Random Photos

Andy Resnick · Apr 8, 2023

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

Macro photo of willow catkin flowers: long pale stalks tipped with yellow pollen-laden anthers, plus reddish-yellow bud-like flower parts and fine white hairs.

Close macro photo of willow catkin flowers: clusters of small yellow stamens with pollen on slender stalks, and reddish-yellow tipped female flower buds, against a soft blurred background.

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

Point Conception · Apr 9, 2023

Some funky areas beyond Naklua seafood market.

Narrow canal lined with concrete walls, moored wooden boats, and houses with blue awnings and potted plants on the banks, with a high-rise building in the distance.

nsaspook · Apr 9, 2023

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

Wooden bar counter set up for a wedding with a glass dispenser of dark red punch, bottles of Tanqueray gin, Martell VS cognac, Monin liqueur, Appleton-style rum, a Coca-Cola can, flowers and two drink menus.

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

Outdoor wedding ceremony under a wooden pergola draped with red fabric, two people standing at a white pedestal table with a candle while guests and groomsmen look on.

Guests seated at round tables with white cloths in a bright room with tall windows, flowers in a vase in the foreground, and green Sprite cans on the tables.

Guests seated at a round table with white linen in a room with cream walls and wooden beams, eating plates of food; cans of Sprite and a vase of white and yellow flowers are on the table.

A bride in a white gown and a groom in a burgundy suit kiss while holding slices of cake on plates, beside a cupcake tower on a round table with a white cloth.

DennisN · Apr 10, 2023

A swan shot today.

A white mute swan with an orange bill and black knob swimming on dark rippled water, neck curved in an S-shape, head turned downward toward the viewer's left.

Looking at me...

A white mute swan with an orange bill and black knob swimming on dark rippled water, its neck curved and head turned toward the viewer.

(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 · Apr 10, 2023

Walk in the ~~park~~ botanic garden nearby

Calm stream in a wooded park in spring, with a leaning tree trunk and bare and newly leafed trees reflected in still water, and a mossy stone and a rusty metal post at the lower left bank.

Clump of purple pasqueflowers with yellow centres and silky hairy stems growing among dark rocks, with some cream-coloured and bud-stage flowers in the background.

Close-up photo of a branch with new red, deeply lobed leaves and reddish stems, backlit against a blurred dark background with blue sky visible at the top right.

Point Conception · Apr 10, 2023

A white egret with a long neck, yellow-orange bill and black legs standing on wet sand at the edge of the surf, with breaking waves behind it.

Point Conception · Apr 13, 2023

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

A woman with shoulder-length blonde hair in a white tank top eats from a plate at a rustic wooden table in an open-sided restaurant, with bowls of soup, rice and stir-fried dishes in front of her.

jtbell · Apr 14, 2023

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

Road closed sign in front of barricades on a dirt road leading to a new concrete bridge under construction, with an excavator and trees in the background.

And then we all can stop using Amazon delivery drones. :woot:

Just kidding... there's another way into the neighborhood. This is from about three months ago:

Street scene with a tall crane-like pile driver rig in the distance behind a road closure; orange and white barricades and a sign reading ROAD CLOSED TO THRU TRAFFIC and DETOUR block the road.

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

Point Conception · Apr 17, 2023

Low tide

Outdoor shop wall hung with strings of seashells and pale shell discs, an orange life ring in the centre, and dangling shell wind chimes with a green plant below.

A woman with long blonde hair sits at a white wooden table on a seaside terrace, resting her chin on her hand, with plates of food and water bottles in front of her; the tide is out behind her over exposed mudflats, with a city skyline on the far shore.

A woman in a white romper, sunglasses, a green face mask and a brown monogram belt bag stands on a rusty metal railing above a canal, with a small wooden boat below and stilt houses and overhead wires behind her.

DennisN · Apr 17, 2023

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):

Close-up photo of a small olive-brown songbird with a pale throat and a thin dark beak, perched on a blue curved surface against a dark background.

"Hi!"

Close-up photo of a small brownish-olive songbird with a pale throat, perched on a blue surface against a dark background.

"Who are you looking at? Me?"

Close-up of a small brown-olive songbird with a fluffed-up belly, perched on a blue-grey surface against a dark background, facing the camera.

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

Tom.G · Apr 17, 2023

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. :cry:

Andy Resnick · Apr 18, 2023

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):

Close-up of a white flower with many stamens tipped with pale yellow pollen and dark anthers, and pink-tinged pistils at the centre.

Brown chrysalis hanging from a bare twig by a short silk stalk, against a blurred brown and grey background.

Close-up of a cactus areole with pale orange, fuzzy spines radiating around a small central cluster of tiny new spines.

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:

A bald eagle with a white head and yellow beak perched on the rim of a large stick nest high in a leafless tree, viewed through bare branches.

And, since this is a nest....

Two young bald eagles, grey-feathered with pale heads just starting to show, perched side by side in a large stick nest high in leafless trees, heavily blurred by distance and atmospheric haze.

Bald eagle with white head perched in a large stick nest high in leafless trees with budding branches, partly obscured by branches in the foreground.

Two young eaglets with grey down sitting in a large stick nest high in a tree, partly obscured by branches, against a pale blue sky.

Young bald eagle with mottled brown and white down, perched on a large stick nest high in bare tree branches against a pale sky.

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

Red-tailed hawk in flight seen from below against a pale blue sky, wings spread, with a rusty-red tail, small and distant in the frame.

Which brought the adults back, post-haste:

Two bald eagles soaring against a blue sky with clouds, one on the left and one larger in the lower right, both seen from below with wings spread.

A very enjoyable afternoon!

DennisN · Apr 19, 2023

Andy Resnick said:

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

Andy Resnick said:

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 · Apr 19, 2023

DennisN said:

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 · Apr 20, 2023

Two shots taken recently in April:

Railway tracks and trains at night:

Night panoramic photo of a railway yard with many parallel tracks, several trains and sodium street lights along the background.

(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:

Close-up of a Western Jackdaw, black plumage with a pale grey nape, perched on a weathered tree branch against a blurred background of bare trees and bokeh.

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

DennisN · Apr 23, 2023

Dusk photo of a conical mountain peak silhouetted against an orange-pink sky, with a winding line of lights climbing its slope to the summit and dark trees in the foreground.

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 · Apr 24, 2023

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

Micrograph of liquid crystal under crossed polarizers showing a dense, wavy pattern of dark and bright striped domains with colored fringes, forming a branching, maze-like texture.

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

Polarized light micrograph of liquid crystal showing a dense pattern of wavy, striped domains with dark point defects, in yellow and blue-gray tones.

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

Micrograph of liquid crystal under crossed polarizers, showing red-lit wavy striped domains and dark defect patterns across the field.

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 · Apr 26, 2023

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:

Long-exposure night photo of a multi-lane road with light trails: white headlight streaks on the left lanes and red taillight streaks on the right, beside a lit office tower.

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

Long exposure photo of a city street at dusk, with streaks of orange light from passing vehicles trailing across the road beside a row of tall apartment buildings and bare trees.

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:

White dog with brown ears and brown patches runs across green grass while carrying a tennis ball in its mouth.

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:

White cherry blossom flowers in full bloom on a dark branch with fresh green leaves, blurred background, sunlit spring scene.

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

Yellow dandelion in bloom with two closed buds on green stems, growing from a crack in grey pavement, with blurred background.

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

Andy Resnick · Apr 27, 2023

DennisN said:

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 · Apr 28, 2023

Andy Resnick said:

Nice shots, all around!

Thanks!

Andy Resnick said:

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 · Apr 28, 2023

DennisN said:

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

About as dark as the rest of the scene! :oldbiggrin:

jtbell · Apr 29, 2023

Dense patch of wildflowers in grass, with clusters of small magenta five-petalled flowers and several yellow buttercup-like flowers among green leaves.

TonyStewart · Apr 29, 2023

Wide view of a horseshoe-shaped waterfall at dusk, with a curved sheet of white water pouring over the edge and mist rising from the base.

Tom.G · Apr 30, 2023

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 · Apr 30, 2023

Tom.G said:

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 · Apr 30, 2023

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.

Two framed coastal photographs stacked on a wall: the upper shows surf rolling onto a sandy beach beside green hillside, the lower shows a bluff-top view over a bay with a utility pole and a dirt track.

Point Conception · Apr 30, 2023

Two framed beach photographs hang on a patterned curtain on a turquoise wall, beside a potted bamboo plant, a colourful painted box and green and blue bowls on a wooden ledge.

Point Conception · Apr 30, 2023

Woman with long light hair in a striped top and trousers sits on a green-cushioned chair at night on a rooftop, looking at a phone, with candles and a potted plant nearby.

TonyStewart · Apr 30, 2023

Elevated view of a baseball game in a stadium with rows of blue seats filled with spectators, the infield dirt and green outfield grass visible below, and a blue railing in the foreground.

$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 · May 1, 2023

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

Two young women in a cafe stand by a window looking at a phone one is holding, one holding a green iced drink in a clear cup; wooden chairs and a table with iced drinks in the foreground.

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