70-300 VR goes paddlin'

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Gaylon Holmes
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p.1 #1 · 70-300 VR goes paddlin'

Here's a few from a 25 mile paddle on the North Platte river. I put in at sunrise and the temperature was a chilly 37F. With the exception of the toad, these were all taken from the kayak, current speed ran between 4.7-5.1 mph. This was my first time usng a DSLR from the kayak and my technique certainly needs some practice but I did get a few decent captures.

300mm/f5.6

300mm/f5.6

220mm/f8

300mm/f8

Blew some highlights, could've used a stop faster SS on some, and didn't hold as steady as I could've on others. It was an excellent learning experience and I'm looking forward to next weekend for further practice

Cheers!

Jul 15, 2008 at 04:13 AM

Quickeye
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p.1 #2 · 70-300 VR goes paddlin'

They look great from here Gaylon. Nothing like lots of practice to get to know the capabilities of your equipment. I like them all, looks like it was a nice relaxing day.

Terry

Jul 15, 2008 at 04:28 AM

Jammy Straub
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p.1 #3 · 70-300 VR goes paddlin'

Awesome, so how are you transporting your gear on your kayak? (an inquiring kayaker wants to know.)

Jul 15, 2008 at 05:02 AM

gugs
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p.1 #4 · 70-300 VR goes paddlin'

Great captures... you can even improve a bit in PP, I would give a touch of sharpness, saturation and contrast on some of those pictures and they would really pop up, the potential is there.... that 70-300VR (with the right photog behind it) is a really amazing lens

Guy

Jul 15, 2008 at 11:44 AM

Slug69
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p.1 #5 · 70-300 VR goes paddlin'

Do you have CaptureNX? The first three look a bit weak in saturation. Is that what it was like because those first two are really nice they just need some guts.

Edited on Jul 15, 2008 at 12:32 PM

Jul 15, 2008 at 12:32 PM

Gaylon Holmes
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p.1 #6 · 70-300 VR goes paddlin'

Quickeye wrote:
They look great from here Gaylon. Nothing like lots of practice to get to know the capabilities of your equipment. I like them all, looks like it was a nice relaxing day.

Terry

Thanks, Terry. It is a great way to spend a day!

Jul 15, 2008 at 05:25 PM

Gaylon Holmes
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p.1 #7 · 70-300 VR goes paddlin'

Jammy Straub wrote:
Awesome, so how are you transporting your gear on your kayak? (an inquiring kayaker wants to know.)

Hello Jammy,

I had to add a boat to my fleet as my current kayaks are all too narrow for this kind of use. I picked up an Old Town Dirigo 140, 14' with a 27" beam. Very stable and quite manoeuvrable. I removed the child seat to make room for a Pelican 1430 top loader case. It's tethered to the foredeck via spectra line and SS reinforcement. I used 2"x2" minicell to form a 3-sided bracket on the hull for the case to slide in. This keeps the Pelican from moving around when I'm getting in and out.

On safe water I kept the camera in my lap in a TT holster, this allowed me to keep drips off the camera and also have it ready withuot a lens cap in place and the hood mounted. When I came to any spirited stretches I just put the rig back into the Pelican box.

Instead of the usual spray skirt I'm using a Seals half skirt which keeps paddle drips and direct sun off the Pelican box. I'm going to have Seals add another bow support to the skirt this winter for additional support and water shedding.

I'll take a couple of pictures of the boat next weekend and post them for your consideration.

Pleasant waters to ya!

Jul 15, 2008 at 05:32 PM

Gaylon Holmes
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p.1 #8 · 70-300 VR goes paddlin'

Guy and Slug69,

Thank you for your comments and suggestions. PP is my weak area, for sure, especially when it comes to sharpening. I always seem to go too far or end up too soft! I am using NX2 and I've re-worked the first three images a bit for your evaluation. Added some selective sharpening, bumped the saturation, and added a bit of contrast. Let me know what you think.

Thanks again, guys.

Jul 15, 2008 at 05:41 PM

dgcrane
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p.1 #9 · 70-300 VR goes paddlin'

Very nice shots Gaylon, I especially love the composure of the first one.. I hope you don't mind but I took the lieberty of bumping tone, and dodging a little.... if you don't like it, I will take it right down.

This image is copyrighted by the owner

Best,
Darren

Edited by dgcrane on Jul 15, 2008 at 12:55 PM GMT

Edited on Jul 15, 2008 at 05:55 PM

Jul 15, 2008 at 05:44 PM

Gaylon Holmes
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p.1 #10 · 70-300 VR goes paddlin'

Looks very good, Darren, thank you. I don't mind at all, the instruction is most useful.

I've no darkroom experience so I'm assuming you've raised the midtones a bit but what do you mean by 'dodging'?

Jul 15, 2008 at 05:48 PM

Ben Horne
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p.1 #11 · 70-300 VR goes paddlin'

You're certainly more gutsy than myself when it comes to using a SLR from a Kayak. It sounds like you have a great system though. IMO, there is way too much shadow recovery in the first one. The shadow areas are really falling apart. The others are great though.

Jul 16, 2008 at 04:18 AM

Slug69
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p.1 #12 · 70-300 VR goes paddlin'

They look great. Did you edit your original posted pics?

Jul 16, 2008 at 12:53 PM

Gaylon Holmes
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p.1 #13 · 70-300 VR goes paddlin'

Ben Horne wrote:
You're certainly more gutsy than myself when it comes to using a SLR from a Kayak. It sounds like you have a great system though. IMO, there is way too much shadow recovery in the first one. The shadow areas are really falling apart. The others are great though.

Hi Ben,

Thank you for the comments. Couldn't do it without the new fishing-style kayak. It's dramatically more stable than conventional sea kayaks and mcuh roomier to work with equipment.

This was the first time I shot using in-camera Active D-Lighting. I tried it because the river flows directly into the sunrise making the dark birds tough to get unless I'm able to drift backwards and make the capture.

I've quickly found that in-camera D-Lighting does have a nice effect but you won't have much room for shadow recovery in post using this feature. They'll come up nicely with small adjustments but large recoveries fall apart pretty fast.

And my education continues!

Jul 16, 2008 at 06:36 PM

Gaylon Holmes
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p.1 #14 · 70-300 VR goes paddlin'

Slug69 wrote:
They look great. Did you edit your original posted pics?

Thank you. I re-worked the images a couple of times forgetting that each time I replaced my gallery images I was changing the pics in the thread. A Homer Simpson moment

The editing was especially strong on the toad picture.... it's now looking in a different direction!

Thanks again for your suggestions, they're much appreciated.

Jul 16, 2008 at 06:41 PM

dgcrane
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p.1 #15 · 70-300 VR goes paddlin'

They look awesome to me

Darren

Jul 16, 2008 at 06:42 PM

Gaylon Holmes
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p.1 #16 · 70-300 VR goes paddlin'

Thanks, Darren.

Your post processing help and instruction has been most valuable and will force me to look at my captures more critically in the future. Posting images here at FM is kind of like going to school.... and I can always use more schoolin'!

Email is headed your way.

Jul 16, 2008 at 06:57 PM


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