Nikon 1 V1; A Game Changer?

Geese at Holiday Park, Cheyenne, Wyoming © 2012

I have been testing out the new Nikon 1 V1 and have to say I love it but at this time can’t recommend it for everyone. I will explain more on that subject in a later post. Here is an example photo that I took and cropped using the V1.

Sometimes It Is Worth It

Early Morning at the Tetons

Some days you just don’t want to do photography. You don’t want to do your blog, you don’t want to clean up the house and being social is the last thing on your mind. All you want to do is lie in that bed, shut the world out and sleep.

The “you” I am talking about is me.  There are mornings I wake up and I wonder why should I even try. Insecurity tells me that no matter how many times I press my finger on the shutter release of my Nikon nobody will appreciate the effort or the result.  Why should I waste my time climbing up a mountain just to sit there for an hour or two waiting for the light to be just right? Then the light will arrive and I will take the picture. Within minutes I might take a hundred snaps with different f-stops, various shutter speeds. I will under expose and over expose the photos. I will photograph the scene vertically and horizontally and then with all my gear on my back and my camera on my tripod I will climb around on the rocks looking for that perfect angle or perspective.

When the light has gone with great expectations I will hurry back to my digital darkroom.  Surely I have captured something glorious that I and the public will cherish forever. I upload the photo files unto my computer. I go to edit the photo and discover they are all trash.  No use trying to use Photoshop to save these babies.  So I highlight them all and push the delete button. My mood for the rest of the day can be summed up in one word, depression.

So I lay in bed thinking, why should I get out of bed? Most likely it will be another day of failure. Nature and landscape photography is about failure. You delete more photos than you save. You can go a day a week or even a month without producing a high quality photo. Why should I continue to subjugate myself to failure?  I should just stay in bed, resign from photography and let the world pass me by.

Then laying in that bed with the warmth of the covers around me I start thinking about those few photos I deemed worthy of saving and good enough to sell to a stock agency or better yet sell directly to the public. And I remember that feeling I get when it all comes together. Like the photo of the Tetons that I have posted here. This photo was not planned. I was walking to my location for a photo session when this scene unfolded in front of me. I did not have time to think it all out. I put the camera on the tripod and checked my setting, took five snaps within seconds. I didn’t need to take any more pictures I knew I had it. I did not even look on the screen on the back of the camera to check if it was okay.  My gut told me I had made the capture.  I knew the print would be in black and white.  Having such confidence  and knowing that I had captured something nice really does a lot to stroke my ego.

Lying in that bed thinking of that moment creates the desire to again experience such a moment. I reject the negative thought and use the positive memories to inspire myself to keep going. An hour later I am gazing at pronghorn running around with a mountain behind them. The light is perfect and it will make a great Wyoming scene photo. I grab the camera, check the setting and focus. But God does not want my life to be easy.  As if on cue all the antelope stop running and they turn away from me.  Now I have a great photo of ten or twelve antelope rear ends. I wait and I wait but they don’t move. They just stand there eating grass. They don’t care about my great Wyoming scenic photo. It is at that moment that it occurs to me I should never have gotten out of bed. Such is the life of a landscape and nature photographer. – Craig Getchius

PS, Please note that if you click on the photo above it will look sharper.

A Once in a Lifetime Encounter (Hopefully)

Last night around midnight I found myself sitting on the front porch with my mind jumping from one topic to another. I was so wound up I just had to get away. So I jumped into my car drove west of town about ten miles to a little spot by the North Platte River. I parked the car off the side of the road and with my trusty little flashlight walked the trail about forty to thirty yards down to the river bank. I sat down on a rock and gazed out at the river and the starry night that was stretched out before me.

About three months ago my wife and I discovered this little isolated corner of Wyoming. I was enamored by the river and beauty around it. So much so that when feeling troubled, I would secretly come to it to ease my mind. It always had a calming effect upon me and last night it worked its magic. Within ten minutes of sitting on that rock I was relaxed and at peace with both myself and the world.

Feeling totally relaxed and ready for sleep I found my way off the rock and started heading back up the trail. Then I heard the bushes in front of me rustle. Emerging from those bushes onto my trail was the biggest mountain Lion I had ever seen. Well, at least I think it was the biggest mountain lion I had ever seen. When it is after midnight and pitch black all around you things can get a little distorted.

The mountain lion stopped in the middle of the trail between me and my car. He turned his head and stared at me. He was about ten yards in front of me and from the light from my little flashlight I could see every hair on his body. His greenish yellow eyes seemed not evil but menacing. For what seemed like a minute or two we both just stood there staring at each other.

I remember wondering if I should not shine the flashlight on him. I thought “oh my God I am going to be eaten by a mountain lion”. Then oddly I felt embarrassed. I was wearing off white pants, a black and cream Hawaiian shirt and covering my feet were house slippers. If I am going to die in Wyoming I should not have these types of clothes on.

They say when confronted by a mountain lion you should make yourself big and make loud sounds. But all I could think of was the song “Bottle of Wine” written I believe by Tom Paxton and made famous by Jimmy Gilmer and the Fireballs. So I started loudly singing that song and moving my shoulders to the beat of the song.

The mountain lion either did not like my singing (which most people don’t) or he just got bored with me. By the time I started the second verse he just walked away. I walked back to the river’s edge figuring if he attacked me there I would jump into the water. I figured I would rather drown in the freezing water than be eaten by a mountain lion. Also I thought he would not follow me into the water.

Using my flashlight I kept scanning the area to see if he was still around. After a while, not seeing any sign of the mountain lion I dashed up the trail to my car. Once I was safe in my car, I started it up and went back home.

Safe in bed I kissed my wife on the check. The kiss woke her up. She stared at me and said” what’s wrong?” I said, “I am just glad to be home”. She patted me and fell back asleep. Oddly enough with all that had just happened, I also fell right to sleep.

The attached photo was taken by me a few years back and I added it for effect. – C. G.

Mountain Lion Photo By C. L. Getchius

Devils Tower

Devil’s Tower and a longhorn

Sorry I have not posted in a while.  I have been traveling a lot and just could not find the time to update my blog. But I am back now so here I go again.

This weekend my wife and I traveled over to the Devil’s Tower area. I took this photo for a client’s website. Unfortunately the camera was handheld so it is not very sharp. Also the horn on the longhorn has blown highlights. But since the photo will be really small for the web it will do. I waited half an hour hoping the longhorn would raise it’s head but he just kept eating.

We arrive at Devil’s Tower at about seven A.M. the fog was so thick that you could not see the tower. By the time I got my equipment set up the fog had basically gone. I am kicking myself for not getting the equipment set up in a timely fashion to document the lifting of the fog. Then I would have had some photos of DT that would not have been just tourism photos.

As a side note when we left the Devil’s Tower area, on a lark, we drove around the Black Hills in South Dakota for a couple of hours. Within those two hours we experienced rain, fog, hail, landscapes that still were covered with snow and finally had beautiful seventy-two degrees sunshine. Such is life this time of the year in the west.

Also note if you are planning on visiting the Black Hills in South Dakota it is well worth your time to take the side trip to Devils Tower.  There are plenty of camping sites in the area and the small town of Hulett, Wyoming (about twelve miles from Devils tower) has a Best Western. This area of Wyoming is populated with Cattle Ranches and the locals for the most part are friendly. Yes, Devil’s Tower was featured in the movie “Close Encounters of a Third Kind”. 5/17/10 – CG

Yellowstone in the Winter and Early Spring

Yellowstone in the Early Spring

If you have not been to Yellowstone National Park in the winter or early spring you are missing something truly special.  While much of the park is still closed what remains open is magnificent.   In the winter and early spring there are few tourists so you can look out at all the vistas and commune with nature at your own leisure.  If peacefulness and relaxation is not your cup of teas there are many other activities to fulfill your day. Click here to check out West Yellowstone. – Craig L. Getchius

February 2010

Well February has finally arrived. In the past outside of the fact that February is the month I was born I never had much positive to say about the month. 

When I lived in Illinois my outlook on the month of February was I hoped it would hurry up and get over with.  Everywhere you looked the snow was dirty and grey.  Even if there was no snow on the ground the sky always seemed filled with grey clouds that never want to go away. Because of ice patches scattered here and there it was dangerous to walk around.  People would be constantly walking around with the sniffles and it was only a matter of time before I would catch a cold or even worse, the dreaded flu. The only good thing about February in the Midwest was that it only consisted of twenty-eight days (Except for leap year when unfortunately we added a day) and that the month of March followed it.

At least the month of March brings with it the hope of springtime and March Madness.  Yes, I am a big basketball fan. Go Illini!

Here in the west February still has charm. People are out and about. Enjoying themselves with activities such as skiing, sledding, snowboarding, snowshoeing and yes where it is still permitted snowmobiling. In Wyoming if you know the right place to go you can enjoy a dogsled race or two. The snow on the mountains in February looks as pristine as when the snow first arrived in November, December, and January. Unlike the Midwest where one gray cloudy day leads to another gray cloudy day, out here in the Wyoming and Colorada the sun actually shines. The air is crisp with a feeling of newness that invigorates the lungs. Unfortunately here in the west we do have those horrific winds. Nothing is perfect. Even with the wind all in all February in the West is beautiful. – Craig L. Getchius

Another Wildlife Photography Website

Craig Jones has some great photography on his website. If you are interested in wildlife photography check this site out.

Clouds in Rural Illinois

I remember this day as if it was yesterday. We still lived in Urbana, Illinois. I was at home practicing my guitar when the phone rang. My wife called me on the phone and said, “Craig, have you checked out the clouds in the eastern sky”. I grabbed my camera and drove out-of-town. The cloud bank started to break up in less than fifteen minutes but I got five keepers. Here is one of them. There is another photo from this day that you can check out at my website in the Fine Art Photos slide show. – Craig Getchius 

Clouds in Central Illinois

Winter in Illinois

A typical photo of what winter is like in the great state of Illinois. Hope everyone is enjoying the holidays. – Craig Getchius

Thank You

Thank you to all our customers who placed orders with us. I am sorry to say we can no longer accept orders for Christmas delivery. Hope you all have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. – Craig L. Getchius

Pink Rose