Daily Image - Feb 2015 Archive

02 Feb 15. The day last summer when we took the boat trip to shoot the seals and wound up generally stranded in Mats Mats Bay for a period of time we were perhaps 100 yards across from an old derelict than was resting on the sand looking like it might not be there much longer. A couple weeks ago while meandering around looking for new things to visit and experience, we found ourselves on a road that ran parallel to that old hulk and not 20 feet away from it. So we stopped and I took a couple shots of it thinking it might be fun to play with just to see what might come of it. Today's submission is just that and one of 5 different versions. This one is my impression of how it might look under a full moon on a calm night. In noonish light on a clear day you don't really get to see all the texture in such an old hulk, so I've attempted to bring out all the missed texture. Starting with the original image, I adjusted it to get as much dynamic range as possible, then added a small amount of micro contrast adjustment. Next I ran a heavy handed global detail enhancement on it but with a complex mask that determined what parts of the image got exactly how much of that enhancement. Then to finish it I ran a plug-in on it to convert the image to the night-like (dark) colors masking out the boat to retain most of its original color and structure. Nikon D300s; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 200; 1/320 sec @ f / 7.1.

03 Feb 15. So you've made the trek to the NW corner of the state to play on the beach and photograph the stormy Pacific with its huge waves and cloudy skies only to find the most blasé day you can imagine; now what? One could of course elect to just enjoy the beach and romp safely in the gently incoming tide without concern for undertow or being blown off the beach, and simply forget about the photography aspect of the trip, or enjoy the beach while considering what compositions might be captured to be modified in the darkroom at a later date. And that's what we did. The cherubs found some HUGE stumps that were up against the breakwater and began climbing on them, Jan took Maggie for a walk, and I attempted to capture a few frames for later consideration. This is a shot not unlike one I shared last year, but taken from a slightly different angle with a different tide and no fishermen.The lighting wasn't what I would have preferred, so I've made some adjustment to it as well as to the entire composition enhancing the detail and of course converting to B & W. Taking the original image, I adjusted it to ensure I had the entire tonal range available, then applied a very heavy handed detail enhancement, and then on top of that a noise reduction layer to smooth out the effects of the detail enhancement where I didn't want the texture to be as strong employing a complex mask to achieve the desired result. Then I converted that to B&W and finished the effort with a curves layer to give a just smidgen of increased contrast. Nikon D300s; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 200; 1/250 sec @ f /11.

04 Feb 14. About 30 minutes out from LaPush you drive by a little stream that cascades over a few small rocks to the delight, I would think, of any who stop to view it; at least that is how it struck me. The setting is one in which access to the stream requires a bit of careful placement of the feet although not so much so for Maggie who was able to get much closer to it than did I, but no matter how you approach it from above, it is difficult to get a clean shot. I found a couple sites where I could at least get near the edge, but no truly safely accessible location where I could both get away from the tree branches and not slip/fall in. So I had to shoot through both a lot of competition and into less than ideal lighting. I took the shots I could, debated about shooting an HDR series to adapt for the poor lighting, decided against it primarily because folks were anxious to get to the ocean, it was cold outside, and I felt that the solo shots could be used as a good challenge to see what I could get from a single less than perfect conditions capture. I've provided two shots for today, both what the camera captured and what I ended up doing with it. I'm venturing not all will like the "enhanced" version equally. Starting with the base exposure which I've supplied, I began the work in ACR by adjusting the black level by +3; the highlights by +3; clarity by +24; and the shadows by +100. That became the starting background layer. Next I made certain that I had as much tonal range as possible, and then ran a zone system adjustment on it to bring out as much color as reasonably possible. Then I made my standard micro contrast adjustment but this time limited it to 24% of normal and used a mask for further refinement. Then I ran a moderate global detail enhancement on it but limited that enhancement to 37% max and refined that with a mask. Next step was to run another filter on it to adjust the contrast further and then cloned out some branches I felt distracting. Finally I ran a creative filter on it limiting that effect to 25% and combining it with the multiply blend mode. A little work, but I'm fairly pleased with how it finally ended up. Nikon D300s; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 320; 1/320 sec @ f /10.

The base capture.

05 Feb 15. This image is one in which I took the original shot with the idea of making something out of it that it wasn't originally. While I had several options for the conversion, I thought I'd take a twilight shot with the sun competing its sinking into the horizon and turn it into a lake in front of a surrounding forest on fire, but a fire sufficiently distant that it wasn't warming the lake and thus leaving the ice on the surface intact. In the original the ice was present but much more difficult to discern, so the conversion, in addition to adding some fun coloration, allowed the ice to become much more prominent. You can identify it by the hard lines in the water. While this is obviously a just for fun creative image, any of you who have been near a body of water with a major fire burning nearby may identify with this as not being all that impossible. Some of you may even remember the photo about a decade ago of the elk standing mid river with the Yellowstone fire blazing around them. ;-( Stating with the base image, I cropped it from a portrait composition to a landscape one as I felt it better set the stage for what I wanted. Then I adjusted for as much dynamic range as possible, then ran a detail enhancement on that. Next, I ran the filter to give the color shift which also softened the image some, so I followed that with a sharpening filter and then finished it off with the creative look you see as the final output. Nikon D300s; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 200; 1/1250 sec (shooting directly into the setting sun) @ f / 6.3.

06 Feb 15. A short write up for today as the image is just a simple flower that I shot at a local nursery. There was enough distraction around the flower that I elected to remove it and paint that which was there in black. While I was working on the image on a large tablet it looked pretty good, albeit not perfect, but good enough. When I got to looking at it on this mail box it doesn't look quite so good, meaning that it is apparent, it you look around the edge of the petals, that I didn't properly feather it. When I made the shot I was on my knees shooting up at the flower of the Lenten Rose which hangs downward, and unless you are beneath them it is hard to capture the entire flower. That basically equates to a back lit image, and the back lighting resulted in what appeared as bands around the outside edge of the petals. In attempting to remove the "bands", I ended up with what looks too much like a cut out that was not properly feathered in. I thought about starting over and then decided I could use this to illustrate a point. At first glance I doubt you'll notice it, but look more carefully and it will be quite obvious. Starting with the original shot, I cropped off a lot from the right hand edge, adjusted for the greatest dynamic range, selected out the distractions and painted that selection with black. That was it. Nikon D300s; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 200; 1/250 sec @ f / 8.

09 Feb 15. Today's submission is one which looked great on my calibrates box, quite different on this mail box, but one which I'm leaving as it was because the last time I thought I'd let this mail box cast the deciding vote I regretted it. So I'm hoping it looks good on your screens. Lacking the fall color we had hoped to capture last fall in Yellowstone, we set off one morning heading into Idaho into a bird reserve we had visited the previous fall but from a different approach. The different drive offered lots of nice views and made us aware that this was a part of the plateau we needed to further explore. We wound up driving into the reserve from a different direction which at one point returned us to the main road we had used the previous year. Deciding that we again weren't going to see many birds, we instead turned out attention to what remained of the fall colors. This proved to be a worthy effort, and even though we didn't see the spectacularly colored leaves, we got to experience some very nicely colored landscapes primarily courtesy of the smaller shrubs and grasses. My biggest hope was that with all the leaves primarily on the ground that the open area would treat us to some nice views of big game. Although our luck with that was on a par with that of the leaves, the beautiful landscapes we were viewing made it all worth while. Starting with the base image, I adjusted it for maximum dynamic range, ran a color zone system profile on it, followed by a little micro contrast adjustment. That was it, which is why I'm so surprised at the different looks between the two boxes. Nikon D300s; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 200; 1/800 sec @ f / 7.1.

10 Feb 15. One generally does not use the format of B&W to show off botany images, but I think that the removal of color from an image forces the viewer to take a more careful look at the subject and as a result get a better feel for what is being showcased. This is a very busy composition, but I'm hoping that the brighter fern in front is what pulls your eye into the image and, for the most part, holds it there. I'm also betting that the monochrome presentation causes you to spend more time looking at the detail and not just glancing quickly at it because one fern looks just like the next. That is as true of ferns as it is of snowflakes, albeit there is greater difference in the snowflakes. This is a roadside shot, the ferns being part of the shoulder vegetation along the edge of our county road. As it was shot in the winter time (Feb) the original is composed primarily of browns vice greens, but I'll bet that if you looked at it first, and then came back to read this, you were thinking that they were green. The base image this time was not altered for max tonal range, was just converted into B&W with a plug-in, and saved out. Nothing more was done to it. Nikon D300s; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 200; 1/300 sec @ f / 5.6.

11 Feb 15. I hadn't planned on sharing another B&W this week, but the results I was seeing on my graphics box were quite different from what I'm seeing on this box, at least with respect to the color versions, although not so with the B&W, so that's what I'm sharing. Traveling across Puget Sound one evening leaving Edmonds and crossing over to Kingston, I found it interesting how much more dramatic the clouds were with and without my glasses. I'm not talking about sharpness, that would be a given, but a difference that might best be compared to taking a photo with and without a polarizer on the lens. The detail in the clouds with and without the glasses, which are NOT polarized, was very obvious. The photos I captured were much more like what my naked eye was seeing, so I thought I'd attempt to bring back to the image what my glasses were providing for me. Around these parts, when one can see faint beams of light streaming from a cloud down into the water, they are termed sun dogs and the story is that they are drawing up water. As to the accuracy of this claim I have no idea, but generally it isn't long before we get liquid sunshine falling to the ground. In playing with this image I was able to detect some rather faint hints of sun dogs which I didn't see at the time of taking the photo(s). You look to see if you can identify them. They do not show up in the color versions. I took the base image and cropped off an identical amount from the top and bottom to get the composition I wanted. Next I performed a detail enhancement to bring out the texture in the clouds, but only for the clouds as they are the subject of this story. Then I performed a little dodging and burning to bring the water to a more balanced state. The sun was setting and casting some very harsh light on portions of the water's surface that I wanted to even out some, but not entirely. Then for this version I converted it to B&W and finished it off with a noise reduction layer to smooth out some graininess I introduced into the clouds as I was enhancing them. Nikon D300s; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 200; 1/1600 sec @ f /11.

12 Feb 15. Last summer's low tides were quite depressing in that the sea star decimation was in full swing, and perhaps because of such, there wasn't the normal amount of intertidal inhabitants to be found. The combination of the wasting sea stars and scarcity of other invertebrates made for a less than successful day of shooting. But there were a lot of birds looking for whatever they could scrounge and they offer some opportunity for play with the camera. At one point there were more than a dozen Great Blue Herons and dozens of gulls of various types, so I tried getting something interesting with them. My efforts weren't well rewarded, probably says more about the photographer than the situation, but I did get a few that I thought I might play with, this being one of them. Being Theatrical Thursday this is naturally a totally creative effort, so it will not look anything like what was there, but still provides for an idea of the setting. I manage to get two birds, a heron and a gull, and two ships, a ferry and a freighter in the same frame, so in that sense it is not one of my typical captures. One of the more interesting things that was occurring were three different aspects of the flowing water. While not really all that evident in the original capture, this manipulation has them clearly delineated. Part of the difference is caused by the shallow kelp beds, part caused by the flowing incoming tide, and a third for which I can't account. The original image is a composite of two versions, one for everything but the heron and the other for the heron. I combined them to get both subjects looking as I wanted. I then cropped the frame, adjusted for max tonality, and added a curves adjustment to control overall contrast. Then I did some small amount of straightening of the horizon, probably could have gotten away with how it was, and added a contrast manipulation to get the grainier and darker look. Then I ran another filter to get the streaky look, and applied it using a multiply blending mode set to 70%, and called it quits. Nikon D300s; 18 - 200; Aperture priority; ISO 200; 1/50 sec @ f / 7.1.

13 Feb 15. For toady's macro shot we will be looking at one of the earliest harbingers of spring I can think of, the pussy willow. Jan made some cuttings about two days ago which, at the time, were just fuzzy gray buds, but within 36 hours of being inside in the warmth, transformed themselves into little bristles of pollen. I'm always amazed at how fast this transformation occurs. Somehow, it just doesn't seem possible. But then, when we look back, it also doesn't ever seem possible how fast our babies become young adults. In the bigger scheme of things I guess the transformations are on a similar ratio of time but we just don't see it because of our personal time frame. This is a reasonable close up of the buds, but is lacking in showing the individual pollen spores. Perhaps I'll share another illustrating that in another mailing. Hold on to this shot until next Tuesday when I'll share a B&W version when you can compare what you see in the two images. I'll be curious to hear which you prefer and why. The original image was adjusted for max tonal range, and then given a tiny amount of micro contrast enhancement. That was it. Nikon D300s; 105mm macro; Aperture Priority; ISO 400; 1/60 sec @ f /16 with fill flash.

16 Feb 15. With the pussy willows in full bloom and the cherry blossoms beginning to pop out here and there, all we are lacking is the burst of yellow from the forsythia to proclaim spring in full swing irrespective of what the calendar claims. Of course this refers to just where we reside, as I'm rather certain those of you on the right coast are not experiencing a similar event. We even have the start of our tulips making a presence although only one small hybrid has produced any flowers so far. This shot was taken last April in Port Angeles as we were getting ready to drive up to Hurricane Ridge. But the local cherry trees here are already turning a lovely pink. This was actually the first photo I took with the Df body and I elected to try it out with the macro lens, so the detail should not be surprising. This is a great combo for anything suitable to a fixed focal length of 105mm and of course this lens is designed for close up work. Asking it to grab these individual flowers was not much of a challenge save for the brisk breeze we were encountering at the time. Placing me between the wind and the subject worked sufficiently well to make this capture. After the base image was cleaned up and cropped to get rid of a few distracting elements, I ran a detail enhancing filter on it to bring out a bit more texture in the petals and that was it. The camera had captured the full dynamic range on it own, so I didn't need to adjust for that at all. Nikon Df; 105mm macro; ISO 100; 1/320 sec @ f /11.

17 Feb 15. Today we view the same image as I shared on Friday, in color, as a B&W presentation. The whole idea behind sharing these two identical images is the concept that with the color removed, one is forced to actually look at the item carefully to discern what is there. With the color present, it tends to totally take over and we concentrate on just that often missing a lot of the detail present. For that reason alone, I always add that small bit of micro contrast enhancement to all the images to help bring out the detail that the color might otherwise dominate. Doesn't always work, but at least it compensates for the small amount of detail loss caused by the digital sensor's anti aliasing screen. This images is the same as Friday's so the same info applies.

18 Feb 15. In consideration of all of those on the right coast, I thought I'd go with a snow shot taken in mid May last year to show you that there are areas of the country that get more snow than do you, even in a mild year. In fact, this area got snow in August on a couple of days. This is the Madison River downstream of the Hebgen Dam, the concrete fixture that created Lake Hebgen by damning up the Madison. This river is famous for its trout fishing, and here outside of the park you can keep what you catch! I have not driven by this river very many times when there wasn't at least one fisherman, often many, and generally with one or more dogs for companionship wetting their lines. This day was no exception. The river isn't very deep in this location and you can pretty much wade across it, but sufficiently deep requiring the dogs do swim. However, from what I've observed, they seem to love doing it! I anticipate seeing more of this when we visit again in May. The base image was first adjusted for max tonal range, then I applied a detail extracting filter globally, and finished of with a small amount of relative contrast adjustment. Nikon D300s; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 200; 1/320 sec @ f /11.

19 Feb 15. No sooner were the words about forsythia out of my mouth than I was informed by a list member that her forsythia was in bloom. Being as that was just a few hundred yards south of me I ventured out in the beautiful sunlight yesterday to grab a few shots. The lighting was wonderful, the company likewise, and the breeze even offered to cooperate, so the effort in getting a few decent images was nil. This is one of those shots and I've chosen to convert it to a more painterly look, in particular, to something along the lines of what Monet might have done with the flower. Although not exactly a Monet impression, it is, I believe, close to what he might have done with it. The original shot was adjusted for max tonal range, although not much adjustment was needed, and then run through a filter to create the look. I did a tiny bit of manipulation over that which the filter produced, but nothing worthy of discussion. Nikon D300s; 105mm macro; Aperture Priority; ISO 400; 1/1000 sec @ f /10.

20 Feb 15. Returning the cherubs Tuesday evening after a four day holiday in Grandma's Kitchen, we were presented with a most wonderful sunset, most of which we missed while sitting in a restaurant waiting to be served. But we did get to see the beginning of it as we approached the Kingston ferry terminal. As we were landing there was a group of seagulls, as usual, flying around the bow of the boat. On this particular occasion their flight was such that they were being sunlit from underneath, something that I don't ever recall having seen before but which must happen frequently with me just not being all that observant. In any event I grabbed a few shots of them being lit in that particular light and this is one of them. Seeing them lit from beneath made them appear somewhat different from how I've experienced them in the past. I had to pan with them trying to both keep them in focus as well as in the frame. It was both fun and a challenge in close quarters with people far too close to me waiting to get off the boat and the birds not far overhead. I initially cropped the original to get rid of a lot of unnecessary blank sky, than ran my normal slight micro contrast adjustment and quit. Nikon D300s; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority;ISO 200; 1/320 sec @ f / 8.

23 Feb 15. On Wednesday last week, it looking to be the last good shooting day of the week, we set out to visit a site that sounded interesting from its write up but turned out to be otherwise. But now we know. From there we just started following roads under the assumption that since we didn't know where we were going any road would do. That resulted in us finding a beautiful little marsh alongside the road, a fantastic waterfall!, and a set of white birches being back lit by the setting sun. Couldn't have planned a better outing if we had tried. We attempted to repeat our good luck today and got totally skunked! You never know how things will turn out, but it is fun to get out and explore. Today's submission was the final shoot of last Wednesday, that of the trees in the sunlight. What the camera captured was somewhat more mundane than what I'm sharing, but the RAW capture allowed me to tease out of it what the eye saw and the camera couldn't fully record. Starting with the base image, I first adjusted to get full tonality, then ran a color zone system adjustment on it, and followed that with my standard micro contrast adjustment. Then I added a global curves (contrast) adjustment and controlled that effect with a mask. That provided what I'm showing today and the basis for the other three versions. Nikon D300s; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 400; 1/125 sec @ f / 8.

24 Feb 15. This is a B&W version of the image I shared yesterday which I hope provides a little more of the structure (details) of the forest. With the color gone we can concentrate on all the various plant life that make up the total forest, much of which we tend to overlook due the starkness of the birches when contrasted with the yellows and blues of the color composite. A couple of times last year I put three images together to form a triptych; you may want to use 3 of the 4 in this series to make one of your own. This one might make the perfect center frame. This is of course the same image as that sent yesterday; but in this case I took one more step to convert it in a B&W plug-in to achieve what you see. Nikon D300s; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 400; 1/125 sec @ f / 8.

25 Feb 15. Today we look at the third of four variations of the same image. This time I've elected to put something of an nineteenth century look to it and it could be debated that it is too much or even not enough, depending on your recollection of prints from that era. I debated with the appearance of the vignette, tried it with and without, tried using both white and black, and even thought about a partial vignette just affecting the top half of the image. In the end, as is clearly evident, I went with a full white vignette. The final presentation of the vignette was a choice of very subtle to force your eye into the center without it being obvious, or to do it in a very obvious and therefore somewhat artistic form; I elected to go with the latter. If you find the vignette obnoxious, try cropping the image to remove it and see if you like that look better. It will then be a very different image. The base image that I sent on Monday was brought into a plug-in and adjusted to give both the tonal shift and then I added the vignette for effect. Same specs of course since it is the same image; Nikon D300s; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 400; 1/125 sec @ f / 8.

26 Feb 15. We finish up today with the fourth of the four variations of the same image. This time the attempt was to go with something completely creative, and to that end I've run the base image through a plug-in designed to produce art in the image of famous artists, in this case, DaVinci. The particular preset used was one called DaVinci's Notebook, and I'll leave it up to you to decide if it did a reasonable job. After the plug-in runs you can then further adjust everything done to it, and the options are practically unlimited. In this case I made a very small adjustment to the light area in the top center of the image, but otherwise left alone what the plug-in did to it. IF I were to make a triptych from these four images I would likely use this one, the B&W, and the original. You might try such to see what you think about my choice, then try a combo of your own. Taking the image as I sent it out for Monday, I ran it through the plug-in, made the small change I identified above, and that was it. Again, as it is the same image, the specs are the same; Nikon D300s; 18 - 200; ISO 400; 1/12 sec @ f / 8.

27 Feb 15. Weather looking promising last Sunday afternoon, it tricked us, we set out to visit a new nursery (to us) that had an interesting ad in the local paper. It was a pleasant drive but not sure I could say all that much for the nursery. It did incorporate a landscaping section and a nice display of waterfalls for the yard. After inquiring about price, and then picking myself up off the ground, we wandered around for maybe 20 minutes looking at primarily empty areas where we would have liked to have see plants. I did find a few interesting evergreens in one area and I took a few shots of them, but that was about all that was available to shoot. If we are ever in that area in the summer we'll have to give the place another opportunity to impress us, although based on the prices we saw on the meager display, I doubt that that this will be a place we let separate us from our wallets. However, the few trees that I photographed did offer some nice images. One I've selected for today is of an evergreen that was yellow when I shot the photo. It reminded me of the fall color for the Tamarack, but I don't believe that is what it was. But one thing for sure, it isn't another shot of birches. I took the base image, cloned out a lot of distracting stuff, adjusted it for max tonality, then ran it against a color zone system filter, and added a wee bit of clarity. Nikon D300s; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 200; 1/400 sec @ f / 5.3.