International Color Awards

March 9, 2018
International Color AwardsNature Photography AwardRichard MackRichard Mack PhotographyRichard Mack's BlogTravel Photography

Once again this year I have been honored by having several images selected as a nominee in the International Color Awards. The International Color Awards is the leading global award honoring excellence in color photography. Now in its 11th year, this celebrated event shines a spotlight on the best professional and amateur photographers in a prestigious annual contest. It is always humbling when you win awards on the global stage. This draws from close to 50,000 submissions from around the world.

It is an honor to be a nominee for the third year, once in the second annual, three in the 10th Annual and now three more in this the 11th Annual Color Awards.

Annual: 11th Annual International Color Awards
Photographer: Richard Mack – USA
Expertise: Professional
Position: Nominee
Category: Architecture
Title: Portugal Hallway

Outdoor hallway in Faro Portugal.

Niagara Falls in Winter

Annual: 11th Annual International Color Awards
Photographer: Richard Mack – USA
Expertise: Professional
Position: Nominee
Category: Nature
Title: Niagara Falls Moment

A moment in time caught at Niagara Falls in winter.

Annual: 11th Annual International Color Awards
Photographer: Richard Mack – USA
Expertise: Professional
Position: Nominee
Category: Wildlife
Title: The Dance

An evening dance by two Great Egrets landing on the island trees shared by dozens of Great Egrets and others.

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.

 

Shooting Farms in Wisconsin

June 7, 2017
Aerial PhotographyAgriculturealgae bloomsdroneenvironmentGreat Lakes ProjectLake Michigannutrient runoffRichard Mack's BlogThe Sweetwater SeasThe Sweetwater Seas

Last week we shot for our documentary The Sweetwater Seas – North America’s Great Lakes up in Wisconsin to continue our story on the nutrient runoff affecting the Great Lakes. Greenbay has an algae bloom like Saginaw Bay’s and Lake Erie’s. In Greenbay there is almost an annual dead zone where nothing grows as a result of the algal blooms. Farmers are working with the Natural Resources Conservation Services as part of the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative to mitigate the nutrient runoff. We were at Brickstead Dairy, a family-owned farm in its fifth generation that is a demonstration farm for other farmers and the public to see what types of different agricultural practices might help the situation. We were there to shoot them planting into the fields that were protected by cover crops all winter, which helps preserve the soil while improving its biology so that it more readily accepts the moisture from snow and rain. I have done a lot of farm projects over the years for CaseIH and Caterpillar Tractor, but now we were shooting video and using a drone to get the aerials we wanted. Even with 15-mile-per-hour winds the Solo drone by 3DR was rock steady in the air as we shot 4K video on a beautiful day. We also put a GoPro on the planter down low to see a different angle as the planter went through the fields of cover-crop rye.

Now to assemble all these shots into the storyline for this segment of the film. Stay tuned!

Cheers,

Richard

Pukaskwa Provencial Park

January 22, 2017
CanadaenvironmentGreat Lakes ProjectLake SuperiorNational ParksProvincial ParksRichard Mack PhotographyRichard Mack's BlogThe Sweetwater Seas

Whenever I do a shoot for our documentary The Sweetwater Seas I return and compile my favorite shots into a reel for quicker review when we edit the film later. This is a collection of the shots from this summer’s trip to Canada’s Pukaskwa Provincial Park on Lake Superior. I met a lot of great folks up there… Enjoy! Richard.