I don’t know that these plants are called (don’t really care though) but I love what they do with light. The funny thing is, I thought I would be going B&W with this but when I looked at it further, I decided the shades of green were just too intriguing to blow away. This is a photo we’d put in the artsy fartsy category.

Photo captured by D3x, 45PC-E on Lexar UDMA digital film

The clock is pushing me hard this week. Still working with our PT on landscape photography. Headed up to a 9000′ to Lake George and the quite one can find up there. There wasn’t a whisper of wind so the reflections stretched on and on. We lucked out and the jet stream brought in a few wisps that finished off the view. All that was left was do the dance, excluding unwanted elements while including wanted elements.

This image looses something being this small. The drama you see in the clouds in the reflection is what caught my eye. Those whites against the underlying rock in the water is a cool pattern that is sadly is lost here.

Photos captured by D3x, 24PC-E on Lexar UDMA digital film

I’m in the office for the week, pounding the keys to get writing projects done. While I’m not “outside” shooting, the activity out the window is picking up. Nesting is at its height and the adults are taking full advantage of the free food. They pay by posing like this female Cassin’s Finch. The lighting on the finch is from a single SB-900 through a Micro Apollo.

We’ve had an incredible number of stormy and rainy days already this summer. Normally they don’t come until August but I don’t mind, they bring great light. When we don’t have the clouds, we have this kind of light. While it’s cool for a moment, it soon becomes just too heavy a light for the Band-tailed Pigeons.

It’s the massive flock of Evening Grosbeaks that now dominant our feeders which are the funniest to photograph. The color of the males is killer even on a cloudy day. Their very loud whistle tells of their presense long before you see them. It makes being “stuck” behind the desk almost pleasurable!

Photos captured by D3x, 600VR on Lexar UDMA digital film

I finally received the WG-AS1 (Water Guard – Accessory Shoe 1) for the Sb-900 & D3. My man Jeff Snyder snagged me 3, 2 in place and 1 spare. I’m heading off to AK and I know it’s going to rain so I thought since Nikon thought to make this thing, I should get ‘em.

It’ a pretty custom fit, fitting just the SB-900 (the AS-1 is for D3, AS-2 is for D300, AS-3 is for D700) foot where it attaches to the camera’s hot shoe. The unit is half plastic and half rubber. The upper half is the hard plastic. When you slip the WG-AS1 over the SB-900 foot, you push it forward. There are “fixing nails” in the WG-AS1 which locks into the foot of the SB-900. It takes some pushing, a little scary the first time you attach it. But once done and in place, it ain’t falling off. Attaching the SB-900 with the WG-AS1 attached to the hot shoe or SC-28 takes a little bit of doing. Again, the first time you slide it on, it’s a bit, tight and takes force which seems almost uncomfortable to exert. Once on, you can flip the locking lever and plug in the SD-9 with no problem.

Now is this thing “water tight?” I’m trying to figure out a test to determine just how much moisture it can handle. Of course, if I should find out the maximum, the answer might cost a flash and that’s not covered under warranty. Stay tuned for a report.

The art of the landscape, that’s the mission with the multiple day PT we’re conducting right now. My mission today kinda made me think of this video.The challenge is to help a new landscape photographer see the landscape, feel the landscape, so you can through his images.

The challenge is even greater for the PT who has to avoid becoming frustrated as he looks so hard for images that for me are easy to find or dismiss. That time thing, time behind the viewfinder, time at the computer, it catches up with you in time.

What am I talking about, time catches up with you? The more you put in, time, the less time it takes to make the image. Landscape photography, which I’m not an expert at  just very comfortable with, is this romance which while it needs technical support, it comes to life only when wooed.

Take these four images, only the top one do I think much of. It has some character in the light, ripples and tonality. The next one is an HDR experiment which, well, I’ll leave it at that. Then there is that reflection thing. I dunno, it was purty when I looked at it. Lastly is another HDR experiment, wanted to see what would happen doing a water blur with blown out highlights. We’ll mark that down as a work in progress.

And my student, continues putting in the time behind the camera so he can put in the time behind the computer so he can go out behind the camera and move one more notch up the ladder to where he thinks I am and he wants to be. It’s that photography thing.

Photos captured by D3x, 14-24AFS/45PC-E/70-300VR/24PC-E on Lexar UDMA digital film

PS…I’m very foruntate, this is our backyard

Wildlife Photographers Base Camp is very excited to announce a very special Texas Bird Base Camp in June, 2010. We’re going to where this photograph of a Crested Caracara was taken, on the border in Texas. This very special event is like no other Base Camp we’ve offered before. For full details, head here. Or, if you’re up to the challenge you’ll call and grab one of the six openings now!

The making of a LensCoat for the Canon Ef 1200mm f5.6 L USM Lens from scott elowitz on Vimeo.

Joe McNally, in my mind, that name means the impossible photo, DONE! I was very fortunate to just talk to Joe on the phone a number of times during the shooting of his latest Nat’l G piece which is now on newstands. He’s stories of all the fun he shares on the phone have me in tears. What this guy does with light simply breaks the law of  physics. It’s simply gorgeous. Here’s to ya Joe!

I few emails have come in of late asking if I’ve shot any startrails with the D3x and if so, what I thought of the noise and quality of the final images. I have done quite a few with the D3x and 28f1.4 and quite happy with the results. But last night I thought I would switch things up a little and do a trail with the 24PC-E lens. It’s nothing fancy, a simple 5 hours, 100 image trail from the deck of our home.

The D3x is plugged into 120 via the EH-6 (luxury of doing it at home) with the timing being done with the MC-36. The settings on the D3x are M, f5.6 at ISO100. On the MC-36 they are Delay=0, Long=4min, Intvl=1sec and N=—. The 100 files are then processed using Image Stacker. Being it’s summer and so many are out and the nights are warm, give it a try if you never have. Keep in mind if you want dark skies and to see more stars, city lights and moon need to be minimal at best. You want the classic startrail of a circle of trails, point the camera towards the North Star. This particular trail, the camera was point due south. As to the D3x, it does a great job with startrails, the 24×30 print is very impressive.

Photo captured by D3x, 24PC-E on Lexar UDMA digital film