Posts in Category: afternoon light
Sunflower Gleaning in the Afternoon
I took a brisk walk at Laudholm Farm a few afternoons ago, mostly for the exercise, but, of course, with one eye out for photo-ops (well, both eyes to be honest), This female American Goldfinch was near the end of the walk, coming back to the farm buildings, in the community garden with it’s giant sunflowers. Sunflowers do not often ripen to seed in Maine before the first frost, but the few seeds already ripe were attracting a variety of birds on this early September afternoon. I saw at least one male Goldfinch, and several females. This one posed nicely below one of the blooms.
Sony HX400V at something over 1200mm equivalent field of view (using the Perfect Image digital zoom). ISO 80 @ 1/250th @ f6.3. Cropped slightly and processed in Lightroom on my Surface Pro 3 tablet.
Bales in Afternoon Light
”
Yesterday afternoon it was too nice to sit inside, but not particularly good photographic light. There was a heat haze in the air, especially out over the ocean, that dulled the horizon. I took the scooter up the coast to Biddeford Pool and East Point Sanctuary, but didn’t really find anything of interest. I passed this field in the process of being hayed on the way out, and stopped for the more interesting light on the way back. Of course there are thousands of images of these kinds of round bales in the collective photographic archive already, but, still, you (or at least I) have to take a few each year. 🙂
Sony HX400V. In-camera HDR. Nominal exposure: ISO 80 @ 1/500th @ f5.6. 64mm equivalent field of view. Processed in Lighroom on my Surface Pro tablet.
Bench by the Sea
”
Sweep panorama is a killer feature on today’s modern digital cameras, and it works best on the Point & Shoots with fully electronic shutters. On Compact Mirrorless System Cameras and true DSLRs with electro-mechanical shutters it can still be done but the camera has to join several discrete exposures. On a P&S, the image is painted to the file basically one line at a time so the results are generally smoother and more satisfying. Recently I have been experimenting with tall panoramas with a lot of sky above the landscape. It is fun! (Though I am sure I look pretty strange pointing the camera straight up and swinging it down in a arch in front of me.:)
This is Parson’s Way…a long thin park along the rocks leading out to Cape Arundel in Kennebunkport Maine. The view is of Colony Beach, the mouth of the Kennebunk River, and Big Beach and the resorts in Kennebunk. Sony HX400V. Sweep panorama. Nominal exposure: ISO 80 @ 1/2000th @ f5.0.
Processed in Lightroom on my Surface Pro 3.
Foxglove!
The light was lovely late yesterday afternoon in the yard, and the Foxglove is still in full bloom. This is the ZEISS Touit 50mm f2.8 macro again, pulled back for more of a telephoto macro effect, which the Touit is fully capable of, with an equivalent focal length of 75mm.
Sony NEX 3N with the ZEISS Touit 50mm macro. I used Aperture preferred to stop down for extra depth of field, which I think is effective here. F14 @ 1/80th @ ISO 640. Processed in Snapseed on my tablet.
Spoonbills in Love!
It is not hard to observe mating behavior at the Smith’s Oaks rookery on High Island Texas. Just stand at one of the overlooks in April for few moments and you are bound to see some mating action. This pair of Spoonbills had not started a nest yet but were clearly contemplating one. If they had gotten that far in their thinking. If they were thinking.
Olympus OM-D E-M10 with 75-300mm zoom. 600mm equivalent. Again, I had the camera in my preprogrammed “flight” mode and did not have time switch back. 1/400th @ f8 @ ISO 200. Processed in Snapseed on my tablet. Assembled in Pixlr Express.
Fan Palm. Happy Sunday!
For us northerners (or at least for me), there is nothing more emblematic of being in the south-land, in the sub-tropics, in Mediterranean climes, than the Palm tree. I feel it in, say, San Diego, but it is especially evident (again, to me) in the forest understory of fan palms in the dappled winter sun filtered through live oak draped in hanging fern. (Of course, in the Southeastern sub-tropics, there is sweet tea too 🙂
This is an HDR treatment, to emphasize what the light is doing with the palm. Sony NEX 3NL with 16-50mm zoom. 70mm equivalent field of view. ISO 200 @ 1/80th @ f6.3. Processed in Snapseed on the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 2014.
And for the Sunday Thought. I am always reminded, when I see palms, of the Palm Story Sunday, and how much of the visual imagery of the Bible we northerners can so early miss. The land where Jesus walked is Mediterranean, and as he was fully man, it had to have gotten into his thought. It certainly influenced the words and images the Gospel story is told in. How different would the Bible be, not in its essential truths, but in the telling, if it had been written in England…or, say, Maine? Not that it would matter. Still, the imagery of the Bible is an exotic to me, upstate New York born and bred, and New Englander by choice, as the Fan Palms in the understory, in the filtered winter light of a live oak glade.
Late Winter Light Across the Marsh
Getting a new camera, in many ways, is like having new eyes…or at least like seeing all the familiar scenes once more as though they were new. (On the other hand, maybe I just buy too many cameras 🙂 I always like to have a new camera several days around home before I take it traveling, because shooting a few of my favorite scenes gives me the measure of the machine much more quickly than shooting thousands of images in less familiar surroundings. I have a few test shots I take with every new camera, and then a set of standard scenics. This week I am getting to know a Sony NEX 3NL-B, one of the compact mirror-less cameras with interchangeable lenses. I have been looking at them for a while, mostly because of the promised improvement in image quality that is supposed to come with the larger sensors…but most of the kit zooms that come with them are just not wide enough to satisfy, and most of the entry level models do not have an articulated LCD. And even the entry level models are just a bit too expensive to justify the experiment. The Sony came with a compact 16-50mm zoom (24-75mm equivalent field of view) and a filp out LCD…and Amazon had really good, one-day-only, deal on it. Like I say, maybe I just buy too many cameras!
This is one of of my standard test scenes…the view from the deck on the back side of the Rachel Carson NWR Headquarters trail, overlooking the final loops of Branch Brook before it joins the Merriland to become the Little River…the scene is never ordinary…and here it is the light that elevates it. The final rays of the low winter sun across the marsh…the contrasting cold shadows of the season and the ice on the brook…it is an ideal HDR subject, and indeed, I used some HDR processing in Snapseed to bring out the character of the scene. Still the Sony had to deliver the raw materials for Snapseed to work on…and it did that very well! I will write more extensively elsewhere on my conclusions as to the promised improvement in image quality…but suffice it to say here that I can see the difference in comparison shots with this camera and my Samsung Smart Camera WB800F…though one thing the exercise has demonstrated is just how well today’s small sensor compacts actually do most of the time (and the Samsung in particular). That said, I will definitely be keeping the Sony NEX, and it stands a good chance of completely displacing the Samsung as my day to day landscape and creative tool 🙂
Sony NEX 3NL-B, 16-50mm zoom at 24mm equivalent field of view. Superior Auto. ISO 200 @ 1/80th @ f13. Processed in Snapseed on the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 2014.