Sage-Grouse Lek, April 23rd & 24th

Created from 584 images each image shot with a Canon 5DII and 17-40/4.0L set manually to f/4.0, ISO1600, and 30 seconds. The RAW files were processed in Lightroom 3 then using action scripts they were stacked together in Photoshop CS5 to make this final image.

PHOTOS NOW ONLINE

I made the trip down to shoot these star trails and time lapses; but really so that the next morning I could photograph displaying Sage-Grouse on a massive Lek on some remote BLM land.

It was calm with perfectly clear sky. The half moon rose during the night and was straight overhead around sunrise, creating good condition (as far as solar/lunar phases go).

Before this trip I took time to record my answer to this weeks 'Ask Dave' and that blog post and video can be found here.

To the left: A male Sage-Grouse displays on a remote Lek near the MT/WY boarder. Captured with a Canon 7D and 500/4.0L IS + 1.4TC III set in aperture priority mode with an exposure bias of +2/3 at f/7.1, ISO400, and 1/640th of a second. Mounted on a Gitzo 3540XLS and Induro GHB2 with custom long lens support. Photographed from within a ground blind.

My main point for shooting the star trails and time lapses was to test out some software and action scripts. YOU WANT TO CHECK OUT THIS VIDEO


Two male Sage-Grouse fight on a remote Lek near the MT/WY boarder. Captured with a Canon 7D and 500/4.0L IS + 1.4TC III set in aperture priority mode with an exposure bias of +2/3 at f/7.1, ISO400, and 1/320th of a second. Mounted on a Gitzo 3540XLS and Induro GHB2 with custom long lens support. Photographed from within a ground blind.

Ask Dave, April 27th - Packing for a Lek

Ask Dave, April 27th
'Ask Dave' week eleven… I get tons of questions each week, I respond as quickly as possible, and this is week number eleven of answering them here too. If you have questions you can email me at Learn@DaveShumway.com.

Question:
From Erik...
How do you pack (what do you take along) for a normal day of shooting?

Answer:
I don't know if you would call star trails, time lapses, and a Sage-Grouse Lek "normal;" but I made a little video before heading out for a night and morning shoot on some remote BLM land.

HERE IS THE VIDEO

Enjoy

I also had three tripods along for the ride:

• Gitzo 3540XLS with an Induro GHB2 full gimbal head (with custom long lens support). This was used for the Canon 7D and 500/4.0L IS
• Induro CT214 with an Acratech GP ball head. This was used for the Canon 5DII and 17-40/4.0L for time lapse/star trails and then with the 70-200/2.8L IS while photographing from my blind at the Lek.
• Induro A413 with an Arca-Swiss Z1sp ball head. This was used for the Canon 20D and 28-135IS for time lapse/star trails.