Photo Mojo

I've had an unusually busy year, with far more time spent at my computer than I'd like to admit. It's been downright tough to drag my butt out of bed for for early morning photo shoots. Office work stunts my photographic mojo.

The dull, rainy weather last weekend was all I needed to stay home, buckle down and finish a ton of work. When the skies cleared on Sunday afternoon, I had renew energy and inspiration to get out and shoot.

With big plans for Monday morning, I set my alarm clock and had the coffee maker ready to go. I woke up at 4:30am, drove an hour, then hiked in the dark for 20 minutes out to a favorite shoreline spot in Bruce Peninsula National Park. The predawn light was just getting good. For a few hours I was inspired by the morning light and found new angles at familiar places. I've barely been able to put my camera down since.

EOS 1DSm2; EF 17-40mm; Singh Ray warming polarizer LB and 3-stop hard edge ND grad (grad on first two only).

SOLD: Canon EF 600/4 L USM lens

SOLD

FS: Canon EF 600mm f4 lens (non IS).

$3400 CDN or best

Optically excellent.

Full details plus lots of pics of the lens can be found here:

http://www.ethanmeleg.com/600mmlensforsale.htm

Reason for selling... just bought a 500/4 IS.

Give me a shout if you have questions.

cheers,

Ethan-

Lake Huron sunsets

Sunset - St Jean Point Conservation Area

This small shoreline park is a rather obscure spot about 20 minutes from my house. Last night was my first time photographing there, and I was treated to a fantastic sunset.
I shot these using a Gold-n-Blue polarizer to accentuate the rich colors, 3-stop hard edge (4x6" size) ND grad handheld in front of the lens, plus off-camera fill flash (set at -3 stops) to show some detail in the boulders. The wind was so strong it was blowing over parts of my gear.

EOS 1DSm2, EF 17-40mm lens, Singh-Ray filters as mentioned above.
exposure top image 6s at f/18; bottom image 1s at f/20

kayak trip

Just got back from a couple days of kayaking and camping on the east side of Georgian Bay with some friends. Here are a few shots.
[all with EOS 1DSm2, EF 17-40mm lens. Singh-Ray warming circular polarizer]

1) Waterlilies - To get this shot, I hung over the side of my kayak and dangled the camera at water level. Unable to see what I was shooting through the viewfinder, I'd take a shot, review on the LCD, then try again. It took about 30 tries to get it right.

2) Kayaks - sunset on the shore of our camp. 3-stop soft edge ND grad.

3) My friends' dog "Gunner", a big, lovable bull mastif. Very rare to capture a moment where there wan't a long string of drool hanging from his mouth. Fill flash at -2/3.

sometimes you get lucky

I stumbled onto this scene a couple nights by sheer luck while en route to an engagement. With only a couple of minutes to spare, I setup and shot quickly. Two Singh-Ray filters were key to capturing what I saw: a warming circular polarizer to cut glare and improve saturation, and a 4x6" ND grad angled to hold back the bright sky and water.

I first tried the 3-stop soft-edge grad, but it wasn't holding the water back enough, so I opted for the 3-stop hard edge. I was worried the gradation of the hard edge was going to show in the image, but the gradation on the larger 4x6" sized filters is better than on the smaller versions - and it blended perfectly.
EOS 1DSm2; EF 17-40mm

Sunset over canoe on Cyprus Lake, in Bruce Peninsula National Park.