Lake Erie Fog

Saturday, I spontaneously decided to drive 45 minutes to find a large driftwood log that I wasn't willing to drag to my car a month ago but haven't stopped thinking about since.  I drug my 8 yr old daughter along for some muscle.  This said driftwood log can be seen in the first photos two blog posts down.  Yeah, awesome bench material.  I had already had it fitted with legs and lacquered...in my mind.  But that was a month and a dozen storms ago.
We arrived at the game lands along the Lake Erie shore, parked in a pull off scattered with a wide assortment of refuse, panties and left flip flops included, strangely enough. Right in front of the classic bullet hole riddled NO OUTLET sign (as if the cliff and large expanse of water directly behind the sign wasn't enough info).  We got our boots on and I grabbed my photo gear in case there was anything interesting.  I was planning on just snatching up  the driftwood and heading out to another photo location. We stepped out of the weeds and saw beautiful fog rolling in!  Awesome!!
On the beach, as I had feared, all the driftwood in all the great lakes had coalesced in great heaps and had been plowed by the waves up against the bluffs.  I searched in vain for my driftwood like a trying to find a specific stick in a giant pile of, well, sticks.  No luck.
The fog was great so we stayed anyway for a few hours.  The girl was whining 15 minutes in but then she found some cool driftwood of her own and then built a fort complete with a swing, really.  Since my driftwood disappeared she was paranoid about hers being snatched away.  So despite my constant reassuring  and telling her to leave it by the car she carried her armload of wood up and down the beach wherever she went, whining about how heavy it was.  It was a good afternoon.  Enjoy the photos.

I spent a lot of time with this log

I told her to look dramatic, she was having a good time...really.

I found a waterfall!

Goose

ND OD

I love neutral density filters...maybe a bit too much.
You decide.
(just wait for my trip to Maine in July)

I'll be making a bench out of that driftwood,
if I can manage to drag it off the beach.

Re-bar... just another day at the beach

3-4 foot waves

Beaver house and Heron rookery

I set out yesterday morning with the ultimate goal being to find some nesting Great Blue Herons.  My father-in-law gave me the general location so I figured I could find it.  I took the long way and stopped to hike around some gameland trails.  I used only my new 50mm which my polarizer and all my neutral density filters fit happily upon, it was great to get back into some daytime long exposures.   I let the wind ripple the waters around the beaver house while I stretched my exposures to 60+ sec.  The whole time I was scolded loudly by a flock of Canada Geese, not a fan of the annoying honkers.

Spring is technically here but there was very little signs walking through the woods.  I do love bright flowers and green leaves there's something so appealing about last years weeds and other annual growth after being ravaged by winter.

I did finally find the Heron rookery but only after driving past it at 70mph on the freeway.  I doubled back and snapped approx 400 shots (gotta love digital). There has to be at least 25 nests in the tall sycamore trees above a waterway populated by, you guessed it, a flock of Canada Geese that also were very aware of my presence and not too comfortable with it.  The nesting trees are situated perfectly in a ravine next to a bridge on the freeway.  You can position yourself directly across from them and shoot on the same plane.  It pushed my budget Sigma 300mm to it's limits but it performed satisfactorily.  I'll go back in May to try to capture some little fuzzy heads popping out of those nests.

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I drug the kiddos out to one of my favorite spots for sunset, Erie Bluffs State Park.

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I got home late and quickly threw my camera on the tripod for this 30 min exposure.  There's heavy light pollution in my yard but I wanted the trees lit just so.   The brightest streak is Jupiter.

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I really like how this turned out.  I've been in a zero creativity funk for a few days, it's great to overcome it.

in chronological order

Just for fun (the starbursts are all natural)

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Spent the evening at Lake Erie Bluffs State Park with the little girl.

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Tried a new startrail technique tonight.  Instead of the ol' "frame yer shot and lock the shutter" technique I instead opted to shoot 100, 30 second exposures and layer them with this nifty FREE program, Startrails.  The basic theory is by layering multiple exposures you eliminate the sensor noise (those icky color speckles that destroy clarity of an image) created by long dark exposures taken in warm climates.  The longer the exposure the warmer the sensor gets, the warmer the sensor gets the more noise it creates and in summer it's already warm outside.

As I type this I haven't seen the finished product so I'll be as surprised (good or bad) as you.  This was just a test. We'll be camping in the Allegheny National Forest this weekend and I plan on doing some serious startrails among other nocturnal photography awesomeness then.

This worked better than expected!   I'm super stoked with the end result, check out that satellite!  I live next to a prison which bombards my sky with enormous amounts of light pollution.  I'm very surprised the trails are that bright.  I even nailed Polaris like a champ.  It figures, my wife turned on the porch light in the same frame as the satellite was passing so that's what's going on with the light flares in the sky and the weird edge on the roof (I had to black out the light on the house in that frame).

I can only assume those are also startrails (or planet-trails) reflecting on the windows

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The wife and I were up very late last night.  Her looking at prom dresses [med school apparently needs a prom...who knew], and myself playing Wii fit [yeah...that's right]. 

So at 1am I realize "Holy crap it's 1am" and promptly announce "Bed-time!"

Now for those of you who know my wife well, you know she reacts poorly to swift changes and spontaneity.  She needs at least a 10 min warning before I go to bed.  I, however, am very malleable and can easily conform to most swift changes that have no real consequence.  For instance, surprise bed times or spontaneous yogurt snacks [don't ever spring yogurt on her...she must mentally prepare first].

While she's preparing for bed, I go upstairs and as I'm almost ready to hop in bed I look out the window and see the most magnificent fog shrouding everything.  We live next door to a prison and the light pollution emanating for that damn place is usually maddening.  I can never do very good star gazing and forget about star-trail photography.  BUT the the bright lights hitting the fog lit the very air all around my house and down the street. 

I had to get out there.  As soon as my wife was heading to bed I was heading out the door.  I was back in bed by 2am so she and the dog could finally get some sleep.

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I've decided that watching my wife doing Wii yoga is pretty damn appealing. 
Of course, I'd watch her clip her toenails with rapt attention.

Inspired by Emil Schildt (Warning: nudes in link), this 30 second exposure was taken in total darkness light painted by a small incandescent flashlight.