Season To Season

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.

Purple Clover

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.

Playing with darkness and light in Lightroom.

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.

Rain Day

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.

Orange Maple with Shoots

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.

Crimson Sappling

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.

The Marble Game

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.