We just love watching the birds at a feeder on our deck each day. Of course we have to chase away some of the squirrels.
I was wanting to shoot some photos and it was raining–then I thought let me show you how to do this in the rain.
We enjoy our bird feeder and the birds that visit us.
By using a flash I can somewhat capture the bird in flight. Actually I startled the bird with the flashes.
Here is the simple setup. I did this while it was raining and so I covered the flashes with zip lock bags to keep them dry.
Since it was raining it was darker than normal and the flashes helped light up the birds but the background disappears.
I decided to put one flash pointing to the background (see setup below) to help keep the background from disappearing. However the birds had stopped for a while visiting when I was doing this.
The Nikon SB900 flash to the far right is set on 200mm zoom. This helps put the light on the distant trees. The light to the right is lighting the bird feeder and any birds.
Years ago, I found myself in some pretty small areas. While photographing research labs, I was photographing what felt like the inside of a closet. So finally, I bought a fish eye 16mm Nikon f/2.8 lens. It gives me a 180-degree view.
Example of using the wide angle to capture research in a very tight space.Looking closely, you can see the photo’s glass wall to my far left. I am less than a foot from the subject when making this photo. Thank goodness for the super wide-angle lens.
Nikon 16mm ƒ/2.8
This past weekend, it came in handy to help capture what it was like to ride in a biplane for my wife and me.
Here is Dorie and me before our flight over to Atlanta.
Any standard wide-angle lens would give me a portrait at best and not capture the environment. So if you have very little space, this lens will help you capture the small room.
In a tiny cockpit, the 16mm lens helps get both of us into the photo.
Sometimes you have a big sky and want to capture the things close to the camera and the expanse around it. Here shooting out of the cockpit, I caught the feeling I had being in the cockpit and looking out. What did I want the photo to do for you–I wanted you to get an excellent feel for flying. How did I do?
When photographing with a wing below you is brutal if doing aerial photography, but to show where you are, the 16mm captures the view from the cockpit.The 16mm gives you a 180-degree view of the front of the plane.
When you are in tight spaces like a room the size of a closet, the 16mm helps you get wide enough. What surprised me is how often, in the big open spaces, the 16mm can work and give you a unique and intimate view.
What are some ways you have used a fish eye lens? Let me hear from you in the comments below.
Reading Time: 2minutesThere are a lot of events in the Atlanta area to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the book Gone with the Wind.
If you’re in or around the city, consider these venues:
— The exhibit Atlanta’s Book: The Lost Gone With the Wind Manuscript (June 4-Sept. 5) at the Atlanta History Center features the final four chapters of Mitchell’s recently rediscovered manuscript (once thought to have been burned by her husband after her death). The exhibit also features the first-ever public display of Mitchell’s writing desk.
— Margaret Mitchell House tours showcase the Crescent Avenue apartment (which she affectionately called “The Dump”) and feature exhibits on Mitchell’s pre- and post-GWTW life, along with details on the making of the movie.
Other GWTW-related doings in Georgia:
— Marietta Gone With The Wind Museum: Scarlett on the Square, June 10-11, will stage a tribute to Mitchell with several cast members from the movie, along with question and answer sessions and a literary panel.
— On June 11, the Road to Tara Museum in Jonesboro will feature costumed storytellers linking the history of the town with stories from the book.
In 2003 the BBC sent a reporter to the Road to Tara Museum to film for the special on “Gone with the Wind” It was rated in the top book favorites of all time for the BBC audience.
At first we just posed with the BBC reporter and the Scarlett O’Hara look alike.
We had a little more fun with their expressions.
Today I would shoot it differently than I did in 2003. I would want to shoot later in the day to have the lights in the house show up. I would have more dramatic lighting by not lighting everything as evenly as I did here.
I enjoyed shooting this and remembered it when I saw the latest news about events celebrating the book this year.
Here you can see my first major tornado that hit my last semester in college at East Carolina University.
I started my career in the 80’s and one of the first disasters I saw and covered for my college paper was a F4 tornado. There were 16 deaths and 153 injuries. The tornado was up to 3/4 of a mile in width. Portions of East Carolina University were severely damaged. 300 homes were leveled, most in Greenville, NC. My good friend Jesse Riggs lost family members that night.
No matter how many times you see disasters each time I feel a numbness come over me for the loss of life and property. You are sad for those who are having to rebuild their lives.
On November 10, 2002, a tornado destroyed 50 homes. At least seven people were killed in the Morgan County community of Mossy Grove in eastern Tennessee. I was looking for an overall perspective up the mountain when I shot this photo.
The tornado cut a swath about a mile wide and a mile long. The hard part when covering these disasters is showing items to give a sense of scale and what is destroyed. Here I wanted to show the cars overturned for scale and what happened.
What always amazes me is the quickness of the national media on covering these events.
What I realized over the years covering these events is that the national media always took the time even in a disaster to get the best lighting for a shot. Notice the hair light above the reporter in addition to the main light. This helped to separate the reporter from the early dawn background.
Just hours before a tornado destroyed this community
The national media all find similar angles to show the destruction to their viewers. Here you can see three networks all lined up for their early morning news shows. I chose to shoot this to show how a nation was mourning for the folks.
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