Living with Nature

[Colin Southern]

Final shot from the series tonight ... hope you all enjoy!

[Nicola]

Final shot from the series tonight ... hope you all enjoy!

Yes! I really enjoy!
good work and nice silhouette

[Colin Southern]

Yes! I really enjoy!
good work and nice silhouette

Thanks Nicola

[ilovelucydog]

Yes. I did enjoy. I love the sunbeams streaking through the clouds. Beautiful, Colin.

[Colin Southern]

Yes. I did enjoy. I love the sunbeams streaking through the clouds. Beautiful, Colin.

Thanks Mary,

I'd hoped to capture a wide-angle colourful setting sun behind it, but the sun wouldn't "play the game" tonight, and the stack was too high to use a longer lens for a narrower view

[ilovelucydog]

Thanks Mary,

I'd hoped to capture a wide-angle colourful setting sun behind it, but the sun wouldn't "play the game" tonight, and the stack was too high to use a longer lens for a narrower view

I think it's perfect. It looks so peaceful and warm.

[Donald]

You've retained, in my view, just the right amount of detail in the 'tepee' and surrounding ground. And, again, what a amazing sky. And for all of us who speak constantly about learning and growing our knowledge and experience, this is a perfect example, I think, of the experienced photographer in action - who knows what will be achieved by using the right lens for the occasion and then executing it so well.

[Nicola]

Thanks Mary,

I'd hoped to capture a wide-angle colourful setting sun behind it, but the sun wouldn't "play the game" tonight, and the stack was too high to use a longer lens for a narrower view

Colin
what focal lenght for this picture did you use?
thanks
N


---- ok ... found in exif. 16mm
thanks anyway!

[Colin Southern]

You've retained, in my view, just the right amount of detail in the 'tepee' and surrounding ground. And, again, what a amazing sky. And for all of us who speak constantly about learning and growing our knowledge and experience, this is a perfect example, I think, of the experienced photographer in action - who knows what will be achieved by using the right lens for the occasion and then executing it so well.

Thanks Donald,

I'll take you on a quick journey ...

When I was flying light twin-engine aeroplanes, one of the things we "enjoyed" practicing regularly was engine failure drills (as you can imagine, in a twin engine plane, it creates one hell of an asymetric thrust issue). So it goes something like this ... (if climbing) ...

Counter the yaw with opposite rudder - lower the nose to obtain blue-line speed - mixtures fully rich - pitch full fine - throttles wide open - check/retract flaps - check/retract undercarriage - identify the failed engine - verify the failed engine (by retarding the throttle) - feather the prop on the failed engine - cowl flaps (open working engine, closed failed engine) - trim. On a good day the instructor would fail an engine at about 300 feet after takeoff - again on the downwind leg of a circuit - and again turning finals to land. As you can imagine, it's about the busiest 4 minutes of a pilots life - never a second to spare - always something to check / recheck / do ...

... and the funniest thing is -- I'm thinking about as hard on a typical shoot. Not quite "life and death" stuff, but I'm always looking for where elements are falling in the composition - trying to think of a way to make it better - thinking about shutterspeeds / aperture & depth of field / ISO / Exposure - and what combinations will be needed for what effects I'd like (or think may "work) - what else is happening in the environment (is there a boat approaching - is this something I can use to my advantage - or do I need to compensate for it in some other way. Etc. etc etc, all whilst the light is changing (as it does - quickly - with sunrise/sunset shots).

So for me it comes down to thinking on my feet - using the experience I have - doing the best job I can - and leaving the rest up to mother nature. Sometimes it works, and works well, other times it "just doesn't fly" - but at least I get an education on what doesn't work.

In the case of this shot, at the time I knew I wanted the branches leading out of the frame at bottom right - I knew I wanted the overall shape of the stack to be "fairly meaningful" in the composition. I would have preferred a wider field of view (well more background, less stack horizontally), but there were other factors that came into play preventing me from doing much about it (stack too high, drop off behind me). I knew I wanted the sun behind the stack - and I knew a wide-angle lens could give me some nice clouds. So that was the plan ... which turned to custard when the sky just didn't colour up. So this shot was taken just before sunset (not when I'd normally shoot), and the other one ("where there is there's light, there is hope" shot was actually taken with a much longer lens to cover the part of the sky that did colour up. So a bit of a "plan B / save" at the last minute.

PS: I was also thinking about the "just the right about of shadow detail" -- to the point where I had a could of 580EX II's firing into an umbrella; don't think I actually used it on this shot, but I did for others. It's the type of shot where I can't use a GND - so I was relying on the fill light slider / dodge tool, with the speedlites as a "backup"

[ilovelucydog]

Thanks Donald,

I'll take you on a quick journey ...

When I was flying light twin-engine aeroplanes, one of the things we "enjoyed" practicing regularly was engine failure drills (as you can imagine, in a twin engine plane, it creates one hell of an asymetric thrust issue). So it goes something like this ... (if climbing) ...

Counter the yaw with opposite rudder - lower the nose to obtain blue-line speed - mixtures fully rich - pitch full fine - throttles wide open - check/retract flaps - check/retract undercarriage - identify the failed engine - verify the failed engine (by retarding the throttle) - feather the prop on the failed engine - cowl flaps (open working engine, closed failed engine) - trim. On a good day the instructor would fail an engine at about 300 feet after takeoff - again on the downwind leg of a circuit - and again turning finals to land. As you can imagine, it's about the busiest 4 minutes of a pilots life - never a second to spare - always something to check / recheck / do ...

... and the funniest thing is -- I'm thinking about as hard on a typical shoot. Not quite "life and death" stuff, but I'm always looking for where elements are falling in the composition - trying to think of a way to make it better - thinking about shutterspeeds / aperture & depth of field / ISO / Exposure - and what combinations will be needed for what effects I'd like (or think may "work) - what else is happening in the environment (is there a boat approaching - is this something I can use to my advantage - or do I need to compensate for it in some other way. Etc. etc etc, all whilst the light is changing (as it does - quickly - with sunrise/sunset shots).

So for me it comes down to thinking on my feet - using the experience I have - doing the best job I can - and leaving the rest up to mother nature. Sometimes it works, and works well, other times it "just doesn't fly" - but at least I get an education on what doesn't work.

In the case of this shot, at the time I knew I wanted the branches leading out of the frame at bottom right - I knew I wanted the overall shape of the stack to be "fairly meaningful" in the composition. I would have preferred a wider field of view (well more background, less stack horizontally), but there were other factors that came into play preventing me from doing much about it (stack too high, drop off behind me). I knew I wanted the sun behind the stack - and I knew a wide-angle lens could give me some nice clouds. So that was the plan ... which turned to custard when the sky just didn't colour up. So this shot was taken just before sunset (not when I'd normally shoot), and the other one ("where there is there's light, there is hope" shot was actually taken with a much longer lens to cover the part of the sky that did colour up. So a bit of a "plan B / save" at the last minute.

PS: I was also thinking about the "just the right about of shadow detail" -- to the point where I had a could of 580EX II's firing into an umbrella; don't think I actually used it on this shot, but I did for others. It's the type of shot where I can't use a GND - so I was relying on the fill light slider / dodge tool, with the speedlites as a "backup"

So... when I'm like 95 I'll think of all these factors?

[Colin Southern]

So... when I'm like 95 I'll think of all these factors?

All I know is that the more I think about it, the more I think that flying was easier ...

... and cheaper!

[ilovelucydog]

All I know is that the more I think about it, the more I think that flying was easier ...

... and cheaper!

I really should stick to baking cookies.

[Donald]

I really should stick to baking cookies.

No.

It's about acknowledging that you know an awful lot more than you did when you started out and that you are on a journey of discovery and learning.

[Colin Southern]

I really should stick to baking cookies.

Cookies - yumm (I wish they weren't). Thank goodness I don't bake them (the terms "small window-less buildings" comes to mind!).