John Cowie Photography: March 2010

Oh Snap! Something to look up to!!

Took my dogs for a walk around Windsor Lake, and brought along my camera and 100-400 zoom in the hopes the eagles would still be hanging around. And I got lucky!

In the hour we were out there, the light was constantly changing. When we arrived, the entire eastern horizon was filled with clouds, and the sun was barely burning through. By the time we got to the tree on the N.E. end of the lake, the clouds had started to burn off... or shift south... or go whatever clouds do when you're not paying attention. It created an interesting sky to shoot these two:

(click images to see a larger version)

Even with a 400 zoom, you have to get in pretty close, and luckily the eagles didn't care about one old guy and his dogs. Problem I ran into was finding a clear angle that didn't have branches in the way - it simply didn't exist... So, I compromised and found a spot where the adult wasn't too covered and the youngster only a little....

By this time, the western sky was pretty much clear, and the sun had burned through from the east and the sky turned a nice blue to compliment the warmth hitting the birds:

Youngster looks impressive in size like this

Right next to this tree is an old fashioned power pole, and another youngster was hanging out on. Took just a few steps and go this:

Now, I'm standing there clicking away, my dogs are mostly staying put, but occasionally when they'd nose around at the end of their leash. Through all that this youngster never showed any agitation or concern. He just sat there and watched. My guys are too big to be breakfast, so I figure he/she (how do you tell?!) was just curious.

These guys never did much but look left and right, and stare at us, and I finally had to leave so we could finish and go get breakfast. Sure enough, as soon as we work our way to the south side of the lake, the 2 in the tree went fishing.

And, of course, I'm not anywhere near close enough to get a good shot.

(sigh)... there's always tomorrow!!!

Hope you enjoyed....

Oh Snap - Only the White Ones!!!

One of Journey's favorite activities is to munch on his feet. I'm looking into whether it's actually an obsessive behavior, but in the mean time, makes for great images!

Most mornings sun pours in through the kitchen window, creating a hot spot on the carpet. Skittles and Journey love to lay down in it, and it's fun to watch them scootch along just to stay in the spot as it moves.

But this time Journey sat up just at the edge of the light, and turned away from the window to do a little munching. Lucky for me he's finally turned toward me!

The carpet reflected a small amount of light back onto his face, and it looked too good to pass up. I'm betting if he'd been a black Lab, the reflected light wouldn't have been enough. You need a white dog for these shots!!!!

My favorites:

Gotta love it - every day new flavors!!

Gotta dig for the tastier morsels though...

Again with the camera? Really?!?!

Psst - Skittles! He still watching???

Hope you enjoy....

Boy, that Dish is a Beauty!

I recently acquired a 22" Beauty Dish - two of them as a matter of fact. The first one was on purpose, the 2nd a pleasant surprise. For those that haven't seen one, a beauty dish is made up of a, well, a dish! A hole in the center accommodates the strobe, and a blocking plate sits in front of the flash tube to bounce the direct light back and spread it over the dish.

For White Lightning/Alien-Bees strobes, there's an additional hole that accommodates mounting the blocking plate via the umbrella shaft holder. The dish I ordered (silver, hi-output model) came without this very crucial feature.

Paul Buff's company was really cool - they accepted my proposal to just drill out the hole myself, and they sent me their white Beauty dish as an apology - two for the price of one and a little labor!

Anyway, haven't had a chance to play with a live model yet, so decided to practice with Tammie...

So, first I worked with the white beauty dish and got a setup I liked. Lots of shooters I've talked with haven't really liked beauty dishes, say the light is too harsh, etc. I haven't decided yet, but I tried a setup I read about from David Hobby.

One rule of thumb I'd heard was to place the beauty dish so the distance equaled the diameter. So, I placed the dish about 22" away from Tammie, camera right and high enough to create nice shadows. At that distance the dish has what I'd call a softer hard light. The shadows are distinctive but without the sharp edge true hard light produces.

2 rim lights: one on camera left to lift the shadows (dial the intensity to taste), the 2nd camera right to pop her hair and shoulder from the background. One background light to separate her right side from the background.

Then I played with the placement of the light blocker to see what would happen. I turned off all the other strobesand shot with the blocker in 2 different positions - 2" away from the flash tube, and then all the way out till the plate was even with the outer rim of the dish. Here's what I found:

White Dish, plate in tight

Blocker plate even with outer rim

Compare the 2 images closely (click on them to see larger versions) and you'll see the light gets softer when the plate is pulled back. The difference isn't major, but definitely visible. Also, notice that with the plate in tight, some of the light hits the background enough to lift it slightly. Implies to me that light falloff is faster when the plate is further from the flash tube.

I also wanted to compare the silver to the white, so I left everything where it was, but swapped out the white and ran the same test.

Silver Dish, plate in tight:

Blocker plate even with outer rim

Because the silver dish puts out more light, I metered and adjusted to get back to f/11 for a fair comparison. I saw the same shift in light quality by moving the plates to the 2 extremes, and if I look closely enough I can see another subtle difference between the dishes themselves.

Light from the silver dish seems to be just a bit crisper. The light on her hair is just a bit more specular. And that's what the silver dish is supposed to do - enhance specular reflections. I don't notice the shine on the bridge of her nose changing, but I DO see the shift in her hair.

Means there's interesting possibilities depending on clothing, accessories, etc...

Interesting comparison, and definitely worth the time. Helps me get to know my equipment better. Do you see anything I missed?

And I don't know, but it seems to me the one-light shots are pretty interesting all by themselves...

The images are straight out of the camera, and only cropped to get the comparison shots to roughly match. I wasn't shooting on a tripod, and every change meant setting down the camera.

Hope you enjoyed...

Oh Snap - A Misty Crowd

Foggy morning walk, took my camera again, just in case, and ran into a plethora (Si Hefe, I KNOW what a plethora is!) of birds on the south lake. We walked down toward the edge of the water, and the birds shied away. But after sitting for awhile, they started coming back closer.

They were all over! In the water, skimming the water and flying above, filling the sky. It was such a cool view as they flew in and out of the mist.

This morning's images just seemed to beg for B&W treatment, and leaving the grainy effects from the higher ISO seemed appropriate too.

These were my favorites...

My dog's favorites were all the goose droppings everywhere you looked. You ever try to hold a camera still while your dog stretches the leash for that tasty morsel just out of reach?

Needless to say, no doggy kisses this morning!

Hope you enjoy...

Oh Snap - A Sunny Moon Shot

This morning had a couple interesting opportunities - first we ran into some geese in a tree, then as we were headed home I caught some interesting cloud work. There were 2 layers, a slow moving cloud up high, and some faster moving fog just above the ground.

I've seen a ton of "moon mixed with clouds" shots and have taken my share. But I rarely see a combination that lets me play with the sun in a similar manner.

I caught several interesting takes, but this was my favorite:

Image feels kind of cold, but that's how the morning felt as we walked. With a light breeze, every time the clouds blocked the sun the air turned cold. Then it would break out and things would warm up nicely. Made for an interesting walk, but my poor girl Skittles kepting getting cold!

Now the shot above looks cool to me, but when I got home and played with a little solorization filtering, I got this:

So - which do you like better???

Hope you enjoyed...

Up A Tree

I don't think I've ever seen or heard of something like this before, how 'bout you? Geese up a tree?? It would be more funny if you pulled my finger instead of pulling my leg...

But there they were, transfixed on something across the creek on the golf course. The tree had recently been cut down to the trunk, and shortly after 2 geese took up residence on top. No, they didn't stay there all day, but pretty much every morning you'll find them up that tree.

Most days they're more animated, but this morning they remained frozen in place, and beyond an occasional look around, they kept staring south. I never figured out what it was.

I took my camera on my morning walk with my Puddies hoping to see more of the eagles that have been hanging around lately. Never saw them, but have to wonder if they saw one I couldn't. I know nothing about Geese, don't know what scares or concerns them enough to ignore me and my 2 dogs, but whatever it was, it allowed me to get up real close.

On other mornings as we walked past the tree, they'd be prancing and squawking almost as soon as they saw us till we were way past. Not this morning. No matter how close we got, they stayed locked on whatever was out there.

Now you'll rarely see a standing goose from this perspective, and you may be wondering why you would ever want to, then you might start wondering why I would - not exactly a picture you want to buy and hang on your wall now, is it?!

But see? I'm right under the tree, back just far enough and they're not even checking me out. Oh they did take a quick glance when I lifted my camera, but that's all the reaction I got. I was hoping to catch a good reflection in their eyes (those black eyes are hard to capture) but no luck.

So, a parting shot as we left them behind. I like this shot for some reason - the cut mark from the chain saw, the sheared face where a fork used to be and the geese just visible over the top of the stump. Hey - how high can a trunk be and still be called a stump??? This thing was probably 15' high.

Hope you enjoyed...

Oh Snap!

This morning while my dogs and I were out walking we passed by the lake that's part of our subdivision. Once again, I'd headed out without my camera. And as usual, when I do that, something cool usually comes across my path.

In this case it was Eagles - 6 to be exact. 5 adults and one youngster that hadn't gotten his white feathers yet. Or should I say, I saw one, grabbed my phone and called my friend Carol, told her to grab her camera and get out there before he flew away. Figured that by the time I walked the dogs back, got my rig and came out he'd be gone.

And, once again as usual, I was wrong. Carol calls seconds after I get home and tells me he's still there. Grab my gear and hustle back out! Get there and that's when we starting counting and found 4 more adults. The youngster I first identified as a Hawk cause of the coloring. Carol realized he was a young eagle when he flew closer.

Anyway, here's some of the best shots I could get. REALLY REALLY want a 500 or 600 prime for this stuff, that 100-400 doesn't get me close enough.... Some of these were cropped, and you can tell... But still, I had a great time!