Week 10, Day 69, July 8, 2009 "Just the Moon", Winner of Week 10 in Online Viewer Poll, Winner for the month of July in the online viewer poll.

I really like the photo that I did the other day with the moon, and the framing of the branches of the tree. I've asked many people if they could see the craters on the moon in that shot, and they didn't notice them. I think if it was printed larger than the blog they would be more noticeable. That is why for today's shot I just choose a closer view of the moon.

I enjoy looking at the moon especially when it's full. Yesterday was the full moon, but it was to cloudy when the moon rose, so I didn't get a photo at that time. When I woke up at 1:00 AM it was out, but I was to tired to take a photo at that time. I decided to wait until tonight.

Lessons Learned:

• I tired with and without the mirror lockup, and it didn't seem to make a difference in the moon shots. It might make more of a difference when shooting closeups with a macro lens.

Photo details: Exposure time 1/160 sec, Aperture f/10.0, ISO 800 (I thought that I had it set at 100 but didn't, grrrr), Focal Length 200 mm, 35 mm equivalent focal length 1477mm, Lens Canon 70-200mm f2.8L USM, tripod.

This was the winner of week 10, and the month of July in the online viewer poll.

Week 10, Day 66, July 5, 2009 "Daddy Long Legs"

Photography is opening doors for me in interesting ways. Sometimes when I take photos people are curious and ask me what am I doing. Many times when I tell them about this blog, they begin to tell me interesting places that they know.

Last night a neighbor was telling me about his woods, and how they have trails all through them. I took a walk through them, and the trails are very nice. There are many ferns, and the light comes through the trees and lights them in interesting ways.

Another neighbor asked me if I was afraid of heights. It old him no, and he said I could climb to the top of his silo if I wanted a photograph from there. I'm not sure if I'm brave enough to do that yet.

On the way back I noticed this Daddy Long Legs on a leaf with interesting lighting.

Lessons Learned:

• Talk to people about photography, and ask about interesting places to photograph.
• Day time shooting seems to work well in the woods because of the filter of the trees.

Photo details: Exposure time 1/125 sec, Aperture f/4.0, ISO 100, Focal Length 40 mm, 35 mm equivalent focal length 65mm, Lens Canon EF 17-40mm, tripod.

Week 10, Day 65, July 4, 2009 "Fireworks"

Happy Birthday to the United States. What is a 4th of July celebration without fireworks?

I like this photo. I believe that most of the explosion is on one plane, and the photograph seems to show it. I also like the various colors.

Lesson Learned:

• Remember a back up battery. Lucky this time I had one.
• It's hard to hear the shutter open when there is a lot of noise. With the longer shutter speeds it was difficult to tell if a photo was being taken.

Photo details: Exposure time 1/20 sec, Aperture f/7.1, ISO 1600, Focal Length 17 mm, 35 mm equivalent focal length 27mm, Lens Canon EF 17-40mm, tripod.

Week 10, Day 64, July 3, 2009 "Crow with Clouds"

My Uncle has a pond in Summer Hill, NY. It's a very small area of the state. My father-in-law jokes that it is called Summer Hill because that's the only time of year that you can get there. Today was one of those summer days. It's an excellent place where a lot of my family gathers. My children enjoy going there, and my Aunt and Uncle enjoy having everybody around.

After dinner I took some photos. I was going to attempt to take some photos of fireworks. (Especially after seeing Greg Kirkpatrick's firework photos on Facebook. Great job Greg.)
It began raining, so I didn't have the opportunity to take the firework photos. Maybe tomorrow night.

I did attempt to take some more photos of birds this evening. I attempted to get as close to a dead tree that had some crows roosting. Finally when I was to close, they began to fly. The crows flew over head, and I began to follow them with the camera. This is one of the photos. I like the contrast of the black crow on the blue sky, with the clouds. The darkness of the crow created a silhouette effect that I like.

Lessons Learned:

• I think I'm beginning to learn a little behavior of the birds. If I was directly toward a tree with crows in it, they tend to fly away quickly. If I walk at an angle getting closer to the tree, I seem to get closer before they fly away.
  
• Red Wing Black Birds seem to sometimes become agitated and fly directly overhead while chirping. I think they may be marking where I am, and alerting other birds to my location.
  
• The more that I know about my subject, the better job I can do with my photography.

Photo details: Exposure time 1/1000 sec, Aperture f/9.0, ISO 200, Focal Length 200 mm, 35 mm equivalent focal length 323mm, Lens Canon 70-200mm f2.8L USM, hand held.

Week 9 - Day 63, July 2, 2009 "Tiger Lillies in the Rain"

My time was once again very limited on the photography side of the day. My youngest son Allen was in Boy's State this past week, and we picked him up from SUNY Morrisville. This included a ceremony, and a dinner. Allen did not want to be photographed, and it was raining. Between a few rain drops, I took a few photos of the Tiger Lillies..

I like the composition of the blossoms in this photograph, along with the rain drops on the petals of the flower.

Did you know that you can eat the petals of the Tiger Lillie. They have a sweet taste. I get a lot of strange looks when I eat them, so I refrained from doing so today. I try to embarrass my son only a few times a day.

Lessons Learned:

• Because of the limited time I concentrated on the composition of this photo. I tried for the best background, and the most interesting arrangement of flowers. I think it worked well this time.
• I also tried a lot of shots in a moving car when it was dark. The results were not very good. No surprise here, but it was worth a shot.
• I discovered that my camera has a Mirror Lockup Setting. Usually when the shutter is pushed the mirror flips up, the shutter opens and closes and the photo is taken. With the Mirror Lockup setting enabled, I push the shutter once and the mirror flips up. Then I push the shutter again, and the photo is taken. Why is this useful? When taking macro or telephoto photos on a tripod I want to limit the vibration of the camera. The movement of the mirror can cause a vibration of the camera, and cause the photo to have a little more blur. Using this setting can reduce the vibration and hopefully produce a clearer photo.

Photo details: Exposure time 1/500 sec, Aperture f/4.0, ISO 200, Focal Length 17 mm, 35 mm equivalent focal length 27mm, Lens Canon EF 17-40mm, hand held.

Week 9 - Day 62, July 1, 2009 "Working in the Shop at Night" Winner of Week 9 and the month of July in the Viewer Poll

No, I'm not a Peeping Tom. I wonder if people named Tom take offense to that saying. My son knew I was going to take photos of him through the old shop window while he did some wood working.

I'm not sure if this shot works. I like the angle, and having the window in the foreground. I can see the outline of the window, but it's not very pronounced. I think a little light on the window would have a better effect. I also think that I should have my son move closer to the window. I may play around with this setup some more. Probably without my son, so I won't drive him crazy. Then when I have it the way I like it I'll ask him to come back. You may see this one again.

Lessons Learned:

• I also find that the more photos I take, the more particular I become. I think this has a plus side, and a negative side. On the plus side, I'm thinking more about my shots and the subject matter. I'm starting to recall my previous photos and what works, and what doesn't work. On the negative side, it's easier to become disappointed, and frustrated with the process.
  

Photo details: Exposure time 1/25 sec, Aperture f/8.0, ISO 1600, Focal Length 17 mm, 35 mm equivalent focal length 27mm, Lens Canon EF 17-40mm, handheld.

This photo was the winner of week 9, and the month of July in the online Viewer Poll.

Week 9 - Day 59, June 28, 2009 "Clover and Barn"

This photo is in many ways an illusion. The purple clover in the foreground is actually a lot further from the barn than it appears in this photo. There is also a road inbetween the clover blossoms and the barn. The road sits fairly high in this area. I took the photo while standing in a corn field about 4 feet lower than the road. There are enough plants to obscure the road.

I was also able to use a trick of using a telephoto lens. The telephoto lens tends to bring things in the distance a lot closer than the subject around you. In this case the barn is about 250 yards away from the clover.

I've wanted to photograph this barn for a while, but it is huge. I haven't been able to figure out the angle to capture the largeness of it, while still being still being a pleasing photograph. In this photo I still haven't accomplished that, but it was nice to be able to include a small piece of it.

Lessons Learned:

• I had to think about where the sun is located. I tried to take this a few times in the evening, but the sun was in the sky beyond the barn. I had to come back for a morning shot so the sun would be at my back, and still shed enough light on the barn to have it become part of the photo.
• When I originally saw the clover, there was also a rock pile under it. I thought that I would take a photo of the rocks with the clover above it. When I began to look around at the background, I saw the barn in the distance. I knew I also wanted to include that. A photo that included the rocks, the clover, and the barn became to busy. This arrangement seemed to work better for my taste.

Photo details: Exposure time 1/60s, Aperture f/22.0, ISO 100, Focal Length 73 mm, 35 mm equivalent focal length 119mm, Lens Canon 70-200mm f2.8L USM, tripod.

Week 8 - Day 56, June 25, 2009, "Flower in Rain" Winner of Week 8 in Viewer Poll

I need help on this one. Do any of you know the name of this flower?

Today is our 26th anniversary, and I went to a funeral, and it rained, and we're going out to dinner. I had very little time to take photos.

The biggest difficulty I had was trying to hold the umbrella to set up the camera to take the photo. (I destroyed one camera in a rain storm at a cross country meet, and don't want to repeat that mistake.)

I like this photo because of the water on the leaves. I also used a wide aperture for a narrow field of focus. I think that worked well. I also like the reddish orange (artist help me on this color) of the buds. The blossom looks a little blurry. I think it is probably from the wind, or the rain.

Photo details: Exposure time 1/100 sec, Aperture f/4.0, ISO 200, Focal Length 32 mm, 35 mm equivalent focal length 52mm, Lens Canon EF 17-40mm, tripod.

This photo was the top pick for week 8 in the viewer poll.

Week 8 - Day 55, June 24, 2009, "A Study of Light"

I had an amazing photo shoot today by looking very closely at light. I was thinking about the sun on the way home. As I walked from my office to the bus stop, I thought about how harsh the sunlight was. Many times I don't like to take photos at this time unless it is in the shade. Instead I concentrated on shadows, and took a few photographs. I think I'm on to something, and will work on this for a future photo of the day.

Later as I was walking Tank, I was looking through our overgrown apple orchard. In the darkest parts where the myrtle is a very plush ground cover I noticed that the light was reflecting off the waxy leaves similar to the way it reflects off of water. I rushed home to get my camera, and was back in about 3 minutes. Tried as I might, I couldn't find what I had just seen a few minute before. It was then I realized that the sun moving across the dense branches were causing very rapid changes in the lighting. I spent the next 30 minutes of time photographing and observering the light. Each angle presented a different view. (Way to state the obvious, Steve.) A straight on shot, looking East to West, would create a similar effect to the light bounching off of water. A staight on shot, looking West to East, would produce a yellow color. Views from the side would give a green look. I think there is great potential in spending some time trying to optimize the light for the various effects. I'm sure I'll be back in the future.

Although very dark, I really like this shot. It almost has a black and white look to it, but there are hints of green. Click on the image for a larger view so that you can see the details. I'm not sure if Waldo is in this shot, but let me know if you see him.

I hope you're not getting sick of myrtle, but I think it has a lot of potential for some great photography.

Lessons Learned:

• See above

Photo details: Exposure time .5 sec, Aperture f/22.0, ISO 100, Focal Length 22 mm, 35 mm equivalent focal length 65mm, Lens Canon EF 17-40mm, tripod.

Week 8 - Day 53, June 22, 2009 "Wild Rose in Myrtle"

Judy and I took Tank for a walk this evening, and on the way home Judy pointed out some wild roses growing in the myrtle. These roses are growing better then any of the others that we have. I really liked the previous photo of myrtle, so I thought this would also make a nice photo.

If you click on the image, you can see insects on some of the leaves. I think one of them looks like Waldo.

Lessons Learned:

• A piece of masonite came in handy as a wind block. With long exposures a small breeze can move the flower and cause a blur. I used a piece of masonite to block the wind.

Photo details: Exposure time 2.5 sec, Aperture f/22.0, ISO 100, Focal Length 21 mm, 35 mm equivalent focal length 34mm, Lens Canon EF 17-40mm, tripod.

Week 8 - Day 51, June 20, 2009 "Wedding"

What a day! I was asked by a friend to take photographs at his wedding. I'm both intrigued by the idea of photographing a wedding, as well as terrified. I have heard horror stories of people who have had a lot of problems photographing weddings. I agreed to take the photos when I learned that it was an informal wedding in a park.

The weather was rain most of the day. The wedding took place in a tent outside a pavilion in the park. The reception was inside that pavilion, and on the porch outside the pavilion. The wedding was incredible, and beautiful.

With all of these various areas, the lighting was a real challenge. Inside the pavilion there were florescent lights. Outside the pavilion there were cloud covered skies. In the tent there were no lights, so the contrast of light between the inside of the tent and the outside of the tent was large. I had to use a flash for most of the tent photos.

All in all I think the photos turned out well. I hope the couple enjoys them.

This is one of my favorite photos from the wedding.

Lessons Learned:

• Taking photos at a wedding calls for some very quick changes of camera settings. The landscapes that I have been photographing allow me a lot of time to make changes on the camera, try something, and take another photo. At a wedding, if the camera isn't set correctly the moment is lost. I think that's why so many photographers take a lot of time after the wedding to recreate parts of the ceremony to get the photos right.
• Using two cameras with two lenses helps. I borrowed my daughter's camera and had a wide angle lens on that camera, and my telephoto lens on my camera.

Photo details: Exposure time 1/1000, Aperture f/4.0, ISO 200, Focal Length 26 mm, 35 mm equivalent focal length 43mm, Lens Canon EF 17-40mm, hand held.

Week 8 - Day 50, June 19, 2009 "Basketball Offense"

A group of the Groton Basketball Team, including my son, are in a basketball camp this weekend at the University of Binghamton. This was right after the Groton team got the rebound, and began running down the court. They won their first 2 games on Friday night.

I enjoy taking photos at Basketball games. The method that I use is to set the camera in the right mode, find a good position, shoot as many photos as possible, and try to time the shutter at the most exciting moments. This is the first time since early spring that I've shot a basketball game, so I was a little out of practice.

Lessons Learned:

• A black background makes for great basketball shooting.

Photo details: Exposure time 1/200s, Aperture f/2.8, ISO 1600, Focal Length 100 mm, 35 mm equivalent focal length 267mm, Lens Canon 70-200mm f2.8L USM, handheld.

Week 7 - Day 48, June 17, 2009 "Weeding"

I knew that I didn't have a lot of time this evening. I have a meeting at 7:00, so my photography was limited. When I arrived home the wheel barrow full of weeds was tipped over. Garden weeding can get to be a real chore, and I thought this was a good metaphor for summer time weeding.
(I apologize to all of you who enjoy it.)

I hope you enjoy.

Lessons Learned:

• At first I had the whole wheel barrow in the photo, but it looked to much like a snapshot. I think the partial view is more effective. I chose a Sepia to try an simulate the dry hot job that weeding can be. I think it worked for this type of photo.

Photo details: Exposure time 1/80s, Aperture f/2.8, ISO 100, Focal Length 85 mm, 35 mm equivalent focal length 137mm, Lens Canon 70-200mm f2.8L USM, handheld.