Project 365 - Day 181 - Water Park Fun

Still have the kids today, so we went to Coronation Park to run around the splash pad.  I really like this park, and the splash pad is a lot of fun - although they look at you weird when you are running around there without kids.  I had my camera with me, and I was chasing after my nephews and niece, trying to get "that" shot.  I was setting up for a shot of one of the kids getting a jet of water full force to the face when I got hit in the side with a different jet of water by some kid that I didn't know.  Yes, the camera got it too.  It hit the 24-70 lens and the D300.  Luckily I put my body between the spray and the camera.  Totally my fault, I should know not to run around the splash pad with the camera.

But here's the thing.  I bought the D300s for a reason.  It's rugged and is weather resistant.  And the lens is good that way too.  So I dried it off right away and was able to keep shooting the rest of the day - no harm done.  I had to clean the lens though, it took an almost direct hit.  That took some time and finesse.

When all that was done, I was able to get this shot of Sebasitan getting soaked by the dump tray. 

24-70mm lens at 56mm.  ISO800 and the shutter speed is 1/4000 at f/6.3  I had to bring up the fill light on this and tap the exposure a couple of notches.  This is what happens when you don't check your exposure before that crucial shot. 

Project 365 - Day 180 - Window Light Portrait

We're watching our niece and nephews this weekend, and we had a full fun day with them.   I took a brief opportunity to get off a couple of shots of them being silly.  This is a window light portrait done as the nice light was coming in through the front of the house.

Shot with my 24-70mm lens at 50mm.  1/200 shutter at f/8.0  ISO 800

Cropped and noise reduction in post, and a little bit of white balance correction.

Project 365 - Day 179 - Maple Key

Still inspired by the Macro presentation at the club on Monday night.  Today's shot is of a maple key - we used to call them helicopters.  They are the seeds of the maple trees.  My backyard is covered in them, although most are missing the actual seed part.  I guess the squirrels have been busy.

This is a very close up shot using all three of my extension tubes.  I have a flash off to the right that is being fired by the camera.  I think I need a ring light, but this creates some dramatic light for - well the key.

Shot at ISO800 with my Nikon 60mm lens.  0.4s shutter at f/8.0  I had the camera on a tripod.  In post, I bumped the exposure a notch and took out some noise.  I also cropped for content.

Project 365 - Day 178 - Flowering Shrub close to bloom

This plant is right outside our front door.  I thought it was neat the way that the pods are all just nearing bloom - about 2-3 days from now it will be in full colour.  Great macro subject.

Shot with my 60mm lens, no extension tubes.  ISO800 and 1/60s at f/8

Project 365 - Day 177 - Seagull

Today I was back at Coronation Park in Oakville.  I wanted to get my summer shot of my tree, but the sky was just not right.  I noticed this guy sitting under the picnic shelter, and his friends were all walking around.  They were waiting for their dinner from nearby picnickers.

I threw on my 70-200mm and started shooting as I was walking towards him.  Eventually he did get up and fly away, but it was funny - he refused to make eye contact with me.  He even turned his head so I was coming up on his blind spot.  Very trusting I guess ...

Shot with my Sigma 70-200mm lens at 200mm.  ISO 400,f/6.3 and 1/80s shutter.  Hand held, but OS-1 on.

Project 365 - Day 176 - Focus Stacking

This is my first attempt at focus stacking.  This is a flower that grows in my garden out back.  I took 14 exposures of this flower at various focal planes and then imported them into Photoshop and arranged them, then stacked them.  When that was done, I cropped out the misshapen edges (the subject is never 100% in the same spot) and boosted the contrast a bit.  This is the result.

Not too bad, but it will get better. 

Shot with Nikon 60mm lens with 1 extension tube (16mm).  ISO400, 1/100 s shutter at f/14.  External flash as well fired with my camera. 

I used focus stacking as a way to maintain the sharpness in the picture.  If you have too long of an exposure at too small of an aperture you get soft edges that are more pronounced at closer distances.  Focus stacking allows you to pick only the in-focus parts of each image and stitch them together.  In all, this image was about an hour of working time.  So it's labour intensive.  Usually I pull the image out of camera, adjust a few things and post.  It takes me longer to write the post than it does to work on the image.  Not in this case.  But sometimes, you have to put in the extra effort to get the results.

Project 365 - Day 175 - Macro presentation

Tonight was camera club night and we had a guest speaker.  Don Komarechka came and talked to us about Macro phtography.  He covered a lot of subjects, from snowflakes to bugs to flowers.  It was a very good presentation.  I recommend visiting his web site.  You can find it here.

So when I got home, I was inspired.  But it was dark, so I can't take any macro shots of bugs or flowers.  I looked around and found this to shoot.  I used all three extension tubes on my 60mm lens.

Shot with my 60mm lens at ISO400.  Shutter was 1/100s and the aperture was f/14.  This is part of a pull tab from a pop can.

Project 365 - Day 174 - Supermoon

This is a shot from Coronation Park in Oakville tonight.  I used ND filters in front of the lens.  I used an ND6 and an ND9 to get the moon dark enough to see detail while retaining the reflection.  I had to also clone out a lot of artifacts which happens when you are shooting into a light source. I

Shot with my Sigma 70-200mm f/2.8 at 1/640s shutter.  ISO400.

Project 365 - Day 173 - Rules to live by

I was in Sarnia today for my sister's 25th anniversary party.  This set of candles is on her counter behind the sink.  I had to slightly re-arrange the candles so the words could all be read. 

Shot with my 24-70mm lens at 70mm.  ISO800, and 1/250s at f/5.6.  Shoe mounted flash directed up at the ceiling for bounce.

Project 365 - Day 172 - Light as a ... well one of these...

In the backyard today and found this feather lying in the garden.  So, of course I decided to shoot it.  Got down low and shot with my 24-70.   I could have done a MACRO shot of the feather showing it's detail but I wanted to show the stripes and general shape and colour of it first.  I might do a MACRO shot of a feather soon though, it's a great idea.

Shot with my 24-70 (you already said that John) at 70mm.  f/10 at 1/25s.  Handheld, but braced on the rocks for stability.  ISO 800 to keep the shutter speed down.

Bumped contrast up and saturated burgundy just a tad.

Project 365 - Day 171 - Potato / Potatto

Of the things I know for certain in life, one is pretty common knowledge.  If you touch a potato bug he will curl up into a ball.  When this happens, you can carry him to a sheet of white paper under a macro lens and take a bunch of really cool shots.

Well, maybe know is a strong term.  It didn't seem to turn out that way today.  I was playing with three of these guys, and only one would sit still long enough for me to get a shot.  This shot took about an hour playing with potato bugs.  One got away and I had to search for more.

No potato bugs were harmed in the making of this photo.  I released my other two reluctant models.  They refused to sign the model release forms anyway....

ISO 800, 60mm macro lens. 1/4s at f/18.

Project 365 - Day 170 - The Ugly Duckling...

I went down to Oakville Harbour today to watch the sailboats and maybe get a few shots in.  It was really busy on the pier with foot traffic and guys fishing.  I ended up getting some shots, but the sailboats were tearing down and coming in to dock so there are not a lot of usable ones.  What a beautiful day though.

While I was on the pier, a pair of swans swam right by me.  I had my 70-200mm lens on so I got a couple of shots off of these guys.  This swan was actually swimming toward shore with the sun in his face.  The sun lit him perfectly.  You can see his little black feet paddling along, these guys can move fast!

Sigma 70-200mm lens at 200mm and f/6.3  1/2000s shutter and the ISO is 800.

Project 365 - Day 169 - Sailboat

Tonight I went out with the express purpose of getting some star trails.  Turns out it was too bright still, even at 10pm, to get these.  So I had to improvise.

Today's shot is of a sailboat at night.  I set up and took this as a straight on night shot.  My exposure was 6 seconds, and the boat is floating, so it was really blurry.  So I got out my speedlight and fired it off just before the shutter closed, emulating a rear curtain flash.

The end result is it froze the boat and still let the ambient night light in.

24-70mm lens at 24mm.  f/6.3 at 6 sec.  ISO is 800.  Manually fired handheld flash, but the camera is on a tripod.

Project 365 - Day 168 - Hosta-ile Environment

I have always liked hostas.  We have them planted all over the front and back yards.  They grow in all conditions and get bigger and bigger every year. 

Today's shot is of one of our smaller hostas.  It's a green and white hosta in the backyard.  I took this shot then turned it black and white, and then bumped up the black level on the greens to give it more contrast.

ISO800, f/5.6 and my 24-70 lens at 38mm.  1/50 sec shutter handheld.

Project 365 - Day 167 - Turkey Vulture

Father's day picnic at Kelso today.  It's tradition on my wife's side, the whole family gets together at least this one time every year.  It was looking pretty crappy for most of the morning, but then we got word from family that lives in Milton that it was clearing up so we packed up the van and off we went.

We were a little late starting, but most of the family and in-laws of the family made it out.  It was a great day.  The annual soccer match broke out once again, and once again the younger kids showcased their moves and showed the older generation how it's done.  It was great weather and great fun with great company.

So the shot of the day is actually one that I have been wanting to get long before I got my long lens.  It's a turkey vulture that was flying around for the better part of the day.  There were 7 of these guys at one time, all circling an area beside our picnic area.  They weren't posing much of a threat to us, but man are they ever cool when they fly.

This is shot with my Sigma 70-200 at 185mm.  ISO is 800 and the shutter is 1/2000 at f/6.3.  I should have lowered the ISO, but I wanted to make sure the shutter was fast enough to stop the action.  You can see the bird's red head in this shot.  I was almost directly under the bird during this path.

I cropped this shot for content.  The sky was that colour and it was that clear.

Beauty day.

Project 365 - Day 166 - Playing the piano

Today, one of our friends was throwing a birthday party for their little girl.  It was a lot of fun and there was a lot of food - as always.  And, as per usual, I had my camera out shooting away.  At one point when we were getting the cake that Sonia made ready, I noticed that their eldest son was playing the piano.  He has not been playing long, but you wouldn't know it from his progress.  He is really good.

So I turned to watch him play, and noticed the light from the window was filtering through the blunds onto his hands.  The lines of the blinds created a contrast to the lines of the keys on the piano.  So I got down and low next to him and took this shot.

This is shot with my 24-70mm lens at 48mm.  ISO is 400, and the shutter is 1/800 at f/2.8.

I turned it black and white in post and added some contrast.   I played with the orange to give him some more detail on his fingers.  I also cropped for content.

Project 365 - Day 165 - Shoot the moon

Over the past couple of nights the moon has been a sliver of itself.  I really wanted to get a shot of the quarter moon, or even smaller, but the clouds and life got in the way - mostly clouds though, those suckers move fast!

I had a shot in my pocket from earlier today that I got of a squirrel.  Mr squirrel only let me get one shot off before bolting away, but I at least had that one.  But then Sonia pointed out the nice clear skies and the fact that the moon was still in quarter-ish phase.  So I grabbed my camera with my trusty 70-200mm lens and shot away.

ISO400, Sigma 70-200mm lens at 200mm.  Shutter is 1/250 and aperture is f/2.8.  I love this lens...
In post, I cropped about 70% of the shot out to bring the moon closer.  I need a teleconverter for this lens.  Santa, are you listening?  :-)

Project 365 - Day 164 - Sunset in Milton

The sunsets here are pretty cool after it has been raining all day, and today's sunset was no exception.  The clouds in this direction were starting to clear, but over the lake to the south they were actually getting thicker.  This shot is taken just north of the 407 in Milton on Henderson side road.  This side road is very busy, with cars routinely doing more than 80 km/hr.  I really need a reflective vest ...

Shot with my 24-70mm lens at 24mm.  ISO400m f/11 and 1/125s shutter.

Project 365 - Day 163 - Pink Flowers

I took the rest of this week off to get some yardwork done as our weekends seem to be chock full of other engagements.  Same thing every year.  I think Sonia does it on purpose to avoid helping out with the heavy lifting ... :-)

It was quite hot today, so I took a couple of water breaks in the shade in the backyard.  I have learned to have my camera nearby.  I saw this bumblebee buzzing around these pink flowers, and figured I would get a shot of that.  Well, he took off before I could get a clean shot, but I did take a couple of "set up" shots to make sure I had the focus right and the proper depth of field.  This is one of those set up shots.

I really like this lens ...

Shot with my 70-200mm lens at 200mm.  1/400s shutter at f/5.6  ISO is 800.  No flash, no tripod.

Project 365 - Day162 - Car Wash

Tonight I was on the hunt for a moon shot.  The only problem was there were too many clouds.  So while pontificating on what I was going to shoot for my shot-of-the-day, I decided to fill the Mazda and get a car wash.  My camera was right beside me, so I started shooting while the soap was running down the windshield. I got this shot.

Shot with my 60mm Macro lens.  ISO is 1600, shutter is 1/40 and aperture is f/3.2

Project 365 - Day 161 - Now that's cold!

Lousy day out there today, and we also had a club meeting tonight.  It was dark and raining when I got home.  Dark I can take, as night shots are awesome.  Dark and raining gets my camera wet and I can't see where it is wet and it just makes me miserable.  Plus, it messes up my hair.

So I came home to think about my shot over a nice cold beer.  Hrm ... what's that running down the side of the bottle?  Is that a water droplet?  Time to grab the camera!

 

Shot with my Nikon 60mm Macro lens at f/10.  1/250 of a sec.  On a tripod, with my flash mounted on a pocketwizard to the right of the shot.  ISO640.  Simple crop, that's it.  Oh, I had to erase a dog hair that was on the bottle - full disclosure ... :-)

Project 365 - Day 160 - the Gutsy Walk

Today Sonia and I spent the better part of the morning at The Gutsy Walk at Spencer Smith Park in Burlington taking photos of teams that had registered to participate in the walk.  The Teams all raised money for research into Crohns and Colitis, and we were more than happy to help out in this way.

When the walk started, the Cursaders Drumline helped march the group of walkers out.  This is a group of kids that are enrolled at St Mary Catholic School in Hamilton.  These kids are awesome, and they continued playing for those of us who were left behind after the walkers had gone.

Man, if this was around when I was in high school, I might have actually joined band!  :-)

This was shot with my 24-70mm lens set to 56mm, at ISO640 and 1/8000 sec shutter.  Aperture was at f/3.5.  In post, I cropped for content, and turned down the exposure a bit.  I had a flash mounted to the top of the camera that was pointing straight ahead to allow the white drum to illuminate properly.

Well done to the Cursaders, to the walkers and the organizers of today's event.  It was a lot of fun to participate in such a good cause.

Project 365 - Day 159 - Millipede??

I hate these things.  :-) 

We have a garbage containment unit outside since we don't have a garage.  For the first couple of years, I battled with the racoons and other "night life" around here when it was getting close to garbage day.  We would try everything from tying the garbage cans up to the posts of the car port to leaving securing the lids with bungee cords.  Nothing worked.  But finally, I designed and built a containment unit and this has kept them away successfully since then.

One of the bonuses of the containment unit is that it creates a nice damp environment for all kinds of creepy crawlies to lounge about in the doorjambs of the unit.  Every time I open the door, centipedes run for cover, potato bugs slowly meander in their potato bugly way into a darker corner, and the small millipedes pretend that they are not there and that I can't see them.

So today, I purposely went to get this guy and shoot him.

I wanted to get him in his "ring" state, but he wasn't sitting still for me.  These things should have more respect for my size and humanness...  but I did get a couple of good shots of him trying to get away.

Shot with my 60mm Nikon lens, at f/32.  Mounted on my tripod.  ISO was 1250, and the shutter is 1/100.

Project 365 - Day 158 - Rockin Robin

I was trying to figure out what to shoot today.  I opened the back door for inspiration and I saw a very cool looking robin bouncing around.  He was a big bird, not your typical robin.  He has a lot of grey on his breast and his feathers are very detailed in their colour scheme.  I have seen a lot of robins in my life, but this guy was by far the coolest.

I asked him to pose for me, he took this position in front of our lilies.  He would not look directly at the camera, nor would he face me.  I tried to get closer, but he ended up flying off.  Strange, robins aren't usually that shy of humans - and this guy seems to have been on the planet for a couple of years so he should be more used to us.  But then again, he might have been talking to that stinking cardinal ... :-)

 

Shot with my Sigma 70-200mm at 200mm.  f/4.5 and 1/40 of a sec.  OS is on, and I was hand holding this.  I only got off two shots before he flew away.

Project 365 - Day 157 - Japanese Maple

Also known as a bloodgood, this is one of my favourite trees.  It is slow growing, so you can plant it and leave it be for a long time without having to prune or cut it back.  We have two of these, and one is the centrepiece of our back garden.  He's the subject today.

As I was letting Brodie outside today, I was thinking about what to shoot.  I noticed the way that the seeds are hanging off the branches of this tree, and with the grey sky and light rain it looked really cool.  So I grabbed my camera and took some shots.

I used my 70-200mm lens as it has Image Stabilization and I can get a pretty big aperture on this guy to blur out the other goings-on in the backyard.

Here's the shot:

Sigma 70-200mm lens zoomed in to 200mm .  Aperture at f/4.5  ISO 1250 and the shutter is at 1/40s

Project 365 - Day 156 - Toadstools

Mushrooms, toadstools, fungi.  All names to describe the spore bearing body of a fungus.  Although these guys are not what you typically want growing in your garden or your lawn, sometimes they make really good photographic subjects.

A few years ago, I went on a school trip to Algonquin Park as part of my Certificate in Commercial Photography.  We saw a lot of mushrooms on this trip, helping the fallen logs break down and providing nutrients to the local animals.

Yesterday, when I was out cutting the grass, I ran into these guys.  So,of course, I decided to shoot them.

I will say though that when you are lying on your stomach in your own backyard, you don't get nearly as many quizical stares - unless of course you count the dog...


Shot at ISO1250 with my 60mm lens.  1/6 sec and f/13.  Handheld, but braced on the ground.  Deep breath then hold, then release shutter - repeat.

Project 365 - Day 155 - Red Necked Grebes

So the birds that I was referring to yesterday are Red Necked Grebes.  They are duck-like birds.  I have never seen these guys before, and again this is another benefit of this project I have undertaken.  Click here to learn more about them.

When I got there today, I had company.  Along with the five other photographers, there were at least fourty Canadian Geese there as well, walking around the grass like they owned the place.  They are not afraid of humans, but I assume they would get cross if you approached.  I think they were jealous of the attention the grebes were getting - like my starling yesterday.

The birds I saw today are a nesting pair.  What I assume is the female is on the nest while the male is gathering parts for the nest.  But as in humans, the male kept getting distracted by shiny things in the water and swam off a couple of times while his mate tended the nest.

This shot was taken just as he was hightailing it back to the nest, but he had been swimming under the water just prior to this shot.

Shot with my 70-200 Sigma at 200mm and f/5.6  1/1000 shutter speed.  Hand held, with Optical Stabilization on.

Project 365 - Day 154 - Birdbath

Today, while trying to get some shots of another kind of bird, this little starling flew right in front of me and started taking a bath.  I was able to get a bunch of shots of him as he splashed around in the water among the rocks.  When he figured I had enough shots, he flew off.

Thank you Mr Starling.

Oh, and the other bird?  It's a type of duck that I have to look up.  I have to shoot it again as the light was not very nice.  It should be the subject of tomorrow's post - as long as I get a good shot of them.

ISO400, 70-200mm lens at 200mm.  Shutter was 1/125s and the aperture is f/5.6.

Project 365 - Day 153 - Bronte Harbour at night

I have been to Bronte Harbour a number of times, and I keep looking for something different to shoot.  Yes, there are a bunch of boats down there that can be shot in the water with reflections, and I could probably fill up a whole project 365 of just those, but I wanted something different.  When  I was down there earlier this winter, I saw the curvature of the inner harbour and how the lights ran along that curve up to the lighthouse.  So tonight I decided to shoot that.

I was late for the sunset tonight, but it didn't really matter as I was shooting the lake which is in the other direction.  So I set up my shot and took 3 test shots to choose the best exposure.  At that point, a couple approached me and advised that they were "about to block my view" and then continued down the walkway.  They are now part of post 153.

Shot with my 24-70mm lens (yes Omar, I know) at f/7.1 and .5s shutter.  Lens was at 56mm.  I used my tripod for this shot.

Project 365 - Day 152 - My new toy

At the Henry's Exposure show yesterday, I picked up a new toy.  It's a 70-200mm lens, a good long one.  It has a fixed max aperture of f/2.8, which means it's nice and fast.  It's the older cousin to my 24-70mm Nikon lens.

I went with the Sigma mainly because I liked the look and feel of the lens.  Also, it was lighter than the Nikon - but it's still very heavy.  Today when I went out I got to Oakville Harbour, there was a tonne of fog and no lgiht was making it's way through.  It was quite dark.  This lens had no problem focusing in on the birds as I was panning across.

I got this tern (common tern) this morning.  I have been to this spot twice now and watched these guys fish.  It's quite entertaining seeing how they fly around looking down at the water, then with a flick of the wing they are diving headlong into the water.  More often than not they come up empty, but every once in a while they come up with a little fish.

When I saw that I got the shot, I was giddy.  Then I zoomed in on the shot and noticed he had a fish.  Score!  :-)

70-200mm Sigma Lens zoomed right out to 200mm, no stabilization and handheld.  1/320 shutter at f/2.8  ISO was 800