Old shots revisited

No time to actually shoot new material drives me to revisit older shots from way back when.

Trowbridge falls cascades lower end

Trowbridge Falls upper river

Sleeping Giant sunrise, Pool 6

Silhouetted fishermen, Dog Lake, Ontario

Images © Ian Benninghaus 2010. All rights reserved
Not to be used without permission.

Star Trails

I'm going to attempt to shoot some star trails. I've not spent a lot of time on it and have yet to give it a serious attempt.

Tried it once before without much effort and resulted in a shot with a few stars, some movement but not a lot as far as a decent result...


As it turns out, there is a lot more to it than I had first expected. From what I've been researching, star trails take a bit more effort than a simple long exposure at night.


My first half assed attempt was a 921 second (15 minute, 35 second) exposure.
Half an hour would provide for some better results but I'm not sure whether my camera will develop hot pixels resulting in unwanted noise due to sensor heat.

Seeing as how it's still somewhat cold out as of late I'm banking on the cooler night air to help alleviate this issue. We'll have to wait and see; it's going to be an experiment for sure.

I think I know what I'm doing now and have a couple locations in mind. Just have to wait for the weather to start cooperating. Hopefully I will have some decent results. Fingers crossed.

Ghost of 2009

Waiting for midnight under the full moon, December 31st 2009.

Life should taste as good as lightning

We had a fairly violent electrical storm roll through the area last night and for the first time this season I had the opportunity to attempt a few lightning shots.

Once the rain had let up enough I headed out to the scenic lookout near where I live and shot the storm as it moved east over Lake Superior.



The way I shoot lightning is usually with a long exposure. Not too crazy, a few seconds, anywhere up to 25 or 30 will usually do. These shots were all about 15 second exposures, tripod mounted and triggered manually (I hastily forgot my IR remote as I ran out the door.)



Kept my ISO at 200, Auto WB, Spot metered at about f/8 to f/10 and not wide open as I wanted to focus more on any potential lightning strikes rather than city lights throwing the exposure out of whack too much. I also kept a Hoya ND x 4 filter on my lens to give me a greater DOF (if need be) and more importantly, to give me that extra one or two seconds exposure time which might have made the difference between a shot with a lightning bolt in it and a shot with some boring clouds. Even with the ND I did miss quite a few by looking in the wrong direction at the wrong second.



All in all I was decently happy with my few results from last night. I'm no expert on lightning photography and I don't have a ton of fancy gear. All I know is that with a few basic pieces of equipment and some basic know how coupled with patience and a bit of luck, anyone can capture a real split second in time and come home with good lightning shots.
It's not that hard.

Support starving artists. We need food to live.

Fishing tested, Mother approved

Where I'm from the May long weekend usually brings to mind one thing. Fishing.



Opening weekend for pickerel (walleye) has always been one of my favorite occasions; the weeks (and months) before hand spent planning and buying new hooks and line to make sure that dinner is put on the table.
This May long was no different as we headed out to one of our favorite local hot spots to try our luck. As luck would have it, we made out good and I spent 4 our of 5 nights out on the lake until the early morning hours.

When there's a lull in the fishing I always make sure the camera is handy too. Here's a few shots from the opening weekend for pickerel season in Northwestern Ontario... enjoy!

Weekend Sunrise Shooting

It's been almost all summer and I've hardly shot any sunrise or sunset shots. Hard to believe seeing as how they've always been a perennial favorite of mine. Had a few days off work the past week and decided to go out to a favorite spot for some long exposure shots of the river and do some landscapes.
On the way there I noticed that the sky to the east was already becoming a brilliant shade of pink and red and I immediately pulled a U turn and headed east towards the lake.
Landscapes can wait; it was going to be a sunrise morning.

I ended up at a familiar spot that I'd shot earlier the same week...




- 3 second exposure
- f/22
- ISO 200
- -1/3EV
- cloudy white balance









- 4 sec exposure
- f/22
- ISO 200
- -1/3EV





I don't always shoot sunrise/sunset shots looking directly into the sun. Usually I don't even shoot the actual sunrise/set, but about 20 minutes before and after the sun has cleared the horizon. That's when you get the best colours and run less risk of blowing highlights.

When I find a great sunrise I shoot as much of it as I can but I always try to remember to turn around and catch what is behind me. Sometimes (most of the time) you get spectacular scenes bathed in all of that "magic hour" light and you wouldn't have even know had you not turned around. Although this isn't the best example, this is what was behind me on the day (the sun had risen to the far right hand side.