To Give You an Idea...

This image was created with the Canon 24-105mm L IS lens (that I borrowed from IPT participant and good friend Mike Gotthelf) and the Canon EOS-1D Mark IV. Hand held at 32mm. ISO 400. Evaluative metering at 0: 1/200 sec. at f/10 in Manual mode (set to yield a few blinkies on the snow). Click on the image to enlarge.

To Give You an Idea…

Yesterday I wrote, “The night before we hiked up the big hill to the Monkey Park I was in bed dreaming fitfully of the location. When we finally made it–and we all had our doubts–see here, we were all somewhat disappointed…. A single man made pool no more than eight meters long was surrounded by dozens of tourists most photographing with their cell phones.”

Today we left Nagano at about 8am, grabbed the Bullet Train to Tokyo Station, switched lines, and grabbed the monorail to Haneda Airport. Then we flew to Hokkaido; all are looking forward to five days with the eagles and to not freezing to death. From the airport in Hokkaido we met our English speaking guide, picked up our two vans, and drove to our hotel in Rausu. I was plugged in and charging and working on images for almost four hours. I processed the image above to give you a feel for the monkey park….

The tan box is the monkey cam. Though difficult to see, there are at least a half dozen or more Snow Monkeys in the pond. Several of those are immediately behind the row of folks on the lower level. At times, it was tough to find a spot to stand let alone make a good image. But the waves of tourists ebbed and flowed and at times we had the place to our selves. Monkey activity also varied greatly. One minute there would be several family groups grooming on the edge of the pond, baby monkeys playing in the snow, momma’s breast feeding young, and groups of two or three huddled together. If you look closely at the pool, you can see the mist rising off the pool. I will be doing a post on dealing with the fog very soon.

It is 9:47 pm on Saturday, 7:47 am on Friday in Florida and New York. As we are leaving for the eagle boat at 5am Sunday I need to get to bed right now. So good night.

B&H Specials

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Shopper’s Guide

Below is a list of the gear that Tim used to create the image in today’s blog post. Thanks a stack to all who have used the Shopper’s Guide links to purchase their gear as a thank you for all the free information that we bring you on the Blog and in the Bulletins. Before you purchase anything be sure to check out the advice in our Shopper’s Guide.

Canon 24-105mm L IS lens. This is Canon’s short to mid-range all purpose zoom. I try never to leave home without it.
Canon EOS-1D Mark IV professional digital camera body. My two Mark IVs are my workhorse digital camera bodies.

And from the BAA On-line Store:

Double Bubble Level. You will find one in my camera’s hot shoe whenever I am not using flash.
The Lens Align Mark II. I use the Lens Align Mark II pretty much religiously to micro-adjust all of my gear an average of once a month and always before a major trip. Enjoy our free comprehensive tutorial here.
Canon EOS-1D Mark IV User’s Guide. Learn to use your Mark IV the way that I use mine. Also available for the 7D and the Mark III here.
BreezeBrowser. I do not see how any digital photographer can exist without this program.