October 2019 Favorite Uploads

[Rico]

Just in time for Halloween

 

3D printer creation

[Bill Brooks]

Fall again, and the Lake Ontario salmon are on their upstream run to spawn.

 

This year I turned off the autofocus, stopped down to F11, and raised my ISO. I  set the exposure on normal so the white water was grey and the fish were underexposed. I corrected the underexposure in software.

 

The idea was to create a deep, in focus area, while retaining a high shutter speed. Then wait until the salmon leapt through the preset, in focus, area.

 

Here is a conventional tele shot.

 

 

Here is a view from above with a normal lens

 

[NYCat]

3 minutes ago, Bill Brooks said:

Fall again, and the Lake Ontario salmon are on their upstream run to spawn.

 

 

3 minutes ago, Bill Brooks said:

Here is a view from above with a normal lens

 

 

I really like this. It makes me feel a little dizzy -- in a good way. Captures what is happening on a basic emotional level.

 

Paulette

[spacecadet]

Saint-Omer cathedral

 

They got under 2% of the vote

Mijoté de veau provençal. With parsnip chips. Mmm French cooking.

Edited October 3, 2019 by spacecadet

[The Blinking Eye]

2 hours ago, Bill Brooks said:

Fall again, and the Lake Ontario salmon are on their upstream run to spawn.

 

This year I turned off the autofocus, stopped down to F11, and raised my ISO. I  set the exposure on normal so the white water was grey and the fish were underexposed. I corrected the underexposure in software.

 

The idea was to create a deep, in focus area, while retaining a high shutter speed. Then wait until the salmon leapt through the preset, in focus, area.

 

Here is a conventional tele shot.

 

 

Here is a view from above with a normal lens

 

 

Wow, thanks for sharing your technique in such detail! The second shot, especially, feels eerie with the deep focus. You can see every bubble.

[The Blinking Eye]

[Bill Brooks]

20 hours ago, NYCat said:

 

 

I really like this. It makes me feel a little dizzy -- in a good way. Captures what is happening on a basic emotional level.

 

Paulette

 

Thanks Paulette:

 

It made me feel dizzy at the time. 3 hours of staring at fast moving water gave me motion sickness and vertigo. Fortunately there was a chest high fence at the edge of the dam which kept me from falling forward into the torrent, about 15 feet below.

 

Motion sickness around moving water is something to keep in mind, as many water locations do not have a fence. The fish weigh up to 50 pounds and fly, mostly out of control, at a high rate of speed. Years ago I was standing 5 feet back from the edge of a river and was still hit from behind by a flying salmon traveling at high speed. The impact knocked off my feet, but luckily away from the river.

 

What the hell moment, when you are looking the other way through a viewfinder.

[spacecadet]

41 minutes ago, Bill Brooks said:

 

Thanks Paulette:

 

It made me feel dizzy at the time. 3 hours of staring at fast moving water gave me motion sickness and vertigo. Fortunately there was a chest high fence at the edge of the dam which kept me from falling forward into the torrent, about 15 feet below.

 

Motion sickness around moving water is something to keep in mind, as many water locations do not have a fence. The fish weigh up to 50 pounds and fly, mostly out of control, at a high rate of speed. Years ago I was standing 5 feet back from the edge of a river and was still hit from behind by a flying salmon traveling at high speed. The impact knocked off my feet, but luckily away from the river.

 

What the hell moment, when you are looking the other way through a viewfinder.

😮being hit with (by?) a wet fish is supposed to be funny. That sounds otherwise.

[gvallee]

A colony of flying-foxes leaving their roost at dusk.

 

[MizBrown]

A

 

 

A Parachromis dovii as dinner.  This is a large local cichlid called a guapote in Nicaragua and a Wolf Cichlid or Dovii in the aquarium hobby.

 

 

 

 

N

 

Nicaraguan vendor of "raspados," shaved ice topped with syrups of various kinds, beside a school. 

[The Blinking Eye]

 

 

 

I'm feeling this...

 

 

[Autumn Sky]

More landscapes that will never sell.  But I really like this spot & it just a short walk from where I live:

 

Sunrise/Sunset can be quite spectacular if you can hit it right.  Didn't get colors I wanted, but it is superb shot technically at 100%;  very clean and sharp with no noise

 

Canon EOS 6D

24-105L lens at 24mm focal length

Stitch of 3 frames

ISO 100

F8

0.5 sec exposure (tripod)

 

post-processed in CS6.     Would make real nice poster on someone wall ;=)

[dustydingo]

3 hours ago, Autumn Sky said:

Sunrise/Sunset can be quite spectacular if you can hit it right.  Didn't get colors I wanted, but it is superb shot technically at 100%;  very clean and sharp with no noise

 

I imagine you could get much, much closer to hitting this image with a little judicious luminance masking.

 

DD

[Marianne]

Tallin, Estonia - I finally uploaded these shots and others from 2011 which I processed not long after returning from my trip - spurred by the September contest though too late to enter them.  No loss since that amazing cat photo means it would not have made a difference but thanks for the nudge @Colin Woods 

 

I love meeting people when I travel. Most of these people knew I was taking their photo, but I like that they are engaged with the camera.

 

We were on a cruise,  the alarm never rang, and it was high noon and about 90 degrees when we disembarked in port, with only a few hours before the ship headed out again at 4pm.  Frustrated with the brutal shadows (see photo #2), I opted to take photos of people rather than the architecture I had planned to shoot. (Someone on this forum - it was so long ago I'm not sure who - recommended a 20mm for the narrow streets and architecture there, and with an aching back and neck, I left my backup cameras and longer lenses behind, armed only with the 20mm f/1.8 on my D700. While not my first choice for portraits obviously, the wide angle lens gave me a different perspective than if I had my 24-70mm or my 70-200mm.

 

I got to chatting with the people I met and didn't see as much of the beautiful city as I'd hoped but I have such fond memories of those few hours

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I finally managed to upload more than one image into a post. Yipee!

 

Processing notes:

There was orange canvas strung over the marketplace as a sun shade and it caused some awful colored shadows on people's faces, especially in #1 on her face which required quite a bit of work in PS and Nik's Vivenza. I had the same issue with waitresses and food I photographed in a restaurant. I considered opting for black and white, but I love the riot of color. You can see what I mean in the bottom photo, where I didn't feel it was as important to address the issue. For #2, not sure if I bracketed it or if I processed the RAW file twice but I know I used layers to make a composite. I could probably do it in half the time now and get a better shot but I like the stark contrast and how the shadow draws you to the woman in the window. 

Edited October 8, 2019 by Marianne

[Colin Woods]

21 hours ago, Autumn Sky said:

just a short walk from where I live:

Wow! Where do you live? A short walk from where I live is shopping malls and residential streets.

[British Gent]

20 hours ago, Marianne said:

Tallin, Estonia - I finally uploaded these shots and others from 2011 which I processed not long after returning from my trip - spurred by the September contest though too late to enter them.  No loss since that amazing cat photo means it would not have made a difference but thanks for the nudge @Colin Woods 

 

I love meeting people when I travel. Most of these people knew I was taking their photo, but I like that they are engaged with the camera.

 

We were on a cruise,  the alarm never rang, and it was high noon and about 90 degrees when we disembarked in port, with only a few hours before the ship headed out again at 4pm.  Frustrated with the brutal shadows (see photo #2), I opted to take photos of people rather than the architecture I had planned to shoot. (Someone on this forum - it was so long ago I'm not sure who - recommended a 20mm for the narrow streets and architecture there, and with an aching back and neck, I left my backup cameras and longer lenses behind, armed only with the 20mm f/1.8 on my D700. While not my first choice for portraits obviously, the wide angle lens gave me a different perspective than if I had my 24-70mm or my 70-200mm.

 

I got to chatting with the people I met and didn't see as much of the beautiful city as I'd hoped but I have such fond memories of those few hours

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I finally managed to upload more than one image into a post. Yipee!

 

Processing notes:

There was orange canvas strung over the marketplace as a sun shade and it caused some awful colored shadows on people's faces, especially in #1 on her face which required quite a bit of work in PS and Nik's Vivenza. I had the same issue with waitresses and food I photographed in a restaurant. I considered opting for black and white, but I love the riot of color. You can see what I mean in the bottom photo, where I didn't feel it was as important to address the issue. For #2, not sure if I bracketed it or if I processed the RAW file twice but I know I used layers to make a composite. I could probably do it in half the time now and get a better shot but I like the stark contrast and how the shadow draws you to the woman in the window. 

 

Great shots!

[British Gent]

The weird and wonderful Castell Coch. Just down the hill from my home and taken from a garden centre car park. Crazy that it's taken so long to shoot what's on my own doorstep.

 

[Autumn Sky]

17 hours ago, Colin Woods said:

Wow! Where do you live? A short walk from where I live is shopping malls and residential streets.

Canmore, AB (near entrance to Banff NP)

[Autumn Sky]

I love taking photos of the sky.  Not just sunset / sunrise, but cloud formations, patterns, etc.  This photo was taken early Oct '19

 

Left to right you can see peaks on south side of Bow Valley, Canmore AB -- Mt. Collembola, Mt. Allan and Lougheed Towers.  Early blast of winter brought snow that is likely going to stay till spring.   But main thing are these clouds and beautiful glow from sun setting behind mountain peaks (right out of picture)

 

Canon EOS 6D

F8

1/80 sec exposure

70-300L Canon Lens at 86mm focal length

ISO 160

Handheld (sitting, with elbows firm on knees for stability)

 

Want to add that optics of 70-300mm L Canon Lens is SUPERB.  It is heavy as brick and quite impractical for hiking, but it beats my all-purpose 24-105L by margin.   Photo is very sharp and totally clean of grain/noise at 100%.  You can even clearly spot shadows / craters on half moon at 100%!    It will probably never sell, but I personally really like it & this is why I am posting it.

[The Blinking Eye]

23 hours ago, Marianne said:

Tallin, Estonia - I finally uploaded these shots and others from 2011 which I processed not long after returning from my trip - spurred by the September contest though too late to enter them.  No loss since that amazing cat photo means it would not have made a difference but thanks for the nudge @Colin Woods 

 

I love meeting people when I travel. Most of these people knew I was taking their photo, but I like that they are engaged with the camera.

 

We were on a cruise,  the alarm never rang, and it was high noon and about 90 degrees when we disembarked in port, with only a few hours before the ship headed out again at 4pm.  Frustrated with the brutal shadows (see photo #2), I opted to take photos of people rather than the architecture I had planned to shoot. (Someone on this forum - it was so long ago I'm not sure who - recommended a 20mm for the narrow streets and architecture there, and with an aching back and neck, I left my backup cameras and longer lenses behind, armed only with the 20mm f/1.8 on my D700. While not my first choice for portraits obviously, the wide angle lens gave me a different perspective than if I had my 24-70mm or my 70-200mm.

 

I got to chatting with the people I met and didn't see as much of the beautiful city as I'd hoped but I have such fond memories of those few hours

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I finally managed to upload more than one image into a post. Yipee!

 

Processing notes:

There was orange canvas strung over the marketplace as a sun shade and it caused some awful colored shadows on people's faces, especially in #1 on her face which required quite a bit of work in PS and Nik's Vivenza. I had the same issue with waitresses and food I photographed in a restaurant. I considered opting for black and white, but I love the riot of color. You can see what I mean in the bottom photo, where I didn't feel it was as important to address the issue. For #2, not sure if I bracketed it or if I processed the RAW file twice but I know I used layers to make a composite. I could probably do it in half the time now and get a better shot but I like the stark contrast and how the shadow draws you to the woman in the window. 

 

These are lovely and I love the idea of shooting portraits with a wide angle lens!

[gvallee]

Black Flying Fox (Pteropus alecto)

Ravenswood, Queensland, Australia

 

 

 

 

Edited October 10, 2019 by gvallee

[dlmphotog]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is one tough looking Paniolo (Hawaiian Cowboy) who was kind enough to let me photograph him at the staging area for the 54th annual Makawao Rodeo Parade, Makawao, Maui, Hawaii, USA. The Fujinon XF 200mm f2 is such a sweet lens! Great subject isolation and sharp enough to cut yourself on. 😀

 

 

 

 

[Ed Rooney]

 

Wow, those are some really nice pictures you guys are taking. I got this night shot of the Port of Liverpool Building down by the River Mersey just five minutes from my hotel. No salmon or giant bats attacked me.

 

 

Edited October 10, 2019 by Ed Rooney

[Ognyan Yosifov]

 I like this clean composition...

 

[Marianne]

On 09/10/2019 at 13:53, British Gent said:

The weird and wonderful Castell Coch. Just down the hill from my home and taken from a garden centre car park. Crazy that it's taken so long to shoot what's on my own doorstep.

 

 

 

 

First,  thanks for your kind words re: my Estonian portraits - you too @The Blinking Eye 

 

I have taken photos of lighthouses all over the world. They've been an obsession since 2010, after a one day excursion to Nantucket (in Massachusetts off Cape Cod). There is one by the Hudson River no longer in use but only about 20 minutes from home. I took this shot a few years ago when, on my way to a niece's shower where I was stuck on the Tappan Zee Bridge in traffic and saw it far away for the zillionth time. I decided to put it into my GPS on my way home and take some photos. This shot ended up in a show sponsored by the NYS Thruway Dept and then was on loan to them for two years, it was then one of 4 main photos to greet you as you entered a 50-year retrospective of photos of Westchester Co NY (just north of NYC; there were lots of well known photogs in the show). Finally, I showed it at a small group show in a local gallery, sold the original and have made additional prints for other buyers. All of them live in Westchester. As Keith showed us, you don't need to venture far from home, especially if we are lucky to live somewhere beautiful. Those castle turrets remind me of a double lighthouse I photographed in New Jersey. You've caught them in the perfect light.