Ice Fishing and Photography

I had the good fortune to get out of the city for the weekend and head out to a friend's camp.  I brought my photography gear with me as well as some insulated rubber boots.  We heard reports that there could be a lot of slush on the ice now that the temperatures were getting well past 0C during these sunny spring days.

I've only just started learning how to shoot the night time skies with long exposures. I was excited to apply what I learned last month when a group of us shot the 'Blood Moon'.  Being able to walk out on the frozen lake at 2AM and see the millions of stars was a great feeling.  There wasn't much light pollution 2 hours from the city and the conditions were as close to perfect as one could hope for.

For those interested in the tech stuff, here's some of the settings I used.  I don't claim to be an expert, this is just what worked for me that evening:

1. TRIPOD.   Without a good tripod the excercise is almost futile, unless you have MacGyver like skills.

2. Dark Skies (No Moon):
I started with Apperture Priority and set my apperture as open as possible.

Switched lens to Manual Focus (My shutter will not work if it thinks it's too dark) and focused on infinity.

ISO between 400 and 800.

Switched VR on lens to off (good practice i've been told when using a tripod as it is suggested the VR will look for movement and introduce it's own, causing motion blur)

Switched then to Manual mode and set shutter speed to 30 seconds

3. Moon Shots
Same as above, however ISO can be down to 200 or even 100 depending on your lens.  Apperture can be dialed in a bit. I think i was around F8.  Shutter now a fraction of second. I think i was getting some good shots around 1/3".  I was also using burst mode to crack off about 5 shots in succession.  I learned from the Blood Moon shoot that the moon is moving pretty fast and this can help get a frame or two of really clear focus.  It felt as though I was shooting the sun it was so bright.  I had to play a little with the shutter speed and ISO to get in the range of light I was happy with.

Hope this helps.  It worked for me and I was very pleased with the results.  As the weather gets warmer and warmer, I'll be looking forward to more late nights with no gloves!

Links:
Instagram: @thunderbaylandscapes and @at0mpub
Youtube:  Adam Sabaz
Camera Gear: Nikon D3100, 18-55 Kit lens, 55-200mm zoom, K&F Tripod and Filters, Fotga Cable Release

Music Used in Video:
Buddha by Kontekst https://soundcloud.com/kontekstmusic Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported— CC BY 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/b... Music promoted by Audio Library https://youtu.be/b6jK2t3lcRs

Winter Sunrises Are Running Out

Time changes and spring are on the horizon. The snow is starting to melt and it's actually comfortable up on the mountains of Thunder Bay first thing in the morning. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Adam Sabaz on Instagram @thunderbaylandscapes/@at0mpub
Blair Wright on Instagram @bmwphotoca
Music Selection - Meadow (Cyberlink Background Music) Software - Cyberlink PowerDirector and Photodirector
Gear - Nikon! Of course!
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Morning Walk

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Dog's require walking.  Photographers need to get out and shoot.  It's a perfect combo.  Here's some snaps I took on a brisk morning excursion with McGruff.  I'm considering buying a 35mm prime lens.  But to see if it's of practicality to me I made the decision to set my variable lens to 35mm and leave it there to judge for myself.

Keep It Simple

 

I've been struggling with my photography as of late. I watched way to many Youtube photography channels on the matter and have been swimming in the technical aspects of the art and it became daunting.  I was shooting everything in 'raw' and spending way too much time editing my pictures in post like everyone i was studying on the internet.  I couldn't see the forest from the trees.  I wasn't happy with my photos as I was doing too much to them in post and feeling fraudulent.  

After a great discussion with a fellow photographer about this he gave me some sage advise. Go back to JPG.  It'll make your life easier.  What I got out of our discussion was this - Raw gives you way more information to work with yes - but that can be debilitating.  The images once in your post picture production software of choice will always look 'flat' as there is a ton of extra digital information that you have to work with.  My take on this now is that I shouldn't have to rely on all this extra information to fix my photos if I take them well enough to begin with.

I flipped back to JPG and haven't looked back.  When I take the memory card out of the camera and put it into Cyberlink PhotoDirector the picture looks more or less like I saw in the view finder.  A bit richer - not so 'flat'.  I am literally now touching up my photos in a minute or two as opposed to ten or twenty in RAW.  The results are far more pleasing - at least to me and really - that's who I am doing this for.  Me.

I was loosing the joy and getting stuck on the technical.  I was going down the trap of wanting to buy better gear to make my photos better.  I am what I am - an amateur hobbyist photographer.  Being honest with myself has been liberating and I am back to taking snaps because I'm inspired instead of trying to proove I can do it.

These two photos are the first of my flip back to JPG.  I am very pleased.

Follow me on Instagram: @thunderbaylandscapes

Winter Sunrise Photography in the Country

Blair and I drive around the country side of Thunder Bay shooting sunrises, rivers, cottages and lots and lots of snow covered trees!  Hiking - a wonderful way to spend a bright and crisp Sunday morning.

Tones of Grey - No Sunrise Again

Went shooting with photographer wizard @bmwphotoca to capture a sunrise and do some location scouting. The weather forecast again was off by a mile and we were met with cloudy blue and grey skies.

My Youtube channel:  Adam Sabaz
My Instgram to see all my photos: @thunderbaylandscapes and @at0mpub
Blair's Instagram feed: @bmwphotoca
Boreal Cultural Collective:  https://borealcc.blogspot.com/