Tree - Best of Show Intermediate Special Topic - November 2009

Photographer:  Jack Hicks
Image Title:  Tree
Date:  November 2009 - Best of Show Intermediate Special Topic - Silhouettes
Score:  22/27
Comments from Judges: Amazing sky!!!

Q. How did you set the shot up?

Another LPS member and I were on our way to shoot a ghost town at golden light in eastern Weld County on Hyway 34 (Dearfield, it's on the maps). As the sunrise exposed its promise we pulled off onto the next county road to get away from headlights and picked a spot, there was a tree on the horizon.

Q. What equipment did you use?

Canon 50D, Canon EF 28-135 kit lens @ 28mm, Manfrotto 190XPROB tripod w/ Manfrotto 222 head and a Canon RS-80N3 remote shutter release.

Q. What f-stop and exposure?

f5.6 (max 3.5 possible), 1/50 second exposure, ISO 100, shot on aperture priority.

Q. How many attempts before the success?

I started shooting with the 28-135 lens on my Canon XTi, and the camera had trouble auto-focusing and my eyes are not good enough to focus sharply, the XTi finally just quit working ... all 6-8 of these early photos were out of focus when I downloaded them later, so the AF was acting up. Once I switched the lens to my 50D all of the images turned out. I took about 40 images, a shot every few seconds or minutes as the light changed. The early shots were not as red as the BOS image (#17), more lavenders and yellows, but all were clear and sharp. Toward the end of the sunrise I switched attention to the light behind me and captured that part of this amazing sunrise, maybe we'll see that in another competition. It literally lit the sky from horizon to horizon, left to right, fore to aft ... I've rarely seen anything like it. For whatever it's worth the XTi worked fine later on in the day. I've tried to duplicate its failure on my porch at sunrise in similar, but not as magnificent, light and it performed pretty well, the sky is hard to shoot sometimes. The BOS image was about a 30% crop of the original image, "too much of a good thing" sort of thinking.

Q. What did you learn from taking the shot?

Some shots have less to do with the photographer and are simply a gift from God that I was lucky enough to witness, this was one of those mornings. The member I was with showed me some camera set-up techniques that are now a part of my bag of tricks. Life is good!

Q. What did you learn from the image being judged at competition?

I'm a lucky guy!!