Tony Bibbs - Photography

Once Upon a Turkey Hunt

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 10:54:00 -0500

It's been a long while since I last posted a photo. Frankly the weather in Iowa has been so bad that I wasn't feeling too motivated. However with each spring comes a new turkey hunting season and since during 1st season I am having tag soup all I have from the hunt is few pictures. There are a few in the set I like but my favorite is the one below which I'm calling simply "Death of a Barn". What you have is an old barn some how still standing with hay remnants. This photo seems to describe how a building might die if one actually could simply because of the Turkey Buzzard flying overhead. Fitting really, can't seem to bag my turkey so take a picture of a turkey vulture.

Canon XTi, f/16, 18mm, iso 800

Picture a Day: Day 8

Sun, 09 Mar 2008 18:45:00 -0500

Last night was fun. Too much fun. Kate and I should be ashamed of ourselves...both of us were hung over after a night out without kids to celebrate a friend's 38th birthday (Barry, hope you had a good one!). The effects of last night lasted long into today...food finally started sounding good just after noon and just in time of the Cubs preseason game. So in this installment of "Picture a Day", soon to be called something else as I simply can't seem to keep up, I present on of the first decent indoor picture I've taken. Shown are our good friends Doug and Dianne...both of whom are approaching 40. So I found it classic (and, honestly it was a mistake) when the "Over 30 Club" was illuminated in the background. I'll spare the details of the night, it was a blast, but I will note that at least 2 people prayed to the porcelain god that night including your now humble author who will not be drinking anytime soon.

Canon XTi, f/4.5, 33mm, iso 1600

Picture a Day: Day 7

Mon, 03 Mar 2008 20:19:00 -0600

Ok, so here's today last picture...another in a series of three meant to help try and catch me up from all the missed days since I started this Picture-a-Day program. So here is my first picture where I found myself with my pants caught down around my ankles? Why? For some odd reason I hadn't expected this deer to jump on me. Maybe it was the wind, perhaps a slight movement I made or possibly glare from my lense? None-the-less while the picture turned out nearly perfect, it is blurry as I didn't have the shutter speed turned up.

Whitetail deer are one of my favorite animals. As a hunter I'm the first to point out that killing is not the focus of hunting. Observing nature when it isn't aware you are there is a special experience. As with a gun, getting shots like this force you to consider the wind as the nose of the whitetail is second-to-none. Whitetails are also notoriously paranoid...they've evolved to worry about the faintest sound or object out of place as a possible threat. This picture shows just that moment when a whitetail suspects something isn't right. Sometime they snort, sometimes the stomp their feet (equally cool things to witness for the outdoor newbie) but this time it jumped. While this small buck isn't a monster, it represents the future of hunting, a future I hope to secure for my three girls as an activity that keep us outdoors, together taking part in a time-honored tradition that must not be forgot.

Canon XTi, f/6.3, 220mm, iso 400

Picture a Day: Day 6

Mon, 03 Mar 2008 20:07:00 -0600

Ok, so it's obvious that I'm running behind on my Picture-a-Day shots. I didn't realize this would be so much work. In an effort to play catch-up I'm posting multiple pictures today. This shot was of a bald eagle that was no more than a mile from our house. It and a yearling where out feeding on a deer carcass at Living History Farms. The crows where there to help out the Eagles. I saw them earlier in the day when I was driving by so I managed to remember to grab my camera the next time out and it paid off. This one here had finally had it's fill and had moved to a tree closer to the road while the yearling continued to feed. Lack of a tripod and the fact it was too overcast to provide enough light with my 300mm with the 2x converter prevented me of getting a shot of the yearling.

None-the-less, I'm pretty happy with how this shot turned out. I'm surprised the opportunity presented itself given these birds where very close to a major river. I saw a lot of bald eagles growing up in Davenport...but never have I thought to snap a picture of one. Anyway, this shot is over on Flickr like all my photos. Please be sure to click on it to see some post-processing improvements made by a few of the Flickr members.

Canon XTi, f/8, 300mm, iso 800

Picture a Day: Day 5

Mon, 03 Mar 2008 19:50:00 -0600

Last weekend we got the chance to head back to Clinton, Iowa on the mighty Mississippi and the birth place of my wife, Kate. Given my wife's family ties it's shouldn't be a surprise we were off to a family function. Jennifer, Kate's cousin had recently graduated from chiropractic school and will be off to Anchorage, Alaska where she's got a new job. I was originally puzzled by the move but it turns out that her boyfriend is from up in that area. Jennifer was up there, I believe last summer and fell in love so she's heading back. This undoubtedly comes with mixed emotions for mom and dad and I know all of us in the family will miss her.

In an effort to give her a good send off and well wishes her parents threw a little party for her at one of my favorite restaurants in Clinton, Ratrelli's. There was plenty of room for the kids to play in and we were in a private part of the restaurant where we didn't have to worry about our loud kids interrupting anyone enjoying dinner. So there it is a fairly uneventful family event that went well. We'll all miss Jennifer as she starts her life as a full-fledge adult complete with a job, bills, etc.

So the picture you see here is one of my favorite from the weekend. It shows my wife holding, Charlie, the baby of the family. Charlie is the son of Kate's sister, Jessica and it was my first chance to get a look at the little guy since his birth. Dan, Charlie's dad, ought to be happy as he was able to finally able to put the stem on the apple, something that I was unable to do (and so far something I wouldn't change). Lt Dan, be happy buddy and here's hoping Charlie is a true angel.

Canon XTi, f/3.5, 30mm, iso 1600 - converted to bw using iPhoto

Picture a Day: Day 4

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 19:25:00 -0600

Ah, sometimes a day just goes really well. I had a customer meeting...one with the Iowa DNR at Springbrook State Park. It was a meeting to review a prototype for a training and education system we are building for them. On the trip up I opted to take a route that include part of one of Iowa's scenic byways and, man, was it worth it. Minus all the snow that drifted onto the roads, the trip was fantastic and offered me so many scenic vantage points that I couldn't seem to pull off a single good picture. It's sort of like when you are out fishing on a lake where every spots looks good and you can't seem to make a good cast to any of them. This picture is geo-tagged so if you follow the link you can access a Yahoo! map showing where I took it. In the small town of Panora there is a dam and below the dam is a fantastic stretch of river for fishing, canoing and photography. I figured a stop by this stretch of the Middle Raccoon River was in store and I'm glad I did. I probably took about 100 pictures on this trip and only ended up with a half dozen worth keeping so, yes, I'm still very much new to this photography thing.

Canon XTi, f/9, 18mm, iso 400

PIcture a Day: Day 3

Sat, 23 Feb 2008 08:11:00 -0600

Yes, I'm already a few days behind thanks to work and bad weather. This picture was taken at Living History Farms. For the past couple of years our neighbors have organized a big, old fashioned dinner...the kind you might have back in the mid-1800's. Everything down to the whipped cream and the pie it went on was made from scratch. The picture you see is from the parlor in the old farm house we ate in and the centerpiece of the room is this wood burning fireplace. Together with the wood burning stove I was absolutely amazed at how warm and comfortable the house was. Just behind the fireplace you can see and old pump organ. Unfortunately nobody in the group of 5 couples knew how to play the thing so we didn't get a chance to hear what it can do. As for the picture, I'm not excited about it. Taking pictures indoors is something I'm horrible at and I did feel the "nerd" pressure from our friends as I snapped pictures. You can clearly tell I wasn't focused on taking a good picture because the bottom of the fireplace was cut off. I wished I would have taken a bit more time to get a few more pictures from a lot more angles.

To make up for the crappy picture, I'd like to encourage everyone to give the Living History Farms dinner a try. Last year my initial gut reaction was that a) it was SO stereotypically Iowa to the point it was a turn off and b) despite my love for the outdoors I'm still a city boy at heart. I'm glad I kept an open mind because the food is some of the best in town...a lot of that is attributed to the fact they use *real* ingredients like *real* butter, *real* sugar and, yes, even lard. The night starts off at a fairly modern building half-buried underground where a carriage pulled by two huge horses (exact breed escapes me) picks us up and takes us on a short ride to the old farm house. On the way we got to enjoy a moonrise that revealed 6 whitetails feeding on the mast in a cornfield.

Once at the house you are greeted in the parlor by the cook and are offered some hot cider. You get about a half hour or so to talk and eventually you are offered the story of the period by the host. This year we chose to make it easy on our host and told him we'd all been there the year before and he didn't have to recount the whole thing leaving us more time to talk. Eventually the cook announced dinner where we all squeezed into a cozy kitchen with a magnificent spread. This year it was some sort of beef, green beans, mashed potatoes, gravy, rolls and some sort of corn dish. Don't worry, if you really enjoy the food you are given the recipes to take home with you...and you will take it because every meal is spot on.

After dinner it's back to the parlor for an after dinner drink while the cook and host clear the table and get the dessert ready. This year's dessert was cherry pie and chocolate cake. Both were absolutely unbelievable...no shortcuts were taken in preparing them. And you have no choice but to eat dessert. Unlike at most restaurants where dessert is often an after thought, the dessert is essentially the climax of the evening. Of you down a slice of cake or pie the blood rushes to your abdomen and you are in a sugar coma that can last most the rest of the evening. In fact this year we went out for drinks after dinner and a few of us had a hard time finding physical space for libations. Now that's what I call a great night out!

Canon XTi, f/3.5, 18mm, iso 1600

Picture a Day: Day 2

Sun, 17 Feb 2008 21:08:53 -0600

Ok, so today was impossible. We had a serious blizzard which locked us indoors and I wasn't feeling the vibe indoors so I'm posting one picture from a few weeks ago when I was on a coyote hunt up in Northeast Iowa in Clayton County. This picture was the first taken and wasn't so good at first take so I posted it to the "FIX MY PIC" group on Flickr.com. Amazingly enough that picture was with my Canon SD400 which is a simple point-and-click.

Canon SD400, f/7.1, 10.1mm, iso 50

Picture a Day: Day 1

Sun, 17 Feb 2008 12:32:00 -0600

So in an effort to become a better photographer I've learned that, just as anything in life, you have to practice. Marriage, kids, career and my other hobbies make finding time hard but luckily photography can take up those little bits of time in my day spent on less productive things. Case in point, I took this picture, the first in my "Picture a Day" series during a drive in the Iowa country side. Iowa is known for it's barns and old abandoned buildings and you can't drive on a gravel road in Iowa without seeing one. I took a number of pictures of the thing experimenting with the ISO levels and exposure. I was also using a polarized filter for the first time. For this picture I had to get out of my truck because there was pesky power line in my way. I enjoy the horizontal lines of both the corn rows and the planks on the building and how the tree even seems to have a horizontal feel to it. I think if I was any good at post-processing I would bring out the contrast in the dead, brown part of the tree with the deeper green of the part still living. I would have also tried moving 90 degrees to catch more of the scenic country side. I think I may have been able to take a picture with a valley in the background. Shame I didn't think of it until now.

Canon XTi, 120mm, f/9, iso 400,

Budding Photographer

Sat, 22 Dec 2007 10:55:56 -0600

Yours truly is making a conscious attempt to be at least an amateur photographer. Photography is a good fit for a number of reasons. My day job makes me think in very analytical terms. This fits well with the technical aspects of photography yet unlike my job it gives me a creative, artistic outlet. Furthermore, my love for hunting and fishing give me great opportunities to photograph not only great subjects but to capture memories. Memories, after all, is what hunting and fishing is really all about. Ok, so before yesterday I had a Canon Elan II SLR. It was film, not digital and while it was a very capable camera it didn't give the instant feedback you get with today's digital cameras. This is a common theme for just about anybody making the switch to digital photography. To offset the Elan II my wife and I bought a Canon SD-400 and it was a great little camera. Yes, I see the camera snobs turning up their nose already. What that little camera was great for was taking pictures of life and taking short video clips. The more I experimented with the settings of the camera the more I found it's limitations. In ability to set ISO speed, no control over shutter speed and aperture. So here I am, the owner of a new Canon Digital Rebel XTi...a good mid-market SLR that fills in the holes of the SD400. I chose the XTi because it would gladly accept the 28-80mm, 78-300mm and the 2x converter I already owned. Owning this camera lets me experiment with the settings, take the picture, instant review it and learn from the results. Like many new budding photographers, this is an exciting process and I look forward to sharing this journey.