May 3, 2010, The Tenacity of Life

I noticed this maple tree growing in the hollow part of a stump that was cut just a few years ago.  I am amazed at the tenacity of life.

I like the contrast of the green with the dead wood, and the dark cavern around the tree.

Lessons Learned:

• Be Observant.
• I need a circular polarizer filter for my 50 mm lens.

Photo details: Exposure time 1/100 sec, Aperture f/5.0, ISO 100, Focal Length 50 mm, 35 mm equivalent focal length 82mm, Lens Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II, handheld.

Week 48, Day 332, March 27, 2010, Magnolia Bud

The Sun has been out the last couple of days, but it has been very cold.  I walked around the yard for about 30 minutes today looking at the various changes that Spring brings.

The Magnolia Buds are starting to pop out.  I think that they look a lot like pussy willows when they first start to bud.  Soon we'll have blossoms everywhere.

Lessons Learned:

• I found myself looking at the blurred background of macro photos, and try to choose something more interesting for the backgrounds as I moved around the subject.

Photo details: Exposure time 1/320 sec, Aperture f/4, ISO 200, Focal Length 40 mm, Lens Canon EF 17-40mm, hand held.

Week 35, Day 249, December 28, 2009, A Walk in the Woods on a Snowy Day

This little trail is one of my favorite places.  It's only about a 1/4 mile from my house, and has a wetland on one side (left side of photo), and a amazing rock wall on the right side.  This photo doesn't do the wall justice.  It's about 4 foot wide, and about 6 feet high in places.

I just photographed this yesterday in the fog.  Today there was snow.

Lessons Learned:

• I made a make shift protector for my camera today.  It was snowing very hard, so I put my camera in a ziplock bag, cut a hole for the lens, and used a rubber band to hold the bag on the lens.  It seemed to work very well.
• The snow sticks to the lens very easily.  Luckily I brought along a special cloth so I could wipe the lens.
• When the weather is right, take the photos.  About 30 minutes after taking these photos it stopped snowing.  The snow falling added a nice effect to many of the photos. (Although it's harder to see it in this photo.)

Photo details: Exposure time 1/2 sec, Aperture f/18.0, ISO 100, Focal Length 28 mm, Lens Canon EF 17-40mm, tripod.

Week 33, Day 237, December 16, 2009, Sunset at 4:25 PM

As I left work to catch the bus, I noticed that the skies were starting to clear on the horizon, and the sun had already moved below.  The colors were vibrant.  I don't think this photo captures the beauty, but it is still pleasant to look at.

Lessons Learned:

• I failed at several attempts at photographing a Christmas Tree from various angles. It may not sound like a lesson, but according to Edison it is. "I haven't failed, I've found 10000 ways that don't work."  I found about 50 ways that didn't work.

Photo details: Exposure time 1/25 sec, Aperture f/9.0, ISO 100, Focal Length 39 mm, Lens Canon EF 17-40mm, handheld.

Week 32, Day 227, December 6, 2009, One Hawk, Two Hawk

As I was driving to a friend's house I noticed a red tailed hawk in a tree.  I stopped to take a photo, and the hawk immediately flew to another tree with another red tailed hawk.  Very seldom do I see two red tailed hawks in the same tree.

When I was young there were very few hawks in this area.  I guess the DDT killed off many of them.  We did have a couple of red tailed hawks in our woods behind our house.  Because they were rare at that time, some people from Syracuse University came by to study them.  Even though there are many more red tailed hawks now, I still feel awe in watching them.

Lessons Learned:

• I only had a few moments of photography with these two.  I wish I had my polarizer filter on my camera, but I didn't.  I figured it would be better to get a few photos before the left, then no photos at all. 

Photo details: Exposure time 1/500 sec, Aperture f/7.1, ISO 100, Focal Length 200 mm, Lens Canon 70-200mm f2.8L USM, tripod.

Week 31, Day 220, November 29, 2009, Rural Cemetery

I live in a very rural area of the New York.  There are many cemeteries around that date back to around the middle 1800's.  I think many of them started as small family, or small community cemeteries.  Many of them are in rough shape with headstones that have fallen over, and fences needing repair.  It's difficult to raise the money to maintain them.

I find them interesting, and I wonder about the lives of the people who are buried there.  Many of these head stones told how many years, months, and days that the people lived.

This particular one is near the town of Summer Hill in upstate NY.  We joke that it's called Summer Hill because that's the only time of the year that you can get there.  If there is snow, Summer Hill usually has the most in the immediate area.

What places capture your attention, that not many people visit?

Lessons Learned:

• Today I was able to capture my darkest blue skies that I have ever been able to capture.  The closer it is to the first day of winter, the bluer the skies seem.
• I continue to shoot in RAW/JPEG output.  This outputs both a JPEG and RAW image.  Sometimes I like how the JPEG was created, and sometimes I don't.  If I don't like it, I can modify the RAW image, and save it as a JPEG.  (If I'm running low on space I shoot in RAW.  If I'm shooting a sporting event where I need the speed, JPEG is faster on my camera.)

Photo details: Exposure time 1/15 sec, Aperture f/22.0, ISO 100, Focal Length 17 mm, 35 mm equivalent focal length 34mm, Lens Canon EF 17-40mm, tripod, circular polarizer filter.

Week 31, Day 219, November 29, 2009, Angry Finch

It's been a very busy 4 days with the family.  We've been very busy and we've had a lot of fun.

I didn't have a chance to post my photo for yesterday, so here it is.  I did take the photo yesterday when we were at my wife's parents house.  They have a bird feeder, and lots of bird.  I stayed inside and photographed them through the window.

I like the expression on this finch.

Lessons Learned:

• The photos through the glass seemed to work fairly well with minimal reflections.  This is a question more than a lesson.  Do any of you photograph birds through windows.  If so, are there ways to optimize this type of photography?
• Photographing birds in lower light at an ISO of 100 wasn't working very well.  The birds are constantly moving, and so I needed to up the ISO to get a faster shutter speed with the widest f-stop.
  

Photo details: Exposure time 1/60 sec, Aperture f/2.8, ISO 400, Focal Length 200 mm, 35 mm equivalent focal length 755mm (picasa calculation), Lens Canon 70-200mm f2.8L USM, tripod.

Weekly Winner in online viewer poll.

Week 29, Day 205, November 14, 2009, Ludlowville Falls

I like these falls. Many times when I go there are only a few of us.  My daughter used to have an apartment nearby, so it also reminds me of her.

  I like the formation of the falls.  There is a large solid piece of limestone over a lot of shale.  It's that large solid layer of stone just above the spout of the falls. This limestone erodes much more slowly than the shale around it.  So there is a little cave behind the waterfalls to the left of this photo.

The cave is very dark, so those photos weren't as nice as this one.  In this photo, I  like how the water flows down in that one pocket, and is lofted into the air.

 Lessons Learned:

• I was thinking about the photo from yesterday.  I was thinking how it's probably a photo that I appreciate more than most of the blog readers because I know the people.  My emotions play a large part of what I enjoy in photography.

What are some of your photos that containing a much greater meaning than the photo itself?

Photo details: Exposure time 1/3 sec, Aperture f/22.0, ISO 100, Focal Length 40 mm, 35 mm equivalent focal length 65mm, Lens Canon EF 17-40mm, tripod, circular polarizer filter.

Week 28, Day 203, November 12, 2009, Vine

This is one of those times that I'm intrigued with the subject, but i haven't captured it correctly.  I like the curls of the vine, it almost seems like a language of it's own.

I hope to go back, and take a tripod, and steady the vine from the wind to capture the image better.

What parts of nature capture your attention?

Lessons Learned:

• When I'm stressed it's more difficult to be creative.  I planned on taking photos at lunch time, but was thinking about getting back to work to resolve and issue.  It killed my creativity.
  

Photo details: Exposure time 1/25 sec, Aperture f/4.0, ISO 200, Focal Length 35 mm, 35 mm equivalent focal length 56mm, Lens Canon EF 17-40mm, hand held, circular polarizer filter.

Week 28, Day 200, November 9, 2009, Oak Leaves

When my children where younger, I used to pick up oak leaves and put them on my nose, and tell the kids that I had oak leaf (Oakley) glasses.  They would roll their eyes, and I would explain that as a father I had to embarrass them.

The Oak leaves are one of the last leafs to fall off the tree at the end of the season.  As a matter of fact some of them stay on the tree until the spring when the new leaves bud.

With gray skies, I thought these leaves made interesting patterns.

Lesson Learned:

• Nothing new to report today.  It was a rough day.

Photo details: Exposure time 1/800, Aperture f/1.8, ISO 100, Focal Length 50 mm, 35 mm equivalent focal length 211mm, Lens Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II, hand held.

Week 27, Day 192, November 1, 2009, Willows at Stewart Park, Ithaca

Stewart Park is a park at the South Side of Cayuga Lake in Ithaca, NY.  I have seen several photos of the willows.

It's a great place to photograph.  I like to come to the park to photograph the geese.  When we arrived I didn't see any.   Shortly after our arrival, as if on queue, I started hearing the geese as they flew into the park It was a beautiful morning.

Today marks the 6th month of my journey.  I have learned so much from my experiences, and so much from many of you.  Thank you for all of your wonderful comments.  Your advise has helped bring me a long way.  One of the things that was interesting was that today's photo choice was the first one that I took.  In the beginning, I would have to take a lot of time with setting my camera, seeing the results, and then resetting the camera.  It seems that I can do that much more quickly now.

Lessons Learned:

• I'm making progress.  It was useful to look over the past 6 months.
• In photographing geese on the ground, or in the water, take time.  At first all of the geese were moving away from me.  I took a lot of butt shots.  As I just sat there for a while, they began to move more naturally, and I could once again photograph their heads.

Photo details: Exposure time 1/250 sec, Aperture f/4.0 (higher apertures show the dirt on my CCD in the solid blue sky, grrr), ISO 100, Focal Length 17 mm, 35 mm equivalent focal length 27mm, Lens Canon EF 17-40mm, hand held, (I forgot my tripod), circular polarizer filter.

Week 26, Day 185, October 25, 2009, Posted

The Sun was out, the skies were blue, and most of the leaves have fallen.  It was a very beautiful day.

There is a lot of hunting in this area of the country.  Deer season for bow has started, and shotgun is around the corner.  It's an important time to remember to be careful if you are a photographer in the woods.

I stayed near the road today, but was able to get some great shots of the fallen leaves.  I hope you enjoy.

Lessons Learned:

•  Leaves on the ground can be as beautiful as they are in the trees.

Photo details: Exposure time 1/13 sec, Aperture f/22, ISO 100, Focal Length 17 mm, 35 mm equivalent focal length 35mm, Lens Canon EF 17-40mm, tripod, circular polarizer filter.

As far as yesterday's mystery, Kari was right.  I moved my niece to another table in the background.  I thought the photo would be interesting to people who know the family.  They would see my Sister, Aunt, and Uncle immediately.  Later upon further looking they would probably see my niece in the background.  

I do like all the things that others had to offer.  Some of them I saw, but many others I didn't.  Thank you for all of  your input.  Well done blogging community.  You do great work!!

Weekly winner in online viewer poll.

Week 25, Day 178, October 19, 2009, Experimenting with Images

This one's an experiment.  I got the idea from another photographer, Lynne Daley.  I found her photo very interesting, so I thought I would give her technique a try.  Her's is fantastic.

What do you think?  Please don't hold anything back, and be honest.
I have kids, so I'm used to criticism.
(I'll let you know my impressions tomorrow.  I don't want to influence your comments.)


This photo is from above the Falls at Filmore Glenn in Moravia NY.  It was quite dark when I took the photo.  There isn't much daylight left at the end of the day.

Lessons Learned:

• It is fun to try new things. Especially as experiments.

Photo 1 details: Exposure time .6 sec, Aperture f/4, ISO 100, Focal Length 17 mm, 35 mm equivalent focal length 28mm, Lens Canon EF 17-40mm, tripod, Out of Focus.

Photo 2 details: Exposure time 8 sec, Aperture f/22, ISO 100, Focal Length 17 mm, 35 mm equivalent focal length 28mm, Lens Canon EF 17-40mm, tripod, In Focus.

Week 24, Day 173, October 13, 2009, Evidence of Walking

A good friend of my is in town, so we were going to meet him at the place that serves great popcorn. 

I had some time before we would meet him, so I went to Monkey Run.  I didn't see any monkeys, but there were a lot of people walking their dogs, and a lot of leaves on the trail.  With the recent wind the leaves have been falling quickly.

Similar to my previous photo Evidence of Wind, I wanted to capture movement.  Today I present Evidence of Walking.  I hope that you like it.

Lesson Learned:

• Many times I get an idea for a photo in my head.  They seldom turn out the way that I envision them.  I think that I'll continue to work on some of these visions, and see how close I can perfect them.  It should be fun to try. 
• Once again, I didn't have all my camera equipment with me.  I wish I had my tripod, and my circular polarizer filter.
  

 Photo details: Exposure time .6 sec, Aperture f/22, ISO 200, Focal Length 17 mm (I wanted to preserve depth), 35 mm equivalent focal length 27mm, Lens Canon EF 17-40mm, the camera was sitting on a log for a tripod.

Week 24, Day 170, October 10, 2009, Sunny Fall Colors

The sun returned, and it did a great job reflecting the colors of our surrounding hill sides.  We must be near peak colors for most of the trees.

This shot was taken during my sons football game in Newfield.  Newfield is surrounded by amazing hills of color in the fall.  It was spectacular.

I hope your day was good as well.

Tomorrow, "The Art Trail".

Lessons Learned:

• Circular Polarizer filters really do work, and the colors of these photos where so much better than without the filter.

Photo details: Exposure time 1/320, Aperture f/5.0, ISO 200, Focal Length 200 mm, 35 mm equivalent focal length 468mm, Lens Canon 70-200mm f2.8L USM, handheld.

Week 23, Day 167, October 7, 2009, Windy Fall Day, Weekly winner in online viewer poll

There was a wind advisory warning in the Tompkins County area until 8:00 PM.  Predictions of gusts up to 50 miles an hour.

On the run at lunch time, we had an excellent tail wind on the way out, and a head wind on the way back.  Fortunately we were protected by trees on the way back which helped reduce the head wind.  Unfortunately large branches were falling, and we had to be careful.  A good time was had by all.

I grabbed my camera after work, and attempted to capture the wind in a photograph.  This can be more difficult than you would imagine.  This was the best example that I had for today.

 I was looking for a black and white photo, but I left the color.  I liked the single color of red coming from the trees. I hope you enjoy.

Lessons Learned:

• Willows show the wind well, but the sky behind the willows wasn't as spectacular.

Photo details: Exposure time 1/800 sec, Aperture f/4.0, ISO 100, Focal Length 17 mm, 35 mm equivalent focal length 40mm, Lens Canon EF 17-40mm, handheld.

Weekly winner in online viewer poll.

Week 22, Day 160, September 30, 2009, Leaves

It wouldn't be fall with out a bunch of leaves.  I really like the range of colors in the fall.  I also really like seeing the photos that many of you have posted for the fall colors in your area.  Each area is unique and has it's own beauty.  Keep posting your photos.

Lessons Learned:

• I really liked what RuneE said in yesterday comments. "That is the way to do it - look around. If you are in "the mood" you will see things that you did not see yesterday - and maybe not tomorrow."  Yesterday was one of those days where I saw photographs everywhere.  Other days, it's like pulling teeth.  Today was more like pulling teeth, but that's ok.  A couple of good photos a week keeps me going.

Photo details: Exposure time 1/30 sec, Aperture f/4.0, ISO 1600 (It was very cloudy, and getting dark), Focal Length 17 mm, 35 mm equivalent focal length 36mm, Lens Canon EF 17-40mm, handheld.

Week 22, Day 157, September 27, 2009, Rainy Sunday in the Fall

It's a rainy fall afternoon in Central NY.  It's a good afternoon for a nap, a fire in the pellet stove, and painting some of our empty nest.

It's also an amazing time to take photos of water drops.  I've tried in the past, but the drops were very small.  I think the combination of the dry fall curling leaves (large surface area) and the soaking rain were a great combination for creating larger water drops.

These leaves are from a sumac tree.  They are not a desirable tree, and grow everywhere.  But, in the fall they are incredibly red, and beautiful to look at.

What weeds do you enjoy?

Lessons Learned:

• A condition that seems to create large water droplets. (See above)
• I'd really like a nice macro lens.  ($$$$, oh well it's always fun to dream)

Photo details: Exposure time 1/125 sec, Aperture f/4.0, ISO 400 (the wind was blowing the branches so they wouldn't stay still, Focal Length 40 mm, 35 mm equivalent focal length 65mm, Lens Canon EF 17-40mm, tripod.

Week 22, Day 155, September 25, 2009, Heron Silhouette

On the way home from work tonight I drove along Forest Home Drive.  It's one of the common running routes that we take during lunch time.  Fall Creek runs along side the road, and I figured I would take some photos of the fall colors on the trees. 

When I arrived I saw a Blue Heron, and decided to photograph the bird instead.  I took several photos, and even took a photo of him catching a fish.  Unfortunately that photo is a little to blurry for my taste.

Instead I share one where the Heron is just flying from one side to the other.  The Heron is even dragging his/her talons on the top of the water.  The sun was still fairly bright, so all I was able to get was the silhouette.  Perhaps when I get good enough with photoshop I can lighten the heron.

Lessons Learned:

• Be willing to change the subject.

Photo details: Exposure time 1/800, Aperture f/2.8, ISO 100, Focal Length 200 mm, 35 mm equivalent focal length 323mm, Lens Canon 70-200mm f2.8L USM, tripod.

Week 21, Day 154, September 24, 2009, Pond with Fall Colors

The colors are still far from peak colors in this area, but they are getting brighter and brighter. 

Here are a few trees near a pond.  I stopped on my way and took these.

Lessons Learned:

• It is getting dark way to quick.  I'm really going to have to start shooting as I leave my building to come home for the evening.

Photo details: Exposure time 1/25 sec, Aperture f/9.0, ISO 800, Focal Length 40 mm, 35 mm equivalent focal length 65mm, Lens Canon EF 17-40mm, tripod.