I have been re-discovering lots of forgotten gems as I continue with my re-organization project. Here are three more.

The first picture was taken in 2010 along the Farm to Market Road near Bow, WA. I love looking for shorebirds in the flooded winter fields in the Skagit Valley. This picture of Dunlin in non-breeding plumage was taken with a 500 mm lens with a 1.4 tele-extender. Settings were ISO 800, Aperture f/20 and Shutter 1/250. Diagonal lines are one of my favorite composition elements and this image uses diagonals to the max. It was a windy day and I probably should have opened the aperture up and used a faster shutter speed. Fortunately, the image is reasonably sharp.

The second two images are from a Palouse trip with the Olympia Camera Club in 2013. This was the first time I had been to the Palouse and I was just blown away by the colors, textures and patterns of the grain fields. The farmhouse picture was taken not too long after dawn. Once again, there are strong diagonal elements. This was taken with a Canon 1D Mark II and a 28-135 mm lens. I do not think I used a polarizer. The settings were ISO 100, Aperture f/5.6 and Shutter 1/125.

This last image is my first experience at night shooting and light painting. Night shooting has become a favorite of mine. It is of a grain elevator in the Palouse. There was a lot to learn. The Canon 1D Mark II is not the best camera for night shooting as I discovered that night. It was just too old. Any ISO above 800 was extremely noisy and the tiny LCD on the back was not large enough to see the image so I could adjust the focus. I was extremely lucky to get anything in focus. I fell in love with night shooting and decided on the spot that I needed to upgrade my camera. It took two years, but eventually I purchased a Canon 7D Mark II which was better suited for night photography. I used the 28-135 mm lens. I tried using my 18 – 35 mm lens, but I could not get it to focus properly. I remember all these details because of the notes that I took that night. I keep a notebook with details of most of my photo trips. The settings were ISO 3200, Aperture f/3/5 and Shutter 15 s.