We finally got some nice weather over the end of the holiday weekend, so last Sunday was a beautiful day to drive out to parts of rural Oregon and visit several of the small, local wineries that were open for the weekend. It was sunny, calm, and not even very chilly, so it was perfect for pulling out the camera and capturing some scenic shots of Oregon wine country.
A gravel road through one of the vineyards
A few oak trees (I think?) punctuated the otherwise flat landscape, standing out among the rolling hills. Here a couple of trees frame one of the barns at a winery.
One of my new lenses starts at 18mm, giving me a chance to frame some wider landscape shots like this one
By the time we drove home, the sun was setting and the moon was rising
We had to stop the car so I could try and capture this view of Mt. Hood beyond the road leading down from Bald Peak into the rural valley. Click on the picture to see a larger view showing the mountain more clearly.I've never really figured out the tricks of photographing mountains in the distance....they often appear very washed out. Anyone have any tips?
hey there, cool photos. i just read your profile, and that's SO cool about your Orca work (I'm jealous!)!. I saw my first Orca when i was 15 and bought the identification book with all their names in and went crazy (mainly with J Pod, cause that's the guys i saw). cool blog! and OR wine country is fun too! :)
ReplyDeleteVery nice photographs. I just wish I have a great camera to capture the beauty of our environment. Keep up the good job.
ReplyDeleteGraduated Neutral Density filter works great when you have very contrasty scenes like that. Darkens the sky, and keeps the foreground light for the perfect balance. However, it's always a battle with those mountain in a distance shot. Nice pictures!!
ReplyDeleteThat sunlight did me some good Monika, I can feel it now!
ReplyDeleteAs for a photo tip, if you use the Auto exposure bracketing, your camera will take 3 pics, one normal, one under exposed, and one over exposed. I find the under exposed one comes out better when shooting into far off light, like a mountain. Maybe you already do this - so I'm teaching you to suck eggs!!
Johnny - Thanks for stopping by and commenting. The orcas are definitely very awesome. Even though I see them mostly in the summer months, stay tuned for some upcoming posts about them.
ReplyDeleteJohn - You don't have to have a great camera to take great photos! Find whatever is available to you and go have fun :)
Scott - Thanks for that!
Warren - I know about the feature, but I've never used it. Good advice - I'll try it.