Steve Cole | Steve Cole Photography

Before heading home from my mini-trip to Oregon, I made my first visit to the Lewis River area in the South Cascades of Washington State. Located just southeast of Mount Saint Helens, the Lewis River has a number of waterfalls (including a few that are over 150 feet in height) and forest diversity that has always intrigued me. Prior to my trip I had identified a number of locations to visit knowing full well that I probably wouldn’t be able to get to all of them. The weather forecast was for improving weather and sunshine and it turned out to be even nicer than the forecasts.

That’s great unless you’re trying to photograph waterfalls. There’s nothing you can really do about it except change your plans so that’s what I did. Vanilla leaf is much more common in the forests of the South Cascades and I’ve always wanted to do some macro-type photography of them. Just beyond the Forest Service Rd 90 / Rd 83 junction, I saw a roadside mass of vanilla leaf so I pulled over to check it out. Although it was most shaded by the forest, some of the leaves were being backlit by the morning’s sunshine.

The wind was calm, even with the occasional vehicle zipping by at 50 miles per hour, and this allowed me to keep my ISOs at a lower number. This batch of vanilla leaf still hadn’t bloomed but the leaf patterns were more than enough to keep me interested. After I was satisfied, I packed up and headed to my first and most desired stop: Curly Creek Falls. Before picking up an out of print roadside attraction guidebook, I had never heard of the falls which I find a little surprising considering how cool it is.

The falls are located just a couple miles upstream of the Swift Reservoir, and are the location where Curly Creek joins the Lewis River. What really makes this waterfall special is the natural arch located about halfway down it’s face. It’s a very rare sight and one I’ve been eager to view firsthand. My old guidebook describes a scramble down to the river and waterfall’s edge but I elected to NOT attempt this since the bright sunshine wasn’t going to give me optimal conditions. I opted to view the falls from the official viewpoint located along the opposite bank of the Lewis River. Lighting was tough but I managed to have a brief moment when a cloud blocked the sun.

Just up the hill and around the corner from the falls is the McClellan Viewpoint, which provides an unobstructed view of Mount Saint Helens to the northwest. About a quarter-mile to the northeast is Rush Creek and the site of one of those large waterfalls. Accessing the falls requires a bushwhack approach which I attempted but quickly had to turnaround due to a cliff dropoff. I was alone and decided to return some other time when I had a partner with me and better light.

Moving on, I did stop off where Rush Creek flows underneath Forest Service Road 90. The creek is quite large, almost river-like and quite photogenic upstream of the road. By now, the day was getting long and so I made my next stop my last: Big Creek Falls. At a height of 130 feet, the falls are impressive and easily accessed thanks in large part due to an interpretive loop trail. I actually had the entire place to myself which was great. The upper falls were still in full sun and the spray from the falls was throwing up a nice rainbow (sadly the rainbow could not be photographed due to its position).

The waterfall is impressive enough but the forest here has some really big old growth trees. Having done what I could with the falls, I explored the forest. Beyond the interpretive loop trail, another trail follows the canyon rim down towards the Lewis River. Eventually I had to turn back since I still had a 3+ hour drive back to the Seattle area. I barely was able to scratch the surface so I hope to return later this summer once the snowmelt water levels subside a bit.

Tamanawas and Mount Hood

Jun 20

After a day in the Gorge at Ruckel and Gorton Creeks, I spent the following day traveling around Mount Hood. My first destination was Tamanawas Falls which has been on my list for a year or two. Located on the east side of Mount Hood, the falls are an impressive 90 feet tall and plunge over a volcanic rock outcrop. The falls are also situated in a way that allows you to get behind them so that opens up some other compositional opportunities.

The unsettled weather from the previous day continued into the next and I found myself in rain while the sun shined in Hood River. The trailhead for Tamanawas Falls is located right along Highway 35 south of Hood River along the banks of the Hood River. Several miles outside of town, you are treated to your first full view of Mount Hood. Upon my first view, I found that the mountain was acting as a dam for the nasty weather located on the west side. The eastern flanks were basking in sunshine while the divide was being overwhelmed by creeping clouds.

The sunshine continued all the way to the trailhead. It was clear that the weather wasn’t going to be optimal for waterfall photography. The hike is a pleasant 2+ miles through forest alongside Cold Springs Creek. The forest is unique in that it’s a bit more airy than a west-side forest but it still contains the high diversity of plants that you do find on the west. The cold spring was still thwarting plant leaf out but I still managed to see trillium, fairy slipper, Oregon anemone, and lots of few flowered solomon’s seal.

This hike was a really a great discovery. The creek alongside the trail has a number of interesting scenes that warrant further exploration. The falls are large enough to throw a significant amount of spray so taking a photo of the falls can be a challenge. I admit that I must have been a pretty humorous site huddled behind an umbrella on a sunny day waiting for a quick break in the spray to take my photos.

After some initial photos from further away, I hiked down to the edge of the creek for some closer shots. The spray was more intense so getting any shots required more gymnastics. I had a couple brief moments of balanced light as an occasional cloud would block the sun. My next stop was up behind the waterfall. I had to travel directly through the main brunt of spray but it was nice & dry once I got closer to the falls.

The area behind the falls is a large amphitheater thanks to a seemingly endless supply of calving columnar volcanic rock. It’s very cool to see- until you look up and see all the cracks in the rock high above you. I admit- I got spooked out about spending a lot of time underneath the overhanging rock. I took my shots and quickly moved back out into the safety of the open skies. After reaching the trailhead, I packed my gear and headed for a placed called Brooks Meadow.

Clued into this location by a Oregon blogger, I wanted to visit to check out this 35 acre meadow located at roughly 4,000 feet and a little bit further east of Mount Hood. Sadly, what wasn’t mentioned in the blog post about the meadow is that it is located within the City of Dalles watershed and access is prohibited. Bummer. Looked like a neat spot! All was not completely lost because I spied a location on my drive up that looked to have a nice, commanding view of Mount Hood and the East Fork Hood River valley.

The clouds continued to thicken over the west slopes of Mount Hood and were continuing to provide dramatic conditions. I spent a fair amount of watching and taking photos before I had to leave. My last stop of the day was on the west side of Mount Hood and deep into the center of the bad weather- Lost Creek. Located within the Sandy River drainage, I was attracted to Lost Creek due to some photos of the waterfall that is present about 2 miles up the trail which continues on to Burnt Lake.

If Tamanawas Falls was a highlight then Lost Creek was a lowlight and disappointment. The creek was within earshot but just a little too far away and too much effort to be able to quickly pop off the trail and look for photo ops. Now throw in the fact that very little of anything has leafed out to this point and you get a fairly boring, lonely hike in the forest. Once I got to the falls, the second disappointment set in. The viewpoint of the falls is horrible- you’re standing right above them and there’s no safe way to access a better vantage point.

Had I known any of this, I probably would have skipped this one. Live and learn! The one thing that was pretty amazing about this trail was the unbelievable abundance of trillium. It almost reminded me of some of the displays of avalanche lilies you see at Mount Rainier. I think I will return to explore the Sandy River valley a little more since the forests do seem interesting.

Ruckel and Gorton Creek

Jun 11

Last week I made my annual pilgrimage south to the Columbia River Gorge and Mount Hood area of Oregon. I don’t need to spend a lot of time describing and praising this area- it has a reputation and a well deserved one for its amazing scenery. Despite holding out a few extra weeks this year, the Dog Mountain Balsamroot blooms just weren’t going to coincide with my visit. Rain and a much delayed spring convinced me to seek other destinations.

This year I finally had nice, cloudy skies (yes- I said it) so I ended up returning to Ruckel Creek. There is a trail that begins alongside the creek but it quickly climbs away from the creek. This leaves any exploration as off trail bushwhacking. It’s actually not that bad so long as you don’t mind getting your feet a little wet (or just wear some 16″ rubber boots). My first visit here was 2 years ago and on that day, I had lot of sunshine. I also did not have much time so my exploration was cut short.

Since this was somewhat of a last minute decision, I neglected to do additional research before heading down. My fuzzy memory was telling me that there should be another waterfall upstream a bit. Technically, I wasn’t wrong but it turns out that it’s much further upstream and I probably was expecting. Nonetheless, I had DRY weather and nice, even lighting so you can’t ask for much more!

I pushed upstream further but I saw no signs of a waterfall. I decided to stop at this particular spot where the creek had a nice sweeping arc around a moss covered log jam. It was a bit of a challenge to capture some of these scenes because I felt they needed a higher, downward looking perspective. In order to accomplish this, I had to stand up on logs or the stream bank and set up my tripod with the legs closer together (which isn’t completely stable)…

Once I got back to my truck at the Eagle Creek trailhead, I still had some time left in the late afternoon. I decided to head a little further east to something that’s been on my list for a few years but I’ve never been able to fit it in: Gorton Creek Falls. Starting at the Wyeth Campground, most of the hike to the 80 foot waterfall is pretty straightforward along an old roadbed. The last 100 yards require a lot of climbing up, around, and over boulders and stream bank along the left side of Gorton Creek to reach the base of the falls. I took my climb during the scramble part and did not find it too difficult. I would recommend caution because a slip a few locations would cause an injury of some sort and create a situation where rescue personnel might be needed to carry a person out. In a few minutes, I was at the base of the falls and enjoying the whole scene all to myself.

Money Creek

May 29

[NOTE: I need to clarify something since this post has been retweeted on Twitter- Money Creek is NOT within the Wild Sky Wilderness. My original plans for this day included exploring Lewis Creek which DOES extend into the Wild Sky Wilderness. Carry on!]

I spent the first day of the Memorial Day weekend scouting some new areas up the Highway 2 corridor. My original destination was Lewis Creek, just outside of the town of Index along Index-Galena Rd. Lewis Creek has a good gradient to it so I was hoping for some drops and cascades. A (gated) logging road provides some relatively quick access to the newly enacted Wild Sky Wilderness portion of the creek. I was disappointed to find the creek corridor to be pretty chaotic and too difficult so I cut my losses and looked to go someplace else.

I eventually decided on Money Creek, a valley somewhat off on its own without a major destination (the exception being Lake Elizabeth). I must say that I was very pleasantly surprised. The creek is more like a river and is full of rocks and boulders providing ample interest. The forest along the banks of the creek is generally pleasant and compliments the creek well. There never seems enough time in the day because of the way I work through a location so I was only able to explore two locations.

Like other photographers, there’s usually something that draws my attention to stop and photograph. Once I’ve worked through my possibilities with the original attraction, I usually sit down and study the surrounding environment. On this day, intermittent sunshine kept me waiting for the periods of more diffuse light of cloud cover. While waiting, I had plenty of time to look downstream and across to the opposite bank from my location. From there, I noticed these two trees across from me and the series of boulders in the creek.

The first photo shows the scene with some direct sunlight which made the moss on the trees glow a little bit. Compare that scene with the second photo when the sun went behind some clouds. I liked this but I also noticed the moss on the rocks in the lower left of the frame. It’s a nice added touch but it doesn’t get the attention it needs in my previous composition. I wondered if I moved about 30 feet downstream, would that give me a better perspective that does include the moss?

Indeed, the slight physical move does allow me to keep the same basic composition but add the bonus of the moss. This is the benefit from taking your time and really studying your surroundings. Just give yourself more time to see what’s there. Every time I drop my backpack to take a photo, I’m usually in the same location for AT LEAST 15 minutes. No one likes pulling out their gear and re-packing it constantly so why not make it worth it? This probably won’t won’t sit well with your friend/wife/girlfriend if they happen to join you on a photo outing but hopefully they’re understanding enough!

The second location I stopped at was even more deserving due to the number of distinct scenes all within 30 yards of each other. I spent about 90 minutes examining this short stretch of the creek. For me, the first shot isn’t usually “the one”- it’s one of the subsequent shots. Take your time and really take in the surroundings. Isn’t that why you’re out there in the first place??

I think I’ll come back in another month to spend another full day of exploring. Despite an elevation of only around 1500 feet, several trees were still barely leafed out so I think conditions could get just a little better.

On photos and terms of service

May 23

During the last two weeks, Twitter has been burning up with tweets about a recent change to the terms of service for Twitpic, the photo sharing service folks use in conjunction with Twitter. Long story short, Twitpic has begun a partnership with another company to provide user posted photos as royalty-free photos. By posting your photos with Twitpic, you are basically giving away your rights to the photos that you post. This whole phenomenon really came to a head when a french news agency used some photos a freelance photographer took in the aftermath of the Haiti earthquake. The photographer sued the news agency for its use of his photos and I believe the case has not been resolved yet.

This case prompted a lot of photographers to reconsider how they share their photos via social media sites like twitter or Facebook. Up until sometime last year, I did use Twitpic to post photos but I mostly limited those photos to iPhone snapshots rather than nice sized processed photos. I’ve always been a little leery of having my photos used for another purpose but never really envisioned a situation like the case against the french news agency. One day, something clicked for me. One of the photographers that I follow on Twitter tweets out photos but they have been hosted on the photographer’s website. I liked this approach so I looked into doing something similar.

Using the tools that Smugmug (my web host) provide, I was able to put together my own “tweetflow” and here’s how I did it:

On my Smugmug site, I created a gallery called my Twitter Photostream. One feature of using Smugmug as a host is that your galleries have the ability to automatically apply a watermark to photos you upload. So- any photos I do upload to share via Twitter will get a watermark without any additional work on my part. That’s a nice time saver!

Smugmug has also created a mobile phone app for both iOS and Android devices making it very easy to upload photos directly to your account while you’re on the go. I do use the mobile app sometimes and it’s pretty easy to use. Before you upload your photo, you have the option to add a caption for your photo as well as keywords for SEO purposes. Once my photo has uploaded to my Smugmug gallery, I use a “tweet” button that accompanies the photo in the gallery (a Smugmug feature) to actually tweet out my photo.

Now, I realize this solution works great if you use Smugmug but what if you don’t? For people that use WordPress sites, there do appear to be apps for iOS devices such as WP Dump and even an official WordPress app. I don’t know the android marketplace very well but it’s reasonable to assume that there are similar apps for WordPress there as well.

I, personally, don’t use Flickr but I think you could set up a tweetflow like this with Flickr. One caveat about using Flickr is that they have an agreement with stock photo giant Getty Images which allows their customers royalty free access to photos uploaded to Flickr. Hopefully this gives you some food for thought about how you might be able to keep your photos YOURS when you share them with the world via Twitter.

2011 Washington Park Wildflowers

May 14

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Every year as spring takes hold, the 220 acre Washington Park in Anacortes becomes host one of the first wildflower displays of the year. The park may not be that well known to people outside of the Anacortes area but it sure is a gem. It’s located just beyond the busy Anacortes ferry terminal and is located on a small peninsula, surrounded by the waters of the San Juan Islands. The wildflower appearance is usually at the end of April but this winter’s stubborn nature has delayed things into May.

This year’s show of wildflowers was peaking this past week and it was better than what we’ve seen the last 2 years. I can’t say that any one area was really impressive but conditions and appearances were very nice overall. One flower I didn’t see this time was the White Fawn Lily. The fact that I did run into some Fairy Slippers (Calypso bulbosa) did make up for it. I’d definitely recommend making an annual visit.

Now I Say Goodnight to Winter

Apr 26

An ironic title, given the title I used for last week’s posting. In fact, as I write this, the snow level will dip below 1,000 feet again. All this just days from the month of May! Nonetheless, winter for me isn’t over until the Mount Baker Ski Area season comes to an end and that finally happened this past weekend. A gorgeous day of sunshine was forecasted so sticking around after an afternoon on the slopes for sunset was in order. For once, the weather forecasts were actually correct and the day progressed with clear skies.

By 5pm, things around the ski area had quieted down and the last wave of snowshoers were returning from their day trips up to Artist Point. As they returned, I was geared up and on my way up to Artist Point. I attempted a sunset from up here last winter and had some keepers with great pink alpenglow colors on Mount Shuksan. One thing about that visit was that I felt rushed looking for compositions due to a short lead time into that sunset. This time, I made it up onto the ridge before the “golden hour” before sunset and that allowed me to traverse along Kulshan Ridge and check everything out.

I hike all the way out towards the high point of Huntoon Point. Before the last ascent, I noticed a snag sticking out of the snow. I immediately recognized it as a snag I had photographed last fall. I put together this side by side shot to give you an idea of how much snow really accumulates in this area:

The snag (the right-most one in the right-hand photo) was probably 12+ feet tall and is situated on a rise that is 8-10′ above the trail. Seeing only the top 3 feet of the snag leaves a whole lot of snow underneath my feet!

I hoped I could find a spot which would leave me with compositions of both Mount Shuksan and Mount Baker but found this a challenge. In winter, the ridge top takes on a convex shape due to wind transport of snow. The only trees that aren’t buried are located down off the crest on either side. This means that you have to physically relocate from one side to the other in order to shoot either mountain. Now throw in a slew of snowshoe tracks and ski traverses throughout your foreground and you have your work cut out for you!

My decision was to hunker down and face Mount Shuksan and the Swift Creek headwaters. Besides, I enjoyed the vast scene dropping away in front of me. As the minutes of the golden hour ticked away, the light began to change from white to golden light. I hoped and patiently waited for the peak colors to appear but they never graced the slopes of Mount Shuksan. A bit frustrating because I could see better light to the south towards Whitehorse Mountain and to the northwest towards American Border Peak!

As luck would have it, I stood up and looked back towards Table Mountain & Mount Baker and the sky had some nice orange color but was starting to fade. Before committing to my vantage point of Mount Shuksan, I had scouted a composition for Mount Baker. I further prepped the spot by stamping out a firm pad in the snow. Now that time was of the essence, I was able to quickly set up and not have my tripod legs sink down into the snow pack.

I snapped off a few shots and was quite surprised to see that my camera was able to contain the entire dynamic range within one exposure. My visit last winter was with my Pentax K10d whose sensor technology was three-ish years old. My current Pentax K-5 has some of the best dynamic range you can currently buy in the APS-C format and I’ve become a firm believer in this. I remembered another scene just on the other side of Huntoon Point so I humped all my gear as quickly as I could over to a half buried small snag.

After a few more quick snaps, any magic light that was left faded away. Donning my snowshoes once again, I quickly made my way back towards the buried Artist Point parking lot and the descent back down to Heather Meadows. So ended the day, and so ended another ski season and winter. Despite the obvious abundance of snow, it was personally a weird winter. Perhaps I’ve been spoiled by previous winters but the lack of a lower elevation snowpack was a real disappointment.

Along with a number of other locations, Nooksack Falls received intermittent snow which prevented me from getting the truly winter scene I’ve been hoping for. The Ohanepecosh River valley was virtually bone dry all the way up close to 2,000 feet. Closing the door on winter does open the door for summertime, wildflower meadows, and the beautiful high country. Granted, it will be a while before it will be accessible but the trip planning and research can begin now!

Winter won’t leave

Apr 22

Ever since the calender made it official and told us that it’s springtime, the weather has actually reverted back into winter. It’s the 21st of April and snow levels are STILL dipping down below 1000 feet and we haven’t had a single high temperature of 60 degrees. Thankfully I love winter! Coming into the weekend, I had some interest in shooting some scenes of skunk cabbage, one of the sure signs of spring.

As it turned out, the spots in the upper North Fork Nooksack River valley I was thinking of were still solid snow and not accessible. It’s sure been a jeckyl and hyde winter! Up at the Mount Baker Ski Area, crowds have dwindled down to mostly the diehards despite a substantial snowpack. For yet another weekend, the weather proved to be dramatic and offered periods of cloud, sun, and even light snow.

Maybe I never really paid attention before but this has been one heck of a winter for scenes of clouds lapping over and around the impressive summit of Mount Shuksan. The sun’s path through the sky also changes which now lights up the snowy slopes of the Shuksan Arm enough to add dramatic shadows. The spring sunshine really brings out all of the subtleties of these slopes. As you can see from some of these shots, they are reminiscent of the jagged mountains of Alaska, Karakoram, or Himalayas.

I kept seeking and taking shots while the light allowed for it. Of course, these photos were color but the interplay of clouds and mountain just beg for a black & white treatment. I recently received my copy of Nik’s Silver Efex 2 so I went for it. After finishing up at the ski area, I revisited Razor Hone Creek. Incredibly enough, the creek still lies buried underneath the multiple feet of snow that covered it last month. This spot usually has a nice 10 foot waterfall but not on this day:

Back down in the valley, I stopped along the river at a location I never realized existed (partly because it’s typically buried under more snow). It’s nothing more than an unofficial “party” spot along the river and is a pullout inside a grove of large old growth cedar trees. The river here is fairly calm with a few gravel bars. Lucky for me, the upstream valley slopes were still flocked with fresh snow:

I wanted to go scout some of the Middle Fork Nooksack but that ended up having to wait until another time…

Sean Bagshaw Image Workshop Review

Apr 12

This past weekend found me in Bend, Oregon attending two workshops put on by Oregon based nature and landscape photographer Sean Bagshaw whose work has long stood out to me amongst the deep pool of talent here in the PNW. Last fall, I discovered he was offering classes in processing of digital photographs and I became curious about the classes. Sean is based out of Ashland in Southern Oregon and so the timing and distance prevented me from signing up.

More recently, Sean announced that he was going to offer the same classes at the new Cascade Center of Photography in Bend, Oregon. Being much closer, I decided to sign up. The first class was “Fine Art Digital Workflow For Nature Photographers” and focuses on the entire process from import to printing of your digital photographs. The second class, “Processing For Extended Dynamic Range” was focused on how to process scenes which are beyond the ability of digital SLR sensors to capture in a single image (such as shooting into the sun at sunset).

Class size was capped at a maximum of 18 students (my classes actually had 10 people Saturday and 14 people Sunday). The format of the classes is presentation style, where Sean works through specific examples using Lightroom and Photoshop CS5. Since people learn at different paces, Sean provides each attendee with a CD containing several hours of video tutorials covering the material he presents. The CD also includes the same sample images so you can follow along and perform the same tasks.

In the Digital Workflow class, Sean lays out a checklist style process for editing of photos. This is something that I’ve tried to look for in the past. At best, I have only managed to find random thoughts in photography forums so I found this very useful. Prior to diving into the workflow, Sean explained the benefits of using RAW photos instead of JPEGs along with strategies for organizing and prioritizing your files.

A good discussion of adjustments and options found in Lightroom/Adobe Camera RAW definitely helped me better understand all of the various possibilities and which ones to tweak (and which ones NOT to). From this introduction, we moved onto the heart of the matter- working with your images in Photoshop. The concept and use of layers is critical in Photoshop so Sean spent enough time explaining the various types of blending modes and how they affect what you create. Once again, I learned that I wasn’t doing anything “wrong” per se but that there are more efficient ways to get certain tasks done.

Layers bring with them the concept of adjustments. Before you are able to creatively apply adjustments, you need to learn how to specify where to apply them. Sean went through the various methods of making selections along with the pros and cons of using each. Now that we had a basic knowledge of moving around Photoshop and using its tools, it was time to learn how to tackle the situations we face as nature & landscape photographers.

Using the right blending modes and scene selections, Sean showed us that it can be fairly easy to balance photos with a bright sky and dark-ish foreground. I used one of these techniques to darken the sky in the first photo of this blog post and it was easy! I should note that Sean is a big advocate if non-destructive editing, which, simply put, are edits that do not permanently alter the original pixels of your photo. The advantage is that you always have the original photo to fall back on should something go wrong.

From here, we moved on to a few different ways of working along complex edges (such as trees against a sky), addressing color casts, dodging and burning, and adding “glow” effects using techniques such as the Orton Effect. The day ended with the use of vignettes to subtlly emphasize parts of a composition. Sean threw A LOT of information and techniques but it paid dividends. I could immediately think of several photos in my library which I could re-work into a better image simply by using these techniques.

The second day (Sunday) was entirely devoted to Extended Dynamic Range (coined XDR by Sean). XDR has become quite a fad throughout photographic circles thanks in large part to HDR software such as Photomatix, HDR ProStudio, and HDR Efex. While some people are able to get great looking photos out of these HDR programs, Sean feels they haven’t quite matured and still are more using a gun to kill a fly. The adjustments they make are too broad and often you end up sacrificing one part of an image for another. The total control offered by using custom masks in Photoshop produce a much better, MORE NATURAL photograph and Sean’s photo galleries are proof of that.

Once again, Sean starts small and simple by discussing methods of working single exposures such as using the adjustment layers, layer masks, and blending modes (all of which was reinforcing what we were exposed to the previous day). From here, we got deep and really spent a lot of time learning about using channel (or luminosity) masks. There are times when targeting specific color channels can help you focus your adjustments on specific features such as the sky.

There’s a lot to digest on this topic and it all leads to a greater appreciation for someone like Tony Kuyper who figured out how to automate the creation of channel masks (and makes them available for a fee through his website). It was really good to walkthrough the process manually in order to understand and appreciate the photoshop actions that Tony has developed.

From here, the class gets more elaborate with processing a single RAW twice (once for highlights and a second time for the shadows), double exposure blends, and even triple exposure blends. It got even crazier with a four image blend of a night scene. The last thing Sean showed us was a comparison of output from various HDR programs compared with Sean’s manual blend efforts. It really does show you that the total control of a manual blend produces a much superior image!

So were the two classes worth it? Without hesitation, I can say YES. From the minute you first meet him, Sean is friendly and engaging without any elitism or arrogance. He is just a guy who is passionate about nature and photography and who doesn’t love that? Before becoming a “pro” photographer 8 years ago, Sean was a middle school teacher and that really shows in his ability to teach and explain concepts. I know that from my own experience, it can be difficult explaining technical topics to an audience that may not be as technically savvy.

Sean would be the first to acknowledge that he doesn’t know everything and is still eager to learn new things and that was evident by our interactive discussions during the course of the days. Even during the two lunch breaks, Sean graciously joined us for lunch allowing us even more time to pick his professional brain. If all that isn’t enough, now throw in copies of the video tutorials he has available on his website and I think you have one heck of a value!

Is there anything I would change about the classes? Yes- but these would be relatively minor things. For this particular weekend, both classes were offered as independent classes. Now, many people decided to take both classes but the second class about processing for XDR had an additional 4 or 5 folks. There were a few instances where our overall progress was slowed due to questions from the XDR only class attendees about topics that were addresses quite thoroughly during the preceding day’s class on digital workflow. This is naturally bound to happen and my suggestion was to offer future classes as a bundle instead of ala carte. I’m convinced of this because I strongly believe that the XDR class really builds off of everything that is taught during the digital workflow class.

My only other “nit” was a desire to see an image processed all the way through from first steps to final save. I felt I understood both day’s instruction individually but would have benefited even more from the integration of both into one example. Now, in the interest of full disclosure, the tutorial videos he provides do offer an example that basically does this. In the end, there really isn’t enough time in the day to completely address everything. I believe that Sean hasn’t offered these classes for very long so I have every confidence that he will take our suggestions into consideration and further refine the future offerings.

I left Bend armed with a lot of valuable information. I’m not completely sure how I will implement much of it but I feel very strongly that I will look back a year from now and recognize that my decision to take these classes helped push my photography up to the next level. Currently Sean does not have any future dates planned for his classes but I would keep tabs on his website news and announcements for future dates. I don’t think you’ll regret it!

Links:
Sean Bagshaw Website
Sean’s Video Tutorial Info (including sample videos)

[NOTE: In the interest of full disclosure, I’d like to mention that prior to taking these classes, I had never met Sean before. I did not receive any compensation for this review and the opinions given here were mine and mine alone]

Bigma Fun

Mar 26

I recently ended a long quest to pick up my “wildlife”zoom lens. As a brand, Pentax has not kept up with developing long length zooms (or primes for that matter) for use in wildlife photography. The Pentax branded lenses out there hail from the end of the days of film and the FA series of lenses. For modern times, options are really limited to a few offerings made by third party lens developer Sigma.

Sigma has been producing their 500mm (750mm equivalent with the Pentax 1.5x crop) beasts for a while and their offerings boil down to the 150-500 or the 50-500, which is affectionately known as the “Bigma.” Based on my research, the 50-500 was held in high regard for both it’s image quality and value. The current version of this lens retails for about $1600 in a Pentax mount and uses a HSM motor for focusing. Pentax’s own lenses with HSM motors have been suspect so I wanted to avoid this and target a used copy of the previous version of this lens (the 50-500mm F4-6.3 APO DG).

I thought I had scored a deal on one using eBay but the seller had mistakenly listed their Nikon mount lens as a Pentax mount.There’s nothing worse than opening a box and realizing the lens you see won’t fit your camera! Anyways, fast forward a few weeks and I found an individual selling their one year old Bigma for $825 on a Pentax forum. For an additional $50, the seller threw in a UV and Polarizer filter so I jumped on it.

I’m not really a wildlife photographer but occasionally find myself in those kind of situations. What’s more, there have been a few times when I knew that the extra length beyond my normal 300mm tele would have yielded a much stronger composition and image. I’ve wanted to take this lens out for a spin but haven’t had the time until a few days ago. I tried stopping by the Mosquito Lake Rd bridge over the North Fork Nooksack River but there wasn’t a single Bald Eagle to be found. If I was going to use this lens, it would have to be landscapes.

Before that, however, I stopped briefly at Nooksack Falls. I hoped to get a “wintertime” counterpart to my ladder-aided shot of Nooksack Falls from last summer. To my disappointment, much of the snow that fell a couple weeks ago has melted away..

After that, I continued up the Mount Baker Highway to hit the slopes at the Mount Baker Ski Area. The skies were partly sunny with clouds drifting in and around the neighboring peaks. Perfect for dramatic photos! I decided to only use the Bigma so all of these photos were taken with the 50-500 and a UV filter:

I’m really happy that I picked it up. It is a HEAVY lens and weighs in at over 4 pounds. I won’t be taking this out on a hike very much! Another caveat is its construction so you should be mindful of its use during extreme conditions. Living in the wet confines of the Pacific Northwest, I’m very accustomed to being out in rain and snow. My camera body has weather seals but my lenses do not. I have not found this to be an issue overall but the Bigma is put together slightly different.

Six screws retain the front most element of the lens to the rest of the extending body of the lens. Given our proclivity to rain, I’m real concerned about moisture penetrating this seal. Thankfully, I have found an inexpensive solution but I’ll blog about that after I have had some time with it in actual rainy conditions. My Manfrotto ballhead can support the weight of the lens and camera but it is sensitive to vibrations. Using the camera’s timer or better yet a remote control helps mitigate for this.

The extra 200mm at the extreme end of the range does make a difference. There’s been one composition out along the Shuksan Arm that I’ve wanted to shoot but have been unable to since it won’t fill the frame at 300mm. It now does and hopefully I’ll be able to shoot it before the end of ski season next month. Focusing is fairly fast and snappy but it has hunted for focus in low light and low contrast conditions. I’ve been able to work around this by either selecting a higher contrast focus point or by pointing the lens at a higher contrast portion of the scene and then recomposing for my original scene.

The Canon / Nikon versions of this lens have a few switches near the mount which control zoom creep and manual / auto focus. The Pentax version only has the zoom lock switch and I gave myself a heart attack as I unintentionally discovered that manual / auto focus is controlled by a push/pull of the focusing ring. I thought I had broken the lens!

My last comment is about the lens hood, which requires some consideration. The horizontal petals almost half the depth of the vertical petals, presumably to avoid appearing in the frame at 50mm. My very first attempt using this lens was at a local estuary wetland during a windy rain. Although I was perpendicular to the wind, it was blowing water droplets in and onto the front of the lens. This is something I have not encountered with my Pentax DA55-300 which uses a lens hood with a uniform, deep length. This isn’t calamity by any stretch but I think folks should be aware of such things. Sometimes the photos we take can’t be duplicated so I would hate to loose a photo because I didn’t check for water droplets!

[UPDATE] I haven’t had many opportunities to use this lens until recently when I visited Boundary Bay in British Columbia to photograph the Snowy Owls. You can see those photos in my blog post here.

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Steve Cole Photography

Pacific Northwest Landscape / Nature Photography

Posts by: Steve Cole

Lewis River Drainage