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This scene caught my fancy during a morning walk along the lakefront. Suspended on a low rise in front of a broad expanse of park, the feather reminded me of a shop sign which reads “Back Soon”.
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Lumix DMC-FZ40; f/7.1 @ 1/125sec, ISO 250 (handheld);
Focal length: 108mm (600mm EFL)
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Just the other day… I spent a happy three hours of the morning taking photographs in a nearby park which features wetlands and a lagoon. I was surprised to discover over a hundred geese “sleeping” in the marsh before sunrise. Panning to capture geese in takeoff will take a lot more practice to pull off well. 😉
Meanwhile, here’s one scene I photographed while looking down instead of up.
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Lumix DMC-FZ40; f/5.6 @ 1/50sec, ISO 400 (handheld);
Focal length: 25mm (139mm EFL)
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The other morning, while out looking for sidelight to fulfill an assignment for The Mindful Eye, I came across this beautiful backlight instead.
After several days of heavy rain, humidity was high but skies were mostly clear and there was no wind. Everything sparkled with dew.
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This image was photographed May 1st. I’m having too much fun shooting, and am behind on processing!
Actually, I feel the need to process as much as shoot because each informs the other. Processing shows up weaknesses (or strengths) in a composition that I didn’t necessarily see in the field, and can watch for next time.
Public feedback helps, too. 🙂
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The image above is detail from a 7-frame panorama photographed in a very old cemetery. (See also a large view on black .) Tripods are not allowed, so it was shot hand-held in portrait mode with a lot of overlap and wriggle room around the subject. To help reduce distortion, rather than panning I took several steps parallel to the wall between each frame.
Further along was a completely different ivy tree. The image left is detail from a 5-frame panorama, photographed the same way. (Click image to view the full panorama or see also large on black.)
The light was high and hard that day so, inspired by Mark Johnson’s recent Photoshop Workbench: Salvaging Detail, I began processing with a foray into the Shadows/Highlights adjustment. It’s the first time I’ve used that feature, and am intrigued by what it can do!
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Just the other day…it snowed! Our first of the season. With no wind, early morning was a fairyland.
These crabapple trees immediately caught my eye in a nearby park, where I happily spent 1½ hours taking photographs just after sunrise.
I’m learning to work with my gear in cold weather, to stay comfortable but also have the freedom to move:
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¹Colors of the day:
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It was cold this morning. After not very long I couldn’t feel the shutter release, and had to open a package of Little Hotties. But, I’m glad I showed up because these clouds were a gift!
Today’s image is a combination of three bracketed exposures, blended by hand using Craig Tanner’s method. Though I first tried running the image through Photomatix, it had some trouble with the moving elements and the fact this was shot handheld. As “Andreas wrote yesterday”, it’s about having choices.
As I finished processing, there was a nearly full moon rising in a clear evening sky outside my office window. That seems an auspicious ending for the November challenge!
Thank you for your company on this adventure. It’s definitely not over. 🙂
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¹Colors of the day:
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Finally, something different! Clouds but no wind made for a beautiful morning on the lakefront, even though temperature was in the 30’s (F).
Today’s image is a composite of two frames: one to freeze motion in the clouds, and another of 3 seconds on the water to capture its calm and bring out the reflections.
Lesson of the day: Add a Brightness/Contrast adjustment layer and lighten to do a final check for spots — which I just found on my brighter laptop monitor. 😛
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¹Colors of the day:
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Reading the weather forecast last night I thought, “Oh goody, clouds! Maybe there will be a nice sunrise on the lakefront.”
This morning…nope. It was a flat, dull overcast with only tiny waves on the lake. Oh well. At least I showed up. 🙂
On to Plan B. Working with the same combination of lenses as yesterday—the 18-200mm VR zoom with a Canon 500D closeup filter—I discovered something new: getting as close to the subject as possible with the focal length set to wide angle both exaggerated the subject and enhanced depth. That’s similar to what the wide angle alone would do normally, but the closeup lens added a blur to the background while retaining a suggestion of detail. Cool!
The second image today is probably stronger, and it makes me smile so I couldn’t resist processing to share. The first, however, is interesting as a direction I’d like to explore further.
In both cases I added +2EV exposure compensation, letting the sky blow out in favor of the subject.
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¹Colors of the day:
