Random Photos

[sbrothy]

And a cameo from Jeffrey Dahmer:

I'll stop now.

 

[jtbell]

Felix now will become immortal in the racing world.

Yes, it was a very dramatic finish. In horse-racing terms, he "won by a nose." I suppose you've seen the "photo finish".

 

[DennisN]

I suppose you've seen the "photo finish".

Yes. It was a very tight finish.

 

[Andy Resnick]

Some (manual focus) bird photos @ 400mm, f/5.6, 1/640s:

Grackles:

Like @collinsmark, I tried to show the iridescent feathers... tough to do, these guys don't stand still for more than a second or so..

juvenile cardinal:

blue jay:

Even @ f/5.6, because I am working a close focus distance, the depth of focus is at most a cm or so, but I can't stop down too much more or my shutter speed will have to increase (or else the ISO goes up to 2000 or more)... there's always a trade-off to negotiate.

I like jelly! (sparrow)

What you want from me? I just woke up! (juvenile downy woodpecker)

a very dignified catbird:

Psst! Over here! I'm a rodent, but cute- not like rats!

 

[sbrothy]

Cutest dancing spider I've ever seen (1-2mm).

EDIT: Oh, not my photo. just FYI.

 

[sbrothy]

Some (manual focus) bird photos @ 400mm, f/5.6, 1/640s:

Grackles:
View attachment 372015

View attachment 372016

Like @collinsmark, I tried to show the iridescent feathers... tough to do, these guys don't stand still for more than a second or so..

juvenile cardinal:
View attachment 372017

blue jay:
View attachment 372018

Even @ f/5.6, because I am working a close focus distance, the depth of focus is at most a cm or so, but I can't stop down too much more or my shutter speed will have to increase (or else the ISO goes up to 2000 or more)... there's always a trade-off to negotiate.

I like jelly! (sparrow)
View attachment 372019

What you want from me? I just woke up! (juvenile downy woodpecker)
View attachment 372020

a very dignified catbird:
View attachment 372021

Psst! Over here! I'm a rodent, but cute- not like rats!
View attachment 372022

Although you're probably as full of parasites and rodent diseases as any "other" rat.

 

[DennisN]

My cat taking a nap behind the curtains :

(shot with Vivitar 100mm f/2.8)

 

[DennisN]

Psst! Over here! I'm a rodent, but cute- not like rats!

A very cool shot!

 

[collinsmark]

Non-bird/critter related Nebraska pics, part 1.

I'll start with a series of photos I took from the passenger seat of a car while diving from place to place (I wasn't driving). These picture were all taken at full speed (roughly 55 mph [90 km/h]) through the window glass. All photos in this series were taken with the 50mm Summilux-M ASPH, at around f/8, 1/4000 sec.

Figure 1.

Figure 2.

Figure 3.

Figure 4.

Figure 5.

Figure 6.

Figure 7.

Figure 8.

Figure 9.

Note that all these pics so far were taken with the car moving at highway speeds with the window rolled up. None of this, "Oh, stop the car, let me take a picture." Nope. Nothing like that. I wasn't even looking through the viewfinder. It was just me and my sister driving from place to place with the radio on, having a conversation while I just held the camera up to the window, and started snapping photos when something possibly interesting went by.

The image below (see Fig. 10) shows how to set up a camera for that.

Figure 10. Camera settings setup for these "from-inside-moving-car" pics. Note how the focus ring is rotated such that the $\infty$ symbol is lined up with number corresponding to the selected f-stop (8 in this case). That's hyperfocal distance focusing. -- Also, this image of my Leica was taken with my other Leica *snort*. 'Looks like my M11-P's top plate is already showing some patina (that's expected). This rangefinder camera is getting a lot of use.

Some key takeaways are:

• Fast shutter speed. I took all the photos above in the series at 1/4000 sec, but that might have been overkill; but try and make it fast, like 1/1000 sec or faster. Avoid electronic shutter since rolling shutter can be an issue here.
• Moderate aperture. You want to get all of your scene in focus (no time to change focus) so you'll want a decent depth of field. But not so much that you introduce a lot of noise (recall the fast shutter speed). For 50mm or less focal length, it's tough to go wrong with f/8.
• Use auto-ISO if you have it. If your camera doesn't have auto-ISO, use the Sunny 16 rule, I guess. You can figure that part out.
• Pre-focus your camera/lens on its hyperfocal distance and leave it. Fig. 10 shows an example of how to set that up on a manual focus lens. Line up the $\infty$ symbol with your selected f-stop indicator line in the right side of the DoF markings. If you're using an autofocus system, turn autofocus off. Focus manually. Autofocus is not your friend for these types of shots.

So what if your lens doesn't have DoF indicators on it?? How to know what the hyperfocal distance is? There are online calculators to help. The app PhotoPills (for iPhone or Andriod) has a built in hyperfocal distance calculator.

Note that this advice is to keep the largest depth of field possible while removing motion blur. That's only one way to take photos from a moving vehicle, or of a moving vehicle. Maybe you want some motion blur? That can be okay too. Stay tuned for a future post, where I'm back in San Diego, and take the opposite approach and shoot with intentional blur. I have more Nebraska pics first though.

To be continued. ...