| The Retired Photographer

Tip: Nikon Assessment On Sensor Dust

A Nikon Rep mentioned that Nikon did a study on sensor dust. Nikon discovered that most photographers got sensor dust from the rear lens cap. Most photographers take off their rear lens cap then put it in their pocket or bag. Dust transfers or floats into the rear lens cap, which in turn, settles into the area around the rear element of the lens when attached. The next time you install the lens on your body and turn it on, the dust is attracted due to the electrostatic charged sensor causing your sensor dust. The best answer was to lightly blow the dust out of your rear lens cap before attaching back on your lens.

Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright Ben Gundy (or others when indicated) 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 :: Apr.28.2011 :: Tips :: No Comments »

Arachnids, Golden Orb-Weaver Babies

I was walking through the breezeway one evening and saw a clump of something on the white handrail of the stairs. Upon closer examination the clump was a nest of baby spiders. A light breath of air from me and the clump started to disperse on the handrail. I decided this might make an interesting image and went into the house to get my camera. I added a 100mm macro lens to the body then grabbed my tripod. It was 7:22 in the evening and the available light was pretty dim so I set the ISO to 400 hoping that was enough on my Canon 5D Mark II. By the time I got back out into the breezeway the baby spiders were already starting to regroup. I think this regrouping was for safety and maybe warmth from the many bodies of baby spiders. I will admit that I wasn’t exactly professional in taking this photograph as the exposure was long and I didn’t use good judgement in tripping the shutter so the actual image is a bit soft but works great for this blog post. Here at the house we had a good year for Golden Orb-Weaver (garden) spiders so I assume these are it’s babies. All this means we will have another banner year of these spiders which is fine with me.

Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright Ben Gundy (or others when indicated) 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 5D Mark II

Canon EF100mm Macro

ISO 400. 2.5 sec at f/11

admin :: Apr.24.2011 :: Wildlife :: No Comments »

Charcoal Kilns, Death Valley, California

These kilns are located high in the Panamint Range off of Emigrant Canyon Road on the way to Ridgecrest from Death Valley. Here is some background information from Wikipedia:

The 10 Charcoal Kilns were built in 1867 above Death Valley in the Panamint Range, and were used to reduce Pinyon and Juniper tree wood to charcoal in a process of slow burning in low oxygen. This fuel was then transported to mines in Death Valley to feed smelting and ore extraction operations.

The kilns were abandoned three years after they were built, in 1870. They were restored by Navajo Indian stonemasons from Arizona in 1971.

The kilns were located here as the trees single leafed Pinion Pine and Utah Juniper Pine dominate the landscape in the upper Panamint Mountains. Shrubs of Mormon Tea, such as Death valley ephedra , are spaced between them, with other xeric sub-shrubs and native bunchgrasses.

You can reach these kilns with a two wheel drive vehicle after the winter snows have melted away. There is camping nearby for those people who like to camp out, bring water and food with you.

To photograph these kilns you will need an extreme wide angle lens to get all 10 kilns in your photograph. This is not a sunrise or sunset photograph but late afternoon seems to be the best. This image was taken in early morning but I understand you would get a warmer tone on the kilns in the late afternoon sun.

I found this spot very refreshing after spending 4 days in Death Valley seeing no trees. There was a calm about this place with really fresh air. I wanted to just stretch out in a lounge chair and take the whole thing in for a few hours listening to the wind filter its way through the pine trees.

Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright Ben Gundy (or others when indicated) 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

Lens 6.1-30.5mm at 6.1mm

ISO 100, 1/800 sec at f/3.5

admin :: Apr.19.2011 :: Death Valley :: No Comments »

The Infamous Racetrack Playa in Death Valley

Last year a friend and I traveled to Death Valley, specifically, to go to the Racetrack playa to photograph and just to see what everyone was talking about. A little background of the Racetrack playa area from Wikipedia:

The Racetrack playa is 3608 feet (1130 m) above sea level, and 2.8 miles (4.5 km) long (north-south) by 1.3 miles (2 km) wide (east-west). It is also exceptionally flat and level with the northern end being only 1.5 inches (4 cm) higher than the southern. The highest point surrounding it is 5,678 feet (1731 m) high Ubehebe Peak, rising 1970 feet (571 m) above the lake bed 0.85 mile (1.37 km) to the west.

The playa is in the small Racetrack Valley endorheic lake between the Cottonwood Mountains on the east and Nelson Range to the west. During periods of heavy rain, water washes down from the mountains onto the playa, forming a shallow, short-lived endorheic lake. Under the hot desert sun the thin veneer of water quickly evaporates leaving behind a surface layer of soft slick mud. As the mud dries it shrinks and cracks into a mosaic pattern of interlocking polygons.

I will not get into a discussion on how the rocks move, but they do move and all by themselves. I believe wind, water, and freezing of the playa have something to do with it, but I will leave that to the experts. I do know that no one has ever seen the rocks move and there is a ongoing study underway using remote GPS, I believe, to track these rocks when and if they do move.

The road out to the Racetrack is 26 miles of washboard, sand, rocks, and dust. This road is not recommended for vehicles with low ground clearance, bad tires, or generally if the vehicle is in bad shape. Your tires need to be load range ”C” or higher otherwise you will be running the risk of a flat or two. Of course a 4×4 is in order, but a high clearance two- wheel drive can make it, just keep the speed down and take it slowly. For any vehicle, the faster you go the more shredded your tires will become as the rocks are very, very hard and sharp. Bring plenty of water and some food if you get stuck on the road. There is no service of any kind, cell phones don’t work, and you will be waiting a long time for a service truck, never mind the cost of one coming that far out.

Interesting side trips while going out to the Racetrack is Ubehebe Crater and Teakettle Junction. Don’t forget to bring a discarded tea kettle to add to the junction sign post…great fun.

The best time to photograph at the Racetrack is either sunrise or sunset with sunrise being the first choice. You will need to walk out onto the playa for about a mile or so from the parking area to get to the good rocks. Unfortunately, people have been stealing the rocks or just picking them up, looking at them, then putting them back down not necessarily in the same location. In other words, there are fewer and fewer of the rocks in their own original tracks, so don’t touch anything, just photograph. The lens of choice is some kind of wide angle…your choice here. Bring your polarizing filter (you never know), a warm jacket (your at 3608 feet), a hat of some kind, and suntan lotion.

Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright Ben Gundy (or others when indicated) 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 EF24-105mm L lens at 32mm

ISO 200, 1/160 sec at f/14

admin :: Apr.11.2011 :: Death Valley :: No Comments »

Goosenecks Panoramic with iPhone4

I thought it would be fun to show a panoramic done with my iPhone4. Last September I took a workshop by Jon Fuller and Tom Till in Moab, Utah. While on a drive to point B from point A, we stopped at the Goosenecks more to stretch our legs than to take photographs. Tom mentioned to the group that if anyone wanted to take a panoramic photograph of the Goosenecks he would help. No one took him up on it, but I wanted to attempt a panoramic with my iPhone, along with an app I got to stitch multiple images together. I took four quick photographs then moved them over to the stitching app and, wow, it actually worked. I showed Tom later on in the trip and he was impressed with the results. I still had to import the stitched panoramic into Photoshop to do some color work, cropping, and resizing to get to this final image. I think it came out nicely for a first time stitched panoramic. I will definitely try this again. I will report on using the iPhone4 with an HDR app at a later date…fun stuff. Click on the image to expand.

Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright Ben Gundy (or others when indicated) 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.

Apple iPhone4

Lens focal length: 3.85mm

ISO 80, 1/390 sec at f2.8