The pronghorn rut 2014

Pronghorn buck

Went to my local pronghorn hotspot the other morning to check on the status of the rut (mating season). The pronghorn rut usually starts in September so I knew I was a bit early but was curious to see what was happening. Pronghorn (Antilocapra americana) are usually referred to as antelope or pronghorn antelope. They are not an antelope at all but a totally unique species native to the North American continent. They have horns (not antlers) but shed these horns yearly (like antlers). Pronghorn are built for speed and for life in the open country of the western United States. Agriculture, fencing and unregulated hunting dramatically reduced there numbers but with sound wildlife management principles of the 20th century they have rebounded nicely. Here in Wyoming pronghorn outnumber people. I think they are one of the most striking species of wildlife we have and love photographing them.

Pronghorn buck

I didn’t see the usual numbers of pronghorn but did find a few. I found this nice buck right off the bat, but had to work him with back light since there was no way to get around to the other side of him. I photograph the pronghorn from my vehicle since they wouldn’t tolerate a person on foot. I wasn’t concerned since with the right conditions back light (the sun was behind the subject) can produce very dramatic images. During the 1st half hour after sunrise and the last half hour before sunset I like shooting this style of images. With light colored subjects like this pronghorn you still get great detail on the shadowed side. You get an overall warm glow to the image. On both of the above images I had my Canon EF800mm F5.6L lens with my Eos !Dmk4 camera attached. Shooting in evaluative metering I added a stop of light to obtain this exposure.

Pronghorn buck

Pronghorn herd

These two images were shot with the sun over my shoulder which is called front light. It has quite a different feel than the back lite images. On sunny days you can work front lite images for the first couple of hours after sunrise and the last 2 hours before sunset and get excellent results.

Roosting white pelicans

On my way home I drove by the lake and found this flock of white pelicans roosting in the shallows. Again I was using my 800mm right from the car. It framed them nicely. All in all it wasn’t to bad a morning.

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Canon EF16-35mm F4 IS L Lens Test (part 2)

Canon_EF_16_35mm_Wide_Angle_lens-2a5a5dbe-d514-4b1c-9047-58a60b1f8b2a

In part 1 of this test I looked the the new EF16-35mm F4 IS lens in the 24mm range comparing to my EF24-105mm F4 IS lens which was my go to lens in the 24-35mm range. In part 2 of this test I will look at both lenses at 35mm which is the long end of the 16-35mm and getting into the mid-range of the 24-105mm. Some early testers seemed to think that the long end of the EF16-35mm F4IS was it’s weakest performing focal length. As for the 24-105mm I have found that in the middle of it’s zoom range it’s an excellent performing lens. I’m hard pressed to see a difference between my 24-105mm at 50mm when compared to my normal Canon EF50mm F1.8. So this should be an interesting comparison. First here are the full frames images at 35mm F11. Focused using live view on my Canon 5D mk3 and the correct hyper focal distance. First the 24-105mm followed by the 16-35mm.

PLEASE CLICK ON IMAGE TO SEE LARGER VERSION

24-105mm @ 35mm F11

16-35mm F4 IS @ 35mm F11

At this focal length 35mm, and an aperture at F11 the lenses are very close in performance. With some extreme pixel peeping I get the feeling the EF16-35mm has a slight edge overall. Next will look at the center of the image.

24-105mm @ 35mm F11 center

16-35mm F4 IS @ 35mm F11 center

This is looking at the center of the frame at 100% magnification. Again very hard to tell the two lenses apart. Now we’ll look at an extreme corner of the frame.

24-105mm @ 35mm F11 lower left

16-35mm F4 IS @ 35mm F11 lower left

Here in the lower left portion of the frame I can see that the EF16-35mm is slightly sharper than the EF24-105mm lens. Close examination of the images showed that overall this was pretty near a draw at 35mm. The 16-35mm had a very slight advantage. In the real world either lens would produce excellent results. Next I did the old brick wall test. I wanted to make sure my new EF16-35mm F4 didn’t have any glaring deficiencies due to a decenter-ed element. Wide angle zooms are prone to that problem. I leveled the lens the best I could, live view focused, and then shot the lens at 16mm, 24mm and 35mm at F4, F5.6 and F8. Below I’ll show each focal length at F4 and F8.

16mm

16-35mm F4IS @ 16mm @ F4

16-35mm F4IS @ 16mm @ F8

24mm

16-35mm F4IS @ 24mm @ F4

16-35mm F4IS @ 24mm @ F8

35mm

16-35mm F4IS @ 35mm @ F4

16-35mm F4IS @ 35mm @ F8

Here I was able to see that overall I had a good copy of the lens, with no major problems in any of the corners which would indicate a de-centering internal element. I had that problem once with my EF16-35mm F2.8L and ended up sending it to CPS for repair twice before they got it right. At16mm the barrel distortion is noticeable as is the light falloff at F4 By F8 the light falloff is pretty much gone. At 24mm distortion is very well controlled and there is much less light falloff than at 16mm. 35mm shows slight pincushion distortion. There seems to be a bit more light falloff at 35mm than at 24mm. Sharpness wise my copy seems very good at 35mm unlike some reports I’ve heard. I looked very hard and really didn’t see any chromatic aberrations with this lens.. Very impressive! I didn’t get a chance to see how the lens handles flare nor did I test for shooting sunstars. Some reviewers have reported that the lens produces a beautiful 18 point sunstar and handles flare very well.

So what does all this mean? For one it means Canon has addressed a weakness in their lens lineup, an ultra-wide zoom that’s sharp in the corners. Roger Cicala at LensRental.com did a very thorough and controlled test of the EF16-35mm F4IS against a number of different lenses. To see Rogers test go here http://www.lensrentals.com/blog/2014/07/canon-wide-angle-zoom-comparison. His testing showed It to be the best ultra-wide zoom Canon has made to date and even equaled the renown Nikon 14-24mm F2.8. When I’m out in the field and want the very best image quality in the ultra- wide range, the 16-35mm F4 will be my go to lens.

To purchase this fine lens go here. Canon EF 16-35mm f/4L IS USM Lens

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Something from Nothing

Monday afternoon I ventured into some the most remote areas of the Bighorn Basin here in Wyoming for an evening of landscape photography and find some locations to work on starscapes during the Delta Aquarids meteor shower that was to peak after midnight. I was looking for interesting foregrounds that I could light paint and include in the composition. I had a particular hoodoo in mind found on a previous visis and hoped it would work for a dramatic might starscape with streaking meteors. By the time I arrived to the location the skies had clouded up making my chances of photographing the meteor show unlikely. I walked out to the rock formation with my 14mm F2.8 lens to look at potential compositions just in case the skies cleared and took a few images. They looked awful on back of the camera. Skies to bright, rocks to dark…. Here is the original.

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Original RAW image

The skies never cleared and I headed home disappointed. When I downloaded the images I took that evening I decided to process the image and see what I could make of it. Working in Lightroom 5 this is what I was able to come up with.

After processing in LR5

I was pleasantly surprised with what I was able to accomplish without having to go into Photoshop and work with layers and masks, a time consuming process. In Lightroom 5 the local adjustment brushes have become very good and easy to use. The image now, looks,to my eye, like what I saw in the field. These days I really don’t need to work in photoshop very often which suits me just fine. Let me know what you think of the image and the post processing results.

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Lens Review: Canon 16-35mm F4IS: Part 1

In May of this year Canon announced a new addition to their wide angle zoom lineup the 16-35mm F4IS L Canons current offerings included the 16-35mm F2.8 mkII and the 17-40mm F4L In the past I’ve owned the EF17-40mm. For the past 5 or 6 years I’ve used the EF16-35mm F2.8L MK1 and was satisfied with the performance of the lens but not overwhelmed by it. It was quite sharp in the center of the frame but soft in the corners at 16mm @ F2.8. At any focal length the corners were not adequately sharp for landscapes until about F8. Shooting the lens in the F8 to F16 range when I was shooting landscapes the lens performed pretty good but left me wanting something better. I compared my 16-35mm to several of the newer mkII versions and really couldn’t see enough difference in performance to justify the upgrade. I must say however the MK2 version had less light falloff, controlled flare better, had great sun stars and exhibited less chromatic aberrations than the mk1. I really was hoping for a high quality wide angle zoom from Canon to replace my aging 16-35mm with.

Nikon has an excellent class leading ultra-wide zoom the 14-24mm F2.8 that I would love to see Canon produce with performance to match the excellent Nikkor. Canon has produced a number of recent patents of lenses in this focal length but as of yet nothing has been announced. Who knows, maybe some day? To fill that ultra-wide void I use a Rokinon 14mm F2l.8. It’s a very good lens and a great value. All of Canon’s newest lenses have been excellent. The latest versions of the 24-70mm F2.8L and the 70-200mm F2.8L IS are class leading so I had high hopes when the 16-35mm F4IS was announced. Then upon viewing the the MTF graphs on the new Canon EF16-35mm F4IS L I was definitely encouraged. They show the lens to be an excellent performer, perhaps the best ultra-wide angle zoom yet from Canon. The MTF charts indicate the lens should be much sharper in the corners than any of the other Canon offerings. After the lenses started to ship I read some very positive reviews of the new lens and decided to pick one up. I went ahead and sold my old 16-25mm F2.8L and ordered up the new IS F4 version.

I decided to test the new lens against the only comparable lens remaining in my bag the EF 24-105mm F4 IS L. I really like this lens. It’s very versatile with it’s nice range and IS. I have found that between 24mm and 35mm the 24-105mm outperformed my old 16-35mm F2.8L and when I had a choice I would use the 24-105mm in the overlapping range. I was curious to see out it would compare to the new 16-35mm F4IS in the overlapping focal lengths. This will help me decide which lens to use when looking for the best image quality at the overlapping focal lengths or when traveling light which lenses I should take. Of course the beauty of the 24-105mm is versatility with the great range it covers.

I wanted to compare the lenses in the field shooting typical wide angle landscape images with front to back DOF. I found a good spot with foreground, mid-range and far off elements needed do the test. These are not award winning photos but they should tell me what I want to know. Below are the full sized images first the 24-105mm followed by the 16-35mm. Camera used was the Canon 5D mk3. The images was shot at 24mm both images focused hyperfocally. My aperture was sit to F11 which is my go to aperture for these types of images. F11 gives me adequate DOF without introducing sharpness robbing diffraction.

CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE

24-105mm F4 @ 24mm F11

16-35mm F4IS @ 24mm F11

Exposure and focus point were identical or at least to the best of my ability. It’s hard to see much difference on the web at this side. Click on the image and you can see them larger and perhaps get a better feel for the results. I will now show crops of the images viewed at 100%.

UPPER LEFT CORNER

24-105mm @ 24mm F11

16-35mm @ 24mm, F11

To my eye the 16-35mm is sharper with better contrast than the 24-105mm. I’m impressed with the new lens. Now lets take a look at the lower right side of the frame.

LOWER RIGHT CORNER

24-105mm @ 24mm, F11

16-35mm @ 24mm F11

Again performance of the new 16-35mm is quite good, besting the 24-105mm. Next we’ll look at the upper center of the frame.

UPPER CENTER

24-105mm @ 24mm f11

16-35mm @ 24mm f11

Again to me the new EF16-35mm F4IS L seems to be sharper and more contrasty than the 24-105mm F4IS L which was my go to lens in this range of focal lengths. This is very encouraging. In my next post I will compare them at 35mm. This is at the long end of the 16-35mm and getting closer to the mid-range of the 24-105mm. This should be a much tougher test for the new lens.

To purchase this fine lens go here. Canon EF 16-35mm f/4L IS USM Lens

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Exciting new Alaska bear photography tour

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August 7-13, 2015 (from Homer, Alaska)

I have put together an exciting photo tour in 2015 to Alaska to photograph brown bears fishing for red (sockeye) salmon in the spectacular and remote Katmai National Parks, Hallo Bay region. I’ve been looking for the ideal place to photograph this event and I’m sure I’ve found it. This will be extreme action photography with the bear chasing the salmon in the riv. .Our host will be Alaska Bear Adventures We’ll being staying in a remote bush camp that placed at the site of the best bear fishing determined by aerial scouting. The best fishing for the sockeyes only lasts for 3 weeks so very few spots are available each year. I’ve secured prime dates at the very peak of the salmon run when the fish are strong and colorful. We’ll have 7 days of photography. The camp is strategically placed where the bears are fishing. We can walk right out in front of camp and begin photographing. In the 15 years Phi (from Alaska Bear Adventures)l has been photographing this event, there is an average is 15-18 bears fishing for the salmon. The sows with cubs fish in another area not far from camp and even the cubs try to fish. Wolves are commonly seen and photographed in the area as well.

Cost of the tour is $5849 (which includes lodging, all meals and snacks, float plane flight from Homer,, and instruction). A $2000 deposit is required for this one. This is the same price charged by Alaska Bear Adventures so we’re getting a great deal. This will be a small group of 6-7 photographers. The float plane (Otter) holds 8 people. Let me know ASAP if your interested and I can pass along a bit more info on logistics and deposit information.

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Sage Thrasher

As I spoke about in my previous blog post I’m working on songbirds for an upcoming book on the Natural History of the Bighorn Basin of Wyoming. An important bird for me to include is the sage thrasher which is a indicator species for the “sagebrush steppe” ecosystem that covers large portions of the basin. I was having a difficult time getting this bird and was becoming a bit frustrated but I got lucky the other day and managed to capture some decent images of this fine specimen.

Sage Thrasher

Again I was using my vehicle as a blind shooting out my window with my Canon Eos 1Dmk4 and my Canon EF800mm F5.6L lens. It’s a killer setup for this type of photography. I get really nice unfocussed/blurred backgrounds withe the 800mm when I shoot wide open at F5.6. This gives your main subject prominence in the composition. I didn’t have the greatest light for these images so I’l keep trying with these birds but at least I now have some good images of the elusive sage thrasher…..

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Spring is for the birds!

This spring I’ve been working hard photographing songbirds for my ongoing book project on the natural history of the Bighorn Basin of Wyoming. Covering the natural history of this area is a daunting task and I’ve been working on it for a number of years. The book will require coverage of pretty much everything in nature including mammals, scenics, wildflowers, plants, reptiles and amphibians, insects, birds etc. I really needed to get some good coverage of the songbirds from around the basin which is a difficult proposition but is on the to do list..

Male common yellowthroat

My strategy to capture a good selection of the songbird species in the area was to use a bird call to attract male songbirds on territory which works well in the spring. I had the birding program (I Bird Pro) loaded on my Iphone and used a bluetooth speaker which is effective to about 30 feet. I have a small camouflage bag made to hold the speaker with a wire hook to hang the speaker off a branch or fence where you want the bird to come to. I use my vehicle as a roving blind and I drive around the basin finding likely looking habitats for different species. I use the Kirk Window mount attached to my vehicle with my Canon EF800mm F5.6L IS lens usually with the 1.4X teleconverter attached. Many of the songbirds are quite small requiring lots of magnification to get adequate subject size without cropping. I would usually set the speaker out around 20′ from the vehicle which is a bit further than the minimum focusing distance of my lens. I either used my Canon Eos 1Dmk4 or 5Dmk3 to capture these images. To minimize disturbance to the birds I will only spend a short time at each location. Below is a selection of the types of images I’ve able to capture this spring. I will continue to use this method as long as the birds are responding trying to get all the species I need.

Male Yellow-breasted Chat

Male Yellow Warbler

Singing Yellow-breasted Chat

Eastern Kingbird

Singing yellow warbler

Black-headed grosbeak

American Goldfinch

Singing Yellowthroat

Barn Swallow

Singing Rock Wren

Yellowthroat

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“Winter Yellowstone Tours 2014”

I recently returned from leading 2 great photo tours to Yellowstone National Park. During the first tour we encountered some of the coldest temperatures I’ve ever encountered in the park. I had folks from warm climates like Florida, California and ever a woman from Melbourne Australia. They have never experienced these typo of conditions. During our stay at Old Faithful we had temperatures in the -30 degree F range. Seeing Old Faithful erupt at -33 F with clears skies and no wind is absolutely spectacular. In the photo below we caught the first eruption after sunrise. The rising sun was somewhat obscured by steam from thermal features to the southeast but we still had a spectacular photo opportunity. My hardy group waited in the bitter cold but they were rewarded with this scene. I would estimate the height of the eruption to be 350′ to 400′. The best thing about this is that we were the only people to see and photograph this eruption. No crowds at -33 degrees.. I’ve been dreaming of this particular image for years and was finally rewarded this year.

Old Faithful at -33F

Some of my contacts in the park told me that temperatures in the Lamar Valley the day we took the image above was -55 degrees F….. That’s straight air temp not wind chill. My record low previously was -42 degrees in the Lamar Valley in 2010. Snow levels in the park seemed about average to me and during my 2 week stay it increased. The cold conditions lent itself to some great landscape photography with ghost trees and steam providing dramatic conditions for photography. The Norris Geyser Basin was just incredible and we enjoyed on remarkable morning there.

Ghost Trees and Steam

Snowy Bison

As usual bison were plentiful and provided us with may outstanding photo opportunities. We were able to find a number of them nearly completely covered with snow and or frost. Red fox were quite scarce this year and we didn’t see or photograph any. We heard of one near Tower Junction during tour 2 and spent quite a bit of time search for it but never did find the fox. We saw and photographed a number of wolves and had some great howling sessions with the wolves quite close. There didn’t seem to be as many coyotes as other years but again we had some good chances with them. The highlight of this years tours was without question the bobcats. Three separate bobcats were hunting waterfowl along the Madison River. Both of my tours had great sessions photographing a bobcat.

Stalking Bobcat

Madison River Bobcat

Alert Bobcat

Bobcat on Bridge

We spent hours photographing the bobcats. Most of the time they were on the opposite side of the Madison River required a long lens but in the above image this bobcat walked across the Seven Mile bridge right past all the photographers providing everyone with quite a thrill. On the first tour trumpeter swans were just everywhere along the Madison River, Firehole River and the Gibbon River, the most I’ve seen in a number of years. The Yellowstone was frozen so we didn’t see the number of swans there. As the temperatures warmed on tour 2 the swans seemed to have moved out of the park. On our last day along the Madison River we only saw a couple.

Trumpeter Swans

Bison & Geysers

All in all it was another great year in Yellowstone. After 30 years of photographing and leading tours in Yellowstone the only thing you can really count on is that every year is different. If you would like to join me next year I would urge you to sign up now these popular trips usually sell out quickly.

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Returned from Alaska

Brown Bear with Mt. Illiamna

I’m just back from another great adventure in beautiful Lake Clark National Park and Preserve in Alaska. I had a wonderful group of seven participants, several on their second bear tour with me, and I think everyone came away with some great memories and images. I leave again tomorrow for a trip to Nevada so I really don’t have time for a trip report but I’ll just post a few images from the trip. One of my favorites images I captured is the animalscape shown above. The coastal brown bear walking in front of the massive volcano Mt. Illiamna screams Alaska to me.