Eagle Bluffs

EAGLE BLUFFS CONSERVATION AREA

by John Gilbert - Photographer

July 21, 2018
(Click on any image to enlarge it)

On Saturday July 21, 2018 fellow "Friends of Eagle Bluffs Photography Club" member Bob Colvin and I headed to Columbia, MO to photograph the Sunflowers at the University of Missouri Columbia South Extension Farm.  Several club members, who live in the area, had told us about this research facility and the field planted in Sunflowers.  The field is located east of the AC exit off of New Haven Road.

We left Jefferson City, MO at 6:30 am to be able to take advantage of the morning light.  It was a gorgeous day, blue skies and not to hot.  Once we got there we spent a couple of hours just walking around the perimeter of the field taking pictures.  I used a Fujifilm X-T2 and Nikon D500 with a 150-600 mm zoom lens.  Bob was shooting a Canon 7D MKII and 150-600 mm Lens.  The zoom lens made for a shallow-depth-of-field and combined with a wide open aperture f/5.6 made for some nice background bokah.

This first image was taken with a Fujifilm X-T2; Fujifilm 55-200mm f/3.5-4.8 Lens; F/5.6; 1/680 second; and ISO 250.  I love the rich colors this camera produces.

There were bees of various types everywhere collecting pollen.  Click on this image to enlarge it and note the pollen all over its body and especially the collection on the rear legs.  Taken with a Nikon D500 and Sigma 150-600 mm Contemporary Lens at a focal length of 500 mm.  Aperture f/8; Shutter of 1/2000 of a second; and ISO at 400.

After several attempts I was able to lock in on this little butterfly.  They are flighty and move from flower to flower quickly.  I really liked the patterns on its wings and the greenish-yellow hue of its body.  Nikon D500 with Sigma 150-600 at 360 mm.  Aperture f/5.6, Shutter of 1/1000 second; and ISO of 160

For the day I took 673 pictures and could fill up this whole post with Sunflower pictures alone.  I am saving some for flickr.  I was supersized with all the keepers but then out subjects were close and cooperative. After having a great morning we headed to Eagle Bluffs to check out the wildlife.

We were headed to pools 14 and 15 when Bob spotted this young Juvenile setting in a dead tree.  He was right above the road and not the least bit intimidated by our presence. He set there as if it was his throne watching out of his lands and all the while continuing to strike poses for our enjoyment.  By the way the waters at Eagle Bluffs are low and there was little to no water in pool 15.  However, this is perfect for Heron and Egrets hunting for food.

Nikon D500,  Sigma 150-600 mm set at a 500 mm focal length.  Aperture f/8; Shutter speed of 1/1000 second, and ISO of 400.

It pays to travel in pairs because four eyes are better than two and thanks to Bob Colvin who spotted this Red-Headed Woodpecker who, like the Eagle, was not going to get left out of this photo-shoot opportunity.  I just love when nature gives us such great photo models to work with.

Nikon D500,  Sigma 150-600 mm set at a 500 mm focal length.  Aperture f/8; Shutter speed of 1/2000 second, and ISO of 500.  It wasn't until I got this image on my computer and was processing it when I noticed the cobwebs.  I read somewhere that the number of Red-Headed Woodpeckers are down so for me this was a great catch.

We circled on around to pool 15 and on the way back we noticed a Doe with a fawn in the distance and out of camera reach but I and able to see them clearly with a set of Nikon Binoculars.  They were pretty far away and I regret at least not taking a landscape shot with them in it even though they where a block or two from us.  As we continued in their direction,  the Doe and not one but two Fawns came out of the woods and posed for us while crossing the road.

Nikon D500,  Sigma 150-600 mm set at a 600 mm focal length.  Aperture f/8; Shutter speed of 1/2000 second, and ISO of 500.

Bob got the best shot of one of the Fawns running but this one for me was not bad, not bad at all.

Nikon D500,  Sigma 150-600 mm set at a 500 mm focal length.  Aperture f/8; Shutter speed of 1/500 second, and ISO of 500 and EV at +1.

As we were gearing up to leave I noticed this Blue Heron across the Distribution Channel.  It was pretty far away and I was not expecting to capture anything of substance but to my surprise I got a pretty clean shot.  He tried to fly off several times and we just kept pace with him.  He appeared to have capture a fish, maybe dead that might have been two big for him to swallow and I was intrigued on capturing this situation.

Nikon D500,  Sigma 150-600 mm set at a 600 mm focal length.  Aperture f/8; Shutter speed of 1/2000 second, and ISO of 500.

For me this was a very successful day of practicing my photography but wait there is one more shot.  We came across two Bow Hunters and one of them agreed to pose for us.  He even pulled back his bow so we could get an action shot.  I will let Bob tell you his name and a little about him.  We ended up having a great conversation with him.

Well that capped off an exceptional day for both of us and with that it is always good to leave on a positive adventure.  Thanks for stopping by and please leave me a comment if you liked the adventure and the images. 

CASTLE ROCK

CASTLE ROCK

Photographing The Milky Way

July 13, 2018

(Click on Image to Enlarge-Esc to Return to Normal View)

Recently I signed up for a one day/one night workshop on photographing the Milky Way.  I was accompanied by two friends, Niala Branson and Sharon Tuschhoff from the Cape Girardeau area who are both members of the newly formed Eagle Bluff photography Club and long time members of Club Camera, a closed group of experienced photographers on Facebook.  There were eight participants in all with 3 from Texas 3 from Missouri, and 2 from Kansas.

The workshop was held on July 13, 2018 during a new moon.  It took place at Castle Rock which is a large limestone pillar landmark in Gove County, Kansas. The formation and the nearby badlands are located in the Smoky Hills region of Kansas, which is approximately 11 miles south of I-70 near Quinter, Kansas.

We booked rooms at a Super 8 in Wakenny, KS, a little town approximately 30 miles east of our proposed location shoot.  We all met at 6 PM with the instructor in the lobby to go over the basics and camera settings we were going to need to capture the Milky Way.  It was touch and go as there were thunder storms, with lightning and rain all around us.  There was moderate to heavy cloud coverage in the area we were going to which could have blocked any chances of getting a good shoot of the stars and Milky Way.

Our location shoot was on private range land but the landowners are amenable to visitors and no special permission is required. The two rut path leading back from the dirt road is quite rough, portions of the track having up to 18 inch deep ruts. It takes some careful driving, but you can do it in a car, but a SUV or light truck works much better.

The Castle Rock limestone, chalk and shale formation is fragile and may not last many more years. The tallest spire fell following a thunderstorm in 2001. But there is still a lot to see here. I found the badlands area just south of Castle Rock to be more interesting.  We got there around 7pm and selected our location for the Milky Way Shoot.  We were all on a burm lined up in a row.  Good time to take some shots of the area while waiting to see if the clouds were going to move out and if the Milky Way would show itself. This first image was taken with a Fujifilm X-T2 and a 18-135mm lens.  I shot this at f/8, 1/800 second shutter speed and ISO at 400.  My focal length was 21mm and the camera was hand held.  Note, that the shutter speed was higher than the focal length which really helps freeze any movements from hand-holding.  Keep in mind this was a mirror-less camera so there was no shutter movement to deal with. It was taken at 7:57PM (6:57PM actual day-light time)  In this shot I am facing north-west.  You can see by the clouds and the storm south of our location and it was moving east.  The sun coming from the west was reflecting light behind all the storm clouds which made for this shot.

Monument Rocks (near by) and Castle Rock are designated as one of the 8 Wonders of Kansas as a duo entry because of the scientifically significant fossils these ancient chalk beds have produced and because they have been highly eroded into unusual spires and shapes, making them spectacular landmarks on the plains of western Kansas! 

Monument Rocks are large, heavily sculpted chalk monoliths that are sometimes referred to as the Chalk Pyramids. The site has been designated as a National Natural Landmark as well. In eastern Gove County is Castle Rock, a chalk spire that stands by itself in the valley of Hackberry Creek, though immediately south of Castle Rock is an extensive outcrop of chalk, capped by the younger Ogallala Formation.  

This second image was taken around 8:22 PM and reflects the setting sun carpeting light on some of the rock formations.  This is definitely a good example of high contrast between light and dark.  This is not a composite of multiple images but a single shot that was taken in RAW format.  I composted for the light so as not to blow it out and since I was shooting in RAW format was able to recover the dark and shadow areas.  I did not use the rule-of-thirds for my composition but cropped using the Golden Triangle.  To get as much light as possible I shot at f/5 which limited my depth-of-field (DOF) somewhat.  I used a shutter speed of 1/480sec and an ISO of 400.  In hind site I could have change my settings to a higher f-stop for greater DOF which would have reduced my shutter speed and accomplished the same correct exposure.  My camera was set to a fixed ISO of 400 with aperture  manually set but shutter speed on automatic.  I was so excited taking pictures that I broke the cardinal rule of not checking my camera settings each time I moved to a new location.

This is probably one of my favorites because of the beautiful light and colors being reflected by the setting sun.  It was 8:50PM, just about 30 minutes from the previous shot above yet the light is changing by the minute.  As the sun continues to set the light will change by the second.  OK so for this shot I increased my DOF by using an aperture set to f/8.  Now with this aperture and an ISO of 400 my shutter speed was only 1/40 of a second but since I was shooting with a focal length of 24mm and this lens has vibration reduction I was able to capture this image hand-holding the camera.

The chalk was deposited during the Cretaceous Period of geologic history, about 80 million years ago, when the central interior of the U.S. was covered by a seaway. The several hundred feet deep water contained single-celled animals that drifted to the sea floor for eons, creating a mucky ooze. This material was perfect for trapping and preserving the remains of animals that lived in that ocean, such as fish, turtles, sharks, swimming reptiles called mosasaurs and plesiosaurs, swimming birds, gliding reptiles called pterosaurs, as well as invertebrate animals such as giant clams. Today the chalk beds routinely give up these fossils. Probably the best-known fossil from these beds is the famous "fish-within-a-fish" on display at the Sternberg Museum in Hays. 

As I stated earlier there was a lot of lightning as the storms passed across our path.  The good news was the clouds were moving out of the area allowing the stars to show themselves.  I opted to process this image in black and white because there were low hanging clouds and a lot of dust in the area which gave this image the appearance of banding.  Since my camera was on a tripod I was able to use a slow or longer shutter speed and was able to capture the lighting's effects.  I counted between each strike and timed it so that I would get lightening feedback while my shutter was still open.  

This was taken with a Nikon D750 and a 20mm Prime Lens.  Aperture was set at f/2.0.  I used a shutter speed of 15 seconds.  At this point it is getting dark and it was time to use a much higher ISO which I set to 3200.  Yes the trade off is increased noise but I was able to remove it selectively in Photoshop.  I had calculated the length of time I could set my shutter speed at using the 500 Rule.  What is that?  You divide 500 by your lens focal length  and this will give you the maximum shutter length before the stars start to leave trails in your image.  So with my lens being 20mm I divided 500 by 20 to get the length of time I could use or for this lens up to 25 seconds.  Remember I was using a Full Frame camera.  If I were to shoot with my Nikon D500 or even my Fujifilm I would need to take into consideration my cropped sensor factor.  For Nikon and Fujifilm it is 1.5 for Canon it is 1.6. Example:  If I used this same lens on my D500 I would need to multiply the lens length by 1.5 or in this case 30 (20 x 1.5) and then divide this into 500 and my maximum shutter time would be 16.6 or just say 16 seconds prior to getting star trails.  Why does this happen?  Because the earth is rotating.  There are devices to attach to your tripod to counter this effect.

We all set around waiting for the clouds to move out while praying the storms/rain would stay south of us, which they did.  In the meantime everyone focused there lens to infinity using white clouds in the north and then marked their lenses to be able to get back to that setting when it was too dark to see.  For those using zoom lenses the instructor had gaffer's tape which he used to mark their settings to prevent their lenses from accidentally moving.  Once you find the infinity focal length you must switch the camera to "manual focus". 

While waiting for the clouds to move out of the way of the Milky Way I looked behind me and just could not pass up this shot. The sky was clear except for a few clouds with very low opacity and the heaven was blanketed with stars. 

For this composition I used the Nikon D750 on a tripod and the 20mm lens.  My aperture was almost wide open at f/2.  My shutter speed was set for 20 seconds and my ISO was at 6400.  What can I say, lot of noise but was able to remove a lot of it in post processing.

Well at around 11:00 PM the Milky Way began to show itself.  In this image there is still some cloud coverage between the Milky Way and the top of the rocks so parts of the Milky Way are still hidden.  With and ISO of 6400, an aperture of f/2 and shutter speed of 20 seconds I was able to capture this image.

Probably the best shot for ME because the Clouds had moved out and it was around 2:00 AM.  Everything I have read is that the Milky Way is at its brightest during the summer months when it is in the norther hemisphere, best seen during a "New Moon", and reflects its best light between 2 AM to 4 AM in the morning.  

Nikon D750 with 20mm Lens, Aperture at f/2, Shutter set to 15 seconds and ISO at 6400.  In the future I will opt for settings of f/2 or f/2.8, Shutter somewhere between 20-25 seconds, and ISO at 3200.  The secret is in post processing and shooting in RAW Format so that no data is thrown away by your camera.

The Milky Way: A galaxy contains stars, gas and dust. In a spiral galaxy like the Milky Way, the stars, gas, and dust are organized into a "bulge," a "disk" containing "spiral arms," and a "halo." Elliptical galaxies have a bulge-like central region and a halo, but do not have a disk. Bulge: The bulge is a round structure made primarily of old stars, gas, and dust. The outer parts of the bulge are difficult to distinguish from the halo. The bulge of the Milky Way is roughly 10,000 light years across. Disk: The disk is a flattened region that surrounds the bulge in a spiral galaxy. The disk is shaped like a pancake. The Milky Way's disk is 100,000 light years across and 1,000 light years thick. It contains mostly young stars, gas and dust, which are concentrated in spiral arms. Some old stars are also present. Spiral Arms: The spiral arms are curved extensions that begin at the bulge of a spiral galaxy, giving it a "pinwheel" appearance. Spiral arms contain a lot of gas and dust as well as young blue stars. Spiral arms are found only in spiral galaxies. Halo: The halo primarily contains individual old stars and clusters of old stars ("globular clusters"). The halo also contains "dark matter," which is material that we cannot see but whose gravitational force can be measured. The Milky Way's halo may be over 130,000 light years across.  Stars, Gas, and Dust: Stars come in a variety of types. Blue stars, which are very hot, tend to have shorter lifetimes than red stars, which are cooler. Regions of galaxies where stars are currently forming are therefore bluer than regions where there has been no recent star formation. Spiral galaxies seem to have a lot of gas and dust, while elliptical galaxies have very little gas or dust.

I am intrigued with night photography and plan to continue to pursue it so as to improve my skills. Planning a trip in August to to photograph the Milky Way.  Thanks for visiting my Blog.  

Eagle Bluff

A DAY AT EAGLE BLUFF CONSERVATION AREA

Columbia, Missouri

July 8, 2018

The high for the day was 90° but during my morning visit it was in the low to mid 80’s.  The sky was clear and it was a sunny bright day.  There weren’t a lot pf people in the area; however, the roads were dry and what cars were there stirred up a lot of dust. It is wise to roll up your windows when you see cars approaching and always use the inside circulation of your car air conditioning. Even this won’t stop dust from getting into your vehicle or on your equipment but it helps.  If only folks would slow down when approaching a park car. Always remember to clean your equipment after a day in this area or any area that is dusty or sandy.

I started off the day looking for the Sunflower Field.  The field is on Private Property, even though it is in the confines of Eagle Bluff and it appears the City of Columbia has added two pump stations on the road leading to the property.  I also noticed a sign halfway to the field that indicated “authorized vehicle only”.  Just a note of caution and please respect this owners property and his crop. Yes, these are not growing wild they are a commodity and damaging them could cost some bucks.

I used three cameras today.  For the Sunflower Field I was shooting with a Nikon D750 and a Fujifilm X-T2.

This first image was taken with a Fujifilm X-T2.  I was using a 18-135 walk around lens. My settings were as follows; f/5.6, 1/180sec, and ISO of 200.

My second image was also taken with the Fujifilm X-T2 and same lens.  My settings were as follows; f/5.6, 1/160sec, and ISO of 200. I haven’t accomplished the art of fine tuning the focus, using focus peaking. (Focus peaking works by detecting edges of highest contrast in your scene and therefore most in focus and highlighting them in a bright color, usually of your choice.)

The above image was taken with a Nikon D750 with a Tokina 100mm Macro Lens.  My settings were as follows, f/8, 1/250sec, ISO 100 and EV of -1. I processed this so that only the flower in the lower right corner would be in focus.  I used a Gaussian Blur Filter and Radial Filter to help accomplish this.

My final image of the Sunflower Field was of the flowers looking to the sun as if worshiping the energy of its rays.  I positioned myself in order to shoot the back of the flowers as they were facing east.  The flowers will follow the sun as it travels across the sky to the west.  Also taken with a Nikon D750 and macro lens the settings were set to f/8, 1/250sec, and ISO 100 and a -1 EV.

I traveled on with no set plan or place to go just looking for wildlife. I ended up taking the road towards Pools 14 and 15.  There were a lot of White Egrets and Blue Heron in the park today.  The water is low in Pool 10 with only shallow water and an exposed mud floor. This makes for great hunting for invertebrates, and fish for these birds.

Turning from one gravel road to the next I saw a large gathering of Egrets and Heron.  I grabbed my camera, the Fujifilm, and when I did I must have locked down the safety buttons on the shutter dial and ISO dial and also moved them to their maxes.  Bottom line I was shooting at f/22 and an ISO 12500. Yep 12500.  

Now this image is not the best, no let’s put it in its proper perspective, it sucks and normally I would delete such a capture.  It has a lot of noise, not to mention focus was off but I am posting it in this blog because I wanted to show the number of Egrets/Heron in the area. I also was amazingly surprised at the picture. I drove down the road and naturally they all flew off so I couldn’t repeat the capture and it wasn't until I drove off that I notice the locked up controls on my camera.  (You have to push in a safety button on top of the control wheel in order to turn the control and change the settings and these had not released.)

Some of the pools have patches of American Lotus flowers in bloom.  Beautiful flowers but these plants are invasive and uncontrolled will take over all the pools.  It appears MDC is addressing this problem as I noticed a patch that were dead, appearing to have been sprayed. On this particular day I was able to compose the next two images of an Egret feeding among the flowers.  The Egrets don’t appear to be as skittish as the Herons especially when hunting for food.

I switched to my Nikon D500 and Sigma 150-600mm lenses for these shots.  My settings were as follows; f/5.6, s/1000sec, and ISO 125.  My focal length was 310mm or a 35mm equivalent of 465mm.  Normally I shoot at f/8 because this lens is sharpest at that setting and I for sure did not need the light.  What this boils down to is forgetting to check my settings prior to taking the shot'

My final catch for the day was this Blue Heron perched on a Wood Duck House. Like I mentioned earlier these birds are flighty and quick to take to flight once your vehicle gets near or for sure if you stop the car. 

Settings for this image was f/6. 1/1000sec, and ISO 280. My focal length was 460mm or a 35mm equivalent of 690mm.

Well it was only natural for him to take to flight.  I mean after all I was a block away and posed a major threat to his safety.

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