The Long March — Jon's Photoblog

It's been a long month. The milder weather has wreaked havoc on my outings. I'm good for -15C to -30C, but that gear is too warm for above -15C and I need to rethink what I need. It's an odd problem to have, to be sure, but I find I'm getting colder sooner and it's cutting my outings short.

Not to mention for most of the weekends the skies were a flat grey and I'm finding it hard to revisit all the nearby places, only to find them a bit more drab and worn as the winter draws to a close. Example:

I never thought I was subject to Seasonal Affective Disorder, but perhaps I am. Or perhaps I'm just craving some good light.

On the plus side, I feel like I'm able to slow down and think longer and more interestingly about a scene. Stop, look, listen, think: what's the story, what's the mood, what is the subject? It's nice to feel that brain shift rather than clicking the shutter first and then wondering what the heck I just did.

On the technical side, I have a couple new lenses. First, a Pentax 16-50 f2.8 zoom. The difference in sharpness is incredible. Unfortunately it won't show on this website, since I have to scale the images down below the resolution power of the lens, but trust me, it's fantastic :) Though it doesn't give macro results, I was able to use it to photograph some of my friend's miniatures and terrain at a local gaming convention. The miniatures are 25mm tall, and the old lens would never have been as clear. These are hand-held at 1/15th second, which is a testament to the effectiveness of Pentax's shake-reduction feature:

Back to the landscapes, I did try to make the best of the light, wading through crusty snow that sometimes held my weight, and sometimes had me sunk to the hips. But there's something about the glow of poplars that is appealing, and I could ignore the ice invading my trail shoes:

A few days later the weather finally started to shift. We had an intense southerly wind, and the sky, while still dark and foreboding, became a lot more interesting. This is a river, and just behind me it plunges into a series of rapids. But when the furious gusts of wind died down, the current pulled all the surface disturbance away. A long exposure of several seconds helped smooth the water. A couple different takes on the same scene:

That day was also bountiful for wildlife returning to our frozen north. I'd scarcely seen a moving thing all winter, but that day graced me with deer, mink, geese and ducks, a loud pair of trumpeter swans, and several eagles. I have an order in for a new telephoto lens for wildlife, but my 55-300 zoom didn't do too badly, even in the low light.

With all the wind, these deer didn't hear me coming. I managed to duck down behind a screen of bushes. They saw the movement, but couldn't figure out what I was, and so the more curious of the group came to investigate:

The funny thing was I had to hide behind my camera pack while I tried to quickly change lenses, get all my camera settings right, and then try not to move too much while picking a clear spot in the bushes to shoot through. I was crouched in the most uncomfortable position, and finally I couldn't take it, I had to move my legs, and the second I did...

Unfortunately swift auto-focus is not a Pentax speciality, so that was blurry, and so was the mink, but I'm including it just because it was a special moment for me:

I have also purchased a proper macro lens, and it arrived just in time for this outing. I'm still learning how to use it, and it's clear if you want any depth of field at all you need a ton of light so you can close down the lens and still get a good shutter speed. But I think there is potential:

Last weekend turned a bit more sunny. I had planned to spend the entire day at Grand Beach. The weather was mild, around -5C, but the wind was howling down from the north-west. This made for an interesting and ever-changing sky:

The lake is still encased in ice, but the beach itself has been scoured clean in many places.

Several eagles and an osprey floated overhead, though none were close enough for a good shot. But what I found interesting were the crows. They were constantly moving in a flock up and down the beach, using the updrafts caused by the dunes above the beach to wheel and dive and play and chase each other around. It went on all day. I wasn't sure if they were pairing off and squabbling over mates, because a lot of them had sticks in their beaks, as if to demonstrate their nesting ability:

They also weren't shy about checking me out...or maybe it was the almonds I was eating they were hoping for:

The squabbling wasn't confined to the air. The groups regularly landed and harassed each other, their feet and feathers making a mess in the snow. Luckily I chanced upon this perfect impression:

Here it is in the larger context, you can see the leeward side of the dune is quite disturbed, while the windward side is pristine:

Some impressions weren't caused by the living. The sand blows over the snow, and when the sun returns it melts around the sand, causing these fantastic formations:

Eventually the wind brought colder temperatures. I had planned to stick around until sunset, but this was as close as I got:

With the new lens I had to buy a new filter, and decided to get a 2-stop graduated filter--the top half is two-stops darker than the bottom half. This lets you control better for bright skies and dark foregrounds. Of course, I decided to test it by shooting right into the sun...not exactly what it's meant for. But still I kind of like the effect. Unfortunately my new lens flares green, which distracts from the natural sundog right of the sun.

At this point I'd had enough. It was another 45 minutes to sundown, the wind was a solid blast, and by the time I got back to the car the temperature had dropped 10C. For the first time this year, my fingers were lifeless digits. I've been warmer at -30! So I fled, like a rabbit from a dog.

But as I warmed up in the car on the way home I kept an eye on the sun, and found a road which led back to the lake. The road was new to me and it was interesting to explore a new place. Eventually I stepped out long enough to grab this shot. There wasn't time to get down to the rocks, but it looks like a scenic place for "next time":

While sunset-hunting, I spotted a well-camouflaged grouse by the roadside:

Later I'm sure a bear crossed the road ahead of me, but it disappeared quickly into the forest. Finally, some deer in a field paused long enough for a nice shot:

But they were skittish:

I'm looking forward to the new telephoto. With the zoom, it's nominally an f5.8, but it's really only clear at f8. The new lens should be clear at f4, which should give a lot more light to work with.

Looking forward to Spring now, and the new photo opportunities it will bring. Cheers!

Apr 5 The Long March

Apr 25 The Ice Man Goeth

Mar 18 Dog Days of Winter

Related Posts