I have seen other photographers sharing photos of Walt Disney World Monorails at night in Epcot using a single flash unit to illuminate the moving vehicle.  Without a flash, one could only get a blurred monorail late at night.  You know me by now, I had to see if I could light up a monorail using my trusty Nikon SB-600 Speedlight flash unit.

I set up a tripod near the Universe of Energy so I could use Spaceship Earth for a backdrop when a monorail came by. Another reason for this location is the monorails slow down when they enter Epcot allowing me to use slower shutter speeds. The Universe of Energy being closed at night even if Epcot has an EMH (Extra Magic Hours) night makes it quiet enough to hear as a monorail approached. When a monorail appeared I tried to wait for it to get to the T in the track (see photos).  I got better with each monorail.

I set my camera to use Rear-sync flash (sometimes called second curtain) where the flash is fired at the end of the exposure.  This freezes most everything being photographed even if it is moving. Bright lights, like a monorail’s headlight, will still show a streak. The flash’s power was set to full power (+/- 0).

I put my camera in Manual mode and set the aperture to f/5 and ISO to 3200. I adjusted the  Nikon 28-300mm VR zoom lens for the scene until I found 82mm gave me a good composition.  Used auto-focus to set focus and turned it off.  By doing so, the focus will not change unless I moved the camera or hit the tripod. I used a remote shutter release to eliminate touching the camera. The Nikon SB-600 flash was in the hot shoe on the camera.

The first monorail was orange and I took it at 1/30th of a second.  I was a little quick on the shutter and the flash did not cover as much of the monorail as I had hoped.  I liked how Spaceship Earth looked.

Monorail Orange passing Spaceship Earth at night. Nikon D300/28-300VR, 1/30s, f/5, ISO 3200, EV 0, 82mm focal length, rear-sync flash at full power, tripod.

Monorail Green was the second one to enter Epcot.  I changed the shutter speed to 1/15th of a second. Notice how the headlight has become elongated in this photo.  Spaceship Earth is better exposed and more of the monorail has been lighted.  I hit my mark, too.

Monorail Green passing Spaceship Earth at night. Nikon D300/28-300VR, 1/15s, f/5, ISO 3200, EV 0, 82mm focal length, rear-sync flash at full power, tripod.

Monorail Blue was the next one and has an even longer headlight streak from the longer exposure at 1/4th of a second.  The monorail is well lighted and Spaceship Earth looks great behind it.  The mark is a bit late but I liked it better. I cropped it to a 4×5 (8×10) ratio.

Monorail Blue passing Spaceship Earth at night. Nikon D300/28-300VR, 1/4s, f/5, ISO 3200, EV 0, 82mm focal length, rear-sync flash, tripod at full power, cropped.

I now know it can be done.  I will try it again with a whole monorail as it crosses the World Showcase walkway from Future World. Others have done it with off-camera flash.  Something I want to try at Walt Disney World in the future.

I would like to thank Kent Weakley for offering a place in his Composition eClass (which you could still join in on if you are interested).

The first person to submit a link is a new upstate New York photographer I meet on Google+, Michael has a 365 Photo blog called Picture Day where he shared a golden sky and lamp photo improved with just a tweak to the lamp’s positioning.

Regina knows how to get my attention with a vastly improved photo from one of my favorite rides at Walt Disney World featuring Professor Cumulus Isobar and the town of Tumbleweed.

Next up is our prize winner!  Dawn put me to shame with her Straight Out Of the Camera (SOOC) photo composed with the Rule of Thirds of a twilight sky. Very well done!

My good friend and fellow Disney nut, Jeff, links us to a flickr set of four before and after photos where he applied the Rule of Thirds to improve them.  I found the ‘after’ photos much more compelling.

This assignment struck a strong cord with one of my Ithaca photobloggers.  Turns out Barbara had been wrestling with what makes for a good composed photo.  Her examples fit this assignment very well but still challenges the reader.

Experimentation is how we learn.  Nye shows us her starting photo and then applies three different compositions based on the Rule of Thirds.  Sometimes it is good to bend the rules.

I do love The Petal Pushers photo for this assignment.  For the life of me I have no idea why a plastic bottle is hanging from a tree. Sure made for a great photo and a good link, too.

I challenged Debbie on one of her previous blogs about composition and she responded with before and after versions of the photo which I feel really brings home the concept of the Rule of Thirds AND how to improve a photo with it.  Oh, and those tiger cubs are so cute, too!

Karma shows us not one but two and a half photos which she improved with creative cropping.  The rainbow sprite show captured is my favorite of all the submitted photos.

Nora is another Google+ contributor.  She used flickr for her before and after versions of an artifact she photographed in Walt Disney World’s Tower of Terror.  The ‘after’ photo is the clear winner.  Something to show new camera owners.

Truels fought off some computer gremlins to bring us a series of summer images he masterfully re-cropped into a stunning set of warmth.  Make a good start to a photo book.

People must think I like Walt Disney World or something.   KD strongly improved the composition of photos from her last trip to Orlando.  Epcot’s World Showcase really popped out at me from the set.

Lauri is one of those up and coming photographers I see so much of on Google+.  Her brilliant beach composition really nails it.

Sybil had a little difficulty with the assignment. I do have to agree with her that the before photos were better and followed the Rule of Thirds better than the ‘after’ photos.  So, I say to her, you got it!

Deanna not only improved a wonderfully wacky photo, she still is looking for the answer to the mystery of her daughter’s eyes.

I got some advice from a waterfowl which really improved an okay photo into a much more interesting one.  I need to talk to animals more often.

I would be remiss not to mention Birgitte’s musical salute to my assignment.

Now that you are well versed in the Rule of Thirds, find ways that work which break it!  I’ll be back in March for another assignment and accompanying prize offer.

George Eastman House and International Museum of Photography and Film in Rochester, New York. Nikon D700/28-300VR, 1/60s, f/11, ISO 4000, EV 0, 45mm focal length.

The 35,000-square-foot Colonial Revival house of George Eastman took three years to build and was completed in 1905 at a cost of $300,000.  The estate originally included a stable, garage, barn, five greenhouses, and many vegetable and flower gardens on eight and one-half acres.  The house has thirty-seven rooms, thirteen baths, and nine fireplaces.

Today the house is home to the International Museum of Photography and Film which resides behind the original home which is kept as a memorial to the man who created modern photography through his company, Kodak.

Conservatory room of the George Eastman House in Rochester, New York (see text for more information). Nikon D700/Tokina 11-16mm, f/8, ISO 2800, EV 0, 16mm focal length, HDR.

I have visited other homes and museums of millionaires from the 19th and 20th century before.  Unlike the others, George Eastman never married so his home was more like a bachelor pad.  As an avid big game hunter, he used lots of animal trophies, furs and even feet of antelopes and elephants for ashtrays and trash cans in his house. His library features a desk topped with a rhinoceros hide.

In 1928, on George Eastman’s second African safari, he returned with an elephant trophy. Research has showed that Eastman’s taxidermists were so impressed with the animal’s great size they made a mold of it to cast a copy for their showroom. In 1989 the mold was used again to create the fiberglass replica now on display in the conservatory during a $1.7 million dollar restoration of the house.

The elephant George Eastman had taken only had one tusk and was described as “rogue”. He had the tusk removed, mounted separately and displayed on the floor below the trophy. Two wooden tusks were made for the mounted head as replacements. The original ivory tusk has long since disappeared and another is on display (seen in the photo above).  George Eastman also supported financially the first wildlife film photographers in Africa which brought back the wonders of the continent which was full of mysteries to Western civilization in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

The Library in the George Eastman House in Rochester, New York. Nikon D700/Tokina 11-16mm, 1/8s, f/8, ISO 6400, EV +0.3, 16mm focal length.

Floor to ceiling book shelves are found on every wall in Eastman’s library except where the window and fireplace are.  This is one of the smaller rooms in the house and George had more shelves built in the living room to be able to hold his entire collection of books.

A photo cutout of George Eastman sits in the Reading Room of the his house in Rochester, New York. Nikon D700/Tokina 11-16mm, 1/60s, f/2.8, ISO 5600, EV 0, 15mm focal length.

I planned my visit to the George Eastman House a few weeks ago so it was a coincidence  a couple of days before I took these photos Kodak, the company George Eastman founded back in 1888, declared bankruptcy.  It is my hope, Kodak can emerge from it and again take its place as one of the most innovative technology companies in the world as it had become when George was at the helm.

I save a lot of  links to articles and websites via Twitter, Google+ and newsletters.  I read through a few last night and wanted to pass them on to all of you.

Hanging lottery scratch off game tickets create colorful repetitive patterns at the NY Lottery booth in the New York State Fair.

If you are new to photography or have been doing it for years, the Digital Photography School (DPS) website has lots to offer you each week.  This past week, the thought provoking article talking about The One Question You Should Ask Yourself Before Taking Any Picture got me considering my approach to photography.  Do you “see” and photograph patterns around you?  If you, like me, seem to miss such opportunities.  The DPS photo essay called 33 Inspirational Images that Feature Patterns and Repetition will help. I highly suggest you subscribe to the DPS weekly newsletter for more great information and inspiration.

When I see a post or tweet about X number of something, I usually get curious enough to check it out.  Here are a couple I found very helpful.

22 Things You Can Do Today to Change Your Photography (If you are interested in #6, contact me, please!)

10 Top Ways To Use Different Angles In Your Photography

Speaking of slumps, Scott Bourne has a short and to the point way of keeping boredom out of photography.  When I follow this advice, I get a great feeling of accomplishment even if it scares me to start.

Speaking of advice, I found this article surprisingly informative: 5 Pieces of Advice You Can Give Anyone.

Have a great weekend everybody!

Male wood duck (Aix sponsa) on the ice of a pond at the Rosamond Gifford Zoo in Syracuse, New York. Uncropped version.

The wood duck was telling me to use the Rule of Thirds when I was photographing him at the Rosamond Gifford Zoo last weekend. I did my best but there were other ducks to either side of him.

Like in sports photography, photographing animals at zoos or in the wild does not always lend itself to in camera composing of photos.  You have little control as to where the animals are or may move to.  Thus a lot of my wildlife and zoo photos are cropped for composition.  For instance, I was able to crop Mr. Wood Duck’s photo per his suggestion below.

Wood duck (Aix sponsa) standing on ice at the Rosamond Gifford Zoo in Syracuse, New York. Cropped version.

His eye is near one of the power points of the frame.  Maybe I will add a little bubble with some funny text coming out of his mouth.  What would he be saying?

Click here to see how other photographers did with the Rule of Thirds assignment.

White timber wolf (Canis lupus) at the Rosamond Gifford Zoo in Syracuse, New York.

Now that it looks like winter in upstate New York, I headed out to the Rosamond Gifford Zoo to take advantage of their annual Winter Photo Contest which lets people in the zoo for free if you bring a camera with a coupon.  It was a perfect winter’s day.

The “dogs” of the zoo were out enjoying the sunny and cold January day. The white timber wolf, red fox and red wolf did not seem to mind the weather.  Their thick coats of fur insulating them from the single digit temperatures.

Red fox (Vulpes vulpes) at the Rosamond Gifford Zoo in Syracuse, New York.

While I was watching the red wolves, a siren was heard nearby.  They must have thought it was a howl from other wolves as they launched into five minutes of howling of their own in reply.

Red wolf (Canis lupus rufus) howling at the Rosamond Gifford Zoo in Syracuse, New York.

You may have noticed these photos look a little “hot” or overexposed and I did not add the photo’s Exif data as I usually do.  The combination of the Nikon D700 camera and Nikon 80-400VR lens kept giving me a flashing Err message on the upper LCD screen and in the viewfinder.

I tried everything to fix it out in the field.  Turned the camera off and on, re-seeded and changed the memory card, switched to my backup battery and took the lens off and reconnected it.  The error message persisted.  It was like the camera was not able to set the lens’ aperture when the shutter was pressed.  I do not believe the Exif data in the photos is correct. I did my best to save these photos in post-processing.

When I got back home I looked up to see if others had experienced this issue.  Turns out it is well know problem and a simple cleaning procedure fixed it. Whew!  I had visions of having to send my camera to Nikon to get repaired.

This is where the Rule of Thirds comes into play. By photographing with copy space in mind and using the Rule of Thirds, I create marketable photographs editors for magazines, books, ebooks, blogs, websites and other traditional and non-traditional media markets like to use.  For instance, maybe my friends at the HydroBowl would like to use this photo of racing inboard hydroplanes I took at last year’s event for a poster.

Hydrobowl 2012 Poster.

Even if you are not photographing for stock, keep copy space in mind to use in your own projects like slideshows, blog posts, photo books for friends and family, Christmas and other kinds of cards.  Click here to learn more about the Rule of Thirds and have a chance to earn a spot in an online photography class on Composition.

Syracuse University Basketball fan before a game at the Carrier Dome in Syracuse, New York. Nikon D700/50mm, 1/125s, f/3.2, ISO 800, EV +1.0.

The Orange went on to win 73-66 (Sorry, Kathy!) thanks to the support of over 25,000 fans many wearing orange clothing though not many with orange wigs.

My parents, like many fans of the Utica Club commercials, purchased a set of Schultz and Dooley steins which they passed on to me a few years ago.

Schultz and Dooley collectible beer steins made for WEBCO by Brazilian stein maker, Ceramarte. Nikon D700/50mm f/1.8, 2s, f/16, ISO 200, EV 0, flash, tripod, reflector.

Two other characters from the commercials were added to the collection, Countess (1978) and Officer Sudds (1973) during Ceramarte’s run.

Countess and Officer Sudds collectible beer steins made for WEBCO by Brazilian stein maker, Ceramarte. Nikon D700/50mm f/1.8, 2s, f/16, ISO 200, EV 0, flash, tripod, reflector.

My parents surprised me this past Christmas by giving me these steins to complete the Ceramarte set. Reunited after years, I present you the Utica Club family of beer stein collectibles:

Schultz, Dooley, Countess and Officer Sudds collectible beer steins made for WEBCO by Brazilian stein maker, Ceramarte. Nikon D700/50mm f/1.8, 2s, f/16, ISO 200, EV 0, flash, tripod, reflector.

They have added more steins since 1982 but these are the originals from the Brazil stein maker and I am thrilled my parents passed them to me to enjoy and share a time when television commercials seemed less commercial.

Click here for a youTube video of a selection of Schultz & Dooley commercials.  You will spy the Countess and Officer Sudds in a couple.  The voices of all the steins were done by comedian Jonathan Winters. The steins were made of wood and created by renowned puppeteer Bill Baird. Do not adjust your computers, they are all in Black & White as was the television I watched them on.

1. Photography. I will continue to improve my skills at photography. To that end, I will be concentrating on both learning new ways to look at the world and sharing what I learn with you here through blog posts. I know this sounds very nebulous but I will make this clearer throughout the year.

2. eBook. My good friend Mitch of the I’m Just Sharing blog has mentioned to me I should do an eBook. I will be looking over the last four years of posts and see what I can pull together.  I am great at taking photos and writing information but designing and laying out a book is not one of my strengths.  Any ideas or suggestions for an ebook or how to make one looking good?

3. Blog Update. I have been looking at a few premium themes which would better fit towards promoting both the blog and my stock photography business.

4. Promotion. Continue to promote the blog and my photography via all the Social Networking outlets I belong to. Will be adding a few extras like the accompanying photographic prize with the bi-monthly assignments I introduced this week. (Had to start it before this post due to the timing of this month’s prize.) As mentioned yesterday, I almost doubled the number of monthly visits last year. This year I hope to bring it up to an average of 7,500 visits per month.

5. Photo Editing. I have purchased an interactive program to learn more about my main photo editing and management software, Apple’s Aperture 3. After I finish the program, I have a new editing program to learn which extends Aperture called Pixelmator which is a Photoshop like program for the Mac. Very excited about doing these tasks as I feel the digital darkroom is my weakest skill. Might find other fun apps along the way.

My annual pledge to you.

Here is something from my post from January 1st, 2009 that won’t change (with one addendum in italics):

• I will continue to add relevant links to my postings to encourage further research for those so inclined. It is something I like to do when visiting blogs and websites.
• I will continue to visit other blogs and flickr photostreams and leave comments I hope are encouraging and helpful to the blog authors and photographers.
• I do not mind people using my photos on their blogs or websites. All I ask is for you to give credit and a link back to this blog. If you want to use any of my photos for commercial purposes, please, contact me.
• I will do bi-monthly photo assignments to challenge those who participate.

Onward into 2012! Do you have any goals this year?