It’s only the second instalment of my wide angles only topic for the month, and I was honestly ready to bail on it already. The days when it was nice this week, I was knee deep in work and couldn’t sneak off with my camera. Then the weekend arrived with the promise of more free time to get out and explore, and for the most part, dull, grey skies have been the order of the days. Add to that the slowly melting snow carpeting the landscape in a dirty blanket and you’ve not really got the recipe for epic landscape images.
But, despite all that, I went out for a wander in one of the local parks yesterday and I had a great time. Sure it was muddy and slushy and lots of paths and areas were inaccessible, but it felt awesome to go out and shoot. It was also fun to be limited by only having one lens with a small range, and having to focus on things that wouldn’t probably be my first inclination.
I’m definitely going to have to get creative though if I am going to come up with something for each Sunday of April. Stop by next weekend to see what I have come up with.
I hope you enjoy the selections for this week.
A foot bridge heading into Cottonwood Park in Prince George. 1/150 sec, f13, ISO 400 at 10mm.Do you feel like you are being watched? The park features several carvings in the massive trees that line the paths. 1/180sec, f6.4, ISO 400, 10mmAnother view of one of the carvings in the trees. 1/450sec, f6.4, ISO 400, 10mm.This is as colourful as the day was when I was out wandering. Even then, I still applied a “colour boost” filter during editing. 1/5800 sec, f4, ISO400, 10mmThe trees reaching their barren limbs up towards the sunshine. Soon, there will be leaves to obscure all the birds that chirped and sung as I wandered along. 1/340 sec, f20, ISO 400I had never contemplated photographing a small, fast moving bird like a chickadee with a wide angle lens. But the birds in the park are so tame and used to people, that I had one land on my hat while I was taking images of the face in the trees. I crouched in front of this stump after seeing the birds landing on it, pre-focused, and waited for one to stop by. 1/680 sec, f4, ISO 400 at 24mm
The photo challenge topic of the week is sunrise and sunset. Here is one of each from my travels in Southern Africa.
Sunrise on my last dat of safari. May, 2017.A flock of red-billed quelea searching for a spot to roost as night falls over the Okavango Delta. May, 2017
There’s a simple answer to the question posed in this week’s photo challenge “Where would you rather be?”.
I’d rather be on safari!
I’d rather be watching the sun set over the bush with a glass of wine in hand, and great company to have a chat with.I’d rather be watching the birds from the shade of a lodge veranda.I’d rather be looking out at the vast expanse of the universe, listening to the sounds of the bush at night.I’d rather be taking the opportunity to discover new cultures.I’d rather be out learning and experiencing different ways of life.I’d rather be looking at this view over lunch, than working away on my computer. I’d rather be dealing with this type of traffic while out for a drive.And of course, I’d much rather be hanging around with elephants.
The photo challenge topic of the week is out of this world. I’ve chosen to share a stitched panorama image that I shot while exploring the Skeleton Coast in Namibia. We flew to the coast from camp for a day of exploration, and as we were driving through the dunes we came across this beautiful oasis in the middle of vast tracts of featureless sand dunes. It truly was an out of this world landscape to see.
This might be an odd take on the topic of the week, a face in the crowd, but the purpose of the topic was to using different angles and orientations, shadow and silhouette to mask some of the features of the subject.
Portraits aren’t my thing, so I have decided to share a silhouette image.
Another week, and another trip down memory lane in terms of my photography. I’m really glad I made the decision to work on images already captured for this month, as we got rather buried in the snow the past week, and I haven’t had the time, or the energy, to get out and try and capture anything new.
This week is a mixed bag of images, shot locally and in Africa, in colour and black and white.
From 2014, a sunrise image of the Golden Ears from the dikes in Pitt Meadows where I used to walk my dog. Flying over Victoria Falls on the way into Livingstone airport in Zambia. Previously, I wasn’t really able to pull out any decent texture from photos shot through windows. Zambia, April 2013.Victoria Falls from the Zambian side. I was very fortunate to see it with just the right water level; enough so the falls looked incredibly impressive, but not so much that it was completely shrouded in mist. Zambia, April 2013.
For my then and now image, I chose this zebra from my first trip to South Africa. The original black and white conversion was done in Lightroom using a few basic adjustments, not long after I returned from my trip. The updated image was edited recently using a combination of plugins in Photoshop, including MacPhun Tonality and Topaz Detail. I’m sure I could achieve similar results simply using On1 Photo Raw (I’m not using Lightroom any longer for processing), but I like the ease of using Tonality for black and white edits.
Then – a basic black and white conversion lacking a lot of contrast.Now – the zebra stands out much better against the foliage, and there is a lot more detail throughout the image.
For February, I have decided that my topic for the month will be revisiting old work. It was one of the shortlisted topic ideas that I had come up with back in December, and lately, it is a concept I have been encountering over and over in the educational resources I am working through, in articles that I read and podcasts that I have been listening to. I think it is an excellent concept as there have been improvements in photo editing software over the years, plus I’ve added a lot more tools into my editing toolbox and my skills at editing have improved with time and practice.
I am going to try to look for a mix of images that I can show both a then and now edited version of an image, and also work on images for the first time. I am sure there are many images that I passed over throughout the years because I simply didn’t have the skills to correct for errors in the field, difficult lighting scenarios or heavy noise.
Here is my first instalment of revisiting old work:
I originally edited this giraffe image upon returning home from a trip in 2014. below is my revisit to the image.Today’s take on the same image; the changes are not dramatic, but textures in the images are definitely a lot more apparent.I love the surreal nature of this deer at sunrise in thick fog. Taken along to Pitt River October, 2013.Way back to the first trip where I had a DSLR camera, a Nikon D5100 with kits lens. I was on a Caribbean cruise and spent loads of time shooting images off the balcony, but never edited any of them till much later. January, 2012.Wild horses on Grand Turk, January 2012. This was a shore excursion on the same trip as the image above. I took a short walk from the main tourist area along the beach and found these two horses grazing. It felt like a rather improbable sighting at the time, but during my travels I have come to learn that many animals can survive quite well in areas that seem to have rather meaner resources.
It’s been fun rooting through my photo catalogues for old images to work on. Pop by next Sunday to see what else I turn up.
I have a bit of a love / hate relationship with night photography in winter. The biggest pro is the incredibly short days which means I don’t have to stay up late to capture night sky photos. The biggest con is the possibility of incredibly cold temperatures, which makes being outside for any length of time taking photos rather painful. And of course the trouble is, the clear sky nights tend to be much colder than the overcast ones.
Last night though everything lined up rather nicely. A beautifully clear sky, temperatures only in the -12C to -15C range, which isn’t tough to manage, and a lovely recent dusting of snow on all the trees. I find the fresh snow and the moonlight a beautiful combination, and I am glad I had the chance to try and capture it.
This was the first time I used my Fuji camera for night photography and I am quite happy with the results, though I definitely need a lot more practice with it. I was surprised that my 10mm – 24mm lens produced a starburst effect from the moon at f4; that is something I will need to do more research on as I was used to getting that phenomenon at apertures in the range of f16 and smaller with my old Nikon set up, though to be fair that was with a 28mm – 300mm lens; I have no recollection what my old Nikkor 10mm – 24mm did.
I did have one major missed opportunity yesterday evening. I only brought out one camera with me, and while my camera was busy processing an image with the long exposure noise reduction, a deer popped out of the woods and stood highlighted by the moonlight for a few wonderful moments before heading off. Of course, the camera wasn’t able to do anything while the processing was happening, so I missed the shot. Note to self, always take both cameras when doing longer exposure work.
A few random thoughts on night photography in winter: dress appropriately, know your gear, make sure you can operate your gear with gloves on, and stay safe!
I only have two images to share today, I hope you enjoy them.
The moon was behind me, lighting up the snow on the trees, and allowing for a faint view of the stars. 10 sec, f4, ISO 1000
A moon bright enough to cast shadows in the snow. 8 sec, f4, ISO 1000
