Month in Review: January 2025

The end of January 2025 is here, and what a month it was.  The weather was a real rollercoaster with high temperatures running from the mid-20s to the mid-60s.  Some days, it felt very Spring-like only to definitely feel like Winter a few days later and then to change back to warmer temperatures a couple of days after that.  It was one of the craziest Januarys I’ve seen in a long, long time.

In the midst of all that, we also managed to get some snow.  Normally, when we get snow, it’s usually only an inch or two.  Not really that much at all.  This time was a different story.  At my house, we got seven or eight inches. I didn’t go out in measure it, but I know it was a good amount. There were parts of the state that got more than 10 inches and some that got virtually no snow but instead got ice.  Pretty much the entire state was affected in some way.

I like to see a little snow in the Winter.  It makes the landscape look so clean and fresh providing some fantastic photo opportunities.  Unfortunately, I was feeling a bit under the weather (no pun intended) during this winter storm and didn’t feel like getting outside and making any photographs, but I did manage to get a single quick image with my phone from the inside the house.  This is straight out of the camera with no editing.  Cameras tend to underexpose a snowy landscape, and I would normally adjust for that, but, in this case, I think it gives a better sense of what I saw and how I felt.

A few days later, the temperatures warmed back up to the 50s and 60s, but even after a week and half of warmer weather, patches of snow could still be seen on the ground.

IN THE FIELD

Spring Lake

My first photography outing for the year was to the Spring Lake Recreation Area located in the southeastern part of the Ozark National Forest.  If you read my post Photography Goals 2025, then you know that my #1 goal is to slow down my photographic process.  This is not as simple as it sounds, at least for me, but I took the advice of photographer Sarah Marino – once I arrived at the location, I simply sat on a rock for about 15 or 20 minutes and just paid attention to what was around me while my camera stayed in my bag.  I also incorporated a technique recommended by Alister Benn in which I pulled out a notepad and jotted down anything that caught my eye.

After about two hours in that one location where I probably didn’t leave about a 100 yard area, I came home with 38 total images and processed seven of them, which almost meets another goal of processing at least 20 percent of the images I make. However, there are two of them I’m still not sure about, so those numbers may come down a bit. All in all, though, I think this exercise was very productive and very helpful, and I will continue to incorporate it into my process.

The trip wasn’t without a little bit of drama when I was pulled over by the local police department in one of the small towns I drove through for following too closely to the car in front of me, which I was.  But, when the speed limit is 35 miles per hour and the car in front of me is at best doing 20 to 25 miles per hour, well, I just don’t have patience for that kind of stupidity.  The entire encounter, from being lit up to going on my way, lasted maybe three minutes with an admonishment to not drive so close.  Fair enough.

As luck would have it, I ended up getting behind this same car on my way back home.  Fortunately, I didn’t have to follow it for very long as it turned one way, I turned the other, and we both went about our merry ways.

Petit Jean State Park

Two days after my trip to Spring Lake, I visited Petit Jean State Park.  No drama on this trip, just a nice relaxing drive.  But, it was a cold, cold day.  When I arrived, my phone said the temperature was 12°.  This isn’t the coldest temperature that I’ve gone out to photograph.  That honor belongs to a trip I made a few years ago to the Buffalo National River when it was only 7°.  But, let’s face it, 7°, 12°, does it really matter anymore?  It’s unbearably cold either way.

I decided to hike the trail that leads to the base of the park’s crown jewel, Cedar Falls.  I was surprised to find that I was the only person on the trail that morning.  No, I really wasn’t. After all, that’s why I picked that morning to go. I knew no one else would be crazy enough to get out in weather like that.  I reached the falls, but it was so cold I didn’t want to take my gloves off unless absolutely necessary, and I decided to forego my note taking technique.  I also didn’t have any interest in sitting quietly for 15 or 20 minutes observing my surroundings.  My failure to use these two techniques was definitely reflected in my images from that trip as I haven’t decided if any of them really pique my interest enough to process them.

It had been years since I hiked to the base of the falls, and on the hike back to my truck, I realized why I hadn’t been down there for so long – it is a very strenuous climb back up the mountain to the parking area.  I stopped at least a half dozen times to rest.  Obviously, I need to get in better shape before I do that again!

NEW ONLINE STORE

A couple of weeks ago, I signed up for a Pixels account to give myself some opportunities to maybe sell a few prints or other products.  I’ve seen a lot of people doing it so I thought why not me.  My photographs aren’t really doing anything if they’re just sitting on my hard drive, so why not give it a try and see if someone might want to purchase something. I don’t know if anything will come of it or not, and I’m not really concerned about it.    You can find it at bobhenryphotos.pixels.com.  I don’t have a lot of images on there right now, but feel free to give it a look.  

MAKING A CHANGE

For the last thirteen years, I have used the Canon 5D-series camera for my photography.  I started with the Canon 5D Mk II in 2011, and then upgraded to the Canon 5D Mk IV in 2016.  Both cameras were excellent and served me well for many, many years.

For the last several years, I’ve been reading all about the benefits of mirrorless camera systems:  lighter weight, better focusing, less noise at higher ISOs, tilting screens, etc.  It all sounded fantastic.  But, I’ve got a camera that works well enough even if it isn’t the latest and greatest technology, so why would I spend $7,000, $8,000, or even more to replace it?  Spending that kind of money just didn’t make a lot of sense to me.

The Canon 5D Mk IV can act like a mirrorless camera by using its Live View mode to view the scene on its fixed screen, and that’s how I use it most of the time.  I also photograph a lot of images low to the ground which means the camera and, thus the screen and the viewfinder, is also very low to the ground.  Over probably the last year or so, I’ve noticed that it’s been harder and harder on my knees to get back up after getting myself low enough to view the screen.  Sometimes, it seems that it takes me more time to stand back up than it does to get all my gear set up to begin with.

After yet again facing that difficulty on my recent trip to Spring Lake, I realized it was time to make a change.  I needed a camera that would allow me to compose a scene without having to crouch so low to see the screen.  In other words, it was time to bite the bullet and get a camera that had a tilting screen.  I narrowed my choices down to the Canon R5 Mk II and the Nikon Z8, but I just couldn’t decide between the two. I thought about it for weeks before I finally decided I just needed to pick them up and see which one felt better in my hands.  So, one afternoon about a week and a half ago, I stopped by a local camera store and did just that.

When it was all said and done, I chose the Z8.  Having a little more heft than the R5 II, it felt good in my hand.  I also liked that Nikon does not use an anti-aliasing filter like Canon does, so I expect sharper images, at least slightly more so, right out of the camera.  Plus, the R5 II cost $1,400 more than the Nikon, and I just couldn’t see what I was getting with the Canon that justified the extra cost.

In addition to the camera body, I also purchased the 24-120mm and 100-400mm lenses and the 1.4x teleconverter to replace my three most used pieces of equipment.  I haven’t had a chance yet to actually get it out and take any photographs with it, but I’m planning on doing that this weekend.  I can’t wait to see how the images turn out.

HITTING THE LINKS

In his latest video, The Same Old Mistakes Keep Haunting My Landscape Photography, photographer Adam Karnacz discusses the mistakes he repeatedly makes in his landscape photography.  To be honest, I can totally relate to pretty much all of them.

Everyone has heard about AI companies routinely scraping (which is just a nice way of saying “stealing”) the images we post on the internet to train their models.  This article describes how one anonymous designer has fought back against the machine.  All I can say is more power to him.

Still on the subject of AI and their theft of our work, how’s this for a little irony:  OpenAI is claiming that the Chinese AI startup DeepSeek “may have ‘inappropriately’ based its work on the output of OpenAI’s models.”  In other words, Open AI just had their work stolen, and now they’re upset about intellectual property theft! I once saw someone say on their social media profile that “It’s all fun and games until somebody gets their eye poked out.” Well, I think OpenAI just got their eye poked out. To quote Matt Damon from the movie Good Will Hunting, “how do ya like them apples?”

Well, that’s all for this month.  I’ll see you here again at the end of February!