Paul Lester Photo

When I’m in Charleston, I frequent the Ashely River, pictured here, for 2 reasons:

1) I love to take pictures near water.
2) It’s close to my apartment, so I can stop there on the way to work!

I’ve seen and photographed this flowing water many times. I’m not sure what the building is, located about 200 yards to the right, but there is always water coming out of this pipe. It makes for some nice time exposure images. On this particular morning, last Wednesday, November 26th, there was a bit of mist rising off of the river. It was about 30 degrees outside, my fingers were nearly frozen to my nice, cold, aluminum tripod, and my finger could barely feel the shutter button, but I was having fun!

I took a few pictures of the leaves that were remaining on the trees and of this flow. As I sat here at my computer looking at those pictures, I wished that I had had a particular composition. I wished that the branches were jutting out over the water above this pipe. I thought that it would be a nice, pleasing composition, but no luck. They weren’t!

Lo and behold, as they say, I see two pictures that, if combined carefully, would give me what I want. So, that’s what I did. I usually don’t do composites and it is very rare that I do multiple exposures, but when the mood hits, you just gotta go with it!

I know that a lot of you are curious, as I am, so here are the two original photos.

An afternoon portrait

This morning I was sitting on my favorite corner of the couch, folding clothes, and looking outside. In weekends past, I have enjoyed watching the birds come to the feeder. In the morning, usually, they come in droves; however, as I’ve not been home for nearly 4 months, no one has kept the feeder full. It sits empty most of the time, so the birds have gone on to find other sources of food.

Just this past weekend, I bought some more food, filled the feeder, and took a gander out of the window every now and again. Still no takers. Not even the squirrels come anymore (thankfully), but I know that they all will be back. All it takes is for one of them to find it!

Blogs, too, seem to come to a crawl. I don’t know if it is a form of Seasonal Affective Disorder, or SAD, or if it is just too cold for people’s tastes to go out and shoot, it gets dark too early, or perhaps winter’s bareness doesn’t inspire. This, of course, applies only to those areas in the Northern Hemisphere that actually have winter weather … so, you Floridians/Southern Californians are excluded!

I think that I take about the same number of photos in winter. I simply love winter light. You can photograph almost all day and still have interesting shadows that are not completely black. Also, the ‘sweet light’ lasts, it seems, until 10:00 AM and then starts again about 2:00 PM. For example, this portrait of my boss, Hobbs, was taken at 2:00 in the afternoon. I didn’t use any flashes, reflectors, or other light manipulating tools. Just a camera, a lens, and my boss!

The winter also presents opportunities not available at any other time of the year. Most of the leaves are gone, so you get glimpses into the forest that, for 3/4 of the year, are not visible. You get to see light patterns on trees that are not available at any other time of the year. Perhaps you’ll get a light dusting of snow, or spy a bird that you’ve only heard before. There are more cloudy days and, for me at least, clouds make the sky very interesting. There’s a chance to catch a bit of frost on the grass, remaining leaves, etc.

There are lots of cool opportunities to shoot in the winter, sometimes all it takes is a bit more clothing and a little imagination.

Do you photograph in the winter? If so, do you change your subjects?

As is the case with technology, you can always ask for more. I remember when I got my first film burner, er motor winder, for my Minolta XD-11. That thing could burn through film at about 4 frames per second! I could torch a 36 exposure canister of film in 9 seconds flat! I thought that was fast! Then, I met up with the Nikon F3, which could do the same in only 6 seconds with it’s optional motor drive. That camera, at that time, cost about $750 for the body, no motor drive included! That was in 1982, or so. You can get one on eBay with the motor drive for under $200 now! How things change!

As it is basketball season (does it ever end?), I am back to shooting games again. I love it. My D300, without the En-El4a battery or 8 AA batteries can shoot a respectable 6 frames per second. It’s rare to miss a shot; however, you’d be surprised at how much stuff happens in 1/6 second. It could mean the difference between seeing the player still hanging on the rim after a dunk and seeing the ball in the net, or not.

If I could just squeeze a bit more out of the camera, it would be nice. That said, though, the price of stepping up is steep. Assuming that I don’t want to use AA batteries, I’d need to purchase an En-El4a battery for $109, the charger $120, and the battery cover for the MB-D10 grip $40. All told, about $260.

Luckily, there are some people out there who like to experiment. In this You Tube video, someone explains how to get 8 fps (bursts) out of your camera without buying the grip. I tried it! It works!!! As I just discovered this last night, I’ll be trying it on Saturday at the game!

Now, I wonder of Nikon will fix this ‘hole’ in the next release of the firmware. Certainly, the camera is capable of the speed, you just have to know how to get to it! Thank goodness for people who like to experiment, custom shooting banks, and capabilities above and beyond that which is written in the manual!

I’m always on the looking for non-warranty-voiding tricks and tips to enhance the usability of my equipment! If you know any, please let me know!