The Retired Photographer

Solar Impulse On Its First Leg Across The United States

This morning, May 3rd, the Swiss built Solar Impulse left Moffett Field in Mountain View, CA on its first leg across the United States. An early morning flight, 6:05am just before sunrise, saw the Solar Impulse lift off heading towards the glow of the morning sun.

The first leg is from Moffett Field, CA to Sky Harbor Airport in Phoenix, AZ. Pilot Bertrand Piccard did set down the Solar Impulse at 12:30am Saturday morning May 4th at Sky Harbor Airport thus finishing the first leg.

To learn more about this great attempt with solar flight please click here.

Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright Ben Gundy and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from Ben Gundy.

Canon EOS 5D Mark II

Canon EF 70-300mm f4-5.6L at 236mm

ISO 800, 1/400 sec at f/16

admin :: May.04.2013 :: General :: No Comments »

Kodak DCS ProSLR/c

Unfortunately, I am not photographing at the moment so to keep my passion going I got a new toy. I have always wanted a Kodak DCS ProSLR/c digital full frame when they first appeared in March of 2004. This camera has the Canon EF lens mount so I can use all my Canon lenses and, at the time, was the highest mega-pixel Canon digital SLR at 14 million pixels. This Kodak camera is housed in a Sigma custom magnesium produced body which solidifies the whole professional Kodak/Canon package.

Technical specifications are a 14 mega-pixel CMOS sensor, ISO calibrated rating of 6-800, with a non-calibrated ISO extended range 1000 to 1600 using DCS raw files. Not sure if a DCS raw file is any different than a standard Canon raw file but I am sure I will find out. This camera also has a blazing fast (kidding) 1.7 frames per second image capture.

Kodak uses Canon’s great E-TTL flash metering system so you can use your EX flashes with the same great Canon advantage.

I plan to test this Kodak DCS ProSLR/c camera out when I have time and will share the images with you. For more information on this camera, click here.

Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright Ben Gundy and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from Ben Gundy.

admin :: Dec.16.2012 :: Equipment Review :: No Comments »

Lodgepole Pines and Fall Color In The Tetons

When I took this image it was a little early for peak fall color. This spot was the last landscape picture taking opportunity I had on our bus tour and what an opportunity it was for fall color. Actually, it was very hard to see Grand Teton due to the heavy blue haze from the forest fires burning in Wyoming and Colorado at the time. I desaturated the blue slider (Lightroom 4) in post just enough to keep the mountains showing a little haze and keeping the sky and clouds natural.

George and I had a great time on this bus tour from San Francisco to Mount Rushmore to Yellowstone National Park and back. For more information on this tour and others, click Tours4fun.

Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright Ben Gundy and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from Ben Gundy.

Canon EOS 5D Mark II

Canon EF 24-105mm f4L at 40mm

ISO 200, 1/250 sec at f/11

admin :: Nov.08.2012 :: Uncategorized :: No Comments »

Custers Last Stand, Little Bighorn Battlefield, Montana

Next stop on our bus tour was the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument. There is so much history, that the time we had didn’t come close to understanding all that happened here. I must come back and absorb what really happened, you can feel something in the air.

In the image above, Custer’s marker is the one with the black shield on it. Custer is not buried at the National Monument but reinterred at the West Point Cemetery. The image depicts where each solder fell during the battle including Custer’s brother and brother-in-law I believe. You can follow the road down, on the right in the image, and see more markers. There is a old U.S Army Memorial monolith just behind where this image was taken at the highest point on the hill. Just on the other side, of this hill, is the new Indian Memorial for all the warriors that died during the battle. The government, in their wisdom, placed new red markers throughout the battlefield where a known warrior fell. For more information on the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument please go here.

Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright Ben Gundy and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from Ben Gundy.

Canon G12

ISO 100, 1/60 at f/8.0

admin :: Oct.27.2012 :: Uncategorized :: No Comments »

Mount Rushmore National Memorial, South Dakota

My last blog was on the Crazy Horse Memorial which is 17 miles from Mount Rushmore. Since I was on this bus tour, the tour can cram a lot of different stops in an o’dark hundred to dusk day. The tour director does have a knack for decent light on these stops though.

From left to right you see George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln, representing the first 130 years of United States history. Established on March 3, 1925, with work commencing in 1927 and stopped in late October 1941 due to lack of funding. For more information on Mount Rushmore, please go to Wikipedia here.

Very interesting the way the grounds are laid out. From the parking lot you walk up and through a breezeway overlooking a huge patio area. to the left is the store for the tourist and is loaded with every kind of souvenir known to man on Mount Rushmore. To the right is the cafeteria serving good food with plenty of sitting area if you don’t mine sitting with other people. Back outside the patio area overlooks an amphitheater and stage area. I understand the acoustics are wonderful there, all under the sculpture of the presidents. There is a visitor center downstairs that everyone seems to miss, worth seeing if you go.

Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright Ben Gundy and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from Ben Gundy.

Canon EOS 5D Mark II

Canon EF 24-105mm f4L at 97mm

ISO 200, 1/500 at f/11