Random Photos

Jonathan Scott · Dec 5, 2021

DennisN said:

That's correct! Have you been there?

No, but I lived in Göteborg in the 1980s and I had the vague idea that it might be a square in Malmö (perhaps from something on TV), so I did a Google search on Malmö Christmas and spotted it immediately. I enjoyed that time of year in Sweden (including the St Lucia celebrations, with lussekatter and glögg).

DennisN · Dec 5, 2021

Jonathan Scott said:

(including the St Lucia celebrations, with lussekatter and glögg)

I was actually drinking glögg (non-alcoholic) at home when I edited my photos yesterday

, because I felt quite cold after the long photo walk.

(for those who don't know what it is, it's mulled wine, also known as Glühwein in Germany and Austria)

dlgoff · Dec 8, 2021

Here are a couple photos that I just took of my Kansas skies:

Dusk sky over a flat rural field with bare trees, a metal outbuilding and a single power line crossing the wispy clouds.

Wide view of a rural field at dusk under a blue sky with wispy streaks of cirrus cloud, bare winter trees and a wooden fence along the left, and a white propane tank on the right.

I can't resist taking photos of my skies:

Sunset over a rural field with bare trees silhouetted against a sky filled with rows of white and grey cloud streaks, a power line running diagonally across the frame.

Rows of white and grey cloud streaks across a blue sky at dusk over a rural fence line, with bare trees and a small wooden shed in a field.

I'm not sure that these photos got loaded in the correct order I wanted.

dlgoff · Dec 9, 2021

dlgoff said:

Here are a couple photos that I just took of my Kansas skies:
View attachment 293815
View attachment 293816

I can't resist taking photos of my skies.

Dusk sky filled with rows of small white cumulus-type clouds over blue, with a dark silhouette of bare trees, a gray barn and a shed on a flat field below.

Sunset over a rural field with bare trees in silhouette, a long power line crossing diagonally, and a sky filled with rows of white and grey cloud banded across blue.

Late-day sky over a rural field, filled with rows of white and grey cloud bands, with bare trees and a fenced pasture with a small shed in the foreground.

dlgoff · Dec 9, 2021

dlgoff said:

I can't resist taking photos of my skies.
View attachment 293883
View attachment 293886
View attachment 293887

I didn't realize how blurry the last one was until now. Looks like I must have not kept the camera still enough. Dang.

DennisN · Dec 10, 2021

I recently acquired another fun glass toy, a vintage (1979-) Canon nFD 50mm f/3.5 (Macro), which is a dedicated macro lens (i.e. for close-up photography). Macro lenses can be quite expensive, but I found this one at a good price and in great condition at a Swedish online auction site.

It's quite a weird looking lens. The front lens sits deep within a grooved cone:

Front view of a black Canon macro lens at an angle, showing the deep grooved cone around the front element and ridged red-brown focus ring with printed markings.

And the "focus throw" (how much you can turn the focus ring) is huge for being a 50mm. The lens extends from being a normally sized 50mm (left below) to becoming some weirdly long 50mm (right below).

Two side-by-side photos of a Canon FD 50mm 1:3.5 macro lens, shown at its shortest and fully extended lengths; the extended lens shows a long focus scale with distance markings in feet and metres.

Some initial test shots with the lens:

1. Close-up of an eye of one of my cats:
(handheld camera, so it isn't as sharp as it could be)

Close-up photo of a cat's amber-gold eye with a vertical black pupil slit and a small white catchlight reflection, taken with a macro lens.

2. Close-up of a lime (the small green citrus fruit):

Close-up macro photo of the rounded end of a green lime, showing its pitted, textured peel with a small glossy spot and dark specks.

3. Close-up of a lime slice:

Close-up photo of a wedge of lime on a white plate, showing the translucent pale yellow-green pulp segments and the green rind.

I think it will be fun to use this lens in the spring and summer on flowers and insects.

dlgoff · Dec 10, 2021

DennisN said:

I recently acquired another fun glass toy, a vintage (1979-) Canon nFD 50mm f/3.5 (Macro), which is a dedicated macro lens (i.e. for close-up photography). Macro lenses can be quite expensive, but I found this one at a good price and in great condition at a Swedish online auction site.

It's quite a weird looking lens. The front lens sits deep within a grooved cone:

View attachment 293906

And the "focus throw" (how much you can turn the focus ring) is huge for being a 50mm. The lens extends from being a normally sized 50mm (left below) to becoming some weirdly long 50mm (right below).

View attachment 293907

Some initial test shots with the lens:

1. Close-up of an eye of one of my cats:
(handheld camera, so it isn't as sharp as it could be)
View attachment 293908

2. Close-up of a lime (the small green citrus fruit):
View attachment 293909

3. Close-up of a lime slice:
View attachment 293910

I think it will be fun to use this lens in the spring and summer on flowers and insects.

3. Close-up of a lime slice:
View attachment 293910
Wow! Nice

BillTre · Dec 10, 2021

I like your equipment tours and hearing how you plan to use them.

How close can you get with your lens?

I got a macro for shooting pictures of my fish, live swimming in a tank several years ago.
Shooting the fish moving in an aquarium required a long working distance, a telephoto-macro, since the fish were not often near the front of the tank.
In my shoots, I could resolve single pigment cells (they are big, and black on silver) from about 1-2 feet away (in optimal conditions).
I believe the little blobs in the pulp of the fruit are also single cells (all swollen up with juice), so you may be doing the same thing.

DennisN · Dec 10, 2021

BillTre said:

How close can you get with your lens?

I have just briefly tested it and I didn't think about that when I tested it.
If I remember the specifications correctly it's default minimum focus distance is ca 20-25 cm. But the lens can also be used with extension tubes, which change the minimum focus distance.

I will do some tests later today and report back here in this thread.

BillTre · Dec 10, 2021

Sounds nice.

With very close, there are all kinds of new problems, like lighting and shadows.

collinsmark · Dec 10, 2021

DennisN said:

But the lens can also be used with extension tubes, which change the minimum focus distance.

Here's a photo I took about 14 years or so ago, using extension tubes. It wasn't taken with a macro lens, just a normal lens with some extension tubes.

Close-up of a sewing machine needle, presser foot and thread against a black background, with a metal presser foot resting on a dark stitch plate.

Machine Head

Here's an article (from B&H photo, who sells all the stuff in the article) about macro photography gear. It does have some interesting ideas, I must say.
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/explor...ws-reversal-rings-macro-couplers-and-focusing

dlgoff · Dec 10, 2021

dlgoff said:

I can't resist taking photos of my skies.
View attachment 293883
View attachment 293886
View attachment 293887

Here are some I just took. Very Yellow:

Photo at sunset of golden-lit clouds over a grey sky, with silhouetted leafless trees and shrubs along the bottom edge.

Sunset sky with wispy, streaky clouds lit gold and orange above silhouetted bare tree branches along the bottom edge.

Sunset sky streaked with thin, wispy clouds lit gold and yellow, with a diagonal power line crossing from lower left to upper right above silhouetted bare trees and a rooftop.

Sunset over a rural farm with wispy, streaked clouds lit gold and orange, bare trees silhouetted against the horizon, a metal-roofed barn and a wire fence in the foreground, and a power line crossing the sky.

DennisN · Dec 10, 2021

DennisN said:

I will do some tests later today and report back here in this thread.

BillTre said:

Sounds nice.

With very close, there are all kinds of new problems, like lighting and shadows.

I did a relatively thorough test using just the lens and also different extension tubes.

And there were various challenges, particularly related to focusing, and I also did a focus stacking test
at the highest magnification I could achieve.

But it's late here and I'm tired, so I'll return with descriptions and photo examples later.
But I can say I estimated the default minimum focus distance for the lens as ca 23 cm.

My next post will be about the journey into the heart of a bell pepper.

Point Conception · Dec 10, 2021

Photo of a shallow clear water surface over a sandy or pebbly bed, with bright wavy caustic light patterns and small pale stones visible on the bottom.

dlgoff · Dec 10, 2021

@berkeman
I've been thinking about my ham radio mentor and decided to see if there was anything about him by doing an image search on his call sign (W0AFQ) and low and behold I found these two photos of him.

The man in the middle:

Three smiling men holding drinks at an indoor event; the man in the middle wears a name badge reading W0AFQ and a shirt with a sticker, the man on the right wears a dark polo with yellow lettering.

The man standing:

Two men seated on a striped armchair by a window in sunlight; the older man in front wears a black polo shirt, a blue lanyard and an ARRL badge, and holds a drink with a straw.

He taught me so much about electronics and electronic construction. To give you an idea of when this was, he and I first experimented with RTL when that logic first came to the scene.
from wikipedia:

... design was begun in 1961 and which first flew in 1966.

@berkeman
Did you notice the ARRL on the shirt of the man in the bottom photo?

DennisN · Dec 12, 2021

BillTre said:

Sounds nice.

With very close, there are all kinds of new problems, like lighting and shadows.

DennisN said:

My next post will be about the journey into the heart of a bell pepper.

A Journey into a Bell Pepper

Gear: Sony A6000 and a Canon nFD 50mm f/3.5 Macro lens, without and with extension tubes
Extra gear: Tripod, remote control, 2 lamps to help with illumination
Camera settings: ISO 200, f/9.5 (approx. the sharpest f-stop for the lens)
Focusing distances tried: from 55 cm down to 20 cm.
Processing: Some basic processing in Dxo PhotoLab and Photoshop

First I want to say I'm more or less a beginner at macro photography. I've tried some things for fun before with extension rings (e.g. flowers and bees), but during this test I understood that macro photography can be quite different from "normal" photography.

I learned that there are various challenges which I won't go into detail about, other than mentioning that there are focusing challenges because the depth of field (DOF) can get extremely tiny.

Ok, onto the bell pepper...

1. Here's a tasty bell pepper at a somewhat "normal" focusing distance (55 cm):

Whole green bell pepper with a short green stem, glossy skin and lobed sides, standing on a white cylindrical base against a dark grey background.

2. And still tasty, but also a bit magnified (now at 37 cm):

Close-up photo of a glossy green bell pepper with its stem at the top, against a dark grey background.

Well, my objective was not to do close-ups of the surface, but the seed "bundle" inside of it.
So I summoned my inner Jack the Ripper and sliced it in half.
I couldn't balance the slice as it was in the previous photos, so I turned it upside down.

3. The bell pepper slice with the seeds visible (still at 37 cm):

Close-up photo of a green bell pepper cut in half and turned upside down on a white base, showing a cluster of pale cream seeds attached to the pale core.

4. Let's go further in... (now at 27 cm):

Close-up macro photo of a green bell pepper sliced in half, showing a cluster of pale tan seeds attached to the pale pith at the core.

And a little further... (now at 25 cm):

Close-up macro photo of the cut inside of a green bell pepper, showing a cluster of pale tan seeds attached to the pale white pith.

Now we are close to the minimum focusing distance, which is ca 23 cm.
I can't get closer without using extension tubes (or something similar).
If I go down to e.g. 20 cm the image gets out of focus:

Close-up macro photo of a cluster of pale orange-pink bell pepper seeds on the cut inner surface of a pepper, with pale green flesh around them.

So, time to mount extension tubes between the lens and camera. First we try a 10mm tube.

Lens + 10mm tube (at 22 cm):
(this looks promising, but also note how much of the photo that got unfocused!)

Close-up macro photo of a cluster of pale tan bell pepper seeds attached to pale green pith, with shallow depth of field blurring the background.

Now let's try the 16mm tube.
Lens + 16mm tube (at 20 cm):

Close-up macro photo of a cluster of pale peach-colored bell pepper seeds, shallow depth of field, blurred pale background.

And now, let's join the two tubes to one 26mm tube (10+16).
Lens + 26mm tubes (still at 20 cm):

Close-up macro photo of a cluster of pale tan bell pepper seeds with brown edges, clinging to a pale green pepper flesh surface.

And while we're at it, why not pull in the big guns? I have yet another tube, a 25mm one.
Let's join the three into a 51 mm tube (10+16+25).

Lens + 51mm tube (at 21 cm):
(Why 21 cm suddenly? Well, I don't know why, but I couldn't focus at 20 cm anymore with this tube combination.)

Close-up macro photo of pale tan seeds clustered on a bell pepper slice, with a blurred pale green background on the right.

And this is as close as I could get to the seeds with the gear available.

But since there was so much that was out of focus, I tried focus stacking which is a technique where you take a number photos in which different parts are in focus, and then let a software combine the photos into one photo where hopefully more parts are in focus. It's pretty easy to automatically do this in Photoshop.

Final focus stacked photo (at 21 cm):
(made of 7 individual photos, including some extra postprocessing in Photoshop, but everything is still not quite in focus, though)

Close-up macro photo of pale tan bell pepper seeds clustered on the pale green inner flesh of a pepper slice, with fine surface texture visible.

Not a pro macro photo, but still pretty cool, I think. At least it's fun.

For getting a feel of the magnification I measured one of seeds shown in the photo.
The seed diameter was ca 4 mm:

Small pale beige seed or grain on a white surface beside a stainless hardened steel ruler, with markings from 120 to 170 visible, showing the object is roughly 4 mm across.

And here's the full gear assembled, quite a little beast measuring 20 cm in length :) :
(from left to right: camera, 16 mm and 10 mm extension tube, FD-NEX lens adapter, 25 mm extension tube, and finally the extended macro lens)

Sony A6000 camera with a Canon FD 50mm f/3.5 macro lens on Meike extension tubes and an adapter, lying on a table beside a metal ruler marked in centimetres.

Afterwards the bell pepper found its final destiny inside my stomach. It was very tasty.

Point Conception · Dec 12, 2021

Facade of a multi-storey building with a large diamond-shaped window frame of cream lattice and grey tile, and the sign MIKE PLAZA at street level.

Building facade with a diamond-shaped opening framed by an ornate lattice of interlocking star and geometric patterns, with air conditioning units and electrical cables above.

Woman in a black t-shirt and black face mask working at a cluttered food stall, chopping on a wooden block with a cleaver in front of containers of ingredients and plastic bottles.

Point Conception · Dec 13, 2021

Small town - no faces

A woman with long dark hair, seen from behind, eating soup at a white wooden table on a waterfront terrace, with a green-roofed wooden pier and building over calm water.

dlgoff · Dec 13, 2021

dlgoff said:

Here are some I just took. Very Yellow:
View attachment 293957
View attachment 293958
View attachment 293959
View attachment 293960

More from my Kansas Skies; really cool this time of the year:

Dusk sky over a rural scene, with thin pink and orange wispy clouds streaking diagonally across a blue sky above silhouetted bare trees and a low farm building.

Sunset sky with pink and peach wispy clouds streaking across a pale blue sky, a diagonal contrail crossing the upper left, and silhouetted bare trees and power lines along the horizon.

Photo of a dusk sky with a streaky pink wispy cloud over a pale blue sky, framed by bare winter tree branches and dark evergreen silhouettes along the bottom edge.

Point Conception · Dec 13, 2021

Green, yellow and red bell peppers side by side on a shiny metal tray, reflected in the surface, on a wooden table.

DennisN · Dec 13, 2021

morrobay said:

View attachment 294112

Three bell peppers in a traffic light configuration.

DennisN · Dec 14, 2021

Moon over tower:
(taken today with a vintage Tokina 135mm)

Silhouette of a church steeple with a weathervane against a deep blue dusk sky, with a waxing gibbous moon above it and bare tree branches in the foreground.

dlgoff · Dec 15, 2021

We just had a strong thunderstorm move through here (winds at 60 mph with gust of 80 mph:

Dark storm clouds lit orange-pink by the setting sun over a flat rural field, with bare trees on the left and a utility pole and power line on the right.

Point Conception · Dec 16, 2021

Same Thai girl from above

A woman with reddish-brown hair and a black face mask stands at an open-air fruit stall, handing money to a vendor beside piles of oranges, mangoes and bagged produce.

A woman in a black face mask, black camisole, blue jeans and sandals stands at a market stall beside piles of oranges, holding a black handbag and a dark umbrella.

Point Conception · Dec 16, 2021

And the sunset

Sun setting behind a city skyline of high-rise towers, with silhouetted trees and low rooftops in the foreground against an orange and yellow sky.

Sunset over a city skyline, with the bright sun low in an orange sky and silhouetted high-rise towers and rooftops in the foreground.

Point Conception · Dec 18, 2021

Night photo of a bright full moon partly veiled by thin clouds over a dark sea, with harbour lights and moored boats in the foreground.

With this grainy moon it is clearly with a cheap phone and not a Tokina 135 mm

DennisN · Dec 18, 2021

morrobay said:

With this grainy moon it is clearly with a cheap phone and not a Tokina 135 mm

If you like to try some more with the Moon there are some simple and cheap accessories you can use with
smartphones (they will also help with evening/night photography):

1) A basic tripod (which reduces blur when shooting in low light)
2) A tripod-smartphone adapter. Here is one I've got:

Black metal smartphone tripod adapter with a knurled knob, a spring-loaded clamp arm and a textured cradle at the base, standing on a wooden table.

3) Using a camera app that has a timer option (i.e. a delayed shot), which also eliminates the camera shake that occurs when you touch the camera to take a shot (the default camera app on your phone may also already have this option).

I don't know which type of smartphone you've got, but I've got an Android type, and my favorite third-party camera app is "Open Camera" (completely free, supports manual options and a bunch of other things).

Google Play Link: Open Camera

rsk · Dec 19, 2021

School Christmas holidays are here and, partly because of Covid and partly because my employer still has my passport, I will be spending the holidays here, mainly wandering round this city.

Narrow alley in a Vietnamese city lined with tall tiled houses, hanging laundry, red flags and blooming bougainvillea, with a man in a white shirt cycling away past parked motorbikes and a bamboo-sided cart in the foreground.

rsk · Dec 19, 2021

morrobay said:

View attachment 294112

I see your three colors and raise you a fourth

SPOILER: It's green inside and tastes like the green ones, not sweet like the red and yellow ones.

Three glossy dark purple bell peppers and a yellow bell pepper and a green bell pepper on a white plate.

Point Conception · Dec 19, 2021

Woman in a sleeveless white dress with dark star pattern holds a card reading "46 Kg" beside an escalator, with a sea view and palm trees behind.

You got me on peppers but you have a ways to go on Vietnamese girls/Thai girls

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