Well the whole family packed up and headed to North Myrtle Beach last weekend for a time of rest and relaxation.  I generally find North Myrtle to be much more relaxing than Myrtle Beach due to more room and less crowds.

For me this was a time to do some pier fishing.  We stayed near the Cherry Grove Fishing Pier so that is where I decided to fish.  The first day proved quite tiring due to a poor bite and a frustrating, windy day.  I did however catch a 14 inch Red Drum, a shark pup and a whiting or two.  Day two was much nicer as far as speed of the catch.  In three hours I brought in a couple spots, a shark pup, a nice sized whiting or two and a Croaker.  I even caught a silly star fish which caused me to really sit and scratch my head as to how it found my shrimp that quickly and be such a slow to move crustacean.  By the way if you have never caught a Croaker, you are in for a treat. They actually make a "croaking" sound when you catch them but to me it sounds more like a snort.

I like to use fairly heavy gear just in case you get into something big.  The last thing you want is a flimsy rod which breaks under the pressure of a 10 pound fish.  I took my Shakespeare "Big Water" rod and large Shakespeare reel spooled with Stren 20lb. mono.  Just remember that with a heavy action rod, you need to keep your right index finger on the line to check for subtle bites.  On the terminal end, I like to use a 3 ounce triangle weight with two size 2.0 circle hooks.  All of this can be purchased at the pier or at any outdoor sporting goods store.  For bait, I used shrimp, but you can also use mole crabs or blood worms.  Just be careful with blood worms!  They bite :)

No records were set here but all in all not a bad couple days. The great thing about fishing the ocean is you never know what is going to bite.  It all depends on what is cruising through at that time of the year.   I hope to return next year and try for some King Mackerel.

A nice pan sized spot caught off the pier

Yesterday, was certainly a day to remember in all my years of photography.  I decided to head up to Tom's Creek Falls and attempt to capture the overcast lighting for maximum color saturation and for the soft effects it has on the final image, but the weather conditions were unpredictable to say the least.

I arrived at Tom's Creek Falls sometime around 1:30pm at a parking lot which had no markings at all.  I deduced that this must be the trail as there were several other cars there and I was literally at the end of the road.  The rain had slacked up and the cloud conditions were perfectly overcast creating a giant soft box across the region.  Soon, I had my backpack strapped on, the tripod slung across my shoulder and I was off down the path.

About 100 feet down the trail I noticed the humidity had really increased and the trail was very wet and muddy.  The thick rhododendron were hanging low from the damp conditions and to me it looked more like a rain forest than a Western North Carolina forest.  I walked for what seemed about a half mile and I heard the roar of water ahead.  I love that sound as I am approaching a waterfall.  Finally, I arrived to see a much larger waterfall than I had seen in pictures online.  The drenching rain of the past few weeks had given the falls a completely new look.

At first, I found this a pleasing sight and indeed it was beautiful with the water flowing so quickly.  I say at first, because as soon as I took out the camera I had a problem.  The rain began to fall and the wind picked up dramatically. It only took a few seconds for the polarizer I had attached to my lens to become covered in the mist from the falls.  I wiped the filter off and took a couple shots before it completely fogged.  Now I had two problems.  The humidity was fogging the filter and was condensing on each side.  Attempts to defog it and wipe it off now were futile so I took it off and started shooting again

I got a few more shots off before the lens was now covered in spray.  Realize that I am not on top of the falls, but I am standing back a couple hundred feet. Next, my view finder began to fog and now I am getting a bit irritated.  Here stands a beautiful falls with high water flow and the humidity is horrendous.

I decided to take a break and see if conditions approved, but they really never did.  I took a few more shots and packed it up.  Even though I didn't get the shots I really wanted, I did get to see a waterfall in a much more spectacular condition than it normally is.  This, although not the reward I was expecting, was a pleasant surprise.

Takeaways and Lessons Learned
So my biggest lesson learned here is even if the lighting conditions are favorable, be careful of  humidity caused right after a rain.  It is brutal on the equipment and your creative energy.  Below are a couple shots I grabbed before it got really bad.  Nature photography is a game of light and weather which when combined correctly makes for some great photos, but when it is off in one direction or another it can be disastrous.  When you have a day like this realize that you learned a great deal about not only general conditions and how it affects the final photograph, but you also know how to scout a location so the next time you shoot it, you will be fully prepared.  For example, I learned how this falls looks in overcast conditions in July.  The foliage is very saturated in color and the falls have a much softer glow. Furthermore, the trees frame the falls in a way that make it difficult to get shots from all angles.  No doubt this scene would be considerably different in the fall.  I also learned that the rocks at the base of the falls are about one to two feet wide in most cases and have a scattered look.  This makes it difficult to have large foreground interest and still maintain the natural perspective of the falls.  Perhaps next time I would rent a 17mm lens and come in close when the water flow has receded some.  I also came up with several ideas to combat the rainy and windy conditions.  Perhaps next time I can have several clean, dry UV filters ready to slap onto my lens to take the brunt of the rain instead of constantly trying to wipe off the filter.  You may look at these photos and think you like the look of shooting in these conditions and build a style around it.

Many time we are out and about on vacation or heading to work and we inevitably will stop for breakfast.  Usually we order some type of egg and many times that egg is scrambled.  Scrambled eggs are available in just about every restaurant open for breakfast but why do they often times taste so dull?

Scrambled eggs are probably about the easiest item to make for breakfast and perhaps that is why proper cooking is overlooked. Below are my suggestions for making great eggs.

1.  Use salt!  I can't tell you how many times I have eaten eggs at a restaurant that taste as flat as the pancakes look at the next table.  A couple shakes will not do.
2. Use black pepper!  You have to be a little careful with the pepper, but you should be able to taste the pepper without the heat of the pepper interfering.
3.  Use butter!  Preheat the pan over a low medium heat then put two pats of butter in the pan.  Don't overhead the butter because it has a low smoke point and will burn easily. Burned butter tastes really bad.
4.  Use medium heat, never high heat!  Eggs can't take high heat.  They turn rubbery when cooked this way. Let them slowly cook until the are no longer runny but not rubbery.
5. Use a small amount of milk!  When blending the eggs together, use a small amount of milk to give it a creamier flavor and consistency.

Well that is pretty much all there is to great eggs.  Hopefully some of the restaurant owners will read this.

I have owned a high end DSLR now for about a month and it has totally changed my outlook on my photography.  I have always been a film guy and perhaps there will always be a part of me that remains that way, but there are several reason I feel that digital is a better choice for me.  Please note that my inventory of cameras is quite diverse so I do have some idea of what I am talking about here.  I own quite a few film cameras.  I own the Mamiya RB 67 Pro, Kiev 88, Contax 167MT, Yashica FX-3 Super 2000 and the Canon EOS 1N.  All good cameras that produce some good photographs when coupled with the right glass.  Below are the reasons for switching to digital as my primary medium.

Cost

Professional film costs about $5 to $6 a roll to purchase in rolls of 36.  Typically on a shoot I will use somewhere between 2 to 3 rolls minium.  To process this film in today's marked has a cost of about $8 a roll.  So a typical shoot will cost me in the neighborhood of $40.00.  If I go on about 10 shoots a year, that is $400.00. Wow, when I began to look at it that way I soon realized that film was expensive.  With the extra savings, I could buy a good mid-range lens and maybe a really nice lens from KEH.

Quality

Overall my quality "per roll" for lack of a better way to say it, is up with digital.  Because I have instant feedback on my LCD, I know that my exposure is pretty much right on track.  I can't rely completely on the LCD but it gets me really close.  Note that film can actually produce a different image that can be very pleasing compared to digital, but I have found that this "look" is not often needed.

Piece of Mind

Many times I would go out in the field and say to myself "I hope I got a good shot."  With digital there is no guessing or hoping the light is captured the way I am seeing it.  To me this is a great load off my mind.  Finally,  because film, especially color,  needs to be sent out to a lab for processing you run the risk of the film being lost or heat damaged in transport.  

Modern Conveniences

With digital, I have a myriad of choices when it comes to actually pressing the shutter.  First, my camera has the ability to write to two SD cards simultaneously providing me with a backup of every shot I take.  Secondly, I can tether my camera to a computer for studio preview.  This can be done with polaroid backs on my Mamiya RB but the backs are expensive and now we have added another film to the cost equation. 

Will I stop Shooting Film

No, I will continue to shoot film until the stop making it, but my choice to use film in all situations has completely changed.  For day to day shooting I will use my DSLR, but for specialty images I will use film.  For example, film will still be used for IR shooting and fine art black and white.

 

 

I continued my testing of the new Canon 1D Mark II by stopping by Moravian Falls on the way to work this morning. Again, generally very pleased by the photos.  The battery did run low but it is getting some age and it is probably time to replace it.  Mirror lockup and exposures seemed quite accurate in general.

So let me start by saying I am a film guy and to some degree probably will remain until the last roll of film is manufactured.  Having made that statement and getting it out of my system, let me say that the Canon 1D Mark II is a true joy to shoot and the images are really quite good.

I bought my 1D Mark II from KEH camera used for $325.00 and the for that price I really couldn't say no.  It was a BGN (bargain) grade camera but it arrived in fine condition and ready to shoot.

Great Features
I am not going to spend a great deal of time on features.  This camera has been out for a long time and you can find numerous pro analysis on many different websites.  Instead let me pick out a few of the features I find useful.  First is the very fast autofocus.  So fast, in fact there are times it is difficult for my eye to pick up that a focus adjustment was made.  If it wasn't for the fact that I actually heard the motor, I would think it didn't work.  This camera was made for the photojournalist pro and Canon made sure the auto-focus and drive were as fast as they could be.  The second feature that I find very interesting, is that of redundancy.  This camera can simultaneously write a RAW/JPEG image to the CF and SD card.  Using this feature you always have a backup of the image in case one card should fail. That is great for peace of mind.

Just a simple photo of some flowers we had here in the house

Not so Great Features
The list of features which fail are really zero, but if I had to nitpick it would be the lack of preview and the smaller 2.0 inch display.  Other than that, I really would have wanted to see a physical mirror lockup button. The photographer can still use mirror lockup but it is buried in the menus. The camera has an 8.2 mp sensor but when this camera was introduced that was top of the line.

Below I have taken a few test shots with the modestly priced Canon Ultrasonic 22-55 mm zoom lens.  This is a "prosumer" type of lens so it won't have the sharpness of Canon's pro lenses but the images were more than fine.

After packing up the car with fishing gear for my two kids and wife, we headed out for a day of fishing at Tanglewood Park in Clemmons, NC.  Scattered thunderstorms were forecasted with rainy periods throughout the day but we decided to go despite the conditions.

We arrived at  Tanglewood around 9:30 am, purchased our fishing passes and headed toward Mallard Lake.  Pulling into the parking lot we immediately noticed the water was down about 10 feet!  I had no idea what to think of this since we had plenty of rainfall and even if it was a drought that wouldn't explain that kind of drop in water level.  We took a brief walk along the water line and my wife said she did spot some fish breaking the water.

Five minutes later, we were back in the car pondering this strange enigma when a park official pulled up next to us and began to feed the ducks.  Although feeding ducks is fascinating to children, my wife had to ask "what happened to the lake?"  The man feeding the ducks said the dam had broke and it was fixed but it was going to have to fill up by rainwater alone.  She then asked if there were still fish in the lake to which the man responded "oh yeah."  Apparently there were still a good number of bass gathering the deeper areas of the lake.  Ok, so that solved that. 

We both decided to stay and fish, so we packed up the gear and headed toward the dock area.  I got my son Jacob set up with his spiderman zebco fishing outfit and cast out toward the doc.  Within a few seconds, a bluegill was on the line.  I handed the rod to him and let him reel it in. 

Well, Jacob caught his first bluegill which was a great experience, I think more for us than him.  As you can see by the photo above, he is very suspect of this strange creature with spiny fins.  

Well not to be outdone by my son, I started fishing for the bass which were supposed to be in this lake.  I started out with my "go to plastic worm."  I shall keep this secret as it is all I have in my tricks arsenal.  I fished the lower dock area and sure enough I had a couple strikes but nothing solid.  I rebaited and threw out and within seconds I caught a nice sized largemouth. 

Well the fishing continued and I landed 7 largemouth total.  My wife got skunked which I thought was crazy. I don't think I have ever seen her not catch a fish.  My daughter didn't catch any fish but she landed a couple really stupid turtles.  Note in the photo above I am standing where the water used to be!

Anyway, give Mallard lake a try if you want to land some bass. They may not be huge bass but I had a lot of fun.