Random Photos

[Andy Resnick]

A few macro shots (1:2) of the catkins opening on our kitty willow (Salix discolor), 1:1 crops. Hello, spring!

Jpgs straight from the camera, 55mm Micro Nikon, f/8 1/1600s shutter. Auto ISO (ISO 1000, I think...)

 

[Point Conception]

Some funky areas beyond Naklua seafood market.

 

[nsaspook]

A few shots of the daughter's wedding this weekend.

The open bar is a prime requirement for a good wedding.

 

[DennisN]

A swan shot today.

Looking at me...

(Lens used: my Russian Industar-26M, which I don't very much enjoy using since it is an
ergonomical disaster. But nevertheless it can take quite sharp images with character.)

 

[Rive]

Walk in the park botanic garden nearby

 

[Point Conception]

 

[Point Conception]

That's the bay out there. Unfortunately a smoggy white out these days

 

[jtbell]

The state has been building a replacement for the old bridge leading into our neighborhood. Maybe soon it will be finished, finally.

And then we all can stop using Amazon delivery drones. Just kidding... there's another way into the neighborhood. This is from about three months ago:

We had to listen to that pile driver for a few weeks. Bam! ... Bam! ... Bam!

 

[Point Conception]

Low tide

 

[DennisN]

A couple of days ago I heard a soft, "bouncy" sound coming from one of my windows, and I thought it must have been a bird who had flown into it by accident. But the sound was so soft I thought the bird must have been very small.

I took a look outside the window and saw a very little bird sitting on one of my outdoor chairs, recuperating from the collision. I estimated its height was only ca 6 cm.

It was a bird I never had seen before, so quick as lightning I fetched my camera, mounted my zoom lens and took some pictures of it through the window:

Pretty bird (it's a Common chiffchaff):

"Hi!"

"Who are you looking at? Me?"

It sat there for a couple of minutes and then it took off. A very nice encounter.

 

[Tom.G]

Several years ago, we had a Humming Bird feeder just outside our living room window. One Spring there was a family of four Orioles that made a habit of feeding there.

My wife and I would often stand in the living room, about 8 feet from the feeder, to watch them.

As birds tend to do, if they are perched somewhere and another bird comes in to take their place, they will leave to avoid getting raked by the new-comers talons.

One of the youngsters was feeding when Papa came in for a snack. Of course Junior got out of the way... for a little while; but then decided that it was hungry - got a flying start - and drove his beak into Papas wing. Junior then finished the interrupted meal.

A few weeks later, one of the youngsters spotted us watching thru the window - and decided to drive us out of 'their' territory. It made a dash to my forehead, but crashed into the window and flew off. It was so quick that the bird was gone before I could react!

From then on it was a family of three that visited the feeder.

 

[Andy Resnick]

A beautiful spring day over the weekend, another opportunity to take a couple of lenses out for a walk :)

55mm Micro Nikkor, f/5.6, shutter speed about 1/200s, auto ISO (handheld):

But the real reason for the stroll was an Eagle's nest (Haliaeetus leucocephalus), about 1000 feet away from where I set up to use my 800mm (400/2.8 + 2x tele), shooting at f/8, about 1/1000 s, auto ISO. Imaging conditions were terrible- in addition to shooting through 2 stands of trees, the atmospheric turbulence was severe even at this moderate distance:

And, since this is a nest....

The 'parents' were gone for quite some time... long enough for a red-tailed hawk to take notice:

Which brought the adults back, post-haste:

A very enjoyable afternoon!

 

[DennisN]

The 'parents' were gone for quite some time... long enough for a red-tailed hawk to take notice:

Which brought the adults back, post-haste:

Did you shoot the two photos with flying hawks/eagles without autofocus?
If so, that is incredibly difficult, and I am very impressed.

I actually tried shooting flying birds (seagulls) for the first time a couple of days ago (with my autofocusing zoom) and it was very, very fun. I also shot with the focus tracking mode enabled on my camera, which means I saw the focus points in the viewfinder actively locking in on the birds, which also was very fun. It felt a bit like I was hunting airplanes with a missile targeting system .

I will post some pictures here later .

 

[Andy Resnick]

Did you shoot the two photos with flying hawks/eagles without autofocus?
If so, that is incredibly difficult, and I am very impressed.

I actually tried shooting flying birds (seagulls) for the first time a couple of days ago (with my autofocusing zoom) and it was very, very fun. I also shot with the focus tracking mode enabled on my camera, which means I saw the focus points in the viewfinder actively locking in on the birds, which also was very fun. It felt a bit like I was hunting airplanes with a missile targeting system .

I will post some pictures here later .

That's correct- no autofocus. Thanks!

 

[DennisN]

Two shots taken recently in April:

Railway tracks and trains at night:

(Equipment: Sony A7R + Sony FE 35mm, f/4, 1/3 s exposure, ISO 800, stitched photos)

A Western Jackdaw keeping a lookout on a tree branch:

(Equipment: Sony A6000 + Sony 55-210mm, f/8, 1/1000 s exposure, ISO 2000)

 

[DennisN]

Hatton, Sri Lanka

Lights illuminate Adam’s Peak, a Unesco world heritage site and ancient pilgrimage site that has long attracted thousands of pilgrims from all faiths

Photograph: Thilina Kaluthotage/NurPhoto/ShutterstockSource:
Beach-racing cars and marathon moments: weekend’s best photos
(The Guardian, 23 apr 2023)
https://www.theguardian.com/news/ga...ars-and-marathon-moments-weekends-best-photos

 

[Andy Resnick]

A colleague and I scraped some liquid crystal from a broken LCD monitor onto a slide:

16X, crossed polars. Replacing the illumination polar with a circular polarizer:

And using the varicolored filter in place of the illumination polar:

These images are straight-from-the-camera jpgs, no cropping or adjustments (except re-sizing for posting). Overall, the image quality is getting better and better!

 

[DennisN]

A variety of shots and techniques in this post, including some brand new techniques I recently tried for the first time (long exposures in daylight & action photography).Traffic, long exposure, night:

Gear: Sony A7R + Sony FE 35mm + tripod, settings: 10 s exposure, f/6.3, ISO 50Traffic, long exposure, day:

Gear: Sony A6000 + Sony 55-210mm + B+W 10-stop ND filter* + tripod,
settings: 20 s exposure, f/9, ISO 100

Notes: Taking long exposures in daylight to get significant motion blur from moving objects is as far as I know impossible without extra gear. You need a neutral density filter (ND) which significantly darkens the image (because long exposure in daylight quickly overexposes the image). I will definitely experiment more with this, it's very fun. You can for instance shoot lovely scenes with flowing water to make dreamy images, as shown in e.g. this article.

* A ridiculously expensive filter if bought new (it costs around $140 new ) which stings considering you are basically paying for a piece of glass that heavily darkens the image. I got it for merely $10 second hand
on an online auction, which stinged a lot less .A dog in action:

Gear: Sony A6000 + Sony 55-210mm, settings: 1/1600 s exposure, f/9, ISO 1600

Notes: I was out training photography of moving objects (birds taking off and flying) and saw a pair in the park playing with their dog. So I asked them if I could take photos of their dog in action, they said yes, and we did a few rounds were they let their dog chase a ball.

The trick with action photography, which I haven't done much, is to shoot with very short exposure times (let's say ca 1/1000 s - 1/4000 s) in order to get a "frozen" image with as little motion blur as possible. Shooting with "burst mode" enabled on the camera (many photos taken in succession) which I did here also helps if the object is moving very fast in your view.Flowering tree in April:

Gear: Sony A7R + Pentacon 135mm f/2.8, settings: 1/320 s exposure, ISO 400A dandelion in the courtyard:

Gear: Sony A7R + Pentacon 135mm f/2.8, settings: 1/1250 s exposure, ISO 400

 

[Andy Resnick]

A variety of shots and techniques in this post, including some brand new techniques I recently tried for the first time (long exposures in daylight & action photography).

Traffic, long exposure, day:

Gear: Sony A6000 + Sony 55-210mm + B+W 10-stop ND filter* + tripod,
settings: 20 s exposure, f/9, ISO 100

Nice shots, all around!

Another use for the 10-stop ND filter (during daylight) is to blur out all motion, so for example a downtown street shot will appear to be devoid of people and traffic.

 

[DennisN]

Nice shots, all around!

Thanks!

Another use for the 10-stop ND filter (during daylight) is to blur out all motion, so for example a downtown street shot will appear to be devoid of people and traffic.

Interesting! Have you tried this?

I've been thinking about trying some street shooting in daylight with this technique, but not to achieve the thing you mentioned. I was thinking of the opposite : getting motion blur from people. But when I think of it maybe it's impossible (or very difficult?) since the cars disappeared in my photo (but not their lights), so maybe people are too dark to generate significant motion blur?

 

[Tom.G]

so maybe people are too dark to generate significant motion blur?

About as dark as the rest of the scene!

 

[jtbell]

 

[TonyStewart]

 

[Tom.G]

That looks suspiciously like Niagara Falls, specifically Horseshoe Falls from the Canadian side; and Rainbow International Bridge in the upper lefthand corner.

I spent my teen years living on Grand Island, about 2.5 miles upstream of the falls.

I remember one time when a friend came home on leave from the Navy. We picked up our girl-friends and headed to the Canadian side. Immigration asks everyone entering Canada from there "What is the purpose of your visit?"

In the back seat, my friend, with his arm around his girl-friend, immediately pipes up with "Recreation, man. Recreation."

We were waved thru with no more questions asked!

 

[TonyStewart]

In the back seat, my friend, with his arm around his girl-friend, immediately pipes up with "Recreation, man. Recreation."

Spoken like a "Pro...", man.

 

[Point Conception]

The Lost Coast, Central California. Taken from the Coast Starlight. The coast highway goes inland after Santa Barbara. And the train stays on the Coast up to Pismo Beach. This remote area is where Vandenberg Air Force Base is located.

 

[Point Conception]

 

[Point Conception]

 

[TonyStewart]

$8 seats in Blue Jay's stadium, then move down to the $150 seats in the 2nd or 3rd to be with my diehard buddies who came once a year with single season tickets from near Ottawa for 3 days of golf and baseball.

 

[Point Conception]

Revisited my previous (for good reason) Cappuccino place in Jomtien this morning- what a difference a staff change made.