Shorebird Love

Ron NiebruggeAlaska, Chugach, Photos, Travel 9 Comments

Shorebirds, Copper River Delta, Alaska.

Shorebirds, Copper River Delta, Alaska

This flock of shorebirds nearly formed the shape of  a heart.  I captured this last spring and saved it thinking it would be a perfect post for Valentines day – not realizing it would fall on a holiday weekend.  So I thought I would post it today.  It wouldn’t take too much PhotoShop work to make it into a perfectly shaped heart, but I prefer leaving items as seen.

Actually, this tight formation of fast flying birds making constant direction changes was the result of an attacking predator.

Peninsular Desert Bighorn Sheep

Ron NiebruggeAnza-Borrego, California, Photos, Travel 8 Comments

Peninsular Desert Bighorn Sheep

Peninsular Desert Bighorn Sheep, Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, California.

We spotted and photographed these guys yesterday afternoon in Borrego Palm Canyon.  I have read some estimates that place the population of the subspecies of Desert Bighorn at only 280 animals.  I look forward to photographing these guys amongst the desert wildflowers.

2010 Desert Wildflower Predictions

Ron NiebruggeAnza-Borrego, California, Photos, Travel 11 Comments

Sand Verbena, Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, California.

Sand Verbena, yesterday in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, California.


These are the first wildflower blooms of the season  in a year that should soon have a bountiful display of flowers!  Don’t rush down here yet, they are still a couple of weeks out – I found this little spot a few years ago, and it is always the first area to bloom around here, and this year is no exception.

This is looking like it will be a great year for wildflowers as this region has seen lots of rain!  The nearby Ocotillo Wells State Vehicular Recreation Area had the wettest month in recorded history this past January.  The local wildflower experts were saying the final ingredient for an excellent wildflower year would be February rains – well we received a fair amount of rain Tuesday night – the second such storm this month.  So in short, it is safe to say this  will be an excellent year for desert wildflowers!  The only thing that could get in the way now would be the over growth of an invasive species like mustard.

Despite the rain and the predictions, I had to see for myself – and of course do a little photography.  🙂  Well things are very green!  Lots of shoots just starting to rise in many places – thick patches of Lupine and Desert Gold were the most obvious, but there is a wide variety of plant-life that just further confirms my anticipation.

I believe the desert wildflower bloom won’t be limited to Anza-Borrego, the hills  North of Palm Springs are also very green.  I went for a run in the back-country East of Joshua Tree and had to deal with a number of small stream crossings – in places I have never seen water flowing before.  It is pretty exciting.

We will be based in Borrego Springs for the next month or so, but I hope to chase the bloom around the area as it progresses, and will provide updates here on the photo blog.  The California Wildflower Hotsheet, along with its corresponding Yahoo forum is another great resource for wildflower updates during a good year like this one.

Finally, this might be a good time to mention that I only have two spots left for my two Anza-Borrego photography workshops. 🙂

This photo:  Canon 1Ds III, 100 macro lens with 25mm extension tube, f/25 at 1/25 a second.

On the Road Again!

Ron NiebruggeAnza-Borrego, California, Photos, Travel 4 Comments

Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, California.

Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, California.

I scheduled this in advance as right now we are in the middle of flying and driving between Alaska and Anza-Borrego, our base for the first month of this trip.  After Anza-Borrego we have a few options, but most of them involve Arizona.  I’m hoping it will be a good wildflower year.  It sounds promising!  I will report on the conditions once we are there.

Keeping Your Camera’s Digital Sensor Clean

Ron NiebruggeEquipment, How to, Miscellaneous 42 Comments

About a year ago I wrote a post on sensor cleaning for digital cameras.  What I didn’t say at the time – I was really hoping I would be cleaning my sensor for the very last time because I was going to begin testing a prototype product that would protect the sensor from dust.

Well after one year I’m beginning to think I may never need to clean my sensor again!  I love this product!  Unfortunately, it hasn’t been available to the public until recently so I  had to wait until now to write about it.

So the product is called Dust Shield and is made by Dust-Aid, the company that makes the great cleaning products I wrote about in my Sensor cleaning post.  Effectively the product is a clear optic filter that is placed over the opening to the camera’s chamber sealing off the chamber and sensor.  This product has a number of advantages – some not so obvious:

  1. The main advantage is clear – by sealing off the chamber I am able to prevent dust from ever reaching the sensor.  I should add, before installing, I went to great lengths to completely clean the chamber including the sensor and mirror – otherwise every time the mirror flipped up and down I was afraid it would just reposition existing dust, possibly onto the sensor.
  2. When working in a dusty environment the camera is still going to pick up dust, but now it lands on the Dust Shield instead of the sensor.  The selling point behind the Dust Shield –  it is far easier to replace the shield then clean the sensor.
  3. But here is an advantage I didn’t anticipate.  What I found is dust was far less likely to show when on the Dust Shield.  I believe this is because the dust is now landing a fair distance away from the sensor, it just doesn’t create ugly black spots like it does when it lands on the sensor.  I’m always surprised at how little spots or scratches on filters aren’t viable on the final image – I believe the same principle is at play.
  4. When it does get dusty, the Dust Shield is far easier to clean then the sensor – usually a couple of puffs from a hand held blower and I’m good to go.

Of course I know what everyone is thinking – what does it do to image quality?  I gotta admit, I was skeptical.  Having spent some $8,000 on one of the finest cameras available, and a bunch more on top quality lenses – I did not like the idea of now adding a piece of film to the image path.  My photos are our sole source of income, I just can’t  sacrifice quality no matter how convenient!  I had to be sure image quality didn’t suffer – here is my review.

I felt the best way to really test this product is with my absolute sharpest combination of equipment.  So I mounted what I think is my sharpest lens, my Canon 100 macro, on my best camera, a 21 mp Canon 1DsIII.   I used the two second timer with mirror lockup with a  f-stop of /8, – probably about as good of a combination as I could get.  I then mounted the whole thing on a monstrous Gitzo 1548 tripod, placed a bean bag on the camera and photographed a dollar bill taped to the wall.  If I couldn’t detect softness with my best setup, then I’m not going to see it with say a lessor camera or with a softer lens like the 100-400.

Full frame version of the dollar.

Full frame version of the dollar.

For reference, here is the full-frame version of dollar.  The red represents the area in which I cropped a 400×600 area of the image with the results displayed below the jump.Read More

Mt. Alice

Ron NiebruggeAlaska, Chugach, Photos, Travel 12 Comments

Mt. Alice, Chugach National Forest, Seward, Alaska.

Mt. Alice, Chugach National Forest, Seward, Alaska.

This is another recent photo of Mt Alice at sunset captured this past December.  Maybe I should just call this the Mt. Alice photo blog because I post so many photos of this beautiful mountain.  🙂  Really, the subject matter here should be taking a dramatic change soon once we hit the desert and begin chasing wildflowers.

Arches iFotoGuide App

Ron NiebruggeEquipment, Miscellaneous, Moab, Utah 3 Comments

Arches Photography guide application for iPhone and iTouch.

Arches Photography guide application for iPhone and iTouch.

Well I must admit I am a reference material junkie!  I have shelves and shelves of books – guide books to National Parks, birds and animals, plants and wildflowers, animal tracks, geology…  The list goes on and on.  Not only do I have a bunch of book here, but I also keep many more in our trailer, and we usually send a box back and forth depending where we are traveling.  Unfortunately, they take up a ton of space and weight.

I also have to admit that I’m hooked on apps for my iTouch / iPhone – I have an iTouch.  Maps, weather, depth of field calculators, even Northern Light predictions all on this tiny device, it is amazing!

So, when I heard that a couple of friends, Dan Baumbach and Bret Edge had created an Arches National Park Photography Guide iPhone application, well I thought that was ingenious!  What a great idea – I could easily travel with all this information right in my shirt pocket!  A perfect marriage of information and technology.

Dan recently provided me a copy to review, and I gotta admit I love the product!  This application actually has a lot of advantages over a hard copy book because it is able to link to current information in real time such as weather forecasts, along with providing links to websites for local restaurants, hotels and campground – what a great resource!

The app is also packed with all kinds of useful information on Arches National Park, information useful to photographers such sunrise and sunset times along with an interactive map and information on backpacking, wildlife and wildflowers.  But the real meat to the application is the information on the different photo locations within Arches.  This information includes photos, maps, descriptions on how to get to the location, even the GPS coordinates.

It just so happens that I have spent a fair amount of time in Arches over the last two years, and have been to all the locations described in the app, and found the information accurate and concise.

The application cost $4.95 – much cheaper then most printed guides, and more valuable.  They have many more iFotoGuides planned for the future.