Random Photos

[jtbell]

Today I found out how this strip of grass and weeds gets mowed. It contains a drainage ditch, and runs in front of a vacant lot along one side of the street a couple of blocks from my house. I've never seen this particular device before. The operator has to make a couple of passes in order to do both sides of the ditch.

At first I thought it was a city employee, but the vehicle doesn't have the city's logo on it, so now I suspect the property owner must have hired the guy.

 

[Oldman too]

I've never seen this particular device before.

Here in Montana that's how the state and county crews mow, what's different in your picture is that I don̓t see any caution or warning signs to warn passing motorists and pedestrians. Those mowers will chop off a 3 to 4 inch branch as easily as it will cut a blade of grass, not to mention launching a piece of said branch at lethal velocities. I never see them operating without some type of warning, too much liability. I would assume the operator is a private contractor as most State, County or City departments are very particular about liabilty and insurance. The other clue would be, did the mower only mow the strip in the photo or continue on down the road like a normal city crew would do, completing the area in sections.

 

[berkeman]

Today I found out how this strip of grass and weeds gets mowed.

Could you tell what that black box thingie is in the front of the tractor?

 

[Oldman too]

Could you tell what that black box thingie is in the front of the tractor?

Counterweight most likely, along with the rear wheel weights they are important for stability on uneven surfaces when the mower boom swings. It could also be a hydraulic fluid reservoir which in itself would make a good counterweight.

 

[berkeman]

Counterweight most likely, along with the rear wheel weights they are important for stability on uneven surfaces when the mower boom swings. It could also be a hydraulic fluid reservoir which in itself would make a good counterweight.

It looks like there may indeed be a counterweight black box thing to the driver's left, but a counterweight on the front would have to be for a heavy appliance on the rear...

 

[Oldman too]

but a counterweight on the front would have to be for a heavy appliance on the rear...

Yes, upon zooming the image I see that the box on the drivers side is definitely the Hydraulic fluid reservoir, that means the box on the front is a counterweight to offset the mowing attachment. (although it could be a beer cooler)

 

[Rive]

It looks like there may indeed be a counterweight black box thing to the driver's left,

Well, it's just googlework, but apparently this mower is not back, but side mounted. The black box on the other side is the alternative mounting point, while the front monstrosity is the hydraulics pump/tank.
Since it's side mounted, the counterweight is on the other side: it is attached to the rear wheel

 

[berkeman]

Since it's side mounted, the counterweight is on the other side: it is attached to the rear wheel

Ah, I wondered what that was. Good catch!

And I like the beer cooler idea better for the front box.

 

[Oldman too]

Well, it's just googlework, but apparently this mower is not back, but side mounted.

Good googlework, Your correct on the boom mount location, I didn't notice until looking closer. One thing that threw me was that I didn't realize how small the tractor was until looking at the operator in the cab. The front box in that case, very well could be a PTO pump, reservoir. the black box on the right side with the yellow stripe in the top corner is also a main Hydraulic fluid reservoir, but an auxiliary tank would make sense if combined with a front PTO pump. The mower attachment needs a large capacity reservoir to maintain flow and temperature control. If @jtbell gets another chance to get a closer look that would clear up that question, hard to tell as the resolution blows up pretty bad when trying to see details. Pardon the delay in my reply's, having a bad day with connectivity issues.

 

[jtbell]

did the mower only mow the strip in the photo or continue on down the road like a normal city crew would do, completing the area in sections.

I didn't hang around long enough to see what he did at the edge of the vacant property. I'm pretty sure he must have stopped there, because homeowners are responsible for maintaining the city-owned strip of land between their property line and the street. It might look odd if the city did it, but on a different schedule from all the homeowners. Of course, we all do our lawns (or have our lawn guys do them) on different schedules anyway...

 

[Oldman too]

I didn't hang around long enough to see what he did at the edge of the vacant property. I'm pretty sure he must have stopped there, because homeowners are responsible for maintaining the city-owned strip of land between their property line and the street. It might look odd if the city did it, but on a different schedule from all the homeowners. Of course, we all do our lawns (or have our lawn guys do them) on different schedules anyway...

Hi @jtbell, Thanks for the answer. The tractor could be a new piece of city equipment or a private contractor, hard to tell. If you get a chance to see the tractor again, there is a question about the black attachment on the front of it. Is it a hydraulic reservoir/pump assembly or a counterweight?
It could be either one and it's hard to tell from the photo that you posted, If you get a chance to check that out it would be greatly appreciated, although not a critical point it is a curiosity that was being discussed. Thanks again, Scott

 

[BillTre]

While walking my dog I noticed that...

The Flower Boat is Blooming!

They might want to shake off the cover.

 

[morrobay]

Low tide, Pattaya bay. South end

 

[morrobay]

Looking North from North end of bay.

 

[morrobay]

Same sunset : NW and SW views

 

[epenguin]

I'm actually thinking of going back to Copenhagen soon, and bring a bike with me on the train and then bike around in the city to places I haven't been to.

I'm thinking of maybe going to the Little Mermaid (which truly is small , I've been there) and try to take some kind of unusual photo of her if possible (probably in the late evening and with some lighting, or something, I haven't decided yet ).

Yes, the little mermaid is very photogenic. Which might be a way of saying when you go there she is quite disappointing after the photos. (People do often say so.) But if you're going there as a photographer, not just a tourist, you have I hope a lot of time to hang around, consider the various angles of the Sun during the day and the effects achievable with your special Russian lenses etc.

All the better if you were going there with your bike. Not that you need to take a bike to Copenhagen as you already know - I don't know any city so totally dominated by bikes – not even in the Netherlands did I ever see anything like it. But if you have some special bike of your own all the better. Just don't forget and leave it there like Mr Wheeler.

 

[Andy Resnick]

Lucky shot of the day:

Perfect focus, too! (1:1 crop)

 

[DennisN]

Lucky shot of the day:

A beautiful bird and a beautiful photo! Was it taken with a manual lens or an autofocus lens? And was it a tele or a zoom lens?

 

[DennisN]

But if you're going there as a photographer, not just a tourist, you have I hope a lot of time to hang around

All the better if you were going there with your bike.

I've made a map with places in Copenhagen to visit/photo locations, for instance:

Nyhavn, the nice old waterfront district (I've been there before, but it was probably twenty years ago):

Photo by Vincents productions (Creative Commons, Wikipedia)

Niels Bohr Institute (founded by Niels Bohr) (I've never been there):

Photo by Thue, public domain

Rundetaarn, the 17th-century astronomical tower (I've been there, but I haven't photographed it):

Photo by Avda (Creative Commons, Wikipedia)

Copenhagen Botanical Garden (I've never been there):

Photo by Henrik Jessen (Creative Commons, Wikipedia)

 

[DennisN]

Street flower (shot during a short lens test yesterday):

Plants escaping the fence (another test shot):

I also recently found a new fun glass toy in a second hand store just a block away (this was not the lens I tested above). It's a fast 40mm, which is a pretty uncommon focal length. It's a quite good lens, and the price was merely $12, so of course I bought it.

Konica Hexanon AR 40mm f/1.8

 

[dlgoff]

Here is a deck of playing cards with my university's Jayhawk mascot.

 

[morrobay]

 

[Borg]

 

[morrobay]

Beautiful Black on Black

 

[epenguin]

I've made a map with places in Copenhagen to visit/photo locations, for instance:

Nyhavn, the nice old waterfront district (I've been there before, but it was probably twenty years ago):

View attachment 301967
Photo by Vincents productions (Creative Commons, Wikipedia)

Niels Bohr Institute (founded by Niels Bohr) (I've never been there):

View attachment 301968
Photo by Thue, publ

I've made a map with places in Copenhagen to visit/photo locations, for instance:

Nyhavn, the nice old waterfront district (I've been there before, but it was probably twenty years ago):

View attachment 301967
Photo by Vincents productions (Creative Commons, Wikipedia)

Niels Bohr Institute (founded by Niels Bohr) (I've never been there):

View attachment 301968
Photo by Thue, public domain

Rundetaarn, the 17th-century astronomical tower (I've been there, but I haven't photographed it):

View attachment 301969
Photo by Avda (Creative Commons, Wikipedia)

Copenhagen Botanical Garden (I've never been there):

View attachment 301970
Photo by Henrik Jessen (Creative Commons, Wikipedia)

I was there mainly for about a week sometime around roughly the same year as you. (Very much later than Mr. Wheeler).

Copenhagen is outstanding for design

 

[dlgoff]

Here is a deck of playing cards with my university's Jayhawk mascot.
View attachment 302033

Here's what the Joker looks like:

 

[DennisN]

A happy lamp :

 

[DennisN]

A couple of days ago I heard a complaint from one of my cupboards.
It was my macro lens which said "You bought me and tried me at home, you liked me, but you have never took me out anywhere. Why?"

So I took the lens out for a walk.

We found a daisy...

...and then a dandelion seedhead...

...and while we were sitting in the grass we noticed there were bees feeding on flowers, so we took a shot at those, even though we hadn't planned it. It's not easy with a manual lens, you've got between ca 1 - 3 seconds to focus and shoot before the bee takes off (as a result only about 3 out of 45 photos had reasonable focus ).

And when we got home and looked at the photos, we noticed we had accidentally shot an ant climbing up a violet flower:

I think the lens is promising also for ants.
I focused on the flower (down below) and not the ant (since I didn't know there was an ant), so with better focus next time, more ant details may come out.

Lens used: Canon nFD Macro 50mm f/3.5.

 

[Andy Resnick]

A beautiful bird and a beautiful photo! Was it taken with a manual lens or an autofocus lens? And was it a tele or a zoom lens?

Thanks! Manual focus lens (800mm, shot at f/8). I was standing about 20 feet away from the hummingbird (female ruby-throated hummingbird, FWIW) and it flew off right after the photo.

 

[Andy Resnick]

I also recently found a new fun glass toy in a second hand store just a block away (this was not the lens I tested above). It's a fast 40mm, which is a pretty uncommon focal length. It's a quite good lens, and the price was merely $12, so of course I bought it.

Konica Hexanon AR 40mm f/1.8
View attachment 302014

That *is* a great lens, I have one as well!

 

[Andy Resnick]

A couple of days ago I heard a complaint from one of my cupboards.
It was my macro lens which said "You bought me and tried me at home, you liked me, but you have never took me out anywhere. Why?"

So I took the lens out for a walk.

Lens used: Canon nFD Macro 50mm f/3.5.

Nice! I have a very similar lens (an old manual Micro-Nikkor Macro f/3.5) but find the DoF is vanishingly small and the slightest breeze wrecks everything. What f/# were you shooting at, and did you create those photos using a tripod?

 

[morrobay]

The walk up to Foodland supermarket at T21 mall. Framed reflectivity in otherwise boring mallscape.

 

[DennisN]

Nice! I have a very similar lens (an old manual Micro-Nikkor Macro f/3.5) but find the DoF is vanishingly small and the slightest breeze wrecks everything. What f/# were you shooting at, and did you create those photos using a tripod?

Thanks!
It seems it's quite similar (if I checked the correct Nikkor lens).
I checked the Nikkor out on Ken Rockwell's page, where he gave it a good review.

Yes, the depth of field has a tendency to get tiny for me too.

But still, I've found that my dedicated macro lens produces the best macro result compared to the other techniques I've tried (like (1) mounting an extension tube between the camera and a "normal" lens and (2) using one of those small magnifying lenses which are meant to be put in front of "normal" lenses).

By the way, I did a small test of the macro lens in this thread before, with and without extension tubes.

the slightest breeze wrecks everything

Yes . And it was quite calm when I shot outdoors. Shooting macro indoors like I did here is easier.

What f/# were you shooting at

Sorry, I don't remember . I think it was either f/5.6 or f/8, but I'm not sure since I probably experimented with settings during the shoot (and since the lens is manual the f-info isn't stored with the photo). According to the photos info I shot at ISO 200 and with shutter speeds between 1/400 and 1/800 s.

and did you create those photos using a tripod?

For the flowers (incl. the one with an ant) I used this small tripod. The bees were shot handheld with pretty fast shutter speeds, and with one of the "burst" modes enabled on the camera. So I shot multiple photos in sequence of each bee ("Spray and pray" ).

 

[epenguin]

Flypast salute to Queen Elizabeth today..

 

[Andy Resnick]

@DennisN motivated me to take the 55/3.5 Nikon Micro-Nikkor out for a stroll:

image deets: 1:1 crop of all-manual 55mm f/3.5 Nikon Micro-Nikkor shot at f/5.6, 1/1250s ISO 400 hand-held 'lucky' shot on a D810 body.

Good: lens produces fantastic images and can shoot up to a 1:1 reproduction ratio.

Bad: TTL metering doesn't work (for some reason) with this lens, making the process slightly more complicated. Also, lens fits *very* snugly to the body, so the aperture ring is very difficult to rotate. Set it and forget it, as they say...

 

[DennisN]

@DennisN motivated me to take the 55/3.5 Nikon Micro-Nikkor out for a stroll

Very nice shots with great resolution!
Did you shoot with "burst" mode on the camera, I wonder?

 

[Andy Resnick]

Very nice shots with great resolution!
Did you shoot with "burst" mode on the camera, I wonder?

No burst mode, just careful breathing and patience. The fast shutter speed helps, for sure.

 

[DennisN]

Some more experimental photography... this time we go really weird.

I had heard from several sources that if you reverse the front element on various types of lenses you can get a lens that produces peculiar optical effects.

I thought it was time to try this, so I modified a cheap, vintage Tokina 28mm f/2.8 and took it out for testing.

It was a cloudy day, so the colors did not get as warm as they could (the Tokina otherwise gives pretty warm colors, in my opinion).

Here is an original photo of a red flower:
(using science fiction terms you get a sort of "Stargate effect" (or intense swirl) around the center, and further out you get a "Star Wars hyperspace effect", and also some vignetting)

Here is a modified version (with crop, added vibrance and vignette in Photoshop):

Another flower (with similar Photoshop adjustments):

And a dandelion seedhead (with similar Photoshop adjustments):

And last, a bumblebee caught in flight (lens: Helios 44M7):

 

[dlgoff]

A couple photos of my Kansas Skies:

 

[Andy Resnick]

Red-headed woodpecker (M. erythrocephalus, population decreasing) in my backyard today:

[800/8, 1/500s, auto ISO]

 

[Andy Resnick]

Some more experimental photography... this time we go really weird.

I had heard from several sources that if you reverse the front element on various types of lenses you can get a lens that produces peculiar optical effects.

For a variety of reasons, I am intensely curious about this- do you have any reference material you could share?

 

[nsaspook]

 

[morrobay]

Low tide with my friend Neng ,39. (post #651

 

[DennisN]

For a variety of reasons, I am intensely curious about this- do you have any reference material you could share?

I'm happy to hear you are interested.

I haven't had a system camera for very long. After I realized I could easily adapt a lot of vintage lenses to my mirrorless Sony (with proper adapters) my interest grew rapidly thanks to a number of good youtube channels and sites.

Regarding opening lenses (& maintenance) and reversing front elements I got my information from the two very good and interesting youtube photography channels Zenography and Simon's utak.

Regarding opening lenses & maintenance, this was the video that got me started:
(the only thing I needed to buy was a lens spanner wrench, the other things I already had like blu tack and lens cleaning fluid)

ESSENTIAL Maintenance Tips For Vintage Lenses! (Zenography)


Regarding reversing front (and/or rear) elements, the following video is probably where I first heard about it. It's about modifying the Russian Helios 44 lens (M42 mount), but I've heard about doing it with other lenses, so that's why I tried it with my Tokina 28mm.

Helios 44-2: How to reverse the front element, with amazing bokeh results (Simon's utak)


And two links:

This is What You Get When You Flip the Front Element of a $45 Soviet [MIR-1B] Lens (PetaPixel)
https://petapixel.com/2016/02/29/get-flip-front-element-45-soviet-lens/

Helios 44 - Flip/Reverse Front or Rear Element or Both ?? (forum.mflenses.com)
http://forum.mflenses.com/helios-44-flip-reverse-front-or-rear-element-or-both-t80736.html

Update edit:

By the way, a word of caution if you or anyone else is going to try it on a lens, I quote user "Lightshow" in the thread I linked to last above:

Just a word of caution about flipping elements without checking clearances can result in elements touching, a little force and damage will occur.
Happy experimenting.

 

[Andy Resnick]

I'm happy to hear you are interested.

Many thanks!

 

[morrobay]

Grainy Moonset 0530

 

[morrobay]

 

[DennisN]

Some more animals...

One of my friends is a birdwatcher so I asked him for advice about good places to go to see birds.
He suggested a particular cemetery in the city which has a number of different species. He was correct .

I first visited the cemetery to have a look around without any plans to take photos, but during a short break I got an unexpected close visit, so I grabbed my camera and managed to get some shots with my manual lens:

Eurasian blue tit (Cyanistes caeruleus) (1)

Eurasian blue tit (Cyanistes caeruleus) (2)

(lens used: Helios 44M7 58mm)

This made me hopeful, so a couple of days later I returned to the cemetery on a sunny day and with my zoom lens mounted. I had to spend quite some time listening for bird chirping, looking for birds and then "hunting" them with the camera, but it was very, very enjoyable.

Great tit (Parus major)
- these were fairly easy to get close to, and this one got very close to me on one occasion which I was thankful for

The following two species were more tricky as they seemed very keen on keeping the distance (and that's why the photo quality is lower; I shot them at max zoom (210mm) and then cropped the photos)

European greenfinch (Chloris chloris)
- I personally don't like the bright background here, but it's animals, and this was the best shot I got of it

Common redstart (Phoenicurus phoenicurus)

And during the cemetery visit I spotted another animal lurking among the graves:

Brown rat (Rattus norvegicus)

(lens used: Sony 55-210mm OSS zoom)

I will definitely return to the cemetery, and I'm thinking about bringing some food to try to get closer to some of the birds next time .

 

[Andy Resnick]

Scenes from a street carnival:

[15/4, various shutter speeds, auto ISO]

 

[morrobay]

Just off boat. Naklua seafood market.