Month: January 2012

Late in the afternoon, still without any idea of what I might photograph today, I went out to throw some trash in the garbage can and my eye was drawn to the catkins on my neighbor’s birch tree, reflecting the sunlight. I had noticed them a few hours earlier and even took a couple of shots but the lighting was wrong at that time and the photos were just unappealing. What a difference a few hours makes. Not only was the sun at the perfect angle bathing the catkins in golden light, but the sky had changed color as well, to almost a turquoise. When I downloaded the photos I was astounded at the difference in the color of the sky from just a few hours earlier.

I forgot to change the ISO from yesterday’s shoot in the gym so once again it’s higher than I normally would use outdoors. And I cropped the photo slightly to eliminate a distracting clump of catkins.

Focal Length 200mm
ISO 640
f/5.6
1/800
Cropped

Say what? I was getting ready to leave for my workout at the gym this morning and I thought I’d better look to see what the Daily Challenge topic was so I could be thinking about it while I was working out. “Environmental Portrait” is the topic and I have to confess I had no clue what an environmental portrait was. I reviewed the associated link to learn that it is a posed portrait that in essence tells a story; the person is posed in their environment which helps identify who they are, what their occupation is, what they do for a hobby, how they live, how they play, etc.

Finding a subject and planning such a photo shoot was more than I wanted to tackle today so I decided to skip the day’s topic. But, while I was working out, I saw that my personal trainer, Noelle, was in the gym training another client, so I asked if she’d pose for me and she agreed.

I didn’t put much thought into posing my subject and it shows. The composition is very ordinary even with the reflection. The light was poor so I had to bump up the ISO more than I like to do and I misread my meter which was telling me my exposure was correct because it was metering on the reflected windows instead of Noelle’s face. Consequently, I had to brighten the exposure. I also cropped the photo slightly.

To me, however, the best part about this photograph is that I Photoshopped out the lady in the magenta tank top talking on her cell phone while on the elliptical machine. So if nothing else, this challenge gave me an opportunity to practice some of my recently learned Photoshop skills.

Focal Length 42mm
ISO 640
f/4.5
1/80

My obsession with photography is almost equalled by my obsession with birds, especially raptors. The California Foundation for Birds of Prey, an organization for which I volunteer, has provided me with many photographic opportunities and today was one of those days. It was my first time participating as a member of a creance team. “Creance,” in raptor rehabilitation, was adapted and modified from the sport of falconry. Straps called jesses are attached to a bird’s lower legs and a creance, or line, is attached to the straps. The line is used to control the raptor while it flies and exercises its flight muscles. The bird flies, tethered to the line, in a large, unobstructed, open space.

Today, we spent an hour exercising a young, red-tailed hawk recovering from wing injuries. I helped to attach and detach jesses, recorded the outcomes of flights, handled the hawk including retrieving it after its flights, and operated the creance line. What an exhilarating experience. CFBP plans to release the hawk next week after three more creance sessions, in all of which I am scheduled to participate.

The training session ended on what was supposed to be the final flight. I was given responsibility to operate the creance line for the last flight, after being told that it was critical that I kept the line unhindered to ensure that the hawk wasn’t suddenly drawn up short and possibly injured. Unfortunately, the line jammed. The hawk flew twenty feet and was drawn instantly to a halt. I was horrified but was vindicated when we discovered that the line had jammed and I was not responsible for it jamming. Phew!

Of course I had my camera and took a few photos. But I was most interested in learning the creance technique so I didn’t obsess about my settings which needed some tweaking. I’m including several shots from today that I thought were interesting, including a couple of me handling the hawk.

These are some of the hawks that CFBP is currently rehabilitating. The hawk we exercised is the one in the middle.

Seconds after this shot, Dana netted the hawk so we could attach the jesses.

Creance protocol calls for examining the hawk’s feet prior to the flight to make sure they are not injured.

This is the creance team, as the hawk is released, Kari at left is operating the creance line, Dana is handling the hawk, and John is recording the outcome.

This is the hawk’s first flight today, about 100 feet. The creance line is trailing it.

Dana transfers the hawk (and the heavy leather gloves) to me. I stopped at Lowe’s on the way home and now possess my own welder’s gloves.

I am now in full control of the hawk.

Me, just after releasing the hawk. My form was a bit exuberant and I was advised to more gently release the hawk which I did more appropriately on three subsequent releases. After each release, I walked atop the creance line, now on the ground, to keep the hawk from flying further away, approached the hawk and encircled its legs to control it. Those talons are unbelievably powerful and I was really glad to have those heavy welder’s gloves on.

Today was one of those days in which photography was on my mind all day but none of the photos I took were good. I started late; I didn’t get out to take photos until after 4PM. I’d read about multiple exposures and wanted to try that, so instead of starting simple, I decided to take a multiple exposure of a bird in flight. I drove to Levee Road where I’ve found lots of water fowl and raptors in the past and thought the late afternoon sun would be perfect for such an experiment. To my surprise, I saw only a couple of black coots swimming around and they were in deep shade, not a good photo op. I drove toward home and by this time, the sun was setting so I stopped to take some sunset photos. They were just average, nothing interesting. When I got home, I tried some backlit photos of a my Chinese “Flying Horse” but they were a big disappointment, too. I even tried a couple of multiple exposures of Bobo. This is a technique I definitely need to work on. My Daily Challenge Flickr group’s topic today is “resolution;” not only am I not inspired by that topic, absolutely nothing comes to mind anyway. Then I visited Melinda Three Six Five to see what my friend Melinda posted today. She posted a couple of photos, one of a Gerbera daisy and one of some oranges on her countertop. Well, I don’t have any Gerbera daisies to photograph but I DO have some Mandarin oranges. So, in a blatant rip off of Melinda’s photo today, here’s my version. Thanks, Melinda. I needed help today.

Focal Length 85mm
ISO 100
f/1.8
1/25
SOOC

It was bright and sunny this morning in Santa Rosa and the sunlight shining through the kitchen window provided a beautiful backlight for a bouquet of green mums and white lilies. The new week’s topic for my Recording Images Flickr group is “back lighting.” I love backlit photos and that is one of my favorite types of lighting to use. I took several close up images of the backlit green mums and lilies.

Now, I’m gathering up my courage to submit some of these images to Recording Images, after I took a bit of a beating yesterday when I submitted my “Behind Bars” image for the long exposure challenge. It was apparently not quite the type of long exposure the moderator had in mind. But, I’m never one to be deterred and I have already submitted a second photo for the long exposure challenge and I will be submitting two of my backlit flower photos today.

Focal Length 200mm
ISO 400
f/16
1/200
SOOC

This is Penny, an adorable Pitador (chocolate labrador retriever and pit bull mix) who greeted me this morning with bared teeth and a loud bark, before putting her tail between her legs and running out of the room. She arrived at Honora’s with Danielle, Honora’s daughter, early this morning after we had gone to bed. Despite Penny’s initial bravado and quick retreat, she was literally eating out of my hand a few minutes after I met her. When she was put outside this morning, she almost immediately reappeared at the door, anxious to come back for more treats. She was no doubt thinking, “and I wanna be, and I wanna be back on the inside.”

Focal Length 200mm
ISO 100
f/5.6
1/60
Cropped, curves, and levels

Today I drove to Santa Rosa to visit my friend Honora. Honora is one of my wonderfully supportive friends who not only accommodates my photographic idiosyncrasies but seems eager to help identify places for me to indulge my idiosyncrasies. Tonight she took me to Old Courthouse Square in Santa Rosa so I could photograph night scenes using long exposures. We parked in a city parking lot where I found this mural. This was my first shot this evening and my favorite. The mural is actually full face and shoulders and covers the entire wall behind the stairwell but this partial view of just her eyes was not only the most intriguing view, it was also very mysterious. The night guard at the parking lot informed me that it was fortunate that I took the photo from the sidewalk outside the parking structure because they do not allow photographs inside the parking structure.

Focal Length 38mm
ISO 100
f/22
20 seconds
SOOC

Today I felt as if I were losing control of MY blog. When I arrived at the gym this morning, one of my gym buddies asked “what’s OUR theme today?” I started worrying then. Many of my friends and family check out my blog just to see what I’m up to but, some of them are actually interested in what I’ve decided to post as a photo of the day. Although in actuality, only a handful of people read my blog with regularity, I feel I need to produce interesting photos and amusing commentary, not only because I don’t want to let them down, but because I don’t want to let myself down, either.

I wasn’t thrilled or inspired with the daily Flickr topic, “Come on in” and I’m scared to death of my weekly Flickr topic, “long exposure,” but although I joined these groups to help guide me, I feel an absurd obligation to meet the challenges because I took the time to join the groups. And today, I was frustrated because I failed to produce a photo that I was proud to post to either the ODC group or the “Recording Images” group, although not for lack of trying. Then, it struck me that I am not doing this for these groups, but for myself. And I did take one photo that I kept returning to as one I really liked. So, this is my in-Spired photo today. And I love it and it has nothing to do with the ODC challenge or the Recording Images challenge but it makes ME happy.

Focal Length 200mm
ISO 100
f/14
1/50
SOOC

Today’s challenge, leading lines, took me to the Union Pacific Rail Yard in Roseville, CA. I thought I’d take a photograph of tracks but I wasn’t expecting to find tracks like these that seem to wobble and lead no where but actually lead to the maintenance barn. [Ed. note: my friend and former railroad executive, Mike, informed me that what I called the “maintenance barn” is really the roundhouse.]

Focal Length 200mm
ISO 100
f/14
1/80
Cropped

Today’s ODC challenge is “ten steps.” Being the very literal person I am, I wondered where I’d easily find 10 steps. I’m glad that the fact that I have a beautiful staircase, ironically just ten steps from my computer, didn’t dawn on me immediately; if it had, I would have jumped up, photographed it, and posted, completely ignorant of the actual challenge: walk ten steps, see what we find, and photograph it. It doesn’t matter where the ten steps start. So, this morning, as I left the gym, whose environs continue to be a wealth of photographic opportunities for me, I realized that the beautiful Yuletide camellia that I have been admiring for the past few weeks because it is in bloom this time of year, was just a few steps outside the door of the gym. Maybe seven steps. Close enough for me.

Yesterday I made some changes to the shooting settings in my camera, brightening it a bit. Before I decide to keep the changes, I will have to do some side by side comparisons which I failed to do this morning. The camellia is in deep shade and whether due to my new settings or to my failure to change the white balance from auto to shade, the original photo has a bluish cast. I warmed the temperature up just a bit, from 5004K to 5924K.

Focal Length 35mm
ISO 100
f/1.8
1/200
White Balance Adjusted in Aperture

Clouds have been rare in the Valley the past couple of months. December was the fourth driest December on record. Yesterday was bright and sunny. Today, there is a full cloud cover, a timely weather event for me because the topic of one of my Flickr challenges for today is “cover.” On the way to the gym this morning, I pulled over and took some photos of the clouds. This is an enhanced version of one of those photos.

Focal Length 55mm
ISO 100
f/10
1/125

I fulfilled the commitment I made last year to take and post a photo a day to my blog, and now, daily photography has become my obsession, so I am starting again. This is Day 1 of a new 365 project for me. As of now, I don’t have specific goals for my photography this year other than to continue my efforts to improve my skills. And, of course “focus” remains my primary aspiration, and birds, my favorite subject. So, it is fitting, I suppose, that my first post of 2012 is a hummingbird in, what I think is, pretty good focus. I did something different this morning when I took this photo. Inspired by my fellow photo-blogger, Melinda, who just added a speedlight to her collection of photography equipment, I experimented using my on-camera flash with the power decreased to -3.0 to allow me to use a faster shutter speed and to to brighten my subject on the deeply shaded patio. Not only did the low-powered flash help with exposure, it brought out the iridescence of the feathers without overwhelming the photo. I think my experiment was successful.

Focal Length 300mm
ISO 100
f/5.6
1/100
Flash Power -3.0
Cropped