Winter video with the DJI spark

Created with my DJI spark.

Visiting Door County Wisconsin in the winter

The Reindeer poop raffle

We were once again at beautiful Door County Wisconsin last November. We were curious to what was going on there during winter and we went after thanksgiving.

The signs at Egg Harbor marina

Thanksgiving I guess was one of the last holidays that you'll be able to see a lot of shops open there. After that, a lot of them close for the season. That didn't discourage us from going around to see what was going on.

Pink Bakery. One of Egg harbors famous stores.

One fun event we saw was a game where you'd place a bet on a numbered square and they'd walk a reindeer around. It wasn't really a real reindeer but rather a baby cow. Wherever the baby cow poops, that corresponding square where the poop lands wins a price. Unfortunately the reindeer didn't so the people just did a raffle instead.

The Egg harbor marina in winter.

Then we wandered around Egg Harbor and it looked like it snowed there the past couple of days and the Egg Harbor Marina was white with snow. I took that opportunity to take some winter shots of the marina which came out pretty nice.

The Alexander Noble house.

Fish Creek shops were open when we were there and it was nice just to walk around there at night. The town was decorated with lights for the holidays and it was a joy to walk around and take shots. I had brought my Canon 17-40mm f/4 and my Canon 15mm f/2.8 fisheye together with my 6D and 5D MK2 bodies. It's always a joy to take landscape photos with that equipment around.

Another view of the Alexander Noble house.

The holiday decors around fish creek was a joy to photograph. We found a couple of trees that were decorated around town. It was nice to photograph the Noble house during winter. It looked very peaceful with snow around it.

The Confectionery in Fish Creek.

One of the displays in Fish Creek.

A dock in Ephraim.

The frozen docks in Sister Bay.

There was really nothing going on in Sister bay that week. there was a craft show that we missed that weekend and that was it. Although Going around their marina is pretty awesome during winter. You can photograph the water covered in ice. Pretty neat with my fisheye lens on.

Sister Bay shoreline.

Sister Bay shoreline.

The shoreline in Ephraim.

Then we went to one of our favorite places in Door county, Ephraim Village. It was a joy to walk around the shoreline and take photos of the docks and the empty establishments. It was really kinda odd to see Ephraim Village empty during the winter as it was one of the most busy towns during summer.

Benches in Ephraim.

Shooting through a glass window

Winter is here and oftentimes it really is very cold to go out and shoot, especially wildlife. The day I shot these shots, I woke up and looked out my window, and there were a ton of birds eating in our bird feeders outside our house. It is really nice to have a bird feeder especially during winter to keep the birds well fed when food is rare during this cold time of the year. 

Perfect timing to get two birds in one shot.

So I cleaned one of the glass panels near our door with glass cleaner to take dirt and smudges off the glass so I can view the birds clearer through it. I grabbed my Canon 6D and attached my Canon 400mm f/5.6 lens to it so I have enough reach to shoot the birds outside.

This bird was really persistent on hanging on to the feeder.

I knelt down behind the glass panel and started to view the birds through my viewfinder. With a 400mm attached, I had to back up a bit from the glass panel to properly frame the birds. When I finally got in position I now began to set my settings in the camera.

This guy was waiting for its turn to eat.

I set my mode to shutter priority. Birds are fast moving animals so I am going to need a fast shutter speed for these shots. Also considering I'm using a 400mm lens, the faster shutter speed will minimize the camera shake when I take shots. I set my speed to around 400th/sec. I am not moving that much as I was kneeling down behind the glass panel, If I was standing up or moving I would've used a shutter speed that's faster than 400th/ sec. I also set my ISO to 320 which is enough to give me an aperture of around f/5.6 to around f/8...my lens is an f/5.6 lens so I had to put that into consideration. Also since I was shooting in snow I had to bump up my exposure compensation to +1 because snow will affect my metering to underexpose because the camera thinks that I am shooting in bright light.

In situations where you need to shoot behind glass, set your focus to MANUAL mode. By doing this you have the control on which to focus on instead of the camera focusing on the glass panel. You have to be quick enough to refocus when your subject moves though. It's hard at first but it's really to get used to.

After a bit of post processing, I saturated the colors a bit and gave the subjects more pop. I was glad to not go out into the cold to capture these shots.