Tag: photography

Oh, Nick, You’re Such a Tool . . .

We all talk about “equipment” at sometime or another.  Evaluation of the tools we use is important simply because some tools are better than others.  Hammers are pretty simple items – you can use a shoe or a rock if necessary – but a well-balanced hammer in hand is quite nice to use.  Paint brushes, too, are tools.  Every artist has favorites, and ones which are okay, and others which you cannot wait to send to paint brush heaven.  There are surgical tools, gardening tools, big tools (cars and tanks), little tools (nail clippers), software.  A tool helps one accomplish a task more easily.

Without a doubt, lenses and a camera are tools.  For me, they have been tools for a while; I am still struggling with photography, deciding if it is a “yes” or “no” in my vision of creativity.  The fact is, it is a bunch of expensive tools, but not necessarily break-the-bank kind of tools.  Cameras and lenses are all individual in quality.  I’m just beginning to appreciate some of the more sophisticated elements of the Nikon camera.  I’m also enjoying the manual art of some of the lenses, and the mechanical and electronic and computer sophistication others display.  Software is another area for enjoyment because it can be the vehicle for the final creative effort, but I wonder if it will ever become something I really enjoy because I really don’t like sitting indoors at a computer for hours on end.  I probably will enjoy it as I master it.

I’ve acquired a few older lenses in the past year, ones which require manual focus, but which will interface with the aperture priority chip of the Nikon.  This means the camera can set the time for my exposure, based on whatever else I’ve dialed into the camera.  The other day, I picked up a lens which doesn’t do any of this.  It is big and heavy and produces lovely images.  It is a Vivitar Series 1 135mm f2.3 lens, and weighs at least a pound.

Last night, we went to dinner at Josh’s parents’ house, so while the light lasted, I played with the lens in the kitchen, garden, wandering around.  At times I pushed the ISO, other times I dropped it.  I had to think about a lot of things, and totally enjoyed it, looking at the LCD on the back of the camera to “chimp” over the picture.  Time, distance, focus, aperture – the old fashioned dance of the photographer with his equipment.

I’m not sure if it is me, but what I see in the older lenses is a very different quality of contrast and color than I see in my newer lenses.  I usually use my newer lenses on some variant of the automatic mode, so I wonder if that impacts things.  Maybe, maybe not.  I suspect some of the differences is in the glass and coatings used.  Older lenses seem to have a more mellow quality, as well as brighter, but not as harsh as newer lenses.  One day I wlll take the time to find out.

Today’s pictures on this post are taken with that new-to-me old lens.  You can see more of them if you want on my flickr page.  I didn’t post-process any of them, except to resize them and add my name.

Out and About

A whole day spent outdoors taking pictures!  A first in the photo safari department for me.

I went with a friend, another novice in photography, and for both of us, it proved enjoyable and challenging.  There is nothing worse than going out to shoot pictures with someone not doing the same – you know who I mean . . . the person who “patiently” waits for you to do whatever, “sneaking” glances at the wrist watch, sighing, texting.

The first stop was the Ventura Marina, and a walk south toward McGrath State Beach and the estuary of the Santa Clara river.  The tide was out, halfway between high and low; the beach was broad and long, mostly deserted except for a few strollers and fishermen.  The estuary is home to many birds, and provides breeding and feeding grounds.  Gulls, terns, pelicans all roost here, and others I cannot identify.  We set up our cameras on tripods, used long and short lenses, and played a bit.  In particular, we enjoyed the pelicans, out on patrol, flying in groups or in pairs, toward Ventura itself.  Often, they head out in the morning, after the first cup of coffee (some sleep in), and then return later in the day.

This really was my first attempt to catch birds in flight.  I used my Tamron SP 70-300 f/4-5.6 Di VC lens – yes, long name – but it is a great lens!  The VC stands for “vibration control.”  This element, combined with autofocus and a short, short exposure time gave me the opportunity to catch the pelicans in flight, still and unblurred.  The Nikon also can shoot up to 6 frames / second (I think); this also helped to catch them in flight, swooping in and out of the waves.  Even with my camera mounted on the tripod, I was pretty pleased by being able to pan and shoot at the same time.

When we got back to the car, we tucked all the photo gear back into the car, and went to eat lunch.  3 hours on a chilly, windy beach, trudging through the sand, makes you work up an appetite.  Some of the best fish and chips is to be had at Andria’s Seafood, so off we went a pile of fish.  Then, back to the car to change lenses – I put on a 17-50mm lens – a wander around the marina itself, into the boat yard where numerous fishing boats are up on blocks for repair and repainting.  Other areas explored were the commercial fishing area, tourist boat rentals, and down to the local museum for the Channel Islands National Park.  Fishing boats are big, some very ugly, but always fascinating as far as I am concerned.  I don’t like sailing unless doped up on scopolamine patches, or out in a brisk and wild wind on a sail boat – I get v-e-r-y seasick otherwise.

The little museum has a wonderful section of books, as well as a saltwater open aquarium which replicates tidepools, and there are windows on the floor you can peer into, meeting lobsters and flounders face-to-face, as well as looking in from above at starfish and urchins and barnacles.  Behind the museum is a small garden of plants found on the Channel Islands.  My favorite one is the coreopsis, which is odd as it has a thick trunk from which many bright yellow flowers erupt – it really looks like something Dr. Seuss might draw!

Finally, a decsion:  head to a local beach park, or out to the pier.  The pier won, hands down.  Here, just a prime 100mm macro lens for me.  I wanted the challenge a prime gives, as well as the macro element in case I saw something I really found interesting to look at close up.  (I did . . . ewww! . . . someone’s used condom.)  Once up on the pier, though, I had wished otherwise as the surfers and parasailing surfers were out in numbers.  Despite that, there was a lot to see, above the pier and below.

Gosh, I love digital!  I took about 300 pictures, just because I could!  Some had to be shot fast, such as gulls and pelicans in flight, as well as sailboats flying before the wind.  Overall, I was really pleased with the lenses and their responsiveness.  The Tamron 70-300 was fantastic in its response to distance and time and focusing.  It was the first time I really put it through some jumps, and I am really glad I got it.  The 17-50mm is also a Tamron, while the 100mm macro is a Tokina.  I have some manual focus lenses, but I doubt I could have gotten some of what I did of the birds without automation.

Covered with Stickers & Ready for Breakfast

Brrrrr!

My hands were so cold this morning!  I wandered out of the house around 6:15 into a chilly morning (for us, for me in a long time!) of 35 F – just a few degrees above freezing!    The goal:  take pictures of the sunrise.

Did it work?  Well, I got a few I like, a few that are hmmmms, and a lot that I think that the delete key is their raison d’etre.

Nonetheless, I did have a blast.  I had forgotten what it is like to be chilly or even cold – where I live, it is very temperate.  I cannot recall the last time I was actually in snow, other than when I was living in Colorado in the 80s.  I ran in and out of the house a few times before setting off – nope, a vest is not enough.  Got a jacket, got a hat.  Wished I’d had some gloves!

I headed up to Wildwood Park, climbed a slight hill, and parked myself amongst the sage and (I think) toyon and last year’s yucca.  I metered in aperture priority, and shot a few shots.  It was pretty dull stuff.  Dropped the shutter speed to underexpose a bit.  My fingers were getting very numb.  The light was nothing exciting . . . until the sun began to climb over the mountains in the east.  Suddenly, there was magic.  The light began to change, the shadows moved, Mount Clef caught the sunrise and glowed.

I had two Nikon lenses with me.  The one I began with was the 35mm f/1.8 G.  The other was an old classic, the 105mm f2.5 AIS.  The former autofocuses, the latter does not.  Both are really good lenses, for different reasons, and I brought them for different purposes.  I wanted landscape and a broader vista – hence the 35mm – but I found myself wanting an even wider lens.  The 105mm was fine, and I brought it to work on manually focusing, checking if the little dot in the viewfinder really works.  It does, but not if you are skittering about handholding the lens!  Still, I got a few nice shots.

I did not go passionately hiking up hill and down to get my photos . . . nope, I rolled around in the dirt, in the stickers, scared some birds and cottontails.  My clothes were covered in burrs and other debris.  Out for a couple of hours with a few interesting shots, and a wonderful morning.  It’s been awhile since I’ve watched the sun rise, and while there were no dramatic skies to shoot, the cold and activity, followed by a hot cup of coffee and breakfast, made a great way to begin a Sunday.

A Commentary on Leeching and Spam, with Other Stuff

A few months ago, someone came across this blog and posted the patterns page elsewhere online. That site seems to be a spam target – since then I have been inundated with everything from groupon ads to pornography, and in about as many languages as flavors of spam.

Since that site posting, I have a lot of hits from people coming to download and leech the patterns – and no one, absolutely not a single person, has said “thank you” – just a wham-bam, take ’em all.  However, the person who posted the pattern page got a thank-you!

So, this brings me to give some thought about even writing a blog.  In reality, it is for me.  It is my collection of thoughts and links – my own encyclopedia and directory to people and places I enjoy.  I don’t expect to have followers – and those who do, I really am flattered! – but I also think that we all should remember we are connecting with people over the internet, anonymous as that world is.

Into the Trees

In the meanwhile, I keep trying out different photography software.  Currently, I am testing out Nik’s Silver Efex 2.  I really like the controls it has, and how it moves seamlessly out of Photoshop and Lightroom.  I am probably overdoing the B&W on a number of pictures, but that is something I expect I will learn to temper.

In painting, drawing, design, it seems so easy to balance compositional elements!  Photography, though, is another story altogether.  What you see is what you get.  Then you have to choose – through judicious use of software (as well as hours spent learning it!) – what to keep, what to discard, what to tone down, what focus upon, how to draw the eye.

I have another 13 days of the free trial of Silver Efex.  I like what I see so far.  And, with a week off from work for Thanksgiving (furlough days, such fun!), I think I should be able to do a few things besides eat.

More with HDR Express

One thing I find I like about HDR, if not pushed too far, is that it can create a good sense of the original light without a loss of detail. I still have 8 days left on my trial version of HDR Express, so that is the toy I chose to play with this morning. Yesterday’s picture shooting up into the tulip tree was the subject.

Manipulating images in other software, such as Photoscape or FastStone, allows me to lighten and darken them. I did this with the idea of merging multiple images in HDR Express, but HDR Express likes being boss, and reads the metadata from the same 3 images, and shuts its processes down – it realizes that you’ve got the same picture. That is a frustrating limitation. Removing all the metadata doesn’t change the situation. However! There is a work-around that is rather nice.

In Lightroom, open up the image you want, adjust the image so it is dark, and then right click on the image and export to HDR Express. It then pops open HDR Express, and HDR Express takes a few minutes, and creates 5 images, ranging from dark to light for your viewing pleasure. The differences are not immense, but if you watch the histogram on the upper right of the screen, you can see what the program is doing to your picture.

Below is a composite picture of the tulip tree out front. The top one is the original one I shot, which was dark to begin with, so I didn’t change it when I sent it to HDR Express via Lightroom. The middle one is my adjustment in Photoscape, which did a good job, but the intensity of the blue sky was a bit lacking. Finally, the bottom image is the one I exported to HDR Express, and it produced a rather pleasant image, with all the detail of the trunk, while retaining the colors of the leaves against that intensely blue sky I saw in my lens.

Top to Bottom - Original Picture - Lightened in Photoscape - HDR Express Image from Original

The Nikon Hit Man doesn’t like the idea of having to use lighting or post-processing to get the perfect image. I disagree.  Post-processing is often necessary, and has been done forever by artists in the darkroom – dodging and burning are forms of post-processing. The thing is, sitting at a computer putzing with software is pretty dull stuff, so for us restless souls, it’s something of a nuisance. In a darkroom, you are moving around, not sitting at a desk. Big difference. Modern technology has its points, but movement is not often one of them!

I am in agreement, though, with the Nikon Hit Man about the original image: it should be as perfect as possible. This means you think about it before hand (if you can) by choosing the right lens, exposure settings on your camera, and so on. Not always easy to do – or remember – because there are so many things you can forget as well! And that is why programs which allow image manipulation are assets to the photographer. Nonetheless, for people who like the physical realities of art, software is more challenging than trying out a new medium, and often far more frustrating.

Life isn’t perfect, but we adapt!