunes are easily accessible, just minutes from Stovepipe Wells. They are a very popular spot. It is nearly impossible to find undisturbed ripples anywhere near the parking lot where the tallest dunes are.
The dunes area is vast. I parked a mile away to get this image. The only time the tallest dunes will be without footprints are at sunrise following a very windy evening. Even then you better be the first one up and far away from the lot, or people will be walking in from of you, messing up the shot.
Feature Image Details
- Canon EOS 6D
- Canon 24-105MM F4 L Lens at F16, 1/15 second, ISO 100, at 60mm
Those interested in my equipment and recommendations can find it here: Mish’s Equipment List.
If you missed them, please check out my previous articles.
- Death Valley: Zabriskie Point Sunrise, Manly Beacon
- Death Valley: Dante’s View Sunrise
- Death Valley: Artist’s Palette
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Mike “Mish” Shedlock
Monument Valley: Yei Bi Chei Milky Way and Sand dunes
Monument Valley is a Navajo Indian tribal park on the border of northeastern Arizona and southeastern Utah.
It’s a beautiful place but access is difficult without a guide and guides are costly. The restaurants do not serve or sell alcohol but you can bring it and have it in your room.
There is only one trail that does not require a guide. Even then, the main trail is sunrise to sunset. This makes life difficult for anyone seeking night-time images.
If this sounds problematic, remember, this is their land, private land.
Feature Image Details
- Canon EOS 5D Mark IV
- Rokinon 24MM F1.4 Lens at F2.8, 15 seconds, ISO 4000.
The Rokinon is actually a pretty crappy lens in numerous ways. It is manual focus only. The corners are not sharp, wide open. It is not usable, in my opinion, at F1.4 or F1.8. F2.0 is questionable. Others disagree.
Importantly, I have seen many stories where the focus is off entirely but only on one side of the lens. Mechanically, the lens is sloppy. One photographer exchanged his lens three times before he found a good one.
Why would anyone put up with this?
Interestingly, if one can find a good model, it is arguably the best lens ever made for night photography. The reason: coma.
Coma is an image aberration that makes points of light look like bat wings. A Canon 24mm lens that costs four times as much has terrible coma. The Rokinon way outperforms Nikon as well.
Lenses that make stars that look light bat wings instead of points of light are not suited for night photography. The Rokinon is the best coma-corrected lens around.
Exposure Rule
The maximum length of time one can expose night images without stars streaking can be calculated by using this rule: e = 400 / Fl.
E is the exposure time in seconds, 400 is a constant derived from experience, and Fl is the focal length of the lens in millimeters. In this case, we get e= 400/24 = 16.67 seconds. I round to the nearest 5 seconds, thus 15 seconds.
For this shot, I took a series of six images at 15 seconds and stacked them in Photoshop. Stacking reduces noise.
For more on stacking, please see Joshua Tree National Park – Arch Rock – Geminid Meteor Shower.
Blending
The Milky Way image is a blend of an image taken at night with a second one taken right at sunrise the next morning.
The sunrise shot is an eight-frame vertical panorama merged together in Lightroom. One of the frames was used in the Milky Way image above.
I hired a guide for the night image. The next day, I hired a guide for the sunrise image.
More on Rokinon
Focusing the Rokinon 24mm lens is a real pain. Night images are best at infinity, but finding infinity on the Rokinon is a process. If you turn the lens to the infinity mark you are 100% guaranteed to get lenses that are not in focus. They will not be usable at all.
Rokinon Focusing Procedure
Focus on the moon, wide open, F1.4. A crescent moon is best. Adjust the exposure so the moon highlights are not blown out.
Minute focusing variations make a difference. When you are sure you have it correct, tape the focusing ring so it can never turn. This is trickier than it sounds. It is very easy to move the focusing ring while taping it. It took me three times.
Also, make use you do not tape over the aperture ring. That’s manual too, and I did tape over it once. After you have lightly taped it over, go back out and take another image of the moon. It should look as good as the best you have. Then tape the whole thing so it can never move, again making sure you do not tape over the aperture ring.
As modified, the lens is only usable for night photography. But that’s all it was ever good for in the first place.
Rokinon 14mm F2.8
If the above is too much of a hassle, and it probably should be, forget the whole thing.
Buy a Rokinon 14MM f2.8 Lens.
The 14mm Rokinon lens is still manual focus, but it is not entirely manual. The aperture is electronic. It is coma corrected, again way better than Canon or Nikon. And it is way cheaper than the Canon and even the Rokinon 24mm lens described above.
The lens also has a hard stop, right at infinity (focus ring turned until it cannot turn anymore), and that hard stop is accurate. It has other issues, primarily with straight lines that affect day photography, but it is another go-to lens that pros use at night.
Those interested in my equipment and recommendations can find it here: Mish’s Equipment List.
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Mike “Mish” Shedlock
Migrating Painted Lady Butterflies
Painted Lady butterflies migrate through our area every year in Autumn. Here are a couple of images I took with a 100mm Macro Lens right in my garden.
Continue reading “Migrating Painted Lady Butterflies”
Freckles the Cat
Meet Freckles the Cat
“Freckles” is sitting in a barn window at the Northwind Perennial Farm near Burlington, Wisconsin. As I was taking the image, a gust of wind came opening up the catalog Freckles was sleeping on, randomly to the perfect page.
One cannot plan for moments like these. Ultimately, that’s what life is all about, being there, taking part, and capturing a story to cherish and share with others.
The inside of the barn was used for flower arranging.
The editor of Wisconsin Trails Magazine used the above image on a cover.
Equipment
Those interested in my equipment and recommendations can find it here: Mish’s Equipment List.
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Next up, another series: Zion National Park in Autumn.
Mike “Mish” Shedlock
Iceland in 16 Days: Day 6, North Iceland, Selfoss Waterfall
Selfoss and Dettifoss are a pair of waterfalls on the Jökulsá á Fjöllum river. You arrive at Dettifoss first. A short 10-minute hike or so leads to Selfoss.
I was driving like mad to get to this location, fearing we would be too late for sunset. We were, in fact, too late for Dettifoss. The waterfall was in deep shadow. The light was gone.
I figured we would have to come back the next day, but we took the path to Selfoss. Although Selfoss is lower in elevation, light from the setting sun had a clear path. The result was a magnificent rainbow, the best I have ever seen.
The light was quite bright, and a polarizer barely provided enough light reduction to smooth out the water.
I did not help matters one bit by shooting at ISO 160 instead of 100. It was an accident that I did not catch. Not wanting to overexpose the the highlights, I made a second mistake by underexposing the shadows. That would have helped smooth out the water as well.
Feature Shot Details: Canon 16-35MM F4 L lens at 24MM, ISO 160, F/16, 1/5 second.
Water on the rocks above is not from the river, it’s an accumulation of spray.
Details: Canon 16-35MM L lens at 16MM, ISO 160, F/16, 0.4 seconds.
The above shot is looking across the scene.
Details: Canon 24-105MM F4 L lens at 65MM, ISO 160, F/22, 0.4 seconds.
Shooting at F/22, as I did, is a mistake. That focal length is not as sharp as mid-range F-stops. From this distance F/11, focused on the waterfall would have been about right (there was no foreground to keep sharp). However, F/11 it would not have blurred the water like I wanted.
The solution, as I have mentioned before , is a set of neutral density filters. Polarizers can help, but you have to be careful in how they are rotated or they will obliterate the rainbow. A better choice would have been a neutral density filter. I now carry B&W ND filters of strength 3.0 (10 stops), 1.8 (6 stops), and 0.6 (2 stops). Six stops would have changed the exposure to 2 seconds or so at F/11.
Spray from Selfoss is intense, with emphasis on intense. You don’t exactly get soaked, but if the wind is blowing towards you, which it was for us, your lens will be covered with spray between every shot.
Have a box of lens cleaning tissues handy. Even though I wiped the filter between every shot, I spent a very long time in Lightroom removing spots caused by spray on the filter. Many shots were so covered with spray as to be unusable.
I also took some images with a Canon 14MM F2.8 L lens, capturing the complete rainbow plus more of the side waterfall. The images were beautiful except for one thing: The water looked awful (frozen, not silky), so I tossed the images in the digital bit bucket.
The problem was of my own making.
The 14MM lens does not take outside filters but it does take gel filters in the back, and I had them with me. However, I was not about to be fiddling around with gel filters with all that spray and with the light changing fast.
If you have a 14MM lens and are going to be photographing waterfalls, put the gel filter in ahead of time. For further discussion please see the section on the 14MM L lens in My Equipment List.
Rainbow Tips, Rainbow Math
The apex of a rainbow is 180 degrees from the sun. You will not see a rainbow looking towards the sun. If you see rainbows images that face the sun, they are fake. Here, you can see the light on the waterfall and the foreground rock. The rainbow is from sunlight refractions through the spray, just like a prism. There is no rainbow in the third image because camera positioning was at a right angle to the sun.
When looking for rainbows, make sure the sun is at your back. The lower in the sky the sun is, the higher the rainbow apex. At noon, depending on latitude, rainbows may be below the horizon, invisible. Thus, it is appropriate to consider terms like “rainbow rise” and “rainbow set”.
The huge, more than 180 degree arch in the second shot is because the sun is on the horizon and the foreground was below the horizon.
From an airplane, it is possible to see a 360 degree full circle rainbow.
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Up Next: North Iceland, Dettifoss Waterfall
Mike “Mish” Shedlock