Monthly Archives: June 2010
6/10/2010
Bush’s Through Reeds
Lovely warm evening sun, storm off the coast, the Bush estate in Kennbunkport (Cape Arundel), and a few reeds in the foreground. Moderate telephoto to frame, flip out LCD to get the low angle.
Canon SX20IS at 85mm equivalent. F4.0 @ 1/320th @ ISO 80. Landscape program.
Recovery for the sky in Lightroom 3, Fill Light for the reeds, Blackpoint right for intensity (gently in Lr3 as the tool is works much faster), added Clarity and a touch of Vibrance. Sharpen narrow edges preset. Cropped slightly top and bottom for composition.
From Around Home 2010.
6/9/2010
Cape Arundel Pano
I have quite a few pictures of this house. It was featured as the exterior in a well-known movie. The light of a summer evening in Maine, after 7PM, and the remnants of a stormy day moving off-shore and north, add some drama, and some warmth. This is 4 shots at about 40mm equivalent stitched in PhotoShop Elements Panorama tool to cover an angle of about 120 degrees. I am finding that using a zoom setting near normal focal lengths, rather than a the wide-angle end, gives a very natural looking perspective…so that the result, though super-wide, does not look like a conventional panorama. Ocean panos are always difficult because of tendency of the water to move 🙂 but except for one little glitch (which you might be able to find if you look hard enough), this is pretty good. Especially good as, yet again, I was without a tripod.
Clearly, to appreciate this image you will need to view it as big as your monitor will allow. Click the image to go to Wide Eyed in Wonder and use the size controls at the top of the window.
Canon SX20IS at 40mm equivalent. F3.2 @ 1/400th @ ISO 80. Panorama mode.
Stitched, as above, in PhotoShop Elements Panorama tool using the auto setting. Processed in Lightroom 3 after stitching: Recovery for the sky, Fill Light and Blackpoint right, added Clarity and Vibrance, Sharpen edges preset (used to be Sharpen landscapes). Applied the distortion profile from a Canon Powershot G series (which works until I get my set made for the SX20IS). Lightroom 3 is brand new, and I am going to have to learn the controls again, as everything is subtly (and not so subtly) changed.
From Around Home 2010.
6/8/2010
Name this Flower: Ragged Robin!
[Thanks to Dan Huber who came through almost instantly with the ID!]
Though I have searched my references and the internet I have not been able to identify this flower, two isolated clumps of which were growing in fairly deep forest along a path at Laudholm Farms in Wells Maine. It reminds me of a lot of different flowers but is not them. 🙂 The deeply forked petal structure and the color should be distinctive. ?? I am certain when someone names it I am going to go “Of course!”
Another view. This time hit by a shaft of sun.
Canon SX20IS. Both at 28mm and Super-macro. F2.8 @ ISO 100. The shade shot at 1/160th and the sun shot at 1/400th. Programmed auto.
Similar processing in Lightroom. Fill Light, Blackpont right, added Clarity and Vibrance. Sharpen landscape preset. The shade shot required auto white balance correction in Lightroom to warm the overly blue tone. It was also cropped slightly for composition.
From Laudholm Farm.
6/7/2010
Iris Surprise
This is a pretty straightforward shot. My wife planted these Iris several years ago. Nothing. Then this year, boom. Tall and beautiful and full flower. Early morning sun brings out all the richness. A long tel macro setting at about 550mm, from 4 feet away, isolates the bloom against the background.
Canon SX20IS. F5.7 @ 1/320th @ ISO 200. Programmed auto.
A touch of Recovery in Lightroom (mostly for the background). Some Fill Light and Blackpoint right. Added Clarity and just a tiny amount of Vibrance. Sharpen landscape preset.
And for the alternative view: more or less the same shot at 28mm and Super macro from centimeters away. This plant is in open shade, not full sun.
6/6/2010
Song Sparrow on a Post
Happy Sunday!
Brought to you through the magic of digiscoping. Nothing like it. I was 30 feet or more from this little guy. This is about as close to a bird-in-the-hand view as you can get. On my laptop monitor he is close to life size right here, and I could view him at several times life-size.
Canon SD1400IS Digital Elph behind the eyepiece of a Zeiss Diascoope 65FL. Equivalent focal length about 3500mm. Exif f5.0 @ 1/320th @ ISO 80. Programmmed auto. Computed f-stop based on the scope/camera combination: f9.6.
In Lightroom, some Recovery for the sky, a touch of Fill Light to compensate for Blackpoint right. Added Clarity and just a bit of Vibrance. Sharpen landscape preset.
I zoomed back to get the full bird in full song. This one is at about 1800mm equivalent. Note that the bird has its nictitating membrane over the eye.
And here is the video, along with a curious passerby.
6/5/2010
Plantain
Laudholm Farm manages old farm lands, as you might guess from the name, and the open meadows are home to all kinds of plants…both native and foreign. This is English Plantain, which is a weed in a yard, but part of a natural and nutritious mix of plants in a meadow. Song-birds eat the seeds (it is actually grown commercially for cage bird feed). Rabbits love the leaves. One man’s weed is another man’s treasure.
Canon SX20IS at 28mm equivalent and Super-macro. Lens-hood touching the stem and the flowers inside. F4.5 @ 1/1250th @ ISO 160. Programmed auto.
And here is another view.
This one at F4 @ 1/1250th @ ISO 80. This one, to me, has a feel of the open prairies…though it is only a hill top meadow in New England.
Both processed in Lightroom using my standard touch of Recovery, Fill Light, Blackpoint right, added Clarity and Vibrance and Sharpen landscape preset.
From Laudholm Farms.
6/4/2010
Bobolink
For some reason, the Bobolink has been a digiscoping jinx bird for me. Every year I try for new shots at Laudholm Farm, just down the road from us, where they are abundant and very visible during courting season in the spring. I tried two years in a row in North Dakota where they are also abundant. And I have nothing to show for it…or at least, nothing I am willing to show to others. 🙂
So, this year, I gottem! Or at least I got my best shots yet.
Even then, this is still a very hard bird to photograph. White on black is always a hard exposure problem, and the fine-fur like structure of the head feathers is a real challenge to capture effectively. And when they are visible in courtship, they are always moving. After courtship they simply disappear. I have never seen a Bobolink that was not courting or being courted. Maybe I am just not looking hard enough.
Canon SD1400IS behind the eyepiece of a Zeiss Diascope 65FL for an equivalent focal length of about 3500mm. Exif f5.0 @ 1/160th @ ISO 80. Computed f-stop, considering the spotting scope, f9.6.
In Lightroom, some Recovery for the highlights, a touch of Fill Light to open the black plumage, and then a bit of Blackpoint right to intensify the colors. Adde Clarity and just a bit of Vibrance. Sharpen landscape preset.
And, though the light on this video is not what I would like (got to leave some challenge for next year), it does showcase the song!
All but the video are from Digiscope Around Home on my Wide Eyed In Wonder site.
6/3/2010
Cinnamon Fern
The Cinnamon Fern gets its name from the fertile spike, or fond, which is loaded with cinnamon colored spores. According the wiki on the subject, it is genetically separate from the rest of the fern world, possibly even a separate, though related, family. Early light and Super-macro bring the cinnamon aspect. You see it more often like this.
Taken at the Wells National Estuarine Research Center at Laudholm Farms in Wells ME on Memorial Day. The tricky part was exposure, as I was about 50 feet from the forest edge and the full sun on the marsh beyond, working a mix of light shafts and shadow. Mostly I just kept the brighter background out of the images as much as possible. The camera’s Programmed Auto handled the mix of light values very well.
Canon SX20IS. 1) F2.8 @ 1/500th @ ISO 160, 2) F2.8 @ 1/400th @ ISO 160, 3) F2.8 @ 1/200th @ ISO 80.
In Lightroom, a touch of Recovery for the highlights and the bright backgrounds in 1 and 2, some Fill Light for the shadows, Blackpoint right, added Clarity and just a bit of Vibrance. Sharpen landscape preset.
From the new Laudholm Farm gallery.
6/2/2010
Little Red
I was walking up a trail at Laudholm Farm with my digiscoping rig over my shoulder, making one last loop around before heading home, when this Red Squirrel hopped across in front of me, picked up something from the ground, and sat up to eat it. He was no more than 20 feet in front of me. Nice! I don’t see that often. Generally Reds are up a tree chattering at me, around on the backside of the trunk or limb, or scampering away so fast there is no hope for a picture, and it would be tail-shot at that. So I watched it as it calmly searched, found another whatever, sat up and ate it…and another….and another. I knew that as soon as I moved it would be off up the tree and gone. I kept thinking of pulling the scope down off my shoulder and trying for it…but, nah, it would be an effort in frustration, right? So, about the third time I found myself talking myself out of it, I finally thought, “oh, why not?”. I did not make any real effort at stealth. I mean I was 20 feet from the critter, standing in plain sight, right in the middle of eight feet of open trail. I just pulled the scope down, spread the tripod legs, got the camera out of the way, focused, swung the camera back in, turned it on, set the zoom…and, as you can see, the squirrel was, contrary to any reasonable expectation, still sitting there, eating its whatever. Click.
For the next 10 minutes I took a lot of different images of this squirrel. It was like a studio shoot, with a paid (well, captive and trained) model. Turn to your right. Now turn back. That’s good. Hold that. A lot like that anyway. If I didn’t like the pose, I just had to wait a moment and the squirrel would find something more to eat and strike another one.
The light was not great, open shade, fairly deep, and I knew I was pushing the limits of shutter speed, so I took a lot of pictures, hoping at least a few would be sharp. A few were…
Which just goes to show: sometimes it is worth trying!
Canon SD1400IS behind the eyepiece of a Zeiss Diascope 65FL. Equivalent focal length about 1500mm-2000mm. At f4-4.5 @ 1/125-1/200 @ ISO 320 (top two) and 400.
In Lightroom, a bit of Fill Light and Blackpoint right. Added Clarity and a touch of Vibrance. Sharpen landscape preset.
From Digiscoped Around Home.
6/1/2010
Yellow Warbler
Parson’s Beach, Kennebunk ME. The Rugosa Rose (or Beach Rose) on the dunes behind Parson’s Beach is breeding ground for Yellow Warblers every spring. They are so active that it is hard to determine how many pairs, but at least 3, maybe 4 (and maybe more) pairs of Yellow Warblers compete with the Song Sparrows and Catbirds for sonic dominance of the dunes…at least until the resident Mockingbirds arrive.
This shot is digiscoped using a small pocket camera behind the eyepiece of a spotting scope. I was about 30 feet from the bird. As presented here, the bird is about 7/8 life size…but you can see it much larger by following the link and playing with the sizes across the top of the window on WideEyedInWonder. The light was subdued by cloud cover, so the ISO was pretty high for feather detail. Still.
Canon SD1400IS behind the eyepiece of a Zeiss Diascope 65FL. Equivalent focal length, more than 4000mm. Exif data: f5.9 @ 1/200th @ ISO 320. Programmed auto. Actual f-stop, based on real focal length and scope aperture, was more likely in the range of f10.
Processed in Lightroom 3 Beta. A touch of Fill Light, Blackpoint right, added Clarity and not much Vibrance at all. Sharpen landscape preset. I used the Beta because of the superior sharpening and noise reduction in version 3. Combined with subtle changes in the other processing routines, version 3 maintains more detail and finer color variations much better than version 2. On most shots it does not matter all that much, but on a shot like this were both detail and color are essential, it certainly makes a difference. I am eagerly anticipating the final version.
From Digiscoped Around Home.