Daily Image - Apr 2011 Archive

01 Apr 11. I'll push my luck and share yet another B&W image for today. As there was a request for some info on the Salish Slough location, I decided to take one of those HDR images not yet shared, convert to B&W, and see what I might come up with. Earlier tonight I was watching another of the nik webinars on B&W imaging, this time on advanced techniques, and wouldn't you know it, the discussion was on converting HDR images into B&W. To think that I was actually onto something. Oh well, I guess others decided before I did that it would a worthwhile endeavor. And I believe it is a great way to work with B&W. This old hulk was a study in browns, yellows, and reds, so it seemed a good candidate for B&W. If I worked this image correctly, your eye should be immediately directed to around the 9 o'clock central third, then bounce around in a circle without desiring to leave the picture. Your screen is going to have some effect on how it presents I believe as it is more dramatic on my work box than it is in this mail box. Now that I'm beginning to get a feel for B&W, I do believe I'll be sharing one perhaps every week unless I hear a demand for not so doing. ISO 200; 1/125 sec @ f /13.

04 Apr 11. We take a break from the B & W and try a bit of macro for today. While Jan and granddaughter Harper were wandering around Flower World last week looking for cheap bedding plants, I was looking for some early harbingers of Spring that I might share with everyone. There was actually not a lot out that met my conditions, but there were several pussy willows specimens and lots of crocus to catch my eye. One small grouping of crocus was also holding the attention of a common house fly sufficiently so that I was able to grab several shots of it crawling around on an outer edge of a couple of petals. The background stuff was very busy, both at the nursery and in the shot, so I grabbed all of it and converted it into a deep red that I selected from the image in hopes that the bland background would neither distract from the shot nor actually call its attention to you. I simple wanted something to fall off for the background. Now the fly was a different matter, and my attention was to use the flower's stamen to bring you eye into the same plane as that of the fly, thereby keeping your eye traveling constantly back to the center of the image. I considered cropping it tighter, but in the end decided that the petals held some small material of interest. ISO 400; 1/2500 sec @ f / 9.

05 Apr 11. Our walk along the water's edge at Mercer Slough afforded us a view of more than just the large raptor, as there were a number of small songbirds that serenaded us along the way. Most of them kept themselves securely out of the reach of the camera, hiding in the dense plant life that lined the walk. But as we ventured out onto a float on the creek, a couple water thrushes hopped into view and sat still long enough for me to grab a few portraits. This individual, I'm assuming a male from the feathering, posed for a solid 30+ seconds. The song was short, but certainly a pleasant part of our 1.5 mile round trip walk I would imagine as the days move forward that there will be far more of these lovely critters around for our enjoyment. ISO 200; 1/320 sec @ f / 11.

06 Apr 11. Being the consummate student, there are a couple of author/photographer's efforts that I look to regularly. I've written about Tim Grey numerous times, so most of you should be familiar with his material already. The other author/photographer is Bob Johnson, and his site is called Earthbound Light. Bob is a local resident and teaches each year as part of the Mountaineer's Basic Photo Course. He is an accomplished photographer and his weekly column is very much worth your time. I was reading it recently when he was discussing a new HDR program that he thought was quite good, and on account of his recommendation I bounced out to sns_HDR to have a look. It is now a workhorse in my stable of HDR software and rapidly becoming my favorite. Had I not read about it in Bob's blog I would not have known about it! I can highly recommend it to you if you are at all interested in HDR imaging. This piece of software does its utmost to give you a realistic looking image and it is quite hard to get it to give you the cartoon-like images lots of other programs do easily! On top of all that it is only €30 in price. Nothing else even comes close. One very nice feature of it is how it handles single image HDR output. An example of such I'm sharing today. The only drawback of its work on single images is that it produces a lot of noise, or at least that is what I'm experiencing. On multiple image HDR output I don't notice this occurring, but as there are many noise removal programs available, and I have several from which to choose, noise removal is not an issue. This image was taken on the stormy night prior to the class session on the following morning at Fisherman's Terminal. Take note on how well the clouds are rendered; you almost feel as though the thunder is eminent. I'll share several more images on which I've employed sns-HDR over the next few weeks and will identify them when I do. Meanwhile, hop out to the web page (you'll need some version of IE to change the native Polish to English) and have a look for yourself. ISO 200; 1/500 sec @ f / 14.

07 Apr 11. Leaving the house this evening at the start of the hail/snow/rain display, I looked down and noticed that a fair amount of water was beading up on the petals of a pansy plant we have yet to put in the ground. I grabbed the camera and fired off a couple/three shots of which this is my favorite. As there was lots of garbage in the photo such as cardboard box, stairs, etc, I severely cropped it and then added a bit of contrast with a curves layer followed by some slight manipulation using a plug-in filter to give it just a bit more zing. It was truly a grab shot, but I liked the way the water droplets were displaying enough to share. Jan thought I should manipulate it and put my reflection in one of the drops. ISO 400; 1/60 sec with fill flash @ f / 14.

08 Apr 11. A trip to the Seattle Aquarium last week was a two hour adventure of trying to get images amidst several bus loads of school children. Needless to say it was a bit of a challenge. The area I most prefer is the tide pool/intertidal zone exhibit which is a knee level display designed for kids to touch and watch the tide pool animals. It is in my opinion the best display in the aquarium, although there are many VERY nice displays in the buildings. My approach to photographing the animals in the display is to take a flash on an extension cord and place it at or slightly above the level of the animal of interest and push the light through the plexiglas sides of the display. In this manner I avoid the bounce back usually associated with flash on the water's surface while illuminating the animals in different ways. One of those ways is to tip the flash sufficiently so as to achieve a rapid fall off of the light, thereby simulating a deep water environment. Of course this requires an assistant to manipulate the flash and Jan is the one who does the "lighting" for me. The image for today of an anemone is one such example. The animal is in a display that has waves of water flowing into and out of it in sync with the actual tidal motion of Puget Sound in which the aquarium resides. Thus the animals experience the same environment as do their relatives outside in the real world. It is a very nice presentation and one I visit at least annually, if not more often. ISO 200; 1/60 sec with flash @ f / 11.

11 Apr 11. A sure sign of Spring in my mind is the show put on by all the flowering trees, and in our local area the streets are lined with trees displaying flowers of all the hues of red and white. Of course the tree that first comes to probably everyone's mind is the cherry, and there are several species in full bloom. The image for today is of just one such but was taken in a bit of a wind, so it was a little trial and error to get something even moderately acceptable. As such I decided to work with something new this time and resorted to employing a couple of blending modes to assist in getting the lighting aspects properly balanced. Now I'm wagering that most of you have not used blend modes, so a bit about them. Tucked away in the upper left hand corner of the layers palette you find a small drop down box that provides you 25 different ways of blending two adjacent layers together. It might be easiest to think of it as a very advanced non-destructive way of dodging and burning your photograph which, when combined with a layer mask, provides for some very sophisticated control of the local brightness/darkness of any portion of the image. An excellent presentation of the subject can be found in Photoshop Focus Guide #88 Improve your Photos with Layers. The lighting for this original image was not the best, so with the help of two blending layers, plus some Gaussian blur on its own layer to remove the distraction of the background (the tree was in a parking strip directly in front of a building) I came up with what you see today. It is not the strongest image I've ever shared, but it serves to illustrate what can be accomplished with blending modes by virtue of the balance of the lighting. I have intentionally left the image a bit flat (lowered contrast) as I prefer the pastel look in this instance. A single curves layer could easily add any desired contrast. ISO 200; 1/320 sec @ f / 10.

12 Apr 11. We took a trip up to Snoqualmie Falls on April Fools Day to photograph what was claimed to be a regular torrent of water spilling over the falls. The area had been experiencing some serious flooding so we weren't sure we could get there but some calls to the local residents said come on up the roads are clear, so up we went. What I didn't bother to ask, as I didn't know I needed to, was about the conditions at the falls park proper. Since I was a youth there had always been this lovely old covered viewing platform that protected you from the weather other than that created by the falls. Much to my disgust, those in the "know" had it torn down and replaced with a cement ramp, in theory I guess, to make it accessible to all. Of course the reality is that now there is nothing accessible to anyone. Truly the kind of progress no one needs!! So the ability to shoot the falls is now greatly reduced and when there is really something spectacular to shoot, as the runoff was that day, all the weather generated by the falling water is blown directly into you and your equipment. I had intended to work the falls for the better part of 45 minutes, but was driven off in less than 10 due to me and the camera gear being thoroughly soaked, head to foot. With absolutely NO protection whatsoever from the weather with the new design, you now need a lot of support (people and additional equipments) to protect yourself from the flow of water being directed straight towards you. I did grab a few shots however in hopes of capturing what was happening, not only at the falls, but on the location as well. The shot for today is one of those and before you think it entirely a wash out, look closely, perhaps for a minute or more. As your eyes adjust to the bright gray you will begin to see a certain amount of detail that tells its own story about the environmental conditions for April Fools Day, 2011. ISO 200; 1/200 sec @ f / 11.

13 Apr 11. At a photo club competition last night one image shared was of a flamingo that had been very elegantly manipulated. Its presentation reminded me of the day it had been taken. The image for today was taken at the same time. As I was out walking around the neighborhood this afternoon looking for plant life that would serve as the basis for some creative work, I thought about the combination of spring colors, on the pinkish side, and animals and decided that the feathering of a flamingo just might serve my purposes. So here is an attempt at combing the two with the feathering of a pink flamingo. To be sure the bird didn't look exactly like this when I pushed the shutter, but the "manipulation" of this image is not on the "creative" side but rather the end product of just a few adjustment layers where I played with light. Other than that and some selective cropping, it is a totally straight image. It is intentionally not razor sharp as I was looking for the soft look, much akin to what is commonly done in model photography where the complexion is not shot to show every pore, or in this presentation, every fiber of each feather. ISO 200; 1/640 sec @ f / 9. Hope you enjoy, dave

14 Apr 11. Had an occasion on Wed morning to make a rather quick run across the sound to Bremerton. The weather was basically unpleasant for the duration of the trip, the day in general, and conditions developed throughout the afternoon that resulted in us getting an interesting early evening hail storm for perhaps 15 minutes that turned the area white until it all melted. Didn't photograph that, and I missed the rainbow that apparently accompanied the hail storm, but I did get a few shots of the city on the return run from Bremerton. This shot should give you a pretty good idea of how the area looks for about 8 months of the year if you count the total days that look this way and divide by 30. I truly find it depressing, but there is still some beauty in gray and I would suppose the Navy thinks so also. The muted colors have a beauty of their own, and if you happen to save these images, you might find it fun to compare with one I sent last year from a sunny day. ISO 200; 1/640 sec @ f / 9.

Tax Day. As any of you who write daily, or find yourselves in the kitchen daily, producing the same thing day in and day out, you know it can get boring after a while. Most of the good cooks I know, Jan certainly included, find some small amount of satisfaction in creating something new now and then. In fact, like the kitchen being an organic lab where new experiments can occur on a regular basis if desired, so it is with the computer in the digital photography age where the software becomes the tools of creation should such be desired. Every once in a while it is fun to go all out and create something a little different, and the image for TAX DAY 2011 is one such image. I figure if the govt can get creative in how it defines things, so can I with how I define nature. So, starting with one large sized dandelion, and adding a hue/saturation adjustment layer, a Gaussian Blur layer, and a generous amount of selective masking, layered appropriately with some sharpening, then letting things set for a while to insure all is as desired, we have a new flower that looks somewhat like a cross between a dandelion and a carnation, a Carnelion, if you will. Jan's comment was if only they looked like this in the yard. Your comments may vary according to taste. ISO 200; 1/320 sec @ f / 14.

18 Apr 11. Directly parallel to an entrance to I-5 (145th St) that we commonly use sits a pair of ponds that are part of a City of Shoreline park known as Twin Ponds. We have driven past them hundreds of times not knowing they were there as a) there is nothing to identify their location, and b) they can't be seen from the road. A couple weeks back it was suggested by a list member that I should go check them out for a possible photo opportunity. So we did just that on a typical Seattle gray day and spent the better part of an hour walking the dog around the two little ponds. It was readily apparent that we were far too early for any good vegetation shots, and the animals that were there, about a dozen ducks, were not cooperating in any way photographic. But as we were traversing the more northerly of the two ponds we came to a small area containing some nice trees and a small spring that was feeding the ponds. Unless you were down on the path at that very spot, the presence of the stream would not be apparent. There was sufficient water running in it to provide for a couple of different approaches to shooting it, and I tried to do a cotton effect slow water shot. Trying to do so hand held was a bit of a challenge, but I was able to get the water slowed a bit, although not enough to get both a sharp image and really cottony water, so I elected to err on the sharp side of the equation. As I looked at what was right before me I found it surprising that you can find a stream like this one, pretending to be up in the mountains, right inside the city in a park. The lighting under the trees was quite varied, so the image has been masked for luminosity corrections several times to get this final result. ISO 200; 1/13 sec (hand held with vibration reduction on) @ f / 11.

19 Apr 11. During my youth watching the magical paper turn from pure white to a B&W image was not the only magic. I also recall watching in admiration as my father occasionally cautiously added a bit of color to (hand tinted) a few of the prints that were of family members. A tricky process, and unlike what I can do digitally, one simple mistake rendered the print a ruin and necessitated starting all over from scratch. So it was a meticulous process and perhaps even a bit nerve racking with the chillin standing too close and asking too many questions. But it got done and occasionally made it into a frame. Now days the process is very different, but the results are equally beautiful in their own way. The image today began as a 5 shot HDR color image, which then I converted with a B&W adjustment layer which was then desaturated just enough to get back the weak overall color. To that was applied a hue/saturation masked layer to pull out the deep blues, and then finally another masked adjustment layer to allow for the red and blues on the vessel Heidi. Then of course all was flattened and converted to a jpg image. An extremely simple process when compared to what Dad had to do, and one in which any mistake is readily, and simply, corrected. I often wonder what he would have done had he lived to see these possibilities. ISO 200; 1/30 sec @ f / 9 (middle image of the 5) on a tripod.

20 Apr 11. Arriving about 90 minutes early for the Fisherman's Terminal lab we held back in March meant three things: 1) a totally empty parking lot such that access in the middle of the lot for taking photos of signage was both safe and simple, 2) the fishing vessels would have their lights on for some interesting shots, and 3) the wind would not be up so the water's surface would be flat for some nice reflections. I've shared some of the results of 2 and 3, but for today an example of 1. Chinooks Restaurant has a very nice neon sign of a Chinook Salmon for its logo; there have been lots of shots taken of it, but this one is a bit different. The original was a 5 image HDR series which after creating I cropped tightly in addition to a couple small housekeeping chores to make it all very tidy, then brought it to the attention of one of my favorite filters for creating something a little different. I enhanced the colors just a bit (not a whole lot more than does nature each year), and then modified it slightly to give the fish something of a look of jumping the rapids on its way to spawn. ISO 200; 1/3 sec(middle exposure of 5) @ f / 9 on a tripod.

21Apr 11. Just back from the monthly Mountaineer's Photo Committee - everything in the Mountaineers is a committee, so translate this to the Mountaineers Photo Club - monthly potluck and image sharing where there were seemingly three themes tonight; a Camp Casey Whidbey Island photo scavenger hunt, the Fisherman's Terminal Basic Class lab, and the late blooming tulips up in the Skagit Valley. I didn't participate in the scavenger hunt, and I've shared lots from the Fisherman's Terminal lab, so perhaps it is time to jump on board with the tulip theme. According to those who shared tulip images tonight, they are just beginning to show their stuff, at least two weeks late. So if the weather holds, Friday will likely be a tulip trip, and if not, early next week, perhaps Monday or Tuesday. So not yet having made a sojourn to the fields this year, how about one from last year' collection. There are two main producers where we go, Tulip Town and Roozengaarde, and this is from the main Roozengaarde site. (I'll write more about each site later next week) This is a late afternoon lighting condition, on a day that was mixed weather meaning that rain was a constant concern throughout the shoot and became significant on our return home drive. ISO 800; 1/500 sec @ f / 16.

22 Apr 11. On a day forecast for snow and other bizarre weather events, I found myself inside attempting to rewire a fluorescent light fixture in which the ballast had gone south. It was my second attempt at getting the correct ballast, and I was no more comfortable with the one I got today than the one I got yesterday. The nice man at the electrical supply assured me it was correct as did the clerk the day prior at the hardware store. Having initially installed the lights about 40 years back I figured I could easily repair it. Well, it was a functional replacement, but it lacked 3 wires from the original and had a very unusual wiring schematic, such that I studied it for more than an hour not believing what I was seeing. But it did work as shown and then all I had to do was reassemble a four foot long fixture with MULTIPLE wires with a mind of their own, four loose tombstones (the plastic pieces which actually hold the bulb pins) that didn't want to go where I wanted them (Jan finally figured how to make them work), and a plate that wasn't cooperating, all a few feet over my head. To make it even more interesting one of the tombstone managed to slip its contacts out a bit further that it should have and I found a way to put my fingers across a hot connection several times.(Don't ask) An interesting feeling that made me think of what I should share for today. Actually, a close up of a single flower to which I applied some current - a digital filter obviously - to make it "electric." Or at least how I think it would have "felt" if it had hit the same wires I did. ISO 200; 1/400 sec @ f/ 16.

25 Apr 11. While working in the yard on Saturday, I ran out of space in the yard waste container so went next door to borrow a neighbor's. In the process I noticed that she had some nice tulips in her garden so I went back to get a few shots. While attempting to shoot a frame or two an individual who was looking at the next door home, which had gone on the market that morning, started a conversation with me that led to a discussion of us building our new home. As it turned out the individual, another Ballard resident, knew exactly where we are building, was aware of the farmhouse my father and grandfather had built, was familiar with my cousin's family operation in Hansville, and had recently built a home near Kingston with the help of his brother. It never ceases to amaze me with how small a world we occupy. The conversation was beginning to get long winded, as at one point I had to explain that I would continue chatting but that I needed to simultaneously shoot the flowers as the sunlight striking them was rapidly changing. Although the chat did tend to get in the way of the shoot a bit, I still managed to come up with a couple of usable shots. ISO 200; 1/320 sec @ f / 13.

26 Apr 11. In reviewing the group of images available to share for one that in its own right tended to look a bit like a water color, I came across this one and decided it did a reasonable job of illustration the concept. While visually playing around with it a bit I realized that I had unknowingly captured in the shot the culprit responsible for the geese nervously moving into and out of this particular setting. That observation made me certain that this was an image to share. Having recently been reading some of the excellent materials written by Thom Hogan, in particular on the D300s and D7000 bodies and several of the lenses I own, specifically the 18 - 200mm used to take this picture, I was pleased to see that the lens was performing up to expectations. This shot was taken the same day that the Fish & Game guy gave me a bunch of static but was at a location in which he could do nothing about us photographing the geese. Look directly above the peak of the roof of the larger red barn and you will see a Bald Eagle sitting on a bare branch. I can guarantee you that I didn't see this guy with the unaided eye while I was snapping the photo. Not sure the lens would perform as well with a better body, but the D300 / 18-200 combo seems to be serving me reasonably well. ISO 200; 1/1000 sec @ f / 11.

27 Apr 11. A return to B&W today as well as a return to a previously shared image. I've taken the Chinook's Restaurant logo image and not only converted it, but removed the name. So now all we have is a solo King salmon jumping through the air. I then painted everything save for the fish with black and ran it through the nik plug-in Silver Efex Pro 2 to give it a bit more contrast which resulted in having all but zone10 white present in the image. The result of so doing is what you see. I thought the removal of the name and conversion to B&W created a much purer logo and in its simplicity a degree of elegance. Same shooting info as before: ISO 200; 1/3 sec @ f / 9 on a tripod.

28 Apr 11. During our last visit to the property we had a few minutes to wait for the Kingston ferry, so I decided to do a little photography around the terminal waiting area. As part of the landscaping there is a very nice little waterfall and pond, about the size you might put in your front yard, so not very big as park area displays go, but very nice just the same. It had apparently been the site for a visit from either St Patrick or one of his devotees, for the water flowing in it was a definite blue-green. It made for an intriguing display as the water was changing color as it flowed over the spillway. I took a few shots of it and decided that they really wouldn't stand on their own, so I did a little "enhancing" of the one I'm sharing. Not much actually, basically just a bit of heavy over sharpening and contrast increase, then a masking of that on the water portions leaving just the rock work with the effect. The result gives the rocks a speckled gold look while simultaneously strengthening the colors of the water. It is very much a poster type image that I think you will either like a lot or not at all. ISO 200; 1/25 sec @ f / 36 (to blur the water) hand held.

29 Apr 11. The presentation for today is a bit of gimmicky look in that I've added an artificial frame - well, I guess all frames are artificial - but this one is of the torn edge type that is seemingly quite popular these days, at least with the mod crowd. I likely should have faded the image out some, to give it an "old" look, but as I wanted the flowers to be the key item, and not the edge treatment, I left it at full opacity. The original image was altered little save for some cropping and a bit of a curves layer for contrast, and then a tad bit of sharpening, otherwise, it is as shot. The border was an additional layer provided by another piece of software that works as a plug-in to Photoshop and other graphic manipulation programs and is part of the onOne Suite of programs. ISO 200; 1/640 sec @ f / 11.