Monthly Archives: February 2009
2/19/2009
Pink Space Contemplation
I don’t do much urban photography, mostly because I rarely have free time in an urban setting. This trip to Albuquerque is giving me an opportunity to practice my urban landscape skills. And where better than this city of color?
I saw this building from 3 blocks away and left my intended path to photograph it. This is one of several shots. I played with the zoom and framing bits of detail. The strong shadow, the vivid colors (adobe and sky), the basic shapes, the lone Rock Pigeon perfectly posed…it all comes together here in design that catches the eye and won’t let go. To me it looks like an abstract painting, but with pigeon, as though the artist felt the need to include a natural reference at the last moment. I find it just slightly amusing.
Sony DSC H50 at about 325mm equivalent. F5.0 @ 1/500 @ ISO 100. Programed Auto.
In Lightroom I cropped and straightened somewhat for composition. There was a drainpipe and a corner on the right that had to be dealt with. Clarity and Vibrance in the Presence panel, and a touch of added Saturation. Portrait sharpen preset.
From the Albuquerque gallery.
2/18/2009
Hot and Cold
Old Town, Albuquerque New Mexico. The mother-load of color! I am in town for the North American Nature Photographers Association Summit. The hotel and convention center are about 2 miles from Old Town. I had the late afternoon light. Not hard to figure out what to do.
Color is everywhere. I will be posting an extended appreciation of the colors of Old Town and New Mexico on Point and Shoot Landscape in the next few days. For this shot I was working from behind a locked gate that prevented me from entering the passageway to a small plaza. Chile was everywhere. These wreaths were hung casually across the back of a Santa Fe bench, in a traditional weathered copper green. I liked the contrast with the bench and with the larger Hatch chiles hanging behind. The zoom on the H50 reached out for the shot.
Because it was in deep shade, and I had to use considerable zoom, the ISO was pushed up to 400, and I still might not have gotten the shot without the Sony’s image stabilization. This is the kind of shot, though, where a higher ISO can work. There is so much detail and color that the noise, while there, is effectively massed. Even in the wall behind, the texture of the adobe hides noise.
Focus was also an issue at this relatively wide F-stop, but there was nothing I could do about it. A smaller F-stop would have pushed ISO higher or made the shot difficult to hand hold. As it was I let focus rest on the chilis closest to the viewer, which kept the carvings on the bench sharp, and have to count of the eye’s forgiving nature for the rest. I am not sure it would work as a 16×20 print, but at screen resolution it is effective, and should work at a reasonable print size.
Sony DSC H50 at 250mm equiv. F4.0 @ 1/40th @ ISO 400. Programed Auto.
In Lightroom a small adjustment to color temperature was needed because of the deep shade. Clarity and Vibrance from the Presence panel, to pop the colors. I shifted the black point slightly to the right to add intensity. Portrait sharpen preset.
From Albuquerque.
2/17/2009
Rime of a different kind
Another Rime shot from my morning image trek the other winter day. This one is straight on macro, taken from inches away, at the edge of a small ditch along the border of the marsh, where the falling tide had draped the rime over grasses. The blue sky behind sets the image off.
You would have laughed to see me down in the ditch, my flip up LCD flipped up, bent over double to get the low angle, with the camera strap clutched close to keep it from dragging in the ice. The camera was millimeters from the ground, and angled slightly up. I teetered there for several moments taking a series of shots as I varied the angle and distance from the edge of the ditch. I don’t know what anyone watching might have thought I was doing, but I can tell you I was very thankful for the flip out LCD on the H50 along about then.
Sony DSC H50 at full wide (31mm equiv.). F5.6 @ 1/400 @ ISO 100. Snow Scene select and -.7EV exposure compensation. Macro mode.
Recovery in Lightroom for the transparency of the ice. Clarity and Portrait sharpen preset. Vibrance for the grasses and the sky. Cropped slightly at the bottom to eliminate out of focus ice.
2/16/2009
Rime
Sea water is not supposed to freeze…too much salt. Of course it does freeze under the right conditions. Here, as the tide fell, it left a delicate rime of ice on the grasses of the marsh behind the dunes, beside the river, and, mixed with fresh river water, froze at least to semi-solid in the tiny pool in the hollow of the grasses.
I took many shots of different rime formations in the low sun of this February day. I like the composition of this one, the strong slanting line which divides the smooth patterns of the water from the frozen grasses…which I feel sets off the delicate detail of the bold swirling patters above.
This is another shot from the series I took on my very international trip to gather winter images at some of my local hot spots. Parson’s Beach in this case, about 2 miles from my front door.
Sony DSC H50 zoomed to about 100mm equiv. to crop. F5.6 @ 1/640th @ ISO 100. Programed Auto. Snow Scene select with -.7 EV exposure compensation.
In Lightroom the image was cropped slightly on the left to remove a dark shaddow in the upper corner. Recovery to bring out the details in the rime. Some added Clarity and Sharpness, and a bit of Vibrance to pick up the gold tones of the grasses underneath.
2/15/2009
Fringe
I went out yesterday on a cold, windy, but sunny winter morning looking for images. The last snow was a week ago and it has rained and been in the 40s since, but there is still a foot to two feet of very compact, icy snow everywhere. Hard enough to walk on.
This is from a little spot called Roger’s Pond, a municipal park along the Mousam River in Kennebunk, not far from Main Street. I have quite a few winter pictures from Roger’s Pond, mainly because the town plows it out after every storm and you can always get down to the river there. Though it can’t be more than 3 acres, out behind some factories and the power station, it is always worth checking.
This is splash ice along the river, forming on a shelf of hard snow that extended out over the water, just too stubborn to melt. I am always fascinated by the many lobed formations, lace like, that spray ice takes as it forms on any exposed edge near the steam.
I zoomed in and then cropped this from the left for better composition and used both Snow Scene preset and -1 EV exposure compensation to keep detail in the snow.
This is the first of several quiet (but sastifying) little images from this short (less than 2 hours) excursion into the winter weather. I am always amazed that there are images everywhere, any day, every day, if you are willing to take the time to look.
Sony DSC H50 at about 200mm equiv. F4.5 @ 1/500th @ ISO 100. Snow Scene preset and -1 EV exposure compensation.
In Lightroom I pulled the highlights back even more with the Recovery slider, added minor Clarity and Vibrance (for the colors in the water and the bit of red in the submerged branch), and the Portrait Sharpen preset.
2/14/2009
About Fog
Not exactly a Valentines Day image, but…
Likely the last of the Jack London State Park series for Pic of the Day. Tendrils of misty fog across the pines and redwoods above the high terrace of vines. Atmosphere. I used the zoom on the H50 to crop in and make the fog the subject of the image.
Sony DSC H50 at about 100mm equiv. F8.0 @ 1/40th @ ISO 100. Programed Auto.
Processed in Lightroom to bring out the transparency of the fog, using the Recovery slider. Added Vibrance and Clarity. Landscape sharpen.
From Vallejo and Sonoma.
2/13/2009
Saints Preserve Us
Saints preseve us, it is Friday the 13th. (to mix my superstitions).
This is actually taken on the Isle of Lindisfarne in Northumerland, Holy Island in the vernacular. A straight forward shot of interesting detail in the ruins of a 13th century monastery…one of the sites that had a lot to do with preserving civilization as we know it during the dark ages. Not totally inappropriate for a Friday the 13th.
Sony DSC H50 at about 180mm equiv. F3.5 @ 1/60th @ ISO 100. Programed Auto.
Basic processing (Clarity, Vibrance, Sharpen) in Lightroom. One of the issues in a low light exposure with the H50, especially where you have silhouettes as in this image, is Chromatic Aberation (green and pink lines at the edges of things) and Purple Fringing (a sensor artifact that puts a purple fringe along edges). This image showed both (still shows come on close examination). Lightroom has filters that work well, but in extreme cases even Lightroom can not cure the whole problem. And if that isn’t a a Friday the 13th nightmare, what is?
From Scotland.
2/12/2009
Mossy Stair
The visitor center at Jack London State Park looks as old as the hills it stands on, probably because it is make out of the rocks of the hills themselves and any rock in this climate grows moss and ferns. I reframed this shot as a close up to eliminate the brown downpipe, but on reflection, I like this better. The downpipe adds color and angularity which only highlights the natural forms of the stone. IMHO.
Shooting in this rainy subdued light pushed the ISO (on Auto) to 200, but gave me interesting saturation in the moss and stone.
Sony DSC H50 at about a 35mm equivalent. F2.8 @ 1/40th @ ISO 200. Programed Auto. Again, the image stabilization in the H50 made a tricky exposure possible without tripod.
From Vallejo and Sonoma.
2/11/2009
Eucalyptus
Eucalyptus is an import from Australia, but it grows to magnificent dimensions in California, and can dominate a landscape in a relatively short time. I don’t know whether Jack London planted the groves at Jack London State Park or whether they predated his occupation, but the trees are some of the finest I have seen.
The bark patterns are unique. I could have spent the whole day finding and recording interesting patterns. The rain in the air only deepened the colors and added interesting sheens. This is one example of what I was seeing.
The light was not great…or rather it was interesting light but it made for a difficult exposure. Without the image stabilization on the H50 I would not have attempted it without a tripod.
Sony DSC H50 at about 100mm equiv. F3.2 @ 1/50th @ ISO 400. Programed Auto.
Cropped in Lightroom for composition. Basic Presence settings and Sharpened.
From Vallejo and Sonoma.
2/10/2009
Power
An 18 hour travel day yesterday precluded any Pic of the Day posting, so, no, you didn’t miss one.
Taking a break from the Jack London State Park series, this is a shot from the same day, taken at the one safe place to pull off Highway 37 between Vallejo and 101: the wildlife viewing area under the bridge at Sonoma Creek.
I do not generally find power lines scenic, but there was something compelling about the line of towers leading back to the limited sun on the hills behind Vallejo. The geometry of it if nothing else. I took several shots, using the zoom for different framing. This one, taken at about 300mm equivalent, emphasizes the geometry. I like the way the second tower comes through the first, and then the rest curve off into the diminishing distance.
Sony DSC H50. F5.6 @ 1/840th @ ISO 100. Programed Auto.
Some Recovery in Lightroom for the sky, Vibrance and Clarity, and the Landscape sharpen preset.
From Vallejo and Sonoma.