Photos 4U2C

This Blog Has Moved (sort of)

2009-02-05T19:46:00.001-08:00

I moved my blog. All 8 readers please se my new blog at photos4u2c.wordpress.com

The reason I moved my blog is the small image size on blogger. At my new blog you will that my photos are much bigger. I think it looks a lot better.

I started the new blog a month ago. It was running in parallel with this one for awhile, but it was too much work updateing both sites with the same posts.

I'm not 100% sure if this blog will die off, or if I'll morph it into something else.

It's Too Cold for Dogs

2009-01-16T14:29:00.001-08:00

Jack in Hobbs Woods, originally uploaded by Gamut's Edge.

Winter is in full force here in Wisconsin. Yesterday I took the dogs and my camera out to Hobbs woods to take advantage of the fresh snow. Thanks to the zero degree thermometer reading the dogs and I had the woods all to ourselves. Maria (my girlfriend) said it was too cold to bring the dogs out. The dogs disagreed. I think they would have stayed out all day. Too bad the weather had all the rabbits and squirrels hidden away.

Technical note: I have been experimenting a lot with getting pictures of my black dog Jack in the snow. Here's the technique I've developed over the last two months.

1) Shoot in RAW.

2) Set the the camera to manual and find an exposure that puts the snow on the far, far right of the histogram without over exposing. A few over exposed specs are OK. They can be recovered in the RAW converter. Also, snow is white. A couple little overexposed white areas are OK.

3) Using the photoshop RAW converter set the white balance using the white balance dropper. Click the dropper in a neutral area in the snow. Click around some different spots until you find a good looking white balance.

4) Set the black point slider to zero. You need as many pixels as you can muster to render a black dogs fur.

5) Open the photo into photoshop and make a duplicate layer. Use the shadow highlight adjustment on the new layer to bring out details in the black dog and the bright snow. Mask the layer to taste, or keep the adjustment global.

6) Do some sharpening to the dog's face, and add a little saturation to the dog. This makes it pop out.

7) Your done

Nobody is Looking

2009-01-14T08:56:00.003-08:00

Winter Over the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, originally uploaded by Gamut's Edge.

Out the right side of the aircraft you can see the Grand Canyon.

Lake Havasu

2009-01-14T08:56:00.001-08:00

Lake Havasu, originally uploaded by Gamut's Edge.

Since I am on first year first officer pay right now I’ve had to substitute orders from amazon.com with trips to the Library. Yesterday we went to the Fond du Lac public library to get some books for Ella. I picked up a couple photography books also. One of the books was by the photographer Eliot Porter. This might reveal my compete ignorance; I had never heard of him before. Here’s a Wikipedia link for those readers as undereducated as me.

The book is full of gorgeous color prints. As I looked through the book I began to notice that none of the photos had a pure white tone. Even photos of snow didn’t have a single speck of white that matched the white of the paper the photos were printed on. The pictures still looked marvalous. This set me to thinking about my own photo editing techniques. I always strive for the white areas in my pictures to be pure white after post process. For me figuring out a white point and a black point is the starting point for setting the correct contrast. None of Elliot Porter’s photos had a pure white and they still looked perfectly natural and realistic. Many of his landscapes feel like you could walk right into them. Maybe I don’t need a pure white either.

That brings me to the photo at the top of this post. It’s lake Havasu, Arizona. I took this picture three days ago, but I didn’t edit it until this morning. During the post process I did my best to make this photo look like an Elliot Porter print. Notice, there is nothing pure white in this picture.

Buddhist Fish Offering

2009-01-08T10:13:00.001-08:00

Walleye in a Bucket, originally uploaded by Gamut's Edge.

I talked to my dad on the phone yesterday. He said an eagle ate the remains of the Walleye that we left on the ice.

OK, the story is actually more complicated than that. We didn't leave the Walleye on the ice. We put the head skeleton and tail in a grill that was next to an ice shanty across the lake. The fillets are safe in my dads freezer. Why would we leave a fish carcass in our neighbors grill? First of all, it was my dad's idea. I was just along to verify the story.

The people across the lake run a mechanized ice fishing outfit. They set up twenty tip-ups with the aid of a snowmobile and motorized ice auger. Then, once they are set up they do their fishing from the comfort of a heated ice shanty and they cook brats outside on their grill. It's all peachy for them. My dad does his fishing in the open air with the cold north wind howling. He drills his own holes with an ancient man-powered ice auger. And, he only puts out his legal limit of three tip ups.

If you caught the biggest Walleye in the lake would you tell your competitors across the lake about it, or would you sneak across the dark-frozen lake in the middle of the night and leave the remains of the trophy walleye in their grill? Imagine their surprise the next afternoon when they went to cook up some Johnsonville Brats and watch the Green Bay Packers in their heated shanty. The leader of their outfit opens the grill and takes a step back in horror at the first site of the frozen carcass in his grill. After a few seconds his reeling mind begins to comprehend that he has been outfished and outsmarted. He looks around for tracks in the snow. Where did these people come from? But, we were too smart for that. We walked confusing circles around the ice shanty and ended or mission backtracking down a packed snowmobile trail. There are no tracks to follow.

In the end the bald eagle got to eat the fish remains. The guys with the shanty left the fish on the ice and the hungry eagle found it a couple hours later. My dad said the eagle carried the fish into the tree above our cabin and ate it.

Rocky Mountain National Park Locked in Winter

2009-01-07T10:15:00.001-08:00

Rocky Mountain NP Locked in Winter, originally uploaded by Gamut's Edge.

I took this photo two days ago while flying high above Rocky Mountain National Park. The sun had set a five minutes earlier, but enough alpine glow remained for me to get this shot.

I've spent some time in Rocky Mountain National Park so I can give you a little tour via this photo. The ridge on the left bottom is where Trail Ridge Road crosses the mountains. The main ridge in the center of the frame is the continental divide. At the end of the center ridge is Long's Peak, the highest mountain in Rocky Mountain National Park. This is me on top of Longs Peak.

I photographed these guys two summers ago. They're probably sleeping somewhere under all that snow right now, or maybe they're in a coyote's belly?

More Las Vegas Real Estate

2009-01-07T08:59:00.001-08:00

Las Vegas Trailers, originally uploaded by Gamut's Edge.

Here's another photo from my walk around Las Vegas. This storage lot is located walking distance from The Strip.

Tehnical note: When taking photos in bright midday sun it is easy to get tricked by your camera's LCD into underexposing. Under exposed shots look better on the LCD when viewed in a sunny area. If you're bracketing and don't pay attention to the histogram you could easily fool yourself into underexposing a whole series of pictures. I've done that a few times in the past. Now whenever I shoot in the sun I pay close attention to the histogram. For this photo I based my exposure off the white in the trailers. I made sure there was a spike on the right side of the histogram as close to the edge as possible without overexposing. This spike was the white trailers. I took a few bracketed shots over and under just to be sure I got a workable image. And of course, the underexposed frame looked best on my LCD. However, when I got back to my computer and downloaded the photos the image with the whitest yet not blown out trailers looked best.

Why do underexposed photos look best on the camera's LCD? I am not sure but I have a theory. First of all underexposed photos are darker so they are easier to see in bright sun. Secondly, I think the camera actually does a little post processing of its own when it displays the photos. I could b wrong, but I think most cameras set a white point and black point, kind of a rough levels adjustment, to the photos displayed on the LCD. This is used strictly for the LCD display and isn't saved for to the file data. That's why your images always look contrastier on the LCD than they do once they're downloaded. This white point setting adds saturation just like it does in photoshop. That's why the underexposed photo has more saturation. A sharper correction was made to create a white point and black point in the underexposed image. Therefore there is more saturation in the underexposed photo in the LCD display and it still looks good because it has a black point and a white point. You don't notice the image is messed up until you download it onto your computer or take a second to analyze the histogram n camera.

The State of Utah Should be Paying Me

2009-01-05T06:00:00.001-08:00

Sunset Above Utah , originally uploaded by Gamut's Edge.

Is this Utah week? I have to admit that I am getting tired of scrolling down my blog and seeing one after another aerial photos of Utah covered in snow, but I can't resist posting another. I got this photo yesterday while flying from Las Vegas to New York (again). The sun was setting and our jumpseat rider was yammering on and on about how he once stood up to the base chief pilot. Blah Blah Blah. Meanwhile, I was getting some great shots of the desert ridges below.

I have one more shot from yesterday that I want to post, and we are flying to Vegas again today. Look out for more Utah shots.

Apocalypse or Las Vegas?

2009-01-04T21:02:00.001-08:00

Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce, originally uploaded by Gamut's Edge.

Do you remember that guy that told you to invest in real estate because they aren't making any more land? Remember when he told you about how he got in on a new condo project in Vegas for only $40,000 down. He said it was a can't miss money maker. Well, the construction on his condo is now finished, and he has one month before he has to start paying the full mortgage on his unit. If only he could find a buyer things would be OK.

Are you interested in luxury living only minutes away from the Las Vegas strip? This unit is conveniently located near miles of low rise nondescript office buildings. The homeless people living in the adjacent vacant lot promise to not build their shanties taller than two stories which means your view of the strip will not be blocked. Owner will consider short sale or mortgage take over.

The Sun Rises on Bruce Springsteen

2009-01-04T08:51:00.001-08:00

The Sunrises on Bruce Springsteen, originally uploaded by Gamut's Edge.

This is sunrise on the coast of New Jersey. Somewhere down on the shoreline is Asbury Park, home of Bruce Springsteen. This is what the end of a red eye flight looks like. Bruce Springsteen may have been born to run, but when I took this photo I felt born to take a nap at the JFK Double Tree.

For me flying the east coast at sunrise feels like coming home. I plowed these same skies while working at PSA for 8 years. As much as I love the American west I must admit that the east coast offers prettier aerial sunrise photos than the west. Many mornings in the east there are broken layers of cirrus clouds that create a gentle pastel sky that contrasts nicely with the dark blue Atlantic Ocean. I guess I dont have to choose sides -- I can like both the east coast and the west coast. A fan of the visual arts can like both Ansel Adams and Winslow Homer. Have I just lost my small amount of blogger cred proclaiming my admiration of those two guys?

Electronic Flight Bag

2009-01-03T13:52:00.001-08:00

Electronic Flight Bag, originally uploaded by Gamut's Edge.

This gadget is one of the joys of working for my new airline. It's an electronic flight bag. Basically it's a tablet PC with all of our maps, charts, and company manuals loaded into it. Because we have these EFBs installed on all of our aircraft the pilots no longer have to carry heavy chart cases. The best part is we no longer have to do manual and chart revisions. In the old days pilots would have to spend an hour or two each week doing revisions to their charts. Now, all that is done by the maintenance department with a simple upload to the electronic flight bag.

I took this photo this morning on at the top of our descent into New York JFK. We were just finishing the red eye flight from Las Vegas. The chart on display is the LENDY5 arrival to JFK.

Kolob Canyons, Utah

2009-01-02T16:55:00.001-08:00

Kolob Canyons, Utah, originally uploaded by Gamut's Edge.

Last week I promised more aerial views of the Utah desert. I come through on my promises. This is an aerial view of the Kolob Canyons region of Zion National Park. The red rocks are the Kolob Canyons. If you visit Zion National Park I recomend spending a day at Kolob Canyons. The area is as spectacular as Zion Canyon, but it lacks tourists, and there are some great sunset photo opportunities for all you landscape photographers. Here is a photo I took in the Kolob Canyons a few years ago. If you look hard at this enlarged view of my aerial photograph you can spot the rock formation that I photographed so many years back.

When the Wolves Don't Eat You

2009-01-02T14:52:00.001-08:00

Outagamie county Airport, originally uploaded by Gamut's Edge.

We made it through a week at the Cabin in the wild north woods of Wisconsin and none of us were eaten by wolves, including the dogs. A pack of wolves moved into the woods behind our family's cabin two years ago. Walking in the forest has taken on a new level of excitement. None of us has seen a wolf yet, but we have seen tracks, and my brother, a certified wolf howler, has gotten the wolf pack to howl a response. They are out there.

As you can see from the photo leading this post, I am back at work now. The picture was taken at Outagamie County Airport in Appleton. I commuted out of there this morning. The snow plow was out cleaning up the endlessly blowing snow. As I write this post I am listening to the endless chiming of the slot machines at McCarran Airport here in Las Vegas. In a few hours we depart for New York.

Most of the Blood is From Me, Not the Fish

2008-12-31T13:44:00.001-08:00

Walleye!, originally uploaded by Gamut's Edge.

We spent a few days at the cabin in Eagle River, Wisconsin. This is my dad holding the largest Walleye he has ever caught in his six decades of fishing. The fish is estimated to be eight years old and measured 25 inches. While taking the hook out my dad cut his finger pretty deep and left a bloody mess all over the cabin's deck and front door. My dad said the fish was greedy and ate one too many minnows -- that's why it was caught. However, he allowed that it is hard for a hungry Walleye to pass up a wounded shiner minnow. Either way, this jumbo Walleye will not be menacing the perch in our bay anymore.

How Dumb Could a Person Possibly Be?

2008-12-26T11:00:00.001-08:00

Inglewood Sidewalk, originally uploaded by Gamut's Edge.

The title of this post is a quote I lifted from my family's Christmas dinner which we ate on Christmas Eve. This morning, the day after Christmas, I woke up in the LAX Westin once again feeling hung over from my Christmas day travels. My Christmas started at 4:00 am with a -5 degree F car refuel in the dark frozen wastes of Fond du Lac Wisconsin and ended with me marveling at the palm trees that line the streets leading out of LAX airport. While we checked into the hotel Flavor Flav was standing next to us at the check in counter talking to the other desk clerk. Flavor looked a lot older than the guy having convulsions in the video for "911 is a Joke".

While laying in bed this morning recovering from exhaustion I turned on the TV. I love to watch the crazy local news in Los Angeles. Today, the all white news team was on location at area malls reporting on the day after Christmas deals that could be had because of the current economic crisis. Apparently if you have money this is a great time to buy designer shoes.

After a cup of coffee I decided it was time to go look for some photos to feed to this blog. I set out on a little hike around Inglewood. Inglewood doesn't look like the greatest place to find post holiday bargains on luxury items. Most every business was boarded up. Shortly after I took the photo at the top of this post a guy jay walked across six lanes of traffic and walked right behind me for a block and a half. I started to feel a little paranoid about carrying $4500 worth of camera equipment over my shoulder. Who'd rob me on a busy street in broad daylight?

I started back towards my hotel. On the way I ran into the usual panhandlers that hang out on the border zone between Inglewood and the airport hotels. It was easy to say no to the beggars today because I am completely broke. It's either you eat with my money or I eat with my money. Call me greedy, but that choice is easy for me to make.

When I finally got back to the Westin the driveway in front of the lobby was lined with expensive imported cars. At that point I felt like the sole member of the shrinking middle class.

Ella Floating

2008-12-25T13:12:00.001-08:00

Ella Floating, originally uploaded by Gamut's Edge.

We survived Christmas! This is Ella enjoying the pool at the Fond du Lac Comfort Inn on Christmas Eve.

High Above Planet Hoth

2008-12-22T09:40:00.001-08:00

Desert Snow, Utah, originally uploaded by Gamut's Edge.

Remember the snow they got in Las Vegas last week? The snow in this photo came from the same weather system that caused the snow in Vegas. This photo was taken high above the Colorado Plateau in south central Utah. Because I am a child of the 1980s the first thing I think of when I look at this photo is the planet Hoth from "The Empire Strikes Back". If you're trying to spot the reckage of Luke Skywalker's snow speeder click here for a larger version.

I have more photos of desert snow from this same trip waiting for editing. Hopefully I have time to post them soon.

A Magical Time of Year

2008-12-18T11:26:00.001-08:00

Merry Christmas!, originally uploaded by Gamut's Edge.

We took Ella to see this very realistic Santa in Forest Mall, Fond du Lac. She had a great time. I was bit bit disappointed with the mixed lighting. It's hard to color correct incandescent, mixed with fluorescent, mixed with flash.

You Face a Life of Increasing Disappointment

2008-12-15T11:04:00.001-08:00

Travelodge, originally uploaded by Gamut's Edge.

I can’t claim rights to the clever title of this post. It is a quote I lifted from Doug Menuez's article about transforming your photography career. I also can’t take credit for finding that article on my own. I got the link from Mark Tucker’s blog. However, I did take the above photo of the Travelodge located on South San Francisco Airport Boulevard. Don’t worry, this is not going to turn into another hotel review post.

When I took the Travelodge picture I knew I had a seed for a blog post. The photo is where I am in life right now. I stay at that Travelodge when I commute into SFO to start trips. On hotwire you can get a room there for $38, and they have airport shuttle service. The downside of staying at the Travelodge is that several San Francisco pimps are running a thriving business out of there. They stay out of your way, but the door slamming all night is a bit annoying.

So I got this photo and I had a day to think about what to write about it. With three cups of coffee in me I took a jog around our hotel in Inglewood, CA. As a white guy from the Midwest I was feeling like a tough guy jogging through Inglewood. This is the same Inglewood that Snoop Dog and Dr Dre rapped about back when I was in high school. Full of caffeine, and endorphins I tried to think up a good blog post. The two ideas that I couldn’t shake out of my head were the Myth of the Phoenix and the last chapter of “The Odyssey” when Ulysses returns home. The Phoenix rose from the ashes. Wasn’t that like me? I sold everything I owned on Craig’s list last month, can’t afford lunch, and don’t have a pair of jeans without a hole. That’s like ashes, right? And like Ulysses I just returned home after 15 years of battling demons and storms(sort of like working at PSA Airlines). And, didn’t I just read two days ago that society is based more upon common myths than religion or media. That’s some smart stuff. It would really impress my 8 regular blog readers. And of course they will never realize that I lifted the stuff about Ulysses from a short story I read in the New Yorker a few months back.

My head was buzzing with the ideas that founded our western culture and I was on the home stretch of my jog -- starting a little sprint to the finish. Coming the other direction on the sidewalk was another runner. He was wearing a hooded sweatshirt pulled over his head, jeans, and an old pair of basketball shoes. As he ran he was punching the air like boxer in training. Maybe he was a boxer -- a west coast Rocky Balboa. Or maybe he was just another Inglewood crackhead getting deep into his fix. As we passed each other he smiled at me and said, ”Get your money. Yeah boy, get your money!”. I think the crackhead has it all figured out.

Coming Home

2008-12-14T13:46:00.001-08:00

Galloway House, Fond du Lac WI, originally uploaded by Gamut's Edge.

This is a photo of the Galloway House in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. The home was built by a lumber baron in the 1800's and now it is a museum. I grew up in Fond du Lac, and the Galloway House is located about three blocks from the house I lived in from age 13 to 19. In grade school my cub scout den toured the Galloway House. The only thing I remembered from the tour was the dog that the Galloway family had stuffed and kept in their living room. While living in Fond du Lac I must have driven past the historic house 1000 times. I never gave the house much thought beyond some mild teenage scorn towards things I considered nerdy.

Fast forward 15 years and I (and my family) have made a triumphant return to living in my mother's basement three blocks from the Galloway House. Since moving back a month ago I have become a little bit fascinated by the giant Victorian house that sits at the top of our neighborhood.

First of all the house looks amazing. Driving past for the first time in a year I noticed the big oaks framing the yard and all the details in the architecture of the house. My photographer's brain started racing with a bunch of ideas.

Secondly, I like to ponder what it must have been like to live in Fond du Lac in the 1800's when things were still wild. Imagine standing up on that widow's walk 130 years ago.

When I got into photography six years ago my main reason for shooting was to show my family back in Wisconsin all the exciting things I was seeing in my modern airline pilot lifestyle. After some limited success shooting I started to develop some crude ideas for a personal style -- a kind of dimwitted artistic vision. Photography quickly became a serious hobby, some would say obsession. I remember wanting to build a gallery over at pbase.com filled with bright colors and contrasty light. That was the extent of the emotion I was looking for. My photography could have been best described as "Heavy Metal Nature Photography". Over the course of a year or two I learned how to play photographic power chords.

The next step in my photographic growth came when I joined istockphoto.com. Istock gave me a chance to sell my photos and learn how to create an image that someone else values or could put to use commercially. The unexpected consequence of joining istock was an enormous attention to detail and technical quality of my photos. The photo inspection process is brutal at istock. The slightest technical flaw and your photo is rejected. This caused me to reevaluate everything about my shooting and post processing in Photoshop. Over time I developed a complete vision of the technical process of taking a photo. Every technical aspect of my shooting was obsessed over -- from equipment, to the nature of light, to each little Photoshop tweak. It was no longer enough for me to shoot and process with blind gut feeling. I wanted to know the algebra behind each choice. Switching back to the musical metaphor; I was learning scales, minor chords, dynamics, and timbre.

And next came a period of disillusionment. One day I was looking at my pbase.com gallery filled with colorful, bright, contrasty images and realized I was shooting nothing more than visiual cliches and I wasn't a genius. About that same time I started to notice that while I was successful at istock some other people were much more successful. What was I doing all this work for if I was only going to be average?

I started to look in a new direction. I started reading photography blogs. And I started this blog as a kind of outlet and method to sort things out creatively.

That brings us up to today and the point of this long rambling post. Photography made me interested in something I wouldn't have otherwise cared about, in this case the Galloway House. I stood in knee deep snow for a half hour with a -15 degree wind chill for this photo, and I was happy the whole time. I now realize my home town is full of amazing old oak trees and the sky in Wisconsin is always interesting. I used to hate this place. Now, I can't wait to get out and photograph everything before it's gone. Imagine if you could have set up your tripod and Canon 5D high up on that widows walk in 1880. Those pictures would be something to see even if they were cliche.

Frustration

2008-12-13T08:41:00.000-08:00

Here I sit in the LAX Westin again. I have some free time this morning, some interesting photos to post, and the cheesy internet connection at this hotel won't let me upload photos. After years of travel I have come to the conclusion that the fancier the hotel the worse their internet service. The Westin seems to believe that it is normal to charge for internet service. Who does this anymore? I stayed at a dodgy Travellodge two nights ago. I was kept awake there half the night from all the hookers and pimps slamming doors, but I at least had free, blazing fast wireless. The Westin makes you hook up to an ancient wired network and they charge $10. What kind of customer service is that? At least as airline crew they wave the charge for me, but if I was a business traveler I'd be fuming. The hotel business center charges by the minute for computer use. Want to check your email? That will be $20. I'd rather stay at a Holiday Inn Select, spend half the money, have free internet, and get a free stale bagel breakfast in the morning. But, I shouldn't complain. Someone else is paying for this hotel and they do have a nice pool.

Sorry for the rant that was probably better suited for a hotels.com review. I'm just frustrated.

It is hard keeping a blog. When I started out I had great intentions to post almost everyday. Unfortunately it is not all that easy. A month ago we made a transcontinental move and that sucked dry any free time I had for blogging. Then, a week after moving my computer got a nasty virus and completely died. Now, today with a spare working computer in front of me I can't get a photo uploaded. Hopefully things will settle down over the next week and I can get a posting rhythm going.

I have a new respect for the bloggers out there that can post new well written and well thought out posts on a regular basis. To my eight regular readers; I ask you to check out some of the links in my blog list. The blogs listed there have some great content, and somehow their owners find time and resources to make great, regular posts.

Teeheehee

2008-12-07T13:37:00.001-08:00

HaHa, originally uploaded by Gamut's Edge.

Ella figured out how to turn on our car alarm today. It was pure joy to her. I don't know what the neighbors thought. This is a picture of her at the front door playing with the car keys.

Alpha Male

2008-12-07T12:49:00.001-08:00

Alpha Male, originally uploaded by Gamut's Edge.

It was zero degrees outside this morning when I took this picture. Our dogs didn't seem to mind the cold. The cold weather makes them play harder. This photo might remind you of a pack of wolves fighting over a carcass, but really our boys were just fooling around. Jack is the black dog. He weighs about 45 pounds. Gatsby, the other dog, is a brute. He weighs 90 pounds. To make up for his size disadvantage Jack has to show lots of teeth and make a lot of noise. Jack is still the boss between the two dogs even though Gatsby could bite him into two pieces if he wanted to. After their walk both dogs curled up together in front of the fireplace.

Snowy Morning in A Swamp

2008-12-05T10:07:00.001-08:00

Dad, Snowy Morning in Manitowoc, originally uploaded by Gamut's Edge.

It's been snowy up here in Wisconsin. A few days ago I took a walk with my dad in the swamp behind his house in Manitowoc. I brought my camera along, but only brought my Canon 135mm f/2.0 L lens. I thought I was only going to try for pictures of our dogs. That was a mistake. The tangled trees were coated in fresh snow and the long lens was too narrow to get a landscape shot. Making the best of the situation I took a few shots of my dad from a distance. I managed to get some of the snow covered trees into the scene. For this shot I made sure my dad was standing in sunlight. Most of the forest behind is in shadow.

Most Difficult Photo Possible?

2008-12-03T09:12:00.001-08:00

Jack Loves the Snow, originally uploaded by Gamut's Edge.

Is there anything harder to photograph than a black dog running through snow with bright sun? For this shot I set my exposure to manual bracketed until I found an exposure that worked for shooting this direction. I then called Jack and I got one high speed pass. This was the best shot from the burst. I'm determined to get the perfect "Jack in the Snow" photo before winter is over.

We moved to Wisconsin from California a couple weeks ago and our dogs love it. I was afraid they would miss hiking around east bay, I think they like Wisconsin better. They like the snow for sure.