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Jeremy > June 2, 2009; Day 31. Like Father, Like Son. I’m prepping this week for Japan and have little time for anything else. I grabbed this shot just before I headed off for work this morning. I’m sure the neighbors got a kick out of me crawling in the weed-and-dew-filled grass in my nice pants. Although I only had a couple of minutes, I am trying to capture shots using my macro lens but at diffraction-free large apertures. (I really wish that the EXIF data included the macro ratio. This is not 1:1 but I think it's greater than 1:2.) This shot could use more depth of field; it probably would have looked great at f/8 or f/11. Raw: Color Temperature: 4950K; Tint: +20 Raw: Exposure: +0.8 Raw: Blacks: 15 Raw: Brightness: 0; Contrast: +50 Raw: Saturation: +6 PS: Smart Sharpening: 180-1-Lens Blur
Jeremy > May 20, 2008; Day 18. Why I Don’t Use Weed Killer. If you’d have told me a few years ago that I’d be sneaking into the neighbor’s unmowed yards to gather dandelion seed pods, I’d tell you that you were crazy. But I’ve done it twice now. My pods were mowed down last weekend and haven’t returned, yet. I’m pod-happy because tonight I wanted to recreate one of Oliver’s superb macro shots. I was shocked when I noticed that Oliver’s shot was taken at f/11. There are a couple of differences that help him do this: he’s a little further away from the subject and his camera has a crop sensor. Otherwise, we both have 68mm of extension tubes mounted on our lenses. Oliver’s lens is 100mm which should be an effective 160mm on his crop sensor. My lens is the 90mm macro focused at 1:1. Now that I’ve done this I must say that I like both shots. Still, mine is at f/22 which some would say now suffers from diffraction. I also have serious vignetting but only in the extreme corners. This must be due to the extension tubes. I've shot plenty of 1:1 subjects and not noticed this before. Someday soon I will try this with the D70 see what happens. Raw: Color Temperature: 5700K; Tint: -3 Raw: Recovery: 4 Raw: Blacks: 8 Raw: Brightness: 0; Contrast: +51 Raw: Saturation: +10 PS: Healing Brush to remove much sensor dust (needs cleaning) PS: Curves: Medium Contrast preset PS: Lab a channel adjustment: “Soft light” at 50% opacity PS: Smart Sharpening: 180-1-Lens Blur
Jeremy > May 16, 2009; Day 14. Babylon. This morning I chased after macro subjects for the week 4 assignment of my Joy of Photography class. Right now the ferns are unfurling in the spring sun and I was hoping to find some fractals. They’re everywhere. When focusing this shot, I kept my eye on the curls and hoped that the tiny aperture would allow everything to be in focus. It’s close, but the DOF is very shallow in macro-land, particularly when you attach extension tubes to your macro lens. I have 68mm of extension attached here. This makes the subject larger than life size (1:1) which subsequently shrinks the DOF. Hence the soft portions despite f/64. Diffraction is at work too, although less than I expected. Raw: Crop: 8.6MP Raw: Color Temperature: 5900K; Tint: -15 Raw: Recovery: 100 Raw: Blacks: 25 Raw: Saturation: +10 PS: Curves and Hue adjustments to produce a Kodachrome effect PS: Clone and Healing Brush tools to remove sensor dust and a strand of spider web PS: Curves: Medium Contrast preset PS: Smart Sharpening: 180-1-Lens Blur
Jeremy > May 10, 2009; Day 8. Play Day at Al’s. Today I joined Peter and our friend Steve in a trip to Deerfield in search of photographic bliss at his 186-acre estate. The moment I stepped out of the car, I knew it was going to be a frustrating day…the black flies are peaking right now. We donned hoods and eschewed deet: we were all holding DSLR cameras. Luckily there were occasional strong gusts of wind that blew all the flies away; those were sweet solitary moments. Peter and I found this grove of birch trees and I taught him how to do a vertical pan. I wasn’t expecting to get one I liked, since the leaves are all green. Luckily, the shades of green are different in the spring, and having the color of Earth in the shot helps too. I may end up with more than 50 keepers from this 6-hour trip. We love going to Al’s because if we call him before we come over, he’ll put a rhubarb pie into the oven. If excess happiness is unhealthy, I would have been hospitalized today. Raw: Color Temperature: 4450K; Tint: 0 Raw: Exposure: +0.4 Raw: Blacks: 60 Raw: Brightness: +13; Contrast: +50 Raw: Saturation: +10 PS: Healing Brush to remove sensor dust PS: Smart Sharpening: 180-1-Lens Blur
Jeremy > May 8, 2009; Day 6. Ugly Flower. I haven’t yet mowed my lawn for the season, which means a lot of weeds are sprouting flowers, to the delight of the bumblebees. I thought I’d practice trying to catch one. But rather than chase the bees, I picked a flower and waited for a bee to come to it. The bees seem to select their flowers somewhat randomly. Naturally, the nearby bees were selecting the adjacent flowers. Someone once wrote that macro work is slow and tedious. I’m beginning to agree! The tripod at its lowest possible setting, just above the ground. While watching the bees, I noticed that they are rather rotund bugs that would need a lot of DOF to show fully in focus. Their girth also causes the flowers to sway under their weight each time they land. By the time the flower has stabilized, the bee is off to the next one. I computed that I’d need no fewer than 8 seconds of perfect stillness on the part of the bee to capture it clearly. (Ring flash to the rescue? I may try that.) I realized that a 1:1 shot of a bumblebee was not in the cards today. Thus, I just photographed the ugly flowers instead. I wish I had noticed the flower in the lower left of the main stem; it is the only attractive one in the bunch. I’d need extension tubes on the macro lens, though, to bring it closer and push the unfortunate dead flower adjacent to it out of the frame. I wonder if flowers are aware of their fallen, rotting brethren next door. I hope not. I could have just pruned it out too. This shot got a lot of post-processing. Click here to see the original JPEG from the camera with just sharpening applied. Feel free to tell me if you think that I’m going overboard with the processing. The lab "a" adjustment did most of the blue-to-purple conversion. I personally like the final result. Kashaaf asked me yesterday if I also tried the rain shot with the focus on the house, or somewhere in between. I didn't try in-between, but I did try a shot of my house with focus on the house. I didn't like it nearly as much. Raw: Color Temperature: 9100K; Tint: 0 Raw: Exposure: +0.25 Raw: Blacks: 19 Raw: Brightness: +18; Contrast: +50 Raw: Saturation: +8 PS: Curves: Linear Contrast preset PS: Lab a channel adjustment: “Soft light” at 50% opacity PS: Curves adjustment to give the effect of developing E4 slide film in C41 chemicals PS: Smart Sharpening: 180-1-Lens Blur
Jeremy > April 11, 2009; Day 344. Resurrection. One of the assignments for week 1 in the Joy of Photography class is to photograph something you rarely photograph. I admit it, I’m not big on outdoor flowers. But now that I’ve taken the close-up photography class, I am interested in the little flowers that are weeds. (They keep on growing even though I mow over them each week.) This was the first week to find such flowers growing in my yard. So I got on my belly and crawled hither and yon. I’m not going to submit this photo to the class because I need to fix a few mistakes. That blue petal from the out-of-frame flower on the left is too distracting, as is the flower on the right. Also, I need to bracket a few more stops of aperture to see if I can get any more depth of field without ruining the smooth background. Also, I may take a spray bottle of water with me and see what kind of mischief I can make with that. Happy Easter, everyone! Raw: Color Temperature: 4650K; Tint: -15 Raw: Blacks: +19 Raw: Brightness: +24 Raw: Contrast: +45 Raw: Saturation: +6 PS: Curves: Linear Contrast preset PS: Lab a channel adjustment: “Soft light” at 50% opacity PS: Smart Sharpening: 180-1-Lens Blur
Jeremy > March 14, 2009; Day 316. Skyward. Today I ran around with all of my extension tubes attached to my 50mm “normal” lens. Since I have no flowers yet, I settled again on the leaf buds that are growing on my rhododendrons. The extension tubes make this lens behave more like a macro lens by allowing you to get closer to your subject. As with macro lenses, a smaller aperture is needed to maintain depth of field. But the bokeh remains nice because you’re so close to the subject. Although I approached this subject from several angles, this was the best. This will be submitted to my close-up photography class. I didn’t do much else today except to continue to chip away at a mountain of unprocessed photos. After finishing a big set today, I treated myself to a few episodes of Stargate SG-1 which is still good in season 8. Raw: Color Temperature: 4000K; Tint: +15 Raw: Exposure: +1.5 Raw: Recovery: +100 Raw: Fill Light: +20 Raw: Saturation: +6 PS: Curves: Medium Contrast preset PS: Smart Sharpening: 180-1-Lens Blur
Jeremy > August 29, 2008; Day 119. Autumn’s Emergence. I enjoyed a brief stroll through a church garden today. Although it is still August, the colors of Autumn are just starting to appear. (This reminds me that it is urgent that I capture “summer” at the log bridge this weekend!) I would have enjoyed this garden longer but the mosquitoes started dive bombing me. I don't know how you green thumbs cope with the bugs. Spray? Netting? Anyway, in addition to the vegetables, there are several flowers growing in this garden. The caretaker of the building saw me photographing and told me that if I came back during the day and waited patiently, I could catch the birds picking at the flowers. I don’t know if I’ll have time this weekend but that might be fun to capture. No training ride tonight; I'm resting for tomorrow’s 71-mile repeat. PS: Exposure: +1.0 PS: Unsharp Mask: 20-30-0
Jeremy > August 24, 2008; Day 114. A beautiful summer day in NH. But even better than the sunlight on my face was the grip and heft of a real camera in my hands again. This morning it was overcast so I decided to return to the log bridge to capture “summer” for my 4 seasons project. When I arrived, however, the sky had completely cleared and so I got this study in contrast instead. But the shot is not wasted, I don’t think. It may actually work for “summer” with a little more processing. I love the effect of the sunlight on the bike, and I think that the green of the trees is more pronounced. But that bright orange streambed is a little distracting. I hope to get an overcast weekend before the leaves begin to change color, so that I can compare the shots. The shot above was taken shortly afterwards not far from the bridge. I enjoyed once again having full control over the depth of field and took shots over the full range of apertures. Ah, manual mode. PS: Curves adjustment for additional contrast PS: Saturation: +20
June 2, 2009; Day 31.

Like Father, Like Son.

I’m prepping this week for Japan and have little time for anything else. I grabbed this shot just before I headed off for work this morning. I’m sure the neighbors got a kick out of me crawling in the weed-and-dew-filled grass in my nice pants. Although I only had a couple of minutes, I am trying to capture shots using my macro lens but at diffraction-free large apertures. (I really wish that the EXIF data included the macro ratio. This is not 1:1 but I think it's greater than 1:2.) This shot could use more depth of field; it probably would have looked great at f/8 or f/11.

Raw: Color Temperature: 4950K; Tint: 20
Raw: Exposure: 0.8
Raw: Blacks: 15
Raw: Brightness: 0; Contrast: 50
Raw: Saturation: 6
PS: Smart Sharpening: 180-1-Lens Blur
Jeremy > June 2, 2009; Day 31. Like Father, Like Son. I’m prepping this week for Japan and have little time for anything else. I grabbed this shot just before I headed off for work this morning. I’m sure the neighbors got a kick out of me crawling in the weed-and-dew-filled grass in my nice pants. Although I only had a couple of minutes, I am trying to capture shots using my macro lens but at diffraction-free large apertures. (I really wish that the EXIF data included the macro ratio. This is not 1:1 but I think it's greater than 1:2.) This shot could use more depth of field; it probably would have looked great at f/8 or f/11. Raw: Color Temperature: 4950K; Tint: +20 Raw: Exposure: +0.8 Raw: Blacks: 15 Raw: Brightness: 0; Contrast: +50 Raw: Saturation: +6 PS: Smart Sharpening: 180-1-Lens Blur
June 2, 2009; Day 31.

Like Father, Like Son.

I’m prepping this week for Japan and have little time for anything else. I grabbed this shot just before I headed off for work this morning. I’m sure the neighbors got a kick out of me crawling in the weed-and-dew-filled grass in my nice pants. Although I only had a couple of minutes, I am trying to capture shots using my macro lens but at diffraction-free large apertures. (I really wish that the EXIF data included the macro ratio. This is not 1:1 but I think it's greater than 1:2.) This shot could use more depth of field; it probably would have looked great at f/8 or f/11.

Raw: Color Temperature: 4950K; Tint: 20
Raw: Exposure: 0.8
Raw: Blacks: 15
Raw: Brightness: 0; Contrast: 50
Raw: Saturation: 6
PS: Smart Sharpening: 180-1-Lens Blur
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