Monthly Archives: July 2011
7/31/2011: Yucca with Pearls On
Happy Sunday.
I am not sure how, but this image, from our yard in Kennebunk, seems right for Sunday. We are in Southern Maine, but we lived in New Mexico many years, where Yucca is quite at home. It was somewhat surprising to find a Yucca planted in one corner of the tiny front garden of the home we bought when we moved to Maine, but there it was. Over the years it has gown to good size, and now produces an amazing show of flower stalks and blossoms every summer. This shot is from the morning after a day of rain. The rain had only cleared off at first light, and the yard, and all it plants, were still very wet…but for some reason the water had beaded spectacularly on the Yucca blooms.
Here is a second perspective.
Nikon Coolpix P500 in Close Up mode (macro), 32mm equivalent field of view, f3.7 @ 1/160th and 1/320th @ ISO 160.
Processed for Clarity and Sharpness in Lightroom. As the blooms are so white, the shadows on them showed a lot of reflected green, and I had to deal with that with the selective saturation control. Our eye/brain in real time view auto adjusts for colored shadows…the camera does not.
And for a Sunday thought. I don’t know how a plant of the desert southwest ended up in our garden in Maine, but brings enough of the desert with it to remind me of how biblical the blessing of rain is. The psalms, written in a desert land, are full of rain imagery, as is the whole old testament. It is easy to forget that rain is a blessing in Southern Maine in the summer, when a rainy week means less beach time, and a rainy weekend means lost tourist dollars, but, of course, even here it is. We are green and lush because of the rain, not rain forest lush, but vibrant and alive in way desert dwellers can only dream of. Water beading on the Yucca blossoms brings that sense of blessing even here. Grace and grace abounding. We live by grace.
7/30/2011: Bark Triptych
I am always fascinated by the patterns in tree bark and aging tree trunks. This set is from the nature trail at Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge headquarters. Each image was worth recording in its own right, but I think the contrast grouping them like this makes an interesting study. And I am interested in what you see, if you see anything, in the center panel?
Nikon Coolpix P500. The two outer pics are at 32mm equivalent field of view (Close UP mode) and the last one is at 176mm. ISO 180, 200, and 280.
Each image was processed in Lightroom for Clarity and Sharpness, and then the three images were assembled in PhotoShop Elements 9.
7/29/2011: Up the Mousam Evening
It had rained most of the day, but by evening all that was left was a dramatic sky. This is from the bridge on route 9 over the Mousam River, between Kennebunk and the sea, looking inland. I like the little arm of marsh in the foreground and the light overall.
Not an easy exposure. Active D-Lighting on the Nikon P500 brought the foreground up some, but I also used the in-camera post processing, Quick Retouch in this case, and then final processed in Lightroom. I tried an HDR but the greens came out too saturated. I actually prefer this.
Nikon Coolpix P500 at 22mm equivalent field of view, f4 @ 1/1000th @ ISO 160. As above, Program with Active D-Lighting.
7/28/2011: Yellow Birch, Laudholm Farm
I really like Yellow Birch: the colors and textures of the trunks in any stage of growth. This is a relatively large specimen growing by the boardwalk at Laudholm Farm (Wells National Estuarine Research Center in Wells Maine). Here the contrast between the green fern fond, the smooth Popular sapling and the strong arch of the Yellow Birch root and trunk make (to my eye) an interesting composition. Mid-afternoon light was somewhat harsh, so I have emphasized the contrasts in the scene, and it’s underlying graphic design, by adjusting both Blackpoint and Contrast.
Nikon Coolpix P500 at 68mm equivalent field of view, f4.7 @ 1/400th @ ISO 160. Program with Active D-Lighting.
Processed in Lightroom for Clarity, Sharpness, and Contrast.
7/27/2011: Down the creek, v 2.0
So my theory is, when you have a great scene…great sky…great view…why stop at just one image? With digital there is no penalty for taking lots of angles. This shot was taken 30 feet to the left of Saturday’s Down the Creek shot, and just across the road from Monday’s Up the creek.
While both Up the Creek and Down the Creek had only sky and water for a foreground, so the images floated free (so to speak) this shot is firmly anchored by the rocks on the left and right so that the ripples in the water catch the eye. The boat dock and the house draw the eye to the middle distance before it wanders back, down the right shore, between the sky and its reflection, to the buildings of Kennebunkport. My eye, as least, then continues around so that the whole image fills my view. This sweep of attention, I think, lends a dynamic and a tension to this image that Saturday’s lacked…not to say it is better for that…just a totally different feel. Not so serene. Not so peaceful. A bit edgier.
Nikon Coopix P500 at 23mm equivalent field of view, f3.4 @ 1/300th @ ISO 160. Program with Active D-Lighting.
Processed for Clarity, Sharpness, and impact in Lightroom.
7/26/2011: 101 in the Shade
We had a run to three days last week when the temperatures were over 95 degrees. That is unusual weather for Kennebunk and Southern Maine…so unusual that most year-round folks, like us, do not have air conditioning. We are Mainers. We suffer through the few days each summer when we need air conditioning using window fans…taking drives in our air conditioned cars…and, of course, sneaking down to the beach when we can find parking. That generally means later in the day, in our long summer evenings. This day, the one in the pic above, the temperature was still over 100 degrees at 5PM, and there was little relief at the beach. You see a few people, in absolute desperation, out in the water. (Average summer water temperatures in the ocean off Maine beaches are between 50 and 60 degrees…and that is cold!)
I like this shot for the bright yellow slide framing the sky blue umbrella, and the general atmosphere, and the next one for the color.
Around the corner, a evening and a bit later, about 7:30PM, on Gooch’s Beach. Still in the upper 90s. Notice that the surfers are all in wet-suits.
And we will finish off with a sweep panorama of the whole beach. View it large by clicking on the image. (It is a sweep panorama, done in camera, not a stitched panorama made from individual exposures, so the resolution is not what you would expect from a stitch job…but is certainly is a lot easier 🙂
Nikon Coolpix P500. Processed for Clarity and Sharpness in Lightroom.
7/25/2011: Up the creek behind the beach
If you remember Saturday’s Down the creek post, this shot is the same evening, from the same bridge, only looking up the creek, where it passes behind the houses that face Gooch’s Beach. Here again it is the quality of the light, and the reflections of the sky in the water that form the foundation of the composition. (This is a tidal creek and we are seeing it here brim full of tidal backflow…it shrinks to creek size at low tide.)
Because the low sun was right there, just out of view in this shot, the only way to capture anything like the naked eye view this was HDR. I used the camera’s built in Backlight/HDR mode (which takes multiple exposures and stacks them for extended range), and adjusted the result in Lightroom. Though at first I dismissed the way too flat results of the in-camera processing, I am finding that with experience in processing them in Lighroom, it actually works pretty well…at least in some situations.
Nikon Coolpix P500 at 22mm equivalent, nominal exposure f3.4 @ 1/1000th @ ISO 160. Backlight/HDR mode.
Processed for intensity, Clarity, and Sharpness in Lightoom.
7/24/2011: Wood Nymphs and Grace: Happy Sunday!
Tempting as it was to stay inside and lie low on another abnormally hot day in Southern Maine, by 2PM I realized that if I did not break free, I would have spent the whole day at the computer. On Saturday! Not good. Still, it is summer in Kennebunk and Kennebunkport, so there are places we locals don’t go, especially on a hot Saturday afternoon (like anywhere with sand and water, shopping, views, etc…anything which might attract the tourist horde). My choices were limited.
I always manage to find something of interest at the short trail at the Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge headquarters, and that can be reached without entering tourist territory.
It was, as expected, hot and still in the woods at Rachel Carson. We never get what you would call “high noon sun” here in Maine. Even at mid-day and mid-summer the angle of the light is never more than 60 degrees, and by 2PM it is already easing down toward 45, so the shadows in the woodland are interesting. And there were lots of Wood Nymph Butterflies. Gray patterned with prominent eye spots in cream-yellow patches on both sides of the leading wing, these guys flit through the forest, keeping, in the heat at least, mostly in the deeper shade. I chased a few with the camera, but, again with the heat, they were rarely still for more than a second, and with the deep shade, they were hard to photograph at the telephoto end of the zoom.
So I was surprised when I caught motion out of the corner of my eye as I left the lower deck on the Little River, to look up and see 8 or 9 of them massed on a tree trunk about 15 feet in and up. I watched and shot for 20 minutes as the butterflies clustered in this one spot, then dispersed, only to return, one, two, three, and soon a whole mass of them again. I could not see the attraction. I don’t know what they were doing. And it was still difficult to get a decent shot of butterflies in constant motion in the low light and at that distance with the zoom run all the way out. A tripod might have helped.
And finally, of course, I remembered to switch to video. You can shoot video in light that limits still imaging, and I found a spot on the rail of the deck where I could prop the camera for a fairly still view. The video required some post processing in Sony Vegas…adjusted brightness and contrast.
And I went away from that deck marveling once again at the gifts we are given when we take a camera (or binoculars for that matter) in hand and go out to intentionally look at the world. I have still have no idea what the butterflies where doing on that tree (if one of you don’t tell me, I may take some time this afternoon for a little research) but just finding them, having the opportunity to see them doing whatever it was, was such a gift. I did not bring back great images…and even the video could be better…but that I saw it at all is a thing of wonder and delight. Once more, since it is Sunday, it is grace. I did not deserve it. I could not have earned it. I had no right to expect it. I was a gift outright. Grace.
7/23/2011: Down the creek toward Kennebunkport
Though I have checked all my maps, including Google Earth, I can not find a name for this tidal creek that flows under Beach Avenue in Kennebunk and into the Kennebunk River near its mouth in Kennebunkport. Here, about an hour before sunset on a summer evening, the light, the clouds, the reflections in the water, and the expansive perspective of the 23mm equivalent zoom combine for an image that draws you in (imho) and invites you to stay a while. There is a lot going on here within the classic rule of thirds and leading lines composition.
Nikon Coolpix P500 at 23mm equivalent field of view, f3.4 @ 1/320th @ ISO 160. Program with Active D-Lighting (and it is in a shot like this that the ADL really shows its value).
Processed for Clarity and Sharpness in Lightroom. Some Recovery for the sky and clouds, some Fill Light to bring up the trees along the sides.
7/22/2011: Blue House on a Summer Evening
Another summer evening shot from Kennebunk. This blue house occupies a little point of land between Middle and Mother’s Beaches. With the sun somewhat behind it and low, and against the interesting wispy sky, it adds a solid element (along with the circling rocks) to a picture that is really about light and color.
Nikon Coolpix P500 at 38mm equivalent field of veiw, f5.6 @ 1/1000th @ ISO 160. Program with Active D-Lighting.
Processed for Clarity and Sharpness in Lightroom. I also used “dueling Graduated Filter” effect (brightening from the bottom and darkening from the top) to adjust tonality of the sky and sea.