Category: clouds

Great Smoky Mountains – Fog

June 8, 2022
CanoncloudsenvironmenteveningExpectationsGreat Smoky Mountains BookGreat Smoky Mountains NPLandscapesNational ParksRichard Mack PhotographySmoky Mountain National ParkSmoky MountainsSmoky Mountains Book

This year we need to do a third printing of my book on the park, Great Smoky Mountains National Park; Thirty Years of American Landscapes. I headed down in January for new snow images and went back last week to see about getting the synchronized fireflies and some star images. Sadly, not many synchronized fireflies had come out yet, a few but not many, and the weather was cloudy every night. What happens then? You change strategy and get images of the streams – which were running full because of the rain – and details of the mountains and the vistas with the fog lifting.

Foggy days in Great Smoky Mountains NP

Here is the first set of images of the rain and fog. I’ll do a second posting of the rivers and streams later.

It may not be what you envisioned as the images you wanted to capture but you must quickly decide that is simply fine, I can make images of other subjects. I shot video as well as we will probably have a eBook version with some of the video clips.

I have never had a bad trip to the smokies in my 40+ years of going to one of my favorite places. Always feels like a place I know even though there are parts of the park I have not been to as of yet. Hope you enjoy the images. Stay tuned for more!

Cheers, Richard

Sunrise Time-Lapse from Lighthouse Beach

November 23, 2020
Canonchanging lightcloudsExpectationsGreat Lakes ProjectLake MichiganRichard Mack PhotographySunriseThe Sweetwater Seastime-lapse

Sometimes you realize you just need to go and do something. The other morning I awoke at 5am and realized it was time to get down to the beach and try out the Timelapse+ intervalometer on a night to day time-lapse and see if it worked. I’ve had this piece of equipment for awhile and had trouble getting it to connect witht my Canon 5D Mark IV. I tested it several times and it has been working so time to get out and try a real time-lapse! Besides it is November in Chicago and almost 60 degrees at 5am – clearly one of the last mornings to try it while still not freezing cold out there!

After getting the camera and equipment together I was on the beach just before 6am, slightly later than I wanted. I started the time-lapse and stood back and just watched the waves, clouds and sun while still below the horizon light up the sky. I also used the app The Photographers Ephemeris which helps you determine the angles of the sun, moon and stars for a particular location and date. I use it to double check where the sun will pop out on the horizon.

While the time-lapse is continuing for 56 minutes I walked a bit of the beach, used another camera to shoot some of the waves and different shots I saw, but mostly watched the sunrise and the serenity of the clouds and sun as it danced higher into the sky. Not a bad morning.

Hope you enjoy this 40 second time-lapse!

Cheers, Richard Mack

Time-lapse of clouds and water

February 13, 2018
cloudsenvironmenteveningfilmGreat Lakes ProjectLake MichiganLake MichiganLighthouse Beachnature photographyRichard Mack PhotographyThe Sweetwater SeasThe Sweetwater Seastime-lapsewaterwaterwaves

 

I’ve been shooting time-lapse for awhile now and am always amazed at how cool it can be when you see the final results. Working on The Sweetwater Seas – A Documentary About the Great Lakes,  I have done a fair amount of time-lapse with moving clouds, stars and the water. The other day here in Evanston it was cloudy and very windy until about an hour before sunset when the clouds started breaking apart and moving out over Lake Michigan. I ran down to Lighthouse Beach to try a time-lapse but this time using a 1 second exposure to make the waves smoother and the clouds wispy as they moved across the sky. It was a nice result which I shall use more in the future – maybe even with longer exposures of 5-10 seconds. As those who shoot either still images or time-lapse, which after-all is just a collection of still images shot at a timed interval, shooting at sunrise / sunset can be a difficult exposure challenge as the light changes. There are cable releases now that you can tie into your cellphone, tablet or laptop which can allow you to ramp the exposures along the way but I didn’t use that this time as it is new to me. I did adjust the exposures over time by 1/3 of a stop and then in Lightroom adjusted the images even more to even out the exposures even more.

The tech specs. The camera is the Canon 5D Mark IV with the 16-24 F2.8 lens. The exposures ranged from 1 second at F19 to f11. There are 538 images. Each shot was 3 seconds apart so with a 1 second exposure there is 2 seconds between shots. It took 27 minutes to shot this 20 second time-lapse which is at 24 frames er second.

One more thing about shooting a time-lapse is the perspective it gives you. Once you have set everything up and started the camera shooting it becomes your time. Instead of constantly looking for the next image you can just sit there and quietly reflect on what nature is putting in front of you. A peaceful time for me when sitting by the Great Lakes. This was no different. I also had the place almost to myself as only a few folks came down walking there dogs or at the halfway point of a run they were doing. All stopped and gazed at the sunset as well before returning to whence they had come from. People enjoy the Great Lakes – a precious resource for us all.

 

In nature photography you often get something you didn’t think you set out for…

October 23, 2007
changing lightcloudsExpectationsnature photographystorms

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In nature photography you often start out to get one image and end up with something quit different. That happened to me last week. I had received a call from an agency in New York which supplies Fine Art prints to institutions and individuals and they wanted a selection of images of water and sky. Well I originally sent them a selection and they responded that while nice they wanted a more “minimal” image. So, having seen the sky was clear blue at the studio one late afternoon, I set off for Lighthouse Beach on Lake Michigan. When I arrived there were only a few small puffyclouds floating overhead. Perfect I thought. So I shot some variations on these and in the 45 minutes I was there the storms moved in from the southwest!
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All before my eyes the huge thunderhead moved across the sky and the afternoon light illuminated it beautifully! As I moved around the beach capturing different images with this thunderhead it kept moving on past until lightning was coming out the bottom. Unfortunately I did not capture any of this, but did get the storm brewing overhead in a dramatic way. All in all a rather fruitful 45 minutes one late afternoon. And not what I expected on my way out the door of the studio, but even better! These are the times you look to the sky and just say, “Thank you!”

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