Daily Image - Oct 2017 Archive

02 Oct 17 Today's submission is a lot like one I sent earlier; didn't realize until just now that I had sent something prior but it was in B&W so this is a bit different especially because Jan chose a creative version of it. This is Rialto Beach on an incoming tide and one that was reasonably high. As I was sitting a few feet behind the logs which means several feet higher I watched a couple walking on the beach who were not paying attention to what was occurring and rather suddenly found themselves somewhat wetter than they had been moments earlier. Rather comical from my perspective although they didn't appear to share my sense of humor. Thinking one should pay attention to what the water is doing when walking between a rather solid wall of driftwood and big waves. Fortunately all they got was wet; it could have been worse. This was shot around 1500 and the fog was almost gone but enough remained to make the sea stack interesting although in this creative version most of that effect is lost. I did a significant amount of work in the setup of this shot to get the look I was after although in this conversion it is lost to view so I won't detail it. Nikon D500; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 320; 1/1600 sec @ f / 8.

03 Oct 17 A few weeks back I shared a different version of this shot as a panorama but if put side by side they would look considerably different because I moved a few feet and shot from a different perspective. Both shots were taken from the same location obviously but the pano was taken at a 95mm focal length and 6 frames and that for today at an 18mm focal length and single frame. You would expect the mountain to be bigger with the 95mm than the 18mm. But by just using a small slice of the 6 frames and shrinking them to a size that you can see on a normal sized screen the key element, the mountain, looks much smaller in the pano. Now, lets take today's single frame and compare the mountain in it with the mountain in the image I also sent a few weeks back, mt-rainier_from_kingston. The distance from the mountain to the shooter varies by less than 20 miles in the two shots, with the Kingston location being the closer, so what accounts for the huge difference in size of the mountain. The answer to that is two fold. First, there is a difference in the amount of particulate matter in the air and second the focal length used. The day of the Kingston shooting it was a little clearer and I used a 200mm focal length. The length of the lens can make for some interesting distortion and is often used by Hollywood in chase scenes giving the impression that those doing the chasing are much closer to those being chased than they are. It was used quite effectively in the Indiana Jones series. (You could also go in the opposite direction by using a shorter focal length, say 12 mm, and highly distorting the close things.) The cleaner air also gives the impression of things being closer as they are both sharper and have slightly better contrast. So the combination of air quality and lens choice can make for some very different "looks" of the same subject. Which means that with the right choice of focal length and working with the weather rather than against it you can generally come up with a nice photo. That of course implies that you are willing to work with the weather which sometimes I'm not. Think rain. Those familiar with this part of the country should be able to locate Seattle in the photo; Mt Rainier being obvious. This shot is pretty much straight from the camera. Nikon D500; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 200; 1/640/sec @ f /11.

04 Oct 17 About a mile south of our little church is found North Kitsap Heritage Park. This is one of 73 parks in Kitsap County most of which are of some considerable size and quite likely one of a few more than we need especially considering how they are funded. A couple weeks back at the local camera club it was announced that the County needed to have all of the parks documented photographically (for free) for use on the County's web page and that they were looking for volunteers to accomplish same. Not having anything on my plate I volunteered to champion the project and will begin to work on it upon our return from Europe. So far I have an additional 10 individuals who want to work with me so hopefully I can act as coordinator and let them do the shutter pressing. But as I have shots from several of the parks already I'm thinking I'll participate to some degree. My gut feeling is that most of the volunteers will go for the straight shots so I may put in some effort for a few creative ones, like that I'm sharing today. This view is found just a few feet from the edge of the parking lot and road and for my $$$$ is by far the best spot in the entire park. Others may disagree but I really like it as it looks a lot more like something from the South than what you would expect to find up here in the PNW. I straightened the original a smudge (photo term), adjusted the contrast very slightly, and then converted to the painting look but it is ALMOST identical to the straight version. Nikon D500; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 500; 1/125 sec @ f / 9.

05 Oct 17 This has been the week for digital manipulation software releases/upgrades. It began with a major update to Topaz Labs new program Studio. As you all are aware I frequently use the Topaz plug-ins for my creative images, such as that for today. Studio may well become all the platform needed by 99% of all photographers and leave the big names in the dust. Studio is FREE and available for both mac and windows. It comes with 10 powerful adjustments with another dozen+ you can purchase to extend the functionality of the program. If you have purchased any of the companies plug-ins in the past Studio will immediately recognize and use them. It functions as both a stand alone program and a plug-in. Next was an announcement by Aurora of a new release of their HDR program Aurora HDR 2018. This is looking to be THE HDR program putting to shame virtually everything else out there for creating HDR images both in ability and price. It too functions as both a stand alone program and a plug-in. While prior versions only ran on the mac desktop, this new version runs on both mac and windows. Finally, ON1 will be releasing a new version of their ON1 Photo RAW program (beta on Friday and full release at month's end) now redesigned to make HDR images a breeze called ON1 Photo RAW 2018. This too can run as a stand alone (default) or plug-in. ALL of these programs offer trial versions and the Topaz program as I mentioned is FREE. So for those of you looking to add to your stable of image manipulation software, update what you already have, or start with something for the first time, this is your week. Should any of you have any questions feel free to contact me. The image for today is of a Pasque Flower shot at the Far Reaches nursery in Pt Townsend. I've shared a couple shots of these flowers in the past so you've seen how it should look. This shot was manipulated using the latest update to the Detail adjustment package. It made for a fun image. The base image was give a slight contrast adjustment and then converted using the Topaz plug-in Detail. Nikon D300s; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 200; 1/100 sec @ f / 9.

06 Oct 17 I've shared a coupe images of the Chinese Lantern Maple in the past, one of them earlier this year. That one was of the plant after it had entered seed stage, today's shot is of the flower in its prime. It had just finished raining when I took the shot and there is still some moisture running off the flower as well as some small amount of debris on both the flower and the leaf. Some might prefer that I remove those annoyances but I've left them in to show how things were when I took the shot. If you still have the earlier shot available or care to find it on the blog you might like comparing the before and after. The flower feels like it is made of tissue paper but it isn't. If you don't have one or two of these in your garden I highly recommend such as an nice ornamental addition. This has been significantly cropped form the original to just highlight the single blossom but otherwise is straight from the camera. Nikon D500; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 200; 1/250 sec @ f /8.

09 Oct 17 Virtually anywhere you travel in the PNW where there is a local Indian tribe/nation you will find a totem pole. Sometimes many of them and they range in size from just a few feet in height to many 10s of feet. Size in part relates to wealth with the larger poles belonging to those with greater wealth. They are of many kinds (entryway, mortuary, shame, and more) and they always tell some kid of story, some good, some bad, although most of those in the latter category were more poplar in ages past. It is believed that the tradition of carving these poles is just a few hundred years old and in the last hundred years the carving of them has significantly decreased due to the children being educated by the govt vice the tribe. In our location the carving of totem poles is becoming an art form and accordingly very expensive. If you've got a LOT of $$$$ to spend you might consider commissioning a pole for your yard unless of course you live in a community with a HOA in which case I'm rather certain it wouldn't be worth the hassle. The term low man on the pole is often ascribed to the placement of the stacked figures of the totem pole but such is incorrect as the bottom figure was always carved by the head carver and thus is considered the most important. Another myth associated with totem poles is that they hold religious meaning and may be worshiped but in fact they are not, they are just used for story telling. The various figures used are discussed here if you are interested. This particular pole featuring a bear with fish in paws, seal, whale, and eagle is somewhat on the smaller size being aprox 30 feet high. It resides at First Beach and is immediately visible as you approach the beach parking area. In order to get to it from where we live you will pass another couple dozen of various sizes and telling different stories. One could make a full day trip just driving between here and the coast searching out the poles. It would be a very colorful experience if nothing else. This is a very severely cropped shot as it is virtually impossible to shoot without a lot of distracting material. This view minimizes the distractions. As it is I didn't remove the propane tank and some will likely suggest I should but since I'm not competing it I didn't. Other than the cropping this straight from the camera. Nikon D500; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 200; 1/250 sec @ f /16

10 Oct 17 About 4 years ago one of the individuals whose work I was following announced he had a new program based on the Zone System that he was about to release and was looking for a few individuals to evaluate it. If anyone was interested in participating they were to send him a copy of their portfolio for evaluation before being given permission to participate. I emailed back that I was interested, provided a link to the blog, and received confirmation of acceptance in less than 30 minutes. Since that time I've been working with Blake as a reviewer and tester for all his software releases. We've never met but we have been corresponding back and forth ever since. Tomorrow he will be presenting at Creative Live in Seattle and I've been invited to sit in the studio audience and participate. As the invitees are generally limited to something like 8 individuals I feel quite honored; to say the least I'm really looking forward to the day. All this to say I may get home rather late Tuesday so Wednesday's mailing could be late. Now those of you familiar with where we reside are aware that we are easy walking distance to a nice beach - Eglon - on Puget Sound and one which is frequently visited, as are we being so close, by fog. A couple of you are aware of just how much I like working in the fog as I feel it adds a little mystery to the subject no matter what it may be. This is a shot taken on the beach about 20 feet form the parking area and is a location that as a child I spent some amount of time playing when visiting my grandparents. Now the area is claimed as private property but I go there anyway since it wasn't treated as such by the owners when I was a youth. Plus the current owner is a member of Jan's Bible study group. The original capture was nicely but not heavily foggy so I've added a little atmosphere to the scene. But all the elements in it are what is there naturally. If you visit we can go see it in person either on foot or via vehicle. The base image was cropped some for effect, given a freehand vignette which was first used to darken the outside and then inverted to apply a creative effect, and then converted to B&W. Nikon D300s; 18 - 200; Aperture priority; ISO 250; 1/160 sec @ f / 7.1.

11 Oct 17 To travel from our abode to anywhere on the Olympic Peninsula one has the choice of driving around the bottom end of Puget Sound or crossing over a portion of it, known as Hood Canal, via a floating bridge saving a good 2+ hours of travel time. This current bridge is in its second iteration as the first was literally sunk in a windstorm a few decades back. Having the bridge available is obviously a really big time saver unless you get stopped when it opens for submarine surface traffic which has occurred to us twice this year but never prior as I wrote about a few weeks ago. Both of these times we have been far enough back in traffic that all we got to see were the other vehicles stuck in line with us. On occasion we have met the bridge at sunset and when the weather conditions are right it is a spectacular sight looking down the canal with it's westerly bank silhouetted by the Olympic mountains. That's when I'd LIKE to be stopped and in particular ON the bridge. This is a shot of what can be seen and for today I've converted it into a classical oil painting look. This was taken from what might best be described as the northern end of the bridge although it doesn't float literally N/S. We frequently got to see sunsets like this when we lived in Ballard but we are many miles closer here and it makes the mountains look a fair bit bigger. From our home we can't see any of this, but a short walk will give us access to something very similar; sunrise behind the Cascade mountains. And that's something I've shared many photos of over the past 5 years. The original capture was cropped a bit, straightened a wee amount, adjusted for proper color balance, and then converted to the painterly look using Topaz Impression. Nikon D300s; 18 - 200; Aperture priority; ISO 200; 1/500 sec @ f / 5.6.

12 Oct 17 Since I've mentioned more than once that we have had to wait for extended periods of time in line while a bridge opened for surface submarine traffic, I thought I'd show you what is causing the motor vehicle delays. As the subs travel into/out of Bangor Naval Base they do so on the surface rather than submerged. Directly alongside, both port and starboard, are found two vessels full of sand that apparently are there to protect the boats from surface attack as well as a couple highly armed Coast Guard vessels constantly running around them. It is an interesting sight when you get to see it but not easily photographed as there is something happening that causes the boats to be blurry in all the photos. I'm guessing from other experiences that it is related to heat emanating from the hull but I can't find anything written about it and nobody who wants to chat about it. So we'll go with that theory, at least for now. Since the boat is blurry in my captures I've elected to convert this into a painting which minimizes the distraction of blurry subject and sharp everything else. For perspective purposes, the boat is just under 400 feet in length. I've cropped away most of the original, isolated the boat to selectively adjust it, and given the entire image some contrast enhancement. Then I applied a freehand vignette to force your eye onto the sub. Nikon D300s; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 200; 1/320 sec @ f /10.

13 Oct 17 For the final image before we depart for Prague I've selected another caterpillar shot. Going out to sweep the pad in front of the garage on Monday I came across another woolly bear caterpillar totally unlike the one I shared earlier and not like the normal black and tan (sounds like I'm describing a hound) I wrote about earlier. This new critter was in a hurry to go somewhere so I had to do some work with it to get it to slow down,when it finally decided to uncurl after I moved it from where it was originally (climbing up the side door jam of the garage) to where I wanted it, first on a plant and then in the studio. Having now come across two very differently colored individuals I decided to look up the color variants of woolly bears. Not having any knowledge of Lepidoptera I was pleasantly surprised to learn that each of my caterpillars was the larval form of a different moth and NOT just color variants of a single species. The typical black and tan (rusty) is called a black banded woolly bear and is the larval form of the Isabella Tiger moth, the typical brown ones are the larval form of the Tiger Moth, and I think that yellow one I initially shared may be the larval form of the Virginia Tiger moth. I might be off some with the names, but the point is that the different color "phases" aren't phases but different insects. Not sure why I can't remember seeing any of these other fuzzies before, but I don't. As for the rusty and black banded guys, we saw several these past days flattened on the road. Hopefully I'll come across a few more different ones when we return. The head end of this critter is on the right side of the frame. I've cropped the original capture to remove a lot of distracting material, then give it a little contrast enhancement; that's it. Nikon D300s; 105mm macro; Aperture Priority; ISO 400; 1/60 sec @ f /7.1 with fill flash.