Back on father’s day I was trying out my 24mm prime lens while on a bike ride up in the Siskiyous. As luck would have it, just as I got my D7000 out of the bag to take a photo of the Caterpillar Trail sign, a few riders came down so I got to test out the responsiveness in low light.

For the first rider I had the dial in the “Auto-No Flash” mode and didn’t have time to change it. Needless to say he blurred a bit as they were coming down the trail fast. That first shot was taken with a shutter speed of 1/160, ISO200, f6.3. I had a few seconds to adjust for the second guy pictured above. I quickly spun the dial over to Scene and then moved the scene to “sports.” I then fired off the above three shots in rapid succession. The camera fired at 1/1000 with an ISO of 500 and f4. I was pleased with the result of three well focused, sharp images (in poor light even), with a frozen rider in each.

Posted on July 8th, 2011 under nature, only in ashland, people, places. Tags: biking, photography, siskiyous. Comments Off on Caterpillar Trail

Brandi Carlile opened for Ray LaMontagne a few nights back at the Britt Festival. Although Ray was kind enough to provide me with a photo pass (as photography isn’t allowed at Britt without one), it (and all of the photo passes issued that evening) had the stipulation that photos could only be taken from this one spot (which was obviously far from the stage and only capable of capturing Ray’s backside or occasional profile).

One good thing about this vantage point is it can give you a good shot of the crowd too (with a wide angle lens).

I used my new 50mm 1.8 for this second shot. I think I could have gotten some great shots with it from my seat down front in what became lower light later, but I didn’t get to test out that possibility due to the rules.

Finally, at the maximum zoom in my bag (200mm), here is as close as I could get. The possibilities weren’t very numerous from a fixed point with a band that doesn’t move around or change expressions much, but I still had a great time and Ray and the Pariah Dogs sounded great.

I’ll give you more variety from Brandi here soon.

Posted on June 25th, 2011 under outside of ashland, people, places. Tags: britt festivals, jacksonville, music, people, photography. Comments: 1

My wonderful kids made me breakfast this morning for father’s day–milk, fruit, and french toast with an egg in the middle which I had never had before. Apparently it is called “Egg in the Basket” or “Toad in the Hole.”

I tried out my new 24mm prime lens (Nikon Wide Angle AF Nikkor 24mm f/2.8D Autofocus Lens) on this shot, and I like the results. It’s very sharp, with no noise, even with the mixed lighting of mostly shadows. This little lens will definitely go in the bag for my trip to Europe later this week.

Posted on June 19th, 2011 under only in ashland. Tags: ellie, food, photography, ryan. Comments Off on Happy Father’s Day!

I think I have finally nailed this shot of Ashland Creek which I’ve taken several times before but never to my entire satisfaction. The key ingredients are:
1) right season (late spring or early summer–more green and more water)
2) tripod
3) right day and time (sunny day in the early morning before the sun is really out)
4) no wind (if the branches or leaves are blowing in the breeze then the “pop” doesn’t pop)

Equipment and EXIF data:
Nikon D7000
Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G VR II lens
$20 tripod
f/22
1 second exposure
ISO 280
18mm focal length

Posted on June 18th, 2011 under lithia park, nature, only in ashland, places. Tags: lithia park, photography, water. Comments: 1

I have a bunch more photos, but only three videos, so this will wrap up On Ensemble at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival Green Show for now. The guys seemed to be having a really good time performing. Shoji Kameda, above, was laughing while playing at this point in the show.

This last video I took with my new 50mm lens. Hence, there is no zooming in and out. I don’t see any improvement in quality vs. my 18-200mm lens, but if the lighting wasn’t as good this lens may have been a better a choice. Actually, with the VR (vibration reduction) on the 18-200mm lens (since these were hand held videos) I think the 18-200mm VR provides a better image (in addition to the versatility) for video in good lighting.

Posted on June 14th, 2011 under only in ashland, people. Tags: green show, music, oregon shakespeare festival, people, photography, video. Comments Off on On Ensemble (part 3 of 3)

More from last week’s Floater show today…

I took a few shots and one video (below) from the balcony. I’ve come to the conclusion that my lens (AF-S DX Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR II lens) is simply not great for low light photography. I’m thinking about picking up a Nikon 50mm f/1.8D AF Nikkor Lens for low light situations.

Floater covered Rush’s “Working Man” and then immediately went into their own song “Seventeen” at about 1:40. Rather than cut the video into two I just left it as is. The sound is a bit better on this one as I’m closer to the mixing board, but the audio for the bass is still not handled well in the D7000’s auto sensitivity mode.

Posted on May 24th, 2011 under outside of ashland, people. Tags: floater, music, night photography, photography, video. Comments Off on Floater (Day 4)

Last night Eric (pictured above) and I headed up to Grants Pass to see Floater for something like the sixth time. I brought along my Nikon D7000 to practice shooting concerts with before the festivals this summer for which I will likely have a press pass (Roskilde in Denmark and Getaway in Sweden). I didn’t really expect them to let me in with it, but they said nothing.

I’ll post a couple dozen photos and some videos from the show over the next week.

Robert Wynia on bass and vocals

Pete Cornett on drums and backing vocals

The Rogue Theatre’s poor lighting didn’t make photography easy. I tried a half dozen different settings and never really found anything that worked great in low light. Most of the shots that came out OK were on the rare occasions when the lighting got almost half-way decent for a moment.

The D7000 video capabilities aren’t too amazing in low light, or I didn’t have the settings right. Anyone know good settings for recording video at a concert on the D7000? I should have filmed the videos by the sound board for higher quality audio. Lesson learned.

Posted on May 21st, 2011 under outside of ashland, people. Tags: floater, music, photography, rogue theatre, signs, the fret drifters, video. Comments Off on Floater week