Posts in Category: macro
3/14/2010
Ornamentals over the Pacific
Happy Sunday
This shot is appropriate to the day. It is a rainy Sunday in Maine and this was taken on a rainy Sunday in San Diego exactly a week ago. An I am not letting the rain dampen my spirits today either!
An ornamental hedge that surrounds the Visitor Center at Cabrillo National Monument. I sat the camera more or less on top of the hedge, using the flip out LCD and Super Macro, and shot across the top to frame this cluster of blossoms against the stormy Pacific sky. I would have used Exposure Lock and Program Shift for better depth, at 1/250 I had plenty of room for a slower shutter speed and smaller aperture, but it was raining and I did not want to risk the camera out from under cover for more than the time it took to grab this shot.
Canon SX20IS at 28mm equivalent and Super Macro. F2.8 @ 1/250th @ ISO 160. Programmed auto.
A bit of Recovery for the sky in Lightroom. Fill Light for the foreground. Blackpoint right. Added Clarity and some Vibrance. Sharpen landscape preset. Cropped from the bottom to eliminate out of focus foliage and for composition.
From San Diego 2010.
3/9/2010
Flower with Bokeh
Playing with the super macro on th Canon SX20IS. The bush itself and the clouds and bit of blue sky make for an interesting background.
Canon SX20IS at 28mm and Super Macro. F3.5 @ 1/250 @ ISO 100. Programmed auto.
A touch of Recovery in Lightroom for the petals. Added Clarity and Vibrance. Blackpoint slightly right. Sharpen landscape preset.
From San Diego 2010.
3/6/2010
Liken Lichen!
We had a major blow-down with the storm last week. The short trail at Rachel Carson NWR Headquarters was littered with branches, and quite a few of the tall pines lost their tops. They had chain-sawed the bigger trunks and moved them aside by the time I got there, but there were many examples lying along the trail. These were all living trees with good green heads, but what was interesting to me was the rich growth of lichen on the upper reaches of the trunk, from just below were the green branches began, on up to the crown. This growth is high up and largely invisible from ground level…and certainly there is nothing like it on the lower section of the trunk. It must be something to do with light levels. There is a whole micro world up there. Who knew?
Canon SX20IS at 28mm equivalent and SuperMicro. F2.8 @ 1/60th @ ISO 80. Programmed auto.
A touch of Fill Light and Blackpoint just slightly right in Lightroom. Added Clarity and just a tiny amount of Vibrance. Sharpen landscape preset. Color temperature adjusted slightly to offset the shadow light.
From Around Home 2010.
And here are two more shots, with vary similar particulars. The second shot is cropped slightly from the bottom of the frame.
2/24/2010
Seaweed Black
These black seaweed bladders are all over the rocky beaches of southern Maine. I am not certain whether they are black in life or if they turn black as they dry…but they are fascinating anyway. This is an extreme closeup using the Super Macro mode on the Canon SX20IS. The lens hood is practically touching the rock.
Canon SX20IS at 28mm equivalent and Super Macro. F4 @ 1/640th @ ISO 100. Programmed auto.
Recovery in Lightroom for the sunny rock and the reflected highlights on the seaweed. A touch of Fill Light. Blackpoint just right. Added Clarity and just a tiny amount of Vibrance. Sharpen landscapes preset. Cropped slightly at the bottom to remove the worst of the out of focus weed.
From Around Home 2010.
2/20/2010
Sweet Gum Burrs in Early Morning Light
Low sun on the moss, and these Sweet Gum seed pods. The flip out, rotating LCD on the Canon SX20 works just as well as the flip up display on the Sony H50 for these low angle shots. An articulated display was one of my major requirements in a new camera, and kept me from purchasing cameras that I might otherwise have considered (like the new 30x zoom models coming out in the next month or so). I am addicted to the low view…or at least the possibility of capturing it when I see the potential. As here.
Canon SX20IS at 28mm equivalent. F2.8 @ 1/320th @ ISO 160. Programmed auto.
Blackpoint slightly right, added Clarity and Vibrance (much less Vibrance than I was in the habit of adding with H50 shots…added Vibrance turns the Canon images yellow very fast). Sharpen landscape preset. Cropped at the bottom to eliminate out of focus foreground.
From First Canon VA.
12/24/2009
Frozen in Time
One final ice shot from Emmon’s Preserve in Kennebunkport ME. The way the patterns in the ice form around objects is amazing…subtle…perhaps totally unpredictable but somehow readable once seen. I shot this oak leaf from several angles and distances. This is a wide angle macro.
Sony DSC H50 at 31mm equivalent and macro. F3.5 @ 1/60th @ ISO 100. Programmed auto.
Blackpoint to the right in Lightroom. Added Clarity and Vibrance and Sharpen Landscape preset.
From Around Home Kennebunk ME.
12/16/2009
Moss
Back to summer for this extreme close up of fresh green moss from this summer. Emmon’s Preserve in Kennebunkport ME is a few acres along a steam protected by the Kennebunk Land Trust. There is a rustic hiking trail that winds through, mostly along the stream. There is always something of interest to photograph there.
This was taken, as you might guess, from right down on the ground, using the flip out LCD on the Sony H50 and the macro setting. I used EV compensation and program shift to get as much depth of field as possible. EV compensation was also useful in taming the highlights in this full sun shot.
Sony DSC H50 at 31mm equivalent and macro. F3.5 @ 1/60th @ ISO 100. Programmed auto with -.7EV compensation and program shift.
Added Clarity and Vibrance in Lightroom, Blackpoint to the right. Sharpen Landscape preset.
12/9/2009
Rose by Any Other Name
Rugosa Rose, beach rose, Japanese rose, Ramanas rose, introduced from Asia to North America many generations ago as an ornamental landscape rose, escaped, and now lives rampant on the dunes of New England. The hips are sometimes made into jelly. In this first snow of the season they certainly stand out, still only slightly shrunken from their fall glory, and still very red. The early light only emphasizes the color.
I took quite a few exposures of different clumps with snow cover. I shot in very close with wide-angle and macro, and I used the macro setting with full telephoto to isolate clusters of hips. Once more, the flip out LCD made shots like this one, where I had to hold the camera well below waist level to get the angle, possible…even easy. I look at the new entry level DSLRs and wonder…but until I see one with as flexible an LCD. I will have to stick with my little Sony P&S!
Sony DSC H50 at full tel (465mm equivalent) macro. F5.6 @ 1/640th @ ISO 100. Programmed auto.
Just your (my) basic added Clarity and Vibrance in Lightroom. Sharpen landscapes preset.
From First Snow 12/09.
10/2/2009
Splender in the Weeds
Still at Point Lobos from my visit last Sunday, but something a bit different. It would not do to get lost in the view and the drama of the fog blowing in, and miss the little details at your feet. Or so I say. As always the Sony H50s flip out LCD and super macro setting makes shots like this easy. Flip out, hold low and close, frame, shoot when it looks good.
I am not sure what this is, but the contrast between the spiky balls and the creamy pendants behind was arresting in reality, and makes, I think, a find study as an image.
Sony DSC H50 at about 40mm equivalent. F5.6 @ 1/320th @ ISO 100. Programed auto.
Just my most basic added Clarity, Vibrance, and Sharpen landscape preset in Lightroom.
From Monterey Bay 09.
8/18/2009
Pumpkin Flower
I leave for England and the British Birding Fair, where I will be assisting Zeiss UK with the Digiscoping Stand, attending meetings, etc. I am posting a few ahead here so you might not notice my absence.
This is from a growing set of images from around my yard in Kennebunk. Our yard is nothing special. We are casual landscapers and gardeners at best. But we do have pumpkin plants. They are unlikely to make pumpkins here inside the tide line where the season is short even by southern Maine standards, but they are great plants…with great flowers.
This was taken with the super macro on my little Sanyo dual HD camcorder and 10mp still camera. It does a not half bad job. As you might guess, the camera was right down inside the large flower to take this shot.
Sanyo VPC GG 10 at it’s 40mm equivalent widest setting and macro. F3.5 @ 1/280th @ ISO 100. Programed auto.
Just my basic added Clarity, Vibrance, and sharpen in Lighroom.