I'm Moving

The time has come for me to move on to a new blogging platform. While blogspot has been great for me in the past, I felt that I needed a little more ability to set my template, I wanted more access to logging, and a little more control over the server. From now on, my blog will be hosted at blog.journeyoflight.com. If you follow my blog regularly, go ahead and join the new blog as a subscriber. I will no longer be updating derrald.blogspot.com. I look forward to seeing you on the other side!

ConnectIT Ad

Recently, I've been venturing outside of my norm and taking photographs of some really different subjects. The other day I photographed some jeans for a ConnectIT ad. The jeans work really well into the marketing message of the company. It was an enjoyable experience and I always like to stretch myself photographically when possible. I still like doing the nature bit, but this project was pretty cool.

Balancing Family, Life, and Photography

Canada Goose Profile

One of the things that I have found since becoming a father, is that it is can be difficult to find the time to capture images as I once did. In the past, I could leave and take photographs on a whim - I would look at the weather patterns, scout locations, and simply go if the conditions were right. Recently, I find that it just isn't that easy anymore - nor do I find myself as compelled previously. It's not that I don't have the same desire to photograph the world as I once did, it's just that there are times that I find myself in a field waiting for a sunset and I'd rather be home with my wife and daughter. My favorite times to photograph are when my daughter is with me and she is exploring the world, and I follow this exploration through my lens. This photograph is one such example. She loves to go see the ducks at Schramm State Recreation Area, and as such my collection of duck/bird photographs has increased considerably. By the way, she still thinks that Geese are ducks, although occasionally she will say "Geese!" to both geese and ducks. I try not to confuse her too much.

Our vacations have changed as well. We try to stick closer to home, and I've modified my schedule somewhat. I will still go out before sunrise to try and get that glorious morning shot, but the middle of my day is spent with activities with my family. I will still take photographs, but I really enjoy seeing how my daughter is reacting to her environment and the sights around her. I feel that my photography has evolved since she has come into the world - for the better. As I have said before, she has given me a new view of the world - I see things that before I may have passed over.

I will still continue to travel and photograph and I hope that as my daughter grows she will join me on these adventures. Who knows, maybe some day she'll pick up a camera and follow her daddy. All I know is that my life has changed and that I enjoy sharing the world with her. I continue to check out sunrises and sunsets, just sometimes it will be without a camera and with my daughter.

Canon 50d, 300 f/4l + 1.4tc, f/5.6, 1/125 sec.

Schramm State Recreation Area, Nebraska

DeSoto Show, Postcards, and Screen Savers

Today is the first day of my show at DeSoto National Wildlife Refuge. This is going to run until the end of May, if you get an opportunity to visit this beautiful refuge be sure to take in a few (39) photographs as well. In addition to the show, I have produced 2 postcard designs and a screen saver that will be sold in the gift shop. These are nice 5x7 cards as shown above.

Directions and more information on DeSoto National Wildlife Refuge is available at: http://www.fws.gov/midwest/desoto/

After the Rain

Today's image was taken the same day as yesterday's, just a little after. I moved to the right of the road and continued to use the widest angle to accentuate the length of the road.

The sun had just set and the clouds were picking up an intense magenta hue. I really wanted to show the sky as well, so I came close to cutting the image in half with the horizon, but cut the sky back a bit so it wasn't quite 50% of the image.

Technical Details:

Canon 5d Mark II, 17-40 f/4l @ 17mm, f/11, 1.6 sec., 3-stop Singh-Ray 2-stop Hard ND Grad

Boyer Chute National Wildlife Refuge, Nebraska

Early Spring Rain

A couple of days ago I returned to Boyer Chute National Wildlife Refuge after a soft spring rain to capture the clouds as they moved off from the storm. I always love the effects of this weather - the smell in the air, the reflecting puddles, and of course the light that can be captured right after a good rain. Here, a road that bisects part of the plain at the refuge had just been plowed and the rain left several nice puddles in the texture of the mud. I wanted to capture the road with the sky to give the full effect of the weather on this landscape so I used a vertical composition to elongate the road and accentuate the feel of the distance.

Technical Details:
Canon 5d Mark II, 17-40 f/4l @ 17mm, f/11, .4 sec., Singh-Ray 2-stop hard ND grad
Boyer Chute National Wildlife Refuge, Nebraska

Gentle Meander - Outdoor Photographer

Yesterday I received my April issue of Outdoor Photographer and within its covers is an article I wrote with my photograph "Gentle Meander". It is a piece on Boyer Chute National Wildlife Refuge near Ft. Calhoun, Nebraska. In the next couple of days I will post a couple of new images from this park.

This article can also be read online at: http://www.outdoorphotographer.com/locations/north-america/favorite-places-boyer-chute-national-wildlife-refuge-fort-calhoun-nebraska.html

Muskrat Profile

Squaw Creek has many muskrat huts throughout the refuge. It is not unusual to see many of these guys working away, eating, or just swimming around. They are a little skittish and don't like it when you get out of your car. I managed to capture a few of them, but when you approach they tend to dive under the water and never come back up. In this case, this guy was close to shore and I was able to stick half my body out of the window to get a tighter shot. When I finally did open the door, he took off. I don't like startling these guys too much so I moved on. I never really knew that much about muskrats before taking this guys photo so I did a bit of research. Here's a tidbit of what I found out (wikipedia - it's probably accurate - right?)

Muskrats are found over most of Canada and the United States and a small part of northern Mexico. They always inhabit wetlands, areas in or near salt and fresh-water marshlands, rivers, lakes, or ponds. They are not found in the state of Florida where the round-tailed muskrat, or Florida water rat.

Muskrats continue to thrive in most of their native habitat and in areas where they have been introduced. While much wetland habitat has been eliminated due to human activity, new muskrat habitat has been created by the construction of canals or irrigation channels and the muskrat remains common and wide-spread.

Muskrats are most active at night or near dawn and dusk. They feed on cattails and other aquatic vegetation. They do not store food for the winter, but sometimes eat the insides of their lodges or steal food that beavers have stored. Plant materials make up about 95 percent of their diets, but they also eat small animals such as freshwater mussels, frogs, crayfish, fish, and small turtles.

For this image I utilized a Nik plug-in called "Vienza". It allows spot changes to saturation, contast, and brightness. I was a little skeptical about this product as I figured I could always mask the object in photoshop and apply whatever I needed to the mask, but I find that this plug-in helps cut down on the work. I am sure at this point, I am only scratching the surface of what it can do, but here it helped me apply a bit more saturation to the muskat, raise the brightess on the facial area, and increase the contrast slightly for a little more pop.

Technical Details:
Canon 50d, 300 f/4l + 1/4tc, f/7.1, 1/1000 sec.
Squaw Creek National Wildlife Refuge, Missouri

Togetherness

I made it down to Squaw Creek again for another trip on the way through to Kansas City. On one of the trips around the lake, I captured these two Canada geese hanging out on a muskrat hut. They just watched as I took their photo, content to be together. I felt the black and white treatment here was the best to isolate the subjects.

Technical Details:
Canon 50d, 300 f/4l + 1.4tc, f/8, 1/1600 sec.
Squaw Creek National Wildlife Refuge

Coot on the Run

I wanted to get some up close shots of the Snow Geese at Squaw Creek, but every time I got fairly close, they decided to up and run away. So, I tried my hand at the American Coots. I got a little close, and when they go they almost look like little road runners before they take off.

Technical Details:
Canon 50d, 300 f/4l + 1.4tc, f/5.6, 1/8000 sec.
Squaw Creek National Wildlife Refuge, Missouri

Tornado of Birds

Another type of image I wanted to capture from the visit to Squaw Creek was a wide-angle view of all the birds. In this photograph, some of the birds are discernible, while the majority exist only as a large black wave in the background. This really exemplifies the shear magnitude of this flock of geese on the lake.

Technical Details:
Canon 5d Mark II, 17-40 f/4l @ 40mm, f/7.1, 1/2000 sec.
Squaw Creek National Wildlife Refuge, Missouri

Snow Goose Abstract

For today's image, I wanted to shoot directly into the flock of snow geese in such a way, that unless you knew that they were birds, you might not be able to ascertain what exactly the photograph was. Here, I waited until they were really stirred up by something and then shot several directly into the storm of birds. It appears as an abstract with black and white and small touches of blue.

Technical Details:
Canon 50d, 300 f/4l + 1.4tc, f/5.6, 1/2500 sec.
Squaw Creek National Wildlife Refuge, Missouri

Ready.... Set.... Go!

A few days ago I mentioned that I made it down to Squaw Creek National Wildlife Refuge for the snow geese migration. It was quite an experience, one that is hard to describe without being there. Today's image is just a minute selection of the birds that were hanging out on the lake. Here, the they are defined and you can actually see individual birds. In the next couple of days I will post some that simply look like an abstract painting. I wanted to post this image first so that you could get an idea of what a snow goose actually looks like if you haven't seen one.

Technical Details:
Canon 5d Mark II, 300 f/4l, f/4, 1/2500 sec.
Squaw Creek National Wildlife Refuge, Missouri

Little Blue Jay

I made a trek down to Squaw Creek National Wildlife Refuge yesterday since they had over one million snow geese and 150 bald eagles. Recently, I rebuilt my computer to install the latest version of Photoshop and I haven't had an opportunity to color profile my monitor again, so I will have a lot of work when that is done. In the meantime, I found this blue jay photograph that I took on one of my circles around the lake.

Technical Details:
Canon 50d, 300 f/4l + 1.4tc, f/7.1, 1/2000 sec.
Squaw Creek National Wildlife Refuge, Missouri

Bashful

A couple of weeks ago I managed to capture this image of a duck at Scramm State Recreation Area. While I like the color version of this image, the thing that really drew me into this photograph was the composition. To accentuate the composition, I decided to remove the color. I used a new plugin, Nik Silver Efex Pro to do the conversion. This is the first time I have used that utility and I found that I liked the results and the ease at which I was able to do it. It definitely opened some good Black and White possibilities for me.

Technical Details:
Canon 50d, 300 f/4l + 1.4tc, f/6.3, 1/1600 sec.
Schramm State Recreation Area, Nebraska

Bark Abstract

Some images lend themselves to abstraction. There is some debate in the photographic community of what constitutes an abstract photograph. Some believe it needs to not be recognizable, while others say it must simply be patterns and shapes that can lend itself to imagination. Frankly, I am in the latter. If you can recognize it, yet still enjoy it for the patterns, shapes, and colors without it relying on the subject I believe that an abstract photograph can succeed. Today's image is that of tree bark with some moss for color. It could have also been an image of cliffs and valleys from high above the earth, or broken rocks on a shore.

Technical Details:
Canon 50d, 300 f/4l + 1.4tc, f/9, 1/80 sec.
DeSoto National Wildlife Refuge, Nebraska/Iowa

Flying High

Today's image was taken a couple of weeks ago when I went to DeSoto National Wildlife Refuge to capture some sunset images. The sunset fizzled, but there were plenty of geese flying around overhead and I captured this when they flew directly over me. The pattern this creates in the sky is always different and always fascinates me.

Technical Details:
Canon 50d, 300 f/4l+1.4tc, f/6.3, 1/400 sec.
DeSoto National Wildlife Refuge, Iowa/Nebraska

A Brief Glimpse of Spring

Last week the highs were in the 60s and the birds were out chirping. I couldn't help but go capture a couple of images of the robins as they scurried around in the warm sun.

Technical Details:
Canon 50d, 300 f/4l + 1.4tc, f/5.6, 1/640 sec.
OPPD Arboretum, Omaha, Nebraska

Tonight the Storm Comes

This photograph was taken last weekend at DeSoto National Wildlife Refuge, while the last bit of sun was just touching the upper clouds. This is the storm coming across the plains that brought the snow that I photographed in downtown Omaha. It came fast and pelted some cold snow across the lake making the walk back to my car nice and icy cold.

Technical Details:
Canon 5d Mark II, 17-40 f/4l @ 17mm, f/16, .6 sec.
DeSoto National Wildlife Refuge

Focus on Feather

This weekend I had the opportunity to spend some time at DeSoto National Wildlife Refuge on a beautiful almost 60 degree day in February. I drove around and managed to see several hawks, a bald eagle, and numerous geese. I also got out and hiked a bit and came across this feather. I found a fallen tree that had begun decomposing and I liked the pattern in the wood. I laid the feather across the grain in such a way that the pattern of the feature was perpendicular for some visual interest. The dappled light created by the trees added a nice effect on the composition as well.

Technical Details:
Canon 5d Mark II, 50 CM lens, f/32, 1/25 sec.
DeSoto National Wildlife Refuge, Nebraska