Team Sorting and Camera Testing

(Click on the thumbnail for the bigger, better version)

Yesterday included another brief period of further exploration with the 50D. The BVS Buckaroos have team sorting events (riders working with calves) at the Equestrian Center on Tuesday afternoons, and we had never yet gotten our schedule arranged to take advantage of the event. We finally pushed everything aside and did it. I figured the action would be an excellent test for new equipment.

Big Bertha was not invited. For the first time, in my brief history of being a camera owner, I had purchased a battery grip and I am trying to adjust to the new weight. Big Bertha would have put me over my limit. Instead I opted to use the 70-200mmL f/4. After all, I reasoned there would be plenty of light at 5:00 PM. Furthermore, with the type of action I would be seeing, I wasn’t much interested in trying to shoot at f/2.8.

Due to the high fence, I was not able to photograph the activities in the pens and you can not poke your head through the corral rails to get a shot since you would become a distraction to the calves and create an unfair hurdle for the team doing the sorting. (Sorting calves is not quite as challenging as herding cats—remember that terrific commercial a while back?—but it is not a sport for wimps, or riders with poorly trained horses.) I was a little disappointed about that, but enjoyed very much watching the teams work. There are some outstanding riders in our tiny community.

Because I was intent on some testing, I focused on riders warming up and schooling their mounts in the large holding corral. Specifically, I got some pictures of a friend’s daughter. This young woman is a top-notch rider and has won numerous championships in youth rodeo events. (I hope I haven’t used any terminology here in that description that is off the mark. I don’t know much about that competition.) I do know she looks as though she were born riding and it was a joy to watch her school this mare.

Technical notes:

(Basic processing and cropping in ACR (CS3)—along with some pesky straigthening, drat).

One of my motivations for buying the 50D was the additional 5 megapixels. While I had never bought into the megapixel race (most of the time I forget how many megapixels my camera has—it's that insignificant to me), a great deal of recent reading has gradually changed some of my thinking. I read more and more action photographers talking about getting the shot and framing later. That switch originally producing a little dissonance in my poor limited brain, but I am discovering the wisdom of the expert advice. I have worked hard for some time now to frame in the camera rather than waiting to do that job in Photoshop. However, that often meant that with things happening very fast, my new awareness of framing produced decent framing or a clean shot one at the expense of the other. When shooting fast action lately, I am getting a much better ratio of keepers (technically speaking), by incorporating advice from action photographers. It doesn't mean I abandon all concern for framing. But, it takes a firm backseat to focus and holding the camera more steady. With AI Servo, my main priority is keeping that focus point on the animal. Framing after the fact means throwing away megapixels and now I have more to spare. A win, after all.

For me, the jury is out on the battery grip. It will take time to adjust to the completely different shape of my camera. I don’t have tiny hands, but at 5’3” they aren’t exactly big.

I had not used the shutter button to lock focus for a couple of years at least. Now, since the battery grip does not have a dedicated focus button, I shifted that function to the AE button. Although it is a tiny shift to the right on the camera body, yesterday it felt like a mile. My thumb knew exactly where that button was and does a bit of searching now.

I wouldn’t go out on a limb at this early stage, but my first impression is that along with the new sensor the AI Servo function is more reliable. (I am keenly aware that this could be nothing more than a new infatuation blinding me to facts.) Time will tell.

The weight of the 200mm zoom lens along with the battery grip and standing on tiptoe to get over a corral rail for a clear shot wasn’t exactly a joy. Still, I was glad I did it and look forward to another session.

By the way, I know I have a nasty tendency to tilt my frame to one side or another, and the bizarre physical contortions required yesterday amplified that problem. I find myself thinking about a grid. Any thoughts about that, anyone?

Simple Gear Lust?

(Click on the thumbnail for the bigger, better version)

(I have added a temporary gallery for some

test shots that I will leave up for a few weeks

while I am posting a few test shots.)

For the last couple of months, I have bounced from one new undertaking to another without any real lulls. Nothing much has changed. To add to the list of commitments, I had found myself thinking more and more, lately about buying a 50D. Since I am doing more action photography (and more often in low light) with my 40D, I couldn’t stop thinking about the advantages of the latest in that line of Canon cameras. I was sorely tempted by the 5D and wish I had money for both, but the frames per second is a big issue for the action stuff, so that settled the issue. Yesterday afternoon, the brand new 50D arrived.

Because I am not a champion pixel peeper (nor do I aspire to be one), I had qualms about posting the test shot and my comments. Phil Askew or Ken Rockwell I am not. I am just an enthusiastic newcomer to photography offering my personal opinion on a piece of equipment. I would love to hear feedback, but please remember that I never claimed to be an expert.

Perhaps I am too easily pleased, but my cursory testing squeezed into the few minutes that I could devote to it so far, left me feeling extremely optimistic about my purchase. It appears that this will be an enormous help in keeping that shutter speed where I need it, even when shooting wildlife mostly seen in the evening. Almost as a bonus, I had been reading that the new LCD monitor is a major improvement, but I wasn’t prepared for just how much better it is.

The photo above was taken in my closet with no overhead light and with only what light filtered in from the bathroom window. My settings were f/4, 1/20 and ISO 2000. I did only a little noise reduction in ACR and basics such as tweaking settings for white and black points, then basic sharpening of mid-tones in Photoshop, but not much more than that. The handling of noise seems to be quite an improvement over the 40D.

Why even take this weird shot? Well, a lady never knows when she might need to take pictures in her closet, right? Actually, I was just a little eager to start testing and was a desperate for subjects in a dark area with unbroken surfaces such as that wall to more fairly test the noise issue. As I said, maybe I am too easily pleased, but I like the difference I see, so far. The nasty noise that is there could be cleaned up quite a bit more and in a large open space it is even less tricky to work on noise. While I am not planning to use ISO 2000 on a regular basis, this gives me hope that 1000 and even 1200 may be usable.

Elk on Deer Trail

(Please click on the thumbail for the bigger, better version)

We will see if this finally works. Blogger has been broken all day as far as I can tell. No fun at at. Hiss. Boo.

The weekend was fun, busy, rewarding, and exhausting. Friday night, I was at the gallery with another show, meeting new people and having a wonderful time. Those of you who admired the sample piece included in the May 27 post may be interested to know that she was a favorite. One print sold and I had a few inquiries about the possibility of additional copies. Saturday we attended another, unrelated event, and Sunday I was finally able to devote my full attention to entertaining my sister-in-law who was here for the weekend visiting from Tuscon. I thought she might enjoy seeing the view from one of the ridges and chose Deer Trail Drive for a short exploration. The view was lovely, but the most fun came from not one, but two, sightings of elk. One of the most fascinating things about the experience was the way the animals mostly ignored us as we sat there in the car oohing and ahhing (while I snapped pictures, of course.) They were busy eating and they only periodically took a moment to check on us. I think I will be seeing more of Deer Trail Drive.

A SoFoBoMo Surprise

(Click on the thumbnail for the bigger, better version)

Last Saturday, I started my SoFoBoMo project, but it was until later that I realized I had begun. It had never occurred to me to start my book on that day. Nothing was further from my mind. The Husband wasn’t around that evening and I headed down to Cub Lake for a walk. However, I had forgotten that earlier in the week I had seen signs down there of an upcoming lakeside wedding. Drat. Sure enough Saturday was the night of the festivities. Not in the mood for the crowd around the lake, I almost gave up on the walk, but ultimately decided to drive over to Oak Canyon Trail.

At its southern end, off San Juan Drive, the trail is a generous easement between properties and doesn’t begin to resemble a canyon. That section is wide enough to accommodate a vehicle and runs along about a quarter of a mile between the back yards of the houses and barns lying on either side. I knew it would be most unlikely that I could run into anything wilder than a rabbit in that highly populated area, so I felt safe setting off by myself.

Of course I had my camera with me and before I knew it, I was shooting. It would have to be a very short walk, because at the end of that quarter mile I would leave behind the horse corrals, barking dogs, braying burros, and cozy back yards to turn down into the canyon and past the sign warning of mountain lion sightings. The cool evening was perfect for a longer walk and I was feeling more like a hike than when I had left the house. Early on, I got a good look at a couple of deer in a clearing up ahead of me and they were tempting me pass that sign by and take my chances in the canyon. I wasn’t quite ready to turn back when I came to the turn in the trail and reached the warning sign; but, common sense won out. I left the remainder of Oak Canyon Trail for another evening.

When I reviewed my shots, I discovered that I had actually gotten a few that I liked. That’s especially pleasant when you are not expecting anything. Two days later, it dawned on me that June1 had arrived and I had better get cracking on SoFoBoMo. It came as a pleasant surprise to realize that I had already begun. I just had not planned my start date.

Unscheduled and Unpleasant

(Click on the thumbnail for the bigger, better version)

Yesterday morning, The Husband took Night out for a ride. That meant that I would be treated to a Lancer extravaganza, so I grabbed the camera, armed with Big Bertha (the 70-200mm f/2.8L), and headed out to the pasture. The chestnut, often affectionately referred to as Banana Brain, did not disappoint. The shot above is one of my favorites from the session. Having finally shed out that ratty, moth-eaten, end-of-winter coat, he is sleek again—back to his rich, burnished chestnut, and he gets enough exercise these days to have regained muscle tone. I thoroughly enjoyed the shoot, then later The Husband and I repeated some of our ooh’s and ahh’s regarding his return to his handsome equine self.

In the evening, we headed out for a hike and didn’t get home until twilight. The Husband went out to the pasture to put the horses in their barn and was surprised to see that Lancer didn’t meet him at the gate. He soon discovered that the poor guy was injured and did not want to move. Although I was not there, I can well imagine the horrible thoughts that were racing through The Husband’s mind as he examined the leg and that hoof to determine where the damage was and the level of severity. Most people know that horses don’t always survive serious leg injuries. (If you are curious as to why, it is because their digestive system is directly tied to their ability to move. No movement- no food digestion. One leg out of operation means throwing excessive weight on other feet and they develop problems. A horse can’t survive lying down.)

A terrific veterinarian that The Husband knows from endurance rides came for a flashlight and lantern check-up and confirmed the diagnosis. In one of those roughhouse episodes, Night had landed a kick on Lancer’s front leg (you can see where the hoof shaved off the hair and the swollen tissue makes it plain why he does not want to use those muscles.) Since the gelding can put his full weight on the leg, the doctor felt confident that it is not broken. The poor guy was alert last night and eating. He was also keenly interested in the carrots offered to him. I helped The Husband grate some carrots into a mixture including grain and molasses to mask the bitter taste of the bute (phenylbutazone) to dull the pain and reduce the inflammation. While Lancer would not tolerate an ice pack on the swollen leg, he did not resist cold water treatment.

This morning he is still on his feet, but not moving very much. While he is a bit depressed, he eagerly lapped up his bute-laced treat. He will have several days of recovery. Meanwhile, we are in for a bit of anxious watching and waiting.

Art Show Mode

(Click on the thumbnail for the bigger, better version)

I am still in Art Show mode and, because of the images I am working on, I can only see horses, as you can tell by the picture above. Because the equine part of the show in May got the most attention, I have added only new work that capitalizes on that interest. The new work for the June 5th show consists mostly of stylized pieces such as the one here, and most of them involved considerable Photoshop work. Once again, I enjoy that part of the job, so it hasn’t been drudgery. Still, I have my days when I think that I am tired of the monitor screen, don’t want to touch the mouse, and just want to take new photographs. As you might guess, the start of my SoFoBoMo project is still at least a week away and I am getting a little antsy about that. Finally, I am in the midst of framing for the show with ninety percent of the printing done, but I won’t wrap this up for a few more days.

When I am doing this much processing, it seems I slip almost completely into a non-verbal mode. Anyone who visits this blog frequently knows that most of the time I can happily chatter on almost endlessly about almost nothing. But, when I am working on certain types of pictures, I tend to sink down into another kind of being and there aren’t many words there. That’s where I have spent most of the last week.

Not surprisingly, preparation for this show has been a learning experience. The learning is in the form of a reminder. Some of the new pieces were worked on months ago (years in some cases), but were never printed; and, while the files looked fine to me on the screen, test prints proved that they were not quite ready for prime time, after all. It is amazing, isn’t it, how great the distance between “almost good enough” to “yes, that’s what I was looking for”? Those last few tweaks go slowly for me, partly because I often need to walk away from an image for a while and come back to it with fresh eyes.

And that’s not the half of it. When I am working on a new piece, I usually have no clue where I am headed. I just know that there is the shadow of something in the photograph and I won’t be content until I have coaxed that out. And, wouldn’t it be fun if it were as simple as sprinkling some Photoshop fairy dust on the image and waiting for the new image to magically emerge? Still, the ability to transform a photograph so profoundly (even with hours of patient starting, backing up, and starting again) to ultimately produce something that touches people is almost magical to me.

I am quite aware that this talk about so much work in the digital darkroom brings up a sensitive topic for many photographers. If you are purist and don’t think photographs should be tampered with, you would run—not walk away from much of what I produce. I happen to swing back and forth between the two schools of thought. I have periods where I am only interested in photographs that required minimum processing. On the other hand, I go through phases of taking photographs to the point that many viewers aren’t certain what the origins of the image might be. Never having functioned as a photographer prior to digital, I have no allegiance to the purist school. I live there when it pleases me; when I get hungry for something else, I switch back to the fairy dust.

Lost Weekend

(Click on the thumbnail for the bigger, better version)

Saturday morning, The Husband and I headed out to the Equine Affaire at Golden Hills Equestrian Center ready for fun and edification galore. Having heard the forecast, I dressed for warm weather and armed myself with plenty of water. Still, I think I had been lulled for so many months by cool (too often for my wimpy taste) cold weather. I wasn’t mentally prepared for the morning in Tehachapi. By the time we headed home a little after noon, the temperature had hit 93 degrees.

Not bad, you say, and I couldn’t agree more. But that’s not the way my wacky body saw it at all. In less than an hour—probably closer to half an hour, I had some type of sunstroke and was almost flattened. This problem has grown worse over the years and it has officially become a serious limitation that sometimes bugs the heck out of me. At the time, I didn’t feel overly hot (but then, I almost never do). Something just goes wacky in my system and everything pretty much shuts down. Thanks to a good Samaritan who put an ice pack on the back of my neck, I never passed out and this time my stomach didn’t try to turn inside out. But, the little episode wiped out two days, and I am still not quite certain whose body I am using. I do know this much: this loaner is no bargain.

I never fancied myself as the pale little lady, covered with the wide-brimmed hat, sitting far back, deep in the shade, cooling herself with one of those folding fans, and sipping a cool drink while others frolic in the glorious rays of the summer sun. Egads! That’s a picture that I’d rather not see.

Oh, well. Life is good. Even if I—a long time sun-lover—may end up unable to enjoy the entire middle of the day any time the temperature is going to rise above 85 degrees. I enjoy photo-processing (I did get some important-to-me work done on a few pieces during my recovery period). There are far worse things that could happen. Besides, limitations fuel creativity.

By yesterday evening, I was feeling somewhat human and The Husband and I went for a leisurely walk down at Cub Lake. After a while we sat on the side of the lake and played. I began tossing pebbles in the water to see what would happen if I took pictures of the resulting ripples. One thing led to another until we began experimenting with mini-geysers. Before we exhausted all the possibilities of our exploration, a new acquaintance walked by and we had a nice chat with her. I am already looking forward to more experiments and more easy walks at Cub Lake. What a wonderful refuge it is—and practically in my backyard.

Life is a series of adjustments, isn’t it?

Shooting With Handicaps

(Click on the thumbnail for the bigger, better version)

I have been doing my best to squeeze in some shooting sessions along with the prep work for the next show. Some of my sessions are spent out in the pasture with one or both of the horses. Since Fadwah’s Lancer recently turned 17, I thought it was appropriate to post this shot of him taken a few days ago.

On these occasions, I am often shooting in undesirable conditions—and that’s by design. To begin with, I often shoot at odd times of day rather than choosing optimum light. I also work without a wrangler, and that means I have to go out there resolved to be patient and make the best of whatever I see. A wrangler would be able to move the horse or horses to the end of the pasture where I have the best possible background. Moreover, the wrangler would be equipped with a some type of prop used to get the animals’ attention, or get their “ears up”. Furthermore, if I am out there with both horses (and without a wrangler), I have to pay close attention that I don’t get underfoot. You really don’t want one of these beasts stepping on your toes, believe me. Horses are amazingly sure-footed. Ask any competitive rider, and that goes for any of the equine sports. But, and it’s a big but, horses don’t count stepping on a human foot as hazardous, so sometimes a foot is stepped on. It smarts. Particularly when they are “horsing around”, I have to fend for myself with no one to stand between me and them to wave arms and send them safely by me. I work with extra caution.

None of this is meant to imply that either of the horses would purposely harm me. Most horses won’t hurt a human on purpose, unless it’s in self-defense. (Of course, in the case of an abused horse, the horse may always be in defensive mode.) The potential for harm with horses such as ours is all about nasty accidents that can happen. These guys are big, strong, and sometimes play rough. I keep my distance when they are excited. People who are strong and agile can take a great deal more chances than I. I have to work within my limitations.

Besides these conditions, I am still lugging the 70-200mm f/2.8 around.
Still, all in all, this setup works wonderfully for me. If I can get a shot or two that I like when working under these less than desirable conditions it only prepares me to deliver better photos when conditions are ideal.

Of course, all this raises the question, Why go to all this fuss? I suppose it’s like any other creative endeavor. You do what you have to do. Over and over we hear the advice to “shoot what you love”. So, there you go. For me, making pictures of horses that please me, and move others besides, is a major reason for owning a camera.

Experimenting with Portraits

(Click on the thumbnail for the bigger, better version)

Note: This started out being a post about shooting portraits, but I have to take time to vent over the frustration of translating skin tones to a jpeg for the web. (The sound you hear is made by the steam coming out of my ears.) I have printed this picture and it looks terrific. In the web version, however, the skin tones are something far less than wonderful. Every color correction method I have tried fails to solve the problem. (At least, the one at the main gallery is somewhat better.) Ultimately, I gave up hope and decided to just put up the post and complain. Now, on to the original reason for this post.

For some time, I have been flirting with the notion of taking portraits, but I never seem to follow through. I have had plenty of urging from fellow-bloggers to give it a try and I know that I will have to take a run at it—if only to get it out of my system. There are a number of reasons for my resistance, some of which I have talked about in earlier entries here; but some of the resistance comes from a source that I have never mentioned. I spent over thirty years of my life in Los Angeles living and breathing that particular air of Tinsel Town where “headshots” are central part of the actor’s life. Having experienced both personally and vicariously all the angst surrounding the selection of photographers, the disappointments, and frustrations from those photo shoots, I have some residual feelings about portraits that I have yet to fully resolve. As I’ve said before, I prefer subjects that won’t complain endlessly about “the way my eyes look” or “I don’t think I really have that many wrinkles”; “my nose looks funny”, or “my hair looks fuller than that, don’t you think?”

As I said a few posts ago, I am not anxious when shooting people with their horses. In those cases, the person knows that she (more often than not it is a female horse-owner) is not the star of the shot, and I can help her to focus all her attention on her horse. Of course, there is the need to have two subjects focused when the owner is in the shot, but the horse is the leading character. Even when viewing the pictures, the horse-owner is more apt to be concerned with how the horse looks, than her own hair or nose.

All my angst aside, I recently got an idea to take some shots of that handsome devil, The Husband. By the time the urge struck, it was late evening and we were “losing the light” (that old saw from the location shoot). In a rush, I grabbed the closest camera and realized that I wouldn’t have time to change lenses. It was the 100mm macro or nothing. Both The Husband and I decided “what the heck” and found a spot in the backyard to shoot a few frames. The one above is my favorite and, by the way, The Husband likes it as well. I ended up thinking the macro lens is not a bad choice. Normally, I would have chosen the 70-200mm. Both lenses are f2.8 (a lovely advantage); but I am just not accustomed to the need to zoom with my feet.

Of course, this outing was easy. Because it’s difficult to get a really bad picture of The Husband, I avoided many of the typical problems of portrait shooting. Moreover, I was totally relaxed when shooting since the entire thing was a last-minute whim and there was nothing on it. Still, I may yet do more experimenting with putting people (who don’t have their horses with them) in my photos.

Challenges and Rewards

(Click on the thumbnail for the bigger, better version)

Each time I complete one self-assignment, I come up with another one for myself. Not surprisingly, a number of these assignments are connected to the next show coming up June 5. It fascinates me that as soon as I wrap up one job, the act of completion seems to create a space that is then filled by two or three new projects. It’s as if the projects bear fruit, or a little like those wire coat hangers that would multiply in the closet. (By the way, have you noticed that the plastic ones are sterile? They break. Sometimes, they disappear to who-knows-where. But, they don’t multiply. Hmm. Another of those scientific mysteries.)

At any rate, I decided to reflect on tests and ventures that I can wrap my head around and leave coat hanger mysteries to someone with more expertise in the area of closet life. What I know is that every challenge taxes my physical strength and my capacity for facing the unknown. Inevitably, challenges present me with moments when I wonder if it is worth continuing through the stress. Quitting, or not even accepting the challenge in the first place, can be such a tempting alternative. Still, if I see it through to the end—whatever it is, there are always rewards. Even if no one else recognizes the benefits of my having completed the course, the satisfaction of following through is a reward in itself and there is no way to know where that experience will take me.

SoFoBoMo 2008 was such a test for me. The fact that I actually completed a project, then had the courage to post it online (rather than hiding it away and believing that I couldn’t find a way to get it online), was a triumph over doubts. And, that victory over myself has, in turn, led to more risk-taking with my photography.

Over and over in life, the lesson is there to be learned. One step (no matter how small) leads to the next, and that one to the next, and so on until, before long, we look back and see that we have traveled some distance, and that the journey has been filled with discoveries.

Having confronted my doubts in tackling SoFoBoMo last year opened up all sorts of doors for me. Since completing that project, I find that I listen to even more impulses to try new things. The doubts still nag, but their voices have been muted by the little successes along the way—and even by the failures. After all, once you fail, get up brush yourself off and discover that there are no permanent bruises, the next risk isn’t so daunting.

There is no doubt that I will complete my SoFoBoMo 2009 project—somehow, some way. No matter how woefully behind I am this year, I will get it done. After all, I wouldn’t want to miss any steps in my journey.

P.S. That mountain just peeking above the clouds is our Bear Mountain and on the other side of the mountain is home. A trip to Bakersfield last Tuesday gave us an opportunity to enjoy this view.