Posts in Category: water
3/4/2010
Waves and Sky
On the “why take just one” theory (see P&S Landscape), after taking yesterday’s shot of the waves and amazing sky, I zoomed in for some closer views. Sometimes, especially with sky shots like this, you loose the subtle play of light by zooming in…but sometimes you don’t. It is still here in the clouds and the sea foam highlights: well captured by the Canon SX20IS.
Canon SX20IS at about 90mm equivalent. F4 @ 1/500th @ ISO 100. Programmed auto, biased for the sky by tipping the camera up and locking exposure.
In Lightroom, Recovery for the sky and Fill Light for the foreground. Blackpoint right. Added Clarity and just a touch of Vibrance. Sharpen landscape preset.
From Around Home 2010.
2/17/2010
A Little Pink on Your Blues
The first shot to make Pic of the Day from my new camera. I only had a few moments of daylight after work and I am in Virginia. Frustrating. But still…
What works for me here are the subtle colors and the pattern of detail from the reeds and grasses.
Canon SX20IS at about 70mm equivalent. F4.0 @ 1/60th @ ISO 160. Programmed auto.
Recovery in Lightroom. Fill Light and Blackpoint to the right. Added Clarity and Vibrance. Sharpen landscape preset.
From First Canon VA.
10/30/2009
Autumn Pond Full of Cloud
I photographed this pond at Lighthouse State Park in Cape May NJ two days before with moody cloud cover. This day there were still clouds, but the autumn sun transformed the scene. The reflected sky…with pond weed showing through…as well as the band of fall color separating the clouds from their reflections…there is a lot to look at in this image.
Sony DSC H50 at 31mm equivalent. F5.6 @ 1/250th @ ISO 100. Programmed auto.
A touch of Recovery in Lightroom for the clouds and reflections. Added Clarity and Vibrance. Blackpoint to the right. Sharpen Landscape preset. I used the selective HSL tool to increase the Luminance of the red-orange of the fall leaves to make them stand out more.
From Cape May 10/09.
10/19/2009
Black-bellied Whistling Duck Family
At a place like Green Cay Wetlands in Palm County FL, when you see a group of photographers gathered in one spot, you are well advised to join them. They are working something. On this day the draw was this family of Black-bellied Whistling Ducks. It was hard to count, since they were actively feeding and never still, but it looked to be 9 or 10 chicks, clearly of a single hatching, since they were identical in size.
The Zeiss PhotoScope I am testing has a zoom range that provides the same field of view as a 600mm-1800mm zoom on a full frame DSLR. For this shot I was at the wide end of the range.
Zeiss PhotoScope 85FL at 600mm equivalent. 1/180th @ ISO 100. Effectively metered at f4.5. (f2.4 physical at the true 93mm focal length).
Cropped from the bottom in Lightroom to improve composition. Added Clarity and just at tiny amount of Vibrance. Sharpen landscape preset.
For comparison here is an image of a single chick taken at the 1800mm end of the zoom on the PhotoScope. I attempted a lot of these…but most were blurred by the rapid motion of the chicks.
Black-bellied Whistling Duck Chick
1/130th at ISO 100. Effective metered f-stop f6.0 (f3.4 physical at the 293mm true focal length of the PhotoScope).
9/23/2009
- Gibson Beach Tide Line: Point Lobos Morning
Since I am just a few miles north of Point Lobos again this year (though I am not sure my schedule will allow me to get there) I thought it might be nice to revisit.
This is Gibson Beach, at the far south end of Point Lobos.
Sony DSC H50 at about 80mm equivalent. F5.6 @ 1/640 @ ISO 100. Programmed auto.
Recovery in Lighroom for the sky. Pretty heavy Fill Light needed to open the shadows. Added Vibrance and Clarity in the Presence panel. Sharpen Landscape preset.
From Point Lobos Morning.
8/29/2009
Along Grasmere
This meadow is maybe 7/8s of the way around the Grasmere-Rydal Water loop, and what I remember vividly is how tired I was by this point. We had to hike down a side path and climb back up to the road (we were off the end of the path and back on roads by then) and at the time I was not sure it had been worth the side-trip. Of course, now, looking at the image, I can say it was worth it.
(As an aside…it was at the end of this circuit that I discovered Apple/Melon J2O for the first time…)
Minolta A1 at 28mm equivalent. F5.6 @ 1/200th @ ISO 100. Programed auto.
Punch and Sharpen landscape presets in Lightroom. Blackpoint slightly to the right, and Recovery for the clouds.
From England 2005.
8/16/2009
Bubbles in the Stream
Happy Sunday.
Another shot from the depths of Emmon’s Preserve. Lest you get the wrong idea, the total extent of Emmon’s Preserve is maybe 25 acres. It is tiny. Sandwiched in between rural housing areas. In spots, when the leaves are thin, you can see the backyards and hay fields that surround it from the deepest parts.
Still beautiful. And the stream is never the same twice.
Sony DSC H50 at about 85mm equivalent. F3.2 @ 1/100th @ ISO 400. Programed auto.
Just the basic added Clarity and Vibrance, and Landscape sharpen in Lightroom. Cropped slightly at the top to eliminate a bright, distracting highlight.
7/28/2009
Little River Marsh
Another classic Rachel Carson NWR view, and another touched by the magical light of that afternoon. The reflected light in the river, the highlights in the foreground foliage…along with amazing sky make this another view of this spot that I will be a long time equaling.
Sony DSC H50 at full wide. F5.6 @ 1/500th @ ISO 100. Programed auto.
Recovery for the sky in Lightroom, a touch of Fill Light for the shadows. Blackpoint to the right slightly, added Clarity and Vibrance and Landscape sharpen.
From Around Home Kennebunk ME.
7/22/2009
Iris Against the Fall
The Azalea garden at Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens is the oldest part of the grounds. Built in 2001, the plants on the terraced hill are just coming into their own, and were well past bloom when we visited. The water feature however is one the most stunning landscape sculptures I have ever seen. Water cascades down over a number of ledges and then sheets off a final carefully placed shelf in a rippling curtain of water that is surely designed to catch the light in a million different ways. There is then a short run to a lily pond, surrounded this season with Iris. Beautiful.
I used moderate tel on the zoom to frame this shot from a distance, and Program Shift to select the smallest aperture (greatest depth of field) and a slow shutter speed for the falling water. It was cropped from both the left and right in Lightroom for composition.
Sony DSC H50 at about 120mm equivalent. F8.0 @ 1/50th @ ISO 100. Programed auto with program shift.
Punch and Landscape sharpen presets in Lightroom. Recovery for the highlights. The rock at the bottom right was still too bright, so I used the Local Adjustment Brush to paint a mask and reduce brightness where needed.
The alternative view…
Iris And the Fall
For this, I zoomed in to about 300mm equivalent, and then cropped in Lightroom to come in even tighter, and to place the Iris on the power line (rule of thirds). No Program Shift here. I let the camera set moderate aperture and a faster shutter speed.
F4.0 @ 1/200th @ ISO 100. Programed auto.
Only Punch and Sharpen in Lightroom.
7/21/2009
Stone and water
Detail from a sculpture in the Mediation Garden at Coastal Maine Botanical Garden. The artist took a block of this amazing schist and polished a bowl into it 5 feet long and 3 feet wide. It is kept filled with clean clear water. This is just an isolated corner where the patterns in the rock and the angle of water cutting across caught my eye.
Sony DSC H50 at about 70mm equivalent. F5.6 @ 1/320th @ ISO 100. Programed auto.
Punch and Landscape sharpen Develop presets in Lightroom.