Philip Knouf Photography » Blog

New Moon – Canon Beach

Phil — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 23:30:03 +0000

Thanksgiving weekend was spent at Canon Beach on the Oregon Coast. Ecola State Park is nearby and is a favorite of mine for dramatic seascapes. I was there hoping for a nice colorful sunset but that did not happen. I noticed that a new moon was above the Pacific Ocean just West a bit from the city of Canon Beach and there was a nice clear sky overhead. I was able to capture this dramatic scene with a 5 sec. exposure with my Canon 24mm TSE II lens on my Canon EOS 5D Mark II. I have more from this location and will post them soon.

Forest Park Trilliums

Phil — Thu, 26 May 2011 03:56:33 +0000

Portland’s Forest Park is one of the largest urban forest reserves in the United States. The park has more than 5,100 acres and 70+ miles of trails. This is one of the best places in the Portland metro area to enjoy the spring displays of Trilliums. In early April of this year I went on a hike at the far Northwest end of the park to make some images of Trilliums with my new Canon 100mm macro lens. This is such a beautiful lens that I’ll let these images speak for themselves.

The Steens

Phil — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 04:57:16 +0000

In late September and early October of 2010, my photographer friend Ron and I made our first trip to Steens Mountain located in far southeast Oregon. We arrived just at the peak of the Aspen display. No where else in Oregon do you find such large stands of Aspens. Neither one of us had ever seen such a broad array of colors in Aspen trees. We experienced many breath-taking views.

Gear

philipknouf — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 04:27:39 +0000

For the last 30+ years I photographed primarily with an Arca-Swiss 4×5 view camera. My version was the F Field Clasic with Micro-Orbix. Many of the images in my gallery were composed with this camera using various lenses. The most knowledgable person for Arca-Swiss in the United States is Rod Klukas, formerly of Photomart in Phoenix and now the US representative. For additional Arca-Swill resources see Tom Westbrook , Precision Camera Works .

I have moved on to a Canon EOS 5D MKII system. While not providing the same image size as the Arca-Swiss, the Canon DSLR offers many advantages. Foremost is the very quick turn-around from image creation to processed image. With the Arca-Swiss and shooting with Velvia film, I would wait a minimum of one to two weeks for my processed images to return. Then of course I needed to decide if I would pay for a high quality drum scan or a lower quality flat-bed scan on my Epson V750. Now I just import into my raw processor of choice, Lightroom 3.4.1, and then finish the image in Photoshop CS5.

A second advantage of working with my new DSLR is the ability to use the Live View function with my Hoodman Loupe to essentially function as if I had a dark cloth over my head and then zoom in to the image up to ten times. This suits me quite well as I am used to working at the much slower pace of a 4×5 view camera. This method is very useful when using my TS-E 24 mm. A third advantage is great simplification in determing proper exposure. Sure I can still use my Pentax 1degree spot meter but using the camera histogram and exposing to the right is much simpler.

My current list of gear is:

Canon EOS 5D MKII
Canon EF24-105mm f/4L IS USM
Canon TS-E 24mm f/3.5L II
Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM
Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM
Gitzo GT3530LS w/GS%121LVL Leveling Base and Acratech GP Ballhead
Hoodman Loupe
Various Sing-Ray Graduated Neutral Density filters and the Cokin Z-Pro holder
Polarizers – clear and warm
Canon TC-80N3 Timer Remote Controller
Various tools and accessories