Location:

Try to include something other than the fireworks.  We weren’t able to do this with our photos this time around, but a nice reflective lake, river, or building, or a dimly lit scene, such as a downtown area work nicely.

Equipment:

We photographed these with small interchangeable lens camera called the Olympus PEN E-PL1.  We bought this affordable camera to use when we didn’t want to drag our large, heavy, and conspicuous SLR cameras around, but wanted better picture quality than a typical point and shoot.  We used a Gitzo CF tripod to photograph the fireworks.  Having a tripod is essential, as shutter speeds are long when photographing fireworks.

Camera Settings:

We always photograph fireworks at our lowest normal ISO, in this case, ISO 100.  We use the “bulb” shutter speed setting for fireworks.  This means we hold down the shutter button for as long as we want, and the shutter stays open until we release the button.  This allows us to choose what we want to include in the photo.  We hold the shutter down, and after a few bursts we think would make for a nice photograph, we release the shutter.  It works much better for us than using a set time, but if you don’t have the bulb option, you can set your camera to a shutter speed of 3-10 seconds.  Shutter speed doesn’t affect the brightness of the fireworks, but it affects the brightness of the background, and how many fireworks are in the photo.  A shutter speed that is too short will result in the fireworks appearing as “dots” or being incomplete.  For aperture, we used between f11 and f16.  Your aperture will control how bright the fireworks are in the photo.  Choose an aperture that gives the photographs a nice color.  If your aperture is too wide open, the fireworks will appear white, because they are blown out.  You can always brighten the fireworks in your post processing, but it’s hard to make them darker if you’ve blown them out.  We shoot in RAW, but choose a white balance of daylight on the camera.

We hope this was helpful.  Use the comment for if you have any questions!

Female Common Merganser

We were more interested in seeing owls today, and there are better days ahead for the eagle migration through National Wildlife Refuge at Black Dog, so we headed up toward Lake Harriet to Robert’s Bird Sanctuary to find a pair of owls.  With temps around 10 degrees, we donned our winter gear and headed into the woods.

It was a pretty enjoyable hike.  There were tons of tracks, a couple cardinals off in the distance, and a few squirrels knocking snow onto us as they scurried from branch to branch .  We came across what looked like either a bald eagle or a snow covered trash bag high in a tree.  A bald eagle was the last thing I expected to see in the park, so I assumed it was a trash bag or something else caught in the tree, but then Kristen saw it moving. It didn’t look right though. I took a look through the camera and it’s head was sideways and it wasn’t looking around.

Eagle with lead poisoning

We walked closer. It’s eyes were closed and we noticed it was making sounds like it was distressed/crying, almost like a dog whimpering. These are usually such majestic birds, always perched proudly, with piercing, happy calls, so seeing an eagle like this is something like seeing your dad cry. It’s incredibly sad and very unnerving.

Eagle with lead poisoning

My mind immediately went to lead poisoning. The way it was moving it’s head, it’s eyes closed… it was like something we had scene on an episode of PBS’s Nature about eagles that featured a little segment about lead poisoning. We made a plan to call animal rescue and tried to decide if we wanted to walk the 1/4 mile back to the car immediately to get a phone, or check for the owl which was supposed to be right around the corner. We started walking towards the big oak trees and scanning for the owls, but we didn’t see anything and our minds kept going back to the eagle.  How the heck would someone get it down?  Would they be able to?  We could still hear it.  We walked around the curve that headed back to the car on another path. As we were walking, we heard a murder of crows going crazy. It sounded like a dozen or more, and they were making a heck of a racket. I thought they were way off in the distance, maybe a half mile away, but Kristen’s mind went to the eagle. We walked back up the trail and I realized that the crows were closer and I knew they were harassing the eagle.   As we got closer, we saw the eagle fall from the tree. We ran over. it was laying face first in the snow. Another lady who was coming from the opposite direction on the trail ran over too, maybe drawn by my barrage of obscenities as I watched it fall on to the ground. It was still alive, but not moving much at all. My first thought was to get it’s head out of the snow to make sure it could breath and try to get it comfortable. As I moved it, it stayed pretty still, only moving it’s head a little bit. I was considering trying to get him out of there, but I was worried about his talons. I moved him a little more, and he stayed pretty calm.  I decided to take him out. Kristen and I carried him out quickly. He stayed calm the whole way and would only move when I touched his feet. His talons and eyes were covered with snow. He seemed to be a little more active as my body heat helped to warm him up.

Holding a Bald Eagle

Kristen ran up to the car to get my phone so we could find out where to take him. I unlocked the doors remotely, and Kristen said, “where’s the tripod?” It had been in the back seat, but I moved it too the trunk when we left. I then saw why she asked. Our window was broken out. Luckily they were just after Kristen’s almost empty purse, and left my phone and Gitzo tripod alone.  Have you ever called 911 for more than one reason at a time? I have now. First things first, we got connected from the 911 operator to the MN Raptor Center at the University of Minnesota. We got directions and were on way.  On the way, we tried to keep him warm and clear the snow from his talons.  It was unreal carrying an eagle like that, able to touch it’s beak, it’s talons; being able to see it so close after years of staring at them through telephoto lenses.

The staff at the Raptor Center was great. The medical staff immediately got to warming it up with a heading pad and hair dryer. They took the bird’s temperature and found it was 10 degrees less than it should be.  The eagle wasn’t too under weight, which was good.  The began their blood work and x-rays as we left.  Jeff Fischer, a local photographer and Raptor Center volunteer, gave us a great tour, and it was awesome to see all the birds they had saved. We’ll update the blog when we find out how the eagle is doing! We’ll keep hoping and praying that he’s OK.

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Crystal and Mike had a photobooth at their wedding at the beautiful Bayview Event Center in Excelsior, MN. Apparently I didn’t get the message that picture 2 was the goofy picture!

We’re back in Minnesota, what a change in the weather! We left Vegas where it was hot and sunny and landed in Minneapolis where it was freezing and snowing. I didn’t think we would be celebrating Easter with 6 inches of snow on the ground.

The last day in Vegas was totally insane! Our flight left at 6:00am on Saturday, so we decided not to rent the hotel room for Friday night. We woke up on Friday at 9:0am and didn’t sleep again for the next 30 hours! By the time our plane landed at noon on Saturday we were both exhausted, hungry, and ready to sleep.

Our time on Friday night was fun though. We got to walk around and see all the hotels and walk the strip. The people watching there is great! We noticed that the streets tend to get louder and louder as the night goes on. The later it gets, and the more people drink, the louder and crazier they become.

We are currently in the process of working on our 3500+ pictures we took while there. As soon as we get through them, we will be posting a bunch of the good, the bad, and the just down right funny ones.

Stay tuned for more great stuff from Vegas!

Kristen and I in the California Desert.

We will not make it to the opening ceremony tonight which begins at 6:00pm. We are both extremely disappointed to be missing out on Jerry Ghionis who will be speaking tonight at 7:15pm. Tear, sigh, sniff:( Hopefully the rest of the week will go a little more smoothly.

Here we sit, frustrated with the airline and more than ready to get on that plane and get to Las Vegas.