Winter Slush

 Walks  1 Response »
Feb 032014
 

Slush №1

Slush №1
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Panasonic DMC-FZ40; f3 @ 1/60 sec, ISO 100 (handheld);
Focal length: 6.1mm (35mm EFL)

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Slush №2

Slush №2
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Panasonic DMC-FZ40; f4.5 @ 1/125sec, ISO 80 (handheld);
Focal length: 12.6mm (70mm EFL)

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Walking in Chicago winters, I spend a lot of time looking down.

Housework

 Reflections  No Responses »
Dec 092012
 

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I was surprised to note this was shot at 1/20 of a second, handheld. You have to love a stabilized lens in low light situations!

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Nikon D300; 1/20 sec @ f5.6, ISO 3200 (handheld);
18-200 mm f/3.5–5.6 @ 46mm (69mm EFL); focus distance .67m

Growth

 Walks  No Responses »
Jul 172012
 

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Before returning home from the Miksang workshop in Boulder, Colorado, I decided to take one last walk along Pearl Street. Despite having spent hours and hours prowling that area to fulfill our assignments in the past two weeks, I still discovered something I’d never seen before. That’s a heartening lesson to take back to my oh-so-familiar neighborhood in Chicago!

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Nikon D300; 1/250 sec @ f11, ISO 200 (handheld);
70-300 mm f/4.5–5.6 @ 180mm (270mm EFL); focus distance 11.89m

Belle Fleur

 Floral, Nature  No Responses »
Jun 052012
 

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Pretty flowers I couldn’t resist! The violet blossoms in the foreground are campanula, or “Bellflower”.  🙂

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Nikon D300; 1/60 sec @ f5.6, ISO 3200 (handheld);
70-300 mm f/4.5–5.6 @ 92mm (138mm EFL); focus distance 2.11m

“Have a seat…”

 Walks  8 Responses »
Apr 222012
 

“Have a seat…”  (№1)
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Nikon D300; f6.7 @ 1/60 sec, ISO 3200 (handheld);
18.0-200.0 mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 105mm (157mm EFL); focus distance 5.96m

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“Have a seat…”  (№2)
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Nikon D300; f8 @ 1/60 sec, ISO 3200 (handheld);
18.0-200.0 mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 62mm (93mm EFL); focus distance .6m

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“Have a seat…”  (№3)
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Nikon D300; f11 @ 1/180 sec, ISO 200 (handheld);
18.0-200.0 mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 90mm (135mm EFL); focus distance .8m

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Just the other day… I went downtown to visit with a friend, and spent some time wandering around before and after with my camera. Returning home, I was surprised to discover how many photographs had this theme—without conscious intent! (All three were captured on that outing.)

The last one is for Andreas.  🙂

Ruffled

 Floral  2 Responses »
Mar 032012
 

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Hungry for color, I broke down and bought a bunch of tulips the other day.

These were photographed with my Panasonic Lumix (on a tripod), because I originally envisioned a square format—though I ended up with a 4:3 composition instead. The ability to choose different aspect ratios in-camera is my favorite feature of the Lumix.

What really delighted me, however, was how beautifully the Lumix captured reds—normally so difficult to hold on my Nikon D300! This image required very little post-processing.

I did use a circular polarizer for this frame, but that was primarily to reduce glare on the waxy petals. Color was equally good on previous frames without the polarizer.

Panasonic DMC-FZ40; f8 @ 5 sec, ISO 80 (Neotec tripod);
Focal length: 76.4mm (424mm EFL)

Autumn Tapestry

 Nature  6 Responses »
Oct 132011
 

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To sample colors for this image using Photoshop, I first converted to 8-bit Mode and then applied Filter > Pixelate > Mosaic with a Cell Size of 200 square. The resulting palette is pretty cool!

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Nikon D300; f8 @ 1/125 sec, ISO 3200 (handheld);
18.0-200.0 mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 200mm (300mm EFL); focus distance .67m

Vivid

 Walks  3 Responses »
Jun 122011
 

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A red car, green leaves, and blue overcast light: RGB!

Peering through foliage to find a clear shot, the in-camera square format helped convey an impression of tapestry as I saw it.

But, the highly saturated complimentary colors created some nasty fringing around the edges of the leaves—challenge a lens/confuse the sensor. 😉 After trying several correction methods found online, I made up a solution for this particular image. In Photoshop:

  1. Select the red background, Invert to select the leaves, and Stroke > Outside with a pixel width to cover the fringe.
  2. Because the red changes in value from light-to-dark, top-to-bottom, create a selection from the stroke and fill with a gradient of light-to-dark red using the Eyedropper to sample hues.
  3. Add a Gaussian blur to further help blend, and;
  4. A little high-pass sharpening on the edges to finish.

This result isn’t quite print-ready, but with some refinement I think it could be. Getting it to print within gamut, however, is likely another thing altogether.

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Panasonic DMC-FZ40; f4 @ 1/50 sec, ISO 400 (handheld);
Focal length: 45.6mm (299mm EFL)

Window Blind №6

 Walks  3 Responses »
May 152011
 

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I seem to have a “thing” for blinds…

To block reflections, this was photographed with the lens pressed flat against the window—a trick I learned from a video interview with Jay Maisel.

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Nikon D300; f5.6 @ 1/125 sec, ISO 3200 (handheld);
105mm f/2.8 @ 40mm (60mm EFL); focus distance .71m

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