Canvas on Demand, Really Nice!

I recently tried Canvas on Demand, and printed one of my favorite deer shots on canvas, mounted on 1.5 inch stretcher bars.  The results really look nice.  I selected the 16 x 20 inch format (finished size).  Since I wanted the canvas wrapped - and I wanted to see the print on the edges, I cropped the shot to a size of 19.25 x 23.25 inches (per their instructions) and I used a 300dpi resolution.  The original shot is a bit soft, it was snowing, so I though the canvas media would really make this come to life, and wow, it did.  (I'm not sure that a really super sharp focused photo would end us as sharp on canvas, so you might want to experiment before doing a large expensive piece)  This is the shot that I used (it's not a photo of the final canvas product):

A Different Kind of Sunset

While I was shooting pictures of our daughters' high school marching band at their football stadium, the local NBC affiliate's chopper stopped by, sat down on a soccer field, and later took off.  Here they go, into the sunset!

San Diego Sunset

From my room on the 29th floor of the Bayfront Hilton hotel, San Diego, California (while attending an IT conference), looking west through a thermopane window - I saw the sun setting, and grabbed my longest lens (Canon EF 100-400mm L IS USM) and aimed dead center on the sun (to set the lighting), then focused on the palm trees on the hill, and shot away.  This is cropped about 50% and post processed a bit in Adobe® Photoshop® CS4 to deal with some of the flare/reflection that either the window created, or the fact that I was looking dead center into the sun - the original shot had a small reflection of the sun on top of the sun - floating in the sky, that needed to be removed.  Final product:

Where have I been?

It's been awhile since I've posted to my blog, and it's not because things have not been happening.  Early in May, I was in Las Vegas for a technology convention, but for a day and a half, I spent time at Bryce Canyon National Park, and then also a little time at Zion National Park.  In June, our oldest daughter was married, and the last week of July I spent in San Diego.  So I've been keeping busy with my cameras, but just have not found time to post updates to my web site (www.JHillmer.com) or here.  In August, I'm helping a high school band group with their "band camp" and that includes shooting them too. 

I just got back a nice shot from my Bryce Canyon collection, one that I had printed and mounted at Nations Photo Lab as a 20x30 inch, and then double matted and framed at a local framing store in town.  It really looks nice.  Here's a small version of the shot:

Spring in Wisconsin

It's been a warm spring in South Eastern Wisconsin.  For the past two weekends, I've had a chance to get out and hike some of your State and County areas in search of wildlife.  Take a look at the recent updates to http://www.jhillmer.com/!  Here's a sample that includes a Sandhill Crane taking to flight right over a pair of Bufflehead Ducks.

Redtail Hawk, outside of Lena, Illinois

Taken while driving my family back from a wedding shower for my daughter.  Taken just before it took to flight.

Cedar Waxwings in Texas

I live in SE Wisconsin, and each fall we see the Cedar Waxwings for a few weeks as they migrate through feeding on the ripe cedar berries (and others).  While we see them from time to time in the summer too, fall is when they are easy to spot.  Then, they disappear as the fall turns to winter here, and they look for food in other southern states.  I had a business meeting in Dallas Texas last week, and I found many of them there, feeding on berry trees that were near the hotel I was staying at.  It was nice to see them again!

Marsh Madness in Horicon

I took the day off in recognition of my 52nd birthday and with cameras in hand, I spent a few hours in and near the Horicon Marsh State Wildlife area (Wisconsin). 

While the marsh was still frozen and covered with snow, geese where already stopping over, and a number of sandhill cranes were seen (and heard) well overhead on their way north.  In a small wooded area, I found this cardinal signing back and forth with another one.  I also spotted a few redtail hawks and a red-bellied woodpecker, and heard my first robin this year.

Canon Service Center - Great Results!

Unfortunately, a year or so back, I dropped my Canon 100-400mm IS lens, and while it didn't hit the ground hard, the filter shattered which in the end resulted in a very small nick in the external glass of the lens. The rest of the lens appeared to still function fine, but after months of use, I noticed that when IS (image stabilization) was engaged, the auto-focus was way too soft. In time, I stopped using the IS. After hearing that Canon's Service center did a nice repair job for a friend of mine, I decided to try them too. Sure enough, I'm very happy with the results.

Go to Canon's web site, surf to the support page for the EOS cameras and ask for a quote. Since my lens was out of warranty, they were not able to quote a repair price, but they said if I mailed it to them (at my cost) they would email me with the cost of the repair, and on my approval they would perform the repair in 7 days, and return it to me at their cost. If I didn't like the repair cost, they would also return it to me at their cost. The repair cost was reasonable, given what they probably had to do to fix the IS and auto-focus, and they also replaced the front glass, and shipped it back, and it works great! I recommend this same approach if you are not happy with the performance of your lenses too!

Christmas Shopping at Amazon?

With all the Black Friday and Cyber Monday offers, when I saw Amazon reduce Adobe's Dark Room 2 to $124, I could not pass that up. I already have CS4, and Photoshop Elements 4 and 7, so Light Room should be a nice complement for my work-flow. We'll see!

Milwaukee at Dusk

My youngest daughter and I had some time to kill while in Milwaukee this weekend (she was at an Honors Band event at UW-Milwaukee) so for dinner, we drove through down-town and admired the Christmas lights, ate, and then drove back north along the lake-shore. Near the Marina, I saw this reflection in a pond and pulled over to shoot. Too bad I didn't have a tripod, but I still like it. Canon 40D, handheld at 1/4 sec, f/2.8, 33mm, iso-400.

Cave Photography, Anti-Landscapes?

We have a few caves in the state of Wisconsin, with the best known being Cave of the Mounds, which I've enjoyed many trips to. This past weekend, I chaperoned an 8th grade Middle-School's Science Club to this cave, and shot a number of pictures of their adventure. This cave is known for having many colors, but with cave lighting, it was a challenge to capture it well. Here's one of a small section that was dripping with water.

No Birds, but a Great Pair of Cattails

This shot was taken at Loew Lake, in the Loew Lake Unit of the Kettle Moraine State Forrest (Wisconsin) this past weekend. The lake is next to impossible to get to. The hiking trails don't go near the lake because it is surrounded mostly by thickets and brush and rotting trees in a marsh. But from the bluff near the lake, I heard very loud and clear duck/goose noises coming from the lake, which was barely visible. I wanted to see what they were, and what they were doing, for some possible good pictures. I decided to just do it, and made my way through the mess with only getting a little wet. When I got to the lake, I found the bird noises were coming from 4 duck hunters who had a boat and blind set up. Well, no wildlife to take pictures of, but the cattails with the fall colors behind them looked really nice to me.

Fall in Delafield, Wisconsin

I was out looking to see what was happening today, and found a nice spot for a "car-shot" in a nearby State Park. My intention was to pose next to it, an updated self portrait, I guess, but I didn't have all the components for my tripod with me. Oops. Then I headed to Delafield (WI), to the Bark River, and to Nagawicka Lake. I spotted some Cedar Waxwings picking at a berry bush, and then I saw 4 swans quite a ways out on the Lake (where the Bark River flows out of it). The swans were too far away for a good shot, so I drove around the Lake and found a home-owner who allowed me access to the Lake, and then I saw them, 2 parents and 2 juveniles, Mute Swans. The home-owner said they'd been there all summer, raising their young.

Fall Colors in Baraboo, Wisconsin

This past weekend, I had an enjoyable time helping to chaperon a group of Middle School students, a Science Club, to Devils Lake State Park, near Baraboo, Wisconsin. It was a bit cold at first, but with the hiking trail that we chose, one of the more difficult ones, I got warm in a hurry. The fall colors were really nice, though I suspect they will peak in about one more week. The kids had a great time, and no one got hurt or lost, but my knee has been acting up ever since the "climb"

Cedar Waxwing Birds - Feeding Time!

This past weekend, my Brother-in-Law mentioned that he had seen Cedar Waxwing birds feeding off the nearby trees. I went over to investigate, but they were not there at the time, so I headed out of town to a State Park, and sure enough, I found a dozen or more of them, feeding off the cedar tree's berries. I've updated my web site with my favorites from the weekend (JHillmer.com) and here is a link to a slide-show with about 10 bird shots feeding.

Cedar Waxwings

Full Moon, Over Historic Waukesha

A few times each year (quarterly?), Waukesha Wisconsin holds an Art Crawl along Main Street in the Downtown area. This evening, I spent a little over an hour walking through the art studios and enjoying the nice autumn weather. It was nearly a full moon, but a bit cloudy. However, as I walked past one of the older historic buildings (that houses Martha Merrell's Books and Cuddles) I saw the chance for a nice shot. I drove home and got my cameras and tripod, and when I got back, here's the result (shot with a Canon 40D using a Canon 17-55mm f/2.8 IS lens, with the shutter open for 3.2 seconds, f/4.6, ISO-100, zoomed to 28mm).

Marching Band Material

While my hobby is Nature and Wildlife photography, I have also been a high-school Marching Band's photographer for a few years. This past weekend was a lot of fun, getting group and sectional shots of the kids, while also looking for material for a glossy program that is being put together for a show we will be hosting in two weeks. Candid and group shots are provided to the band members and their parents using a semi-private site, so I usually don't display their shots elsewhere. I will include a few here that I like from the weekend, as they capture the mood and event, without focusing on the individuals. One of these will be on the cover of the program that we sent off to the printer today, the others are just shots that I like.

Golden Gate Bridge - in Fog

At the end of August, I spent a few days in San Francisco on business, and had a few hours to myself one late afternoon. The Bay-Area was fogged in as usual, and while I took a few shots of the sea lions and local birds, I had fun trying to capture the Golden Gate Bridge with fog, sun-down, pelicans, and without getting too much salt water near my camera. To help with this, I took a short 1 hour tour out from Fishermen's Wharf, around Alcatraz Island, and then back. Here's one of my favorites from the evening.

Canon EOS 7D DSLR - Wow!

I was not in the market for another camera, but news of the Canon 7D that was just announced caught my eye! As of today, Amazon is not yet showing it but others are listing it as "not available yet" and other sites suggest it will be on the street by the end of this September.

See more at: Canon's Site, or check out for one of my favorite review sites, dpreview.com

Canon's site says msrp will be $1,699, so it will be interesting to see what the internet sites offer it for, and if this new model causes any price movement on the Canon EOS 50D, or to the Canon EOS 5D Mark II (I've been thinking that might be the next one for me, but the 7D could be interesting too).