Canon 5D, EF100mm f/2.8L Macro IS @ 100mm, f/8.0, 1/80 sec, ISO 1600
Even though the ground is covered with 12 inches of new snow on top of the 6-8 inches from the last storm, spring is on my mind. Happy Valentines Day!
Canon 5D MKIII, EF24-70mm f/2.8L @ 70mm, f/8.0, 1/80 sec, ISO 1600
This spent sunflower hung its head over when it couldn’t see the sun. The ice crystals added to the “over the hill” state of the flower. Even under the weight of the snow and ice, the stalk remained strong.
I normally do not use the presets in Silver Efex Pro, but this one (film noir #1) seemed to highlight the image I visualized.
Canon 5D MKIII with EF24-70mm f2.8L @ 62mm, f/5.6, 1/125 sec. ISO 800
Fall color is gone. We just had our first snow fall, quickly followed by freezing rain. I got up early to capture the moment before it melted. The fresh snow was covered by a thin layer of ice leaving interesting ice encased shapes. To capture the contrast of the dark leaf against the bright snow, I over exposed by +2 stops. Treatment in B&W captured the dreariness of the morning.
Canon 5D MKIII with EF24-70mm f/2.8L @ 66mm, f/5.6, 1/800 sec, ISO 1600
Looking down on a brilliant bed of fallen leaves, I noticed this single geranium bloom soaking up the early morning sun rays. It stood out stretching its neck out to show off its last hurrah. The rest of the plant had withered away preparing for the winter ahead. I will have to wait until the end of May to catch its first bloom of the new year.
Canon 5D MKIII with EF24-70mm f/2.8L @ 63mm, f/8.0, 1/400 sec, ISO 1600
The color of fall in Eastern Pennsylvania has all passed. This entry is the start of a series of posts of an early November morning shoot in our back yard capturing the last of the fall color. The early morning sun caught these fallen leaves just right to pop them out from the frosted grass. Simple things tend to catch my eye. I constantly look down as I walk through the landscape.
On this shoot, I was testing out the low noise performance of the 5D. There was a steady breeze which required me to use a fast shutter speed. I also normally use a tripod where ever I go. This day I wanted to be “free” and capture images quickly as I saw them. With a high ISO of 1600, the 5D performed exceptionally well and allowed me to capture the images that I was targeting.
This image is based on a couple of lessons I have received in the past. The first one is from Tony Sweet: “When you see a cool background, find something to put in front of it”. The second lesson is from John Barclay: “When you see red … shoot”. Walking along a trail in the woods a patch of red leaves caught my eye. By themselves, they were not very interesting, but their combined color made me look twice. I walked around and saw this scrawny branch with green leaves hanging down. Again, by itself it was just ho-hum. But when I lined up the bright green against the red background, the image “popped” in my mind.
Tony would have further critiqued this image and suggest that the green leaf in the top right corner should be removed. He would also have commented that the small white dot in the top third of the red background be cloned out. Tony is a sticker on details. So here is the corrected file:
It does make a difference!
From John Barclay, “When you see RED … Shoot!” Yesterday evening I walked out our front door and saw this Salvia “on fire” from the early evening sun. I ran inside to get my camera and try to capture the brilliance of the light. I walked around the Salvia to find a suitable background to set the red against. I stood on my tip toes to see if I could get it against some dark green foliage. I got down on my back to see if I could set off the red against a cloudless blue sky. I finally rolled on by belly and look up against the house and this is what I came up with. I spent about 20 minutes trying to beat the setting sun to find this one image.
Lessons employed/learned:
1. When you see red > shoot
2. Find a good background, then put something in front of it.
3. Explore all angles.
4. Wait for the image to come to me, sometimes it doesn’t.
Welcome Summer! This Spring has been very interesting … periods of heat, cold, wet, and dry conditions, all mixed together. Right now we are between periods of rain and warm days. It is hard to tell which is growing faster, our flowers or the weeds. One thing for sure, our knees are getting their workout separating the two.
This image is a multiple exposure created by simultaneously rotating and zooming around the center flower. Karen’s garden creates an abundance of photographic opportunities.
More of the Fonthill Study coming …
Karen and I had planned a trip up to Hershey, PA to see the Hershey Rose Garden for quite some time. We delayed the trip one day due to an extremely severe rain and lightning storm that passed through the area. We knew that the gardens would be impacted, but went the next day anyway. The day was a beautiful bright summer day in the 80’s. However, the roses had been damaged by the previous day’s storm as expected. It was not the best for photography. It was time to get creative and try some different things.
The image above is an “in-camera” multiple exposure of a group of roses with a water fountain in the background. The first image was taken with a moderate depth of field at normal exposure. The second image was defocused and slightly overexposed. The combined image was adjusted for brightness with NIK Viveza and NIK Color Efex Pro. A painterly look was then added with Topaz Simplify.
No matter what the condition, there always seems to be something worth capturing.
For reference below are the two images that were combined.
I was after a subdued image of our Bleeding Hearts on a bright early morning. I stood above these “hearts” and shot through an Atlas Cedar. A slight gap between the branches framed the “hearts”.
I next got down on my belly and shot the macro below focusing on the simple two heart image. I added a little contrast and darkened the background to highlight the “hearts”. I plan to use this one for a Mother’s Day card for Mom.
This post will be my last of my “Emerging” series … at least for a little while.