The image below was taken using a Nikon 50mm ƒ1.2 ais lens. It has become a favorite lens of mine. To make an aperture adjustment you've got to do it the old school way by rotating the aperture ring on the lens. No autofocus either. But at ƒ1.2 the results can take on a dreamy effect...
Ice Shelf. Big Wood River, Idaho. February.
I took a quick drive down to Silver Creek this morning with my youngest son. He wanted to learn a bit more about photography. I let him run with it. "Shoot what inspires you," I told him. From Hailey all the way to Picabo there was a dense fog. Pretty great shooting conditions. As we were leaving, the fog started to break up.
Picabo Hills, Idaho. Late Fall.
Camera: Nikon D3s
Lens: Nikon ƒ1.8 D 50mm
Queen's Crown. Near Picabo, Idaho. Late Fall.
Queen's Crown & Negative Space
Our flowers and plants here seem to be at least two to three weeks ahead of schedule. Arrowleaf balsamroot, larkspur, phlox, bluebells, etc are blanketing many of our hills at low to mid-elevations. I would think many of our early summer hatches on the Big Wood River & Silver Creek should come off a little early as well. Brown drakes on Silver Creek is our first big hatch and hopefully it happens after opening day which is on Saturday, May 25th. Callabaetis and a few pmd's have been coming off in the preserve section on Silver Creek and fish have been consistently up and eating. Now is the time to canoe Silver Creek prior to fishing season opening.
False Hellebore. Near Hailey, Idaho
Nikon D3s & Nikon 35 ƒ2 lens
Here's a recent image of Silver Creek looking toward Picabo.
Silver Creek & Picabo. Idaho. Spring.
Nikon D3s & Nikon 50 ƒ1.8 lens
Picabo Hills & Wheel Line. Spring
Nikon D3s & Nikon 14-24 ƒ2.8 lens
This was taken not far from the Harriman trail north of Ketchum, Idaho. Vertical lines and tunnel. 43˚ and the sound of spring was there in the warming snow collapsing under pressure from a boot and the level of the sun and mainly in how the trees reacted to the first warm wind and the lithe newer branches waved about about like happy arms waking up after falling asleep.
Lodgepole Tunnel. Idaho
Below is an image taken yesterday of Stocker Road near the Silver Creek Preserve. It was midge madness on Silver Creek yesterday from Picabo all the way through the Nature Conservancy. Unfortunately Silver Creek--with the exception of a tiny section in the desert--is closed.
Stocker Road. March
Here's an image of a tilled field near Picabo, Idaho taken a couple of days ago. I converted the image from RAW to black and white in Photoshop CS6. I am including in this post a low-resolution image of the RAW file straight from the camera. Without making many changes/edits in Photoshop, you can see the latitude in shooting RAW--getting details out of the very bright/overexposed areas--and the enormous difference between the blah RAW image and the edited black and white image.
I also used the tilt function of the Nikon 24 pc-e lens to get the look of unlimited depth of field. I used--it's becoming a kinda fun term to use--the Scheimpflug Principle. The link takes you to The Luminous Landscape page for a good explanation...
Crops Rows In Winter. Picabo, Idaho
Here's the low-resolution file of the RAW image straight from the camera:
RAW image straight from the camera.
Here's a pano taken yesterday at Silver Creek. The clouds that came in ended up providing about 3 new inches of snow. The pano below is comprised of 7 images and the resolution is 33.7 megapixels. It was shot with the Nikon D3s & Nikon 50mm ƒ1.8 lens. Click on the image to see it larger.
East Oxbow Pano. Silver Creek, Idaho. February, 2013
Silver Creek, Idaho. Winter
I love shooting from this particular spot on Silver Creek. The image above was shot with the Nikon 50mm ƒ1.8 lens and not a tilt/shift lens. I just upgraded from Adobe's CS5 to CS6 and one of the major new additions is a set of 3 blur filters including tilt/shift. While I do own and use Nikon's 24mm pc-e (tilt/shift) lens, this new set of filters is a lot of fun to play with.
If we didn't have calendars it would be hard to tell it's February here. The snowpack at lower elevations has dwindled. I fished Silver Creek today and it felt like a raw early April afternoon. Cumulus clouds pushed easterly and the wind scoured the thawing ground. Red-Winged Blackbirds by the dozens scurried about nervously in flocks near the willows. There were midges though despite the wind and a fish here and there thought it a good idea to steel one from the surface. I threw streamers and it was quite good. The 28th of February is the final day of the season on Silver Creek below the HGWY 20 Bridge.
Silver Creek. Late February. 2013
Summit Creek Campground & Coyote Tracks
So I now have a title for a really broad project I am working on. It's, Ordinary Landscapes. My goal, with whatever camera I have at the moment, is to take an image of a pretty ordinary landscape, and to have the viewer loose him or herself in it. Could be color, could be black and white. Doesn't matter.
Winter Trees. Hailey, Idaho
Winter Pines
Both of the images above were taken with the iPhone 5 and edited in Adobe Photoshop CS5.
Below is an image of a print in the sand. My son Charlie asked me to take a picture of his footprint on a recent trip.
Footprint
Here is a link to a Vimeo video which was a 2012 TED Talk and is called INSIDE OUT Project. First, here is the link to the video: http://vimeo.com/42287790# It is a fascinating talk on pasting large portraits in public places around the globe. A very large Palestinian portrait is pasted alongside an Israeli portrait on the wall of an Israeli base. Who is who? Just watch it...
Should you become more intrigued, click on INSIDE OUT Project