I could not pass on the composition of this shot as I drove along the river road. Canon 50D with Sigma 18-250mm lens. f/8, ISO-100 for 1/400sec exposure and sunlight white balance at 43mm focal length. Contrast adjusted and very small color saturation adjustment in post editing to bring out the browns.

sunset

I captured this sunset at last light with the sun well below the horizon. This time of year we get fantastic pinks and blues and I wanted to capture a little of it. Canon 50D and Sigma 18-250mm lens. f/8, ISO-100 for 1/8sec and 50mm focal length. Auto white balance and vanguard Tracker II tripod. Optical Stabilization turned off.

Migration

I managed to catch the first small swarm of snow geese migrating into Freezeout Lake near Choteau, MT. Each spring as many as 30,000 geese and tundra swans will rest here over about a two week span. I waited for nearly 1.5 hours to cath the swarm take of, circle in a swell and contracting maner overhead only to land on the ice again. I took a full series of shots numbering nearly 200 shots of this beautiful display. The Rocky Mountain front is in the background. To ensure I captured their darting flight cleanly I chose to employ the shutter priority setting and set a speed of 1/500 sec exposure....the camera then chose the correct ISO and apeture to compose the shot. Canon 50D with Sigma 18-250mm lens fully zoomed.

Old Prison Museum

I went to this place with the primary mission of capturing a long cell block perspective shot like this. I took several but really like the way the light plays through the windows in this particular shot. This was taken with Canon 50D camera ans Sigma 18-250mm DC OS HSM lens. f/6.3, ISO-400 for 1/20sec exposure and sunlight white balance. I used a vanguard Traker II tripod set about 24" off floor to gain good viewpoint along first floor cell block. Three levels of cells means multiple levels of windows that allowed great natural light to shine in and dance along the floor. When converted to B&W in post editing this picture took on a entirely different feel and I really like the effect.

This is a shot outside the prison in Deerlodge MT. The white portion is part of the administration bldg. while the large red brick bldg is the main cell block house. Shot with Canon 50D camera and Sigma 18-250mm DC OS HSM lens. f/5, ISO-100 for 1/100 sec exposure at 24mm focal length and sunlight white balnce setting.

This was taken in the Old Prison Museum in Deerlodge,MT. I really liked the composition of this shot but was a bit concerned with how diffused the light would be since it was shot through an office glass window from the hallway area and naturally light from a window behind and above to the left.....lots of glass to shoot through but it all turned out OK. This was shot with Canon 50D camera and Sigma 18-250mm DC OS HSM lens, f/5 ISO-400 for 1/200 sec at 50mm focal length and auto white balance, shot off hand.

Fence Posts

I took the opportunity to borrow a friends idea for shot themes and snap some fence posts while out scouting hiking areas. The weathered timber and rusted barbed wire begs to be captured in B&W. I shot these in color then converted to B&W in post editing. Both were taken with Canon 50D camera. On the close up I used a Sigma 70mm macro lens, f/14, ISO-100 for 1/320 sec exposure and sunlight white balance setting. For the tall twisted post I used Sigma 18-250mm DC OS HSM lens, f/14, ISO-100 for 1/160 sec exposure and sunlight white balance.