Home Donate New Search Gallery How-To Books Links Workshops About Contact
Yellowstone
08
August 2009, Saturday
© 2010 KenRockwell.com. All rights reserved.
Today we enjoyed breakfast, and headed out with a Canon 800mm f/5.6 L IS lens looking for animals.
Yellow, 11:29 AM. Canon 5D Mark II, 28-300mm L IS at 300mm, hand-held.
Bison, 2,000 feet away, 11:29 AM. Canon 5D Mark II, Canon 800mm f/5.6 L IS and Canon EF 1.4x II extender equals 1,120 mm, on pod. Bigger.
Hmm, even with a 1,120mm lens, you have to get closer. The light was completely overcast, too.
Bison, 10 feet away, 12:15 PM. Canon 5D Mark II,Canon EF 100-400mm IS L at 220mm, hand held.
Ahh! Much better!
Scenery, 12:49 PM. Canon 5D Mark II, 24-70mm f/2.8 L at 66mm.
After seeing the scenic waterfall, we pulled over and ate the sandwiches we had procured earlier.
Puppy's Paradise, 3:18 PM. Canon SX1 IS at 19.8mm, which on its tiny sensor is equivalent to a 110mm lens on full-frame.
Bison at 500 feet, 4:00 PM. Canon SX1 IS at 81mm, which on its tiny sensor is equivalent to a 450mm lens on full-frame.
Hee hee, Canon makes some point-and-shoots with extremely long lenses that work great, so long as the animals aren't running.
Stripe, 4:03 PM. Canon 5D Mark II, Canon EF 28-300mm L IS at 65mm.
Snuggle, 4:04 PM. Canon 5D Mark II, Canon EF 28-300mm L IS at 300mm.
Swell photo, even if we had no light. Let's crop it a little:
Crop from above.
I had to dodge (lighten) the mommy bison with a curves adjustment layer mask in Photoshop. Otherwise, she was a completely black blob. This is why light is so critical.
Approaching Storm, 4:59 PM. Canon 5D Mark II, Canon EF 28-300mm L IS at 285mm.
Aha! Light approaches! Light gets good when it emphasizes things. In this case, the light is peeking through a cloud to light the trees, while ominous storm clouds muster along the horizon. When the foreground is lighter than the background, it makes the subject stand out and look three-dimensional. Yay!
We were driving along, and someone asked "Want to go to Montana?" A couple of us had never been there before, so of course we said YES!
Thus we drove a few miles up to Gardiner, Montana, which isn't far off from the park.
Gardiner, Montana, 6:24 PM. Canon 5D Mark II, Canon EF 28-300mm L IS at 35mm.
Gardiner, Montana, 6:46 PM. Canon 5D Mark II, Canon 270EX flash, Canon EF 28-300mm L IS at 40mm.
Hey, I've never been to Montana before, so even if we were only there for a few minutes, you gotta get the picture while you can.
Mammoth, Wyoming, 6:46 PM. Canon 5D Mark II, Canon 270EX flash, Canon EF 28-300mm L IS at 60mm.
Thinking of it, I've never been to Wyoming before, except for this weekend.
Wet Rainbow, 7:56 PM. Canon 5D Mark II, Canon EF 28-300mm L IS at 35mm.
As the storm got closer, rain and thus rainbows appeared. I snapped this out the rental truck window. Darn, the Canon EF 28-300mm L IS is a very handy lens to shoot all day, so long as you're not carrying it all day.
Toilets, 8:42 PM. Canon 5D Mark II, Auto ISO 1,000, Canon 24mm f/1.4 L II, f/1.4 at 1/20, hand-held. bigger.
Back at the Inn, I tried the Canon 24mm f/1.4 L II for a few snaps.
We had breakfast in town the next day, and I flew on to New York (see photos).
NEXT DAY > > I Flew on to New York City.
Home Donate New Search Gallery How-To Books Links Workshops About Contact