Finally at the Barnegat Lighthouse

From a previous blog, you know we had intended all along to go to Barnegat Lighthouse to view what wildlife we could see but ended up at the Edwin Forsyth area. Our plan was to see the Harlequin ducks. After the detour we finally made it. Sunday was a bright day so we knew we would have good light (and as you may have guessed, we Chased the Light!). The trip is about an hour and a half so you can't be too sure what weather will prevail until you get there because it is winter and it is along the shore. Changes may come about in just a few hours time. The lighthouse is 165' tall, colored white at the base and red on the top half and a first order Fresnel lens, which simply means the lens has prisms designed into it instead of just a giant convex lens. Early versions were of one piece of glass where newer ones were of several pieces. They directed light in several directions at once and also magnified it at the same time. The lighthouse was commissioned in 1859 and designed by Lt. George Meade (later to be Gen. George Meade of Civil War fame) who also oversaw the construction of the project.
The lighthouse has a long paved walk for handicap accessibility that takes you about 100 yards out along the inlet. Barnegat is one of the worst inlets along New jersey coastline because of the shifting sands and currents that come in and out. The new jetty has a lot to do with safer conditions navigating the sound. Past the concrete jetty are large boulders that allow travel further out. All are flat on top and although some are naturally flat or were excavated that way, many have manmade flattened tops to make travel on foot easier. if you are not comfortable walking all the way out you can walk the shore and then climb back on the jetty. Sheryll chose this option for some of the distance. In all fairness, walking is easier and you can make better time. Just get back on the jetty where all the cameras are pointing. Birding is a popular event along the jetty and many species are seen. Brandts, mergansers, loons, longtails, scoters and eiders swim beside the jetty and on the jetty are purple plovers and turnstones. Fisherman use the jetty also. So photographic opportunities abound.
Harlequin ducks are only visiting during the coldest part of the winter and are usually found much further north in the rocky New England coast. They are a medium sized duck but very colorful. Bodies are a blueish grey with bright rust colored sides and strokes of white with black outlines on their bodies. They move along quickly as they bob up and down in between occasional dives under water. Although they don't seem to be moving, it takes a pretty fast shutter speed to keep them sharp. Even at 1/250 sec @f8 they are not tack sharp. They may look OK in the view finder but when viewed full screen on the monitor they are not as clear as you would like. Luckily, with good light, faster shutter speeds are an available option. You could also up the ISO rating but you should be aware of where your camera begins to become an issue with noise and stay below that. Of course, in the brightness of day this should be a non issue. You may just begin to lose some definition if you go too high.
As well as the 80-400mm lens, I also put my Tokina 12-24mm wide angle in my coat pocket to get a different perspective of the jetty on the way back. This is a cool lens and one I don't use enough. It can really make you look at a subject differently and get a little more creative in the process. It focuses very close, about 18", and has a great hyper focal distance. I got down amongst the rocks and it gave me a view different than looking down all the time. I converted the on e shot into an HDR and was happy with the results. This was a three shot mix using Photomatix 4. This is a great program I am planning to cover shortly in a future blog.
If you're looking for a different type of duck that is a rare visitor or intriqued by a chance to walk along some giant rocks, Barnegat lighthouse may be what you are looking for. Remember,
Always go to the light,
Steve

Upgrading to PhotoShop Elements 9

There are so many options to choose from when it comes to editing pictures. Of course, the granddaddy of all is the Photoshop Creative Suites (CS5) and it's not cheap at $650. It offers more than anyone will ever use. There are a few specialty editing programs from ArcSoft that are used by specific business' that come close to the price and editing features of CS5. Below this step are your Lightroom and Aperture. Both excellent at organizing libraries of images and quite a bit of editing capabilities but you still need an editor to complete the process. The next level are the consumer based programs. Corel Paint Shop Photo Pro, ACDSee Photo Editor and Photoshop Elements are all included and can do just about anything you need for most work. Of course, you can't forget the free programs such as Picasso and GIMP.
Several years ago we decided on using Elements. There are many who downplay the capabilities because it won't use 16 bit mode, only 8, and there are other controls in each option that give you greater control over the image while working in it, especially in the layers. Does 8 bit or 16 bit matter? Yes. Do you want to work with 16 million colors or 281 trillion colors? Do the math. There are huge differences in 16 bit and the image is basically being worked in while not losing any quality. 8 bit will lose some quality as the colors are just not available. But do I want to spend $650 on a editing program. Or, Can I spend $650 on editing program? Guess you know by now what that answer was. No doubt, if circumstances change I will make the expensive move. You need to keep in mind that .jpeg itself is only an 8 bit format. So, we work in RAW, do as much work in 16 bit mode as we can, save in .PSD and then when needed we save as a .jpeg. I need to add a BIG disclaimer here. I am by no means a Photoshop pro or a math genius nor do I profess to be. I try to hunt for as much information available, gather it all together and try to make an educated guess as to what will work for me. Hey, back to my hunter-gatherer roots! It may be different from your findings but I will go where I am most comfortable. You may have different roots.
We first started working with PSE 5. It takes some getting used to anything new like this as you no longer get any kind of manuals with directions with the programs. But, this has opened up a huge market for those that are experts in this and made some people very rich and famous as well. Just ask Scott Kelby, Matt Kloskowski and Barbara Brundage. By the way, if you use Elements and you don't have Kelby's book, you are either very good or not using anywhere near all the capabilities of the program. Do yourself a favor (and his wallet) and get the book. The layouts are step by step with very good descriptions. In our computer/photo editing room, it is not rare to hear, "How do you do .....?" and the reply is mostly, "How did Kelby do it?" OK, mostly it's me asking Sheryll. Each upgrade has added just enough to keep me going up. We started with 5, went to 6, skipped 7, jumped to 8 and went to 9. That's why we are here. Most times, enough is added to make you want to do it. This time there were improvements in PhotoMerge Style match which matches older styles of printing and some films. What is neat about this is when done and you open the images further in Editor, all the layers from the image are there as a .PSD for you to tweak a little further. Photomerge Panorama does a better job with the edges of merged images. This is a fun option and only a slight jump from PSE 8 which was a big jump from earlier versions. A big improvement, and one I haven't played with yet, but look forward to, is the improvement in working with layers. Supposedly you will be able to work on one layer while seeing the other behind it. This is supposed to be just like its bigger brother without some minor tweaks while in the work zone. A big improvement. Also, a big reason for this jump to PSE9 this time was we got if for just $39 after the rebates during the Christmas season. Not bad for a normal price of $99. You should still be able to purchase it for $59 after the rebate if you shop around.
I am always a little leery of making changes to my computer. Generations ago people had kids to work the land with them. Today, it's so we understand all the new electronic gadgets. Well, when they are 6 hours away each in different directions, we work the electronic land a little differently. And when I changed to a new computer, all the images and such moved over with only minor frustration, but none of the keywords or albums were attached to the individual pictures any more. Any idea how pleasant and time consuming it is to go through 20,000 plus images to reattach them? Not at all. But it was a good time to go through and delete. Upgrading wasn't too bad. About a half hour the first time. Something about it wasn't right and the program kept causing the computer to stall as I watched the little circle go round and round. Viewing the CPU usage in task manager reinforced something wasn't right also. It went from 3% to 80%, from 6% to 95% and so on and on and on. I also couldn't get the disk out of the burner either. So I uninstalled and tried again. Same thing (but I got the disk out this time). By the way, it's not a computer or memory issue as it is most times. I am using a Cyberpower quad core I5 chip running 64 bit Windows 7 with 8 meg of ram. A little above box store computers as much of the complaints of photo editing people are memory problems and less powerful CPUs. I rarely have a problem doing anything.
A little research and I found the solution. The problem is Elements is trying to read all the thumbnails and is slowing down trying to read them all. Just simple went to Organizer selected Edit>Select all files>Edit(again)>Update thumbnail. Problem solved ( I hope!). That appears to have worked. It is opening images right up and allowing moving about in Editor with ease. I am trying to tweak the speeds some because I have so much ram available. This is done by going to Edit>Preferences>Performance. This window will tell you the ram available. I am taking this slow just to see if I can perk it up a bit. Another plus is all my keywords and albums are there and I'm back to when importing new images into Organizer, just the new images open. Something that didn't happen in PSE 8, but did on Sheryll's computer so I maybe had something turned off that I shouldn't have. And except for having to put in my info on the metadata and converting my two catalogs it wasn't a bad experience. As Winston Churchill said "We have nothing to fear but fear itself".
So don't be afeared. If you are looking for a new editing program, I can recommend PSE 9. If you don't know of its limitations, you are not limited. It will certainly take you to the next level in your photography. Some day Adobe will bring Elements right up beside its big brother and I will be right there for the upgrade! And remember......
Always go to the light,
Steve

Frozen wasteland of Edwin B. Forsythe Wild Life Refuge....or is it?

This past Sunday we ventured out to see the Harlequin ducks at Barnegat Lighthouse jetty. That was supposed to be the only place we were going. Chalk it up to a CRS moment (can't remember sh** moment) or maybe I was just lulled into a simply enjoying the day moment, but as we passed the turn onto Rt. 72, Sheryll asked "Where does that road go?" Not wanting to let on that I blew the turn I just said that goes blah, blah, blah. So a few miles down the road when I had to admit that we weren't going to Barnegat right away, we decided to go a little further south to the Edwin Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge area first. Even if I was man enough to admit I was wrong there is no place to ask directions anyway. South Jersey on some roads are just long drives of scrub oak and pine trees. Besides, what really makes us work is Sheryll is great with a map and we always venture out with them in our travel bag.
The Forsythe area is just north of Atlantic City and is a unique place where you may have a Bald Eagle in your view finder and also have the giant windmills and towering casinos in the background. We have visited in the past but this is the first time in mid winter so we didn't know what to expect. The marsh area was windswept and snow covered and didn't look that hospitable for man nor feathered beast. The cold wind wasn't much of a problem until we opened both front windows and then the harsh reality set in. Amazing what a 3/16" piece of glass can do. Some areas are wooded but the big attraction is the 8 mile loop drive. First impressions shouldn't be relied upon because all you see is a large frozen tundra of snow, grasses and frozen water. Soon after starting the drive, some open water areas appear and black ducks are a common sight. An occasional common merganser and a lonely snow goose to start. We couldn't figure the snow goose. Normally they are in groups of thousands so this one was more confused in his trip than I was. We came upon a large flock of northern pintails and got some good shots of them. We had to watch shooting because out one side we were shooting into the sun and on the other had the sun working for us. On one side we were adding exposure compensation and the other not. Pintails are a pretty bird and came out nice against the ice and water. A big surprise was as I was watching out my window, a hawk flew by just cruising on the winds less than 10 feet off the ground and barely 25' from the car. At first we thought it might have been the Northern Harrier we have seen before but grabbing a few shots and looking at it back at home we found it to be a Rough Legged hawk, a first for us. The picture may be slightly over sharpened but according to the metadata he was 148' from me and moving away. This was with my 80-400mm @400. I was lucky to get it. Their coloring is amazing this time of the year because when they set down, they disappear. Klingons of the marsh!
Driving further we came upon more firsts for us, Gadwall and American Widgeon. Someone had seen a coyote in the area (there is a log book to keep track of sightings) but all we saw were its tracks. As we rounded one of the turns we thought the hawk came by us again but this time it was clearly the northern harrier. The white markings on the tail was very distinct. We began to travel at 10 mile an hour and he slowly moved with us and when I tried to get up to him or ahead, he simply crossed behind us and then back again. He seemed to want to travel on just one side of the road. I backed off as I didn't want to stress him, after all, he has to live there.
For being dumb, it turned into a pretty good day. We added more birds to our list. I'm not sure where we fit in to the birding scheme. Do we go out to take bird pictures or do we see birds when we go out to take pictures? Anyway, it's all part of the adventure so out we go. The next blog will cover our original intention. By the way, I did remember how to get home so there may be hope yet. Or at least I haven't fallen that far!
Always go to the light,
Steve

SNOW DAY!!!

Last Wednesday, January 12th, we woke to 8"-10" of snow. Usually, snow is not welcome in the middle of the week but as they go it was a nice snow that was dry and powdery. Most storms we get it takes many hours to clear my walk and driveway and those of my neighbors that I do, even with the snow blower. This time the neighbors got out early with shovels and such and did some of the work I usually do. So what was left was to grab the camera gear and get out and shoot some scenes!

            When it comes to scenery, Bucks County has as much to offer as any place else (unless you're trying to shoot rock formations of the desert Southwest). We have a river, streams, hills and so much history. Revolutionary Troops headed into and out of major battles through the country side. Washington crossing the Delaware River into the battle at Trenton and the subsequent battle at Princeton were pivotal in the war and morale of the troops. Twenty miles or less separate where he went into New Jersey and some troops returned from the victories. There are several buildings throughout your travels that were in place at the time of this history. And of course, we have the covered bridges. Bucks County has the largest concentration of covered bridges in the country (not county, country!). Within its borders are 12 bridges, all built from the 1830's to the 1870's, the longer ones are approximately 170 feet long. This I know because my second published magazine article covered all the bridges.

            My plan was to head north to some favored places that are photogenic any time of the year. While we could have stopped at Washington's Crossing park, my plan was to try for some of the covered bridges and a few other locations. We stopped at the Van Sants bridge and then traveled to one of our favorite stops, the Cuttaloosa farm. Owned for many years by famous impressionistic painter Daniel Garber, the present owners commendably keep the buildings and grounds in unbelievable condition in a charming country setting. One side of the country lane is the homestead and on the other is the mill with a wooden water wheel and another building where I would presume the miller lived. Also, there is the sheep's shed under magnificent old sycamore trees. I have seen pictures of this shed in books by many prominent photographers. As long as people don't encroach on his side of the property, the owners welcome visitors. We were lucky and for the most part smarter people stayed home in the snow so there weren't any foot prints running around. The roofs and fence lines were snow covered and the surrounding trees still had snow on their trunks and branches. As you can see from the picture, it should be a place you should visit.

            We traveled to some other areas but one of my favorite bridges is the Uhlertown bridge. Just beside this bridge is one of the canal locks that were used to raise and lower the water level to allow traffic to go north and south . Although not fully functional today, the stone work is still in place. I'm surprised how narrow the lock is but I guess the boats were built to take this into consideration. This bridge is one of the few with window openings to see out when crossing. Once again, only a few markings in the snow and they were cross country ski tracks.

            Photographically speaking, because of the bright reflections from the snow, it was important to view the LCD screen and to make sure you were adding enough exposure compensation (to the plus side) so the image doesn't come out grey and you get the white of the snow. For the most part we were not out in the cold long enough to effect batteries but care should be taken bringing your camera back into the warmth to prevent condensation from affecting the camera. Digital cameras are nothing but one big electric playground. Usually covering the camera to isolate it from the warmer temps is enough.

            So the next time it snows, take advantage of the possibilities and get out to chase the light!

            Always go to the light,

            Steve

December 21, 2010 Lunar Eclipse

Once again trying to catch up to date on photo fun. This past December was an event that only happens every 400 years or so and that is a lunar eclipse on the winter solstice. We get lunar eclipses more often, but not on the winter solstice. I have tried to catch the eclipses in the past and have always missed, mainly due to weather, I have been a little envious of others in parts of the country that have the clearer skies , no light pollution and the right timing to witness such events. This year was my turn and I don't think I will be around for the next one. Watching a forum I visit, before the time came others were lamenting about cloud cover and rain in their areas. South eastern PA was clear and cold. Absolutely clear skies. The temperature was 25 and the wind was about the same. The area was also in the viewing area for meteor showers and I might have seen one but if you have ever watched a meteor shower before, it takes more than one to be sure you saw it. They travel across the sky in a blink of an eye.

            I set my alarm for 1:15am and got up from the sofa (Hey, Sheryll isn't that crazy! She was in the warm bed.) Since I already prepared the camera gear earlier, I just needed to take it out for each picture. The first images I took were at 2:50am when the shadow was just beginning to block part of the moon. In my location it was the upper left hand portion of the moon. The first were at 1/500 sec @ f8. It may sound crazy and it may sound too fast of a shutter speed, but using the 80-400 @400, the moon dominates the scene and is similar to daylight. All were shot at ISO 400. This follows the rule of "lunar eleven" (1/ over the ISO for the shutter speed @ f11) which is similar to the "sunny 16" rule (1/over the ISO @f16). I adjusted to f@8 to increase the shutter speed because of movement of the Earths' rotation. I'm not sure if this would come in to play with the full moon but may for the following shots. So if you follow the panorama from left to right the shutter speeds are (keeping in mind that all are @f8 and ISO 400), 1/500, 1/400, combination of 1/100 for the fingernail and 1/60 for the shadow moon (combined in Photoshop Elements), 2 sec, 2 sec, 2 sec, and finally back to the 1/500. I combined the seven images in PSE using Photomerge Panorama using the interactive setting and placing the separate images manually. Once that was accomplished, rather easily I might add, I just tweaked the brightness slightly. All shots were taken using a Manfrotto 055cxpro4 carbon fiber tripod with a Manfrotto 3030 three way axis head and a Nikon infrared remote shutter release. All shots were shot manually. If I tried to shoot just using f8, the camera will always try to expose for all the sensor sees and so will read the total black in sky resulting in a picture that over exposes the white in the moon.  

            The shots were approximately 30 minutes apart, give or take 5 minutes, except for the fifth and sixth shots in the merge. It seemed like the light was changing quickly as the moon lost the shadow as these are only 7 minutes apart. Not sure why but in my images it is apparent the lighting changed. I did bring the equipment in between shots to warm the photographer and I really didn't care to leave over $3000 worth of equipment unattended in my driveway. Not sure what two legged or four legged creatures roam the night. Fifteen-twenty mile an hour winds can sap the heat from you quickly, especially just standing around and not moving. Early trips in brought the addition of extra layers. I just covered the camera with a towel in between trips out to keep it from having any problems with condensation. I didn't really expect any problems as the humidity level was so low but it pays to be cautious and to keep in practice when out photographing in the cold later. The only concern when shooting and it was almost a disaster was that the camera had trouble auto focusing on the full eclipse. It just would not focus but kept traveling through the full range trying to lock in. Panic really set in as I had trouble using just my eye. Picture that image. Camera on the tripod and shooting at an angle of about 45degrees in the portrait orientation and of course to try an limit movement from the wind I had it lowered from its full extension. I'm not sure what a cop would have thought upon arriving on that scene. I finally pulled out my right angle adapter (Nikon DR-6) with its ability to go to 2x and got it with that. I shot more shots playing with that then any else. Amazing what a shot of adrenaline will do. Next time I will definitely lock the focus in when I had the chance. My eye just can't do as well as the auto focus.

            I am pretty psyched with the results and they are real close to the "phew" pictures I always try to capture. I missed about 5 hours of sleep but would definitely do it again given the same conditions. I don't know how they could have been better, photographically speaking. I hope you enjoyed it and learned from my experience. And remember....

            Always go to the light,

            Steve

           

           

Bald Eagles and Conowingo Dam

Although the date of this trip was November 18, 2010, it is too good an adventure not to mention. For the longest time I thought to see a large meeting of Bald Eagles, I would have to travel to Oregon or Alaska. Doing a little research, I found that one of the greatest concentrations of Bald Eagles east of the Mississippi River is at the Conowingo Dam on the Susquehanna River. Having made a trip there last January 2010 we saw approximately 20. This year our trip was planned when their numbers are at or near peak counts. From our home this is a 2 hour road trip including a pit stop on I-95 just before the exit. We were able to make the trip on a Thursday as weekends bring large numbers of photographers and bird watchers. If you want to see every large lens Nikon and Canon make, visit on a weekend. Don't go if you suffer from "lens envy"!

            As this is part of a PP&L facility, they have provided plenty of paved parking and porta-potties for public use. They also built a nice fishing pier right on the shore. Eagles are all over as you arrive. In the trees on your left and right and flying out over the river. It was agreed on by the photographers and birders there the count was 70 or higher. They have been in the 100-120 range at this time of year. A lot depends on weather conditions as different fronts move through the area. The cable tower on the island in the river had 30 sitting on that. When they fish, they fly within 30 yards of you and almost always pull a shad out of the river. From there they come right into the trees above you to rip the fish apart. They are not intimidated or shy with you viewing them. In the trees, a large cluster of lenses appear under them as they eat. It isn't hard to see where they landed to dine.

            I use a Nikon 80-400VR on a Nikon D-80 for my images. You see lenses up to 600mm with 1.4x tele-converters. The 80-400 works very well as they fly right over you. When in the trees, Sheryll has no problem getting close enough with the Nikon 70-300VR. They are eating 30 feet or less from you. Something to keep in mind is the lighting. The sun travels in an arc that is usually always behind you but you are shooting into a bright sky most of the time. I used exposure compensation of about +1 most of the time. It helps to bring out the detail in the wings under the bird as the camera usually wants to expose for the brighter sky. Something you should keep in mind. As conditions change you may want to vary this but always add some.

            Besides the Bald Eagles there are golden eagles, peregrine falcons, double-crested cormorants, black vultures and many smaller types as migrations move through. Something fun to witness is when the floodgates open when the station is going to generate electricity (this is a peak demand site). A very loud siren goes off and red lights on the island begin to flash to warn the anglers wading, or in boats down river. As the water level rises noticeably, it is a necessary precaution. When that happens, people scurry to higher ground (although unless you are at rivers edge, you are safe no matter where you are) and scurry may be polite. Some flat out run with terror on their faces! It is also the dinner bell for every bird within earshot as the sky fills with everything. The water out of the plant churns with bits of fish coming through the turbines so as the larger fish come to feed on this, anything airborne feeds on the growing food supply.  

            If this is something you are close to, plan a trip. You won't be disappointed!

            Always go to the light,

            Steve