Category: Canon

Owls in Evanston

May 21, 2020
Canonenvironmentnature photographyRichard Mack Photography

During these very strange days here in Evanston, Illinois there has been an interesting diversion for those out for a walk or bike ride – a family of Great Horned Owls. The adults were spotted in late February or early March with three owlets born in March. Folks have been watching them in the trees, yes while social distancing and wearing masks, to watch the little ones grow to almost adults currently. I only came to know of them last week when a friend posted photographs of them. I have since been there three times to date and have watched them sleep in the trees, wash themselves while sitting on branches, followed each other through the trees all while waiting for mom to come back with food. Interestingly they seem to have a pecking order on who gets to eat first.

  • Eastern Screech Owl

It has been great to watch these majestic raptors, known in many places as wise old birds of prey and held to an almost religious status. Watching them follow each other from one tree to another or deciding on a tree for themselves has been an interesting diversion from the pandemic spreading over this country.

They are common in North America but in cities they are not as common as in the forests and woodlands. This pair of adults apparently has been coming around north Evanston for a few years. Maybe next year they’ll decide my 300 year old oak is a good place to rest and raise their kids.

For those interested in the tech side, I shot with my Canon 5D Mark IV for both still and video images. The first evening I shot until it was so dark I had to up the ISO to 3200 which left them a bit grainy while watching them eat. On other days when I was shooting in the late afternoon early evening I could use ISO 400 easily. I used the 28-300 f5.6 on the first shoot, my 300 f4 with a 2x convertor the second day and went back to the 28-300 with the 2x convertor and a polarizing filter the third day.

Enjoy.

Richard

Winter Storm on Lake Michigan

January 15, 2020
CanonenvironmentGreat Lakes ProjectLake MichiganRichard Mack PhotographyRichard Mack's BlogThe Sweetwater Seas

Winter Storm and Big Waves

On Saturday January 11, 2020, the Midwest experienced a large winter storm system across the area which created unusually large waves of 15-25 feet in the southwestern portion of Lake Michigan. With the Great Lakes within inches of their highest levels in history it brought destruction to several areas, homes and businesses along the lakeshore. In the Chicago area, and in particular Evanston where I live, all seven beaches disappeared under these huge waves. Homes along the Chicago Northshore lost their beach fronts as well. Personally, I have never seen waves this high on Lake Michigan, at least on the western side. In this video, shot at Gilson Park in Wilmette, the dunes usually have 20-30 feet of beach between the shoreline and the dunes. The roots of the grasses were the only thing left in many places. The trees which used to stand a few feet from the edge of the dunes were now right at the edge and in danger of falling into the lake.

The sound of the waves was deafening, although the wind overtook our microphone no matter what we did to dampen its effect. The ground also had a vibration from the pounding of the waves.

At another beach just south of Gilson, Lighthouse Beach in Evanston, usually has 50-100 feet of sand which had been obliterated by the waves all the way up to the dunes at Lighthouse Beach. By the next day the storms had cleared and Lake Michigan had calmed down, returning the beach to its size before the storm.

Lighthouse Beach on Saturday January 11th and then Sunday January 12th.

The size of the beaches everywhere in the Great Lakes have shrunk to their smallest sizes in the years since the lowest levels were recorded in 2013, just seven years ago. The lake levels do rise and fall over generations, but not this fast. The storms have also become bigger and more powerful in the last ten years – due to global warming and climate change. We will be covering the threats to the Great Lakes and the Midwest in our documentary.

Enjoy,

Richard Mack & John Manos

#thesweetwaterseas #GreatLakes #LakeMichigan #Storms #waves #weather #Illinois #nature #documentary

Chicago Skyline Time-lapse

September 23, 2019
CanonChicagoCityscapeGreat Lakes ProjectLake MichiganNight sky time-lapseRichard Mack PhotographyThe Sweetwater SeasThe Sweetwater SeasThe Sweetwater Seastime-lapseTourismtravelTravel Photography

I did my first real test of the of the “holy grail” of time-lapse where you go from daylight to night-time (or the reverse). I used the Timelapse+ VIEW intervalometer and software plugin for Lightroom CC to handle the exposure changes. I did this from the Montrose Harbor area looking down to Chicago, an iconic view of this beautiful city. We started the exposures at 6:40pm and finished 2 hours and 44 minutes later at 9:24pm. This gave us just under a minute of video from the 1,408 images shot. For those interested it was shot with the Canon Mark 5d IV with the 24-105 lens set at F/11. The ISO started at 100 and ended at ISO 8000. The shutter speed started at 1/80 of a second and ended with an exposure of 4.0 seconds. A total of 14.5 stops! Timelapse+ VIEW was setup to change the shutter speed first and then the ISO. Timelapse+ VIEW Intervalometer will automate night to day time-lapse using a light sensor and advanced algorithms. This system worked really well and once you take it into Lightroom in post processing the plugin finds the keyframes which you can use to do the initial processing in Lightroom Development window to make any exposure / color corrections you require. The software then makes these corrections for the entire selection in subtle increments so you have a finished piece with smooth transitions for a beautiful time-lapse.

Now one thing I know I will try next time is starting with at least a 1 second exposure to make the water smoother throughout the time-lapse. I would also go longer into the nighttime view to give a little more room in editing to be able to use a longer nighttime scene.

This Timelapse+ VIEW intervalometer and what we will be able to do with it will be a great addition to The Sweetwater Seas – North America’s Great Lakes documentary! It will be in the equipment bags for every shoot from now on! Can’t wait to get outside along  the Great Lakes and do some day to night with the Milky Way winding its way across the screen, and maybe even back to daylight.

Enjoy,

Richard

#thesweetwaterseas #GreatLakes #timelapse #timelapse+ #Chicago #LakeMichigan #Canon #CanonMark5DIV #Chicagophotography #artofchi #earthpix #timelapseplus #travel #landscape #cityscape #astrophotography #illinois #illinoistourism #way2ill 

Statue of Liberty

May 30, 2019
Architectural PhotographyCanondigitalExpectationsPhotography

I recently went to the Statue of Liberty while in New York. While it was a cold and blustery day with dark skies overhead it is always a compelling place to visit knowing that millions of people had their first glimpse of Lady Liberty as they came to this nation. I did not know what kind of shots I would get on a day like this but found closeups of the statue more compelling than further ones. While I did not have a lens longer than 105mm it was long enough to get in close enough. Had I carried my 28-300mm with me I would have been able to get even closer for interesting detail shots. Next time I won’t worry about the weight.

To me Lady Liberty stands for our nation, or at least for what I believe our nation is. One of welcoming all, caring about all, working with other nations to fix problems from climate change to nations with health, food, and education issues. We are a nation for good. Or at least we used to be. Currently some folks want to go back to an isolationist idea, turning our backs on the world. Maybe that is why I like the image from the back of Lady Liberty so much – it represents where I think some people in this country think we need to be. I disagree wholeheartedly. In many ways it is a sad image. From the front it sends the idea we still accept what the Statue of Liberty stands for – Liberty for All.

As for the images, much like Ansel Adams taught photographers, see your image before you click the shutter, know the exposure and what filters you need to get the tones you want in a black & white image. In my case I knew I would darken the sky and lighten Lady Liberty to bring out the contrast I imagined on such a gray day. It is easier with today’s digital imaging to know before hand what you want it to look like and then make it happen in the digital darkroom. Although maybe not as fun as watching a print come to life in the developer.

And the big plus is shooting in digital you get both a color and B&W version of the image! Sometimes it is very hard to decide which you like better! You go with a perceived idea and come back with some unexpected images you may like better.

Enjoy,

Richard

#richardmackphoto #NewYork #StatueofLiberty #Canon #Canon5DMarkIV #NPS