Posts in Category: weather
6/15/2010
Bar Harbor and the Porcupines: three views (2 with gull)
It was, as I mentioned a few days ago, a blue day on Cadillac Mountain when I visited late in the afternoon last Thursday. It had rained through noon and was just beginning to clear off. This is the view out over Bar Harbor, Frenchman’s Bay, and the Porcupine Islands. You can see the bar extending back toward land from Bar Island (completely above water at low tide) that gives Bar Harbor its name. Taken from the lowest overlook on the Cadillac Mountain road. The gulls work the scenic views as though they bought the concession. This one was quite bold and actually walked up to me and practically stood on my feet when I failed to offer it any tribute. I took its picture. That will have to be enough. 🙂 The Panorama is 8 shots stitched in PhotoShop Element’s Panorama tool: the longest pano I have done to date. The Pano, of course, really needs to be viewed a larger size.
All with the Canon SX20IS. 1) 28mm equivalent @ f4.0 @ 1/800th @ ISO 80, Landscape program, 2) 80mm equivalent @ f4.0 @ 1/640th @ ISO 80, Landscape program, and 3) 8 shots at 70mm equivalent @ f4.0 @ 1/250th @ ISO 80, Panorama mode.
In Lightroom 3, Recovery for the sky, Fill light for the foreground, Blackpoint just slightly right, added Clarity and Vibrance, and Sharpen Narrow Edges preset. The top shot was cropped bottom and top for composition and to remove distracting road surface.
From Acadia 2010.
6/12/2010
Cadillac / Cranberry Isles Blue Day
Every visit to Acadia National Park is satisfying on so many levels. This is the tail end of a day of rain and storm, with clearing weather coming in from the south, looking off the shoulder of Cadillac Mountain over the Cranberry Isles and out to sea. There is still a lot of moisture in the air and no direct sun on the summit. A blue day. But with a beauty of its own.
Canon SX20IS at 28mm equivalent. F4.0 @ 1/1000 @ ISO 80. Landscape program.
In Lightroom 3, some recovery for the sky, Fill Light for the foreground, Blackpoint just barely right, added Clarity and Vibrance, Sharpen Narrow Edges preset.
From Acadia 2010.
And another view. One of my risky tripod-less panos. View as large as you monitor will take. Click the image, and use the size controls at the top of the page.
6/9/2010
Cape Arundel Pano
I have quite a few pictures of this house. It was featured as the exterior in a well-known movie. The light of a summer evening in Maine, after 7PM, and the remnants of a stormy day moving off-shore and north, add some drama, and some warmth. This is 4 shots at about 40mm equivalent stitched in PhotoShop Elements Panorama tool to cover an angle of about 120 degrees. I am finding that using a zoom setting near normal focal lengths, rather than a the wide-angle end, gives a very natural looking perspective…so that the result, though super-wide, does not look like a conventional panorama. Ocean panos are always difficult because of tendency of the water to move 🙂 but except for one little glitch (which you might be able to find if you look hard enough), this is pretty good. Especially good as, yet again, I was without a tripod.
Clearly, to appreciate this image you will need to view it as big as your monitor will allow. Click the image to go to Wide Eyed in Wonder and use the size controls at the top of the window.
Canon SX20IS at 40mm equivalent. F3.2 @ 1/400th @ ISO 80. Panorama mode.
Stitched, as above, in PhotoShop Elements Panorama tool using the auto setting. Processed in Lightroom 3 after stitching: Recovery for the sky, Fill Light and Blackpoint right, added Clarity and Vibrance, Sharpen edges preset (used to be Sharpen landscapes). Applied the distortion profile from a Canon Powershot G series (which works until I get my set made for the SX20IS). Lightroom 3 is brand new, and I am going to have to learn the controls again, as everything is subtly (and not so subtly) changed.
From Around Home 2010.
5/30/2010
Primary Colors
Happy Sunday! Something a bit bright to celebrate the day. Early morning light coming in low and level pops the colors on this kiddy playground at Wells Harbor, in Wells Maine. The same amazing sky from yesterday’s shot…they were taken about 200 yards apart. I zoomed in a bit to isolate the play apparatus while still piling in the sky. I made a print of this and my wife said, “Those colors don’t look real to me. Did you do something to it?” Actually, I did nothing out of the ordinary beyond my normal processing. The light did it. That is the way it looked. Which is why I took the picture. 🙂
Canon SX20IS at about 60mm equivalent. F4.0 @ 1/800 @ ISO 80. Landscape program.
Recovery for the sky in Lightroom. A touch of Fill Light. Blackpoint to the right. Added Clarity and just a tiny bit of Vibrance. Sharpen Landscape preset.
From Around Home 2010.
5/29/2010
Much Ado About Nothing
This is about a close to a picture of nothing in particular as you can…but I still like it for its undeniable (to me) drama. A little corner of meadowish ground behind the parking lot at Wells Harbor in Wells, ME, some second growth trees forming a corner, the single pine standing lose, that bushy beach-rose on the bottom right with its orangey tones, the light of early morning lying flat out in front of me and picking out all the interesting variations in the grassy vegetated carpet…oh, and of course, the sky above with clouds streaming in from some point stage-right and far behind on unrelated business of their own. Move along, nothing to see here…and yet the eye pauses to appreciate, the heart hangs waiting for revelation, and the mind for resolution.
Or is that too much to make of it. Much ado about nothing. 🙂
All I know is I want a print of this for my wall, because I could look at it for a long time. Look at it as large as your monitor will take.
Canon SX20IS at 28mm equivalent. F4.0 @ 1/800th @ ISO 80. Landscape program.
In Lightroom, Recovery for the clouds and sky, Fill Light and Blackpoint right for drama in the foreground (delicate balance there to preserve detail in the shadow on the right). Added Clarity and just a tiny amount of Vibrance. Sharpen landscape preset.
From Around Home 2010.
5/7/2010
Over the Dune
I love this kind of moment, with the drama of a storm sky over a briefly sun-bright landscape. This is a shot from just before we left for St Augustine, and I published three from this day on 4/19. Here we look over the dune toward the tidal marsh along Back Creek, behind Parson’s Beach in Kennebunk, Maine. To me this is a close to a naked eye view as the camera can come. The extreme depth of field actually makes it look more like a painting than a photo.
Technically it might be very difficult to capture this image with a DSLR’s larger sensor, but the small sensor on the SX20IS, combined with the short focal length lens at its shortest setting, even at an f-stop of 2.8, yields amazing depth and clarity. And, the SX20s Landscape program hits the exposure just right for post processing for major drama.
Canon SX20IS at 28mm equivalent. F2.8 @ 1/1250 @ ISO 80. Landscape program.
In Lightroom, Recovery for the sky, Fill Light for the foreground. Blackpoint right. Added Clarity and Vibrance. Sharpen landscape preset.
From Around Home 2010.
4/24/2010
Anastasia State Park
Just to prove that St. Augustine is not all about birds for me, here is a shot taken on the amazing white sand beach at Anastasia State Park. Thunder storms were predicted but never came, so the sky is pretty intense. White sand is the norm on the Gulf side of Florida, especially on the Emerald Coast in the panhandle, but it is rare on the Atlantic Coast. That is one of Anastasia Islands, and St. Augustine’s big draws.
Canon SX20IS at 28mm equivalent. F4.5 @ 1/1250th @ ISO 80. Landscape program.
In Lightroom, some Recovery for the clouds and sand. Blackpoint right. Added Clarity and very little Vibrance. Sharpen landscape preset. On a shot like this, with lots of blue light bouncing around, I have to be careful with the Blackpoint or the clouds turn really blue.
4/13/2010
Parsons Rays
Parson’s Beach is only 2 miles from my front door, so we visit it often, and it never fails to show a new face. This is late in an iffy day weather-wise. I was after the rays here and the dramatics in the sky. I took a fairly straight forward Landscape program shot, biased a little for the sky by tipping the camera up and locking exposure, and then brought up the foreground in Lightroom.
Canon SX20IS at 28mm equivalent. F4.0 @ 1/1250th @ ISO 80. Landscape program.
In Lightroom, heavy Recovery for the sky (even biased as the exposure was). Added Clarity and Vibrance. Blackpoint right. A good deal of Fill Light for the foreground, but even then, to restore it to something like what my eye saw, without removing the dark areas of the clouds, it required a Graduated Filter Effect from the bottom to lighten exposure on the sand.
From Around Home 2010.
A photo friend with whom I trade comments suggested that this might look good in B&W. We often have this discussion as he likes B&W better than I do. So, without further ado, a B&W version.
3/18/2010
Higher Up and Around the Bend
The new section of trail at the Cabrillo Tide Pools takes you up across the face of the steep slope via log steps and some actual stairs to new overlooks further north. This a view I had not seen before.
Canon SX20IS at 28mm equivalent. F4 @ 1/500th @ ISO 80. Landscape program.
Recovery for the sky and Fill Light for the foreground. Blackpoint right. Added Clarity and just a bit of Vibrance. Landscape sharpen preset.
From San Diego 2010.
3/17/2010
Knob with a View
Happy Saint Patrick’s Day! I’ve enough Celt in me to be happy.
And maybe it is the Celt in me that feels the pull of this image. So many lines and layers, interesting textures, the splash of green for color, and the drama of the clouds and sea. Down low with the flip out LCD for this, placing the rock so that it breaks an otherwise unfortunate horizon line in the middle of the composition. The rock pulls the eye and focuses the whole, giving it, to my eye, a dynamic that keeps me looking past the first glance.
Canon SX20IS at 28mm equivalent. F4 @ 1/500th @ ISO 80. Landscape Program.
In Lightroom, some Recovery for the sky, and Fill Light for the foreground. Blackpoint to the right. Added Clarity and more than my usual Vibrance (for the Canon), to pick up the green. Sharpen landscape preset.
From San Diego 2010.