Category: Blitherings

A Look at the Nikon Df – Images

In reading reviews of the Nikon Df, there is a lot of controversy about the camera. Personally, I don’t care, because what any camera does is take pictures. And the quality of the picture will be dependent, in part, on the camera, and, of course, on the photographer.

I like this camera very much. I like the images, I like the way it fits in my hands so easily, and I like the dials and knobs and levers. The LCD on the back of the screen is bright and clear. There are other little things I like too, but first, I want to look at some of the images.

I went to the local botanical garden here where I live. The pictures below were taken with old lenses from the 70s, AI compatible. I also used a Tokina 11-16 DX, but that is for a later entry to IY&B.

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First of all, the picture above is my breakfast this morning – yogurt, strawberries, and pecans. This was shot at iso 4000. Certainly a good reason to use this camera at night!  If you click on it, you can see it full-size – you may need to do it twice to see it at 100%.

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The next few pictures are done using my Elicar 55mm macro lens. This is a lens that is about 40-50 years old and completely manual for focusing. There are complaints that, as a retro styled camera, a split-screen focusing screen should have been included. Maybe. However, I found that the focusing dot and the screen in the viewfinder both work very well together. This bee was shot, handheld, at iso 64 – one of the lower end iso settings – at 1/200 s. Not sure about the f/stop. Click it, too, to see it full size.

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Another one from the Elicar macro lens. Here, iso is also 64; some contrast enhancement done 1/160 sec.

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I like this one a lot. Again, the Elicar 55mm macro, iso 100, 1/100 sec. Enlarge it, and look for the ant on the flower in the right side of the picture. Pretty sharp!

Panorama of the Botanical Garden

This last picture is a panorama of about 8 pictures stitched together. Iso was 50; time varied. All hand-held. Exposure time was about 1/100. This worked quite well with a Vivitar 24mm prime lens from the 70s. I think the f/stop was most likely 6.3 or 8.

A Tale of Change

Pano 1 One thing about taking a photo, it becomes a creative process afterwards using software. When I first began digital photography, it seemed like cheating to post-process an image. However, I soon saw – learned – discovered – whatever – that it really was a way to enhance a mood, convey a feeling, evoke a sense of place.

The picture above is a pano, pieced together using two or three images. This is pretty much how they came out of the camera. Not a lot of dynamic “pop” here – and really, not as colorful as I recall the morning I took these images. Moving on, some changes.  I wanted the clouds and sky to be more visible, and yet an overall softness of color be retained.  Already, a different mood. Pano 1_tonemapped   Below, black and white, probably derived from the picture above.  I like to look at anything I take in color in black and white.  This helps me look for gradation and contrast.  At times, I will set my camera to do all jpgs in black and white, and the raw files in color.  (Cannot do anything further than that, anyway!)  When I chimp, then I see the monochrome.  At times, it’s fun to play a game with myself to guess if the picture will be successful before I take it.  This means analyzing contrast and texture before shooting.  More failures than successes at this time, but it is good training for the eye.  The same can be done to consider what a histogram might look like, too. Pano 1_tonemapped-2 Finally, a bit of HDR and specialized filters in use.  I pushed the image a bit in Photomatix Pro and then moved it into Color Efex Pro 2, and used the detail extractor and ND filter overlays. Toward Mount BoneyThere you have it – a tale of changes.  Each has a different visual quality and emotional or intellectual quality.  Some are more a bit more dreamy, others sharper on the eye and evocative of a season or time.

Listen or Read?

Eyeglasses

Getting older means eyesight changes, and with eyesight changes come some choices.  Do I read a book, and then wait for hours before my eyes can focus at a distance again, or do I listen to a book while I do something else so I don’t have double vision afterwards?

A bit of history:  I am myopic, and have small cataracts.  I live in earthquake country.  I love being able to see.  When one gets older, eye muscles are not as adaptable as they used to be.  I am also extremely picky about my eyes – even with my myopia, I always was able to correct my lenses to 20-15 (or however you write it).  Now I can only get corrections to 20-20.  Not fun.  I also have a macular pucker and oodles of floaters; I see my retinologist every year for stability checks.

So what’s with the “earthquake country” comment?  Well, someone is bound to point out that lasik could solve a lot of problems.  My return is eye surgery?  Are you nuts?  Cutting my eyes?  What if there were an earthquake in the middle of the procedure?????

A bit neurotic, eh?

Audiobooks are a great listen when a great reader tells the tale.  Awful voices, wrong voices, ugly voices, poor cadence when reading, etc., all make for a bad experience, and make a good read not so enjoyable.  However, the downside to audiobooks is all you do is listen.  That is, unless you pick up something to do, or go to the gym, or work out on the elliptical, or go for a walk, or knit, or make dinner and hope you don’t drop you ear buds in the soup or go to the bathroom with the ipod in your pocket and have it fall in the toilet with everything else you have deposited.

I know, I’ve done it.

All alone, audiobooks are not a physically active experience.  Reading a book is a physically active, multi-sensual experience.  Look, read, look at pictures, admire the type font, enjoy the layout, read, turn a page, enjoy the smell of a new book, turn the book around to see what something is, sit, become involved in another world, think about it later.  Can you multi-task when reading?  You bet – but why?

I am reading again, and double-vision be damned.  I miss the experience.  I just wish I didn’t walk like a drunk afterward.

Another Sunday Hike

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Another weekend hike!  This one was a surprise to me – sort of like a kidnap party where you don’t know where you are going to end up.  I get picked up, and off we drive.  I knew we would be going somewhere in the next town over, Simi, but not the specifics.

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We ended up in Tapo Canyon, which leads into the Santa Monica mountains north of the city.  Another dirt road with beautiful oak trees, wild grasses, and little if any poison oak.  About a mile or so in, the flat dirt road gives way to a short, but steep, climb.  No trees, just grassy hills so typical of the southern California landscape.

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The view from the top of the saddle looked into another valley, and down into the one we had just climbed out.  We could have continued, but not wanting to spend the whole morning hiking – or the whole day as who knows where the trail would come out! – we turned around and headed back to the car.

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Downhill is different that up hill, just as in is different than out.  Viewpoints change.  All of this makes for interesting photography opportunities.  For me, the most fun was seeing two different snakes, one short and stripped, another longer and mottled, both scuttling away into the grasses as we came down the hill.  Luckily, no rattlers!

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And this is all part of the art of living, eh?