Month: April 2011

Today I experimented with depth of field and focus. I’m finding that although I love photos with a very shallow depth of field, I don’t always get the results I’m seeking when the aperture is wide open. I used my Gorillapod on the table to photograph a bowl of nuts and dried fruit; I discovered that there is a little “give” in the Gorillapod and depressing the shutter release often resulted in a slightly blurred photo. I started with the aperture set at f/1.8 and was dissatisfied with the results until I got to f/4.

35mm lens
ISO 200
f/4
1/4
Cropped/Straightened

Honora and I went for a drive this afternoon and found ourselves in Penryn at the Griffith Quarry established by Welsh Immigrant Griffith Griffith in 1864. The surrounding 23-acre park contains ruins of the first polishing mill built in California and some of the quarry holes from which the unique Penryn granite was taken. This site is listed on both the National Register of Historic Places and the California Landmark Program and provided some of the granite for the California State Capitol.

I took this photo of Honora ascending a granite stairway in the quarry.

Lens at 18mm
ISO 200
f/3.5
1/40
SOOC

The hummingbird I tried to photograph this morning proved to be elusive so I took some shots of the water bubbling up in the fountain. When I reviewed what I’d taken, I was amazed at the fascinating shapes that appeared in the fountain. I know I posted this fountain yesterday, but I found today’s capture much more interesting. What do you think it is? Each of the photos I took looked like something other than water. This one looks like a very sad, green-eyed duck to me. The bokeh made it my picture of the day.

Lens at 300mm
ISO 320
f/5.6
1/640
SOOC

My new fountain is already attracting birds. I saw the birds, ran outside and I didn’t take time to focus properly or make proper settings because company was coming and I wanted to complete my “photo of the day” task. I had to crop, level, increase exposure, and add curves to this photo so this one isn’t straight out of the camera as is my daily goal (along with proper focus). There’s always tomorrow.

I’m not sure what this bird is. Perhaps a gray flycatcher. I’ll do more research when I have time and correct this post with the proper identity of the bird if necessary.

lens at 200mm
ISO 100
f/5.6
1/250
Corrections as noted above.

What you see is NOT always what you get, especially when you expect to see one thing in a photograph and you find much, much more. I walked outside and noticed that my pathetic Italian parsley that I planted last year and that never grew beyond the size of the two and one-half inch pot it came in, has developed a flower stalk. That probably means it will be going to seed once it flowers and will not ever produce the copious amount of leaves I was expecting for my cooking. I took a few photos to document the phenomenon and when I downloaded them to my computer, this slender, single stalk of parsley revealed an entire bugdom. A couple of aphid appear to be fighting a duel to the death; a slender web stretches between the thin branches; an unknown beetle-like creature rests beneath one of the bud clusters; a pair of tiny, seemingly body-less, iridescent wings hovers atop one of the bud clusters; and another unidentifiable bug, out of focus because of the shallow depth of field, hangs beneath a cluster. I took this photo with my go-to 18-200 mm lens; however, this type of result is pushing me ever closer to a macro lens.

Lens at 200mm
ISO 200
f/5.6
1/500
Cropped

Melinda, my friend and fellow photography blogger, visited me today. Our day together included lunch, a genealogy lesson, a hawk rescue (!), and of course, photographing Bobo. I knew I had to capture Melinda photographing Bobo.

35mm lens
ISO 500
f/2.2
1/125
SOOC

. . . or 3-headed snake? Asparagus is my favorite vegetable. It’s usually in great abundance this time of year but the rain and cold seem to have kept the Delta crop, whence my favorite asparagus, in short supply. This asparagus is from Brawley but it was the only asparagus available today; and I haven’t had much yet this season so I picked up a bunch at the store late this afternoon. As I was washing it, I thought it would make a good photo of the day. After viewing the pictures, I decided this was the best despite the fact that it looks more like a 3-headed snake than asaparagus spears to me, but it has bokeh, so it gets the nod.

35mm lens
ISO 200
f/1.8
1/100
SOOC

The sun came out in Redding this morning and while I waited for everyone to get dressed to go for a walk in the Clover Creek Preserve with Mady, I took this picture of myself. Actually, there was not a doubt that this would be my picture of the day. But, I had the shutter speed set very high which made the photo a little darker than I wanted so I brightened it.

Lens at 18mm
ISO 200
f/5.6
1/4000
Auto Enhance preset

Bobo and I are in Redding for a few days. Today Sue and I visited the local Farmers’ Market and Earth Day celebration; a rock climbing wall provided entertainment for the kids despite the drizzle and cool weather. I had the white balance set to cloudy but I needed to brighten it a little by applying Curves.

Lens at 65mm
ISO 400
f/5.6
1/1000
WB Cloudy
Curves, cropped

I stopped at a nearby strawberry farm and picked up a flat of strawberries to take with me on my trip to Redding and asked to take some photos. They were happy to oblige me. I had the lens wide open to take closeups of strawberries and didn’t stop it down for this long shot to increase the depth of field. But I liked the result anyway.

Lens at 95mm
ISO 320
f/5.6
1/640
Curves applied in Aperture

On April 22, 1903, my grandmother, Emma Kristina Magnusson, boarded the Oceanic in Liverpool, England and sailed to a new life in the United States of America bringing The Bowl with her. I was originally planning to photograph The Bowl and post the photo tomorrow, the 108th anniversary of her departure, but I will be going away tomorrow for a few days so it appears today.

I don’t know how Grandma traveled from her home in Appelbo, Dalarna, Sweden to get to Liverpool. The ship’s manifest lists two other passengers from Appelbo, a young man and young woman, both in their early twenties, so I assume they accompanied her. According to the manifest, Grandma was 22 years old (my mother thought she was actually 17 when she traveled to the US without her family); she had $88.50 with her (a small fortune; in today’s dollars that would be almost $2,200); and she had a ticket to her final destination, a brother-in-law called August Nordling who lived in Hallbeck, Minnesota. That’s all I know. My mother never passed on any information about her parents’ lives in Sweden nor how they traveled to the US nor how they met in this country. And The Bowl was always a mystery to us; all we knew was that it was carved from the burl of an unknown tree, it was called a “milk bowl,” and it had symbols and dates carved on its underside. We never thought to ask Grandma about it while she was alive. Based on the dates carved on it, the Bowl is at least 278 years old.

About 15 years ago, my mother met a Swedish woman who shared a book with her called “Sing the Cows Home” by Kerstin Brorson. This book describes the herdswomen of Dalarna, Sweden, the area of Sweden where my Grandmother was born. From the book, we learned more than we ever knew about Grandma’s life in Sweden. The women in her region looked after the livestock. Each summer when the snow melted, they traveled to their village’s ““fabod” (a place to put the livestock), deep in the forest, sometimes 40 kilometers away from home. There they looked after the animals, milking them in the morning, and tending them while they grazed in the afternoon. Evenings were spent making butter and cheese. And they took pride in making the bowls and containers they used for the milk and cheese, marking them with family names and symbols. So, that is how The Bowl, with its lustrous patina, intriguing symbols, and compelling family history, came to be. About ten years ago, my mother entrusted me with stewardship of The Bowl. This photo shows its underside with its symbols and dates laying on an enlarged copy of the Oceanic ship’s manifest. If you look closely at the lower left corner of the photo, you can see the entry for my Grandmother, “Magnusson, Emma Kristina.”

Lens at 34mm
ISO 800
f/5.6
1/50
SOOC

Well, it’s not exactly by the old mill stream but it’s an old millstone; well, not exactly that, either. It’s a new millstone; and it’s not exactly even a millstone; it’s made of resin and it’s from China. It’s a backyard water feature that provides my backyard with the bubbly sounds of water falling onto rocks that I’ve been craving for years. Today, my friend Jesse installed the fountain in my yard. We went to a rock place and bought 173 pounds of what is called Sierra Salt and Pepper rocks, each carefully selected for color and shape, to fill in around the resin millstone’s basin to soften the plasticity and add some authenticity. I think it looks great, and it’s going to provide me with a perpetual supply of water drops to help me learn how to photograph them.

Today’s photo is of some drops falling onto the Sierra Salt and Pepper rocks, which aren’t exactly salt and pepper. We selected beautiful rocks with vibrant greens and pinks and rusts and blues. The water enhances their colors. I took the photo of some of the rocks late this afternoon under cloudy skies and with low light levels. I had to add some Curves to brighten the photo.

Lens at 200mm
ISO 1600
f/5.6
1/640
WB set to Cloudy
Curves applied in Aperture

Red hot poker plant, that is. After my planned morning shoot of Baby Faith was postponed due to the weather, I went to the gym and once again found a source of inspiration. A short distance from the gym, I found the red hot poker plant, some Spanish lavender, and lots of dandelions. The colors of this photo with the bright poker plant and the lavender in the background are a bit raucous but I liked the composition. I set white balance to cloudy and although my meter indicated a correct exposure, I still needed to brighten it a bit after downloading it.

Lens at 200mm
ISO 200
f/5.6
1/250
WB at Cloudy
Applied Curves

The area in and around my gym has been providing me with lots of photo opportunities lately. This morning as I was getting into my car after working out, I noticed a lovely display of rock roses directly in front of my car and to which I had been oblivious when I arrived at 7:45 AM.

Lens at 200mm
ISO 200
f/5.6
1/400
WB set to Cloudy
SOOC

When I went to the gym today, I had an idea to take a photo of the row of Swiss Gym Balls in the Pilates room. I wanted to use natural light and there is a glass door between the row of balls and a mirror reflecting some of the light. I thought it would be perfect. It wasn’t. Fortunately for me there was no class scheduled after 10AM when I wandered in there because it took me forever to figure out what to do. Focus was my enemy today. Even after I bumped the ISO up to 3200 and with the lens wide open at f/5.6, the auto focus refused to let me take a picture. I finally switched to manual focus and was able to capture a couple of in focus photos but the composition I sought turned out to be impossible for me to capture with natural light. This is what I got with manual focus; the balls reflected in the mirror; the light source between the mirror and the row of balls. I was pleased that the writing on the ball is in sharp focus but because I had to up the ISO to 3200, there is noise in the photo.

Lens at 170mm
ISO 3200
f/5.8
1/80
Manual Focus
SOOC

After I struggled with exposure for a while, I decided to try flash. I managed to capture the composition I was after using the built-in flash. I didn’t change any other settings but probably should have. Something else to delve into!

Lens at 75mm
ISO 3200
f/5
1/80
Flash
Auto Focus
Cropped

This afternoon, I ran across the box of shells I brought home from Port Aransas. They’ve been airing out in the garage for 3 months after I boiled them because a few of the shells I brought home were a bit more than empty shells. I thought these particular shells would make an interesting composition because they have bleached to almost pure white. I found them on a rarely visited beach where lots of shells piled up and lay undisturbed, bleaching in the hot Texas sun and losing almost all of their color.

35mm Lens
ISO 800
f/4.5
1/125
White Balance set to Day White Florescent
SOOC

Leaving the gym today, a friend pointed out an unusual looking weed growing amidst the clumps of ornamental grasses planted in the parking lot. I’d never seen it before. I thought it was a striking flower, purple with the contrasting yellow pollen sprinkled on the petals. A little research when I got home revealed it to be Purple Salsify, also known as goatsbeard and a few other names, a common wildflower that is cultivated for its ornamental flower, edible root, and herbal properties. I’ve heard of salsify but I’ve never seen it or tasted it. Now it seems I have a supply of it nearby if I want to try it.

Lens at 135mm
ISO 100
f/5.6
1/400
SOOC

Today I took head shots for a young aspiring actor, Michael Prinzing, who was very photogenic and, I think, very James Dean like. I wanted to use natural lighting but was afraid that I was pushing it so I used my bounce flash thingie (I can’t remember what it’s called) and it worked perfectly. I used both my 35mm prime lens and my 18-200mm zoom. Both lenses worked well for me. I took about 370 shots; I downloaded them in batches as I took them so we could look to see what was working. I haven’t examined them all closely yet but this was one of my favorites from the first download. It reminds me of James Dean a little and so I changed it to black and white, then added sepia, and a vignette.

35mm Lens
ISO200
f/3.2
1/125
B&W, Sepia, Vingnette

Every year, one rose blooms days before any of the other roses. The first rose to bloom has always been one of Ron’s favorites. For years, until its untimely demise, Angel Face always won the race. This year, Rio Samba is the first to bloom. I looked out after a rainstorm this afternoon and Rio Samba had a perfect bud. Rio Samba was a rose Ron always wanted to plant but never did. His daughter gave me Rio Samba the year Ron died, which was four years ago yesterday. I wish I’d looked at my roses yesterday; if I had, I would have photographed it for my photo of the day yesterday. But I’m sure it’s even more beautiful today.

Lens at 200mm
ISO 200
f/5.6
1/400
SOOC

Besides improving my photography skills, this 365 project has forced me to get out and about in my community. I am discovering new and wonderful places to visit that coincidentally, have great photo ops. Today, while getting gas at Costco, I discovered a path beside the parking lot, something I’d never noticed before. I followed it to a small, peaceful nature preserve nestled between the Costco store and a residential area. I’ll return another day to see what I can find there. Today, I saw some mallards swimming in single file around the reeds in the small pond. I took this from a bridge over the pond.

I started with the Sunny f/16 Rule but ended up changing the aperture to f/7.1.

Lens at 200mm
ISO 200
f/7.1
1/200
SOOC