Hummers Have Arrived

Got buzzed by a couple of males today...here's one of 'em. 500mm lens, f8 @1/125th sec, ISO 800. Overprocessed in Elements to get a little better definition.















 Original photo.

Before and After

 Ok, I guess I'll just post some raw photos taken with old glass mounted on digital slr in before and after modes. I was working in the garden and saw these birds congregating in the trees. I dropped the rake and ran to the house for a camera. I think a 55mm mamiya lens was mounted so that's what I used. Most of the birds were gone by the time I made these but with a little processing I may have something worth printing.

Photo shot with Canon EOS T2i with 55mm? at who knows what apprature, 1/1600 sec, iso 400.processed in Adobe Photoshop Elements 6.

Composition

Sheesh, you'd think with the billions of dollars spent on all the high-tech cameras NASA could get a little better composition. The horizon is all crooked, there are distracting shadows in the foreground, no hint of what the subject is and no human element...what's up with that?!

This image was taken by Front Hazcam: Left A (FHAZ_LEFT_A) onboard NASA's Mars rover Curiosity on Sol 157 (2013-01-14 07:23:49 UTC) .

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Winter Solstice

Nothing too fancy, but I really enjoyed taking these.  Had a little backyard fire for the Solstice.  Camera, tripod, bulb mode and remote.  No real strategy just snapping intermittently.  The last photo in the batch, if you look closely, captures Kieara's back of head and face at the same time; kinda cool and creepy.

Light Painting titled "Incomplete"

I haven't quite achieved the effect I was looking for, but work has moved in, the holidays have moved on, and night shoots have been buried for the time being.  I was trying to get a nice clean shot of the truck exterior while also capturing what's under the hood, along with some fancy-shmancy light painting.  Obviously I have some work to do, but feel like there is a good start buried in these captures.  These are all single exposures completed under the cloak of darkness with various battery powered lights from around the house (flashlight, fluorescent lantern, laser pointer).

Oh Tannenbaum

GF1 + 20mm (f1.7) panasonic pancake lens + tripod and a wireless interval timer.  Aperture was set pretty tight (f9) hoping to keep most of the room in focus, and a fairly slow shutter speed 0.8 seconds along with a 400 iso, hoping things would still pan out when I turned the lights on.  Post processing was minimal, adjusting for white balance and then throwing some music on it.  It was fun and will be much quicker the second time.  (The blurriness is a bit of compression you tube applies.  The photos, all 2,000+ of them are actually pretty sharp).


Take-two

Giving It Your "All"

With some vacation time coming up I've dusted off my lenses and started planning projects.  In my search I came across this little inspirational short.