Always Ready

I completely understand and appreciate the fact that I have a full time job in which I can essentially lug my camera gear everywhere I go. As a stay-at-home dad, it's almost a tool to have your camera by your side, if only to prove to family and friends that you are capable of taking your kids out of the house all by yourself!

I've really made it a point to carry my 40D with me in the care when I'm out running around. I've had too many instances where I've seen something spur of the moment and had only wished I had my camera with me. I've completely lucked out the last couple of months in being at the right place and right time to capture my first bald eagle - although you could barely make it out - and today, I stumbled upon a beautiful hawk along the side of the road on my way back from a local park.


40D 28-135 IS @ 135mm 1/664 f7 Av

I literally veered off the side road into a church parking lot, only to creep the car as close to the hawk as possible, with my side window down. I was just hoping to catch this guy as just part of my own personal checklist of birds I've been able to photograph. My list is small so far - and I hope in the future to get a lens long enough to really get a crack at these guys.


40D 28-135mm IS @ 135mm 1/664 f7 Av

I had fired off a few bursts of shots when this happened. It was definitely like a projectile shooting out. To say it was odd was an understatement. It was almost like he did it on purpose since I encroached on his space. He looked up at me, turned around, lifted his bottom end and shot! Then he flew off.

I don't know why I am so proud of this shot but I am.


40D 28-135mm IS @ 135 1/664 f7 Av

Not Your Day

Within the St. Louis area, we are lucky to have a few great spots which we can take our cameras to view wildlife in action. One such place is the Butterfly House, operated by the Missouri Botanical Garden and the other is the St. Louis Zoo. You would think with the options available, you should have hundreds of great pictures every time you visit. Sadly, that wasn't the case last week.

I guess everyone has their bad days while out with the camera. To tell you the truth, I was a bit disappointed when I got back home from both the butterfly house and the zoo. I just thought I should have much more to show for the time and effort I spent. I also put my zoom away and tried my hand at what I could do with just a 50mm - which is probably why I had such a hard time. But more challenging.

I wanted something a little bit different at the butterfly house. I tried capturing them in flight - nothing turned out. I tried different angles and settings, only to have most of the pictures washed out or blurred beyond being acceptable or passed off as being artistic (wink). So this is all that I really cared for. Just me flat on my belly shooting the butterfly on the walkway. Not even on a pretty flower!


40D 55mm @ 55mm 1/400 f3.5 Av

The zoo was a big strike out for me as well. I mean, who can't get a good picture of animals at the zoo! Three hours later I just reserved myself to enjoy the day with my two boys and put the camera away. Here are two that I actually like.


40D 55mm @ 55mm 1/800 f4.6 Av


40D 55mm @ 55mm 1/80 f8 Av

Wickham Family Shoot

40D 50mm @ 50mm 1/250 f3.2 Av ISO 400 430EX

Tuesday I had the pleasure of taking our neighbor's family pictures and I have to say I was a bit nervous about the lighting before we got out to the park. The sun kept playing peek-a-boo through the clouds so we would have periods of intense lighting followed by perfect diffuse light - but we did what we could and actually had a period of 15 minutes where all the settings were perfect.

After taking a few standard family group shots and some individuals of the girls, we broke out and did a few fun pictures. My brother and I started this back a few years ago as a Christmas gift to our mom one year where we both did weird and wacky things around the town of Cape Girardeau - but in our fancy suits. Some pics poked fun of certain traits my brother and I had - but others were just completely bizarre, leaving the onlooker scratching their heads as to what it's all about.

Here are two we shot of the Wickham family as well as some other shots from that day.


40D 50mm @ 50mm 1/200 f3.2 ISO 400 Av 430EX


40D 28-135mm @ 28mm 1/125 f3.5 ISO 400 Av 430EX

Perspectives

These were taken the same trip to Faust Park, but I wanted to show how just changing your perspective on the same subject can dramatically change the look of your picture. Here is the original flower:


Canon 40D 28-135 IS @ 1/100 f12 75mm ISO 400

Pretty much your run of the mill shot of a pretty flower you come across. The next shot is through the fence, from the other side, using the slats to frame the flower.


Canon 40D 28-135 IS @ 1/256 f12 90mm ISO 400

The last shot is back to the same side as the original, but using the white picket fence as the background. I don't know which I like better between the second or third picture.


Canon 40D 28-135 IS @ 1/256 f12 112mm ISO 400

Adam and Amber Shoot

Canon 40D 50mm 1.4 @ f2.8 1/664 ISO 400 430EX Flash Av Priority

It's funny, as I just mentioned recently about being just plain lucky sometimes when you are out and about taking pictures, I had another experience I proabably won't forget as I was in the middle of doing a shoot for Adam and Amber.

I had just switched from my 28-135 lens to my 50mm, when out of the blue I see a white heron heading for the surface of the water to grab a fish. He took a couple of swipes and appeared to be heading away with his prize when out of nowhere, a bald eagle swooped in - knocked the fish out - and took off with the catch. Amazing. I had never seen a bald eagle before and to witness something like this was pretty incredible. I fumbled around with my 50mm to get the best shot I could.


40D 50mm @ 2.8 1/4000 Av Priority

We got back to the shoot and lucked out on the evening as it was a perfect as far as lighting. My only concern was using the 430ex flash with the high speed sync to get the proper fill flash on the backlit subjects. It's a bit hard to tell as you go with the built in LCD, but I relied mostly on my histogram to show me if I was properly exposed. I loved the colors we got off the lake and as the day wore on, the lake provided this velvety background to shoot Amber in front of. Here's one of my favorites as well as a link to the other shots that night.


40D 50mm @ 2.8 1/320 430ex Av Priority