Posts in Category: bokeh
2/27/2009
Sheep's Bit
Taken at my feet right after the shot from yesterday. I was standing in wildflowers (another reason I was not eager to move around much). This is Sheep Bit, which we saw all through the Highlands, and on the Hebrides.
The H50, with its tip-out, articulated LCD panel, allows for extreme low shots, and the 2 cm close focus makes for interesting macros. With shots like this, you have to pay attention to what is in the background. I have a wider shot of the same flower which I like, but I will have to go back and edit out some tallish weed behind the flower, breaking the skyline, to be completely happy with it. This works for me. The fence pulls the eye a bit, but the flower is a strong subject, and placed right at the upper left powerpoint of the image, so that it holds focus. I find the bokeh interesting as well, with what amounts to a swirl of pink clover caused by the shape of the hill.
Sony DSC H50 at full wide (31mm equivalent), at about closest focus (2 cm from the flower). F4.0 @ 1/250 @ ISO 100. Programed Auto.
In Lightroom, I used the Recovery slider to put some drama back into the sky, and some Fill Light to pick up the purples in the flower. I moved the black point to the right to add intensity, and used both Clarity and Vibrance in the Presence panel. Landscape sharpen preset.
From Scotland.
2/21/2009
Reproach
Okay…I do not like zoo shots. I don’t like shooting at zoos, and I don’t, actually, approve of zoos. There are a few that win my grudging admiration for the humane enclosures and the conservation work they do with rare and endangered species, but I wish the world were such a place that there were no need for the work they do (and where I had enough money and time to see all the animals in their natural habitats).
Still, I do go to zoos. With a free morning, and being only a mile from the Rio Grande Zoo and Biological Park in Albuquerque (and having limited options because of the lack of a car), I went. And I enjoyed it for it what it was.
I got some really fine images of Wood Ducks (free) and Flamingos (captive), and I got this catch of an African Vulture really near the fence of his enclosure and very aware of me on the other side of the fence. To me it says something about zoos that resonates. I have no idea if the bird felt the way he looks (unlikely), or if it is a total projection on my part (likely), but what I see in his eye is a whole testament on the nature of captivity.
I shot this by holding the lens of the H50 between fingers on either side of one of the little diamonds of open in a woven cable wire fence, front of the lens actually touching the wires of the fence.
Sony DSC H50 at just slightly over 400mm equivalent. F4.5 @ 1/500th @ ISO 100. Programed Auto.
In Lightroom I used the Recovery slider to bring out detail in the highlighted area above the eye, added Presence with the Clarity and Vibrance sliders, and used the Sharpen portrait preset.
From Albuquerque.
2/8/2009
Plum
I took many exposures of this flowering plum against the backdrop of the terraced vineyard, attempting to get the right balance of subject focus and out of focus background. I wanted enough detail in the vineyard so the viewer could identify the context, and so that the terraced vines created an interesting pattern…without distracting from the showy blossoms. This one of several that I like…the most close-up, with the most emphasis on the blossoms. There are other’s around it in the gallery with different effects.
For this series I used Program Shift, to select the smallest aperture available, for maximum depth of field. At the longer focal length used in this shot, that is still not much. The H50 has image sensor shift image stabilization, which makes exposures at the slow shutter speed that resulted from the Program Shift possible without a tripod. I love it.
Sony DSC H50 at an approximate equiv. focal length of 250mm. F8.0 @ 1/30 @ ISO 100. Programed Auto with program shift for max. aperture.
From Vallejo and Sonoma.
1/29/2009
Roseate Spoonbill
I will eventually run out of digiscoping images from my time at Space Coast. I hope to go out today to photograph the new snow we got yesterday. This, however is another digiscoped bird: Roseate Spoonbill. Spoonbills are colorful all year, but during breeding season they are spectacular. The pink deepens. The exposed skin of the skull cap goes green, setting off the bright ruby eye. Then too, the utterly bizarre spoon of the bill is pretty unique. Behavior is also worth watching. The birds get into some amazing shapes, especially while preening.
All those elements, along with some excellent light, come together for me in this image. Tight cropped in camera by using the full 3000 plus mm of effective focal length of the digiscoping rig, the image catches all the color, the shape, and the personality of the bird. The interesting (to my eye) bokeh pattern completes the effect.
Sony DSC N1 behind the eyepiece of a Zeiss Diascope 85FL at 3000mm equiv. effective focal length. F8.0 @ 1/160 @ ISO 64. Programed Auto. Selective spot focus on the eye.
From the Space Coast Birding Gallery.