Mt. Ascutney…backyard country.

Here’s my wonderful wife, ripping it up behind our house today here in Windsor, VT.  We received 14″ of new snow yesterday, and it looks like we’re in for more tomorrow.

Ripping it in the backyard!

Pico tomorrow!  I’ll fill you in on the conditions.

Yay! iPhone in Vermont….Almost

Well, I thought the day would never come.  And it still hasn’t.  But it seems to be just around the corner.

Looks like the AT&T deal went through and they’ve taken over Unicell.  I think I’ll wait for the iPhone until the next model is released, but I can’t wait to get my hands on one of these babies.

There are all sorts of cool apps available and some such as this sunrise/sunset, moonrise/moonset et. program which will work great for photographers. Moose Peterson reviews it Focalware here.

Now, does anybody know if there are any good backcountry topo maps available for the iPhone?  That would cinch the deal.

Frosted Flower

,

Well, maybe it’s actually the remaining puff ball of seeds from a dandelion, or similar flower.  I shot this the other day out behind my house.  Mornings are routinely below freezing now and the collision of the seasons bring about interesting opportunities for photography.

I thought I’d try the super-contrasty black and white method on this one.  I don’t know whether it works or not, but it certainly takes a second to figure out what it is.

Tidbits and Tidings

Okay, I admit that I have not been very good at blogging. But I’m going to keep on trying and hopefully eventually, it will become habit. But I do have an excuse. I’ve been extremely busy.

• First, I revamped my website. Later this fall I’m going to add a lot more content. Let me know what you think. (Thanks to Michael Clark for the design.)
• Secondly, I’m getting married in three weeks.
• I’ve been working hard with fellow photographer Stephen Gorman. Currently we are working on illustrative photographs for a series of books on Hiking and Backpacking, Car Camping, Canoeing and Kayaking. More to come!
• I’ve also been traveling. I went to Washington and even did some July skiing

Here’s a photo from that trip. This is Steve making some nice buttery turns on Mt. Rainier, July 14.

Some things have to be seen…

Just watch it.

Thank you aunt Connie for sharing this.

Back in again.

I’m realizing that I just need to set some looser standards for myself. It’s not every day or not at all, it’s quality, not quantity, right?  Well, what better way to get into it than by showing a recent full moon rise over Mt. Moosilauke.  This is from the bridge in Newbury, VT.

Desert Island 10 – Music (at least for now!)

So I’m back. Sorry for the absence. I do have a 7 week road-trip to show for it. Still no excuse.

Anyways, I definitely have spent a lot of time in the car recently. All I can say is, THANK GOD FOR AUDIOBOOKS!

But, I did listen to a lot of music and have always asked people what are their “Desert Island Ten” albums. Not necessarily their favorite albums, but the albums they would have to be stuck with if they could not listen to any other album for the rest of the life.

Mine:

10. Non-Prophets – Hope

9. Matt Flinner – Latitude

8. Radiohead – The Bends

7. Morcheeba – Big Calm

6. Bob Marley – one of the many “Greatest Hits” albums

5. RJD2 – The Third Hand

4. Miles Davis – Kind of Blue

3. John Hartford – Aero-Plain

2. Bela Fleck – Drive

1. Red Hot Chili Peppers – Blood Sugar Sex Magik

There they are! What are yours? This is definitely an ongoing process and I’m sure I’ll revise it. Stay tuned for the Desert Island 10 books and movies!

Sugarbush, Sugarbush, Sugarbush and Noreaster and Snow Update

I know I’ve been fearfully absent from the blogosphere of late, but I swear, I’m back.

Steve at Sugarbush a few hours ago zooming past me

I just had an amazing day at Sugarbush today. I’ve only skied there about 10 times, but every time I always left it saying, “I wish Sugarbush was my home mountain”. Here are my reasons:

How I Chose a Compact Digital Camera, Part 1

My trusty, but much aged compact digital camera, the Canon S70 died. Well, it didn’t really die, but I can barely see the screen anymore and it’s having focusing issues. Plus, there have been major advancements in digital photography quality since that camera first came out.

I decided to research the newest ones and realized that although there have been a lot of advancements in features among digital p&s cameras, image quality has lagged far behind. This is especially true in regards to high ISO shots. Still, I persevered and decided on a camera, the Canon Powershot G9.

Canon G9

I rarely do not have my dslr with me but when I ski, it’s often too bulky to really relax with it on (in a pack). Therefore, I wanted a compact point and shoot that would provide me with most of my usual controls and without sacrificing detail. The major factors affecting my decision between the usual suspects at the top of the range (Canon Powershot G9, Ricoh GX100, Panasonic Lumix LX2 and a few others) were:

1. Manual Controls – Must have ability to set aperture, shutter speed, iso, flash, exposure compensation, etc…

2. RAW mode (ex. .crw, .nef) – in order to get the best out of a small sensor camera, or any camera for that matter, you must shoot in a proprietary. The high majority of p&s cameras only shoot jpegs. These are already compressed files for which you’ve already lost the ability to correct white balance in post-processing.

3. Optical viewfinder – Sometimes, even the best lcd screens are hard to see. You can always see through a viewfinder. They’re not great on these small ones but they’re better than nothing.

4. Low Noise – yeah right. The only one that seems decent of low noise is the Fuji F31fd or F30 but this has no RAW format, and I don’t think is even made anymore. Plus, it doesn’t have the next thing on this list.

5. Anti-shake mechanism – ccd-shift, lens shift, VR, IS.. A must have. It really works and enables you to take shots at much slower shutter speeds.

6. Good lens range – I want wide angle but I want telephoto as well. Although I’m primarily a landscape shooter, I know I’m going to want to shoot people skiing.

7. Decent autofocus – doesn’t need to be super-fast but I want it dead-on accurate. Luckily, due to the small size of a p&s camera sensor, even shutter speeds such as f/4 have amazing depth of field.

8. Continuous Shooting mode – If I’m shooting a skier I’m going to want to take a number of shots in a row and hopefully in quick succession.

9. Fast card write times and large buffer – I don’t want to miss a shot waiting for the photos to write to the card. Even in RAW, I want to shoot a number of shots in a row.

10. Lithium-ion battery – Nothing else has the juice, especially in the cold. Usually with two of these, you’re golden.

11. Decent Movie Mode – Might as well right? It’s fun, and I don’t even see why these new DSLRs such as the Nikon D300 with live view don’t have a movie mode. Anyways, at least basic tv quality. Unfortunately, most of these cameras don’t have an optical zoom in movie mode.

12. Size and weight – If it’s bulky I’m not going to want to carry it around. A great camera in the closet back home is no better than no camera at all.

13. Price

In a future post, I’ll explain why I chose the G9 specifically needless to say it seemed to meet most of my needs. I’m just learning how to use it, and yes, I’m reading my manual twice! (Check out my Six and a Half Easy Steps to Better Digital Photography) I have yet to see an image on screen so I’ll let you know about image quality once I’ve had some time with it.

In order to check out the features of the camera you are interested in, go to DPReview where you can compare camera features side-by-side and make real informed decisions.

The World Didn’t End

But I thought it was going to.  New England Patriots maintain their undefeated status but there was clearly interference from a higher power. Probably the same higher power that has given northern Vermont mountains nearly over a foot of new snow with more on the way.  Check out the Eye On the Sky Weather forecast.

I’m going to Okemo tomorrow.  Plenty of blog material coming soon.

Photo of the day 5: Milton, Windsor Trail, Mt. Ascutney

Milton, Winsdor Trail, Mt. Ascutney, Today

So I took Milton out for a walk, and we’ve been working on “stay”. Blurry, yes. Noisy, yes. But I still like it. I think that’s one of the things I like most about this blog. I get to show photos that I wouldn’t necessarily blow up into a huge print. I can like it just because… And ain’t he so darn cute?!

This was taken with my Fuji S5 Pro at 1600 ISO with 18-200mm Nikon lens at 20mm for 1/13sec (hand held) at f/3.5. And for once, my photo of the day was actually taken today. (FYI, my photos of the day are actually just photos I like, if you haven’t noticed.)

 

 

Remiss Random Gist

Okay, so I’ve been remiss in my blogging duties. However, I did have a great Thanksgiving, and I hope you did too. Glad to be back though.

I went skiing on Wednesday and it was great. I went to Okemo, and I skied Upper and Lower World Cup over and over. The snow-making and grooming was great and there was 3-4″ of nice fresh. It was quickly scraped to the sides but the sides were skiing like there was half a foot!

It’s pretty nasty out now though but hopefully most of this is snow up north in them thar hills. Speaking of skiing and weather, stay tuned for a future post on some good sites to check out for reliable and interesting ski-related weather information. But for those of you who like to ski in the northern Green Mountains, I find The Single Chair Weather Blog to be a wonderful resource. Unfortunately, his first post of the season is kind of depressing. Let’s hope he’s wrong. I’m sure he hopes the same thing. Also, as we all know, some of the best ski days can come during some of the worst seasons.

I know I said I would do a ski movie review on Seven Sunny Days but my dog ate the remote so it’s difficult to do a review when you can’t pause the film from the confines of a massaging back rest on the couch. I will have this up by tomorrow though.

One more thing. If you want some guaranteed laughs, you have to check out Mitch Hedberg. There’s a ton of stuff on youtube, such as:

Talk to you soon!

The Mount Moosilauke Project: An Introduction

Mount Moosilauke from South Summit, First Day of Spring

Over the past year, I quit my job and began working on a coffee table/resource book about Mount Moosilauke in New Hamphshire. I have been trying to photograph at the mountain a minimum of three days per month and I will be done in February. I have also recruited a few folks to write about the ecology/forest of the mountain and the regioin as well as the geology of the mountain. I am currently working with somebody on describing the history of both Dartmouth College and the general public with the mountain.

I could spend a lot of time describing the mountain, throughout this series up until the publishing of the book, hopefully in June, 2008. However, I’m going to start off by showing a few of the photos that represent the type of work in the book. It primarily is a book that will hopefully reveal my love, appreciation for, and attachment to this amazing place.

I worked there for number of years during the infancy of my photography career as the manager of the Moosilauke Ravine Lodge. However I have a number of slides that will be scanned and incorporated into the book. For the time being however, most of the photographs were shot since March. Please note that I’m adding a Mt. Moosilauke blogroll on the sidebar. I’m going to link to all the good sources of information on Mt. Moosilauke and hopefully this will become a resource for all information and photographs of the mountain. I will also include hiking information, skiing information and trip reports.

Grass in the Wind

I thought I’d take this opportunity to point you to my photography website. I have not mentioned this since the beginning of the blog but please check out www.EliBurak.com. As those of you who have seen this site before can attest, I need to add more photos and change this site. I hope to be making major renovations before the New Year.

Please comment on the photography and feel free to let me know if you would like to post something about Moosilauke. Soon I will have a separate page devoted to Moosilauke, but for the time being, just look up “Moosilauke” in the category cloud at the bottom of the sidebar or search for it. Also, all critiques on any photo here are very welcome, whether positive or negative.

Butterfly on Dandelion

Hope you enjoy!

Photo of the Day 4: Tractor in Fall, Arlington, Vermont

Tractor, Arlington, VT October, 2005

Arlington, VT is a small town south of Manchester Center in southwestern, Vermont. Nested under Mt. Equinox, it’s a beautiful part of the state. In late fall the colors can be dramatic.

Shot with a Nikon D2x using the Nikon 18-200mm lens at 65mm. Exposure: f/6.3, ISO 160, 1/160sec.

Photography and Skiing News Roundup

Photography News:

On the photography front, there are finally a bunch of new photos out on the web from the new Nikon flagship, the D3. Rob Galbraith has compiled these and you’ll be amazed at what this camera can achieve, even at iso 25,600. Yup, you read that correctly.

Adobe just released Adobe Camera Raw 4.3 and Photoshop Lightroom 1.3. For the most part, these updates just address compatibility issues with Leopard and add Raw file compatibility for a few more cameras such as the Nikon D3, Nikon D300, and the Canon 1DS Mark III.

Michael Reichmann from the Luminous Landscape has just given a field report/preliminary review of the Canon 1DS Mark III. It’s a full-frame camera, 21 Megapixels, with everything you can expect from a new pro body camera including a dust removal system, something noticeably lacking on the Nikon D3. The Nikon D300 has it though. Anyways, he likes it a lot. Are you ready to drop 8 grand on one of those babies though?

Also announced recently is this new product called Naked Light. It aims to approach photographic editing in a much more user-friendly way then Photoshop. It uses non-destructive editing (ie. you never mess-up your original) like Lightroom, but seems to compete in features with Photoshop. It will be very interesting to see what happens with this product. There is also much conjecture that it may be coming from some Mac guys, as the interface looks very Mac-ish and it only runs on OS 10.5 on a Mac, otherwise know as Leopard.

Skiing News:

Most of the major resorts in the east opened this weekend. It’s man-made snow for the time being, but temps are cold so hopefully something’s in store. Check out the conditions at the major ski resorts in the east:

Killington
Okemo
Jay Peak
Sugarbush
Stowe
Sunday River
Sugarloaf

There was a little bit of fresh snow on Thursday and Friday and Jay’s claiming 16″ and Sugarloaf’s claiming 10″.

Check out the Mt. Mansfield snow stake. I know it seems like we’re getting a late start, but actually, we’re right where we should be according to historical averages.

If you get a chance, check out Chris Davenport’s site on his successful quest to ski all 54 Colorado 14’ers (peaks over 14,ooo feet) in one year. I think there’s a movie coming out about it and he just release his photo book called “Ski the 14’ers” that I’m sure is beautiful and I’m definitely going to get. Lou Dawson raves about here on his site Wildsnow.com.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend. My review of Seven Sunny Days the new movie from Matchstick Productions will be posted tomorrow evening.

Oh, and as for Cyclone Sidr. Not great news, but it looks like Bangladesh had shelter ready and set up for a lot of people. Still, over a half a million people are homeless and 1,700 are confirmed dead.

Made the television news and went skiing!

I was in the news last night! My buddy is a newscaster on WCAX and interviewed me about the ski season and how Warren Miller fires me up. Truth be told, Warren didn’t come through for me this time (“Playground” trailer here), but that’s another post, maybe tomorrow. Anyways, I got MULTIPLE seconds! Check it out, although you need Windows Media Player.

Okemo, this afternoon.

And yes, I went skiing at Okemo! Well, sort of. That is to say I planned on skiing for a few runs and I ended up doing only one. This was due to the fact that: 1) The puppy I’m puppy-sitting likes taunting me in the woods. 2) I forgot my boots. (Not the first time, not the last.) Luckily, I realized about 5 minutes into the trip. 3) Season’s pass office was not where I thought it was. 4) I had to stand (not walk) on a looong magic carpet to get to a slooow lift to get to a sloooow lift to get to the traverse over to the section with pitch. 5) I was the first person ski patrol sent down. I had to download from the top. It was a great relaxing ride down though!

Okemo this afternoon, with a light coating of fresh!

That being said, it rocked! The styrofoam ice-snow was all scraped to the sides and it felt like real snow. And at the top (the only part open) there was probably about 3″ of fresh snow. The sun came out and it was just beautiful. Anyways, first day they were open I and got the feel of it again.

Okemo, snow was actually pretty nice!

I’m ready for ski season.

Weather Update: Cyclone Sidr could be Really Bad News

I remember listening to the radio the day before Hurricane Katrina hit, and finally comprehending that this could be a disaster of epic proportions. When the typhoon hit a few years ago, it was mind-numbing. And here comes another. It looks like Cyclone Sidr is going to hit Bangladesh and Calcutta packing winds of up to 200mph and 40 foot seas. I’m really nervous that this could be a disaster of epic proportions.

Let’s check in the morning and see how it’s going. To lighten the mood up a little though, looks like we might have our first decent snowfall following the rain tomorrow here.

Photography Essay: Color Blindness and the Way One Sees the World

Do you see a yellow square and a red circle? If not, you’re color deficient.

As with all art, tastes and styles in photography vary dramatically. However, in addition to interpreting a photograph (and it’s inherent meaning), we all see the image in a different way. I don’t mean see in the esoteric way meaning understand or comprehend, but literally in the sense that the color you think is red may actually be green.

Just as all snowflakes are supposedly different, I truly believe that nobody sees the world in exactly the same way. If this truly is so, how do we as photographers communicate our vision to our viewers while knowing that they will not be able to see exactly what we want them to see? The answer to this question may reveal more about the photographer than it may at first suggest.

Photo of the Day #3

Mt. Shasta, California

In June of 2006 I went hiking and skiing on Mt. Shasta in Northern California. Every day was sunny. We camped out around 9,000 feet and could ski from all the way from over 14,000 feet to our car at 7,000 feet.

It was my first time doing anything like this, at least with skis, and it was a blast. At night the snow froze solid so we could use our crampons and hike up the mountain. By around 1:00 or 2:00 PM though, the snow had softened up and we had amazing skiing.

Anyways, we camped up a little higher on a more exposed area than these guys and watched the shadows creep across the mountain for hours before sunset. I could really dig another trip like that.

For this photograph, I used my D2x with my 18-200 Nikon lens at 130mm for 1/500th at f/5.6. I’m fairly certain I was using a polarizer.

Photography: Six and a half Easy Steps to Better Digital Photography

Na Pali Coast, Kauai, Hawaii

Since I want this blog to be highly focused on photography, I thought what better way to begin, than to start with some basic steps to improve your photographs. Although technical prowess and vision are constantly evolving and improving, implementing some basic techniques to your photography, even with just a point and shoot camera, will raise your photographs above ninety percent of people out there.

1. Make informed purchasing decisions. Speaks for itself. Do not assume that all cameras are created equal. There are two hundred dollar cameras that are much better than some five hundred dollar cameras. And a five hundred dollar DSLR (Digital Single Lens Reflex) camera can take just as good photographs as some professional cameras ten times the price. The difference in price can be attributed to features, not just quality.