ZapperZ's Great Outdoors Photo Contest

[nismaratwork]

Mostly my Mom, but to some extent both parents. Just that my Mom was more of an active type, go there, hike there, see that, while my Dad loved to go to the country (the further from the city, the better) but not to walk/hike, but to socialize... I guess I am somewhere in between.

Hmmmm... sounds like a good time, and an intersting contrast. Thanks Borek.

 

[Gokul43201]

@Gokul: You canoe in Madison in March?! That actually sounds like a lot of fun.

Th paddling season won't start until sometime in April. But the serious paddlers (I'm not one) probably already have itchy hands. I'd rather have a few months of snow and ice for skiing and climbing.

Are you more of a canoe guy, or kayak... I tend towards the more open canoe, but Kayaking is one hell of a thrill.

A little bit of both, though I enjoy kayaking more - not seriously into either. But Wisconsin being the paddling haven that it is, I might get more into it.

I found that it can be thrilling in still water if you manage to get upside down...

A good safety rule, although perhaps a little more on the cautious side than most advocate, is to learn to roll before doing solo kayak trips.

 

[nismaratwork]

Th paddling season won't start until sometime in April. But the serious paddlers (I'm not one) probably already have itchy hands. I'd rather have a few months of snow and ice for skiing and climbing.

A little bit of both, though I enjoy kayaking more - not seriously into either. But Wisconsin being the paddling haven that it is, I might get more into it.

A good safety rule, although perhaps a little more on the cautious side than most advocate, is to learn to roll before doing solo kayak trips.

Fortunately I did just that... in fact that's why I was upside down in still water. Really, there's no way to learn but to do it, and as you know it's one hell of a thing until you get used to it.

When it comes to Kayaking, Maine is a great place to hit the sea and open water... although something about the cooperation and stately pace of canoeing always found a home in my heart.

I'm glad that you've found yourself in a haven for a hobby you love.

 

[rhody]

A friend sent this, and I thought it worth posting, seems this male bird is suppressing the females protests by taking action on his own:

Here is the caption on the image that I received:

When a male can't take it anymore:

(a photographer can die of old age waiting for a shot like this!)

Rhody...

 

[nismaratwork]

A friend sent this, and I thought it worth posting, seems this male bird is suppressing the females protests by taking action on his own:

Here is the caption on the image that I received:

When a male can't take it anymore:

(a photographer can die of old age waiting for a shot like this!)

Rhody...

Wow, that is one amazing picture...

...Where's the follow-up when the lady-bird kicks him in the cloaca?

 

[Andy Resnick]

I took this yesterday- it's titled "F U Winter".

[PLAIN]http://img857.imageshack.us/img857/6161/dsc46301.jpg

 

[nismaratwork]

Whoa... i love the detail in the veins of the leaf at the top left. Don't get me wrong, the whole thing is a great picture, with a fun theme... something about that leaf though... it's like an impaled and fallen giant.

 

[Andy Resnick]

Thanks for the kind words- here's a 1:1 crop of the leaf-

[PLAIN]http://img19.imageshack.us/img19/5439/dsc46302.jpg

Here's the full frame, for reference:

[PLAIN]http://img97.imageshack.us/img97/3782/dsc46303.jpg

 

[nismaratwork]

Thanks for the kind words- here's a 1:1 crop of the leaf-

[PLAIN]http://img19.imageshack.us/img19/5439/dsc46302.jpg

Here's the full frame, for reference:

[PLAIN]http://img97.imageshack.us/img97/3782/dsc46303.jpg[/QUOTE]

There's something really beautiful about that leaf...thanks Andy.

I love how the composting leves also produce JUST enough warmth to begin to drive away the snow, and allow new growth. Nature... never ceasing to amaze since... um... before my time.

 

[Andy Resnick]

Did anyone else get any good images of the 'super perigee' moon this weekend?

[PLAIN]http://img197.imageshack.us/img197/3015/p10201101.jpg

(taken with our travel camera)

 

[nismaratwork]

Ooooohh... I didn't even know it was happening, but it explains why I turned into a werewolf so quickly...

If that's a shot with a travel camera, I'd love to know what it looks like through a long-exposure shot at high res.

 

[Andy Resnick]

You should not use a long exposure for the moon- the moon is actually very easy to shoot; since it's sunlit, use the same camera settings for daylight.

On the travel camera, I simply set both focus and exposure metering to the dead-center setting, the result is the pic above.

But yeah- now I'm lusting over a 400mm lens w/ a 2X expander:

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/93/263702718_fefaa8de39.jpg

 

[nismaratwork]

You should not use a long exposure for the moon- the moon is actually very easy to shoot; since it's sunlit, use the same camera settings for daylight.

On the travel camera, I simply set both focus and exposure metering to the dead-center setting, the result is the pic above.

But yeah- now I'm lusting over a 400mm lens w/ a 2X expander:

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/93/263702718_fefaa8de39.jpg

Oooh... I didn't know that, thanks Andy, and thanks for the amazing pics.

Now... get that lens, you don't need food or HVAC.. lenses...

 

[Borek]

you don't need food or HVAC.. lenses...

You got it right.

 

[fuzzyfelt]

A friend sent this, and I thought it worth posting, seems this male bird is suppressing the females protests by taking action on his own:

Here is the caption on the image that I received:

When a male can't take it anymore:

(a photographer can die of old age waiting for a shot like this!)

Rhody...

Wow!

 

[nismaratwork]

I showed that one to some relatives, and the response was jaw-dropping awe.

That is a photo is something truly special.

 

[Borek]

It is everywhere, check with tineye.

 

[Andre]

That is a photo is something truly special.

Maybe so, but the question is what is so special with the magical photoshop powers nowadays.

Or am I too skeptic?

 

[nismaratwork]

Maybe so, but the question is what is so special with the magical photoshop powers nowadays.

Or am I too skeptic?

It doesn't look like it, and from a bit of research this is part of mating behaviour.

 

[Andy Resnick]

Oooh... I didn't know that, thanks Andy, and thanks for the amazing pics.

Now... get that lens, you don't need food or HVAC.. lenses...

You got it right.

I got some great news today, so I'm going shopping! Or rather, I'm making the purchasing department go shopping for me, since they prefer paperwork to common sense...

 

[nismaratwork]

I got some great news today, so I'm going shopping! Or rather, I'm making the purchasing department go shopping for me, since they prefer paperwork to common sense...

Someone is getting lenses... WhhhooooooOOOOoooooo.

 

[drizzle]

A friend sent this, and I thought it worth posting, seems this male bird is suppressing the females protests by taking action on his own:

Here is the caption on the image that I received:

When a male can't take it anymore:

(a photographer can die of old age waiting for a shot like this!)

Rhody...

WOW JUST WOW!
Man you can win any related photo contest... But what would the subject be?

Edit: ops, just read it's been sent by your friend. Great shot indeed.

 

[rhody]

This one cracks me up, can you say... in the stratosphere...

Rhody... whoosh...

 

[turbo]

This one cracks me up, can you say... in the stratosphere...

Rhody... whoosh...

Perfect!

 

[Andy Resnick]

I took the ultrawide and went for a stroll this weekend- it's a manual lens, so everything was done old-skool. One of the advantages of digital is the ability to immediately know if the exposure is too light or dark, and compensate for it right there. The metering had some trouble with this field of view- often I was shooting at exposures of -1 or even -2 to get the histogram where it should be.

It started off poorly when this fellow and I surprised each other:

[PLAIN]http://img94.imageshack.us/img94/7843/dsc6337.jpg

I was about 20 feet away and we watched each other for about 10 minutes, me snapping off frames the whole time. Why do I say 'poorly'? Here's the full frame:

[PLAIN]http://img695.imageshack.us/img695/7213/dsc63371.jpg

Clearly, ultrawides are not suited for animal photos. Even so, it was a useful exercise in manual photography and also learning that (some) wild animals will tolerate someone reasonably close. After I got over what the lens *couldn't* do (and a few mumbled oaths about Andre and his zoom lenses , I was able to think about what the lens *could* do. Ultrawides exaggerate depth- long objects appear shortened and short objects appear lengthened. For example, here's two photos of trees- I'm looking up, the camera is nearly touching the trunk:

[PLAIN]http://img864.imageshack.us/img864/7960/dsc6257.jpg

[PLAIN]http://img851.imageshack.us/img851/5453/dsc6243q.jpg

The trees are quite normal- it's the depth perspective that has altered, making them appear short and stumpy. You can also see my hand and the lens cap in the frame- I'm trying to block the sun glare from creating those blue blobs. Alternatively, here's a shot through a hollow trunk, the length of which was maybe 6 feet:

[PLAIN]http://img821.imageshack.us/img821/4237/dsc6355j.jpg

I'm closer than 1 foot from the trunk, and the warped perspective makes the trunk appear as a long tunnel. The key to using a lens like this is to get *close* and *low*:

[PLAIN]http://img121.imageshack.us/img121/7758/dsc6353.jpg

[PLAIN]http://img863.imageshack.us/img863/4248/dsc6268.jpg

[PLAIN]http://img88.imageshack.us/img88/7194/dsc6273.jpg

[PLAIN]http://img43.imageshack.us/img43/507/dsc6274x.jpg

[PLAIN]http://img130.imageshack.us/img130/1308/dsc6367.jpg

[PLAIN]http://img714.imageshack.us/img714/5072/dsc6371f.jpg

Those last two images were taken inside some sort of lean-to structure (there's nature classes that make these things all year long). There was barely enough room for me to crouch down and crawl in- if the ground wasn't so muddy, I would have laid down and shot directly up. I wasn't even looking through the viewfinder- not enough room. As it was, I came home all dirty and muddy. But the images make the interior seem spacious.

Two things to notice: the horizon tends to seek the middle of the frame, and when lines come in from the corners, the image appears 'better'.

[PLAIN]http://img638.imageshack.us/img638/4305/dsc6377n.jpg

It's really hard to get the horizon to move if it's anywhere near the central third- the image appears unbalanced otherwise. Using an ultrawide for landscapes, it's critical that some object be in the foreground to anchor the image:

[PLAIN]http://img192.imageshack.us/img192/1439/dsc6365x.jpg

Otherwise, the image is really empty becasue there's nothing to focus on:

[PLAIN]http://img806.imageshack.us/img806/3020/dsc6259j.jpg

but it's also good for sweeping skies. Here, it's really important to keep the horizon in the frame:

[PLAIN]http://img851.imageshack.us/img851/7716/dsc6264.jpg

The objects basically serve as a 'scale bar'. If you cover up the ground, it's impossible to tell how much area the sky is covering: the image could have been taken with *any* focal length lens- which defeats the purpose of having an ultrawide! Another bonus of this lens, the lens tends to make the image more blue at the corners, so sky and water appear extra-saturated if they run along the edges of the frame.

It's been raining for 2 weeks- if the weather gets better for next weekend, I'll probably do the same stroll except with the 400mm.

 

[fuzzyfelt]

Cute, rhody!
And Andy's photos reminds me a little of this artist with interesting perspective:
http://www.smh.com.au/news/Arts/Out...eal-and-sublime/2005/06/08/1118123897366.html

 

[Andy Resnick]

I checked out some of Robinson's work- it's oddly interesting (just like what I post here, except for the 'interesting' :) Thanks!

 

[Astronuc]

I took the ultrawide and went for a stroll this weekend- it's a manual lens, so everything was done old-skool. One of the advantages of digital is the ability to immediately know if the exposure is too light or dark, and compensate for it right there. The metering had some trouble with this field of view- often I was shooting at exposures of -1 or even -2 to get the histogram where it should be.

It started off poorly when this fellow and I surprised each other:

[PLAIN]http://img94.imageshack.us/img94/7843/dsc6337.jpg

I was about 20 feet away and we watched each other for about 10 minutes, me snapping off frames the whole time. Why do I say 'poorly'? Here's the full frame:

[PLAIN]http://img695.imageshack.us/img695/7213/dsc63371.jpg

Clearly, ultrawides are not suited for animal photos. Even so, it was a useful exercise in manual photography and also learning that (some) wild animals will tolerate someone reasonably close. After I got over what the lens *couldn't* do (and a few mumbled oaths about Andre and his zoom lenses , I was able to think about what the lens *could* do. Ultrawides exaggerate depth- long objects appear shortened and short objects appear lengthened. For example, here's two photos of trees- . . .

Wow that's amazing camouflage. Spending 10 minutes close to a hawk is pretty cool.

I had one fly right over my head yesterday. I wish that I'd had my camera.

 

[Andy Resnick]

I wasn't outside for this, but here's another example of using an ultrawide- remember, get *close* and *low*:

[PLAIN]http://img64.imageshack.us/img64/2479/dsc5991g.jpg

It's the bottom step of a staircase.

It's been so windy lately, the local windmills are all turned off- those should give nicely "warped" images, especially using long exposures to get some motion blur.

As a semi-random question, has anyone here had any experience using Hydrogen-alpha filters?

 

[rhody]

Self explanatory: Panda Butt, sent to me by a friend:

Rhody...