indian lake sunrise...err, morning shoot

Several of us from the Black Hawk photo group decided to get up early on one of the last weekends of fall to try and catch the sunrise and morning light…well we were foiled by fog/low clouds, but then again it didn’t rain so it could have been worse. Eventually the sun broke (see below) but with so much haze it was difficult still, but we still had a blast getting images, we were (or at least I was) stretched to look at things we normally may have passed up.

more here

Technical: “You know what you have to do when light gets you down? Just keep shooting, just keep shooting…” (It is best if you sing this thinking you are Dory from Finding Nemo) That was my creed; I just had to keep looking for things that could be images instead of what I wanted to be images, mainly good light. So I did just that, I stretched my mind this time around

fall soccer

Lea’s (pictured in the red sweatshirt) soccer game last Saturday got us up early on a cold, wet, and fogy fall morning. Taletha, Sarah and I had a bit of fun trying to stay worm, our hot drinks helped a lot, as well as seeing the fog lift and reveal fall colors in the distance. It was a lot of fun for me since I had not seen this team play since last year and it was amazing to see how far they have improved!






Technical: Since I wanted the images to look “cool and fast” I decided to practice my motion blur panning. I played with my shutter speed to get a fair amount of blur (but not to much to blur it completely) for the speed that they were running and I followed the action with my camera, taking pictures at the “normal” peak action time. Because I was panning at the same speed they were passing me I could freeze the action fairly well on things moving slower (like faces) but still get movement on things moving faster (like feet.)

bergstrom family (but mostly kids) portraits

jen and daniel

colorful light

Fall color is one of the many things that will draw photographers out of the woodwork. After walking around the UW Arboretum with Daniel last weekend we were walking back to the parking lot when we passed more people taking pictures of the colorful trees than I have ever seen in this park before. What is it about this phenomenon that draws us? What is it that makes us want to “oooo” and “ahhhh” at the marvel of Gods creation? Is there something about the fleeting moment that draws us? Is it the unnatural looking color that screams for attention? Or is it our fascination with dying things? Whatever it is it is pretty good at getting our attention that is for sure.

And to think, this is just the beginning, there are a lot more trees that have not turned yet….

Technical stuff: best results are when you capture good light bouncing off of a good subject, we went out early…although I wish we could have gone out earlier. Since there was a lot of mixed lighing (shade and direct sun) I concentrated on anything with the sun hitting it, and didn’t care for the shadows much at all, therefore I only exposed for the sun and let the shadows go black.

my new favorite image

Yes, I know I am biased but this is my new favorite image of my wife, It was taken at the da Eplegaarden (other post here) where we were going to meet other people, but the rain scared them all away, so Sarah and I decided to have a go at it despite the weather.

This weekend was also chalk full of other fun stuff too! Glenn turned 40 (finaly, he has been counting down now for over a year)


and went for the first (of many I hope) fall hike looking for color in the trees at Mirror Lake.

More Glenn photos here

More Mirror lake hiking pics here

More apple picking pics here

Technical: these were all events that I wanted to attend, and not be a photographer so I enjoyed just 1 piece of gear and didn’t worry about getting shots…but was ready for the ones that shouted at me to take them. Was fun to say the least.