Hoh Rainforest, Olympic National Park

 View leading into the Hoh along the Hoh River

Sony NEX 7 55mm

Just before the parking lot

Sony NEX 7 38mm

 

Raining anywhere from 140 to 170 inches (or 12 to 14 feet!) each year makes for a lush, green canopy.  Add to that are the mosses and ferns that blanket the surface which adds to the enchantment of the rainforest.  We're told that the Hoh is one of the finest remaining examples of the temperate rainforest in the United States and after visiting it we totally agree.

 Along the Spruce Nature Trail

Sony NEX 7 IR 12mm

 



Spruce Nature Trail

Sony NEX 7 (IR) 12mm

 

The Hoh is located on the west side of Olympic National Park, about a two-hour drive from Port Angeles and under an hour from Forks WA.  We stayed in Forks during our stay and found the 13-mile drive to the cutoff very easy.  Once turning onto the road leading to the Hoh you'll find an additional 12-miles of winding road leading though lush trees and vegetation all the way to the end where you'll find the parking lot.

Typical Trail

Sony NEX 7 18mm

Along Spruce Trail

Sony NEX 7 24mm

Another Trail

Sony NEX 7 18mm

Sony NEX 7 27mm

 

Once at the parking lot you'll see a small ranger station and have a chance to explore the area by taking one of several paths leading into the forest.  Spruce Nature Trail is 1.2 miles round trip, Hall of Mossess is .8 round trail while the Hoh River Trail is 18 miles to Blue Glacier.  We took the Spruce and Hall Trails and found them both very easy to navigate and more than beautiful.

Fallen Tree

Phase One DF/IQ160 55mm

Phase One DF/IQ160 55mm

 

All the images included here are shot handheld with out the aid of tripod or monopod.  We carried a combination of 2-Sony NEX-7 (one color, one infrared) and a Phase One DF/IQ160 medium format camera.  The color Sony had a 18-200 lens attached while the infrared had a Zeiss 12mm.  We used a combination of a 55mm and 120mm lens on the Phase One DF. 

Sandy shooting on one of the trails

Don with both the IR and medium format around his neck

 

All files were processed using a combination of Capture One Pro and Adobe Photoshop Cloud.  The Cloud has become invaluable for our handheld shots with the addition of Shake Reduction which is found by going to Filter then Sharpen.  The Shake Reduction looks at the image file and for a lack of a better description performs magic in bringing into a sharper focus the slight imperfections one can have while shooting handheld.  We suggest going to Adobe's website for a much better description of what it does.

 

Phase One DF/IQ160 55mm

Phase One DF/IQ160 55mm

Phase One DF/IQ160 55mm

 

And on another note.  We're currently in Jackson Hole WY where we are attempting to capture Elk for the Elks Lodge and fall colors.  The difference between this September and last are astounding.  There's no fires this year and we've been blessed with beautiful cloudy skies.  We've experienced cool to warm days and cooling nights however its begun to rain/snow now so we feel the fall color show will be very short lived this year.

Phase One DF/IQ160 120mm

Phase One DF/IQ160 120mm

 

Another side note.  Don has been flying the Phantom quadcopter while we've been here getting in several test flights and will shortly have a blog up on that experience.

A close up view

Phase One DF/IQ160 55mm

 

Phase One DF/IQ160 55mm

 

We hope you've enjoyed the images and remember your questions, thoughts and suggestions are always welcome.

 

 

 

Sandy & Don

 

 

DJI Phantom Quadcopter

The following is intended to be a short review with more to come as time permits of what I believe is a great aerial camera platform.

I've been interested in aerial photography/videography for some time now.  We've all been to the malls where some guy is flying a small remote helicopter making it look easy and fun.  There's something like that at the Tucson Mall and every time I walk past the store I think about how neat it would be to put a camera on one and see what I could get; I think about flying over the rim of the Grand Canyon, along the sand dunes of Death Valley, just about anywhere in Moab would be great.  Then I think about Jackson Hole WY and the unlimited possibilities there.  No, I never bought one from the mall.  I have however spent countless hours on the web researching various platforms but never finding the "right-one".  Until now...

 

A company named DJI released a ready to fly quadcopter earlier this year.  The Phantom is a ready to fly quadcopter with built-in NAZA-M-GPS.  What this means is that with just a couple minutes of assembly time, it is ready to fly, and it's super easy.  Basically you have 2-options; fly in GPS mode or manual mode with one being easier than the other.  So far I've only been in GPS mode.

It hasn't been without problems - most of them I'll take the blame for.  You have 4-motors with 2-turning clockwise and 2-counterclockwise; they're in pairs.  The video instructions are clear in that you pair the props to the motors with each being clearly marked.  What isn't said is the orientation of the props.  I installed the props as I should have (counter clock on the counter clock motors and clockwise on the clockwise motors) and attempted my first flight.  Disaster.  No liftoff and I ended up braking a prop after it tilted over.  What wasn't said is the proper orientation of the props.  I reversed the props to have the marking facing up and quickly had my first flight; good thing the Phantom comes with 2-complete sets of propellers.

 

My second error was made shortly after I added the prop guards.  Thinking that I needed "training wheels" for at least the first couple flights I added an accessory which guards the props if tilted over.  After being familiar with the Phantom I had decided to remove my training wheels (besides they wouldn't fit inside my case).  What I forgot was the size of screws.  The guards use a slightly longer screw than what I had removed and in a total fit of stupidly I reused the screws which in turn made the motors bind up and quit.  But wait, there's more...

The Phantom is a very easy bird to open and upgrade so long as you have the knowledge and proper tools with plenty of "how-to" videos available.  I found the replacement motors at UAV Direct and had them shipped quickly.  I removed the solder attaching the 4-motors and attempted to install the replacements.  A word about the solder used by DJI - it is the highest temperature solder I have ever come across.  How hot?  I had to crank my solder station all the way up to the max to unsolder the motors leaving a good puddle at the connectors.  The first 2-motors went on with little problem, the 3rd began to kick and scream and the 4-was the worse.  Each motor has 3-wires; I was able to solder 11 wires with little to some degree of difficulty.  The very last one (isn't always the last one) gave me the worse time.  I had to keep trying to heat the solder up to the point it would take the 12th wire and somewhere along the way I overheated the little board and ended up destroying it.  I did a test run-up and had 2-motors running great with one limping along while its mate just stood there.  I was faced with either replacing the controller board and trying again or walking away.

Once again this is where having a great dealer is worth their weight in gold.  I'm on a time crunch as we're leaving Tucson for Jackson Hole.  I simply don't have the time it would take to find someone to fix what I broke.  Enter UAV Direct.  I ordered a replacement Phantom and they took back my Phantom as a trade to either fix or use for spare parts.  Win win for both of us. 

So, I'm back in the air and will be much more careful of what I'm doing so I don't repeat the process.  I love the Phantom and Go Pro Hero 3 that's attached and am looking forward to adding this to our ever growing camera kit.  We've been adding video clips to our DVDs and this will enable us to add much more, so stay tuned.

In the end, if it weren't for my errors I'd have no problems.  Again, I love the Phantom and recommend it highly just as I do UAV Direct in Texas.

Thanks for allowing me to share.

 

 

Don

Registration of Iron Creek Photography®

As an artist it's sometimes difficult thinking about the business side of our profession.  Most people don't have a clue that a photograph is instantly protected by copyright the moment it's captured. This is the sole reason for having the ugly copyright notification on our work displayed both here and on Face Book; it protects the image and (hopefully) puts people on notice.  And you don't need to be a professional photographer as any image from any person is equally protected.  (That's why we always ask a client who took the image whenever we're asked about printing.)

 

Likewise the name of the studio is equally at risk, thus the need to properly register the name as a trademark.  While you don't necessarily need to go through the steps of actual registration it will help in the long run to properly protect your name from unauthorized use.

 

Late last year we were notified by one of our clients that they had stumbled upon an Iron Creek Photography that didn't look like our work and were mildly confused.  It turned out it wasn't us, rather someone else.  We had been using the name Iron Creek Photography since 2006 and felt we had the trademark for it; as it turns out we were correct.  After communicating with the other folks they changed their name.  However it got us thinking. 

 

Last September we contacted Legalforcelaw.com to begin the steps necessary to properly protect Iron Creek Photography.  Yesterday we were contacted telling us our request for trademark Iron Creek Photography had been approved on August 6, 2013 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.  The following is directly from that notification:

 

"Status Update! On Tuesday, August 6, 2013, status on the IRON CREEK PHOTOGRAPHY trademark changed to REGISTERED.

On Thursday, December 27, 2012, a U.S. federal trademark registration was filed for IRON CREEK PHOTOGRAPHY by Libby, Don, Tucson, AZ 85739. The USPTO has given the IRON CREEK PHOTOGRAPHY trademark serial number of 85811261. The current federal status of this trademark filing is REGISTERED. The correspondent listed for IRON CREEK PHOTOGRAPHY is RAJ ABHYANKER of RAJ ABHYANKER, P.C., 1580 W EL CAMINO REAL STE 8, MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA 94040-2462 . The IRON CREEK PHOTOGRAPHY trademark is filed in the category of Education and Entertainment Services . The description provided to the USPTO for IRON CREEK PHOTOGRAPHY is Photography services; Wildlife and nature photography; On-line journals, namely, blogs featuring cameras and photography locations."

 

We wanted to share the good news about the protection and ask those who are inclined to do so please share the news.

As always, thanks for allowing us to share and we promise next time we'll include images....

 

 

Sandy & Don