Bonnie Rannald's Photo-Explorations in focus with nature.

Monday, August 30, 2010

FANTASY IN FLIGHT

HUMMINGBIRDS IN FLIGHT

I’ve been fortunate in getting hummingbirds to stop in mid-flight and pose for my camera.

Well, I'll let the secret out, I use a fast lens, a Nikon 2.8mm, a steady tripod, and stand patiently near a hummingbird feeder with my finger glued to the shutter.

Hummingbirds are native only to North and South America, and many species fly as many as 500 miles non-stop during their migration period.

Unlike other birds, hummingbirds have wings that rotate in a figure-8 motion.

This unique wing rotation allows the hummingbird to fly forward, backwards, up, down and sideways. The most exceptional flying skill that the hummingbird possesses is hovering.

The wings of the hummingbird move at a rate of 80 times a second, and during courtship may increase to 200 times a second. In normal flight a hummingbird flies between 20 and 30mph, but when diving can reach speeds as fast as 60mph.

With a heart beat as fast as 1,260 beats per minute, the hummingbird will feed at 45 second intervals, up to 8 times an hours.

A wing beat speed of 60-80 times a second requires a fast shutter speed.

To get the faster shutter speed, I increase the ISO and try to keep the aperture at f/8 for the depth of field. I always pre-focus the lens to an area before the action starts. Shooting in bright sunlight also helps with the shutter speed and brings out the highlights in the feathers. I’ve never used a flash, although some photographers highly recommend it with hummingbirds. My favorite lens for this type of photography is the Nikon 80-200mm 2.8, mounted on a tripod. Getting a clear, sharp photo of a hummingbird sometimes seems a stroke of luck. One of the times when they were putting on the best show was at dusk, when I didn't have my Quantum flash, so I just sat and enjoyed the entertainment.

With my Nikon and tripod, my goal is to recreate the scene as it appears in nature, to preserve in a photographic image the awesome, yet simplistic beauty of the scene that waits around a bend or over a hill. Sometimes it's a colorful landscape, and many times I'm allowed in the presence of the numerous creatures that adapt to life in the wild.

What an exciting and interesting photo-adventure this day has been. I love it when I am drawn to an area and not knowing what to expect I get treated to new experiences.

Photography places me in the moment where I can share that moment in time. It becomes a life story as represented by my interaction with the scene. The happiness and beauty or the sorrow and strife; how I focus leaves a lasting impression that might touch the viewer on a spiritual level.

"Reflecting Nature's Artistry"

Many of these images are available on my website:

http://www.bonnierannald.com/

For custom matted and framed images:
Off The Wall

No images on this blog are within Public Domain or are available for free download.

All rights reserved, world-wide and images protected by Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). All photography, graphics, text, design, and content is copyrighted by Bonnie Rannald and should not be copied, down-loaded, transferred and re-created in any way without the express consent, in writing to Bonnie Rannald. For information on Bonnie Rannald licensed, right-managed images, please submit a written request.

Monday, August 23, 2010

AUGUST MOONS

The Full Moon at Walker Lake, Nevada

The month of August has proven to be a good time for me to photograph full moons. Since we are due for one on the 24th, I thought I’d provide some information on how I took one of my favorite full moon photos, the “August Moon” at Walker Lake, Nevada. On an August night in 1999, I was driving on the highway from Twenty Mile Beach after taking twilight photos of the full moon, when I noticed the glow on the water from the moon. I immediately pulled over to a level area, and set my Nikon back up on the tripod. At this time, I was still shooting film, long before I made the transition to digital.

During the film days, many of my full moon landscape photos were taken by creating a multiple exposure in my Nikon 8008s camera. The reason for multiple exposures on full moon photography is two-fold: the moon is much brighter than the night landscape and very far away. A multiple exposure allows the moon to show up life size in the photo and not be overexposed due to the difference in lighting. To photograph a multiple exposure, the film is not advanced to the next frame, which allows more than one exposure to be taken on that frame.

On the “August Moon” photograph, I positioned my Nikon 35-70mm 2.8 lens to include only the lake with the moon glow on the water, and a portion of the sky over head without the moon. I metered the landscape at f/5.6 with a 4 second exposure. After taking this first exposure, I changed to a Nikon 500mm 4.0 lens, and metered the moon at f/5.6 for a 1/250 second shutter speed. Here comes the tricky part, which is to carefully position the moon in the correct area of the sky, over the moon glow! Once the moon has been positioned in the frame, a final click of the shutter is made and the frame is advanced. If my estimations are correct, I’ll have a beautiful “August Moon” photograph.

In conclusion, I’ll let you in on an insight: I always take more than one photograph during a full moon multiple exposure just to make sure that the moon’s in the right place. Through experience, I’ve had my moon show up in some pretty strange places, over clouds, on top of buildings and in front of mountains. At this point, you might be wondering how it’s done with digital, well that’s a future post. So come back often for a visit!

What an exciting and interesting photo-adventure this day has been. I love it when I am drawn to an area and not knowing what to expect I get treated to new experiences.

"Reflecting Nature's Artistry"

Many of these images are available on my website:

http://www.bonnierannald.com/

For custom matted and framed images:
Off The Wall

No images on this blog are within Public Domain or are available for free download.

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Aurora Ghost Town

Early Mining Days in Nevada

A drive through Lucky Boy Pass, off Highway 395, then a turn on a narrow winding rocky road will lead you back into Nevada’s gold and silver history to what was once the bustling town of Aurora.

Located just three miles from the California border, the town was founded around 1836, when a small group of prospectors discovered a ledge of silver and several veins of gold and proclaimed the area “Aurora! Goddess of the Dawn”.

It didn’t take long before word got out and the town of Aurora became established with a general store, post office, some saloons and a hotel. By 1869, the town had grown to a population of 10,000 and the mines were producing a reported $27 million in gold.

Aurora’s heyday lasted about a decade, until the gold and silver ran out. Presently, with the harsh desert environment and human vandalism, only a few structures are left to remind us of how life must have been.

At its peak, Aurora had as many as 17 mills, worth a total of 175 stamps. The elaborate frame from one of the stamp mills can be found just off the dirt road, near Aurora Creek.

The Gyratory Crusher was a large capacity crushing machine. Imagine how it was transported to a location through the desert and up a slope for operation.

The Hardinge Patent Conical Mill was used to reduce various minerals like gold, silver, copper and lead. This heavy mill was built to be sectionalized for pack animal transportation.

Heavy equipment and ladder are clues to how work was once done in the mines at Aurora.

A residence in the bustling town of Aurora.

A cement structure was thought to have once been a bank.

What an exciting and interesting photo-adventure this day has been. I love it when I am drawn to an area and not knowing what to expect I get treated to new experiences.

"Reflecting Nature's Artistry"

Many of these images are available on my website:

http://www.bonnierannald.com/

For custom matted and framed images:
Off The Wall

No images on this blog are within Public Domain or are available for free download.

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

PHOTOGRAPHING FIREWORKS

Pyrotechnics

The small quiet town of Hawthorne, Nevada comes alive on the Fifth of July each year because that’s when they celebrate America’s Birthday with a spectacular fireworks display.

By scheduling the event after the Fourth, the pyrotechnics production company stops by to use up any unexploded fireworks left over from the Fourth.

This allows Hawthorne to put on a big extravaganza at a reduced price.

The fireworks are exploded in the open desert area across from Armory Road, with Walker Lake and the Wassuk Mountain Range as the backdrop.

And what a dazzling display it is against the dark open sky.

With my D90 and Nikon 35-70mm 2.8 lens secured to a sturdy Bogan tripod, I exposed the fireworks on manual setting, at 200 ISO, f/16 aperture and shutter held open on bulb.

What an exciting and interesting photo-adventure this day has been. I love it when I am drawn to an area and not knowing what to expect I get treated to new experiences.

"Reflecting Nature's Artistry"

Many of these images are available on my website:

http://www.bonnierannald.com/

For custom matted and framed images:
Off The Wall

No images on this blog are within Public Domain or are available for free download.

Friday, June 11, 2010

THE LADY BEETLE Harmonia axyridis

Gardening Friends

Early this spring of 2010 while weeding my yard, I noticed a large number of small alligator-like insects crawling all over the ground and plants. After taking photos of the creatures and "Goggling", I discovered that they were lady beetle larvae.

Lady beetles lay their eggs in small clusters on the protected surface of leaves and stems that are close to their food source of aphids. One Lady beetle may lay over 1,000 eggs during the three months in spring and early summer.

The larvae hatches from the egg by biting a hole in the surface. At this first stage, the larvae will have a gray elongated soft body, six legs and no wings. During the next three stages the larvae will continue to grow and shed the old skin, while it eats aphids and other garden pests. At the last and fourth stage, the larvae has almost reached the size of an adult beetle.

When it has eaten enough, it will attach itself to a substrate and molt into a pupa where it continues to develop into an adult lady beetle.

What an exciting and interesting photo-adventure this day has been. I love it when I am drawn to an area and not knowing what to expect I get treated to new experiences.

"Reflecting Nature's Artistry"

Many of these images are available on my website:

http://www.bonnierannald.com/

For custom matted and framed images:
Off The Wall

No images on this blog are within Public Domain or are available for free download.

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Sand Dunes and Alkali Flats

WHITE SANDS, NEW MEXICO

Can you imagine a world where the sky is blue but the landscape is all white with towering dunes of sand?

The tallest tree grows to about 5 feet (1.5 m) and has long sharp bayonets instead of branches.

And what wildlife that you might see is also white, very small and scurries across the sand to hide from the blazing sun. It might appear that you have space-traveled to a different planet, but you are at the White Sands National Monument in New Mexico. Located near the city of Alamogordo, the 275-mi² (710-km²) area of white sand dunes is completely surrounded by the military installations of Holloman Air Force Base and White Sands Missile Range.

Lying within the mountain-ringed Tularosa Basin, the world’s largest gypsum dune field has a very unique and interesting origin. On the west side of White Sands is an extremely flat area knows as the Alkali Flats.

To the south of the Alkali Flats is a depression called Lake Lucero. Both the Alkali Flats and Lake Lucero are remnants of Lake Otero.

Over time many tons of dissolved gypsum was washed from the mountains into the Lake Otero basin from rain and snowmelt. About 12,000 years ago when the climate warmed, Lake Otero began to dry up, leaving behind a surface of gypsum in the crystal form.

Since the end of the Ice Age, wind erosion has been blowing across the area from the southwest, breaking the crystals down into gypsum sand where they have accumulated downwind of the Alkali Flats, forming the dunes at White Sands.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Sands_National_Monument

What an exciting and interesting photo-adventure this day has been. I love it when I am drawn to an area and not knowing what to expect I get treated to new experiences.

"Reflecting Nature's Artistry"

Many of these images are available on my website:

http://www.bonnierannald.com/

For custom matted and framed images:
Off The Wall

No images on this blog are within Public Domain or are available for free download.

Monday, March 1, 2010

The Visual Arts

OH! IT’S JUST A PHOTOGRAPH

“Oh! It’s Just a Photograph”. I have heard this expression on numerous occasions at art shows, when my photography has been mistaken for paintings. The first time was early in my art show experience. An older woman in a walker came from across the room, and made a beeline to one of my framed photographs to get a closer look. Upon realizing it was not a painting, she went “UMPH” in an irritated voice and exclaimed, “It’s just a photograph”, as she turned, making a fast departure. At the time, I took the woman’s reaction as a compliment, feeling honored that my photographs resembled paintings.

Over the years, I’ve become a seasoned artist and have probably heard just about every remark that can be made. Fortunately, I have almost always received positive impressions from the viewing public. However, what I find difficult to understand is the attitude that goes with the comment, “It’s just a photograph”. In my mind, if the photograph is so appealing as to attract the person’s attention in the first place, then why should the medium matter, as long as the price isn’t an issue? I wonder if a lack of understanding the preparation and steps that go into the photographic process could be a factor in this attitude.

Some people think that to produce a photograph worthy of enlarging requires nothing more than a click of the shutter, while the camera takes the picture. With me this is not the case. There is much more involved before arriving to the point of snapping the shutter, and that’s not counting the expense of the camera equipment or the technical knowledge that goes with making a photograph. Before I ever get to the location where the scene will be shot, I spend time pre-planning and strategizing, gathering information about my subject. If it’s a location, I familiarize myself about the area as much as possible, studying maps, regulations and weather. With wildlife, I study the habits and idiosyncrasies so I won’t be caught off guard by a charging buck or an angry bear.

Getting off the beaten path to find new scenes is one of the things that I enjoy the most about my photography. I’m always curious about what lies ahead or around the bend, and going that extra yard for a better view has given me some hair rising experiences. A good example was when I was driving on a narrow mountain road enclosed on both sides by aspen trees in my open CJ7 Jeep, and a bear the size of a refrigerator came running out from a side trail, with the only way I could go was in reverse.

Or the time I was hiking on a summer morning, came around a bend, and found a Mojave Green Rattlesnake stretched out across the trail.

Then there was the experience on a cold November morning when I stood too close to the edge of the stream under Weeping Rock in Zion, Utah and fell in.

And what about while I was standing on a ledge at Toroweep Point in the Grand Canyon, ready to take a photo, when I felt cold air on my leg, looked down and saw the Colorado River flowing 3000 feet below through a space in the rocks.

Other experiences that I’ve encountered on my photography ventures may not have been as thrilling, but were certainly no less trying or exasperating. For instance, having to wait at least an hour at Cathedral Rock in Sedona, Arizona for a person to finish working her dogs so I could begin shooting before the sun’s angle got too low. Or seeing the most magnificent view of autumn trees reflected in a pond along the road in Cedar Breaks, Utah, only to return the next morning when the lighting was perfect to find that the pond had been drained. This list of experiences can go on ad infinitum, and maybe there’ll be more at a later post.

So I hope when someone remarks that “it’s just a photograph”, they might start to consider what goes into the making of that photographic image.

For example: getting up at 3am to go stand in the frost covered desert to catch the sunrise;

arriving home at 3am, tired and dusty from driving 140 miles on a dirt washboard road; trekking up and down 40 foot high sand dunes at White Sands, New Mexico; hiking across the desert floor in 120 degree heat;

standing on the edge of eternity in a blizzard at Cedar Breaks, Utah;

trying not to be struck by lightning in the middle of the desert during an approaching storm; and in conclusion my favorite frustration of all, dodging the ever present streaks of contrails that play tic tac toe across my landscape photos.

What an exciting and interesting photo-adventure this day has been. I love it when I am drawn to an area and not knowing what to expect I get treated to new experiences.

"Reflecting Nature's Artistry"

Many of these images are available on my website:

http://www.bonnierannald.com/

For custom matted and framed images:
Off The Wall

No images on this blog are within Public Domain or are available for free download.

Bonnie Rannald's Photo-Explorations in focus with nature.

Monday, August 30, 2010

FANTASY IN FLIGHT

Monday, August 23, 2010

AUGUST MOONS

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Aurora Ghost Town

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

PHOTOGRAPHING FIREWORKS

Friday, June 11, 2010

THE LADY BEETLE Harmonia axyridis

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Sand Dunes and Alkali Flats

Monday, March 1, 2010

The Visual Arts

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