Good morning everyone! [or afternoon or evening ;o) - Once again I will add my two cents worth in brackets so you know who is making fun of who - RW]

Now that I think of it that could have said "good evening" as depending on when you are reading this both could apply.  For some reason as frigid as this winter has been it seems to have just flown by so far.... I guess that's what happens when you keep busy about 18 hours a day... who knew??

Last weekend Rob and I held our Winterscapes 2009 fieldtrip and we had a blast.  Of course the main concern when you book a winter fieldtrip is always what the weather is going to be like but we couldn't have asked for a better day as the temperature hovered right around zero... well, truth be told is I was to have asked for a better day I would have asked for a bit less wind and a few clouds in the sky but... you get the point.

This week instead of boring you with a bunch of wordy build up prior to showing you some pictures I'm just going to get right to it and instead bore you with wordy midpoint commentary

Rob and I headed out to Deer Valley the week prior to our Winterscapes trip to check out some locations... in the picture above Rob is checking to make sure that this is the perfect "posing" log

[Devona preaches from the nearest pedastal - I mean teaches]

I shot the above picture with my point and shoot Pentax Optio W60.  Aperture 4.2, Shutter speed 1/800th sec.  Yes, I did tweak this one in Photoshop...

In this photo Rob is most likely providing some long winded lecture on always using your tripod regardless of what it weighs or how goofy it looks.

Rob speaks to the virtues of reflectors being not only for portraiture. Use them to fill shadows or provide a natural light source where one would not normally be found.

The above is a shot of Rob and Norm trying to figure out exactly how they are going to get Norm out of a snowbank that has buried him above his waist in snow Okay, not really...

[Fact is I was very impressed with all the participants willingness to "put themselves in position" and sacrifice to get the shot. If all you do is stand up you will rarely capture unique images]

ISO - 400, F 13.0, Shutter Speed - 1/400th, Exp Comp - (+1.0) 

I threw in the above picture so that you can all take note of the different levels of light and dark in the ice.  Apparently those colors differentiate the levels of thickness of the ice also.  The problem lies in the fact that sometimes these colors are covered up in snow thus making it impossible to tell the thickness of said ice.  Needless to say we did have one brave soul in our group volunteer to test it out for us by breaking through the ice thus letting us know that it was in fact only about 2" thick and therefore not safe to venture out onto.  Just to let you know nobody got seriously hurt although I really must commend Shane (pictured below with one soaked and frozen leg) as he stuck out the last two hours of the fieldtrip even after dumping the equivalent of a gallon of freezing cold water out of his right boot.

[Here Devona shoots the shooter - you will come to realize over time that photogaphers are her favorite subject]

A photo that Rob took along the way... ISO - 100, F 7.1, Shutter Speed - 1/640th sec. 

There is a bit of a story behind Rob's pics in that he insisted on buying a manual focus 50mm 1.4 lens for his Pentax last week.  I pretty much told him that he may as well just give me that money and a lighter as there is no way that he will ever use it... leave it to Rob to only bring that lens along on our Fieldtrip just to proove a point

Another one of Rob's "50mm" pics.  ISO - 100, F 8.0, Shutter Speed - 1/400th, Exp Comp- (+1.0)

ISO - 100, F 8.0, Shutter Speed - 1/160th, Exp Comp (+1.0). 

Hmmm.... now that I take a closer look at this I think that Rob may have gone into Photoshop and done something with the background of this photo??  I have no idea why though as I'm sure that massive amounts of cow sh%t have broad appeal for many... right Norm??  I know, that was an inside joke and since this blog is for everyone I will now clear up what that last little statement meant.  Norm, whose last name shall remain nameless thought that it would be hilarious to take and bring along a photo for our critiquing session to show me that he managed to "freeze the action" in one of his fieldtrip shots.  Yes, it was an extreme close up shot of a cows rear end midway through relieving himself... Norm proudly pointed out that he composed the shot so that the subject fell on the left hand third and that his shutter speed was fast enough so as to make it appear as though some of the matter that was being ejected from said cow was suspended in mid air.  If you can believe it he even went so far as to make me a framed 4x6 print of this shot for my office... what a guy

Another of Rob's scenic shots... ISO - 100, F 6.3, Shutter Speed - 1/200th sec, Exp Comp - (+1.0)

The last of Rob's scenics... ISO - 100, F 5.0, Shutter Speed - 1/640th, Exp Comp (+0.7)

The following three pictures were shot by Norm without a last name who attended our Fieldtrip.  As tempted as I was to include his wonderfully composed cow shot I thought better of it... 

ISO - 100, F 8.0, Shutter Speed - 1/500th, Exp Comp - (-0.7)

ISO - 100, F 6.3, Shutter Speed - 1/500th. 

ISO - 100, F 5.6, Shutter Speed - 1/500th, Exp Comp ( -0.3) 

A shot that I took of the Fieldtrip group.  Take note that Rob can literally sense when a camera is pointing at him as he automatically raises his hands in the air and looks skyward... almost like when someone pulls out a dogtreat and a dog can sense it up to a mile away... but a bit different I guess


Just me reinforcing my point

[In addition to being a great mentor and excellent instructor, Devona too is a good "learner"]

ISO- 400, F 13.0, Shutter Speed - 1/100th, Exp Comp -(+1.0)
I took this of my shadow while walking through the trees... Rob would have a Hell of a time doing this as I have no idea how he would be able to shoot the picture and have his hands up in the air at the same time

ISO - 400, F 2.8, Shutter Speed - 1/3200th, Exp Comp - (+1.0) - Yes, once again I did tweak the above image in Photoshop converting it to black and white and adjust shadows and highlights...

[Trained on the subject in the late afternoon light.]

[A couple of the boyz at the end of the day... looking none the worse for wear]

The gang at days end.

Well, that's it for this weeks addition everyone.  We have already got a headstart on next weeks blog as Rob and I went out shooting this past Friday... yes, it was -30 outside!  Have a great week everyone... try to stay warm. 

Devona & Rob