I'm gone on vacation for a couple of weeks and will be unplugged. I am very excited to get some great photos and I hope the weather co-operates. I should be back to posting by July 12. In the meantime, I will leave you with a photo of a chocolate tart we made the other night.
Wet, wet day here in La Belle Province. Happy St. Jean! I was out back trying to find some spider webs and managed to get this shot of raindrops hanging from the clothesline instead. I like the tree/ brick wall colors in the background. I hope the rain doesn't hold on all weekend.
I was over to my in laws and noticed that they have a series of small bells on a shoestring hanging from their clothes line pulley. The biggest one was a small cowbell. It is pretty interesting with lots of leaf work covering the outside. I snapped this picture in Manual mode, ISO 200, 1/10 of a second. I Like how it turned out.
Last week I showed you a photo I took of apartment block lights reflecting on the water. The reason I was out that night was to get some pictures of the full moon. I did a bit of reading on the subject and found out that the June moon is actually called the Strawberry Moon.
I went down by the canal and got the tripod set up. Set the ISO to 1600, figuring I would need it cranked to get a good shot. 5.6 f stop and 2 second shutter speed. Way too bright. I brought the shutter speed down to 1/25 of a second and the photo came out like this.
Ok. I decided the bring the ISO down and see if the luminescence would abate some. Still too light I fiddled with the aperture too until I found a shot that sort of worked out. This was at Shutter speed 1/200, ƒ16 and ISO 200.
Well, that was a little better. At least now there is some definition to the surface of the moon, just a little dark. I needed a slower shutter speed. I tried 1/100 and it was still dark. This is how it turned out at 1/40.
And of course, that is a crop. actual size was the same as in the previous photo. I stayed out there for another 20 minutes trying to get some of the moon with slight cloud cover, but nothing was working out.
About four hours later I was letting the dog out for pre-bedtime business, and saw that the moon had come around behind the house and looked quite a bit bigger. I grabbed the camera and used the same settings as the last picture. Too bright. I dropped the Iso to 100, and the shutter speed to 1/30. And this is the final product.
I'll go out again next month and practice more. One thing for sure, I have to take the UV filter off my 18-55mm lens and put it on the telephoto lens to reduce some of the glare.
Today I will be playing catchup as I missed a few days for different reasons. And this dreadfully rain filled morning makes sure I'll have time to do it. Today's picture is one I took of my dog recently. I fixed the color in Lightroom, then took it to Picasa and added some soft focus around the edges. This picture looks just like she feels when she is trying to crawl under your hand looking for attention. As always, click on the image for a larger view.
This week I have been working in manual focus only. Practicing over and over again with birds. If I can start getting them in focus more than fifty percent of the time, I've got it made. Most numerous have been the red winged black birds.
Yesterday by fluke, I spied a birds nest in a stand of brush. This is a crop of a picture I took from 8.3 m away.
Today I went out again planning to try and find the nest again, but come at it inside the stand of trees from above. On the way I saw a couple of woodpeckers working away at a tree and snapped off some shots.
It took me about twenty minutes to find the nest again, because the sun was in a different position this afternoon than it was yesterday morning. Once I spied it, I circled forty feet up the bank and found a break in the trees to slip in, and found the nest on the first try. As soon as I got within four or five feet of the wee birdies, the entire thicket went crazy. Dozens of birds were sounding the alarm. One male swooped in and perched on the top of the nearest Alder. He was pissed.
After a minute or so, he started dive bombing at me and turning on his back at the last minute, to beat me about the head and ears with his wings. Five or six runs later, two more males joined him. One was pretty large. Thankfully, a puff of cottonwood fluff floated down into the nest and the chicks thought it was food. They went into a little frenzy long enough for me to get a few pictures. Then it was time to get out of Dodge.
The other night I was out to take some photos of the full moon. They turned out OK. But before I packed up for home, I turned the tripod towards the condos on Nun's Island. The water was lit up like a Christmas tree with all the different color lights coming out of the windows.
I was working with the 55 - 250 mm lens because I had been shooting the moon. I took four shots with different shutter speeds. This was the first at 10 seconds and ƒ16. At 15 seconds and ƒ11 the background sky was way too light. I dialed back up to ƒ16 and still it was a little too light. The 20 second shot was nice but the colors were a bit blurred from the movement of the water. After a crop in Lightroom this is the finished product. As always, click on the photo for a larger view.
I snapped this shot while on a walk a few weeks ago and really like the lines and texture in it. The gray and blue go together with the chrome and glass so well. I know that it is a Austin Healey Sprite, but not the year. Nice to see something like this gracing the streets of Verdun.
On Monday, I finally opened up Photomatix Pro.4.0.1. I had done some bracketed shots but none that I felt would be utilizing the program in its intended function. When out last week I had taken a series of photos of cloud cover over the river, and clicked off a bracketed set to see if they might be worthy guinea pigs.
This was the original shot.
Then the one step down exposure image.
And finally the one step up exposure frame.
After loading the three raw files into Photomatix Pro, it looked after blending them and giving you a composite image to start with. After spending 20 minutes watching a You Tube tutorial, I set about working on the Tone, Contrast, Highlight and Shadow section of the editing panel. The end result :
28 MB and too big to upload to Blogger. I will look for a way to rectify that and try and post it later.
Ok. New rule. Do not try and upload .tif files to the internet. Just a little too big. So after converting to jpeg this is what the finished product looked like:
Now this isn't the best representation of a HDR , but it was a start off point and now I will be able to look for bracketed shots that will be done justice by the process.
I took this photo the other day, and was surprised to see a cottonwood tree this far north, let alone a stand of four of them. The female Catkins erupt in late spring and release the cotton like fiber into the air as the seed pods get ready to drop.
Tomorrow I will post the results of my first experiment with HDR editing in Photomatix Pro. You can learn more about HDR photos here.
One of my long time peeves has been rainy days while on vacation and losing camera time with my nieces and nephews. I only get to see them once a year and have to make the most of it. One tactic I have used over and over when they were young is pointing out something outside to get them near a window. Have your camera ready, you will only have a few seconds before they turn to you asking 'where?!"
Another favorite of mine in heavy rain is to get some shots of rain falling along an eave. This one just happened to get framed nicely by a screen door.
The above pictures were all taken with the Kodak DX 6490. I wasn't afraid of taking it out in the rain, but didn't want top push it unnecessarily. And it was compact enough to fit under the peak of my ball cap when shooting. Now with the 1000D that isn't an option. So I have to play around and find new ways to make the most of rainy days.
As anyone who watched the Canadian Grand Prix Formula 1 race yesterday could see, we had a bit of rain here in Montreal. While the race was red flagged during the hardest part of the downpour, I took the camera out back on the covered balcony and practiced focusing with the telephoto lens and doing multiple shot bursts.
This photo is a little grainy . I had the ISO jacked to 1600 because I wanted a fast shutter speed, but found it was a little dark under the storm clouds. This is shot from 3.4 m ( 10 ft ) away with the telephoto. As always click on the photos for a larger view. And yes, that is a single dog hair in the bottom left hand corner. From 10 ft away.
In the spring, while out for a walk, my eye was drawn to a building that was covered in vine stems. The building was gorgeous and made a nicely composed shot.
A few days ago I took the same route home after taking pictures on the waterfront. It looks a little different when it's all dressed up. The crazy thing , is that this house has no protection from the river, the winds must be intense in the winter, but still the Ivy holds on season to season.
I want to do a four season set of this place. Remember to click on the photos for a larger view.
This morning I took the 55- 250mm IS with me on our walk. Usually for taking pictures of flowers or fauna I would use the 18 - 55mm. I like it because it can be focused manually much easier than the small lens. And I don't have to get right down in the grass. I really like the pink/ purple/green combo.
Everything was abuzz on the waterfront this morning. Birds and insects, fowl and fish. If it could move or make noise, it was doing it. I took some sunrise sky shots of cloud cover then hit the mud trail for bird and duck watching.
The picture below was a quick snap of a bird as he perched on a broken reed over the water. The settings were ƒ/6.3, 1/200 sec. at 100 ISO, 250mm lens strolled all the way out with the auto focus turned off.
When I got the image uploaded on the computer it was plain to see that it was really dark. I had been taking most of the shots with the morning sun behind me or right out on the water. The shaded back lit underbrush was a quick reaction picture. But I still really liked the feel of the photo.
Once in Lightroom, I cropped a bit to get rid of the out of focus leaves in the foreground. Then I edged the the exposure down some to get rid of the coloring on the wing to make it a true silhouette. After that I used the recovery function to give substance to the background. Next I added +20 to the clarity to give the water ripples and then brought up the vibrancy to pop the green on the leaves and to give the water some hue. Less than two minutes and it's a totally different picture.
Today started off in a flurry of excitement. As Nalin and I stepped out for her morning walk, there was a small raccoon taking a nap on our front steps. The chase was on. Thankfully, I have learned from experience and didn't try to grab the nylon leash as it was spooling out like fishing line in Jaws. I got a bad burn last year when we first got the leash. She got the critter up a tree by the time I caught up with her. It couldn't have been more than a year old. But it was ready to take Nalin on. After I had pulled the dog 15 feet down the street she finally turned and fell in line with me - for ten seconds. Two squirrels came zipping out of a front yard just ahead of us and she was gone again.
We had some really intense weather last night and it was clouding over to get ready for some more. I finished the walk quick and took the camera bag back to the house. Ran back out to get a few groceries and stop at the thrift store a block over. That is where I usually buy my books. Two fifty a paperback and three fifty for hard covers. And the selection is always turning over because the place has seven locations and they do swap outs.
Today as I went in and started combing the shelves, I noticed that the paperbacks had all been reduced to $0.99. Score! The hardcovers were down a buck too. I got 9 books for twelve dollars and all of them were authors that I have ongoing collections of.
By the time I had trucked over to the supermarket, the rain was starting and the wind was coming up. Time to make a coffee, grab one of the books and go find a big chair.
This photo was one of those instances where taking more shots was better than taking one. I took three shots in Aperture Priority mode and they had great coloring and detail on the foreground leaf. I toggled the f stop up and took one more.
I have gotten used to being a better safe than sorry type, and make a habit of taking a couple of pictures in Manual and one in full Auto if my subject is reasonable still. It takes 10 seconds if you already have your Manual settings ready.
In the case of this photo the depth of field AV shot was nice, but the new shoots budding from between the leaves was not fully in focus, and the shadow of the shoots was lost. The Manual shot was much better and balanced the scene closer to what was intended. As usual, click on the photo for a larger view.
One of my favorite times of day is early morning, before the sun has burned off the dew, before the grass has started to stand up straight and before the two legged destroyers have brought their wrath upon spiderwebs. You are never truly awake until you become victim to the old eight legged money shot.
I always take my camera along on early morning dog walks. I pick my battles and don't even think of taking it out of the bag before the 1km mark when she calms down a bit. And trying to steady the lens with a big plastic leash in your hand has its challenges. Do all of the shots turn out? Not even close. But if I stick with it I can usually get one or two good photographs before the dog decides to turn for home. As always, click on the photo for a larger view.
My in laws have an interesting coffee table game. It is a game called Solitaire that is played with marbles. it's official name is the Duke of York Solitaire game and the rules are explained here.
I have always wanted to get a nice photo of it because the marbles are really colorful and the contrast with the wood and glass is nice. A couple of weeks ago I finally got the shot I wanted. Taken in Aperture priority mode with the camera sitting directly on the table next to a set of sliding doors for lighting. Another one that makes me happy. Click for a larger view.
For me, one of the focal points of the Verdun borough on the Island of Montreal, has always been Notre-Dame-des-Sept-Douleurs church on the corner of Wellington and De l'Église streets. One of the tallest non residential building in this part of the city, its two bell towers are always the silhouette highlight of colorful sunsets. I managed to get out yesterday and get a couple of exterior shots of this landmark and, as they have open houses often, I hope to return in the future to catch the evening sun coming in through the stained glass panes.
The following history of the church was borrowed from:
http://www.uquebec.ca/musique/orgues/quebec/ndsdouleursv.html
The parish of Notre-Dame-des-Sept-Douleurs (Our Lady of Seven Sorrows) is detached from St. Paul parish in 1899 after the church has been destroyed by fire. In the prospect of paying for rebuilding a chuch that is located far from their home, some parishioners requested a new parish be established and to build their own church. Bishop Paul Bruchési, archbishop of Montreal, agreed with their request within one month.
The parish commissioned Joseph Venne, a well known architect for his excessive enthusiasm, so that he will, one more time, show his talents. According to the style of the day, the church is huge and magnificent. The architect, who is known for mixing various architectural styles, builds a Baroque styled interior and a Néo-classical styled exterior.
The barrel vault was painted by Louis-Euatache Monty. The altars, in Carrara marble and stucco, were produced by Daprato at the cost of $32,000, a huge amount of money for the time. The high altar measures 42 feet (12.8m) high by 25 feet (7.6m) wide and weighs 10,000 pounds (4536kg). The Virgin statue and the angels are also made of marble. The Last Supper and the chapiters of the pillars are of the same gilded and engraved bronze used on the doors of the tabernacles. The mosaics are made of Florentine glass and Vatican enameled glass.
The construction debt was completed repaid by 1924. On the same year, a drive to cover the cost of acquiring and installing bells in the towers yields an extra $15,000. The bells were cast by Paccard, in France. An 18-bell carillon is installed in the bell towers.
In 1929, magnificent glass windows depicting the mysteries of the Rosary were installed in the sanctuary.
One of the things that has always amazed me about photography is depth of field. Once I had a handle on how to manipulate the different elements of the camera in Manual mode, my goal was to to learn to take depth of field photos not just by accident, but on purpose. The first couple of pictures are examples of getting depth of field pictures in Auto mode by getting a tight focus on an object and hoping it turned out.
By the third month with the camera I was ready to start trying to take some shots in the AV mode, adjusting the aperture value to get the desired amount of depth of field.
This little bird turned out OK, but the color is washed out. I should have gone up a couple more stops from 8 to 11 or so.
And finally five months in, the first Aperture priority shot that turned out exactly as I envisioned it. Not the most interesting subject matter, but it made me happy.
Now that this last element was in place I was ready to start taking photos confident that I knew how to tell the camera what I wanted them to look like.
I will continue with the learning curve posts soon, but I had to take advantage of some great weather and a Sidewalk sale a block away. Most of these were taken in Manual mode, ISO 100, 5.6 f stop and just playing with the shutter speed to adjust for shots in the shade. The first one was taken ƒ/ 7.1 to bring out the blue in the sky.
I will probably have more new stuff this weekend as it is supposed to be another stellar day tomorrow and the Tour De L'Ile bike race is taking over the island on Sunday. Should be good practice for the Sports mode and telephoto lens.
The first thing I played around with in the creative modes on the Canon was the Manual Exposure Mode. This leaves the shutter speed, f stop and ISO in the photographer's hands. I wanted to get a good handle on one thing at a time, so I started with ISO. Still housebound due to extreme temperatures, the next obvious subject was the dog. Not a toughie, because she isn't too excitable and will lay reasonably still for minutes at a time.
The room she was lying in has a large window and lights up well even under grey skies.I set the white balance to auto and adjusted the ISO to 1600. The f stop default in the mode was 5.6 and the shutter speed at 1/60. I also set the Picture Style to Monochrome for black & white and manually adjusted the focal length to 43mm. This was the first non flash picture taken.
Not bad. A little heavy on the highlights on her belly. I took a look at the White Balance settings and saw there was one for overcast conditions. I set it, then snapped another one at 55mm.
This turned out pretty good too. I was pretty exited about getting images this clear and not being dependent on the flash like the Kodak. The next project would be waiting for a slightly warmer day and trying the ISO experiments outside. I had to wait six days for the first opportunity. We finally got a blustery day with a high of -8C. Time to rock 'n'roll. The day was overcast again, but I was thankful for that to avoid a lot of glare off of the snow. Went for a walk down by the river and practiced doing shots of bare trees and shrubs.
I reset the White balance for sunny conditions, since it was still pretty bright out there. Again set it to Manual mode and Monochrome. Lastly I set the ISO to 400. Completely blown out white shot, so I dialed it down to 100, the lowest setting.
Not that great. Still quite whited out. I thought that it might be worsen by the sky which looked a lot darker, but was still the sky and emitting light. Reset the white balance to overcast and tried one more shot with the river and Nuns Island as a backdrop.
Nope. It was clear that the wind coming up didn't help the photo at all. But there was still the light haze to everything. Back to the drawing board. Tomorrow I'll show you what happened when I started playing with the shutter speed.
