Robin in a Tractor

I'm Warning You!

Not in good sharp focus but I'm putting it up anyway.

Cumberland Falls

28mm, 10second, f8, iso100, nd1000 filter

Thursday afternoon/night, I had to go to London Ky for work. Stopped by Cumberland Falls before daylight Friday morning. Oh, it was cold. I like to complain about that, among a multitude of other things. More about the cold, my continuously recurring theme, in just a bit.

While I am not excited about about the actual falls shots, I did get some nice orange sunrise light. These are all long-exposure shots.

I have been here long ago, but do not remember much about the area. The lower viewing areas were gated and locked, however I had easy access to the upper levels. The place was deserted; I was the only person there. I stayed as long as I could as I had calls Friday. When I got back out to the parking lot, the sun was bright and the river was nice. My hands were really cold and my equipment was starting to form frost. I had cleaned out my truck on a recent Sunday, when the temperature was near 70. Unfortunately, I erroneously put my winter stuff (gloves, trooper cap, etc), in the house (hell, it is 70 degrees, how can I possibly ever need all this crap again). Anyway, the short story is that my hands were getting stiff. The river was beautiful. I was running late. I fired off a couple of quick shots, and hit the road with the heater blasting.

I will be back – I am a cry baby – and boy was I glad, on this particular morning anyway, that internal combustion engines put out large quantities of wasted heat that can be pumped into the cabin on a cold morning (or, in simpler terms, the heater was nice and toasty).

Did I mention that I was cold?

47mm, 10second, f8, iso100, nd1000 filter

24mm, 6second, f8, iso200, nd1000 filter

It's Cold, And Snowing...

And I'm standing on the side of the road taking a picture. I'm cold, and this is a barn. The big white fuzzy spot is just a snowflake falling near the front of the lens. It didn't snow that long. I just happened to be passing by while the flakes were big and fluffy.

Location: Avalton, as I was driving to Scottsville.

Mr. Ed???

I had to make another trip to Cave City today. After the service call, I had some time so I decided to take the long way home through the park (Mammoth Cave NP). Right before I entered the park, I saw this horse sticking his head out of the barn door. I whipped the truck around and went back. I parked in a church parking lot that was across the field. He was still in front of the door but did not stick his head back out. I was a little far away, this is 400mm and cropped. It was gloomy out (I tend to like to shoot in gloomy weather). These shots are at ISO800, maximum aperture (f5.6), 1/180th second. I did use the top of the truck door to help steady the lens, which is what made them usable at all. I didn't get in a rush to pull the shots in as I was not expecting a lot. They are all soft, but pleasant.

I am looking forward to Lightroom 3, as I continue to find myself hesitant to pump up the iso.

I didn't wind up taking any through the park.

'Are You Looking at Me?!!!' or 'Got Bread?'

Snowy Weekend

Well, we finally had a decent snow. Not as wet as I would like, but you take what you can get. I went on a hike Sunday up at Mammoth Cave. The roads in the park were very clear, considering the amount of snow on the ground. I hiked a decent sized loop on the south side of the river - The Green River Bluffs Trail, the Echo River Spring Trail and the Mammoth Dome Sink Trail. I had my gps going but did not zero it at the start, so I am not sure of the distance. I was comfortably dressed for the weather and it was a swell hike.

You can tell I like, or fall back on, leading lines.







I saw quite a few Deer out on the trail. The longest lens I had with me was around 100mm. Fortunately they will let you get quite close before they spook, and I had room to crop.






Trails Illustrated
Mammoth Cave NP Trail Map
(Amazon Link)

This is a nice plastic map. I have been using versions of this map for years. It survives canoe trips and rain showers. You could come to the conclusion that I have been dunked a time or two when I mention that it survives canoe trips; I have no comment on that.

On the Way to Work

I was driving to Cave City for a service call and there were some nice low-hanging clouds. The damage from the ice storm last year sometimes distracts from the photos.

I am Wet!

Shanty Hollow; and I'm getting wet!

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BELOW:
Nolin River, right below Nolin dam. There is a bird in the first four shots. I fired up the zoom for shots two, three, and four.

Later as it was getting darker (and foggier) you can start to see the influence of the street lamps from the parking area.

Again there is some tree damage from the ice storm of last January.

30 second exposure






30 second exposure


30 second exposure

Southern Flying Squirrel, Maybe

This little fella was eating out of the bird feeder when I got home - he has been around before. One night, I thought he must be a bat as he was spread out on one of the big feeders (it was very dark at that feeder). Anyway, tonight I happened to be carrying my equipment into the house and had the camera and tripod in my arms.

This shot is at ISO12800, exposure time 1 second. It was much darker than it looks. I was using f8 to give some depth of field as focusing was tough. I took several shots, but he kept moving during the exposure. He was surprisingly unafraid and hung around until the heat pump kicked on. Apparently he does not mind people or dogs, but does not care for heat pumps.

This shot was processed with the Lightroom 3 beta. Lightroom 3 is doing a much better job of high iso noise reduction than Lightroom 2.

I did some goggling on nocturnal squirrels, and came up with the southern flying squirrel - no guarantees though.

Oh Crap....

Location, barren river lake spillway.
Well, it is tough to focus on fast moving birds. I had an 'Oh Crap' moment while I was there. Maybe more details later.

It was pretty dreary out. These shots are ISO 1600 and still the shutter speeds were pretty low. I should have bumped the ISO up a bit for a few shots. Noisy shots are better than blurry shots.

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Saturday night, I was waiting to go dinner with some friends, so I kicked around downtown BG again. Not much worth talking about, however I am including one shot from the Railpark. Just about the time I walked to the Railpark, my friends called, so I had to cut it short. I plan to go back sometime with a nice sky. I darkened this shot to blacken out the sky (and a lot of the train), also converted to greysacle. This is a 30 second shot - the original was about one stop below a normal exposure.

Muddy Moving Water

Stopped by Rochester Ky (Green River) on the way home from Owensboro. These are long exposure shots, some with the nd1000 filter. The water was up, muddy, and running fast. The golden color of the river is from the muddy look of the water.

I am getting cloud streaking on the 2 minute exposures. It just happened that the clouds were moving away from the camera very slowly. The cloud patterns were intersting with alternating blue and whitish horizontal bands. I now realize I don't have to catch fast moving clouds to get streaking, just leave the shutter open long enough. Duh.


2 Minute Exposure, ND1000 Filter


2 Minute Exposure, ND1000 Filter


2 Minute Exposure, ND1000 Filter


4 Second Exposure, No Filter

'Fast Moving Clouds' or 'Cloudy Cemeteries'

I went out this morning to feed the dogs, and the clouds were really low and whipping by. I grabbed the camera, tripod, and the 10x ND filter and walked over to the nearby cemetery. I think for the speed of the clouds, 30 seconds was a little long, but with the nd filter and it being morning, I needed the 30 seconds. I should have tried just stopping down to f22 to see what I could get.

Nothing spectacular, but it was fun. These are 30 second shots with the 10 stop neutral density filter. I was too lazy to compose with the filter off, then put it on, so it was pretty much work in the dark (I could see a little), fire, look at the results. (The 10x ND filter is similar to looking through a welding mask.)

The cross shots are in the St Anthony Cemetery in Grayson County Ky that evening. The clouds were still moving fairly fast, but it was getting dark and I did not use the nd filter. These exposure times were from 6 to 10 seconds. These could have used more time.

Note that the evening shots are before the morning shots.

St Anthony Cemetary Peonia Ky

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Bowling Green Ky