Sunrises and dust prints

From Photo of the day 2012

At the start of the school year I was taking photos during the morning dog walk - back when I was getting up with the sun instead of before the sun. I got a series of cool sunrise shots over the course of a few days. I'm still waffling over purchasing some panorama software, so some of the cooler ones will have to wait.

From Photo of the day 2012

Also got this one of tracks in the clay dust road to the back of the property (before that became mud with the fall rains). A couple of small bird hops and what I assume is a mouse with the tail dragging a line between the little foot prints.

Doorway critters

From Photo of the day 2012

So I stayed out later than I should with friends, and then on coming home found my entryway invaded by large moths. I'd seen them the night before and took some useless photos of them, but had another go yesterday evening. They are about two inches long, and most of them were dark brown with pink secondary wings (they keep these covered when settled), but then I spied a couple of white ones and thought of the old pepper-moth example for natural selection. Anyways, it was dim so I had to haul out the tripod. Good thing they weren't moving at all - this shot needed an 8 second exposure so I could use a smaller aperture (increase the depth of field) and keep my ISO lower (minimize grain). Beyond about 500 ISO this camera seems to need some decent light or things end up horribly noisy. I tweaked the colour temperature a bit towards blues in Picasa and used my macro combo and tripod with the incandescent white balance setting.

From Photo of the day 2012

These sapsuckers had a nest somewhere near my house. This adult was around all summer and then started bringing its babies by in July. The willow tree he is on is just outside my front door and I was on my way out when I spied one of the babies and figured I should grab some shots. This guy grabed a bug and took it to a hole (I don't think it was the nest) and proceeded to eat it there. I managed to get one shot with it in his beak and the rest came out pretty good. Cropped, increased shadows and sharpened in Picasa. I used my 70-300mm long lens to shoot it.

Dew

From Photo of the day 2012

So I went out Sunday morning in the fog/dew and got a bunch of shots. This one is by far my favourite, though it takes a larger image to truly appreciate its sharpness. I could likely blow this up to at least 11X17 with no issues. Anyways, the butterfly must have been a bit cold and damp as he wasn't going anywhere and I got to take a number of shots. This was with my macro combo, only a touch of shadows and cropping in Picasa.

From Photo of the day 2012

The dew on part of a spider's web strung between the electric fence wires. I liked how you could see the world upside down in the bigger drop. It was an interesting challenge as it was blowing in the breeze and kept moving out of the focal plane. I used some continuous bursts to get the shot and kept the few that were in focus. I tweaked shadows and sharpening in Picasa here.

From Photo of the day 2012

Some of the last fireweed of the season - the light was a bit too warm from the morning so I changed my white balance to "incandescent" to compensate - a good choice because such light is too yellow and now the camera compensated for the yellowish morning light. I think I did a touch of shadows and minor sharpening here.

From Photo of the day 2012

And lastly, a leaf on the trail I walk with the dog in the morning. I loved how it was coated in little drops and then the big one magnified everything underneath it. Same deal as the others I think, a bit of shadows and sharpening.

Fair and Frost

From Photo of the day 2012

I took some photos at the fall fair last weekend - mostly of the draft horse events because I always find such big horses fascinating. At the end of the teams with carts they had the team of four horses - this was the set of grey Percherons - turns out I've been driving past (and admiring) the leading two mares on my way to work for the last year. At this point I think they were trotting. I sat on the ground and angled my wide angle lens up through the bottom bars of the gate to make them look as big as they seemed in real life. I might have increased shadows a bit in picasa but otherwise straight from the camera.

From Photo of the day 2012

This one I shot on my early morning dog walk yesterday - I guess its officially fall. We had our first frost out on the field. I took my macro combo and spent some time getting the right angle, focus, and aperture was the hardest. It wasn't very bright out yet - long morning shadows, so not a lot of available light. I had a fairly wide aperture so the depth of field isn't what I would have liked. If I'd been thinking I would have poked the ISO up to 400 and then shot with a smaller aperture. Oh well - still thinking like a film photographer with no shot to shot ISO (ASA) control. Still it's different and I quite like how it came out.

Lightening

From Photo of the day 2012

So I finally fetched my tripod from school and had a go at the lightning that has been happening over the past few days. I missed out on the most intense storm I have seen on Saturday night because I had no tripod. I managed not too badly last night with a more spread out storm. This first shot was taken on my way home along the side of the highway - you can just make out the blur of car lights and the red glow was from the streetlights at the intersection. I shot these with either a 15 or 30 second shutter, hoping some lightning would happen in that spot during that time. Most of these are quite heavily cropped, though the first was shot with my wide angle lens with less cropping (the rest were with my 50mm lens at f 2.8). Hard to see in these sizes but there is a fair bit of ISO grain, one of the few times I got the D300 instead of the 200... ah well. Cool all the same - new type of photos for me!

From Photo of the day 2012

From Photo of the day 2012

From Photo of the day 2012

Damselfly

From Photo of the day 2012

Took me close to an hour to get this shot - not because I had an active subject! I rescued this damselfly from near drowning in my kiddie pool and set him up on the wall of my house to dry, then got to work with my macro converter-lens setup. It works great, it just has a really shallow depth of field and at that size any slight sway will make parts in focus or out of focus. I couldn't use a larger aperture to help because I didn't have enough light. A tripod is the obvious solution but I have left mine in my office. I improvised with a 12 ft long 1X4 piece of lumber propped up against the roof of entry way and resting on the ground. I couldn't quite lean on it, but I could easily steady my hand and camera for the shot. Very sharp when you look at it close. I think its going to make it to the local fair. Now just to decide if I want to print it 5X7 or 8X10. Kind of depends if I really want to stick it on my wall. 

Enjoy!

Rufous

 

 This little guy, a rufous hummingbird, has been hogging my feeder since I put it up on Wednesday. He chases off all the other one and has his set perches from which he maintains his guard. Unfortunately, he also chased off the male calliope hummer I saw the other morning - a first for me. They are a bit smaller then the rufous with purple streaks on their throat. Anyways, finally got around to taking some shots of him on some of his guard posts, they look good this size, ok at full. I will likely try again in better light. 

Instruments

 

 Spent the day out in Shelley BC listening to my favourite local band, Rosewood's Diary and having awesome potluck put on by the very hospitable CBC radio host from Prince George. Took some good photos of the band, but got these as well and figured they wouldn't get any screen time anywhere else.

The first is of one of the band member's violin, taken inside with no flash - a surprise for my old D200 as it didn't come out too grainy at ISO 500. Didn't like it on the back of the cam but like how it looks here. That old manual fixed 50mm lens is actually a lot of fun. I think I may have had the macro-converter on here as I was quite close, but don't recall. Love the very shallow depth of field, managed to get the F-hole and bridge sharp.

This one is of a locally made guitar, also brought out by a stand-in band member. He made it himself! Very nice sounding as well as looking. The colours on this came out very calm, I like how it was angled in the stand. Awesome band, awesome food, and fabulous weather made my afternoon.

More Macro Fun

Continued fun with my "new" macro combo - macro converter + a 50mm lens

From Photo of the day 2012

 A local cat outside the school during photography class. He was sunning himself and was particularly amenible. One of the most photographed cats in town I imagine, the kids use him for assignments.

From Photo of the day 2012

Macro shot of some ice in the parking lot of the school after it had thawed and re-frozen with neat crystals in it.

From Photo of the day 2012

A leaf in the snow I found yesterday while supervising kids. I like the curl and the way the light hit it.

From Photo of the day 2012

Claws of the same cat as top, he was getting playful on the playground. I managed to get a close up with the full macro on it. Great textures of both the paw and the wood. Cool!

Macro fun

From Photo of the day 2012

 So I finally got my macro converter hooked up with the old Nikon series E 50mm 1.8 lens. I took it to school and took some photos while the photography class was out getting photos for their assignment. Had a blast with some really basic subjects. Above, a pine branch in the school courtyard with some snow on it (very nice) and the end of a small icicle below. I had a student with a dark sweater stand behind it so that I would get the nice contrast. I like this combo!

From Photo of the day 2012

From Photo of the day 2012

And one more of the little common redpoll on my window feeder because he's cute. This one was just with the 50mm lens, no macro.

From Photo of the day 2012 A little Common Redpoll chowing down on my window mounted bird feeder.

From Photo of the day 2012 Black-capped Chickadee on the same feeder, not cropped.

Suddenly remembered that the D200 I bought nearly 2 years ago can actually make use of my old lens that came with my old Nikon EM film camera. I had been talking to a friend in Vanderhoof who recently got a new fixed 2.8 50mm-ish lens. I decided I'd double check this old lens and see what it had going for it - f1.8 fixed 50mm! Not bad! Fairly useless for wildlife unless they come to your window, but this revelation also means that my macro-converter I had for the old film camera will also work on my D200. Unfortunately I left it at work, so I dont have any macro shots to show off today. Loving how sharp it is though - the top photo is heavily cropped, but you'd never guess. I love how Nikon never changed its lens mount through the years.