Archive for February, 2010
February 26, 2010 – Cheakamus Lake
Posted by Dave in British Columbia, Mountains, Picture of the Day on February 26, 2010
Cheakamus Lake
Friday, February 26, 2010
http://www.davefry.net/rate/index.php?viewimage=1099
So I mentioned yesterday how I already had today’s picture picked out. That was true, but this isn’t it. I realize earlier that, while I absolutely LOVE that picture, the version I had online was a little bit over-sharpened. (This one is too, but it’s not quite as drastic.) So I need to revisit it, and maybe I’ll use that one in a week or two. Instead, you get this one, which was actually taken on the same day as that other one. Blah blah blah, I realize that it’s really all the same to you guys, as long as I post a picture at all. But this way I’m keeping it straight in my own head.
This is the view over Cheakamus Lake from the backside of Whistler Mountain. You can’t ski to where I was standing when I took it (well, you CAN, but it’s out of bounds, so it would require hiking all the way back up to where you started), but you can hike there. This was along the High Note trail on Whistler mountain. (Which makes a big loop, although you can shorten the loop to something easy to do in 2-3 hours by taking the Half Note trail which branched off about a quarter mile from where this was taken.) This spot is a little ways below the top of the Symphony Express, if that helps you place it at all. Obviously, it’s a pretty nice view from up there.
This trip took place very soon after I picked up my awesome super-wide-angle lens this summer, the Tokina 11-16. Since I wasn’t very happy with my other lens at the time (the super-zoom Tokina 28-300), I ended up putting the wide angle on the camera for the entire hike. Which was kind of an interesting experience. The pictures you can get with a super wide angle are way different from any other kind of lens, so it really makes you think differently about framing your shots. But it was definitely fun. Although now that I’ve gone to the Tokina 17-50 as my workhorse lens, I haven’t found myself reaching for the wide angle as often. (When your workhorse lens starts at 28, that leaves a LOT of ground on the wide-angle side. At 17? Not so much.) But that’s okay, it’s still there if I need it.
Hahahahaha, I just took a look at the EXIF data on the image, and it turns out that everything I wrote in the last paragraph is basically totally wrong. Whoops. Turns out this was NOT taken with the Tokina, in fact it was taken with my Tamron 28-75, which means I had ALREADY swapped out my 28-300. (And then I eventually traded the 28-75 for the 17-50, which is basically the exact same lens except that it’s more wide-angle). And, that’s the lens I used for this picture, which means that what I said about not changing my lens at all during the hike was also a complete lie. Ha!
This brings to a close Whistler/Vancouver week on the Picture of the Day, thanks for reading! Come back next week for the rest of the world.
Notes: Canon EOS Rebel T1i, Tamron 28-75 mm f/2.8 lens. 1/250s, f/10.0, ISO 100. Focal length: 28mm.
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February 25, 2010 – Shannon Creek
Posted by Dave in British Columbia, Picture of the Day on February 25, 2010
Shannon Creek
Thursday, February 25, 2010
http://www.davefry.net/rate/index.php?viewimage=1249
As promised, here’s this week’s shot of Shannon Creek. See? I always follow through with my promises, even if it’s for something that’s not particularly interesting or even desirable. Well, most of the time. Some of the time, at least. Whatever. This is another result of one day a couple summers ago on the way up to Whistler for the weekend. We stopped at Shannon Falls park, and I spent a fair bit of time playing around in the rocks in the creek below. I got a huge number of decent shots (although very few if any great ones), so they make great Picture of the Day filler. Like this one!
To remind everyone: this week is Vancouver/Whistler week on Picture of the Day. Loosely using the Olympics as inspiration, I’m using only pictures from around Vancouver and Whistler. Although, since I have already picked out the picture for tomorrow, I can say with authority now that my set of Whistler and Vancouver pictures will include zero pictures from in or around Vancouver. It will be 3 from on Whistler mountain, 1 from Blackcomb, and this one, from just outside Squamish (which, to be fair, is probably closer to Vancouver than to Whistler.. but it still doesn’t count.)
To really get the anticipation going for next week, I’ll go ahead and say now that I’ve picked another theme: I’m going to post only pictures that are NOT from Whistler or Vancouver. Ohh man it’s gonna be CRAZY. I can’t wait!
Notes: Camera: Canon EOS Rebel XT, Tamron 28-300 mm VC lens. 1/40s, f/9.0, ISO 200. Focal length: 154mm.
Popularity: 7%
February 24, 2010 – Changing Leaves
Posted by Dave in British Columbia, Fall Color, Macro, Picture of the Day on February 24, 2010
Changing leaves
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
http://www.davefry.net/rate/index.php?viewimage=1088
Rather than suffocate all of you with a neverending set of mountain vistas from the twin peaks of Whistler and Blackcomb, I figured I should mix in some other stuff too. Like this one. This could have been taken anywhere, really. But it wasn’t, it was taken a little ways up the Singing Pass trail, which starts up the hill from right near the Whistler gondola. I really really wish I had gotten the bottom of the leaf in focus too, but I didn’t. It’s a textbook example of one of the really annoying things that can happen with digital. The shot looked great on the camera’s little screen, so I moved on, confident that I got the image I wanted. It wasn’t until much later (when I got home) that I realized my mistake. I was working with a pretty small depth of field as you can see, so what I *should* have done was gotten more square on that leaf in front, such that the whole surface would have been within range. Instead, I came in from a little bit above, so the bottom was just out of reach. (That, and the leaf was a bit curled in on itself.) Careless, careless, careless. Sigh.
Still a beautiful couple of leaves though, so it’s not a complete waste of time. Check back tomorrow, that’s going to be the day that I’m going to get the picture of Shannon Creek out of the way. (You didn’t think I’d go a whole week of PICTURES OF CANADA without tossing one of those in there, did you??)
Notes: Canon EOS Rebel T1i, Tamron 28-75 mm lens. 1/125s, f/3.5, ISO 400. Focal length: 59mm.
Popularity: 20%
February 23, 2010 – Hiking on Blackcomb
Posted by Dave in British Columbia, Mountains, Picture of the Day on February 23, 2010
Hiking on Blackcomb Mountain
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
http://www.davefry.net/rate/index.php?viewimage=1335
As I mentioned yesterday, this week I’m going to be posting only stuff from around Vancouver and Whistler. In honor of the 2010 Paralympic games. You heard me right, the Paralympics. Eff the regular Olympics, I’m doing this in honor of… the games that won’t start until March. But whatever, they will happen, and they are awesome, even though they don’t get the love and respect that the regular Olympics get. Or, maybe I’m doing it for ALL of the athletes who are only in it for the love, and not for the opportunity to put themselves in front of tv cameras so that they can build a public persona and score sponsorship deals. Or, perhaps the only reason is that I’m sitting on a lot of pictures from around the area and this way it makes it easier to choose which picture to use each day. Hmmm…. yeah, I’m pretty sure it’s the last one.
And, all that being said, I don’t actually have any pictures from around Vancouver. Mostly just Whistler. Actually, I think I have one or two, but they’re not online yet, and it’s even money on whether I’ll get around to digging them up before the end of the week. So, you get Whistler. And.. Blackcomb, like this one.
This is a picture that I took while hiking around the top of Blackcomb. They’ve always had the gondola on Whistler mountain open for hiking and mountain biking in the summer, but only last year did they actually start promoting hiking on Blackcomb. They did have one of the glaciers open for skiing though, but it was either not allowed or not encouraged or maybe just not publicized that you could go up there just to walk around. So this was the first time I ever actually got around to doing it. It’s a moderately less convenient experience than the Whistler option. On Whistler, one gondola ride and you’re up there. (Although you can also walk over to the base of the Peak chair and ride that up to the actual summit..) On Blackcomb, you have to start on the Wizard chair from the upper village, then you hop on the Solar Coaster. From there, you board A BUS that drives you over to the bottom of Seventh Heaven. You ride up that one too, and finally you’re at the top. Takes a good 45 minutes to get up there all in all. Then the skiing drops off the other side of the ridge from the Seventh Heaven chair. I heard they had recently designated a couple hiking trails up there too earlier in the summer, but I only had a little bit of time, so I just farted around the top of the lift for awhile. Definitely cool, but I think Whistler is better for hiking. If you’ve got enough time, definitely do both, but if you’ve got to choose, go with Whistler and hit up the Half Note trail.
That’s it for today! Have fun watching the games, just don’t buy anything that they’re selling.
Notes: Canon EOS Rebel XT, Tamron 28-300 mm VC lens. 1/160s, f/10.0, ISO 200. Focal length: 55mm.
Popularity: 11%
February 22, 2010 – Black Tusk from Whistler Mountain
Posted by Dave in British Columbia, Mountains, Picture of the Day, Winter/Snow on February 22, 2010
Black Tusk from Whistler Mountain
Monday, February 22, 2010
http://www.davefry.net/rate/index.php?viewimage=869
Wow, Monday again. Not totally unexpected, but still. I decided that this week, I’m going to post only pictures from around Vancouver and Whistler in honor of the Olympics. This probably would have been more appropriate to do LAST week, but you know how it goes – with the time-delay broadcasting and everything, it took this long for the idea to reach the west coast.
Today, you’re looking at the million dollar view from the top of Whistler Mountain: the view out toward Black Tusk. (Yeah, that little cliff-thing poking up there on the left.) Given the predominant weather patterns we get here in the Pacific Northwest, it’s never a sure thing that you’ll be able to see it, but when you can it’s pretty cool. You can basically see it from anywhere along the top ridge (basically anywhere between the top of the Symphony Express and the Peak Chair), and I think this particular view was most of the way from the Peak Chair to the Saddle. (Blah blah blah, yeah, I realize you probably haven’t been there and thus these names are all meaningless. I’m totally just showing off how well I know the mountain at this point. Because I am awesome, obviously.)
Honestly, I’m fairly surprised that they placed the ski courses where they did. They put them all way down at the bottom of Whistler Mountain. But if you’ve been to Whistler more than once or twice, you know that the lower mountain sucks way more often than it’s good. I mean, you’re dealing with more than 5,000 feet of vertical here. The top of the mountain is nearly always fantastic, and the bottom of the mountain is nearly always crappy. So… why put the courses down where it’s crappy? Not only that, imagine how much more awesome the views would be as the cameras followed the racers down the hill if they had this kind of background instead of just grubby trees everywhere? I mean, sure, the visibility tends to be better down low (because when the fog rolls in, the upper mountain is worthless), but still. Hmm. Whatever, I’m sure they have their reasons. Grumble grumble grumble.
See you all tomorrow, right?
Notes: Canon PowerShot SD850 IS (Point and shoot). 1/400s, f/11.0.
Popularity: 17%
February 19, 2010 – Purple Coneflower
Posted by Dave in - Best of Dave's POTD -, Flowers, Macro, Picture of the Day on February 19, 2010
Purple Coneflower
Friday, February 19, 2010
http://www.davefry.net/rate/index.php?viewimage=1325
See? We’re back on schedule, just like I promised. This is a purple coneflower, I saw it when I was walking around my neighborhood late last summer. It was just before sunset, so the light was doing some really cool stuff, both giving a nice warm glow to the petals, as well as lighting up those little spiky things in the middle, making them seem like they were lit up from within. I thought it was a pretty cool effect. The difficulty comes in because of the short depth of field I was using. Depending on if you focused on the very tip of the spiky things, somewhere in the middle, or back on the petals themselves, you’d end up with wildly different shots, some of which just.. didn’t look right. In this one you can see that I went right in the middle, but I have examples of the others that I may post here someday so you can see the difference.
Back to the illumination for a minute… having that warm light come in from the side and a little bit behind can make for some really cool effects. The most dramatic use I’ve seen for it is with fall colors. If you can get the light just right, the colored leaves (or flowers, or whatever) really shine out with color, it can be really spectacular. On the other hand, if you just have the light shining directly on the subject (ie if the sun is behind you), they just look flat and kind of dirty. You can get a similar illumination effect by having the sun directly in front of you (as in, behind the subject), but that has other issues; you lose your shadows, and it can be so bright that it can wash out the colors you want, or you’ll lose your blue sky, stuff like that. Of course, like any supposed “rule” in photography, even if something in general is undesirable, there are absolutely cases where you can use it to great effect. So, whatever, ignore everything I just said. If you see something nice, take a shot from every angle you can think of, in front, from behind, off to the side, whatever. We’re all shooting digital, right? (Right???) so who cares if you waste a few frames? Take them home, and see what you like best. Here’s a dirty little secret: a lot of the time when I’m taking a picture, I don’t actually have the exact picture I’m going for in mind. I just see that there are a lot of interesting elements, and I know that they can fit together somehow to make a great picture, so I take a whole bunch, trying out different sets of parameters in each one, hoping that I’m able to find the magic mix. Sometimes things look a lot different once you look at them on the big screen, you’ll see some detail that you missed before, that can really pop and make the whole picture. I’m rambling. I’m going to stop now. Have a great weekend!
Notes: Canon EOS Rebel T1i, Quantaray 70-300 mm lens. 1/200s, f/5.6, ISO 800. Focal length: 300mm.
Popularity: 15%
February 18, 2010 – Mt. Rainier from Crystal Mountain
Posted by Dave in - Best of Dave's POTD -, Mountains, Picture of the Day, Washington State, Winter/Snow on February 18, 2010
Mt. Rainier from Crystal Mountain
Thursday, February 18, 2010
http://www.davefry.net/rate/index.php?viewimage=1304
Hey everyone! We’re back! And, hopefully, stable for awhile now, with no more last-minute swapping of web hosting services required. (Once again, I’ll take a moment to remind you that Lunarpages sucks, Lunarpages is awful, they’re a joke of an organization, take your cashmoney elsewhere.)
You’re looking at Mt. Rainier, a huge volcano that could explode at any moment, which will inevitably wipe Tacoma off the face of the Earth. But it probably won’t any time soon, so you shouldn’t let the threat of looming death deter you from, for example, visiting the Point Defiance Zoo (which I’ve heard is lovely). This is the standard shot, taken from the standard spot, just off the top of the Rainier Express (Rex) lift at Crystal Mountain. Pictures can never do it justice, unfortunately, there’s no substitute for just heading on up there and seeing it for yourself. Pictures make things so small, but it’s really quite spectacular when you see it looming there in front of you, it really is impossibly huge. This view is in itself worth the price of admission on a clear day.
So I’m not sure how closely any of you actually read these posts, as opposed to just checking out the pictures, but the answer is yes, this picture was indeed taken just this past Monday, when I decided to head up skiing instead of posting an image here. So selfish, I know. But it was a gorgeous day, I got several shots that are picture-of-the-day-worthy, so you’ll no doubt be seeing them soon-ish. Probably the day after I force you to sit through another Shannon Creek or Shi Shi Beach shot. Won’t that be fun!
Notes: Canon EOS Rebel T1i, Tamron 17-50 mm f/2.8 lens. 1/400s, f/10.0, ISO 100. Focal length: 21mm.
Popularity: 33%
February 17, 2010 – Strange Vine revisited
Posted by Dave in Macro, Picture of the Day on February 17, 2010
Strange vine revisited
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
http://www.davefry.net/rate/index.php?viewimage=1030
Hey again everyone, sorry for the late post today. It’s been a tough day trying to catch up on everything that I missed from yesterday (the hockey game was AWESOME! Maybe I’ll make a special post sometime with some of the results from me playing sports photographer for the day), so I’m only getting a chance to post something now. I promise, tomorrow we’ll be back on our regular schedule.
This is another take on the crazy curly vine thing that you last saw back in December. To sort of paraphrase what I said about it back then: I don’t know what it is, but I thought it was kind of cool looking. So, I took a picture. Actually, I took a lot of pictures. But this may be the last picture of it you see. Maybe not, we’ll see how I feel in April.
Notes: Canon EOS Rebel T1i, Tamron 28-300 mm lens with Hoya Macro Kit. 1/250s, f/4.0, ISO 800. Focal length: 35mm.
Popularity: 7%
February 15, 2010 – Parrot
Posted by Dave in Picture of the Day on February 15, 2010
Parrot
Monday, February 15, 2010
http://www.davefry.net/rate/index.php?viewimage=1209
Hey everyone, I’m back! You probably noticed that I haven’t posted anything since last Wednesday. It’s all true. Turns out, my old webhost reached a new level of suckage (suspending my account for using too much of my unlimited space?? what??) so I had to scramble to find a new web hosting business to slowly suck the life out of me. For what it’s worth, if you’re looking for hosting services, LunarPages sucks, so look elsewhere. (I’m with DreamHost now. It’s of course too early to say, but so far they’re looking good.) So during the crazy DNS dance of the past several days (half of the world would land on the new server when they hit picture-of-the-day.com, the other half would still land on the old one) I never got a chance to post anything.
And, to make it even more interesting, I actually get today off work, so I’m minutes away from heading up skiing, and tomorrow I’ll be heading up to Vancouver for the Olympics. So if I didn’t post anything now, it’d be a full week of no posts. So I figured I’d toss something up here real quick before I headed out.
What, the picture? You want to know about the picture? Oh… it’s a parrot.
Notes: Canon EOS Rebel XT, Tamron 28-300 mm VC lens. 1/200s, f/10.0, ISO 200. Focal length: 184mm.
Popularity: 4%
February 10, 2010 – Shannon Creek
Posted by Dave in British Columbia, Picture of the Day on February 10, 2010
Shannon Creek
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
http://www.davefry.net/rate/index.php?viewimage=1229
Not too long ago, I posted another picture of Shannon Creek. This one came from the same day. That day, I spent awhile playing around among the rocks and the stream. I got quite a few pictures that were at least good enough to bring into Rate Dave’s Photos to see how they looked at this size. Not all of them are any good, but they’re at least all interesting in their own right. Also, as you can see here, I played around with making a lot of them black and white. If you’ve been reading for awhile, you know my thoughts on black and white (in the digital age, it’s kind of cheesy, it’s like a cheap parlour trick to add drama to a shot – or at least that’s how it feels when I try it..) But I figured it would be fun to try on these images.
The obvious difference between the black and white shots and the color shots is that it immediately changes the emphasis of the shot. Before, in the full-color shot, my eye was drawn to all the different shades of green and brown mixed in, both in the rocks and plants above the water, but those under the surface as well. Once you make it black and white, suddenly each rock changes from one unique shade of brown to a mashup of texture. Still unique, but for a different reason. The focus of the shot becomes how all the different textures (of the rocks and the water surface too) play together.
I gotta be honest though, I’m still a color-guy. I’m still just not feeling this black and white stuff. Probably because I’m not very good at it, but still.
Notes: Canon EOS Rebel XT, Tamron 28-300 mm VC lens. 1/125s, f/5.6, ISO 200. Focal length: 39mm.
Popularity: 6%
February 9, 2010 – Washington Park Japanese Garden
Posted by Dave in Fall Color, Picture of the Day, Washington State on February 9, 2010
Woodland Park Japanese Garden
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
http://www.davefry.net/rate/index.php?viewimage=697
Meh.
Popularity: 14%
February 8, 2010 – Snoqualmie Pass
Posted by Dave in Picture of the Day, Washington State, Winter/Snow on February 8, 2010
Snoqualmie Pass
Monday, February 8, 2010
http://www.davefry.net/rate/index.php?viewimage=1120
Hey everyone, welcome back from your crazy weekend! Today’s post is my humble appeal to the powers that be that, for god’s sake, it’s winter, can we please act like it?? To say that it’s been a crappy season is… well, okay, it’s not an understatement. It’s probably not even an overstatement. It’s certainly a little bit misleading. But it still feels true.
See, it’s an El Nino year. Which can mean very little for us up here in the Pacific Northwest. But it can also be really really frustrating. It can mean, like it has this year, that most of the weather systems miss us by just a little tiny bit, and what systems we do get rolling through are too warm to be of any use except dropping a couple inches of rain/snow mix that help keep the existing snowpack from disappearing any faster than they otherwise would. There’s been a couple nice big dumps, but they’ve been followed a couple days later by rain usually, which kind of defeats the point. Although the big saving grace is that we got absolutely hammered in the early part of November, so we haven’t really had many issues with coverage. It’s just a crappy surface, is all. Ah well, we’ve had a string of great seasons, so tossing a mediocre one in here and there is something we’ll just have to accept.
This is, of course, Snoqualmie Pass. Specifically, this is the view from somewhere over near the Silver Fir chair at Summit Central (formerly known as Ski Acres.) Most of us Seattle-based skiers are guilty of poo-pooing on the Snoqualmie ski areas besides Alpental, myself definitely included. But it’s not really THAT bad. I mean, sure, they’re tiny. And they’re low. And they have a maddening flat part at the bottom that you have to deal with both on the way down and the way back up, but if the conditions are right, it can be decent. And, the views can be a lot better than a lot of people give them credit for. On a midweek powder day, you’ll have Central all to yourself while all of the other hooky-players hit up Alpental and stand around in the 45-minute line for Chair 2. Ah, crap, I just gave away my secret. That’s okay, none of you will believe me anyway.
Speaking of midweek powder days… Nature? You there? A little help here? Please??
Notes: Canon PowerShot SD850 IS (Point and shoot). 1/250s, f/11.0, ISO 80.
Popularity: 8%