Week 47, Day 324, March 19, 2010, Sunset Through the Woods

Judy and I went for a walk after dinner tonight.  On the way back to the house the sun was shining brightly through the trees of the woods. 

I like the patterns of the trees silhouettes, and the color of the Sun as it filtered through the trees.  It's great to have warmer weather once again to take walks outside.

Lessons Learned:

• Today was Dragon Day at Cornell, and I forgot my camera.  I didn't follow my own advice to always carry a camera. (Dragon Day is the day the School of Architecture builds a huge dragon, and parades it across campus.  The Engineers respond with a Pheonix.  The Dragon is burned at the end of the event.)

Photo details: Exposure time 1/1600 sec, Aperture f/2.8, ISO 100, Focal Length 80 mm, Lens Canon 70-200mm f2.8L, handheld. 

Week 41, Day 289, February 8, 2010, Abstract Sunset

The colors in the sky were spectacular during the sunset this evening.  I arrived home just as the Sun was setting.  I ran into the house grabbed my battery for my camera, and ran outside to photograph the last few moments of the Sun. I didn't have time to get an unobstructed view of the sunset, because it was happening so fast.  This was the results.

This is a cropped version of what I took, but I really like it.  To me it looks like some sort of abstract painting.  I like the patterns of the branches as the flow over the canvas.

Lessons Learned:

• Don't be afraid to photograph things that you think may be interesting, but may not work.(Especially with digital cameras.)  This came out much better than I expected.
• Don't leave your camera battery in the charger.  I carried my camera to work today, and when I attempted to take some photos the camera didn't work.  (In this case I think I lucked out, because I don't know if I would have taken this photo.)

Photo details: Exposure time 1/250 sec, Aperture f/8.0, ISO 3200(mistake), Focal Length 190 mm, Lens Canon 70-200mm f2.8L USM, handheld.

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 29, Day 208, November 17, 2009, Chasing the Sun

Everyday as I leave work the Sun is closer and closer to the horizon.  There are two bus stops that are about equal distance from my building.  One is down the hill, and one is up the hill.  I went to the stop up the hill today because there isn't much of the direct sun at the lower stop.  Today's photo shows the direct sun on just the upper part of the building.

Lessons Learned:

• Always keep a watch for the light.  The opportunities change all the time.  
• Usually I set my camera to collect the photos in RAW format.  When I'm at a sporting event, I use JPEG because on my camera the burst rate is faster for JPEG.  Tonight I used RAW and JPEG, because I usually have to convert the files to JPEG for my photo blog.  When I'm not concerned about space, this helps speed up my processing.
  

Photo details: Exposure time 1/50 sec, Aperture f/5.0, ISO 100, Focal Length 19 mm, 35 mm equivalent focal length 31mm, Lens Canon EF 17-40mm, hand held, circular polarizer filter.

Week 29, Day 207, November 16, 2009, Sky through an Arch, Weekly winning in online viewer poll.

On my way from my office to the bus station, there was a beautiful sky.  As I was walking, I was thinking , "What would make a great frame for the sky.  I immediately thought of the arches at the Law School.

I hope you enjoy.

Lesson Learned:

• I find myself thinking more about how to set up shots.  Sometimes I get and idea, and it takes some time to set it up.  I think this is when I get some of my best photos.  I need to do this more.

Photo details: Exposure time 1/50 sec, Aperture f/14.0, ISO 100, Focal Length 17 mm, 35 mm equivalent focal length 28mm, Lens Canon EF 17-40mm, hand held, circular polarizer filter, White Balance Flash setting (it tends to make the colors a little warmer).

Weekly winner in online viewer poll.

Week 18, Day 132, September 1, 2009, Copper Spider Web, Winner of week 18 in online viewer poll.

I went for a walk in the woods at around 6:00 PM. The sun was getting low in the sky, and it was fairly dark in the woods. I thought that it was dark, and that my photos would be worthless. While I walked along, I started noticing spider webs as the sun would poke through the leaves. I took a few photos, but would quickly loose the light. Just as I was leaving I noticed this one further up in a tree. I had to act quickly to get the photo with the golden sunlight reflecting through it. The effect produced a web that almost looks like it's made of copper.

Lessons Learned:

• I'm am still very surprised by where I find photo opportunities. Many times, I have just about given up when I spot something.

Photo details: Exposure time 1/160, Aperture f/2.8, ISO 1600 (because I didn't have time to set up the tripod. I was loosing the light to quickly and had to act fast.), Focal Length 200 mm, 35 mm equivalent focal length 323mm, Lens Canon 70-200mm f2.8L USM, hand held.

Winner of Week 18 in online viewer poll.

Week 11 Day 75, July 14, 2009 "Sunset over Rich Lake"

Many of the Days were cloudy, but on this day the clouds began to break up as sunset approached. I grabbed my camera and went back to the beach on Rich Lake. The clouds and the light were great, and there were a few people out in canoes before the daylight completely disappeared.

Very often there are loons on these lakes. Loons are one of my favorite birds. I usually see them in pairs, and their calls are eerie, and beautiful at the same time. Did you know that a Loon cannot walk. They are designed to swim, and dive for long periods of time. Many of their bones are solid unlike most other birds.

This year I only saw single Loons swimming, and only heard their calls once. I wonder if they were nesting, and if one would catch fish while the other was watching the eggs? I did take a few photographs of Loons, but they were not very close. We did have one pop up out of the water about 30 feet from us while we were swimming. I was amazed at how large they are.

Lessons Learned:

• I was very curious about a polarized filter for this shot. I done have one, but wonder if I can take better photos with one. Do you have any thoughts?

Photo Details: Exposure time 1/50 sec, Aperture f/21.9, ISO 400 , Focal Length 80 mm, 35 mm equivalent focal length 130mm, Lens Canon 70-200mm f2.8L USM, tripod.

Week 10, Day 68, July 7, 2009 "Sunset Clouds"

One of the really cool things about all the rain we have been getting the last couple of weeks is the clouds have been amazing. As they roll through they take on various shapes and colors. Near sunrise and sunset the red colors of the sun reflect off of the bottom of the clouds.

This one almost looks like smoke from a fire. I hope that you enjoy.

Lessons Learned:

• Today I was playing with an hdr plug-in for gimp. Gimp is a open source Photoshoplike program. The hdr plug-in inputs 3 images of various exposures and outputs a single image. One of the places that this is useful is when there is a light sky, and a dark landscape. With this it is possible to create an image where the sky isn't to bright, and the landscape isn't to dark. I'm in the early stages of playing with this. I hope to use a photo after processing in the future on this blog.

Photo details: Exposure time 1/8 sec, Aperture f/14.0, ISO 100, Focal Length 70 mm, 35 mm equivalent focal length 180mm, Lens Canon 70-200mm f2.8L USM, tripod.

Week 7 - Day 47, June 16, 2009 "Sunset over Groton"

One of the things that I'm finding is that on some outings I'll take a variety of photographs. When I look at the photos later, I often surprised by how some of the photos turn out. Later I'll return and shoot a more comprehensive set of photos on the same subject.

Back when I photographed the geese, I also took a couple of photos of this tree near sunset. Tonight when trying to think of ideas, I decided to go back and reshoot a similar photo. When I have more time with a single subject I use a variety of apertures, shutter speeds, and sometime various white balance settings. This allows me to choose the best of all the shots. I like the results of this one.

Lessons Learned:

• It can be difficult to remove power lines from a photo. I actually selected a darker color photo because it helped hide the power lines that are in the lower part of the photo.
• Around Groton it's difficult to find single trees that do not have other trees around them. I was trying to do that for this photo.
• The day after I put up some photos I think, "What was I thinking on yesterday's photos." Some photos I seem to enjoy more as I think about them, others loose something with time, and still others loose something a few minutes after I put them on this blog.

Photo details: Exposure time 1/320s, Aperture f/20.0, ISO 100, Focal Length 108 mm, 35 mm equivalent focal length 175mm, Lens Canon 70-200mm f2.8L USM, tripod.