Canon 5D MkIII, EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro @ f/5.6, 1/400 sec, ISO 400
Out in our “Back 40” we have several bunches of bright yellow daffodils. Ah ha … great background opportunity. Now I just needed to find something to put in front. A few emerging Japanese Maple leaf buds caught my eye. So I put them together. The challenge was to get an interesting composition while the branch was moving in the wind. A relative open f-stop and a moderate shutter speed gave me the best balance.
Fuji X-T1, XF18-135mm @ 56mm, f/22, 6 secs, ISO 250
I rounded a corner and saw a massive wall of bamboo. It was just waiting there for someone to take a vertical pan. So I did…
Most of the time I use pans and moving multiple exposures to get my creative juices flowing. They break up moments where I become transfixed just searching for an image to capture rather than waiting for an image to come to me. This time the pan just appeared. I did not even take a normal image.
Fuji X-T1, XF18-135mm @ 110mm, f/8.0, 1/120 sec, ISO 400
Walking through parts of Henry P. Leu Gardens in Orlando was almost like walking through a tropical rain forest. Light filtering through the various palms provide multiple opportunities to capture interesting backlight images. Huge palm leaves were like huge fans waving in the gentle afternoon breeze. I love wandering along garden paths looking up, down, and everywhere. It was a wonderful way to spend an afternoon.
Fuji X-T1, XF18-135mm @ 135mm, f/22, 14 sec, ISO 200
I keep going back to our Red Twig Dogwoods to get a little winter color. This is a vertical swipe taken at 1/4 second. Back at my computer, I started playing around with Topaz’s new Impression plug-in. This is the Impasto II preset. There is a painter somewhere inside this engineer’s mind.
This post is a milestone. I have entered a post every day for this month, first time ever. Now to get ready for the New Year!
Fuji X-T1, XF 10-24mm @ 22mm, f/18, 1/160 sec, ISO 400
During my walk in Longwood’s Meadow, I saw this single tree with the path curving around it. The leading line and isolated tree caught my eye. The wide angle helped place the tree in perspective with the expansive meadow. Again, my thoughts for the day were to work on wide angle perspectives and just enjoy the day.
Fuji X-T1, XF55-200mm @ 105mm, f/11, 1/60 sec. ISO 200
This image is an attempt to just work with color and composition. The deep pink and the adjacent dark green provided a strong color contrast as did the bright yellow and the adjacent dark green. The round clump of pink flowers in the upper right corner was balanced somewhat by the white flowers in the lower left corner. The diagonal strips of yellow and green provided the center focus.
Fuji X-T1, XF55-200 @ 55mm, f/11, 1.2 sec, ISO 800
Today is the last day of May. It was a beautiful late Spring morning. I could not help but to get up early and walk along Lake Galena in near by Peace Valley Park. My eyes were not picking up interesting subjects. I used a technique recommended to me by Tony Sweet to just start panning and shooting to get going. I have learned to consistently fall back on this technique to get my “juices” flowing. It was a nice morning.
Fuji XT-1, XF 18-55mm @ 37mm, f/4.0, 1/800 sec, ISO 400
This rail around the Philly City Hall provided a very clear message: “No Leaning” or should I say “No Sitting”. Today I was just walking around downtown Philly watching for images to appear. This one popped up and pain entered my body from all directions. It was not a very inviting element for the City Hall. But it did provide an interesting image. I purposely used my widest aperture to provide an interest depth of field.
Canon 7D, Tamron 18-270mm @ 65mm, f/5.6, 1/125 sec, ISO 800
This year we will miss joining our friends on our almost annual spring trip to New York City. Our thoughts will we be with them as they make the trip without us. I am very thankful for the many trips that we have made together and look forward to many more in the future.
This image was taken on our trip last spring. I recall walking down the street, looking up and seeing interesting reflections. I lingered back and worked this image until I got the reflections to line up with the windows. It took a bit of time and my wife and friends were several blocks ahead egging me on to catch-up. The delay was worth it.
Canon 5D MkIII, EF24-70mm f/2.8L @ 70mm, f/5.6, 1/250 sec, ISO 3200
Karen and I spent the last day of 2013 exploring the Jamestown museum and settlement reconstruction. It was a wonderful day of exploring and learning about our history. Karen and I visited Jamestown back in the mid 80’s when we were living in Fairfax, VA. Back then there was really just the beginning of the excavation of the site. So much has changed. All Americans should visit this museum and settlement site to get an appreciation of the Jamestown Settlement. It was a day to remember and reflect on.
This image is taken from the inside of the Jamestown Settlement Church. My objective was to create symmetry and balance between the diagonal, vertical and horizontal elements.