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Greetings,
I've been misplacing things lately. Like this slipper. I finally found it in the backyard. Not sure how I left it there....
....do you know, Syd???
I know, not fair blaming a puppy for my mental hiccups.
I've got a lot this month and your reward for reading through it all to the end is a cute Sydney picture. It will disappear if you simply scroll to the end. Probably.
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Oh, that sneaky Mother Nature
I recently returned from Sitka where we attempted to photograph Humpback whales bubble-net feeding on herring. But the whales finished up in Sitka pretty much on the day we arrived.
We made the best of it though, and were still able to photograph whales. In fact, there was a double breach very close to us. And no, the curse continues and I didn’t get the picture. It seems I’m always looking the wrong way, or fiddling with my camera, or putting food in my face when it happens.
We did see a few Gray whales and even a Minke whale. There were also many commercial fishing boats to photograph in various phases of catching fish.
We also saw bald eagles, sea lions and more. And the scenery was stunning.
There was more than the usual number of herring in Sitka Sound, so all of the boat captains (with boats full of photographers and other whale watchers) were perplexed since the whales typically stay in Sitka Sound until the end of the first week in April.
The main difference between this year and a normal year was that the herring had already spawned. One possibility tossed about was that the whales prefer fish that still have those yummy and nutritious eggs and so had left to chase that delicacy.
The good news is that our boat captain, Gary of Capt. Gary’s Sitka Adventures, did find some bubble-net feeding whales the following week, but they were a long way from Sitka by that time. The herring in that area had not spawned yet so the whales feasted and seemingly confirmed The Spawning Hypothesis (which sounds like a Robert Ludlum novel).
Next year’s bubble-netting tour in Sitka is set for March 23-27, 2025. We’ll be on the water for the days of the 24th, 25th, and 26th.
If you’re interested, let me know by responding to this email and I’ll add you to the early notification list.
You can read more details and see a few more pictures on my blog.
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New Maven filters have arrived!
For a long time, I’ve wanted to get some of those filters that combine a polarizer with a neutral density filter. I’ve wanted these so I could avoid having to stack filters and increasing the possibilities of lens flare as well as vignetting.
Now I have them! These new Maven combo filters are the same thickness as the original Maven polarizer, so I don’t have to worry as much about vignetting on wide angle lenses. These will come in extremely handy for scenes on the coast where I need more control over how the water appears. Or scenes where I want to stretch the movement of clouds in the sky and to be able to polarize that sky at the same time.
I also received some other filters that I’m excited to try out.
The first one is a 720nm Infrared filter, pictured above.
I’ve long been intrigued by the infrared images I see in many of my workshops. But since I don’t know how much of that kind of photography I would actually do, I’ve never wanted to convert a camera to infrared and have one more body to have to carry for something that I didn’t know if I would pursue all that much.
With this latest Maven Kickstarter, I decided to finally dip my toes in the infrared waters and chose their new IR filter
And now the fun begins with all that’s needed to be done in post processing. I’ve been learning about creating custom dng camera profiles to extend the white balance range. I’ve also learned how to channel swap! Basically swapping the red and blue channels in the Photoshop Channel Mixer.
All of this seemed complicated upon first reading about it. But the actual doing of it was rather easy.
I’m especially looking forward to this year’s Palouse workshop (there are still openings!) to really give the IR filter a workout.
Another filter I chose is their Starry Focus filter, which is supposed to help with focusing on stars. For this filter, I chose the 95mm size so that it will span the width of the built-in lens hood of my 14mm lens. I also got the 77mm-95mm step up ring for use on my other lenses.
I’m hoping that this filter will make it easier to set infinity focus during my aurora tours (there are still openings!).
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Palouse news
I've been informed that the perennially planned Steptoe Butte road repair has once again been postponed. This is both not so great news and great news.
The not so great part is the road leading to the top of Steptoe Butte is, well....how to put this delicately...crud. There, that's a safe word.
The road has potholes and is in need of repair and has been for a long time. And Washington State Parks has been planning on replacing it for the last several years. And every year I plan on not being able to go to Steptoe Butte. And every year the replacement is postponed and we're able to go to Steptoe Butte. And I used a lot of "ands" in that paragraph.
So it's great news that I'll be able to bring my group to Steptoe Butte this year. It really is a great view and well worth the visit. But there's a whole lot more to the Palouse than Steptoe.
The other Palouse news is that I was able to push back (you might say "postpone") the deadline for getting a guaranteed room at the hotel. It was April 15th and is now April 30th. And I still have a few openings! So if you're even just thinking of joining me on what is probably my 20th straight year of workshops in the Palouse, let me know. As mentioned earlier, I'll be playing with infrared and if you're interested in that, you can play along too!
This should also be another good canola year. For more information, and to sign up, visit my Palouse workshop page.
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Auroras in Yellowknife
I currently have three openings in my August 31 – Sept. 7 aurora tour in Yellowknife. I don’t know if you’ve been following the aurora activity, but this year has been very good.
Take a peek here for more.
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2025 tours
In addition to the Lofoten Islands photo tour in early February of 2025 (Still one space left!), I've got news about a couple of others.
As I mentioned earlier, my Humpback Whales bubble-net feeding tour is scheduled for March 23-27, 2025. We'll be on the water on the 24th, 25th and 26th. It's limited to five or six (not sure yet) and three spaces are already spoken for. So, if this is something you'd be interested in, let me know and I'll put you on the early notify list before registration is officially announced.
John Barclay and I are tentatively planning one or two aurora tours to Yellowknife for 2025 and are gauging interests. The time frame will be in the Sept. 17 - Oct 1 range. These could fill fast, so be sure to let me know if you want to be added to the notify list!
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Z8 and Sydney update
On my recent trip to Sitka, I used my Nikon Z8 almost exclusively. I still need more experience with its outstanding AF system, but I found it pretty easy to use, even when wearing thin gloves on cold Sitka mornings. It does a great job of finding and following focus. When photographing eagles (see above), I switched the subject detection to Birds (a new enhancement from the latest firmware update) and it found birds. It had a little difficulty when the birds flew in front of tree trunks, occasionally loosing focus. But that's not surprising. That's a tough situation.
Another tough situation is a running puppy. Especially when the puppy is running straight at the camera. The Z8 did much better than any other camera I've had before keeping the cuteness in focus.
And in case you're on Instagram and want to see more of Sydney's adventures (as well as the occasional landscape or wildlife image), you can follow me on Instagram. My handle is @RodBarbee.
That's all for now. For more information on workshops and tours, visit my Workshops site!
Now it's nap time.
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