Daily Image - Apr 2014 Archive

01 Apr 14. The parking lot of a local fast food location is surrounded by flowering trees which I think are cherry, but not being fully up on my trees, Boy Scout times many decades behind me, I'll just have to guess. As soon as we parked the car I decided I'd like to try and capture some of the beauty of all those pink flowers. The conditions were perfect so I figured we have breakfast first, and then I'd take a few shots. So we did just that and during breakfast those conditions changed such that by the time I got around to shooting the trees the wind had found us giving me more of a challenge than I would have preferred. But I did manage to get a few images that were useful and this is the final version of one of them. I've removed all the extraneous material that didn't add anything, and converted it to almost B&W, but not quite. Look very critically and you'll notice a very slight hint of pink. I've also added some extra micro contrast to emphasize the texture in the petals. With the color all but gone you can concentrate on all the structure that makes up this flower individually and as a group. Nikon D30s; 105mm macro; Aperture Priority; ISO 200; 1/50 sec @ f/11; hand held.

02 April 14. While you can see thermophiles in many different locations within Yellowstone National Park, nowhere are they more prevalent than in the Midway Geyser Basin. Here you can see them in huge arrays and some simply dominate the landscape of certain geyser areas. As I've mentioned previously, different colors represent different water temperatures, and this mat of thermophiles would suggest that the water temp is between 55º and 60º C. Of passing interest is their degree of concentration; a 3"x3" chunk of these thermophiles mats are said to contain more microorganisms than the human population of the Earth. One can only wonder what Malthus might have to say about this. The day I took this shot it was on the chilly side and the water vapor coming off the geyser was being blown directly towards me with just very brief breaks in the veil. Even with the breaks, the amount of moisture present was more like shooting from inside a cloud rather than out in the open, so the image looks a bit as if I had tried to do something creative with it like shooting through a filter to slightly soften it which wasn't the case; nature was doing that for me. The thermophile field in this shot extends all the way to the back of the frame to where you can still see a bit of red on the left; to the right is part of the expansive pool of water which shows as a faint blue. These hot spots in the midway geyser basin are truly hard to imagine until you actually see them. If you think you might find this type of thing to be of interest, you might want to go soon. Since they had a 4.2 magnitude earthquake in West Yellowstone just a couple of days ago, the possibility exists that another could be disruptive to the area. Nikon D300s; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 200; 1/500 sec @ f /11.

03 Apr 14. A different approach to the creative look today achieved by simply playing with the contrast, in this instance, the micro contrast. This will give us things like increased texture, depth in objects like clouds, and better detail in everything. Taken to the extreme it will give the image a very odd look, one that will be instantly recognized as appearing fake, but if done just right, it can either enhance the image such that it looks really nice or, as in the case for today, just a tiny bit edgy. The difference between these last two approaches is just one's perspective, as they vary only in the slightest degree. If you critically look at this image, it is just a bit too sharp overall, but that is the creative look I was desiring. Back it off just a wee bit and the creative edge is lost. You can also move yourself a couple / three feet away from the monitor and it will look very natural. Nikon D30s; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 200; 1/640 sec @ f / 9.

04 Apr 14. With all the flowers beginning to make their presence known, the amount of material for macro work is more than sufficiently abundant. The biggest dilemma is deciding which image to share. Back in my youth there was a daily piece in the comics section from Walt Disney that had to do with some aspect of nature. I've written about this before but it was a few years back. One of the frequent topics was called Form Follows Function, and today's submission would have been a candidate for that category. A considered look will likely remind you of a design that is repeated in more than the plant family. This was taken of a tulip that I purchased in a local nursery and shot inside on table top; the petals had opened a few hours earlier. I was playing with both the flower and the light as I had intermittent sunlight falling on the flower interspersed with longer periods of cloudy light. This was taken in the subdued cloudy light and supplemented with fill flash. I've added a small amount of contrast enhancement on the anthers and the stigma. All we need now is a pollinating insect to complete the system. Nikon D30s; 105mm macro; Aperture Priority; ISO 200; 1/60 sec @ f /16 with fill flash on a tripod.

07 Apr 14. Although the cultured versions of bleeding heart are in full bloom right now, of which today's image is of one such red phase plant, the wild variety, which line the side of our drive into the property, are just barely beginning to show a hint of color. The two plants look very different from each other, and I'm hard pressed to pick a favorite of the two. The cultured version is about 2 - 4 times larger than its wild cousin, and the foliage is quite different, but their basic form is identical and they both share the pinkish red color of the wild plant although the cultured variety also comes in a creamy white. We have both kinds growing in Jan's sun room, and the occasionally find their way upstairs into the studio. The shot for today was taken there with the plant sitting against a black velvet cloth to remove all distractions. I used the 105 mm macro lens on a tripod and fill flash to illuminate the plant with filtered sunlight falling from a skylight situated above and to the right of the subject. I've added a tiny bit of micro contrast enhancement to help illustrate the lovely textures in these beautiful little flowers. Some of you may also know this plant as "Lady in a Boat." The "lady" is pointing downward as the flower hangs from its stalk. Nikon D300s; 105mm macro; Aperture Priority; ISO 200; 1/60 sec @ f /20 with fill flash on a tripod.

08 Apr 14. We'll go with a triple play and take a look at another flower image for today. This could have been saved for Friday's macro shot, and was in fact shared a Friday back as a color image. This time, being B&W Tuesday it is obviously in monochrome. I hoping that the lack of color allows you to get a multidimensional feel for this subject, a feeling that wasn't nearly so in the color version. You will recall I suggested that you keep the colored version around for a few days, the intent being that you could, should you desire, compare them side by side. The work done to give you a feeling of the texture in the plant also resulted in a bit of digital "noise" being added. Since that noise is an artifact of the manipulation, I would normally remove it, but, in this case, I thought it made the image look like it was taken on hi-speed film from days of yore, and elected to leave it in. If grain is not to your liking, and you like to fiddle with the images, you should be easily able to remove it in an amount to your liking. All the info I shared for the color image before applies to this shot as it is the same image. Nikon D300s; 105mm Macro; Aperture Priority; ISO 200; 1/250 sec @ f / 7.1 on a tripod.

09 Apr 14. While I wouldn't consider this to be an archival image, which I'm supposed to be sharing for today, I was thinking that maybe I could send just a tiny bit of luck for the individuals on Flight 370 with it. While enjoying a bit of exercise down at the beach after supper a few days back, I noticed the combination of a squall in the middle of the sound along with a trace of a small rainbow. As I spent time playing with the driftwood and the camera, while Jan looked for beach glass and Maggie for anything she could chase, I noticed that the rainbow was getting larger and the squall closer. Eventually the rainbow grew to a size bigger than any I had seen prior, a second one appeared for maybe two minutes before disappearing, and then the squall reached us as the rainbow completed its arc somewhere on Whidby Island. This was also the first time I had seen one start - or - end, take your choice, in the water, so I thought you might enjoy seeing it also. While you don't get to see all of it in this image, you can at least get some idea as to its size based on its width. To put it simply, it was huge! Nikon D300s; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 200; 1/320 sec @ f / 5.6.

10 Apr 14. I must comment as to how surprised I was by the number of you commenting on the Promise photo of yesterday. I was truly amazed. Thanks to all of you! Back when I was actively working with marine mammals in the Puget Sound area, that period of time being in the early 70s, Jan embroidered a navy enlisted blue work shirt for me with several marine creatures, from dolphins to seaweed. It was, and is, a spectacularly beautiful piece of work. I still treasure it and wear it on special occasions. The shot for today reminds me of that shirt in that had I been working with birds instead of mammals, it is the type of object I would imagine she would have elected to embroider onto the shirt. This and several others of course. Jan pointed out this lovely creature as we were getting out of the vehicle on a routine Drs visit a couple weeks back, and I was able to get a few clicks off before she flew away and perched in a nearby tree, but on the back side so that ended my shooting. Being a rather "normal" Washington day the sky was gray, so you will immediately be aware that I've manipulated the sky. I also took the image with the manipulated sky into a filter to give it the painted look, but I've held that manipulation to a minimum to keep the hawk looking reasonably normal. Nikon D300s; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 320; 1/1600 sec @ f / 5.6.

11 Apr 14. Electing a late morning start, we left around 1100 Thursday morning to drive to the most northwesterly corner of the lower 48. The 280 mile round trip encompassed roughly 10 hours, during which we saw spectacular coastal scenes, pond views, lots of beautiful native wild flowers, among them one of my favorite, skunk cabbage, and a large herd of elk enjoying their evening cud. More about the trip next week. But for all of you PNW photographers, the skunk cabbage and horsetail are at their prime, and they are truly lovely. Several other species are also showing well, including another favorite, trillium. Three weeks ago we made another visit to Rialto Beach, about 30 miles south of where we were Thursday. Alongside the road, as it narrows to approach the beach, we came across a couple small groupings of skunk cabbage. This was the first time this year I had seen them and I took the opportunity to squeeze the SUV onto a narrow piece of "shoulder," large enough for perhaps a child's wagon, turned on the flashers, and proceeded to shoot the few specimens there. It had been raining some, big surprise there, and as such I was able to shoot them with water droplets on both the petals and the leaves. Today's submission for Macro Friday, one of those shots, is more along the lines of a close up than a macro, but I think it will suffice. I've cropped off some of the original to leave just the plant and very little of its surroundings. I've also added a small amount of micro contrast enhancement to make the rain drops display better. The location for the shot was in very dark forest, so there was very little light available and I had to make some choices as to what I would sacrifice to get the shot. I elected to sacrifice depth of field, so the spadix, not being on the same plane as the rest of the flower and the leaf, took the hit. Since it is soft, my hope is that the sharp water droplets will draw your eyes away from the soft center of the image and concentrate on them. Nikon D300s; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 320; 1/60 sec @ f / 5.6 with full flash on a tripod.

14 Apr 14 . A heads up that we are planning on spending all day Monday in the LaConner tulip fields so Tuesday's mailing may be a bit late getting out. This image was shot in the front of the house in a small planting of tulips grown from bulbs we purchased in LaConner last year. Each trip up results in the addition of a few more so one day we may have a sizable garden of them. The sun was out in full today and nicely lighting the small grouping from behind, so I took advantage of the light to see what I might come up with and this image is from that attempt. The original was cropped to eliminate a few distracting items, the exposure was increased by about a half stop, and I added some detail enhancement to both the stem and the yellow portion of the petals. Otherwise it is unaltered. You might appreciate it better about 10 feet distant from your monitor. Since the monitors are essentially back lit, you are seeing it as did the camera. Nikon D300s; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 200; 1/640 sec @ f / 9.

15 Apr 14 . We've been going up to LaConner for 8 years and always avoiding the weekends to miss the crowds. Apparently so did a few thousand folks today as the workers said the crowds were as large as Sunday's. That, coupled with the weather, simply beautiful but quite windy, kept me from my appointed rounds, that of shooting for creative effects. But I still got about half a 1000 shots, so some material with which to work. For today however we return to Yellowstone and the elk rut. The star in this image had something on his mind that was rather obvious but his friend seemed to be of a mindset of 'maybe later', when the visitors have left. We watched him with his small harem for about 20 minutes, but all the ladies seemed to be cut of the same bolt. As he moved up to what looked to be perhaps 50 feet distant from the cows, they simply moved a bit further distant and resumed breakfast. They are wonderful to observe any time of the year, but the shows you get to attend in the fall are by far the best. Nikon D300s; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 400; 1/125 sec @ f / 7.1.

16 Apr 14. My goal of the LaConner tulip trip was to shoot tulips from a creative viewpoint, but with the number of visitors there in addition to the 4 of us (we have the cherubs for the week of Easter vacation), coupled with a non stop stiff breeze at its calmest, that wasn't going to happen. Even if there hadn't been the crowds, the atmospheric conditions were not conducive to close up work with the flowers constantly dancing in the fields. So, I elected to go with color as the theme for the day, and tried various means of exploiting the marvelous palette of hues on display both in the gardens and the fields. You may get some idea of the wind by looking at the huge kites that were putting on their own show with zero intent of being overshadowed by the tulips. This shot was taken in a display field of an operation called Tulip Town. It is totally commercial, but still a nice place to visit and one area with things for kids. They used to let photographers in after normal closing to work the fields without interference from the crowds, but that got stopped by a threatened lawsuit, so once again, a very small minority has ruined a wonderful opportunity for all. We timed it just right as one of the workers told me that there were going to be topping roughly 1/3 of the field that evening, so we were fortunate to visit when we did. Once the flowers fully open, they cut them off (topping) to force all the energy back into developing the bulbs. Amazingly, they sell less than 1% of the flowers; the fields are just for show and collecting a nice sum of $$$ from those of us paying to see them. The actual product is the bulbs. This image has been selectively darkened for the oranges and yellows, otherwise it is straight from the camera. Nikon D300s; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 200; 1/500 sec @ f /11.

17 Apr 14. To reach the valley where the tulips, daffodils, and iris are grown from the southern approach, you first cross a very small island wherein reside the majority of the swans and snow geese, at least up in the Skagit Flats area. Although you may not see either the geese or swans on any single visit during the months of Nov - Mar, the likelihood of seeing neither on any given trip is very small, and we have never been totally skunked. There have been a couple of times when we missed what we wanted but found something else, and on occasion had luck with both. My last trip there this year ended with a couple hour show of the snow geese settling in right at the road's edge, and moving parallel to me, left to right, from one field to the next. The show likely lasted longer than I observed it as it was too cold for me, but apparently just perfect for the geese. Today's shot is how they looked, well not quite as it is Theatrical Thursday, as they were landing directly in front of me. Besides applying a painting look to the image, I've cropped it some from the original to give it more of the feel I experienced while shooting the birds. Nikon D300s, 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 200; 1/800 sec @ f / 6.3.

18 Apr 14. For macro Friday something very different from what I've ever done before. The original idea for this image was that of an insect's perspective of a flower. I worked it up to give a 3-D look and used a daffodil as the subject as I felt the trumpet like flower would provide a bit more dimension that might be more effective in conveying the idea. I looked at the final product for a couple of weeks trying to decide if it was doing the job I wanted but always with the sense that it wasn't fully doing it. Then it hit me, I hadn't taken into consideration how an insect "sees" light. A little study told me that insects don't see the red spectrum in white light as we do, but instead see the ultra-violet end that is invisible to us. According to a couple of sources, the closest we can come to seeing ultra-violet is a light violet color, so I've manipulated the color in this image of a daffodil to look as close as I can to what I imagine it would look like to an insect. It is going to strike you as really weird, but give it a moment to sink in and pretend that you are the insect about to enter the lair of the flower. Moving back several feet from the screen will enhance the effect. Nikon D300s; 105mm Macro; ISO 400; 1/60 sec @ f /13 with fill flash.

21 Apr 14. With the cherub's facing the end of their stay, and the weather looking quite nice, we headed out Friday morning to visit the Olympic Game Farm, one of their all time favorite places to visit. It was a great day for all as we had more than our share of "beasts" in the vehicle with us, and a couple bull Bison who thought it would be fun to play who's the boss with us. If you've never had a couple tons of critter trying to walk through your vehicle and trying their hardest to push you out of the way, well, you just haven't lived!! One individual in particular thought it would be fun to see if he could butt us backward, and another thought it would be fun to just position himself perpendicular to the SUV. Took a bit to move him off his post all the while with the two cherubs laughing hilariously! If that wasn't enough, we had a couple of elk who thought it would be fun to see if they could get their heads into one side window and out the other! But the best part were the birds! Lots of posing, if in fast motion, Peacocks, and about 3 dozen Bald Eagles. Most of them juveniles, but several adults as well. They made the day for me. Leaving the park we toured along the water front roadways where we knew there was a nesting pair of Bald Eagles. Turned out we found two pairs. The first pair was where we expected them to be. As we approached the eerie both birds were standing on a branch perhaps 25 feet above it, and one of them decided to fly off and observe what we were doing, or at least that's how I choose to interpret it. The other stayed in the tree next to the trunk calling to its mate to return. From where I was positioned on the ground, I could see the departed bird returning to the nest, so I got ready and was able to photograph the return to, and landing in, the tree. Today's submission is a set of 8 frames of the roughly 40 I shot of the landing. You "read" the story as you would any text, L-R, T-B. I loaded all 8 images into Camera Raw, made the same minor correction there to all, then loaded all 8 into Photoshop, where I cropped each to an 8" x 9" format. I then created a 32" x 18" canvas and positioned each of the 8 images into it.Having done that, I expanded the canvas by an additional 1/2" black border, then added the vertical and horizontal diving lines. You will note a slight bit of color change in the blue sky which I could have adjusted but didn't as the initial attempt lacked the black frame dividers. Nikon D300s; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 200; 1/800 sec @ f/9.

22 Apr 14. Back in the days of undergrad school, the advances being brought about by the electron microscope were not only rewriting the sciences, but also doing a pretty good job of holding my attention. I remember purchasing just about every textbook around, regardless of the requirement for any particular course I was taking, if it in any way related to the subject being studied and could even slightly increase my understanding of it. I still have those books, but I imagine if I were to purchase something similar today, those which I purchased in the 60s would seem very lacking in content. But every once in a while I still enjoy pulling those texts off the shelf and marveling at the complexity of design they so adequately present. Although the image for today is one of moss, the rendering of it in B&W brings back thoughts of neuronal interconnection as might be displayed in several of those old books. Nikon D300s; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 400; 1/160 sec @ f / 7.1.

23 Apr 14. As I mentioned a couple of days ago we were fortunate to see many Bald Eagles on our visit to the Olympic Game Farm. Most of them were juveniles, but they were eagles none the less. What was somewhat surprising to me was that they like bread, at least the brown colored bread they sell you for $2 a loaf and allow you to feed all the animals not in cages or pens. They claim that this is a govt regulation, but I think it is a bunch of hooey!! In any event, the critters love the bread and it is great fun to feed them. This young eagle was seriously guarding the bread that had obviously missed its intended recipient(s), a group of yaks, and was munching it down as fast as possible while simultaneously guarding it from all intruders. This shot was taken as the bird finished one piece and was making its way to another. We both couldn't help but laugh a bit as it looked like a big chicken with bloomers making its way over the ground. I shot at a shutter speed which I hoped would stop most of the bird's motion, but leave just enough blur to indicate that it was moving. The image has had a bit of contrast added to what the camera recorded, and I've added a little light to both its breast and eye as they were both a bit on the dark side. Nikon D30s; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority;ISO 200; 1/320 sec @ f / 8.

24 Apr 14. With the snow now departing the Yellowstone area, it will soon be birthing time. Don't know if we'll make it there this year for the event, but if not, I certainly plan to be there in 2015 to hopefully capture the birth of a bison. That would be a fun thing to do, and if I were lucky enough to record the birth of one unusual looking one like in the picture - really dreaming now - I just might be inclined to name it something memorable. Wouldn't quite be the same as helping my cousin whose calves I can watch grow up on a regular basis, but then again, it would be a much rarer experience, and one I don't think I'd quickly forget! These guys were enjoying a leisurely breakfast not far from a very active geyser with some of the herd members much closer to the activity than were those you see in the image. My initial thought was that a longer lens than that which I typically use would make for a really good shot, but as it turned out the better shots were with a wider viewpoint, so I used the standard 18 - 200 in a wide angle setting to take in the broader expanse and then cropped off from the top and bottom edges to get the exact perspective I wanted. The hardest part of the shoot was restraining myself from walking out into the herd. While I didn't have any qualms about my safety, I simply didn't want to disturb the animals who were already dong a very fine job of posing for me, even if that wasn't their intent. This is obviously a creative image, in the format of a water color, and a look I liked even better than the original once I was finished playing with it. Heading back to West Yellowstone for a week in early May; it will be our first time there in early Spring, and I'm anxious to get there to see how it looks in that season as we've only seen it in the fall in all our previous visits. Who knows, maybe we'll even get to see that hoped for birth. Nikon D300s; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 125; 1/250th sec @ f / 8.

25 Apr 14 . My father's favorite flower was the begonia, and he raised them every year in a set of holes in the cement blocks that made up the base part of the fence on the south side of our home. Every year he would tend these lovely little flowers and each year we had a slightly different grouping of colors. They were never my favorite, and in fact, I didn't really care for them much at all; the flowers he had in the yard that I liked were the red hot pokers that attracted a lot of pollinators and a form of dark purple lily that smelled a lot like skunk cabbage. Never knew why those lilies were planted, because everyone else didn't like them and I never really expressed a strong desire in having them around. But smelly or not, they were very pretty. I don't recall having ever seen them since, or if I have, I haven't recognized them. The begonias however were a different story, and although not my kind of flower, I can't help remembering my father each and every time I see them. I suppose he is walking around in heaven either wearing them in some fashion or tending to a lovely garden of them for all others to enjoy. This is basically one of those straight shots from the camera save for a bit of cropping. Nikon D300s; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 200; 1/60 sec @ f / 8 with full flash.

28 Apr 14. Today you get to see a shot about as pure as they get in that I was doing some interior documentary work earlier, shooting at the lowest quality jpg possible with the D300s, and forgot to switch it back to RAW before I went out shooting. As a result the image I'm sharing was not one that would hold up to manipulation. So today you get to see the poorest quality at which the camera will shoot. Our subject is the little pond at the corner of Eglon and Hansville roads, where you turn off to get where we live, and a pond I've shared several times prior. Today it caught my eye as the water lilies are just showing nice yellow heads and I wanted to see what I could do with them. I got a couple images I liked, but I liked this one of reflections on the surface of the pond ever more than the pads with flowers, especially due to the slight breeze disturbing the surface and thus the reflections. I focused toward the rear edge of the pond so that all the plant life in front would be less distracting, forcing your eyes to the bank and then forward along the reflection line(s) of the trees. You could easily crop off all the plant life in front and have another distinct picture. Try it either by cropping it in an editor or more simply by just holding up something, your hand perhaps, to block off all the material in the bottom third. See if you like it as well, or perhaps even better. It will be a very different image and might even give you a feeling of a river bank vice a pond. Nikon D300s; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority;ISO 200; 1/100 sec @ f / 6.3.

29 Apr 14. Today we'll look at another piece of driftwood on Eglon Beach. This chunk of weathered wood is similar to another I shared earlier but this time I've rendered it in browns as a form of a monochromatic image which more typically would be B&W. The brown in this case I felt provided some warmth for the image and more closely resembled wood than would a pure B&W. Either way we have a monochromatic image, but this way we've added some personality. This image has had a number of adjustments to it to achieve the look you are seeing. The original color image was rich in the brown and orange hues; a simple conversion to vanilla B&W resulted in a significant loss of information that I wanted to keep, so the manipulations were performed to keep all that information including a couple to try and maintain a sense of depth on the right hand side of the log. Over simplifying what I did, employing the zone layer approach, several different zones were individually adjusted, then a B&W layer was blended with a creative layer to get the end result. Nikon D300s; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority;ISO 200; 1/400 sec @ f / 8.

30 Apr 14. With the wind giving me way too much competition on our day in LaConner shooting the tulips, I decided to shoot them as large scale shots as opposed to the individual flower and macro creatives. This shot of a grouping of three rows of different colored tulips was initially a single image, but the three different layers of individual colors just screamed out to me to divide them up as individual panes, so that's just what I did. I also decided to add a little bit of simplification to the image, and then blended the simplified layer with the normal layer to get a final presentation that was a little of both, but leaning on the original side of things. So here you have a version of a triptych presented a bit differently from what you might normally expect. Nikon D300s; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 200; 1/400 sec @ f /13.