My sister and her daughter had a table of drawings and photos at this event again, so I stopped by for a bit. It is at the Desoto Bend National Wildlife Refuge in western Iowa...maybe 6 miles from where I live. The halls of the visitor center are pretty full of vendors selling various crafts. I was standing there noticing this sawing noise coming from around the corner. After a few minutes I finally looked to see what it was. It was coming from the lady in the above image towards the right side in the chair. She has this metal hacksaw thingy cutting away at this plasticy thingy. This certainly wasn't all that picture worthy by itself. I then noticed the lady across from her sawing something else...logs. I grabbed my sister and showed her the funny scene. We both went back around the corner and had to laugh. I was amazed anyone could sleep with that going on. Add in the fact she was sleeping at her own display(which was full of very good watercolor drawings).
I've never done any type of "street photography"...ever that I'm aware of. Some folks are VERY good at finding these kind of things to shoot. I'm generally too shy to take photos of people. Well, I had my camera "with me", but I left it out in the car! Doh. I didn't think I could get it and get back in to the same photo op, but I did. I was like, wow, she is still sawing and she is still sleeping. I put my 50mm F1.8 canon on, set it to 1.8 and ISO'd up to 800. It wasn't very bright in there so I knew I'd have to have it way open and ISO'd up. Well my first shot showed the problem F1.8 would create.....not enough DOF. I thought if they were even enough I could get away with it but the sleeping lady was very blurry. So I quickly flipped it to 1600 ISO and stopped down to F7.1. This left me with a 1/50 shutter, which I'd still be able to handhold. This second shot is the one seen above. I got one more and then something made a popping noise that woke her up. I don't think it is too bad for my first attempt at "street photography". I later noticed the accident scene going on in the background. That big set of binoculars with the girl and her family appears as though it is looking at the murals right infront of them. There is actually a window to the left of the big bird. It looks really funny to me when I look at that part. I sort of hooked myself after shooting that scene. I wanted to do more of this. I looked the rest of the afternoon but wasn't finding anything that seemed worthy. I need a good zoom lens to do this I think.
If anything has inspired me to do some of that stuff it would be Matt Stuart's stuff: http://www.mattstuart.com I never knew it could be so intersting until I looked at his stuff. I also love to look at Ryan McGinnis' latest street images: http://backingwinds.blogspot.com Those are a couple great photographers imo. It'd be fun to have the eye they do and the ability to shoot people. I need something other than the sky and storms, but I honestly don't see myself doing much of this. Perhaps if I bought the 70-200L and could do it from a distance I might. I only took the above shot because I didn't think anyone down there was watching. Well I guess more than anything it was just that I HAD to get the shot. Maybe I'd have hope if I see something I HAVE to shoot since I think I can do what I'm shy of if I want it bad enough.
Did I see any of the above at the WILDLIFE refuge? No. Where are these deer? In my parent's backyard. I almost drove straight home after leaving the craft show, but decided to go see the dogs. I was there for about 2 minutes when John started going crazy barking out the window at something. My dad thought it was the turkey's that always stop by(like 15-20 of them). I didn't think so as I couldn't see them and knew the barking dogs barely phase them anymore. I saw 2 of these deer just 2 days ago and thought it was likely them again. That time I saw them just before the dogs and grabbed both dogs under my arms as I knee'd down. The one deer froze and stared at us for over 2 minutes while we stared back. John wanted to bark so bad but I wasn't letting him. Pretty soon his teeth started to chatter. Meanwhile Roy just wanted to watch. Anyway that day only two showed up. Today they brought a friend.
It's kind of funny I was at the wild life refuge for 3 hours or so and never saw any deer and these three wind up feet away in the backyard of my parent's house.
Mmmmmm, bird food.
There are at least 2 heads in that small water pan. The third deer is on the other side of them but may have been eating bird seed on the ground.
A faster lens would have been nice here. I'm using 1600 ISO and am at F5.6. Shutter speed was 1/400. Focal length 210mm. I'm new to the zoom lens thing and boy does it feel impossible to hold it still at all at that length. Having my tripod might have helped. It was in my car but I obviously couldn't just go back out and get it. I'm lucky I had my camera with and in the house.
These two were frozen, listening to something up on the hill. I felt pretty sorry for them at this point. I mean life can't be too easy for a deer in this wolrd. It sort sucks.
Later that night I went out and tried to shoot a couple leonids(meteors/shooting stars). The problem here was during the peak ol Leo wasn't really even above the horizon yet. I thought it'd still be worth it when Leo rose. I went out at 11pm central and quickly saw two faint ones straight up, no where near Leo. I then placed the camera on my driver's side window via my window clamp. It was freaking cold out. I didn't feel like running the car and wasting gas so I froze. I shot the horizon for a while with like 2 minute exposures at 400ISO(open at F4). 20 minutes or so of not seeing a single meteor I opted to do a star trail and make my own "shooting" stars. Right before I ended the 25 minute exposure a good meteor went right down the middle of the frame. Too bad my long exposure was now a bit bright and washed out. That image is seen above. You can't see the meteor trail at all. So I try a coupe more of the horizon and zoom one long one streaks above me, out of frame. Yay. I kept at it for a good while longer, freezing my butt off, and only saw one faint one to the left. I saw maybe 5 in 2.5 hours and was thinking I'd see the 100 per hour predicted, or something close since I wasn't in the greatest location. Sounds like it was a good show much further east across the Atlantic.