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.