Posts in Category: Laudholm Farm
67 Supersport at Laudholm Farms
Sunday afternoon my wife and I took a walk at Laudholm Farm (aka the Wells National Estuarine Research Center). It was one of those amazing fall days in Southern Maine when the sky conspired with the landscape to create drama wherever you looked. I have a bunch of interesting shots that you will likely see over the next few days, but this is the absolutely last shot I took there. We were back at the car and the sky and the touch of remaining fall color drew me up on the little berm that divides the parking lot in two. I leaned against a light post and took the 3 exposure HDR.
If it had been any other car in that corner of the parking lot it would have spoiled the shot…but the 67 Supersport (as identified by a car buff on the dpreview Canon forum) is just classy enough to actually add to the composition.
Canon SX50HS. Program with auto iContrast and Shadow Fill. HDR mode (takes 3 images and combines them in-camera). 24mm equivalent field of view. f5 @ 1/500th @ ISO 80.
Field and Sky. Laudholm Farm, Wells ME
One of the advantages of small sensor cameras is that the very short actual focal length of the zoom lenses they have to use means great depth of field. This was taken with my Canon SX40HS at the equivalent field of view of a 36mm lens on a full frame DSLR, but the actual focal length is only 6.4mm. That makes a shot like this, with amazing depth of field, possible without resorting to very small apertures (which bring their own resolution problems). It was shot at f6.3 @ 1/1250th @ ISO 160, in Program with –1/3EV exposure compensation. (Of course, at the other end when shooting moderate to long telephoto shots, the actual focal length also means greater depth of field…which is not always an advantage with tel shots where you want to isolate the subject against an out-of-focus background. 🙁
I actually rode my electric scooter the 4 miles from home to Laudhome looking for this shot. The packed sky demanded an open landscape and busy field for foreground…or so I saw it in my mind.
Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness.
7/28/2011: Yellow Birch, Laudholm Farm
I really like Yellow Birch: the colors and textures of the trunks in any stage of growth. This is a relatively large specimen growing by the boardwalk at Laudholm Farm (Wells National Estuarine Research Center in Wells Maine). Here the contrast between the green fern fond, the smooth Popular sapling and the strong arch of the Yellow Birch root and trunk make (to my eye) an interesting composition. Mid-afternoon light was somewhat harsh, so I have emphasized the contrasts in the scene, and it’s underlying graphic design, by adjusting both Blackpoint and Contrast.
Nikon Coolpix P500 at 68mm equivalent field of view, f4.7 @ 1/400th @ ISO 160. Program with Active D-Lighting.
Processed in Lightroom for Clarity, Sharpness, and Contrast.
7/20/2011: Eastern Tiger Swallowtail on Milkweed
As I mentioned yesterday, the Milkweed was in bloom at Laudholm Farm over the weekend, and it had attracted a variety of butterflies…well beyond the Monarchs you expect to see there. Many of them, like this Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, were rather travel worn. This specimen looks like it might have had an encounter with a bird who went away with a large chunk of its right wing. I am often amazed at how damaged a butterfly can be and still manage to fly just fine.
I was also amazed by the smell of the Milkweed bloom…in a mass as it is at Laudholm, it is very sweet indeed! No wonder it attracts insects of all kinds.
Nikon Coolpix P500 at 810mm equivalent field of view, f5.7 @ 1/500th @ ISO 160. Program with Active D-Lighting.
Processed for Clarity and Sharpness in Lightroom.
6/17/2011: Ringed Song Sparrow, Feathers on Friday
For the birders in the house, no “Ringed Song Sparrow” is not a new species on the AOU list…just your standard Song Sparrow (of which there are slightly less then the leaves on the trees in southern Maine) with a band, or, as the British say, a ring. The band is probably from the banding station at Laudholm farm (where the image was taken). This bird was obliging enough to pose in an old apple tree while I got the digiscoping rig grounded and shot off two bursts of images. The light was less than ideal, well overcast and threatening rain, which is were the Back-illuminated CMOS sensor in my current digiscoping camera comes into its own.
Canon SD4000IS behind the eyepiece of a ZEISS DiaScope 85FL spotting scope for the equivalent field of view of an 1800mm lens on a full frame DSLR, 1/80th second @ ISO 400, f5 effective (set by the camera in this case).
Processed in Lightroom for Clarity and Sharpness.
6/11/2011: Laudholm Farm Panorama
Laudholm Farm, as you know if you have been following my posts any amount of time, is home to the Wells National Estuarine Research Center. There is a cooperation between the Federal Government and the Laudholm Trust to manage the land and maintain the buildings and trails, while actively hosting research each year. Laudholm farm is one of few remaining undeveloped salt marsh farms along the coast. This is the vista from the little rise between the Farm proper and the drop to the marsh and the beach. This time of year, I go out this trail to look for courting Bobolinks, and it is one of my favorite photo walks any time of year. What you see in the sky is the back edge of the front that brought severe thunder storms through the night before, knocking out power to the farm and most of the area around it.
This is four hand-held 32mm equivalent exposures, using Program set to Active D-Lighting and Vivid Image Optimization on the Nikon Coolpix P500, overlapped and stitched in PhotoMerge in PhotoShop Elements 9, and processed for Clarity and Sharpness in Lightroom. Nominal exposure was in the f4 @ 1/1250th @ ISO 160 range.
If you click on the image it should open to the full width of your monitor.