Saturday was going to be the day. We received a moderate amount of snow the night before and the waters were warm from the previous week’s spring like weather. I woke up early and was confident I was going to return with a Moose Petersonesque image of our resident pelican awakening in the soft fog rising from the calm waters. I outfitted myself if earth colored outerwear, grabbed my biggest/badest piece of glass (300mm f/4), and headed out the door. I arrived on scene to find my subject resting peacefully off shore. It was cold, but I was focused. I approached quietly, to a position I thought would be well within the range of the 300mm lens (450mm with the DX crop). I brought the camera to my eye, expecting to see the pelican fill the frame. The fog rising from the lake would be obscuring the view of his legs. The rising sun’s golden light would be illuminating his bill. This was it! This was going to an image I would treasure for a lifetime. As I looked through the viewfinder I saw the Pelican, along with about 25 other geese. I wasn’t anywhere near close enough. I guess I will need to keep saving for the 600mm f/4 if I’m going to ever photograph the wild.

The good news is that my wife called and reminded me to pick up the comforter from the dry-cleaners on my way home. Good thing she did. I found my eye in a much more familiar environment. I am realizing that I should leave the wildlife photography up to Moose and focus on album cover art. With this image from the dry-cleaners, I am introducing a completely new category to the site. If you are a rock star, in the final stages of recoding an album, feel free to browse the ‘Album Cover’ category for my suggested images. If you find one you like, just have your people contact my people and we can work something out.

Capture Notes:

Nikon D300
Nikkor 85mm 1.8
Exposure: 0.017 sec (1/60)
Aperture: f/2.0
Focal Length: 85 mm
ISO Speed: 200
Exposure Bias: 0 EV
Flash: No Flash

Processing Notes:
Capture (1 Image)
Aperture 3 (Cross Processing 2 Preset)
Aperture 3 (Export and size for web)
LightAsMagic.com

Songs For Post Processing:

John Mayer is in heavy rotation today. We are going to see him tonight so I thought I would throw out a couple of song suggestions from his live album ‘Where the Light Is’. Full disclosure: I am a guitar player, and we stick together.
Acoustic Set:
In Your Atmosphere –
John Mayer Trio Set:
Good Love Is On the Way –
John Mayer (Musical Sound) Set:
Slow Dancing in a Burning Room – (Take a good long listen to John and Robbie MacIntosh in the final lead).