If you looked at my ‘PIX’ posts, you’ll see I just got back from shooting the Havasu Balloon Festival. The festival wasn’t unlike any other festival with its challenges in crowds of people and harsh light once the sun was up. So I tried to take my photos early morning and late evening. The balloon festival has great night glow shots with flaming up the balloons that make it a great photographic opportunity… and challenge. I normally shoot Aperture Priority, which gives me creative control over the depth of field in my photos. So for the balloon shoot, knowing that I was in low light conditions I shot f4.0 on my 28-105mm to maximize the light entering my camera, at a ISO1600. Unfortunately, hind sight is 20 / 20, but I did learn what to do / or not do next time. So I thought I’d share my learnings. Even though I shoot Aperture Priority, for my next balloon shoot, I’ll shoot Program mode. I know, for a serious photographer this seems blasphemy. Though considering that the balloon heaters are only on for like 3 seconds, it’s hard to note your settings, and make adjustments in that time. Granted you could check your settings on one blast, adjust, and wait for the next blast to snap the photo. But by setting it on Program you can let your sophisticated camera do the thinking in this particularly challenging situation, and concentrate on composition. I also noticed that where you take the exposure reading is crucial. I like to black out the background so that you can cut the clutter of the crowds out and the distracting background. So by taking your exposure reading off the very bright burner blast, you blacken out everything else… as in the picture below. 
Finally, I did minor adjustments in Photoshop Camera Raw. Worth noting, though, is on the left side of the photograph was a persons head. I used a brush in Camera Raw set on max shadow (dark) and max exposure (dark), and painted black over the head and around the outside of the balloon to clean up any distracting bits. I left the expressions, hand movements and glow on the faces directly surrounding the balloon glow, leaving a story telling photo.
Havasu Balloon Festival
Havasu Balloon Festival may not be Albuquerque Balloon Festival, but it was a great experience nonetheless. There were reported to be about 80 balloons altogether. They did morning launches, and evening night glows. The mass ascensions (morning launch) were certainly not as massive as Albuquerque, but it was cool all the same.
We loved the night glows. While they were difficult to get photos of in the darkness… then brief glowing burn, I learned a lot what to do, and not to do. 
… and the balloon dipping in the water outside the London Bridge made an awesome view.
Check out my other post on kritterspaw.com
Pygmy Owl
I put this photo on my kritterspaw.com site, but it bears repeating.
We saw what we thought was a little bird, huddled up on a branch. It seemed roundish, as it shivered and squatted itself all together during our snow storm. Then it turned and looked at me. I couldn’t believe it. It had that unmistakable face… it was an owl. It wasn’t much bigger than a sparrow… maybe 4 – 5″ tall.
How cool is that!
Apparently it’s a Pygmy Owl. To be specific, a Northern Pygmy Owl. The most common one I could find (in AZ) is from southern AZ (Tucson area). It has been on and off the endangered species list, with only 28 sightings in 2014…. none noted to be in Northern AZ. It’s no wonder really… they are so small.
The pygmy owl eats insects, lizards, rodents, and small birds as large as itself.
I’d love for it to come back, but it may be a once in a life time sighting. I’m so happy we saw it… and got a decent photo!
She’s a FOX
On our way to Grand Falls, we saw this great little fox. It was getting toward dusk, and she was looking for a warm spot to soak up what was left of the sun outside of the snow.
Lighting
At the risk of stating the obvious, photography is all about the light.
That was never more clear to me than during our visit to Grand Falls this week.
I used to look through the viewfinder and be completely oblivious to the lighting and it’s shadows (what was I thinking?). I’d take all these pictures and come home and wonder what that line was going across my photo. Now I look at that and wonder how I couldn’t see that when I was there.
Case in point… on our trip to Grand Falls, this stark line struck directly through the center of the canyon. The sun was going down, slowing putting all the fall pools and canyon completely in the shadows.
So I was forced to work fast on those areas that were still lit, and forget about the cool looking areas that were in the shadows. Great light makes great photos. Crappy light, well… you get the drift.
Grand Falls in the snow
We just had this big snow storm, so we thought we take a trip out to Grand Falls to see if the falls were running. It was good news – bad news. The falls weren’t really running… but they were frozen over and snowy, so they were pretty cool to look at.
Unfortunately, we missed the perfect lighting. We thought we left in plenty of time to get there, but the shadows were already consuming the falls, making it difficult to catch good light. Thus, our pictures were limited. But we did get a couple shots. We’ll just have to go back when there is more water / snow, and earlier with better light. Next time.
Snow animals
What is it about the snow, that brings the animals out?
We got dumped on… about 15 – 18″ in the course of a couple of days. It was beautiful.
The animals were literally knee deep in it.
It coated the trees against a blue haze in the overcast snowy skies. It was super cool!
I never thought I’d like snow, but I find myself wishing for it, so I can go out and capture it’s many different faces.
Rock Art Ranch
We just did this interesting trek to a historic western past via Rock Art Ranch, east of Winslow.
Check out my post on kritterspaw.com
Aside from a great history, cool old buildings and artifacts… it’s got petroglyphs, and lots of them.
Pretty cool!
First Snow
There is something magical about the first snow fall. I used to hate snow. It’s just too darn cold. That was, until I learned to appreciate it for it’s beauty. It’s so pristine, with it’s virgin white clumps adhering to tall majestic pines; piles lay in the road with nothing more than road tracks or animal prints. It’s breathtaking to behold. So I wanted to capture it’s amazing beauty.
I can’t wait for the next snow fall. I want to go out again!
Wacom Intuos Pro Tablet
Have you seen the new Wacom tablet?
These things were all the rage with the photographers at the Photoshop World in Vegas. I was completely oblivious to this technology and product until I was introduced to them at this conference. Every photographer there seemed to have one. Perhaps it was because they were given to them for free by Wacom (for product testing of course… I’m just guessing), or perhaps because they were just plain cool.
Think of this thing as a mouse. But instead of a mouse, it’s a pen. So if you’re doing Photoshop, this tool is super cool. Using the tablet (mouse pad), you apply your pen to the tablet and you can use your Photoshop tools to apply your adjustments with a fine point. Forget the days of chasing your mouse curser around the screen. By merely applying more pressure you get more affect, or less pressure.. less affect. You can get those fine hairs or into those small corners to apply your adjustments (brightness, clarity, exposure, etc.), instead of waving your mouse around. The back of the pen is an eraser. Cool, right?! It also has programmable buttons for quick access.
They even have devices you can draw directly on the photo itself. These are more like laptop devices.. and much more expensive. For me, I’m not about to give up my 27″ desktop screen. But, I am happy to try one of these beauties. It’s going on my Christmas list!
kritterspix 