Friday July 22, 2011

Sometimes you put yourself into situations that you typically would not put yourself into for a shot that you couldn't normally get. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.
On Friday morning I got up at 4:15 to drive 45 minutes to a wildlife preserve northwest of Spooner, WI. It is an area with beautiful valleys and hills surrounded by miles of dirt roads. I have been there several times and have never seen another person. I wanted to get there early for some sunrise shots and then hike to a hill that overlooks a quiet lake surrounded by tall pines. I can barely make out the lake from the road but know it's down there. I figured the hike would be 1/2 to 3/4 of a mile through two valleys and over two hills. I took off with camera, tripod and backpack in tow thinking that although the terrain looked rough I could make it without any problems. Wrong assumption. I figured that if I could get to the top of one of the hills I could shoot down on the lake. The sun had just risen and the morning colors were perfect.
As I progressed through the field I came to realize that the brush was a little heavier than I expected and very wet with the morning dew. I finally got to the top of the hill that I though would give me the best shot but found that the brush was so tall that I could not see down on to the lake so I decided to hike to the lake itself.
That was a poor decision on my part as the bush got thicker and thicker as I walked on, almost to the point where I could no longer move within it. Now I was soaking wet and so deep into the brush that I could not see where I was. After about 45 minutes I finally came to a wet bog that as I took my first step swallowed up my left hiking boot (the laces had come untied walking through the brush).
I recovered my boot, took a standing 10 minute break and deciding that I could go no further turned around and looked for a better path back. It didn't exist so I tried to backtrack but it all looked the same to me so I tied my boots and made my way through that hell that I had just walked out of. Had it been dusk I fear that I would not have found my way out of there.
Obviously I made it back but my arms and legs were scratched and bloody and my stomach was bleeding from a sharp stick that almost impaled me.
Lesson learned....respect nature, it's not forgiving. Last week 3 hikers in Yellowstone went over the falls because they were in an area that they were not supposed to be in. I shouldn't have allowed myself to get into the situation that I did. The bad news is that I never got the shot that I wanted. The good news is that I made it out.........the great news is that I didn't find any wood ticks.

 

July 19,2011

Out shooting last night in the heat. A lot of bugs to go along with humidity. Headed out towards Poynette to drive the back roads. I knew that the sun was going to turn into a deep red ball of fire and wanted to find a good place to set up for a sweeping landscape shot. Along the way I stopped for interesting subjects but forgot about the effects of bringing a cold camera (air conditioned truck) into extreme heat.......the lens glass will fog up. So, I got a few good shots that appear to be in heavy fog so all was not lost. After that I turned off the air and suffered in the heat so my camera could get back to a hellish room temperature of 101 degrees(heat index).
Looking for sweeping landscapes is a little more difficult these days due to the height of the corn. A solution to that would be to jump up on the roof or hood of the car but last time I did that my thumb got slammed in the door that I had used to get up on the roof..........so needless to say there was no roof jumping.
I finally found a nice shot with cornfields and a nice row of telephone poles. The sun was still pretty bright so I used a 3 stop neutral gradient filter to darken that area of the photo. Low bright sun (if you are shooting into it) plays havoc with camera exposure meters so you need to alter your exposure. 
As I was walking to the back of the truck I noticed the view through my back tinted window. I re-positioned my tripod and not caring about exposing the foreground got off some pretty interesting shots using the window as my filter. The photos look pretty good on the camera's LCD screen. We'll see how they turned out when I process them. 
Took a few more shots before the sun dropped and then drove to another area so I could get that 15-30 minute post sunset sky that is really incredible on these hot nights.
I am heading up to the cabin this weekend for some wildlife landscape shooting. Hope the wood ticks are gone by now.