Red Wing Photography Club September meeting was at Covill Park in Red Wing, MN this evening. Perfect weather – mid 70s. Hazy skies no doubt from the massive amounts of forest fires out West.
I shot several series of frames from the Mavic Mini drone for panorama and HDR compositions as well as a few single frame images.
Single Frame Images
Towboat with barge downriverDog Poo Bag, an aerial perspective
HDR Images
The dynamic range on the Mavic Mini is not great; bracketing does the trick to make up for its shortcomings.
Covill BayCovill Bay | River Valley Marina
Panorama Images
Covill Bay | River Valley MarinaLooking out over barges towards Wisconsin
Towboat with barge downriver
Covill Park, River Valley Marina and Covill Bay Sunset
Off in the distance, a front was drifting by Red Wing Sunday evening as the sun was setting. The sun was still shinning brightly behind the clouds; shooting rays into the sky. [click on images to enlarge]
A bit later I shot two more panoramas to capture the full length of the cloud bank (21 frames each).
21 Frames (left)21 Frames (right)
I then combined them both together into a 42 frame panorama
The city of Lake City is located 65 miles southeast of the Twin Cities at the intersection of U.S. Highways 61 and 63 on the Mississippi River at Lake Pepin. Lac de Pleurs (Lake of Tears) was the name given to Lake Pepin by Father Louis Hennepin, who camped on the shore of the lake in 1680. He christened the large body of water Lac de Pleurs after observing his Sioux captors weeping near the lake over the death of a chief’s son. The war party of Isanti Sioux had captured Hennepin and his two companions several miles south along the Mississippi and were camping near the lake on their return north to their Sioux villages near present-day Mille Lacs. ~wikipedia
On September 24th Lake City was hit with an EF0 tornado. Here are a few aerial images of an area that experienced some damage.
This beautiful lake in twenty-two miles long, varies in width from one to two and a half miles, and overs about thirty-eight square miles. It was caused by the delta of the Chippewa spreading across the gorge of the Mississippi at the southeastern end of the Lake. Because of its steeper grad, the smaller Chippewa was able to bring in more glacial debris than the Mississippi could carry away. This delta provided a natural dam and as the water was backed up, Lake Pepin was formed. State Highway 35 hugs Lake Pepin along most of its Wisconsin shore and has been called on of the most scenic drives in America.
Delta creating a natural dam
One of Lake Pepin’s admirers was William Cullen Bryant. He praised its natural scenery and declared the area “ought to be visited in the summer by every poet and painter in the land.” ~Geographical Marker, Hwy 35, Warrentown, WI.
I would add photographers to Bryant’s list as well. I would also argue all seasons; not just summer. Having grown up in the area, I’ve always known the lake as well as the rivers, streams, bluffs, beaches and views from many areas surrounding Lake Pepin. The more I photograph the area, the more I appreciate its beauty.
Change of plans
I was not able to [easily] reach my normal sunrise spot in Bay City this a.m. due to back to back 10″ snowfall days. I was actually stuck at one point and thankfully managed to maneuver my way out. It was plenty cold out too. I wasn’t really interesting in wading through huge snow banks to get to my normal spot.
I called an audible and headed further down the road to another spot with an excellent vantage point. There is a geographical marker along Hwy 35 not far past a wayside rest just before Warrentown. The view from there is expansive. I have hesitated in the past to photograph from here as the trees have grown up and block some of the view. This has limited the locations from which you can photograph from. This is no longer an issue now with drone capabilities.
A few overhead photos. I am growing more fond of this perspective.
Given the lack of clouds this a.m., I think this is my favorite shot of the morning. The color washing over the ripples in the snow drifts on the lake was pretty amazing.
LAKE PEPIN LEGACY ALLIANCE
There is a very important initiative in regards to Lake Pepin right now; please check out Lake Pepin Legacy Alliance to learn more. Please consider supporting this effort in whatever form you are able.
It was a subzero sunrise this a.m. Albeit only by a degree, it was enough to bite your exposed fingertips and slap you in the face. The camera bared most of the cold atop the tripod just outside my toasty warm car. You can see that Jupiter and Venus have ventured significantly closer to one another.
Nikon D700 | ISO 200 | 16mm | f/7.1 | 6 seconds
I forgot my spotlight this a.m. that I use to aid in obtaining a focal point. I ended up with a short and out-of-focus time lapse sequence. It is still a bit interesting; especially the steam rising off the opening in the ice.
That was definitely the case this cold January morning. It was just under 30 degrees, but the 5 mph breeze out of the east (across a huge sheet of ice) made it seem significantly colder. It was mostly cloudy upon arrival and after a bit, there was only a hint of color on the horizon; them boom! The color came. And just like that the color was gone just as quickly as it appeared. It was a fleeting moment of spectacular color.
Some moments are nice, some are nicer, some are even worth photographing in the cold January weather.
Here are three frames captured 40 minutes apart.
D700 | ISO 200 | f/7.1 | 4 seconds | 16 mm
D700 | ISO 200 | f/7.1 | 1/20 second | 16 mm
D700 | ISO 200 | f/7.1 | 1/30 second | 16 mm
A 4 second clip that encompasses those 40 minutes.
I am really happy with both the vertical and horizontal panorama shots.
Mavic 2 Pro | ISO 100 | f/3.5 | 1/20 seconds | 10.26 mm | 7 Frames
Mavic 2 Pro | ISO 100 | f/3.5 | 1/20 seconds | 10.26 mm | 7 Frames
I shot my first automated drone 360 sphere this morning. The images looks interesting.
Mavic 2 Pro 360 sphere
After a bit of manipulation in Photoshop – viola. Sunrise-o-sphere.
360 sphere
EXTRA
Out low across the ice and back high
Bay City Campground
Here is an aerial view of Bay City Campground.
A shot of two fellow photog friends capturing the sunrise this a.m.
My wife and I recently visited Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. We traveled around the entire island. As you can imagine, the scenery and sites where quite picturesque.
Image from petapixel.com
Just before leaving on our trip we upgraded our iPhone from 5S to 6S. I was and continue to be very impressed with this rendition. The camera stills and 4k video are outstanding. We opted for the 64GB model thinking we didn’t want to run out of space due to large amount of photos and videos. We didn’t even come close; a 32GB model would have suffice, but that is no longer an option. In total, I alone shot 77 panoramas, 35 Selfies, 22 Videos and hundreds of other photos.
The panorama feature is by far my favorite. As a photographer that has shot, stitched and edit numerous panorama’s from a DSLRs files – using an iPhone for this purpose is almost effortless.
Map Module in LR
Another wonderful feature is the geo tagging of every photo. The GPS data is nice to have when you import all of your photos into Lightroom. The Map Module quickly and easily displays all of the location your used your iPhone. I do have a GPS device for our Nikon DLS. The Nikon GP-1A GPS Unit seemingly takes a while to lock in its position. I don’t want to spend my time waiting on a green light to take a photo. I leave it home more frequently now that I shoot with both my DSLR and iPhone.
Image from digital-photography-school.com
Our Nikon D700 and iPhone 6S each have a 12MP sensor. Hard to believe. The sensors are very different though. The D700 sensor measures 36x24mm and the iPhone just 4.8×3.6mm. I am amazed at the quality that something so tiny can produce; however, It does have many limitation. It doesn’t even begin to perform as well as the larger one. Low light, action and overall quality are very different. But when you consider ease of use, size, and the complete package the iPhone places in your finger tips; in my opinion it is hard not to consider it a serious camera for traveling and a complete replacement for a point and shoot camera altogether. With the addition of a third party camera app like ProCamera, you have most manual setting at your fingertips. I like ProCamera as it also allows you to insert your copyright info into the EXIF data of every image.
A new feature on the recent iPhone release is Live Photo. It is an interesting and entertaining feature. The result is both an image file and movie file; when you import the photo into Lightroom, the .jpg is hidden. Your options and solution to this issue can be found [here].
Stay tuned for deluge of photos I captured while on holiday in Ireland. I’ve reviewed and processed all the photos from my iPhone thus far and have a few thousand to work through from other cameras I shot with.
