Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III Sample Pictures

When all comes together, the rewards are worth every ounce of effort required to get the shot.
 
Getting to Glacier National Park is a modest challenge for much of the world - it is at best two flights away from most of the us - and three for many of us. For me, it started with an early bedtime and a 2:30 AM alarm setting. Actually, I set two of alarms for insurance. One was on my phone which was on the nightstand beside the other.
 
The phone went off first. I shut it off and tried to wake my wife (the family was joining me on this trip). After several attempts over a few minutes, she rolled over and in a somewhat unfriendly tone, said "WHAT?". That should have been my first clue.
 
I said "How much time do you want to get ready?" (I thought I was giving her the amount of time she requested the evening before). My next clue - She said "It's 12:30 AM!?" That's when I realized that I had an actual call - the alarm had not gone off. And that's when I learned that my trip to Glacier National Park had just become much more complicated.
 
A voice mail informed me that our first flight of three had been cancelled. I then spent an hour on the phone with someone from half way around the world trying to figure out how I was going to make one of the few daily flights into Kalispell. And one that returned to the same originating airport (don't ask).
 
A 3.5 hour drive put us on an afternoon flight that put me at the St. Mary Lodge at 1:00 AM PDT (3:00 AM in my EDT time). This of course resulted in a missed evening shoot - and required a sleep-in the next morning, so I missed an AM opportunity also.
 
It didn't take me long to get over the travel exhaustion. This national park is worth every ounce of effort and cost it takes to get there.

There are a lifetime of photo opportunities in Acadia National Park, but the Bass Harbor Lighthouse is one of the best and most-visited locations.
 
This image is a composite of three shots. A 20 second primary shot includes the water and sky while a second 30 second shot was used to pull detail out of the rocks on shore. A third shot was used to capture the light shining on the trees beside and behind the lighthouse.
 
These three shots were selected from a huge number I shot at various times during the sunset - with lots of bracketing taking place. The three layers were merged in photoshop.
 
To keep the long exposure sharp, mirror lockup and the two-second self-timer were used as was a Gitzo GT3530LS tripod with an Arca Swiss Z1 Ballhead mounted to it. A custom white balance and a small amount of saturation were the primary post-processing tweaks aside from compositing the 3 images.
 
When you are shooting the next sunset, don't leave when the sun sets below the horizon (most photographers I observed in Acadia do). There may be many opportunities yet to come with easier to handle dynamic ranges.

The typically-annual winter bloom of the Christmas Cactus is beautiful. This flower was lit by a large softbox and a studio monolight. I used a small black towel for the background.

This one is going in. You are looking at a soccer ball about to enter the goal. And she is loving every minute of it.

But definitely high end in my eyes! As I mentioned in the Canon EF 200mm F/2.0 L IS USM Lens review, my model budget was modest on this day ($1.00). The model acted as her own stylist to save funds. I think she did a very unique job. Lighting is ambient just under a patio roof with a reflector for fill.

A Quarter Horse is rim-lit by the setting sun - which gives a very warm color to the picture. Called "sweet light". This lens is handholdable at much lower shutter speeds, but horses are never still when grazing. The higher shutter speed was necessary to stop the action.

The sun rises following an overnight snow storm, casting a warm glow on the bright landscape.

An outdoor Winter portrait of a pretty girl. Lighting is from a cloud-diffused setting sun. This shutter speed was overkill, but I grabbed this shot while shooting fast action.

It's not advisable, but this little girl is playing barefoot soccer. Fortunately, she was just playing around after her game. This lens does an excellent job of creating a smoothly-blurred background.

A little girl in pajamas and a Santa hat displays a tray of ... well, I'm not sure what they are. Must be for breakfast though. Notice the perspective a 16mm lens provides on a full frame body. Lighting is ambient from large windows and skylights.

The view from high up on Cadillac Mountain, Acadia National Park is awesome even without a sun setting below. To get the star effect from a bright light, use a narrow aperture (such as f/11) and a wide angle lens. This is an HDR image. Photoshop was used to manually create this final image from two differently exposed images.

A little girl races her Quarter Horse over a jump in extremely muddy conditions. Contast brightness backlighting and a black horse make manual metering mode an easy choice for this shot. The horse was tracked in AI Servo AF mode.

This pretty girl was captured in a naturally-lit room (lots of windows and skylights).

A Rufous-sided Towhee about to take flight. I like how the tail angle matches the angle of the log it is perched on. A 25mm Extension Tube was mounted for this shot (though maybe not needed) - corner darkening is from the ET.

Do you know how hard it is to properly expose a black horse with a rider wearing a white helmet under full sun? I think I need to replace either the helmet or the horse.

The ball leaves the foot of a young lady putting everything she has into the big kick. A 1.4x extender was used for this shot.

I spent the first hour of daylight (if you call it that) on Cadillac Mountain this day in fog so thick that I feared getting lost. Giving up, I began my descent on the mountain to be greeted by this sight. This is an HDR (High Dynamic Range) image.

Want to make a kid smile? Give them an animal. I mostly shot Brittany, but grabbed a shot of the dog as well.

Two girls fight for the ball in this soccer action shot. Even with a 2x extender attached, the lens still delivers a wide f/4 aperture.

A Snowy Egret stands on a stump in the water at Assateague Island National Park.

A pleasant smile, soft lighting and a smooth background.

A beautiful sunrise at Otter Cliff, Acadia National Park, Maine. Unfortunately, this scene did not last long. The sun quickly rose through the narrow opening under those clouds to produce flat cloud-diffused light.

A pretty woman walks in the bright afternoon sunshine.

When creating this much background blur, it doesn't matter what the background really is - just the shape and colors of it.

A palomino Quarter Horse finds his dinner as the sun sets. The setting sun provides a beautiful warm light.

It looks like you could give this monstrous Acadia National Park boulder a little push and send it over the edge. Fortunately, that is not the case. Bubble Rock remains there for you to see. Fall colors, as seen in the background, are spectacular in Maine.

The Snowy Egrets would stand around the edge of the water, then take off, catch a fish and return to the banks eat it. Assateague Island National Park is loaded with the bait fish these beautiful birds are looking for.

These reflected-light illuminated hoodoos are as-seen from near Sunset Point at sunrise. I used the gently rolling, hoodoo-less ridge as the foreground base in this shot.

The fun is written on the face of this little girl as she heads for the goal.

This small herd of Sitka Deer are being bothered by an incredible number of mosquitoes in this Assateague Island wetland. I was bothered as well. My Deep Woods Off repellent ran out in the afternoon on my last day of this trip. A lessor spray did not work so well - I had 55 mosquito bites on one arm after my evening shoot. It was worth it.

She lost style points for the socks, but the goal counted.

A small family watches the abundant birdlife from this Chincoteague Island bay dock at sunset.

Framed by two opponents, this soccer player is in need of help. The long, wide lens blurs out the otherwise very distracting (and ugly) background.

This white Crocus is lit by a late-day sun. A wide open aperture was used to create a strongly-blurred foreground annd background.

A young soccer player is on a fast pace toward the opponent's net.

There is a lot of advice to be found regarding photography during the autumn season, but the primary visual difference of fall is the color of the foliage and to capture that color, one must go outside.
 
While that tip might sound simple, it is easy to sit in front of a computer or TV instead of making the effort to go out. You can DVR the football game to be watched later. Darkness comes earlier in the fall, so you have some time to catch up on the game or what is going on in the photography world after the light is gone. You can catch up on your post-processing backlog in the winter (what I'm telling myself).
 
A great fall location is Ricketts Glen State Park, near Benton, PA. With 22 named waterfalls in this park, along with many other photogenic woods and stream scenes, it is not hard to find wall-grade compositions. Located just below Waters Meet on the Falls Trails, Harrison Wright Falls, shown here, is one of my favorites.
 
Don't let the weather keep you inside. My favorite weather condition for shooting in RGSP is a light rain or immediately after any rain. The rain provides more flow in the stream, but it serves a couple of other important purposes. It keeps the other hikers and less-serious photographers out of the image (they stay home). It also makes everything in the scene wet, giving the surroundings a deep, rich color when photographed through a circular polarizer filters.
 
You will not capture images like this one indoors. Get out and find the colorful fall foliage. Get some exercise and breathe in the crisp air while doing so. Your body and mind will be rewarded along with your portfolio.

While you will want to capture the standard, beautiful waterfalls shots, look for ways to vary your compositions. One way to do this is to place the main falls in the background of your image. This of course requires that an interesting foreground subject be found. The main falls in this example are the 13' Oneida Falls in Ricketts Glen State Park.
 
As with a significant percentage of my landscape images, a high quality B+W MRC CP filter was used for this picture. You also need to know that this is an HDR image. The background falls were in stronger light, so images with three different exposures were captured and overlayed in Photoshop. Parts of the brighter upper layers were erased (very soft brush setting) to allow the darker images to show through. This easy process yields a natural-appearing image.

Opponents vie for the ball during this soccer game action.

This Great Egret struggled to get this large dragonfly down its throat for several minutes. It just couldn't get those big wings past its beak.

An young lady with an interesting (but out of her face) hair style moves the ball down the soccer field.

An 800mm lens is not what you normally grab for your portraits, but anything works. Feature compression is the result. Lighting is from a late-day sun.

The Polyphemus Moth is very beautiful - especially when they are just out of their cocoon. This Polyphemus Moth has not taken its first flight yet, and with perfect wings, required almost no post processing. Light is from a setting sun.
 
This shot made great use of the Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 L IS USM Lens' image stabilization. IS helped me frame the shot precisely, tightly and kept the shot sharp at 1/50 sec. The camera position is such that the entire length of wings falls into the plane of sharp focus.

Strongly-colored lights made white balance tough during this event. But, this lens did an awesome job of capturing sharp photos during this indoor action.

This is the classic view of Trunk Bay, St. John. Classic for two reasons - the beauty and ... the access. This is one of the few locations Trunk Bay is visible from other than on the beach itself.
 
One of the great things about shooting in the caribean is that the water is so beautiful when the sun is high. An early alarm is not necessary to capture a beautiful scene such as this one. Of course, the beach is filled with people at this time. I wanted an empty beach, so lots of clone stamping was required.
 
A circular polarizer filter is extremely helpful for mid-day landscape photography.

Flying - or catching flies - I'm not sure which. With an f/1.4 aperture, action is easy to stop even after the sun has set as in this picture. Want to catch a different perspective and a happy expression? Put the kids on a trampoline.

A Little Blue Heron searches for breakfast in Assateague Island National Park.

This was the longest-lasting rain-caused rainbow I've ever seen. It was visible from mid-morning until the sun rose high enough to put it into the ground in the afternoon.
 
The weather in Glacier National Park, especially at higher altitudes, can be unpredictable. It is wise to have packable rain gear with you when hiking in this park. This storm was hanging over Glacier National Park but dissipating as it moved out the eastern side of the park - allowing full sun to shine through.
 
The foreground in this picture is a forest fire regrowth area showing fall color.

There is something freeing about wide expanses of sand and water. This little girl is showing her joy.

The sun sets over and reflects from the bay by Chincoteague Island in Virgina, USA. About 600 (just over 10%) pixels were cropped off the long end of this full-frame 800mm shot.

Distant city buildings appear compressed by the 1200 focal length used for this shot.

A Snowy Egret shows its beautiful plumage at the water's edge in Assateague Island National Park. The 1/1000 shutter speed was overkill, but I was shooting other action that required it - and didn't have time to change between opportunities.

A Monarch Butterfly feeds on a red Zinnia flower. This photo was shot in the studio using large softboxes and monolights. How do you get a Monarch butterfly into the studio? You raise them from an egg (or caterpillar). Fortunately, my daughter loves doing this and provides me with the subjects for shots such as this one. One of the big advantages to having a brand new butterfly is that the wings are void of any tattering. The Monarchs are released as soon as they can fly.

A Great Egret sits in a large pine tree in Assateague National Park. This is a common site in this great birding location.

An immature Black Crowned Night Heron perches on a large, dead pine tree over the water.

Mikayla takes in the good life while floating down a river. A tall bank and trees behind me in combination with a bright after-the-sun-set sky created the lighting for this shot. A very low percentage of my f/1.4 and f/1.6 shots from this night were salvageable due to the Sigma 50mm f/1.4 EX HSM Lens' AF inconsistencies.

A Great Egret has just speared its breakfast. Looks like a challenge to swallow.

A gull dives for fish in Assateague Island National Park.

A young girl races her quarter horse through a field near the top of a ridge. This is my go-to location to photograph late in the day at this time of the year. The setting sun delivers a beautiful light to this area. I had especially good conditions on this day. Two thunderstorms were converging overhead, resulting in a dark sky behind a well-lit subject.

Fog over Upper Hadlock Pond in Acadia National Park near Northeast Harbor (Mt Dessert Island, Maine) catches light from the bright sky not included in the frame. The large, calm pond provides reflections of the fall foliage colors.

The strong, clean lines of this house are framed on the top against a blown (over-exposed) sky.

I saw a beautiful sunset, the kids saw a heart in the sky.

A female Cardinal rests on the top of a log before going on her way.

A little girl shows excitement over her capture - a small crab.

A portrait of a cute little girl complete with a missing tooth. Lighting is natural - she is under a patio roof.

The sun shines through the fog early in the morning on Cadillac Mountain in Acadia National Park, Maine, casting tree shadows. This is an HDR image.

A beautiful male Cardinal perches on a dead tree. A late-day sun provides warm light to this handheld shot.

A little girl gets a push - sometimes we all need one of those. :)

A couple sits on a Chincoteague, VA dock watching the sun set over the bay.

The round rock beach just north of Otter Cliff in Acadia National Park is a great place to visit. Especially with a camera and tripod.

Cinnamon Bay has one of the many spectacular St. John beaches. When shooting on a beach, I spend a lot of time waiting for the right wave action to complete my composition. Great clouds also help.

A Great Egret stands in stark contrast to the dark green pine needles surrounding his selected perch.

A little girl peers into a basket holding two baby rabbits. A Golden Retriever does the same thing.

Well, it used to be a fish. It turned into Great Egret breakfast a few moments after this shot.

A Mourning Dove peers back over its shoulder. The 800mm focal length at f/5.6 creates a very strongly-blurred background.

Long focal length lenses can make great sunset photos from even mediocre sunsets. This sunset at Two Medicine in Glacier National Park was above average and offered these interesting wavy cloud patterns.

Horseshoe Bend, Grand Canyon was one of the top photography locations on my Grand Tour list. This shot was taken in late morning - when the sun lights the Colorado River in the canyon below.
 
Horseshoe Bend begs for a 17mm or wider focal length (full frame equivalent) lens - unless shooting a panorama. In this example, the Canon TS-E 17mm lens allowed me to capture a much-wider-than-17mm view - in high resolution. Two vertically-oriented, oppositely-shifted shots were combined in Photoshop to create this ultra-wide view of Horseshoe Bend. One foot of my tripod was precariously positioned on the very edge of the cliff - and has been cloned out of the final picture.

This incredibly serene location is found many miles west of Key West, Florida. When using a lens with no image stabilization and shooting from a rocking boat - with moving water, the minimum shutter speed selection becomes a bit more complicated. A circular polarizer filter was used to capture this shot.

The first light of the day hits the dramatic cliffs at Otter Cliff, Acadia National Park, Maine. This is a digital split neutral density/HDR image comprised of three bracketed exposures manually combined in Photoshop.

Sometimes the leaves on the ground are more important than the leaves still on the trees. Such is the case in this mostly rock landscape. The 40' B. Reynolds Falls is located deep in the Glen Leigh side of the falls trails in Ricketts Glen State Park near Benton, PA. A B+W MRC Circular Polarizer Filter was used to cut the glare in this image - increasing color saturation.

I shoot a lot of pictures at soccer games and end up deleting a high percentage of them. The player's position is one of the factors I look at when selecting down these photos. What I really like is when the player is in a position that nicely fills out the frame as in this example.

A coconut washed up on the beach at Trunk Bay adds foreground interest to this compsition. The super-clean beaches in St. John are a photographer's dream, but still require some clone stamping to remove small pieces of trees and other imperfections.

This Bryce Canyon National Park Panaroma was shot handheld from a location near Sunrise Point - at sunset. I was having trouble deciding which specific framing I liked best at this site, so, after shooting a lot of frames, blanketed the area with shots (using identical camera and lens settings). I later pieced the images together in Photoshop and cropped this shot from them.

A Monarch Butterfly is captured on a red Zinnia flower in the studio. You will notice that the dimensions of this photo are larger than the camera sensor delivers. When one or more borders of any image are a solid color (especially pure white or black), the image canvas size can easily be adjusted in post processing. Concentrate one filling the frame with the subject matter (to gain the most resolution possible) and adjust the dimensions later.

A portrait shot at 1200mm. This was a clear day so I was using a manual expsoure. She was walking toward me, so I was using AI Servo AF and burst drive mode.

Early morning sunlight shines through the windows of a building at the Annaberg Sugar Mill Ruins, Virgin Islands National Park, St. John.

The top of Cadillac Mountain seems like the top of the world. The sunrises and sunsets are frequently dramatic from this vantage point. But, don't go home when the sun goes down. The best is often yet to come.

This is a single-light portrait. A monolight was fired through a large softbox on camera-right. A reflector was used to fill the shadows. The background is white rolled paper hanging from a background stand.

Beach trees in their fall colors appear to blaze over the dark, rain-soaked rocks around Shawnee Falls in Ricketts Glen State Park, near Benton, PA. This was a perfect situation for the B+W 82mm XS-Pro MRC Nano Kaeseman CP Filter I was reviewing.