Adventures of a Quantum Cowboy

Dawn at Beale's Point, on Folsom Lake in northern California.

I’m definitely a morning person.  Mornings are awakenings, new beginnings, a clean slate of possibility.  The nostalgia of sunset and the thrill of the night have their appeal; but the still silence of morning carries a certain clarity of being that other times of day lack.  Mornings are pure.

Those of you who know me will agree that I seldom stop moving; I am always on the go, and generally if my schedule isn’t at least slightly overbooked, I’m bored.  But morning photography without conversation, absorbing the new day with observation and without comment, is my zen, my one place of quiet that I reserve for myself every now and then.

Near my parents’ house in El Dorado Hills, CA is Lake Natoma.  Some months ago, I took the XT and my tripod out there.  I always underestimate how cold the pre-dawn darkness can be nearly everywhere (though it is especially acute in dry climates, be warned).  Fortunately I had some thin gloves, but it never seems like I can manipulate the camera controls accurately or fast enough.

Still reflections in the morning light at Lake Natoma.

A sturdy tripod is essential to good morning photography.  Even still hands and image stablized lenses can’t cancel the blur from the long exposures necessary to get the ethereal effect from not-quite-still water.  And you’d be surprised at the often surreal look of a a night time shot that has been “soaked” for a long exposure in the low ambient light.

Winds are typically calm or non-existent inland, though near large enough bodies of water this is not often true.  When you can get still water in the mornings, look for the multitude of reflection shots you can get in anything, from little pools, to puddles, to lakes or the ocean.  In the shot at right, the water is so still adn the reflection so clear that it would be difficult to tell whether or not the image were upside-down.  That shot taken with as wide an aperture as I could get to offset the twig in the foreground, and a relatively fast shutter speed for this time of day (1/10) to give the focus point a crispness through which I tried to convey how mornings make me feel… and this shot comes pretty close.

In the half light of just before dawn is one of the best opportunities for bird shots as well.  Most birds, especially those who feed in or near water, are going to be early risers for breakfast.  I’ve got a few photos in the queue to be processed of birds in the morning… as usual, I’ll get to it “eventually.”  In the meanwhile, may I recommend sampling some of the zen a weekend early morning gives you!

Near Auckland, New Zealand.

These trees were up against the sun near One Tree Hill. A slight underexposure resulted in this nice, high -contrast shot. I warmed the color temperature a bit in PSPXI. Make sure to use a filter before shooting into the sun like this… you could damage your eyes or your equipment!

Camera: Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi
Lens: Canon EF 28-105mm f/3.5-4.5 II USM

Auckland, New Zealand

More photos from this and other collections are available at QuantumCowboy’s Flickr Gallery.

My parents recently moved to El Dorado Hills, a small community outside of Sacramento. Here are some photos collected over multiple visits during the last several months.

My mom likes roses… could you tell?

You may recognize this birdhouse from previous bird shots in NorCal.

Backyard Effects.

A path fit for an emperor.

Roses inside against the light.

Dragonfly.

At the insistence of one of my roommates, Liz, the whole house packed up and headed for the beach a couple weekends ago. Unfortunately, we forgot that although the Antelope Valley is sunny 350 days out of the year, the rest of the world isn’t necessarily the same. By the time we hit Ventura it was cloudy and slightly drizzling. The temperature was not cold however, and deciding that we hadn’t come all that way for nothing, we took a walk on San Buenaventura beach. It ended up being very relaxing, and of course I took the camera along. Here are some shots from that day.

A sand dollar on some seaweed. 1/250 ~ f/5.6 ~ 400 ~ 55mm

A beach vista on a cloudy day. 1/1000 ~ f/10 ~ 400 ~ 55mm

The lovebirds on a stroll. 1/640 ~ f/10 ~ 400 ~ 55mm

Crab! 1/60 ~ f/5.6 ~ 400 ~ 200mm

Sandpiper 1. 1/1600 ~ f/6.3 ~ 400 ~ 220mm

Sandpiper 2. 1/1600 ~ f/6.3 ~ 400 ~ 200mm

So far I’ve only been posting photos from single, high-volume events, such as hikes or sporting games. These are usually a couple of weeks apart. However, my camera doesn’t sit around in the meanwhile gathering dust. I’m a firm believer in an adage from a photo-enthusiast colleague at work: “If you’re afraid to take the camera everywhere you go, you paid too much for it.” So when I’m not driving the carpool, I have the camera out. When I’m walking around a park or going to the city, I have the camera out. And whenever I travel anywhere out of town, even if I don’t think I’m going to use it, I bring the camera along.

What results is photographs taken spur-of-the-moment, in those times (and there are many) where I used to say “damn I wish I had a camera right now…” Often, these come out pretty badly, either due to my present lack of expert skill in choosing the right settings, or sometimes because the situation really isn’t as good looking in a camera as I thought. But more and more often, there appear a few that make me say, “neat!” They tend to be more “artistic” in the sense that I usually play with the environment to get the effect I want, as opposed to attempting to capture a pre-existing moment in a certain way.

Here are three of those neato shots, taken at my parents new house in El Dorado Hills.

China in the Cupboard. A glass plate with some backlighting and intentional underexposure.

Stained-Glass Cross.

Gateway to the Night. This one was fun. A seven second exposure through the shaped glass pane on the front door gave this oddly distorted, color-washed peek through the main courtyard.

This last weekend was probably our most rigorous hike yet. About 10 miles roundtrip, with a nice 1800 ft climb thrown in. I was worried about being too cold this time of year, but I needn’t have worried. It was a pleasantly cool day in the San Gabriel Mountains, cloudy but mostly sunny, and about 60 degrees.

The hike was Trail Canyon Falls, in the southern part of Angeles National Forest. The trailheaad starts near the big bend in Big Tujunga Canyon Road, and tracks more or less northward for about a mile and a half to the top of the falls. From there we continued on down the trail for several more miles, climbing all the way… with some fantastic views as a reward!

The trail decends somewhat into a shady forested area right up near the stream, where we had lunch on some rocks. Very moist and green, with soft earth covered by leaves; it definitely reminded me of northwestern Washington. A little further was Tom Lucas campground, where unfortunately we couldn’t stop due to the 40-some Sierra Club members taking up every available space. So we turned around and headed back down the mountain.

Fantastic variety of birds… I *really* need to get a field guide. Oof… and a good workout too.

Woodpecker Chillin. He let me come quite close before flying off.

Trail Canyon Falls at a Trickle. I assume the falls pick up in the spring, but gorgeous anyway.

Dancing Water. Tried to freeze the water splash in the exposure while blurring the outside. Didn’t quite work the way I visualized it, but I thought it turned out pretty neat anyway.

Mountain Adventure. I really liked the way the light was coming down through the clouds.

The Eye of Sauron? Holy crap I was freaked. But it *is* pretty.

Golden Reflections. Sunlight reflected in water always attracts me… “Oooo flashing lights…..”

Duke of the Forest. This fantastic photo op was dumb luck. I was actually putting my camera away in the trunk of the car at the very end of the hike when suddenly I hear a loud squawking. Looking up, I see this Red Tailed Hawk perched atop a pine tree quite nearby. I got several shots of him, the best of which I think is this one where I moved to put the moon behind him. There are others where he’s looking up at the moon which are cool too, but I can’t post them all! What luck… its almost like he wanted to have his picture taken.

All in all, the best yet, both for hiking and photography. I will definitely be coming back here in the spring and fall. Highly recommended hike!

TRAIL STATS:
Mileage: 10
Elevation delta: ~1,800 ft
Time on trail: 5.5 hrs (including lunch and some water breaks)
Nearest highway: CA-2, Big Tujunga Canyon Road

Last weekend Darin and I decided to start the hiking season early and hit Devil’s Chair, which is a bit of a hike from the more commonly visited Devil’s Punchbowl. These fascinating rock formations are so named for the one’s striking resemblance to a sinister throne of rock on a sort of natural altar in the middle of a canyon which happens to be somewhat bowl shaped. I have to admit the rocks do look like floating ice cubes in the right angle and lighting. We hadn’t planned for the temperature at 5500 feet however, and after about 3 hours we decided it was a bit too cold to continue in our present attire. Managed to get a few good shots along the way however:

Footsteps in the Sand. Perhaps some sort of bird?

Pretty Blue Bird. Can anyone tell me the type of bird? Man I’ve got to get a field guide or something.

Red Plant. Don’t know the name of this one. Anyone?

Acorns Underfoot.

Melting Ice Cave.

Mountain Soaring.

Remnants of Ice.

TRAIL STATS:
Mileage: 7
Elevation delta: ~1,500 ft
Time on trail: 3.5 hrs.
Nearest highway: CA-138