Aurora borealis reflects in the Koyukuk river, Alaska. Canon 5D mark II, 24mm f1/4L II, 30 secs @ f1.4, ISO 1250

The arctic photo tour I’m guiding was off to a good start on the first evening as clear skies eventually revealed some aurora activity. What was particularly interesting about the display was not it’s brightness but rather the color reflection in the Koyukuk river. It’s been a busy few days and hopes are high for some polar bear photography.

Time to take a little bend in the road of still photography and explore some of the newly bundled features in today’s quickly evolving digital cameras-HD video.  Since the inclusion of HD video in the Canon 5D Mark II, I’ve enjoyed playing around with it a bit, with an emphasis on “playing”. It is less than a perfect device to use as a video camera, but it takes amazingly good quality clips. I must confess however, that video capture is somewhat addictive, and herein lies the problem and the tension between stills and video. Since I’m heavily vested in still imagery from a professional and business perspective, my foray in video has been something to play with only when I don’t feel I’m loosing out on a great still image.

Let me also mention that the video included here, although it captures some fun action, is by no means done to any technical perfection. Heavy winds, a large lens, super magnification, and serendipity all contributed their respective influence. On this trip I had in tow Canon’s new 7D, which also sports an HD video mode. Actually, I had the 5d mark II, the 7D and a 1Ds Mark III– each camera body housing different buttons with live view functions in different locations. This array of camera gear is not recommended for efficient and fast shooting. It is confusing to say the least to operate three cameras when quickly changing between them. And it complicates things further when a pair gloves steal the finesse between you and the tiny operation buttons on the camera. But I did want to experiment with the 7D and therefore welcomed it as yet another camera in the line up. I’m looking forward to the 1D Mark IV, which will put back in my hands two bodies with the exact same build, buttons and operations–at least really close anyway. Better yet would be the 1Ds Mark IV, and get rid of the “S” for studio. How about a 1Dw for “wildlife” full frame, 21MP, 8fps, great autofocus and video. That would do it for me. But that is embarking down another road–back to the bears…

At one point when the bears were quite some distance away, I put the 500mm with a 1.4x on the 7D and shot a few video scenes at 1120mm, in the pelting wind so common to Alaska’s arctic coast. A female polar bear with two cubs were engaging in all sorts of play on a small barrier island north of Barter Island, in the Beaufort Sea, on Alaska’s north shore. This polar bear spent a fair amount of time rolling around in the snow cleaning her fur. They are amazing to watch and great fun to photograph. Watching the video again makes me want to go back already.

A few comments about photographing white subjects in white environments; in particular the issue of exposure and post production adjustments in Lightroom 2.5. Let me first state that I’ve always utilized an expose-to-the-right shooting style (you can explore that concept on luminous-landscape if you are unfamiliar with it). To summarize that briefly, it is a method of maximizing the signal to noise ratio in a digital file. The result is an out-of-the-camera RAW file that tends to look washed out and overly bright, so it will need a little adjustment in post production software to look good. Shooting this way has the advantage of maintaining more detail in shadowy subjects, not necessary reflected in this particular frame. Exposing to the right may slightly reduce your shutter speed/aperture, and a judgment call is needed based on your accepted exposure setting minimums. Sometimes, if you are already at your high ISO maximum, a file slightly underexposed but shot at 1/500 sec., to stop motion is better than the proper exposure taken at 1/250 sec, which would have some motion blur. You would then boost the exposure in post production and sacrifice some potential grain for a sharpness. In this series of shots, some were a touch blurry from motion since i was only at 1/320 sec, I would have been better served by increasing the shutter speed slightly to 1/500 or 1/640 sec. Oh well, I squeaked by.

As shot in camera, note the histogram reflects the whites in the scene.

This is 1.5 stops under the previous exposure, and it simulates how an in camera meter usually handles a very white scene. The snow looks too gray.

Back to exposing white subjects. I prefer to shoot in manual mode for the utmost control, but use other modes when appropriate. It is actually fairly easy to properly expose a subject like a polar in the snow on an overcast, flat-light day. Take a shot and look at your histogram. Since snow is white, or very near white, you should expect to see data on the far right of the histogram, which represents your white levels. If it is more in the middle, then your snow will look gray, and you will want to tweak your exposure to compensate for this. Compare the histograms above to see the difference. Pure white is all the way to the right.

To compensate for the expose-to-the-right settings which I used to capture this image, I used Lightroom and selectively brought the brightness down a bit using the brush and gradient tools to give a little more detail in the snow. The result is subtle, but presents the scene a little more accurate to what the eye sees. Compare the before and after files below.

As shot in RAW format straight out of the camera.

Polar bear cleans its fur by rolling in the snow. Barrier island off Alaska's arctic coast, Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Canon 1Ds Mark III, 500mm f/4L IS, 1/320 sec @ f/5.6, ISO 800

Female polar bear rubs in the snow on an island in the Beaufort Sea, Arctic Alaska. Canon 1Ds Mark III, 500mm f/4L, 1/320 sec @ f/6.3, ISO 800.

In my observations and photography in nature, I consider the polar bear to be one of the most amazing animals, exhibiting tremendous adaptation which has made them fit for survival in a harsh climate. They are generally a solitary animal, with a tremendous range of up to 1000 miles. Much of their life on the sea ice is in darkness, or at least the sun-less days of winter, lit perhaps by moonlight. Photographing them in the wild, in Alaska, is possible in a few locations. However, many variables play their part in one’s attempt at successfully achieving this goal. In October, bears are anxiously waiting for the ice to form on the Beaufort Sea, and when this happens, they leave the shores and head for the frozen ocean to hunt for their favorite and fat-rich food supply of seal.

Low levels of light, unstable, moving platforms, wintry conditions, hand holding long lenses (to name a few challenges), made this photo encounter a multifaceted one. The temperature was in the 20′s, not real cold, but after a few hours holding the hand above the heart, touching metal in various forms, my fingers tend to loose sensitivity. While it is easily endurable, I cant change focal points as quickly as usual, and this becomes a problem since it forces composition to a focus point dot. In general, I find it difficult to both hand hold and manual focus the 500, so I’m linked to the auto-focus system. (On a side note, I tested Canon’s new 7D on this trip, and I did like the new autofocus features available on that camera. I’m still sold on the files generated by the 1Ds and the 5D however and I’ll talk about my thoughts on the 7D camera in a later post)

I took the frame hand held with the 500mm f/4 IS–a lens of incredible quality and versatility. ISO 800 was a common shooting setting–thanks to the beautiful files generated by Canon’s 1Ds Mark III. With any more movement, one really needs 1/500 or 1/640 of second, which then puts your aperture wide open. Additionally, when shooting at such a high ISO, one needs to make sure the exposure is accurate, since boosting it in post production can create noise and grain.

This female bear spent a considerable time rolling in the snow, cleaning her fur which had taken on a dark tone from the sand and dirt prior to the fresh snowfall. It was a great photo session with the bears, and everyone on our photo tour got impressive images. I’ll post a few more of the bears in following entries as they are a favorite subject to many.

Freeze up on the coast of the Beaufort Sea, Arctic north coast, Barter Island, Alaska. Canon 5D Mark II, 16-35mm, (17mm) 1.3 sec @ f/11, ISO 400

According to my GPS coordinates for Barter Island, Alaska on Oct 12, 2009, the maximum high angle of the sun is a mere 9 degrees. This is part of the magic of the arctic at this time of year, having a low angle of light for the entire day of shooting. However, photos can continue to be made after the sun has set, as exemplified by this picture. With a relatively flat landscape like the arctic coast, a photographer turns to the sky and foreground patterns for compositional strength. Slush was thickly congealing on the surface of the Beaufort Sea and the shore contained convoluted ridges of frozen snow/ice, providing some linear drama. The shot was taken after sunset which offered two elements necessary for the effect. One was a relatively even degree of lighting which allowed one single frame to contain the scene’s full dynamic rage, and two was low enough light for a long exposure and thus the blurred water. Movement in a static landscape  invokes a certain feeling, and when possible to include, rarely dissappoints. I experimented with many different shutter speeds and found that between one and two seconds was best, and from there I shot many frames until I found one with the wave shape and blur to be of my liking. Interestingly, the following day, all of the beautiful sculpted ice and snow edges of the shore were gone.

I’ve been posting a few photos and comments from a recent photo tour in Alaska’s arctic. Here is a link to a gallery of a few shots I quickly processed before heading back in the field for the second photo tour.

http://alaskaphotographics.com/galleries/2009-photo-tour1/

Sunset on Mt Dillon, Arctic, Alaska. Canon 1Ds Mark III, 16-35mm (16mm), 1/50 sec @ f/14, ISO 200

One of the beauties of photographing in Alaska in October is that the quality of light stays relatively warm and angle-appropriate for shooting most of the day. However, there is nothing quite as dynamic as the first and last light of any day. This shot was taken about 1 hour before actual sunset, but the sun was fading quickly in the foreground due to its descent behind a mountain ridge. I wanted the pattern of the foreground wetland grasses to be in the light, so this was the last shot before shadows crawled over the ice. The clouds on the mountain peak provide and interesting element of turbulence. I find that angles in a landscape image add a great sense of compositional power, but in this case, it just did not work out in spite of a few efforts to find a line along the shore. So I settled with this composition.

You might wonder why I was at ISO 200 and f/14 for a landscape like this…well, it was hand held since I had wandered away from my tripod for a moment. The shadows were coming so quickly that I laid down and made a tripod with my elbows and shot it as fast and steady as I could. The ISO boost gave me a safer shutter speed. Ideally, I would have been at ISO 50 or 100, and f/16 or f/22

Aurora reflection in the Koyukuk river, arctic, Alaska. Canon 1Ds Mark III, 24mm 1.4L II, 15 sec @ f/1.4, ISO 800.

People have a keen interest in the Aurora borealis images, so I’m posting another one from my recent Arctic photo tour. We had unusually warm temperatures, and in some parts of Western Alaska, all time record high temps were set. This is usually not favorable, since the snow melts and things look pretty brown. However, there is always a silver lining. The warm weather also means that the rivers have remained unfrozen for a little longer. And in this photo, it affords the chance for a beautiful reflection of the aurora in the water. Some of our other photo tour clients got some fantastic shots of this. At first I did not bring out my camera and tripod as I was helping the others. But I could resist no longer and ran to get my tripod and camera, I was a little late for the great stuff, but got a few nice ones.

On a more technical note, I used Canon’s new 24mm f1.4L II, a very fast lens. However, it is extremely difficult to achieve precision focus. My horizontal frames were soft but the vertical ones were pretty sharp. In my discussion with Canon CPS, they said that there are different vertical and horizontal focus adjustments on the camera and the lens. So, when I return from the next trip, the body and lens will go to them for tuning, and we shall see how much of an improvement results.

Sea ice forms on the Beaufort Sea, Alaska. Canon 1Ds Mark III, 24-105mm (28mm), 1/500 sec @ f/5.6, ISO 400

On the Arctic photo tour that I guide each year, our departure from Kaktovik, Alaska was delayed a few hours due to mechanical problems with the airplane. This resulted in a different plane showing up about three hours later. It was a Caravan, and the first time I’ve flown in one. It is a fantastic plane which seated 9 of us comfortably, but the best part was the large and clear windows. It is rare to end up in any plane with glass clear enough to shoot through. However, I was able to grab shoot a handfull of frames during the 40 minute flight to Prudhoe Bay. Given the clear day and nice weather, the pilots were amiable to fly about 1000ft for most of the journey. This photo reveals interesting current flow as the ice forms in small pancake-like circles. It won’t be long and the sea ice will be solid enough for the polar bears to trek upon.

Red and green aurora borealis over the spruce trees. Canon 1Ds Mark III, 24mm f/1.4, 30 secs @ f/1.4, ISO 800. Lightroom modifications: increasted contrast and clarity, reduced brightness slightly, slight vignette control, no color saturation.

Each October, my friend, colleague and fellow guide Hugh Rose and I lead a trip of intrepid photo enthusiasts into Alaska’s arctic to chase its magical light. The aurora borealis, polar bears, arctic wildlife and other grand landscapes prompt many shutter clicks. The sights vary every year, in an amazing diversity of subject material. However, the two big lures, the poloar bears and the aurora borealis, at least to date, have been present every year. Due to a large degree of interest we elected to run two tours this year, so one more begins in a few days. On last Saturday evening, under rather warm conditions, we all spent the last night of the tour photographing the aurora, which filled the sky with waving light for more than three hours. This particular frame reveals a wash of red color that ironically was not very visible to the human eye. This can often be the case with red aurora, which happens much higher in the atmosphere, generally from 250-300 miles high, according to Dr. Syun-Ichi Akasofu who has written a helpful book on the aurora titled “The Northern Lights: Secrets of the aurora borealis” .

In order to capture this color, the key is to be aware of aurora shape and activity and of course shoot and review your images often. Digital camera’s have revolutionized and simplified aurora photography immensely, however, there is still an extensive checklist to go through before you begin. You can reference an article I wrote on how to photograph the aurora with a digital camera. I used Canon’s new 24mm f/1.4 II lens, which is a huge improvement over the previous version in sharpness. The aurora shape was relatively static, which served well for a long shutter speed of 30 seconds.