With air temperatures this morning well below zero in northern Minnesota (minus 29 in Cook, minus 42 windchill in International Falls, and minus 22 at our house), I thought this would be a good time to post this video I made of Instant Water Vaporization a few years ago at my house on a minus 20 morning. “Poof, There it Goes,” (sung to Tag Team’s Whoomp—There it is) would be an appropriate anthem for this weather/water phenomenon.

HOW TO DO IT YOURSELF
1. Wait until the ambient air temperature is Minus 20 F or colder.
2. Boil water on the stove and pour it in an insulated coffee mug. (Put in a thermos if you need to travel to a site)
3. Run outside and pour some into a smaller cup (1/2 cup or 1 cup measuring cup works great)
4. Launch the water into the air (up, but not over your head!…There will still be some droplets coming down)
5. Watch in awe.

Water Vaporization at minus 25F, Park Point on a steaming Lake Superior, Duluth, Minnesota

EXPLANATION OF THE PHENOMENON (from http://www.waterencyclopedia.com)
“A cup of boiling hot water thrown into very cold air (for example, at −37°C, or −35°F, as shown in the photograph) will almost instantly freeze in midair and create a shower of tiny ice crystals. There are several reasons behind this phenomenon. First, the near-boiling water is already close to becoming steam when it is thrown into the air, which means that the water molecules are much closer to evaporating into the vapor state than they would be if the water were cold.

Second, the act of throwing the water into the air causes it to break up into tiny droplets. The water that was contained in the cup (which originally had a relatively small surface exposed to the air) now experiences a tremendous increase in the total surface area exposed to the air. This situation helps to speed up the evaporation process (evaporation is the process of turning from a liquid to a vapor).

Finally, very cold air typically has a low humidity level (that is, a low amount of water vapor present). This is yet another factor aiding the transition from liquid water, to water vapor, to ice crystals. At sufficiently low temperatures, this process seems to occur almost instantaneously.”
Learn more fun water facts here

Read more: http://www.waterencyclopedia.com/En-Ge/Fresh-Water-Physics-and-Chemistry-of.html#b#ixzz2oMD43Lw4

CALLING IN A CANID
I drive over the bridge spanning the St. Louis River at Fond du Lac/Duluth (MN) at least 4 times a week, and I always check for eagles, otters, or whatever else might be utilizing this wild stretch of river. A couple days ago, I spotted something running along the far shore…but I was driving and it was so far away that I couldn’t tell if it was an otter, fox, coyote or wolf. I stopped and backed up so I could get the binoculars on it. But it was gone. Not sure why, but I decided to give a few calls on my Johnny Stewart predator call (that I always keep in my car). Almost instantly a Coyote came around the bend in the river, running towards the bridge on the frozen river.

I hustled back to the car, grabbed my camera with 400mm lens (which is also ALWAYS in my car) and hid behind the snow bank up against the bridge railing. Conveniently there was a hole in the snow bank where I could look through the bridge railing. She was coming fast and I tried to start shooting but my lens had frosted over. Frantically I tried to scrape the ice off the front of my lens with my glove (not usually a recommended practice!), then I tried shooting again but the lens would not focus! I found that I had the camera set to AI Servo focus mode and quickly switched it to Single Shot focus, which worked. In the process, I had breathed on the viewfinder and fogged it up…And now I couldn’t find the Coyote while looking through the camera! All this happened in a few seconds and by now the Coyote had slowed to a trot. I gave a few more calls (imitating what, I’m not sure!). A quick swipe of the viewfinder allowed me a passable view and I quickly started shooting, trusting that my autofocus was doing its job!

Well, that Coyote never saw me and came to a stop right underneath me, trying to figure out where the “wounded rabbit” was. I couldn’t resist a couple shots looking straight down on her from 40 feet above (NOT a good angle for wildlife photography!). And as I peeked over the top of the snow bank, she saw me and trotted off, turning back a couple times to make sure she hadn’t missed an easy meal. I really wished I had a dead rabbit to throw to her. As you can see, she was a beautiful animal. (Not sure if the Coyote was a male or female, but I choose to call it “her”)
[Taken looking straight down from the bridge…40 feet (?) above the river]
SHUTTER PRIORITY SURE THING
This was the perfect scenario for shooting with Shutter Priority. It was fairly early in the morning and overcast. I knew I wanted sharp Coyote images. If I’d had my camera set to Aperture Priority, I may have ended up with slower shutter speeds and the Coyote would be blurred. Yes, the image might be less “noisy,” but I’d rather have a sharp, useable, noisy image, then a blurred, un-useable, cleaner image that I’d delete anyway. So I set the camera to Shutter Priority 1/400 second (a compromise, to be sure, as it would freeze a walking/trotting Coyote but not a running Coyote) and Auto ISO. The camera automatically keeps the aperture at f5.6, 1/400 and lets the ISO range up and down…In this case from ISO 1000 to 1600. These settings allowed me to get sharp images in low light. This portrait was taken at ISO 1600 on a Canon 7D—a camera not known for its high ISO capabilities…and you don’t even notice the digital noise.

BIONIC HEARING
When I got home that evening, I calculated that the Coyote had heard my mouth call from 1/3 of a mile away! Never underestimate the senses of wild critters…Deer hunters know this very well! I do feel bad that this Coyote expended energy on a “wild goose chase,”…and I will not use this call on a Coyote in this area again this winter. I really only use the Johnny Stewart predator call when I see a critter duck into the woods and I try and get them back out into the open. My success rate is probably 2 to 5%.

HIGH KEY IMAGES
In these two images, I blew out the whites in Photoshop. I didn’t really need any detail in the snow and I like the look. So I moved the right slider in the Levels palette to the left until it completely clipped the whites.

I really like “Animal in the Landscape” shots. These two are examples of that. It places your critter in its habitat and maybe tells more of a story than a “head and shoulders” shot.

[ALL IMAGES: Canon 7D, Canon 400mm f5.6 (handheld but braced on snowbank), Tv (Shutter Priority) 1/400 second at f5.6. Auto ISO (ISO ranged between ISO 1000 to 1600 for these images)]

I NEVER EVER, for one second believed that I would ever sell an image of a Ring-billed Gull…Let alone an immature bird! Most folks in Duluth refer to them as “flying rats.” They are ubiquitous in Canal Park by the Aerial Lift Bridge, living on popcorn handouts from tourists, garbage and god-knows what else. But that is where the miracle mix of keywording and Google search make their magic. Evidently, a creative director in England did a search for something about “flash” or “gel” and wildlife photography, and this image popped up. (See the original blog “Gulls in my Face: How to Make Gulls look Sexy” post Here)

This was just a great reminder that we should always keyword the images we put online (if you have any interest in making photo sales). And not just our favorite images…even ones of immature “flying rats!” Also remember that if we update our websites/blogs frequently, our images will also pop up higher in all search engines.

Here are the keywords I tagged this image with before I posted it in a blog post: “aerial lift bridge, bird, Duluth, flash, flying rats, gel, gel-covered flash, gull, Ring-billed Gull, tungsten”
Now that I see the actual keywords, I think I’d add the following: “creative, wildlife photography, bird photography, orange gel, CTO, sky rat, flying, flight”

My photo/article appeared last month in Digital Camera, a slick British magazine (also sold at Barnes & Noble).

Here is the text I submitted:
“I love a couple of things that most people dislike…gulls (no such thing as a “seagull”) and dark overcast skies for photography. To combine these two to create an artistic, out-of-the ordinary image, I decided to create a “cold-warm” look by setting my camera’s white balance to “tungsten,” (which makes the dark gray sky a pleasing blue) and using two 1/2 CTO (orange) gels on my flash to cast a warm light on the nearby gulls (if you just used straight-up flash, the gulls would also look bluish). I used auto TTL flash but adjusted the power up with the flash exposure compensation dial. Also make sure you underexpose the scene to add drama to the clouds.

One challenge is finding wildlife subjects that allow close approach. You need to get close so the flash can illuminate your subject. Gulls are human groupies and any old chunk of stale bread will bring them in and make them your friend forever. Gray sky days are also required, but these never seem to be in short supply!”