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.
