The Cottage Shoot: People

Originally published as three separate posts I have combined the three into one.  These photos come from one of my first outings with my Nikon D90 and sort of represent a starting point with my SLR photography.  Some of them are OK, but definitely not my best work.   The descriptions also come from early in my understanding of SLR photography, so they may be a little drawn out.

I spent the weekend at the family cottage in the Muskoka region of Ontario, on Peninsula Lake (Pen Lake) near Huntsville, Ontario, and this was my first real chance to take some serious shots.  All of the shots are taken with my Nikon D90 with a 18-200 mm lens.

The first shot is of my brother wakeboarding.  I was on the floating dock leaning on an inner tube and in order to freeze the action I used a fast shutter speed of 1/1250 sec.  I also wanted a decent DOF to get both my brother and the boat in decent focus so I used f/8.  I had metered the lake before the action statred and decided that to get a fast shutter speed I would bump the ISO to 400.  I then selected the aperture and using the light meter in my viewfinder selected the shutter speed.  The image is not as perfectly sharp as I would like.  A firmer support and a wider aperture may have been better, but this may have required a higher ISO to keep the fast shutter speed.   The focal length of the lens was at 120 mm.  The compression of the image for display here takes away some of the clarity.  I will work on that.

Wake boarding on Pen Lake.  Shot from the dock. (1/1250 sec., f/8, ISO 400)

The next photo was taken from the boat.  I knew I wanted a fast shutter speed so I left it at ISO 400.  I wanted a narrow DOF so that the focus was on the wakeboarder (his first time trying it, hence the wipe out) and for my lens the minimum aperture when at 200 mm is f/5.6 .  The light meter suggested a corresponding shutter speed of 1/1250 sec.  I think it worked well to freeze the motion.  Not a fan of the heads being chopped off in the background.  either zooming out a bit to include them or re framing the shot may have helped.  They were not my main concern at the time, but it does detract from the photo.

Learning to Wake board. Taken from the boat. (1/1250 sec., f/5.6, ISO 400)

The next picture of is in a completely different setting.  My brothers and their friends were fishing at dusk.  The ISO was set to 1600 so that I could hand-hold the camera.  The lowest aperture was used (f/3.5) and the meter called for a shutter speed of 1/200 sec.  I was on the same floating dock as the fishermen, so we were all moving together.  Because the subjects were so stationary it is possible a longer shutter speed would have added some motion and drama to this shot.

Fishing off the dock.  (1/200 sec., f/3.5, ISO 1600)

While I was at the cottage there were several opportunities to photograph the local wildlife and I never had to go very far to do it.   I have done much editing of the pictures so some are a little bit crooked (something I need to work on). All photos were taken with my 18-200 mm lens.

A couple families of ducks live near the dock and they are quite friendly and accepting of us as we walk up and down the dock.  For most of the duck shots the goal was to get the duck in focus.  The first two shots were in the open so ISO 200 was used while the rest of the duck pics were in overcast light so ISO 400 was used to allow for a fast shutter speed.

(1/250 sec., f/5.6, ISO 200)

Not sure why the ducks like standing on one leg. (1/400 sec., f/5.6, ISO 200)

(1/1600 sec., f/5.6, ISO 400)

(1/400 sec., f/5.6, ISO 400)

(1/400 sec., f/5.6, ISO 400)

At one point a large heron walked along the shore line.  I got several shots of it walking bt the highlight was when it took off from the neighbour's dock.

(1/800 sec., f/5.6, ISO 400)

Several birds were feeding outside the big bay window in the cottage.  The light was low so the ISO was set to 640 and the aperture to f/5.6.   The window was a bit dirty but I think the focus worked out.  The focal length was 170mm and the shutter speed was 1/250 sec.

If I had used a spot meter mode as opposed to a matrix metering I would have got a better exposure on the blue jay.  More on that in the future. (1/250 sec., f/5.6, ISO 640)

While I was shooting the ducks at ISO 400 I turned and saw a lily flower and thought I would take a shot of it.  I kept the aperture at f/5.6 and used the meter to set the shutter speed at 1/3200 sec.  The focal length was 200mm. Just as I was about to take the picture the bug came into the shot and landed on the flower.  I took a couple shots of it as it landed.  I will probably crop this in a vertical format later, I think that will have a better impact.

(1/3200 sec., f/5.6, ISO 400)

Some of my favourite pictures from the cottage were the nighttime low-light shots.  The moon was full and provided a very interesting light over the lake.  I started by setting up the tripod on the stationary part of the dark and took a few shots as the clouds passed by.   All pictures are taken with the 18-200mm lens.

The first picture was taken with a focal length of 26mm at ISO 400, aperture f/6.3 and a shutter speed of 30 sec.  The higher film speed was used to avoid manually controlling the shutter speed since 30 sec. is the longest the D90 will go without going into bulb mode.

(30 sec., f/6.3, ISO 400)

When I walked back down the dock I saw a neat glow from the cottage and tried to shoot it.  I used a focal length of 18mm, ISO 200, aperture f/3.5 and shutter speed 20 sec.

(20 sec., f/3.5, ISO 200)

Probably my favourite shot of the night came when I turned around just before going inside and decided to take one last set of pictures.  The ISO was 200, focal length 18mm, aperture f/5.6 and a shutter speed of 15 sec.

(15 sec., f/5.6, ISO 200)

I wanted to try some shots from the inside of the old cottage.  It's a 50+ year old log cabin with all sorts of cool stuff on the walls.  The first is ISO 200, focal length 18mm, aperture f/16 and a shutter speed of 3 sec.

(3 sec., f/16, ISO 200)

The second is ISO 200, 18mm, f/11 for 5 sec.

(5 sec., f/11. ISO 200)

Thats all from the cottage for now.

Unfortunately the cottage has been sold and is no longer in the family.  I still visit a cottage in Huntsville but it is a much larger cottage and has a much different atmosphere.  It will be missed.



Originally posted: 11-12/08//2009
Combined, updated and republished on the date of this post.