I learned a lot about the birds and also learned how difficult it is to capture these birds in their native surroundings. I took all of these images with my Nikon D300 and a 300mm f/2.8 lens (which was borrowed from a friend at work. I’ve also performed some drastic cropping on the images so you can see the birds as more than just a speck amongst the brown trees and bright white clouds.

Red-tail hawk being pestered by a smaller bird

Juvenile Great Horned Owl

Two male wood ducks

Cedar Waxwing

Great blue heron in flight

]]> http://blog.lanescheideman.com/2010/05/ridgefield-national-wildlife-refuge/feed/ 1 http://blog.lanescheideman.com/2010/03/pinnacle-peak-scottsdale-az/ http://blog.lanescheideman.com/2010/03/pinnacle-peak-scottsdale-az/#comments Fri, 26 Mar 2010 14:54:49 +0000 Lane http://blog.lanescheideman.com/?p=45 Year three of my trips to Arizona for Spring Training, sun, and margaritas has begun.

Yesterday was a day of no plans, which is an oddity for this group, so after the earlybirds woke up, we trekked off to Pinnacle Peak, just North of Scottsdale, for a fun little hike through the desert.

Juvenile cactus wren at Pinnacle Peak

On this hike you know you’ll see interesting geology, flora and fauna indicative of the Sonoran desert. You’ll also see a lot of trail runners, which is actually a lowlight because the trails are narrow and not all of the runners are that polite.

The only bird we saw up close was a cactus wren (Campylorhynchus brunneicapillus). It was sitting on a rock probably waiting for its mom to bring it some food. We guessed it was a juvenile due to the large amount of down on its back.

On the hike up, I was mentioning to Gary and Tawni that I have yet to see a rattlesnake on any of the trips down here. I’ve also never seen a scorpion, but they tend to hide, the little buggers.

For this trip I bought a new lens for my Nikon; an 18-200mm zoom. This lens allows me travel with just one lens, rather than my whole backpack of photo equipment. The lens isn’t incredibly fast (in photography terms) but it makes up for that with a vibration reduction feature that counters any camera shake due to my hands or a slight breeze.

Western diamondback rattlesnake at pinnacle peak

Near the end of our return trip, there was a large group of people blocking the path. The majority of them (about eight) were from a film crew that was working on some sort of small video production. As they let us through, we noticed, and heard, that everyone was looming over this little western diamondback rattlesnake (Crotalus atrox). The rattler was maybe 12- to 14-inches long and about as big around as your thumb. It’s tail was rattling away and it looked extremely pissed off at all the humans blocking its path to its nest. Luckily there was a park official there keeping an eye on everybody and trying to keep people moving. As I passed by, I zipped out the camera, framing for a shot my first rattlesnake. We came to find out later that the little guy had recently had dinner of fresh mouse (take a look at the slight bulge in his midsection).

Overall it was a great hike and I am happy that I purchased my new lens and that I was able to use it to capture such a great (in my opinion) shot of my first rattlesnake.

Teddy Bear Cholla at pinnacle peak

Saturday I had a nice slow morning around the house and a nice walk downtown. I met up with Gary for lunch at Lumberyard and we had a great meal and a couple of beers on the patio. The day was very sunny, making it feel warmer than it really was.

Julie, Gary, and I regrouped in the evening to watch the sunset fro Ecola State Park. I had my full camera setup and Gary had his point-and-shoot. It is always a learning experience taking pictures with Gary. He has such a great eye for composition and knows the park so well.

After our shooting session at the park, the three of us had a great Thai dinner at Cannon Beach Thai. All three of us tried a new dish, which is practically unheard of for us; and we were all very happy with our choices.

Sunday was a work day for Julie and Gary, so I had the day to myself. A long walk on the beach, a long sun-soaked lunch on the deck at the Warren House and nice nap prepared me for my drive back home to get ready for the week and the Autumn rains that are coming back to Oregon.

I believe that a photographer should do everything in their power to ensure that they capture the best image possible, rather than capture what they can and fix it in post-processing. To this end, you want to make sure that your IQ setting matches the event you are shooting.

In this article I’ll discuss the pros and cons of the various NEF(RAW) format options available in the Nikon D300.

The D300 allows you to choose from six bit-depth and compression algorithm combinations of NEF(RAW), hereafter NEF.

• Compression algorithm: Lossless Compressed, Compressed, or Uncompressed
• Bit-depth: 12- or 14-bit

Compression Algorithm

The Nikon D300 User’s Manual states the following about each of the compression algorithms:

• Lossless Compressed: NEF images are compressed using a reversible algorithm, reducing file size by about 20-40% with no affect on image quality.
• Compressed: NEF images are compressed using a non-reversible algorithm, reducing file size by about 40-50% with almost no affect on image quality.
• Uncompressed: NEF images are not compressed. Recording time increases slightly.

When it comes to choosing from these compression algorithms, you should ask yourself: what is most important?

• File size: If you want to capture as many images as possible for the amount of storage you have, you’ll want to select Compressed. By doing so, you will be sacrificing some image quality due to the compression algorithm and your shots per second will decrease due to the processor having to perform the compression.
• Image quality: If you want your image to contain the most accurate data for each sensor location you’ll want to select Lossless Compressed. This setting ensures that the compression algorithm retains all the information about the image as well as reducing the file size. Why didn’t I select Uncompressed? Well, if Nikon is true to their word, lossless should really mean what it implies.
• Shots per second: If you want to capture many images in a short amount of time, such as at a sporting event or child’s party, you’ll want to select Lossless Compressed. This setting has the best balance of write time to your memory card (smaller file size compared to Uncompressed) and less processing time for compression (compared to Compressed).

My final suggestion is that you use Lossless Compressed, which is the default setting. It gives you the best compromise for all three areas of importance. I, myself, would only switch to Compressed if I knew that I’d had to capture as many images as possible and was concerned that my memory storage would not be adequate.

Bit-depth

The Nikon D300 User’s Manual states the following about about the two bit-depth options:

• 12-bit: NEF images are recorded at a bit-depth of 12 bits.
• 14-bit: NEF images are recorded at a bit-depth of 14 bits, producing files roughly 1.3 times larger than 12-bit files, but increasing the color data recorded. Maximum frame advance rate falls to 2.5 fps.

As with the compression algorithm, you should ask yourself: what is most important?

• File size: If you want to capture as many images as possible for the amount of storage you have, you’ll want to select 12-bit. The 1.3x file size of the 14-bit image will significantly reduce the number of images you can collect on your memory card.
• Image quality: If you want to capture the best data possible for your image, you’ll want to select 14-bit. You may read the forums that a lot of people comment that monitors and printers are not able to reproduce the data gathered from 14-bit images… this is true. However, technology is a crazy thing; it is always improving. My answer to this argument is that we should capture the best possible image now because we don’t want to be left out in the cold in the future when technology catches up to our current abilities. Here is  a great technical discussion of the 12-/14-bit debate.
• Shots per second: If you want to capture many images in a short amount of time, you’ll want to select 12-bit. The D300 is able to capture about six images per second in 12-bit mode as compared to two to three per second in 14-bit mode.

My final suggestion is to shoot in 14-bit mode as often as possible. The only time I would switch to 12-bit mode is when I am doing any sort of fast-action shoot, such as sports or wildlife photography.

Setting up Your Camera

This section contains various tasks for setting up your camera for accessing the Image Quality settings easier.

Change the Image Quality setting

1. Press the MENU button
2. Select the Shooting menu
3. Select NEF (RAW) recording
4. Select Type to change your Compression algorithm
5. Select NEF (RAW) bit depth to change your bit-depth

Add the NEF(RAW) Menu item to your My Menu

If you feel that you’ll be switching amongst these modes on a regular basis, I would suggest that you add the Image Quality menu item to your Custom Menu.

1. Press the MENU button
2. Select MY MENU
3. Select Add items
4. Select Shooting menu
5. Select NEF (RAW) recording and hit the OK button

I knew that with Snow Leopard it would be really simple to hook these two calendaring systems together, but it surprised me how easy it would be. The following is my best technical writer interpretation on how to accomplish this.

1) Open the iCal application

2) Select the iCal > Preferences menu item

3) Select the Networks tab of the Accounts dialog box

4) Click the plus sign (+) in the lower left-hand corner to add a new network

5) Complete the Add Account dialog box as follows:

a) Account type: select Google

b) Email address: enter your Gmail address

c) Password: enter your Gmail password

d) Click Create

You’ll now see your Gmail account in the Accounts sidebar

6) Take a look at the rest of the settings in the Accounts tab, but you shouldn’t need to alter anything for basic usage.

Yep… that’s it. Now I’m gonna plug the iTouch into the MacBook Pro and see what happens… I see another post in my future

Snoqualmie Falls and Salish Lodge

Day two of our TV show tour of Washington took Tawni and me to the town of North Bend and Snoqualmie Falls to visit some sites familiar to fans of Twin Peaks.

David Lynch filmed portions of Twin Peaks in the two small towns of North Bend and Snoqualmie. The former is the home of Snoqualmie Falls which appears in the title sequence of the TV show, as well as an episode of Northern Exposure.

Our first stop was the main street of North Bend, where the only easily recognizable site is the “Double R Diner” that served a damn fine cup of coffee and cherry pie.

I was surprised when I went to the Tourist Information and asked for any handouts they had about Twin Peaks, and they didn’t have anything. Of course, after the realizations from the Roslyn tour, I shouldn’t have been surprised. Twin Peaks and Northern Exposure both first aired in 1990. (hmmm, what other great shows debuted that year?)

After a quick walk-through of the town, Tawni and I went up to Snoqualmie Falls.

The lodge at the top of the falls is Salish Lodge, which was deemed the Great Northern in the show. Most of the interiors of the Great Northern were filmed in Poulsbo on Bainbridge Island in the Puget Sound.

We had lunch at the very fancy lodge with a view over looking the falls. The food was pretty good, but it didn’t live up to the expectations set by the fancy setting and price.

With lunch, I did try another local beer, a Snoqualmie Falls Summer Beer; not a very original name, but tasty. A slightly hoppy pilsner, with an appearance and head that reminded me of a cream ale, such as Boddingtons.

After lunch, Tawni drove through the town of Snoqualmie. This town definitely looked like it would adequately represent a town that comes out of David Lynch’s imagination.

After this little tour to Twin Peaks an Cicely, I’ll need to go back and watch some episodes from both series.

Tawni and I drove East from her place to this small town that has had an interesting past. Founded as a center of the coal-mining industry in Washington, Roslyn next became a forestry-centric community and then most famously hosted the film crew for Northern Exposure. Today, it is hard to say what the population of 1000 souls can call its specialty. There is a fancy-shmancy new golf resort just West of the town, but I’m sure that the current economy is not passing on much of a benefit to Roslyn.

It is interesting to walk around the town of Roslyn with the layout of Cicely so permanently etched in my head. There is still a store front for KBHR that has a lot of set pieces from Chris-in-the-morning’s exterior shots , but it is not in the middle of the main street as I so clearly remember. One store still has “Dr. Joel Fleischman” painted on the outside and at least one store that could have been Ruth’s market.

We decided to have lunch at the Brick. Unfortunately Holling and Shelley were out of town, but we still received great service. Their cross-cut fries and onion rings were quite tasty. I even had one of the local brews: Roslyn Brewing Dark Lager. It had a nice hop/malt balance. (Don’t let the look on my face fool you, it was an enjoyable beer.) As we sat and ate our lunch, watching some locals come in and a few other tourists, I kept expecting to see familiar scenes and faces. But, I had to keep reminding myself that all the interior shots were on a set, not in the real Brick.

Tawni and I were surprised that we didn’t see more Northern Exposure paraphernalia around town or in the shops when we realized that it has been almost 20 years since the show premiered and that Roslyn/Cicely doesn’t feature prominently in America’s collective conscience any longer.

Tomorrow, we’re going to track down Agent Cooper and maybe have some cherry pie and a damn fine cup of coffee. Just as long as there isn’t a fish in the percolator.

A fog-shrouded tree on the Oregon coast

I created this photo a few weekends ago while on a beach walk near Hug Point on the north Oregon coast.

(Camera: Cannon PowerShot)

What brought me back?

A need for a creative outlet, my desire to show off my photography and comment on things around me, and something useful to do with my new computer

My new Mac Book Pro, still in its comfy bed

What am I going to offer all of you, my faithful readers?

More regular photo uploads, articles and instructional pieces about photography and the many tools involved, comments about my conversion to becoming a Mac fan boy, and other musings on anything strikes my fancy.

What about my other blogs?

They’ll probably stick around for a while, but everything I post will be located here. I’ll be setting up some handy categories for you to follow, in case you  care more about viewing only my photos, or hearing about what movie I watched last night, or learning how someone can tweak Mac OS X, or  copying the Adobe Lightroom settings that are ideal for me.