This afternoon I went out to the Shasta Valley to meet with a friend of mine who owns the Cowley Ranch. I’ve wanted to come out and photograph his barn for some time. It has been there since the 1800s and has a really cool gazebo tower that you can climb up into.
I didn’t have time today go up into the barn unfortunately, but I plan to in the near future so that I can take some photographs from the top of the barn. It was around 4pm so this time of year the sun was already low in the sky giving off some nice color. This was pretty good light for some beautiful Mt. Shasta photos. Shots of the barn with the valley behind it are taken from the south putting the sun to the right of the frame and slightly behind the barn. This made it a little more challenging to not overexpose the sky, with the correct exposure on the barn. This would have been a lot easier if I had some gradient density filters to darken the sky or even just the right side of the frame.
I was using my D7000 with my 24-120mm lens for these shots. Because the lighting was fairly bright I set the iso between 100 and 400, with an aperture setting between F/4-6.3. The shutter speed varied depending on the exposure I wanted, but being handheld I kept it between 1/25th and 1/500th. The vibration reduction, (VR), on the 24-120mm allows me to hand hold a 1/25th exposure and have it remain sharp. I find when I am shooting landscapes I like to put the camera in manual mode, the M on the camera setting dial. I do this because I then have more control over the “look” I am trying to achieve. If the lighting is changing between shots due to shadows I instead will use the aperture exposure mode, A, on the camera. This allows me to select the depth of field I want and the camera varies the shutter to achieve the correct exposure.
Hopefully you photographers out there find this type of information helpful. When I see a great photograph I am always curious myself what direction was that taken what exposure did they use etc. When my wife sees this post she will say just get to the pictures already.
So here they are, nothing here that is spectacular, but still for me a very enjoyable time spent taking photographs.
That’s a beautiful area! Imagine having that in your backyard??? I’d love it!! I’d take the mountains any day over the ocean.
Thanks Jen! I agree this is an amazing place to live with lots of nature to love and experience. I love the ocean too, especially the oregon coast with its variety. I’ve never had the opportunity to photograph your area of the world, but I know there are lots of great places to visit there as well.