In the Field

Early Autumn in Mineral Pass. Early Autumn in Mineral Pass. Near Dutch Creek, BC, Canada. October 9, 2005.

This image was shot about 20 km from my home (as the crow flies) in southeast BC. It's not a bad place for a nature photographer to live.

This is the type of image that was SO difficult to capture before the advent of modern digital cameras. The sticky issue here is the tremendous range of brightness (also known as the dynamic range) in the scene - the snow, ice and clouds contain "whiter-than-white" tones and the shadows and foreground are really dark. A film shooter would have to use graduated neutral-density filters - and use them very carefully - to capture the image. My strategy with digital capture was to ensure that I chose an exposure that JUST retained the highlight detail (i.e., was on the verge of blowing out) and then I retrieved the shadow detail using a combination of techniques during the RAW conversion and Photoshop editing.

Behind the Camera

Early Autumn in Mineral Pass. Early Autumn in Mineral Pass. Near Dutch Creek, BC, Canada. October 9, 2005.

Digital Capture; Compressed RAW (NEF) format; ISO 100.

Nikon D2X with Nikon 17-55 mm f/2.8 DX G ED-IF AF-S lens @ 17 mm (25 mm equivalent with digital conversion factor) supported on Gitzo G1228 Mk2 Mountaineer carbon fibre tripod with Acratech Ultimate ballhead.

1/125s @ f8; -0.67 stop exposure compensation from matrix-metered exposure setting.

At the Computer

Early Autumn in Mineral Pass. Early Autumn in Mineral Pass. Near Dutch Creek, BC, Canada. October 9, 2005.

Details to follow.

Conservation

Early Autumn in Mineral Pass. Early Autumn in Mineral Pass. Near Dutch Creek, BC, Canada. October 9, 2005.

Information to follow.