TCS.net - Michael's Blog

Sandhill Cranes

Sat, 06 Mar 2010 13:09:42 -0600

Sandhill Cranes
by Benjamin Tillotson
Saturday, March 6, 2010, 1:09pm

The Cranes are here!

The fog was very cool this morning. Made for some good even lighting for most of the morning. Looks like the crane on the left was digging in the mud.

The warm moist air was creating quite a bit of steam near the ground where it was cold.

Cottonwoods are always cool.

Red Tailed Hawk.

You'll probably see some of these photos on POD in the next few days.

Wells Fargo Bank Hostage Situation

Wed, 10 Feb 2010 14:18:46 -0600

Wells Fargo Bank Hostage Situation
by Benjamin Tillotson
Wednesday, February 10, 2010, 2:18pm

At 11:15 this morning a man carrying a shotgun entered the Wells Fargo Bank in downtown Kearney (only three blocks from our office). The man held four people hostage for a couple hours. The Kearney Hub website has some detailed onfo on the whole situation: "UPDATED 12 p.m. 02-10-2010: KEARNEY - Snipers are perched on the roofs in downtown Kearney as police rush to resolve a hostage situation at Wells Fargo Bank. As the Hub went to press, an armed man was using a shotgun to hold hostages inside the bank at 21 W. 21st St. The hostage situation began about 10:57 a.m., and around 11:15, some employees and customers at the bank were evacuated through an east door into the alley. About 30 to 40 people were evacuated, and police officers accompanied them to ensure the suspect was not among them. According to police radio exchanges, the hostage-taker was a male, about age 25, with a beard. He was wearing a tan trench coat. According to police radio communications, the man held the shotgun to a woman's head and demanded news cameras from NTV. He said he had been fired at the TV station and wanted publicity. Later, police communicated that the man had four hostages on the bank's second floor. As the Hub went to press, the Kearney Police Department was preparing to send in a negotiator. Police blocked streets around the bank and took up positions around the area. Snipers were on top of the nearby Bruce Furniture building."

The guy surrendured only five minutes before I got there. Kearney Hub says: UPDATED 1:30 p.m. 02-10-10: KEARNEY - The hostage crisis that began at 11:15 a.m. today ended almost two hours later when the hostage taker emerged without his shotgun from Wells Fargo Bank. Police immediately took the man into custody and then entered the bank to check for people who might have been hiding inside.

January 6, 2010 - Hoar Frost

Thu, 07 Jan 2010 18:16:13 -0600

January 6, 2010 - Hoar Frost
by Benjamin Tillotson
Thursday, January 7, 2010, 6:16pm

More frost pictures! I don't know if you like snow and frost as much as I do but as far as new blog posts go this what you get this time of year. :)

I went to Cottonmill Park before the snow and wind started blowing most of the frost off the trees.

The frost was very thick in places. I'm guessing there was at least an inch of frost on the most exposed grass and trees.

A miniature forest of sand plumb trees.

Once the snow and wind started I went down to the platte river.

The Platte River is a very cool place in a snow storm.

85mm f/2.2 3200 sec.

Taking a break... At some point I realized how cold it was and started heading back to the car.

The camera bag had some snow on it when I got back.

Dec 8, 2009 Snow Storm & Frost

Mon, 14 Dec 2009 13:54:54 -0600

Dec 8, 2009 Snow Storm & Frost
by Benjamin Tillotson
Monday, December 14, 2009, 1:54pm

Tuesday, Dec. 8 was the big day for this event. Kearney ended up with a total of about 10 inches by the end of the day. But due to work and having to leave early the next morning I was not able to take as many photos as I would have liked. The trip across Iowa the next day was interesting as all of Iowa was under a blizzard warning all day making travel difficult. These are mostly from the morning of the 14th. The day before there had been quite a bit of freezing fog which made for some thick frost on the trees. I don't have a whole lot of time to write as I have a lot of work to do before Christmas so I'll just post lots of pictures and maybe I can write more later. Hope you enjoy. :)

The Platte River was almost completely frozen over.

These dips around the posts were interesting. It was all solid ice. I'm thinking that the water must have soaked into the snow as it drifted around the posts and froze that way.

Here are a few more from that evening.

Treehouse Decorating and Moon Halo

Tue, 01 Dec 2009 11:28:41 -0600

Treehouse Decorating and Moon Halo
by Michael & Benjamin Tillotson
Tuesday, December 1, 2009, 11:28am

Some people have traditions for the day after Thanksgiving, like going shopping at 1:00am in the morning and decorating their houses and yards with Christmas lights. We have traditions too: decorating the treehouse while playing Christmas music and having monkey bread and eggnog.

Shopping costs money, even with the good deals. I usually skip that tradition since money seems to be in short supply these days. Sure, treehouse decoration costs money too, but not that much, especially when several strings of last year's icicle lights still work...after reattaching severed wires and replacing a few bulbs. The only shopping we did was to get a few more Christmas lights to be sure our treehouse would be well lit. Last year our treehouse was on the front page of the Kearney Hub, so we decided to do an especially good job with decorating this year. We expect a few more people to be driving by to see our handiwork.

Our treehouse is 27 feet off the ground. The peak of the roof is 39 feet in elevation. To get up to it you climb a 12 foot ladder to the first landing and take two flights of stairs up to the front porch. From there you can take the take the steps up to the balcony or enter the main level of the treehouse. The main level is maybe 80 square feet, large enough for a small table and several people (the more the merrier). There is a narrow ladder (somewhat flimsy) that takes you up to the loft which is approximately 4x6 feet. The height of the inside of the treehouse is 14 feet: 7 feet for the first level and somewhat less in the loft, but for the most part you can stand up straight without hitting your head on the ceiling.

This is a view of the front porch. On the left their are steps attached to the tree branch for ascending to the balcony, although you can't see them well in this photo.

While some of us were outside pounding in nails to hold up the strings of lights, Benjamin put up the greenery and lights on the inside. This is the main level.

Here you can see the ladder that leads up to the loft

As I mentioned before, we have a tradition of playing Christmas music from the treehouse while we decorate. We set up some large speakers and played music while we worked.

We wrapped string lights around the railings and put icicle lights pretty much everywhere else. This is the first time we ran this many lights all the way down the stairs. We even put lights on the ladder.

Here's what it looked like after a few hours of work:

I'm thinking it might look good to put another string of lights down the other side of the ladder as well. It looks fine from the street, but from this view it looks incomplete.

Group photo time! We did an 8 second exposure, so those that didn't hold still turned out to be a blur. (Micah!)

The treehouse decorating team! The guys decorated the treehouse, but the girls worked on other decorations and fixed monkey bread and eggnog for us (delicious!).

Left to right: John Tillotson, Kohei Kawai, Noah, Josiah, Michael Tillotson, Benjamin Tillotson & Micah

Here some more shots of the treehouse that Benjamin took:

Later that night a moon halo appeared in the sky, providing an amazing backdrop for the treehouse photos.

Well, we had as good a time as ever decorating this year. Thanks to all you guys who helped out! :)

Stanley Cemetery

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 11:56:32 -0600

Stanley Cemetery
by Benjamin Tillotson
Wednesday, November 4, 2009, 11:56am

I'm still trying to find the best spot for some good super telephoto sunset shots. I didn't find anything quite like I was looking for but did end up in a decent spot east of Elm Creek.

Unharvested field of milo. Its been a little wet for the framers around here.

Some sort of wild flowers I think.

Cessna Road. This road is one of the main roads south of Amherst.

Some combines were stiring up the dust which made a cool effect at sunset.

Later that night we went northwest of town toward Amherst to get some moonlit landscapes. We ended up at this cool cemetery south of Amherst.

You can see a few ghosts in this picture. Yikes! :O

And here's part of Michael. :P

Stanley Cemetery

The Nebraska Badlands Part II

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 10:35:10 -0500

The Nebraska Badlands Part II
by Michael Tillotson
Wednesday, October 21, 2009, 10:35am

The low for the night at Fort Robinson, only a few miles south of us, was 28 degrees. It's definitely the coldest campout I've ever had, but with a sweatshirt, hooded jacket, sleeping bag and blanket, I kept plenty warm. In spite of my efforts to make sure everyone would be comfortable during the night, poor Micah still got a little cold.

When we woke up in the morning, we had ice on our pillows. The dampness that was on our sleeping bags the evening before was now frozen. When we crawled out of our beds and tried to put on our shoes, we found that they were stiff from the frost.

Sunrise was coming quickly, so I grabbed the camera and tripod and ran pel-mel all over the place trying to get as many different angles and views as I could in the beautiful dawn light.

I repeatedly had to wipe off the ice that kept condensing and freezing on my lens.

The cloud patterns were beautiful in the morning light

Seth and DJ were perched on top of a couple of the nearby badland hills. Suddenly I heard DJ announce the sunrise with a yell. :) I looked to the east and saw the sun beginning to poke above the horizon.

A view looking east toward our campsite. Benjamin's there getting breakfast ready.

DJ is walking back to camp

Benjamin had breakfast almost ready when I returned to camp. Same traditional breakfast, this time with some cinnamon rolls.

The sunlight hadn't thawed our beds yet, so I got a photo of the frost on Seth's pillow.

Seth's pillow

Delicious

Josiah enjoys his sausage and cottage cheese

Cooking the second course of sausage

We had difficulty cooking the bacon enough to make it crispy

Don't laugh. We were only trying to figure out ways to cook cinnamon rolls without burning them. :P I don't think we succeeded.

After breakfast we still had time for a short hike to what we called the "baby badlands". :)

These badland formations are much smaller than the large ones we climbed the day before. DJ is demonstrating one of the better ways to navigate these narrow passages.

Seth is trying to find a way to descend gracefully

Josiah walks along one of the easier passageways

Water break

It's time to head back to our campsite to pack up if we're going to get home at the appointed time.

We rarely return the way we come. What's the best way down from here??

The riverbed is still icy

I believe it took us over an hour to pack everything back in the vehicle. We finally rolled out of Toadstool Park and were heading back to Kearney on Highway 2.

We stopped at a gas station for a rest break and a very late lunch.

The sidewalk was a convenient spot to spread out our sandwich ingredients

Josiah ponders the meaning of life while DJ takes catches up on sleep

By the time we got back to Kearney, the ice was all melted and our sleeping bags and blankets were wet. We spread them all out on our front yard to let them dry.

A nicely decorated front yard. Josh is making sure the pretty weeds by our mailbox don't dry up.

I am gratefull to all the guys for a great time on this trip! Perhaps again next year, as has already been proposed. :) I'm sure even greater adventures await us...

The Nebraska Badlands

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 11:24:56 -0500

The Nebraska Badlands
by Michael Tillotson
Tuesday, October 20, 2009, 11:24am

Sleeping in the open air on a cold night at Fort Robinson can be fun, provided you have enough blankets and a cap on your head. I slept comfortably, but when everyone got up in the morning I found out that some of the team hadn't been as comfortable.

There were also reports of strange sounds in the night. Some creature had been near our campsite and made an peculiar high-to-low pitch screeching sound. Benjamin didn't think it was a bird. It ran away when they tried to approach it. As of now we have no idea what it was.

I think it had gotten down to the mid 30s during the night. We got a fire going as soon as we got up.

Some of the boys are still in bed. :)

Before sunrise, all of us (except Josh, who needed more sleep) loaded into the van and went east a little way to greet the sunrise. There was a moment when the horizon was pink just before the sun came up, and that was all. The sky was too overcast to get any really good photos.

Back at camp we fixed breakfast and replenished the water supply for our next destination.

Our traditional camping breakfast: cottage cheese & sausage, scrambled eggs, & bacon. Perhaps not a balanced meal, but we survived. :)

You can see the Fort Robinson graveyard in this shot

Micah is staying warm

Josiah & Josh refill our water containers

Seth cooks his bacon on a stick. It's much faster than the frying pan.

After packing the van, we stopped at the shower house for showers and then crammed ourselves in for the drive to Toadstool Park.

Stocking up on water and salt and pepper shakers at the Crawford grocery store

Cows just southeast of Toadstool Park

Everyone else waits in the van while I take cow pictures

We arrived at the park and packed a lunch and water bottles before we set out on our trek through the badlands.

Toadstool Park!

It was a little cool when we started, but it wasn't long before we shed our jackets.

Group photo! I got as high as I could before the camera timer went off

Navigating the badlands can be quite interesting. Nothing is very sturdy, and once you start sliding you may not be able to stop.

Yes, there are people in this picture.

Descending the ridge

Micah stands above a chasm

Micah jumps the chasm

There were small streams of water in the valleys. It had rained not too long before because there was some mud in the shady areas.

Josh found a piece of quartz

A cave!

Climbing the last steep spot to the grassy plateau was very challenging. You might make it most of the way up and then lose your footing and slide all the way to the bottom again.

Lunch break

Everyone's ready for a rest

Group photo! This time I made it all the way to where everyone else was before the shutter went off

Dark clouds started rolling in from the north and the wind was strong and cold

Micah and Seth wait for the others to catch up

DJ found an animal skull

At this point we decided to start heading back. We didn't take a direct route though.

DJ walks across the grassy plain

Some unique formations

See those cactuses? I put my hand on one and had my hand loaded with cactus spines. I pulled out as many as I could, but some of them were so small they broke off when I tried to pull them out.

I'm still trying to pull out cactus spines. :P

Cactus heights

Josh attempting to squeeze into the gap

Descending to the winding river

Walking in the river bed

DJ jumping the badlands

Group photo! :)

After the long hike we were tired. Time for an afternoon nap.

After naps we went out to explore the area to the north before supper. We ended up staying out until after sunset and having a late meal.

As usual, getting myself in the photo was a challenge

This wall looked like a badlands fortress

The shadows are getting longer...

The badlands river

There were sun rays coming from behind the badlands after the sun had set

We were quite hungry when we got back to camp for dinner. Benjamin cooked hamburgers and we had potato salad to go with them. We used our gas grill to cook the hamburgers, but we wanted to use the charcoal grill to roast marshmallows for s'mores. I poured the rest of the lighter fluid on the charcoal, and then it wouldn't start. There must have been condensation in the lighter fluid container which kept it from igniting. After trying to start it with paper plates and sage brush, we finally gave up and a few of us roasted our marshmallows over the gas grill.

I tried to make sure that everyone had enough blankets and clothing to keep warm for the night. Our sleeping bags were wet with dew before we even went to bed. That night it was going to get very cold...

Fort Robinson

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 22:33:37 -0500

Fort Robinson
by Michael Tillotson
Monday, October 19, 2009, 10:33pm

A year ago we took a trip to Fort Robinson, and we decided to take another excursion out to that part of the country.

The day before our departure, Benjamin was working hard to get everything ready to go. We planned to camp out under the stars, so we packed LOTS of sleeping bags and blankets. Some very special friends let us borrow their van for the trip, so all seven of us could squeeze into one vehicle.

The alarm went off at 5:00am. Some members of our team wanted to leave at 3 or 4 in the morning, but I figured we should all be well rested for the trip. :) Anyway, we headed out to pick up the rest of our team and were on the road by a little after 6:00.

We stopped once or twice for photos, which wasn't nearly enough to capture the beauty of the sandhills in the morning light.

The whole team. From left to right: Seth Brauning, Benjamin Tillotson, Micah, DJ, Josiah, Josh, & Michael Tillotson (myself)

DJ was sitting in the passenger seat, so he got to take photos as we flew past the scenery. He took the next three photos.

The sandhills. Good photo DJ! :)

We arrived at Fort Robinson State Park around noon, and paid for the park sticker and a camping spot in our traditional spot near the graveyard.

Breaking out the lunch

After lunch we drove out to the buttes. There were horses and longhorns in the fields, but no bison that we could see.

Micah & Josiah enjoy the view

We tried to get a group photo with all of us in the tree, but I couldn't climb fast enough to beat the 10 second timer. :P

Climbing dirt cliffs is a challenge. Thankfully we all made it back down in one piece.

Group photo! :)

Longhorns

The horses were very curious about the camera Benjamin was holding

We started to head back to camp to get supper ready, but we thought we should get our picture taken with the horses.

Group photo! :)

We also have a tradition of forgetting to bring a can opener on our camping trips.

The Cream of Chicken is now opened and ready to be dumped into the noodle pot...once the water boils

Getting the fire started is a team effort

Josiah watching over the noodles

The sun was getting low in the sky, and the noodles weren't in any hurry to get cooked. So I needed to get back to the buttes to get some sunset photos before it was too late. Josiah went with me to keep me company.

It was somewhat cloudy, but the sunlight managed to poke through shortly before the sun disappeared behind the hills.

We finished off the day with a visit to Staab's Drive-in for some ice cream. Perhaps it isn't very smart to eat ice cream before a cold night sleeping under the stars, but we enjoyed ourselves nontheless.

Thus concludes day one of our journey. A cold night awaits us with more adventures to come in the morning...

October 10, 2009 - Snowstorm

Mon, 12 Oct 2009 21:19:56 -0500

October 10, 2009 - Snowstorm
by Benjamin Tillotson
Monday, October 12, 2009, 9:19pm

Much of the northern plains recieved early snowfall this year with some areas like North Platte breaking some records for the month of October with over 13". I wasn't expecting anything big but was suprised to wake up on Saturday to several inches on the ground and still snowing. I think we ended up with about 3 -4 inches.

I went west of town to some hills to see what I could find.

Everything had a thin coating of ice. I think things were warm enough at first to melt the snow but froze later on.

I'm sure a lot of farmers weren't happy with how things ended up. It looked like most corn had not been harvested yet.

Its always hard captureing snow flakes in the air but I found the best way was to use the 85mm at f/1.8 and a high shutter speed. The large aperature helps to Isolate the flakes. f/1.8 1/800 sec. ISO 100

This is at the north channel of the Platte. There was still a lot of green stuff around.

Remnants of the burned bridge.

I have never seen poisen ivy in snow before. Usually its mostly gone by the time we start getting snow. Anyway, I'm probably going to get it now that I got so close to it :P. Thats what I call staring death in the face!

This is jumping ahead a couple days to Monday morning at the south channel of the Platte river. It had snowed agian and I was hoping for some more good snow landscapes. I was also looking for some good fall color to go with it, something we don't always get aound here.

A few deer crossing the trail.

This is about as good of "fall color" as I could find at the river. :P The photo's a little shaky perhaps but thats as good as I could do hand held in the low light. I just thought the snow on the leaves looked cool.

Because of the cold temperatures on saturday some trees just seemed to dump all there leaves at once.

Finally some real fall color! I found this maple tree at cottonmill park with a little snow on the leaves that hadn't melted yet.

There was more than one maple tree in the park. They really stand out against the seeming lack of color in most of the other trees around.

Got to meet this alien from another planet. :P Seriously, though, there heads look unnatural.

10/01/09 Sunset and Full Moon

Fri, 02 Oct 2009 11:55:32 -0500

10/01/09 Sunset and Full Moon
by Benjamin Tillotson
Friday, October 2, 2009, 11:55am

I took a short trip west of town yesterday trying to find a good location for some landscape shots. First off I headed to the hills south of Gothenberg but was a little frustrated by the road option (or lack of them). :P Most of the roads kept to the valleys so it was hard to find a high point where I could get a good view of the horizen.

Ran into a road block here. :) It kept on getting in the way whenever I tried to pass.

After an unsuccessful try in the hills south of Gothenberg I headed to the sandhills north of Brady. I needed a good view of the horizon for sunset and was having a hard time finding a good spot. I thought it would be cool to get a windmill silhouette right at sunset, but I didn't end up getting that either. :P

Its kind of lonely out in those sandhills. Not many trees out there and the ones you see are usually dead.

I actually ended up in some corn fields for sunset and my incredible windmill idea ended up being the top of a silo. It wasn't hard finding windmills but getting in the right spot for a silhouette seemed almost impossible.

Not sure what these trucks were hauling, it looked like corn.

I used this thing on top of this silo as a silhouette.

I noticed the full moon and stopped at Sandy Channel south of the Elm Creek interchange. The low fast moving clouds made for an incredible landscape. These last shots seemed to make the trip worth it. :)

I thought it would be kind of cool to have the car in the photo, but the only problem was the lights. I wanted the car lights on in the shot, but was having some exposure problems. If I left the lights on for the whole exposure they would be way to bright. So I had to lock the shutter open run to the car and turn on the lights for only a few seconds and then run back to unlock the shutter. I'm in this photo you just can't see me.

Looks like a little bit of lens flare on the moon in these shots.

It was a little windy so thats why the trees look the way they do.

A couple of I-80 shots before I head home for the night.

Low Fog Sunrise on the Platte River

Tue, 29 Sep 2009 13:45:20 -0500

Low Fog Sunrise on the Platte River
by Benjamin Tillotson
Tuesday, September 29, 2009, 1:45pm

Some very cool low fog on the river this morning as temps dipped into the mid 30s for the first time this year producing our first frost and a good contrast between the water and air temperature.

It was still quite dark at this point. 85mm at f/1.8 for 30 sec. ISO 100.

85mm f/14 for 5 sec.

Some neat color with this sunrise.

Looking west. The fog looked quite thick there in places.

There were a lot of deer in the area this morning but I was having a hard time getting good shots of them because of the limited light.

400mm shot west. Even though I was using a tripod for this photo I still got some camera shake. Its difficult to get long exposures with the 400mm as the slightest wind causes the lens to move and the slightest motion is a big deal with a super telephoto.

400mm shot east with a Great Blue Heron.

Noticed a buck with a good sized rack down the trail. Wish I could have gotten closer. 100% crops.

Had a good opportunity here for some interesting photos but it was still dark enough I couldn't freeze motion. Oh well. :P

My batteries died at this point which wasn't a good thing as I began seeing deer right and left. Also found out that if I take out the batteries and switch them around I can take a couple more photos before they go completely dead. This last photo was definitely worth the effort.

The Platte - Overcast Skies & Blackbirds

Tue, 22 Sep 2009 17:10:48 -0500

The Platte - Overcast Skies & Blackbirds
by Michael Tillotson
Tuesday, September 22, 2009, 5:10pm

This morning I woke up at 5:00, an hour before my alarm went off. I couldn't fall asleep again, so I got up and gathered camera supplies and breakfast and headed out to the north channel of the Platte.

When I got there it was still quite dark, so instead of going through the tall weeds to the bridge wreckage, I walked east through the woods to a place further downstream. A couple times I tried to approach the river, but I kept running into tall weeds that I didn't want to navigate in the dark with only a cell phone for a flashlight. At that point it began to lightly sprinkle and I hoped it wouldn't turn into a regular rain. Then I found a spot where the grass was short and I could get right up to the shore.

Suddenly I heard a noise from across the river. At first I thought I saw a deer running along the opposite shore, but then I realized that the creature was flying, not running. It was a large bird, likely a Great Blue Heron. A few seconds later I heard a sound like boulders being tossed into the river a few yards away. I recognized the noise as a beaver sounding a warning by slapping its tail against the water. Apparently it had seen me, but I stayed low, hoping it would stay around and be there when it got light enough to take photos.

It finally got light enough for a decent shutter speed, so I moved forward and looked up and down the river for any sign of life. Nothing. I decided to keep walking east and take some photos of the trees and vegitation.

This is the path that I am taking along the river--through fallen trees. The Platte is just to the right.

Then I saw a dark cloud suddenly forming on the horizon.

A cloud of blackbirds. I believe they were starlings.

The above photo was a smaller cloud than I saw originally. The moved fast in my direction and a bunch of them gathered in a tree across the river from me.

There were thousands of them flying right overhead

A few more starlings fly overhead

I like the grass here.

This is a burned tree trunk left from the fire that burned this area last spring

Cactus. Going barefoot near the Platte can be hazardous. I've had the prickly pear cactus even penetrate my shoes. Ouch.

Another grass photo

The next three photos are attempts to get this thistle framed just right. :) Which is YOUR favorite?

Thistle #1

Thistle #2

Thistle #3

Early Morning at the Platte River

Tue, 15 Sep 2009 10:57:21 -0500

Early Morning at the Platte River
by Michael Tillotson
Tuesday, September 15, 2009, 10:57am

I haven't gone down to the Platte early in the morning for many months. I've had so many projects going on that it's been hard to take the time. And now that I have a shop downtown, I have to arrange for my brother to open up at 8:00 in my absence. Anyway, I finally decided to get up early and head out with my camera. My sister Vanessa also went along and kept me company.

The grass by the river was very tall dripping with dew, so we got a little wet. I couldn't see down the river from the shore, so I took off my boots and socks and waded out to a sandbar.

This is looking southwest of the burned-out bridge southeast of Kearney

It was somewhat foggy, which I had hoped for. It was a light fog, but had a good effect on the photos.

You can see the remains of the bridge that burned down earlier this year

Looking northwest Click here to order a print of this photo.

Now using the 400mm lens. This is where I saw deer standing in the river before (read this post), but I didn't see any today. Click here to order a print of this photo.

Sunrise

The sun peeked through the clouds for a few moments

A wide-angle shot of the river Click here to order a print of this photo.

I didn't see much wildlife today besides a few birds. It seems that the deer prefer to cross the river in shallower areas, so maybe this area is still a little deep for them. I don't know. I'll keep trying for the perfect shot. :) Maybe next week...

Camera & Flashlights & Other Night Photography

Mon, 07 Sep 2009 22:48:17 -0500

Camera & Flashlights & Other Night Photography
by Michael Tillotson
Monday, September 7, 2009, 10:48pm

Playing around with lights and a camera with a long exposure can be entertaining. Here's a few flashlight-effects photos we took recently, along with some other scenic nighttime shots.

Benjamin stands in the barnyard surrounded by a mysterious swirling light

To take the above photo, we waited until it was dark. Then we locked the camera shutter open for thirty seconds while I ran around Benjamin with the flashlight always pointing at the camera. Then I stood behind the camera and shone the light on Benjamin for a few seconds. The result is that you can see the light, but I, the flashlight bearer, remain invisible.

A similar technique was used below, except we used the flash at the beginning of the exposure to illuminate the scene and then did the lightning effects.

Josh emanating an extreme electrical charge

Imaginary people take on form with flashlight tricks like these.

Josh makes a new friend

Josh gives imaginary child a ride on his shoulders. Is he heavy, Josh?

Micah shares his electrical power with his sister

The following photo was created by illuminating part of the scene at a time. We only shone the flashlight on the spot where Micah was and then turned off the light while he moved to a new spot. This creates several images of the same person in the photo while minimizing ghost effects if you control the light well enough.

Micah shares pedal carts and a wagon with himself

Benjamin enjoys himself around a campfire

The following photos are just some scenes around a campfire at night. The horse was very curious about our campfire. We couldn't keep him away from it.

DJ is getting the fire ready to cook some bacon.

DJ cooked us some delicious bacon. We shared some with Buddy, their cat.

Nice juicy bacon cooked on a piece of slate. Delicious.

July 24, 2009 Storm & Lightning

Sat, 25 Jul 2009 10:57:06 -0500

July 24, 2009 Storm & Lightning
by Benjamin Tillotson
Saturday, July 25, 2009, 10:57am

We saw a few severe storms in the area last night, so we went east of town to try for some good storm/sunset shots.

At this point we took a timelapse of the storm as the sun sets. Video will be added later.

24mm f/2.8 ISO100 20sec

Grand Teton & Yellowstone National Parks

Fri, 24 Jul 2009 13:26:12 -0500

Grand Teton & Yellowstone National Parks
by Michael Tillotson
Friday, July 24, 2009, 1:26pm

The Grand Tetons

Jackson Lake. This is where we stopped for lunch.

While we ate this Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker was working on a tree nearby

Horses were crossing the river near the south entrance to Yellowstone

As we drove through Yellowstone we were delayed by road construction and a motorcycle accident. Thankfully the biker was fine, but they took him away in an ambulance to be sure.

Motorcycle accident

Our first destination was Old Faithful. It erupts every ninety minutes, give or take ten. We arrived about half an hour before the eruption.

Old Faithful

It's just beginning

Most of the time it was hard to see the fountain because of all the steam.

It's over

Our next stop was Biscuit Basin, so named because of the biscuit shaped formations next to Sapphire Pool which have since been destroyed by its violent eruptions in past years.

This geyser boiled constantly

The colors around the geysers and springs are from mineral deposits and bacteria.

A stream flows from Sapphire Pool

After the 1959 earthquake, Sapphire Pool would erupt violently every two hours, blasting water 150 feet into the air. After a few years it calmed down considerably, but still boils violently once in a while.

Sapphire Pool - You can feel the extreme heat coming off this pool when you're standing next to it

Rusty Geyser - It erupts every two or three minutes for about thirty seconds

We stopped at Fountain Paint Pots next. In the parking lot we saw a Yellowstone tour bus.

Yellowstone tour bus

The trees die where the ground is covered by the mineral deposits

Silex Spring - If you stand and watch this pool for a few minutes you will see huge bubbles coming from the bottom that never make it to the top...like a huge pot beginning to boil

Fountain Paint Pot - One of the mudpots in the area

At the fumaroles you can hear the roaring sound of gasses rushing from the vent in the ground at high speed. Next to it a vent was submerged in the mud and was continually throwing it into the air.

The fumaroles

Clepsydra Geyser erupts continually for the most part. We got wet from the spray, but it was quite cool by the time it reached us.

Clepsydra Geyser

The Lower Yellowstone Falls are magnificent. We wished we would have had time to take the trails that go closer.

Lower Yellowstone Falls - You can see people to the right of the falls.

Yellowstone River below the falls

On the way out of the Park we saw a lot of bison.

Bison

This photo reminds me of the Windows XP 'Bliss' desktop wallpaper, only much better.

We got stuck behind a long line of vehicles moving very slowly. After a while we were able to look ahead and see what was holding up traffic.

Bison leading traffic through Yellowstone

It didn't seem to care about what was going on around him. Once in a while a car was able to get around him, but he just kept walking down the middle of the road.

Mr. and Mrs. Bison

One of the bikers in front of us revved his engine a few times which made the bison run, but they still didn't get off the road.

It was fun while it lasted. Here are some of the views on the east side of the park.

Three pairs of Pelicans

Yellowstone Lake

We could see the effects of massive forest fires

A female moose crossed the road in front of us

We found a vacant campsite at the third campground outside of Yellowstone. Benjamin got another star trail photo.

Star trails

Multnomah Falls

Tue, 21 Jul 2009 13:59:53 -0500

Multnomah Falls
by Michael Tillotson
Tuesday, July 21, 2009, 1:59pm

This is a place you must stop at if you visit Oregon. These are the most beautiful falls I have been to, with the old bridge completing the scene.

Benjamin and me with our three sisters

The gift shop

The Oregon Coast

Tue, 21 Jul 2009 13:38:03 -0500

The Oregon Coast
by Michael Tillotson
Tuesday, July 21, 2009, 1:38pm

Last Saturday we traveled along the Pacific coast, from Oswald West State Park down to Lincoln City. We should have traveled south of Lincoln City a few more miles to get the best sunset photos, but we didn't know better at the time.

You can see the seagulls flying around the rock

The following four photos were taken at Oswald West State Park.

Starfish and sea anemone

There were some caves along the shore, probably carved out by the pounding of the waves

The path to Oswald Beach looked as though you were walking through a tropical forest

We arrived at Lincoln City a little while before sunset.

There are rocks scattered on the shore, polished by the waves

I was trying to get the sunlight shining through the wave. It was fun holding the camera right above the water and then snap the picture and pull the camera out of the way at the last instant.

Sunlight filtering through the waves

Mount Saint Helens

Sat, 18 Jul 2009 16:16:31 -0500

Mount Saint Helens
by Michael Tillotson
Saturday, July 18, 2009, 4:16pm

We traveled up to Washington to see Mount Saint Helens on Friday. It was an great hike, in spite of the fact that we didn't take enough water and got dehydrated.

Smoke plumes coming from the crater

A group of Elk could be seen through binoculars at the foot of the mountain

Of course we had to have our photo taken with the mountain

There were thousands of these little flowers covering areas of the landscape

This little bird was crouching down in the grass to hide from us. We saw spotted sandpipers by a stream nearby, but we were too slow with the 400mm lens to get a photo

There were at least two waterfalls descending from the crater. We wished we could have gotten close to them, but hikers are required to stay on the paths.

Another photo of my brother and me with the crater behind us

Spirit Lake

My sister is holding a large piece of pumice. It is extremely light weight.

The canyon below Loowit Glacier

A dry riverbed

Fallen trees from the eruption cover the hills to the north

A departing shot of the mounting in evening light

Sawtooth Mountains & Redfish Lake

Thu, 16 Jul 2009 17:05:28 -0500

Sawtooth Mountains & Redfish Lake
by Michael Tillotson
Thursday, July 16, 2009, 5:05pm

We arrived at Redfish Lake below the Sawtooth Range on Wednesday afternoon. They are some of the most picturesque mountains I have ever seen. Benjamin and I had planned to climb them while we were there, but we arrived to late in the day to do that. They look like a whole lot of fun to climb.

We went for a swim in the lake, and the water was so clear. Even in the deep places you could see the bottom clearly. The water almost tasted sweet.

After our swim we took a break for dinner and waited for the sun to get lower on the horizon. I took some 10mm photos of Benjamin roasting marshmellows.

Benjamin roasting marshmellows at our campsite

Benjamin took the photos in the evening while I sat nearby working on our "Craters of the Moon" blog post.

That night Benjamin and I went to bed at 10:00pm and got up again at 11:00. We took our sleeping bags down to the edge of the lake and set up our camera to automatically take 30 second exposures until the memory card would fill up or the battery would die. We put the photos together into a video. Here is the result:

The moon rose an hour or so after we started, so you can see the mountains illuminated by the moonlight

A final photo at sunrise before our departure

Craters of the Moon

Wed, 15 Jul 2009 21:58:33 -0500

Craters of the Moon
by Michael Tillotson
Wednesday, July 15, 2009, 9:58pm

The second stop on our trip was Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve. The landscape certainly does make you feel like you're on a another planet. There are 618 square miles of volcanic rock.

The following photo is one we took a while after sunset. While the sun is up you can't see any clouds, but after sunset you can see interesting bands of white on the horizon. This is the result of gases in the atmosphere from the volcano eruption in Russia. You can read about it here.

Volcanic gases can be seen after sunset

Benjamin and I stayed up till 1:00am taking star photos from the top of one of the tallest lava mounds.

The Milky Way

The following photo was a one hour exposure starting a little before 11:00pm. We had the camera set to 200 ISO and f2.8.

A one hour exposure

The next morning I got up before sunrise (after five hours of sleep) and took more photos of the landscape.

Of course we had to feed the chipmonk that showed up at our campsite

The lava tubes are pretty interesting to explore.

Beauty Cave

Some water and ice were at the far end of the cave

Immediately after the cave tour, we departed for the Sawtooth mountains, the most beautiful mountains I've seen in person. Photos will be posted soon...

Climbing in Eldorado Canyon

Wed, 15 Jul 2009 14:01:00 -0500

Climbing in Eldorado Canyon
by Michael Tillotson
Wednesday, July 15, 2009, 2:01pm

We did some rock climbing in Eldorado Canyon with friends from Denver, Colorado.

Benjamin doing a dyno move, i.e. jumping for the next hand hold

Kearney, NE Fireworks Display - 07/3/09

Sat, 04 Jul 2009 09:55:35 -0500

Kearney, NE Fireworks Display - 07/3/09
by Benjamin Tillotson
Saturday, July 4, 2009, 9:55am

The city display was excellent this year. We had a good view from the east with the display reflecting off the water in the sandpit.

The low cloud base made an interesting effect when some of the higher shells actually entered the clouds.

Some of the brighter shells really illuminated the cloud base above them.

The Country Club display is tonight(July 4th). We will probably go to it. Not sure if it will be better than the city display but They have done a great job in years past.

Bassett, Nebraska Shelf Cloud

Sat, 27 Jun 2009 20:11:03 -0500

Bassett, Nebraska Shelf Cloud
by Michael Tillotson
Saturday, June 27, 2009, 8:11pm

Yesterday morning my brother saw that there was a good setup for some strong storms in northern Nebraska. The area around Bassett, NE looked promising with good low-level shear. We headed out around 1:30 and took highway 44 to 183. The lack of Alltel broadband coverage between Amherst and Taylor was quickly apparent to us, so we didn't have radar or status updates for quite a while. According to the Alltel coverage map, all that area should have had internet, and the white area north of Taylor should had been the dead area. The opposite was true. I will have to talk to Alltel about this...

We arrived in Bassett around 4:00, and since storms had not begun in the area, waited around for quite a while to see if something would happen. Benjamin kept watching the radar, hoping something would pop in the area. Some locals stopped and asked us what kind of weather we were expecting. A guy who works as an EMT at the Bassett hospital talked with us for a while and gave us a map of the county roads in the area. He warned us not to go down some of them if we didn't want to get stuck. We were assured that they'd be there for us if we got hurt on our chase. We got a photo of him (third from the left) and the other guys who stopped by to chat. They suggested we grab a beer before we went after the storm, but we declined.

Basset, Nebraska locals - sorry guys, I don't remember your names.

A linear storm system came through, ruining our hopes of a seeing a tornado. At least we got good photos of the shelf cloud coming in.

Shelf cloud near Ainsworth, NE

Since my window had busted out on our last storm chase, we tried to keep the opposite side of the car on the windy side to keep the rain out. It worked most of the time. Some incredible lightning bolts struck not far from us when I didn't have my camera going, but we got a few good lighting photos.

The TCS team watches lightning light up the sky and landscape east of Bassett, NE

06/24/09 Kearney, NE Shelf Cloud & Lightning

Thu, 25 Jun 2009 21:15:39 -0500

06/24/09 Kearney, NE Shelf Cloud & Lightning
by Benjamin Tillotson
Thursday, June 25, 2009, 9:15pm

We noticed a severe storm heading for town so we got our camera and went a little ways north of town where we saw a nice shelf cloud. The storm was moving fast so with a few bad road decisions we managed to miss some good shots of the front of the shelf, but the underside of the shelf provided some nice contrast.

The setting sun gives us some good lighting and a rainbow.

Later that night we noticed lightning from the storms coming out of South Dakota.

Stapleton, NE Supercell

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 10:38:57 -0500

Stapleton, NE Supercell
by Benjamin Tillotson
Wednesday, June 24, 2009, 10:38am

Chased the tornado warned storm south of Thedford. We never saw a tornado but did see a lot of blowing dust.

The cell quickly goes tornado warned.

Hwy 83 north of Stapleton. A couple spotters said that there had been a tornado not long before we got here.

RFD quickly overtakes us with 60+ mph winds.

Looked like the storm was trying to develop a wall cloud. Things were begining to rotate quite well. I was really hoping that it would produce right here with the rainbow.

Looking up as we are being blasted by the RFD.

Lots of blowing dust.

We go east on hwy 92 to Arnold where we took hwy 40 south. As we are heading south the wierdest thing happened, we heard this loud "bang" and our back left window shattered. At first we thought it was hail or something but we were a long ways from any precip and a long ways from the storm for that matter. Right now we are thinking it was lightning but we are sill not sure.

A couple lightning shots before we head home.

We combined the lighting photos we took into a video to show the cloud movement.

More video will be added soon (if we can get our software to work right).

Grand Island, Aurora, NE Tornado - June 17, 2009

Thu, 18 Jun 2009 13:24:39 -0500

Grand Island, Aurora, NE Tornado - June 17, 2009
by Benjamin Tillotson
Thursday, June 18, 2009, 1:24pm

This day looked like a good chance of tornadoes over a large portion of Nebraska so we took off at noon with a target of Hebron, NE. The day didn't turn out exactly as expected as the only good storms looked to be back at Kearney. We head back toward Kearney and get on the storm at Wood River which quickly produced a couple brief tornadoes.

The first of the two brief tornadoes.

The storm had some good structure before it produces a second time.

Second tornado.

More structure shots as the storm moves closer.

We stopped and took a few lightning shots before the storm began to strengthen again.

The storm forms a new wall cloud as it nears Grand Island.

Some strong strait line winds as we enter Grand Island.

A nice RFD cut develops around the wall cloud.

We go east on Hwy 34 as the third and largest tornado forms.

Ground circulation begins about a quarter mile away.

Tornado moves south of the hwy. Michael is using the 10-22mm lens so the tornado was much closer than it appears.

At 10mm

Feeling the strong inflow winds as the tornado got closer was a little intimidating at times.

The tornado begins to move closer to the hwy and damages the buildings to the north of the hwy.

The tornado nears Aurora and we are a little concerned that it might do some damage to the town but it weakens as it enters town.

A last shot of lightning illuminating the updraft as we head back.

May 12, 2009 Storm Chase

Wed, 13 May 2009 13:54:20 -0500

May 12, 2009 Storm Chase
by Benjamin Tillotson
Wednesday, May 13, 2009, 1:54pm

Went chasing in western Nebraska yesterday where we saw one high based cell and followed it for about 30 minutes before it fell apart east of Ogallala. We could have caught the cell that produced near Mullen but we were having trouble connecting to the internet so we didn't know what was going on.

After the storm died we tried to get some lightning shots so at least we could have something to show for the trip. Some of these turned out really nice!

A couple pictures of me with the lightning.

Michael tried to get some lightning while we were driving. Handheld for 15 seconds using flash.

Badlands National Park - South Dakota

Wed, 08 Apr 2009 09:45:20 -0500

Badlands National Park - South Dakota
by Michael Tillotson
Wednesday, April 8, 2009, 9:45am

After the day at the Niobrara, we headed early the next day up to South Dakota, to the Badlands near Interior.

We thought this vertical line of rock through the horizontal strata was interesting.

We got up to a spot from where we could see a the horizon in all directions. We set our backpacks down and stayed in the area to wait for sunset.

Benjamin found a good resting spot

This is one of my favorites.

We descended in a hurry as darkness rapidly overtook us. It was almost completely dark by the time we got back to the car.

We returned to the camping spot, but we couldn't get "badlands with stars" photos because the sky became overcast as soon as it was dark. So we just lay down under the stars with a tarp to pull over our heads in case it rained. It sprinkled only lightly during the night.

The next morning we decided to go up to Wall, South Dakota and take the highway home from there.

The Wall Drug Store is an international attraction. They even have advertising space on London busses and Kenyan train stations.

March 23 - Storm Chase

Tue, 24 Mar 2009 16:25:41 -0500

March 23 - Storm Chase
by Benjamin Tillotson
Tuesday, March 24, 2009, 4:25pm

We had our first chase of the season yesterday. We saw some severe storms in Kansas heading NE at about 1:30 pm so we headed east of Kearney to intercept them.

Small shelf cloud near Aurora.

This is the first time we used GRlevel3 radar for chasing and it was very nice. The GPS hookup with it is very nice. I don't think we could have chased some of these storms without it.

This storm near Seward had a tornado warning but I don't know if it ever produced one. It looked kind of hopeful as it got closer to Seward but once it got north of town we couldn't keep up since the storm was moving at an insane 75mph and the only option was gravel roads.

We decided to head for a new tornado warning south of Lincoln. This supercell reportedly produced several tornado's and was the most damaging storm in the area. We never saw any tornado's but the storm had some cool structure.

North of Lincoln

There were a lot of close lightning bolts at this point and we wanted to get the tripod out and take some long exposures but it was moving fast so we didn't really have time.

March 30 update: Photo taken just after the storm produced 1/2 mile wedge. March 23 Tornado Summary here.

We got back on I-80 and noticed our empty gas tank so we find a place south of Omaha to fill up.

We stop south of Omaha and let the storm get closer. The clouds were kind of crazy in this inflow area.

We chase it north of Omaha a little ways but it was looking more linear so we decide to head back.

Niobrara River

Tue, 24 Mar 2009 08:52:09 -0500

Niobrara River
by Michael Tillotson
Tuesday, March 24, 2009, 8:52am

We took a trip up to the Niobrara river in the Valentine, Nebraska area. We rolled out of Kearney about 5:30am.

At sunrise we were driving through the sandhills near Halsey. We took a side trip into the national forest to take some sunrise photos. Suddenly I noticed a creature crossing the road ahead of us. This was the first time I had ever had a good view of a porcupine. We chased it down the hill and got some close up pictures. When I got close, he stopped running and just stood there and brisled.

The porcupine was prepared in case I decided to get any closer.

We saw a total of 3 porcupines on our trip.

Looking north from a hill near the fire lookout tower.

The lookout tower

Entering Cherry County

We arrived at Valentine mid-morning. Our first destination was Smith Falls on the Niobrara river, the highest waterfall in Nebraska.

The trail to the falls is across this bridge.

Smith Falls is 70 feet high

There is still a lot of ice at the falls

Driving through the Fort Niobrara National Wildlife Refuge we saw the herd of bull elk. I got out of the car and walked a ways to get a closer picture, but not so close so as to scare them off. That didn't happen until later...

This prairie dog has an itch

The prairie dog warned its neighbors of our presence.

The road to the trail that takes you to Fort Falls was closed due to very muddy conditions, so we had to walk in.

A cliff along the Fort Falls trail overlooks the Niobrara river

Many smaller waterfalls are found along the streams that flow into the Niobrara.

We took the road through the preserve on the way back as well. More creatures awaited us.

Notice the

The bison were not at all disturbed by our presence. We got as close as our 400mm lens could focus (less than 10 feet).

This is the full picture, not cropped

This photo was taken with the wide-angle lens, 22mm or less. In other words, they are very close.

A bison crosses the road

As we drove through the preserve, we saw the elk again, but this time they were behind a rise in the landscape--a good opportunity to sneak up on them for a closer photo...

The wind was behind us, so they could smell us coming long before they ever saw us. Benjamin got that one close photo before they took off running.

Berry Falls is near the entrance to the preserve, so we walked (and waded) upstream from the falls for some good photos.

This is one of our better waterfall photos

I waded out into the Niobrara (and was almost swept off my feet) to get some close shots of Berry Falls

Overlook of the Niobrara

Cow elk

A young male elk

After spending the night in Valentine, we headed toward South Dakota early in the morning...

Cranes - March 12

Fri, 20 Mar 2009 16:09:48 -0500

Cranes - March 12
by Benjamin Tillotson
Friday, March 20, 2009, 4:09pm

I went south of Gibon to Kilgore Island again and found this group of cranes just off Hwy 30.

I got some good crane dance shots along the river road. The males would do some crazy stunts sometimes and even throw stuff in the air.

This is my favorite shot.

It didn't seem like any of the other cranes really paid attention to all this crazy dancing.

Cranes and Snow Geese - Feb 23

Tue, 10 Mar 2009 14:07:10 -0500

Cranes and Snow Geese - Feb 23
by Benjamin Tillotson
Tuesday, March 10, 2009, 2:07pm

I went down to the river and found a lake full of snow geese behind Grandpa's Steakhouse. There was also a bunch of cranes arriving at this point.

The Lake Behind Grandpa's Steakhouse.

Cranes flying around overhead. These were some of the first to arrive this year.

The 85mm lens kind of gives you the big picture. Thats a lot of birds!

The 10-22mm lens shows you how many birds were in the sky.

After this I went SE of Gibon and found a bunch of cranes.

Cranes flying with some geese.

The largest group of cranes I found that day.

I went east of the cranes and shot some silhouette shots with the sun.

Bald Eagles Lexington, NE

Sat, 17 Jan 2009 17:10:22 -0600

Bald Eagles Lexington, NE
by Benjamin Tillotson
Saturday, January 17, 2009, 5:10pm

We finally made it to the NPPD J-2 Hydroplant south of Lexington! There were not a whole lot of eagles but the ones we saw were quite active. I just wish they would have come a little closer.

We are using the 1.4x extender we got a few weeks ago so this is at 560mm. The only downside to the extender is that AF does not work with it so most of these photos are manual focused. As long as the birds are still I can get some better focused images than auto focus gets sometimes.

A few eagles flew to a tree closer to the building. This is where we got some of our best shots.

Here is an eagle scratching its face, I don't see how they keep from tearing up there heads with those huge claws.

The hard thing about using an extender on this lens is that you have a max aperature of f/8 so it doesn't do that great in low light, so we had to at least use 400 ISO to get enough light, even then its hard to get a fast enough shutter speed to freeze motion and get as much light as possible. Even on a tripod I was having problems with camera shake when using the extender.

Even with manual focus most of the images turned out very sharp. (probably a 75% crop)

A few more eagles down the river.

A nearly 100% crop with the extender.

It was a little tricky to manual focus while they were flying.

This one caught a fish. But apparently dropped it after it landed because I didn't see it eating anything.

A wide angle view of the place. We plan on going back somtime soon.

Bald Eagles Wichita, Kansas

Fri, 02 Jan 2009 17:46:20 -0600

Bald Eagles Wichita, Kansas
by Benjamin Tillotson
Friday, January 2, 2009, 5:46pm

Happy New year 2009!! Sorry for not posting anything for so long, I was doing a lot of framing before chrismas and didn't have any time for picture taking untill this past week during christmas break. We have also found a building in downtown Kearney where we will display a bunch of our pictures. So we have been a bit busy lately. Well during our trip to Wichita we saw some eagles along the Arkansas River which we got some good pictures of.

This is the first eagle we found and I think was the same one that we shot the next day also. It was in tree just above the hike bike trail next to the river. We spent some time taking alot of pictures from this angle since it didn't seem to want to fly anywhere for us, but when it did fly I was so not prepared for it and with 400mm its not easy to find. Below is the best in flight shot I got that day.

I soon found out how huge these birds are, because with there probably six foot (or somthing like that) Wingspread I could not fit it in the frame unless it was more than 100ft away. I'm guessing this shot is about 60ft.

We also saw a another bird high in the sky, a B2 Spirit Stealth Bomber. We heard that we weren't supposed to take any pictures of this particular aircraft. Next day we were watching the Rose Parade in California and saw them flying over. So I assume that is where they were headed. (100% crop)

The next day we found an eagle in the same spot (probably the same one) and was able to get some better in flight shots.

It flew off from that tree when I wasn't ready (again) and went to another tree up river.

This time I was ready for it and was able to get some of the best bald eagle shots we have ever got. The next four pictures are not cropped.

This guy has some huge talons.

That wingspan has to be at least 6ft.

This is one of the sharpest shots I got as you can tell with the crop below.

I think this is about an 80% crop.

The eagle flew to the river and looked like it tried to catch a fish.

The eagle flew back to the tree it was in before, and this time we tried to get a silhouette against the sun. But even at f/32 and 4000 of a sec. the sun was blownout. Still I think this is a good shot, at least the best one I got.

We are probably going to go to Lexington to the NPPD place a lot this winter. I think I heard something like 250 eagles there, so with the canon 1.4x extender I plan on getting we will probably get some more good photos.

Moon, Venus, and Jupiter

Wed, 03 Dec 2008 16:35:12 -0600

Moon, Venus, and Jupiter
by Benjamin Tillotson
Wednesday, December 3, 2008, 4:35pm

Last monday night we went north of town to photograph an interesting moon/planets combination. The Moon, Venus, and Jupiter were very close together, in fact, if you held your thumb at arms length it would all fit in the size of your thumb.

Just after sunset with the 85mm, we stitch a couple images together to get the ground in the picture.

Later on in the evening there was a little more cloud cover that made it kind of cool looking.

Our 400mm lens had some problems with reflection you can see it below left of the moon. It was also hard to keep the lens steady on our tripod, it seemed to shake at the slightest noise. So it was difficult geting some of those 20sec shots. You also get moon shift with anything under 1/10 of a second.

Venus and Jupiter getting low on the Horizon.

You can see some of Jupiters moons in this shot.

Nov. 12 Sunset & Moon Halo

Mon, 24 Nov 2008 10:07:01 -0600

Nov. 12 Sunset & Moon Halo
by Benjamin Tillotson
Monday, November 24, 2008, 10:07am

Sorry it's taken so long to update, our photoshop cs3 trial expired and we had to wait for the full version to arive in the mail. Once I started using PS I could not go back to DPP just because PS reads raw files so much better. Well its been nearly two weeks since I got these photos so its about time to post some of them. I'll start off with one of the coolest pics I got. Can you guess what it is?

Click here to order a print of this photo.

I was taking some moon photos with the 400mm on the way home and noticed something floating across the moon. I had no idea what it was until I looked at the images on the camera.

This is 200% crop. You can see the individual engines on the aircraft.

Earlier in the day I went back to the same area I was in last time hoping to get some good sunset shots. I mostly just meesed around in this one spot for a while trying to get some well framed wide-angle shots.

I saw these deer while I was waiting for sunset.

This is the spot where I spent the most time, not sure if it was the best.

These yucca plants make good subjects.

Click here to order a print of this photo.

I was hoping to get the moon in the middle of that windmill but this hill was in the way.

Click here to order a print of this photo.

I drove around trying to find a better spot but couldn't find anything that great.

Click here to order a print of this photo.

This image is three different exposure blended in GIMP.

Later on that night we saw this huge moon halo, it looks small in this shot but thats because it was taken at 13mm. (Canon Rebel xti EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 at 13mm f/8 50sec ISO 100)

This week I'm getting a whole bunch of framing equipment so hopefully we can soon start offering framed pictures instead of just prints. We will also be offering custom framing.

A Nebraska Sunset

Tue, 04 Nov 2008 08:32:51 -0600

A Nebraska Sunset
by Benjamin Tillotson
Tuesday, November 4, 2008, 8:32am

This was supposed to be another hawk trip but the hawks were not cooperating so I ended up wandering the countryside all afternoon without getting much to show for it. But as I got closer to Lexington I began to notice a great opportunity for some good sunset shots.

I drove around in the hills south of the river but didn't find any great spots for the sunset.

Playing around with our wide angle lens.

I really like the colors this time of year. The blue sky and the golden leaves really go together.

After not finding a spot south of the river I went north of Overton into the hills and found a few great spots for sunset photos.

Click here to order a print of this photo.

A blue sky, golden grass, and dead trees make for a great shot in my opinion.

Click here to order a print of this photo.

This is the first spot I found. I wish I could have gotten higher up on the hill but I didn't feel like trespassing.

The blue and gold really stand out in these shots. I wish I had one of those blue and gold filters along with some ND grad filters but instead I took two separate exposures and blended them on GIMP. Grad filters can be heavy on your Wallet especially if you go for some good quality ones you can pay several hundered dollars apiece.

This is the second and best spot I found as it got me high enough to get a good view.

Click here to order a print of this photo.

I went to the top of these dirt cliffs that were on either side of the road.

Looking east.

Looking north from the same position. Pretty much just cattle country out here.

Click here to order a print of this photo.

The clouds to the southeast added alot to the scene.

After the sun sets I start heading back home.

After I went a mile or so I saw what looked like fog in this valley but soon found out it was dust sitting in the air. Probably from all those combines. It did make for a good scene though.

This shot was taken from a tripod with our 85mm lens. After a few photos with that lens I switched to the 10-22mm and set the 85mm on the car hood. I then take some shots with the wide angle get in the car and drive off totally forgeting about the 85mm. After getting to Hwy 30 and driving on that for a few minutes I noticed the lens on the hood and quickly pull over to get it. I'm glad it didn't fall off as losing a lens is costly mistake.

Red Tailed Hawks II

Tue, 28 Oct 2008 17:28:33 -0500

Red Tailed Hawks II
by Benjamin Tillotson
Tuesday, October 28, 2008, 5:28pm

I have spent a few days during the last couple weeks hunting hawks again, this time going east along the platte river toward Grand Island.

I took some gravel roads on Kilgore Island for a ways but didn't have a whole lot of success, I think they like highways more because of all the road kill.

The first Red tail I saw was north of Shelton, I chased it around for a while but it never wanted to get very close. After that I wasted a whole lot of time in the hills north of there getting lost. Somehow I end up on Ravenna Road way north of where I should be and make my way back to Hwy. 30 where I saw a couple hawks along a tree line. This is when I find out that all my settings are wrong so I'm franticly getting things set while missing some of the best shots.

After I got the settings fixed I still got a few good shots. I had to set the focusing on AI SERVO so the previous pictures were out of focus since it was on one shot.

Keeping them in the frame is hard when they get close, this could have been a great shot. Michael says this is how most of his crane pictures turn out.

A week later I went out again to the same area and found several hawks.

This is a Sharp Shinned Hawk, I had a very hard time keeping it in the frame since it was flying so fast.

The rest of these were on Hwy 50 south of Kearney. I've found that any highway with power lines usually has a lot of hawks.

This one is the best shot of the trip I think.

Red Tailed Hawks

Thu, 16 Oct 2008 08:58:52 -0500

Red Tailed Hawks
by Benjamin Tillotson
Thursday, October 16, 2008, 8:58am

I took a trip to Lexington and back last monday in search of somthing to use our 400mm on. Red Tailed hawks are common along the highways so thats what I mostly ended up with.

This first hawk was near Odessa south of the river, it was the only one that didn't fly away before I could get out of the car. Most of them were long gone before I could even stop, but they usually circled back around.

This first hawk circled around several times so I was able to get some good shots, probably the best of the trip.

You can tell this one wanted to keep an eye on me.

A group of wild turkeys near Lexington.

It was hard to capture the red tails since they are usually above you but somtimes you could get them while they are circling around. This was the best I could get.

This was the biggest hawk I saw on the trip, I got some really good shots of it but the best ones were not focused properly.

Somwhere out in the middle of nowhere, I think I'm northeast of Lexington at this point. I had to drive a long ways before I started seeing farm houses again.

I heard this hawk screaming at me while I was taking this picture.

I really enjoyed this trip and these are by far the best hawk photos I've got, I hope I can go again later this week.

Camping at Fort Robinson

Sat, 13 Sep 2008 14:40:59 -0500

Camping at Fort Robinson
by Michael Tillotson
Saturday, September 13, 2008, 2:40pm

On August 28th we took a camping trip out to Fort Robinson State Park, and Toadstool Park in northwest Nebraska.

Michael & Micah in the front seat.

The car was somewhat crowded with five guys and a whole bunch of stuff we couldn't fit in the trunk.

Seth, Benjamin & Josiah get the backseat for the second part of the drive.

We arrived after sundown due to a delayed departure. We set up the tent, ate dinner, and tried out our wide angle lens on the Milky Way.

The Milky Way - ISO1600, about 1 minute

The campsite we chose was next to the Fort Robinson Cemetery. Most of the graves were moved to Fort McPherson National Cemetery near Maxwell, NE in 1948. Only a few of the graves remain, and the names on the stones have been obliterated.

The Fort Robinson Cemetery

The next morning we got up and hunted for some more firewood to cook our breakfast on.

Josiah, Micah & Benjamin get breakfast started before sunrise. Seth is still sleeping in the tent.

Josiah & Micah make scrambled eggs

Me fixing sandwiches to take with us when we hike at the buttes

After breakfast we headed out to the Buttes just northeast of Fort Robinson.

Seth looking for the trailhead (?)

I am attempting to climb a few feet up one of the buttes without pulling any rocks loose. The buttes look like they're just dirt with layers of rock in between.

Micah

Josiah

Trying to maintain balance...

Josiah near the top of the butte

It's a great view from up here

Looking to the west toward Fort Robinson

Micah enjoying the magnificent view

Seth is also taking it all in

Group photo, but without Benjamin, the photographer

We ran into some poison ivy along the way, so we tried to find an alternative path since Benjamin is extremely allergic.

Seth, Micah & Benjamin come back up the slope after taking the long way around the poison ivy

Josiah looks out across the valley

Here's all of us--Seth, Me, Micah, Josiah & Benjamin

This is just above where we stopped for lunch

It was now early afternoon, and we headed back to Fort Robinson for showers (mostly for Benjamin's sake, to wash off any poison ivy). On the way back we ran into a dust devil. Be sure to watch the video of it at the end of this post!

We ate an early supper. It was supposed to be chicken noodle soup, but the cook (myself), was rather clueless as to how to use the ingredients. We ate the the "soup" on plates.

Immediately after supper we headed out to Toadstool Park.

Cows crossing the road at Toadstool Park

Josiah descending the hard way

Click here to order a print of this photo.

Micah rests at the top, enjoying the view and the beautiful sunset

The colors were incredible

This was one of the most beautiful sunsets I have experienced. This photo was taken a few minutes too late, just after the lighting was just perfect. Click here to order a print of this photo.

Click here to order a print of this photo.

Josiah, Myself, Micah & Benjamin

The light was disappearing fast as we hurried back through the maze of dirt hills and dry stream beds. We got back to the parking lot before the light vanished completely.

The others climbed the large hill to the right of the photo below and sat and talked in the dark. Meanwhile I took photos of the stars. We could here coyotes laughing not too far away...

Stars begin to appear as the last glow of sunlight fades away.

The light of a train shines from behind a badland formation. The lights to the right are a fire and vehicle lights at the Toadstool Park campsite.

The Milky Way was so clear. The light on the top of that hill is from the train headlight a long way off. Benjamin, Seth, Micah & Josiah are just over the top of that hill waiting for me to finish taking pictures.

We returned to camp for a good night's sleep. The next day was our last, so in the morning we packed (literally) everything back into my Buick. We went back out to Toadstool for the morning before we would have to head for home.

Benjamin takes a photo of Micah jumping the chasm

Micah & Josiah descend into the narrow valley

Micah comes out of the cave. The stream has washed out a small cavern.

Josiah comes out of another cave

Sorry, the video is not yet posted. Please check back tomorrow!