Outdoor photography on a cold winter day can be challenging trying to balance keeping hands warm but allowing the dexterity to work the seemingly-ever-shrinking controls on cameras and lenses. I picked up a couple rechargeable hand warmers to try and they’re working out great.  I keep a warmer in a coat pocket along with a spare camera battery.  Wearing light polypropylene glove liners, I can work the camera with little trouble and then just slip my hand in the coat pocket and grasp the warmer to get the fingers toasty in no time. Keeping the spare battery warm in the pocket keeps the camera battery viable when it needs to be switched into duty.

The MJ Gear warmers I picked up are rechargeable via USB.  They have some extra features that are handy as well.  You can use one as a source of power to recharge your cell phone or other USB-rechargeable device, it has two power settings for the warmer (I’ve found the low setting is all that’s needed most of the time), and it has a powerful little LED light that could come in handy.  This combination of features makes these hand warmers more appealing than the chemical pack or lighter-fluid powered alternatives.

Frostbite and photography don’t work well together–hand warmers keep things comfortable on those cold outings.

I joined the throngs shooting pictures of the weekend’s supermoon eclipse.  A so-called supermoon describes the full moon’s slightly larger appearance due to being at or near its perigee, the closest distance the moon reaches the earth in its elliptical orbit.  The combination of a supermoon and lunar eclipse is unusual:  the last one occurred in 1983 and the next will be in 2033.

The moonrise didn’t bode well with clouds on the horizon but the moon rose above it and stayed clear of clouds during the eclipse.  This is fortunate as I’m not sure I’ll be around in 2033 to catch the next event.

Moonlight reflects from clouds near the horizon, providing the only evidence of the full moon behind them

A supermoon is a full moon that appears a bit larger than normal because the moon is at or near a perigee, the closest the moon is to the earth in its orbit around it.

The Tetons in Wyoming are effortlessly photogenic and the close proximity of the mountains to roads make for easy intimacy.  I shot several panoramas, some hand-held, during our recent vacation trip.  All came out well and could withstand large printing if desired.  It’s like shooting fish in a barrel.

These samples used anywhere from 4 to 12 images, shot vertically, and then stitched either with Adobe Lightroom or Kolor’s Autopano Pro.  (The latter is far superior, for more challenging stitches.)  Cylindrical projection suited my taste for these images.

Lori and I spent a vacation week split between Yellowstone National Park and Grand Tetons National Park in Wyoming. They both offer endless photography opportunities (and no doubt literally billions of pictures have been shot there). My photographic ambitions were modest, opting instead to put the emphasis on having a memorable experience with Lori.  Nevertheless, it’s difficult to not get some worthwhile vacation pictures from these places of endless scenic beauty and natural wonder.

It’s been a very busy summer here in Newfield, both for us, and for all the wildlife resident in, or passing through, our yard.  Of course that provides an opportunity to deploy the toys tools required to photograph them.  Everything from telephoto to macro to flash equipment finds a use to cover the variety of subjects.

Lori has been on furlough this week from ΙBM (a program by which thousands of employees are directed to not work in exchange for little or no pay to sabotage development schedules, destroy morale, and set the stage for future layoffs).  We’ve taken advantage of this to get a lot of work done around the house and get in some good hiking in the Ithaca/Tompkins County area such as Robert H. Treman State Park and Buttermilk Falls State Park.  Waterfalls seemed to be our theme.

At the bottom of Lucifer Falls I was shooting some pictures and Lori said, “Why don’t you slap on a 10-stop neutral density filter to get that nice creamy look in the waterfall.”  (Or maybe she said, “What is this, a hike or a funeral dirge?”  I just don’t recall.)

The next day we went to Buttermilk Falls and were beset by cool, perfect, sunny weather, a real loser for photography but I made the best of it by enjoying the hike instead.