Month: May 2012

One thing I’ve learned about taking photographs is that it is rare that I can improve on a shot that I like when I try to do it. Today is a case in point. My subject, my bronze replica of the famous Han Dynasty Flying Horse, is what is known, at least by Karen Russell, my photography class instructor, as a cooperative subject. I can pose it and it won’t move or complain. However, despite its “cooperative” nature, as is so often the case, I was unable to improve on the original shot I took, despite numerous (and I mean numerous) tries. Today’s challenge theme is a “dark” or “low key” shot. Since I was housebound this morning waiting to hear about a commercial printing job for which I’m getting bids, I decided to stay close to the phone and use available light for this shot. I set the horse on the dining room table. There was a patch of sunlight that reflected light nicely onto the horse. But the light moved and I changed the position of the horse and I added a black background and changed the white balance and none of the shots improved upon the one shot I really liked. Finally, when the photos kept getting considerably worse, not better, I decided to go with the second shot I took. So, my dark horse, one I thought was really a long shot to get picked for today’s photo, came in first.

Focal Length 300mm
ISO 200
Manual Mode
f/6.3
1/80
SOOC

C a BUNCH o’ B’s actually. On the way back from the mailbox, when I passed by my neighbor’s sidewalk-facing Japanese privet swarming with honeybees, I returned with my camera and started shooting. Aperture priority proved unsatisfactory as did AF-S focus which I recently changed to after I started taking the Photographer’s Workshop. When I tried to reset the auto focus to AF-C, continuous so I could follow the bees, my mind went blank and I couldn’t figure out which button set this option. I stared at the camera and all its buttons and menus and, like all the mad dogs and Englishmen, I was out in the midday sun so I returned home, defeated, and resorted to reading the manual. Ahh. It’s an easy change. No menus, just a button on a different side of the camera from the similar setting on my D90. So, out I went again with the focus set to continuous and the shutter speed set to 1/2000. Using my 28-300mm zoom lens extended to maximum, the bees didn’t look terribly impressive when I downloaded them . . . until I cropped. Holy Crop!!!!!! I don’t know whether I used the Fibonacci Ratio or the rule of thirds. It doesn’t seem to matter. And, I think, based on the cropping of the first shot, I could have cropped even tighter.

Here are several tightly cropped shots, still in crisp focus. Wow! Wow! All the shots were taken at 300mm, ISO 200, f/5.6, 1/2000.

Today, I tried out my 85mm lens on the D800. And, I put to good use the grid I complained about yesterday. In today’s shot, I used the grid to make sure my alignment was straight and not inadvertently askew as often is the case. Also, using Aperture Priority, I deliberately metered on a lighter area of the shot to get a faster shutter speed so that the bottle is darker and outlined in the patch of light. I like the effect. Today’s challenge theme is “bottle(s)” and since I haven’t been taking any photos for the daily challenge recently, I thought I’d start to catch up.

Focal Length 85mm
Aperture Priority
ISO 200
f/1.8
1/200
SOOC

While visiting my friend Melinda yesterday, I had to confess to her that I had done almost no exploration of the custom setting features of my new camera, my Nikon D800. She was happy to explore the menus and to make changes to settings she thought would help me because many of the options available on the D800 are also options that she has on her Nikon D7000. Because of the similarities, she was comfortable sorting through and making suggestions for changes. One of the settings she added was the view finder grid display which I was happy to have added because superimposing a grid of the rule of thirds is helpful, especially since I’ve noticed that too often my tendency, in the excitement of finding a good subject, is to place that subject dead center. The grid will remind me to take a breath and compose my shot with more thought.

With no thoughts of what to photograph today, I went outside into the yard eager to use the new camera tool, the viewfinder grid, and find something interesting. As I looked through the viewfinder to compose some shots, I realized that the grid in the camera viewfinder is NOT a grid of the rule of thirds. After considerable research on-line, including at Nikon’s site where they tell us that some Nikon cameras have a viewfinder grid that IS an overlay of a grid of the rule of thirds, I have no idea what the Nikon grid is in the D800. It does not appear to me to be the Divine Proportion also known as the Golden Rectangle or the Fibonacci (I love that name) Ratio which is another artistic composition method similar to the rule of thirds but without the evenly spaced three by three rectangular grid. The grid in my viewfinder is divided in half horizontally and vertically, then each of those is divided, but not evenly, so there are 16 divisions instead of 9. So I am confused and think that I might turn off this feature until I can figure out how to use it effectively. Also, I learned that some of these ratios seem to be available in Light Room as overlays for cropping but I don’t know if they’re available in Adobe Photoshop. Something to research on another day.

So, this is a long-winded way of saying that I cropped today’s shot and I have no idea whether I cropped it using the Rule of Thirds, the Golden Rectangle, the Fibonacci Ratio or the Divine Proportion. I just kept moving the cropping tool until I liked the results. I was focusing on the lavender when this wasp flew into view. It’s the most interesting shot I took today.

Focal Length 300mm
Aperture Priority
ISO 100
f/5.6
1/250
WB – Sunny
Cropped

On the way to Benicia today to visit my friend and fellow photoblogger, Melinda, I stopped at Granny May’s strawberry stand near my house and bought some luscious strawberries, picked an hour before, to bring with me. Of course I took photos, although Granny May asked that I not take her picture, so I just got a photo of the strawberries. The primary reason for my visit today was not to present Melinda with strawberries but to show off my new Nikon D800, let her play with it, and to let her try out my Nikon 50mm 1.4G lens. As I write, the 50mm lens is still attached to Melinda’s camera and I hope I will be able to wrest it away before I go home. Melinda took a photo of me with my new Nikon D800 and used my 50mm lens. I have now posted that photo on my About page. My two photos today are the strawberries and a closeup of Melinda, who seems to be deciding whether to remove the 50mm lens from her camera or accept it as an early birthday gift.

Focal Length 300mm
Aperture Priority
ISO 320
f/5.6
1/50
SOOC

Focal Length 92mm
Manual Mode
ISO 1000
f/5.6
1/50
Cropped and enhanced

I encountered this lovely red Japanese Maple outside an office building in Rocklin this afternoon. I really love the back lighting on the leaves and how the out of focus car in the background echoes the color of the leaves and provides some nice bokeh, as well.

Focal Length 300mm
ISO 100
Aperture Priority
f/5.6
1/160
SOOC

I am always drawn to bright colors, especially shiny bright colors, so this morning when I stopped at Raley’s on the way home from the gym, the display of garden pots caught my eye. I would have taken some shots anyway but I realized this display was perfect for one of my class assignments, exploring exposure compensation with Aperture Priority. I submitted this shot for my class as the favorite shot from this exercise. We were challenged to take a shot using the camera’s suggested settings and then increasing and decreasing the exposure compensation settings until we found a pleasing result. The sun was very bright at 10 this morning and the pots were displayed against an east facing wall so I thought the camera’s suggested setting was bit washed out. I preferred the decreased exposure (minus 1 and 1/3 stops) that I got after viewing all the options both increasing and decreasing the settings. This is definitely something I will start using. I used manual settings to the exclusion of all others, not appreciating how valuable some of the other camera modes are.

Focal Length 160mm
Aperture Priority
ISO 100
f/5.6
1/400
ev -1.33
SOOC

We have a one week break in class so I thought I’d finish my assignments today and have an entire week to explore my new camera without the pressure of class assignments. I like the other two shots I took for the class assignments so I’m posting those as well.

Shooting manual is the next shot. I’m comfortable shooting in manual mode but I am learning a lot from this class and I’m certain I will improve my exposure as a result of what I’m leaning. What’s interesting about this shot is not the intended subject, but the little guy I followed around the hens-and-chickens until I couldn’t find him anymore. I have no idea what he is but I hope he’s a beneficial insect! What is also exciting to me about this shot is that I used the lowest ISO my new camera offers: ISO 50!!

Focal Length 50mm
Manual
ISO 50
f/5.6
1/800
SOOC

Finally, we were challenged to play creatively with focus and use a shallow depth of field and a narrow area of focus to tell a story. This really isn’t much of a story but I love artichokes and they take a bit of trimming before cooking so the eater isn’t impaled by the thorns on the leaves. The trouble is worth it, though. And right after I took this shot, I plopped the one trimmed artichoke into boiling water, cooked it and ate it for lunch today!

Focal Length 50mm
Aperture Priority
ISO 160
+.67 ev (2/3 stop)
f/1.4
1/80
SOOC

Blue Star Creeps to be exact. I guess that’s really blue star creeper, not creeps, but I needed a catchy title since my photo isn’t too exciting today. In contrast to yesterday’s 144 shots, today I took just 5. And those I took about ten minutes ago, after walking outside, looking around, and noticing that my blue star creeper is starting to bloom. I crouched down low and took three shots. Then I lay down onto the still damp lawn, held the camera at ground level, and took two. I like the shallow depth of field on this one.

Focal Length 300mm
Aperture Priority
ISO 640
f/5.6
1/100
SOOC

This afternoon, I watched up and coming Woodcreek High School freshman pitcher, Kyle Barron, pitch an incredible three innings. His form is consistent and impressive. I don’t think the comparably aged baseball team at Santa Rosa Junior High School in 1961, the only freshman age baseball I’ve ever seen, exhibited the form that these kids at the nearby high school showed today. I was excited to use my new camera and to put my newly learned shutter priority mode settings from class into practice. Of course, once again, the heat of the moment took precedence but I think I’m getting the hang of focusing the D800. Out of the 144 shots I took today, only a few were not in focus. I even tried successfully to use exposure compensation and upped the ISO settings to get better exposure. Maybe there is hope for me yet.

I like the first shot because the ball can be seen hurtling toward the edge of the photo, at the center left. Kyle’s concentration is evident with his tongue clenched between his lips. And that’s Kyle’s dad seated in the background at the center of the photo. I didn’t realize he was in the shot until I downloaded them. The second photo tells a story (amazingly, “tells a story” is the theme of today’s Flickr challenge) and once again the ball is frozen in the air. Will it be a strike?

Focal Length 300mm
Shutter Priority Mode
ISO 200
f/5.6
1/320
SOOC

Focal Length 116mm
Shutter Priority
ISO 250
f/10
1/400
SOOC

Late this afternoon I came home from running some errands and I noticed my neighbor, holding a sledge hammer, heading down the street toward his son’s non-working truck where his son and another kid were replacing a radiator and other damaged parts, the result of a rear-ending accident a week or so ago. Was he going to finish off the vehicle with the sledge hammer? I had to find out what was going on, so, camera in hand, I crossed the street to watch and kibitz. No, he wasn’t texting, the neighbor’s son replied in answer to my query. And the other vehicle wasn’t damaged. As luck would have it, today’s challenge theme is “work,” and, despite having a brand new camera, I was not inspired to take photos today so this photo opportunity presented itself just in time.

The blog title today is really a double entendre. The vehicle was not working yet at the time I took the photo and I think it still is inoperable. More importantly, I am not working the camera properly yet. I was actually lucky to get the one halfway decent photo for the blog. I took several shots and most were not in focus, the result of my pressing on the wrong focusing button (I use back button focus). This camera is proving more difficult to acclimate to than I thought it would be. Operator error is becoming a theme of sorts for me. I did manage to change the white balance to “cloudy” when the color of my out of focus shots was not looking quite right. This is literally the only shot that I managed to get in focus.

Focal Length 300mm
Aperture Priority
ISO 200
f/5.6
1/80
WB Cloudy
SOOC

Today’s challenge theme is “signs of the season” and in spring in California, aphids are an annual signal that I need to do something to save my roses. I used to use systemic rose food that contained a pesticide that prevented aphids but in recent years I have found that spraying the aphids off with a strong spray from the hose does pretty well and the occasional ladybug and their larvae can usually take care of the rest of the problem. The roses in the front yard, featured in yesterday’s post, have almost no aphids and the roses in the back aren’t too bad, either. But my miniature rose tree, Winsome, had a few sprays of flowers that were covered with what I believe is called a wooly aphid. I took several shots in the backyard today and although it’s overkill for the theme, I’m including my favorites, three of Winsome and one of Abraham Darby, because of the focus and clarity of the shots that really show off my new camera’s qualities, and one of them doesn’t feature any aphids at all.

Focal Length 300mm
Aperture Priority
ISO 100
f/5.6
1/160
SOOC

This is an English rose called Abraham Darby which had only a few aphids but I liked the composition.

Focal Length 300mm
Aperture Priority
ISO 100
f/5.6
1/200
SOOC

Focal Length 300mm
Aperture Priority
ISO 100
f/5.6
1/125
SOOC

Focal Length 300mm
Aperture Priority
ISO 100
f/5.6
1/200
SOOC

It is day two. I have possessed my Nikon D800 full frame DSLR for exactly 24 hours as I write (3PM Tuesday). I am ecstatic and overwhelmed at the same time. I have already been back to the camera store, prepared to do battle to make them exchange my malfunctioning camera for a working one. The camera would not format the disk, neither using the menu option nor the two button option. I spent last evening worrying about it, scouring the manual, reading on-line about D800 problems. I barely slept and I worried about it all through Pilates class. I fought my inclination to go straight to the camera store from the gym, already steamed up, hot and sweaty from my work out. I went home, took a shower, packed up all of the cords and bags and manuals. I had to return home twice to retrieve things I forgot to put back in the box; first trip: the body cap; second trip: the USB cable. I arrived at Action Camera at 11:09, 25 hours and 1 minute after I received the initial call from them yesterday that my camera had finally arrived. I was greeted by the owner who smiled at me and then frowned as I handed him the camera and declared that it was not working and that it would not format a disk. In less than 5 seconds, he had formatted the disk and erased the files. My relief was palpable. My embarrassment manifested in the beet red of my face. I had not pressed the OK button to OK the action to erase the disk. I didn’t realize that the OK button was located in a different place on the D800 than on the D90. I think I am not ready for this sophisticated a camera.

I spent a couple of hours after I returned home rereading the “Getting To Know The Camera” section of the manual before I felt comfortable again actually taking some shots. I hoped the hummingbird would pose but she bathed two feet away from me and drank at the feeder while I read the manual and wouldn’t return after I put myself on alert. My roses came in as a second option.

I took the shots at about the worst time of day: lots of bright sun directly overhead. But in the suddenly warm weather, roses that were buds yesterday are full blown today and will be gone tomorrow. I could have waited until the “golden” hour, but I was itching to get out and take some shots. I used my 28-300mm zoom lens and my 50mm prime lens and took similar shots. I think, once I understand the incredible sophistication of this camera, that I will eventually get some really nice photos.

I wanted to share similar photos taken with the two lenses I bought specifically for the D800: 28-300mm zoom lens and 50mm prime lens, with both lenses wide open.

Betty Boop at 300mm:

Focal Length 300mm
Manual Mode:
ISO 100
f/5.6
1/500
SOOC

Betty Boop at 50mm:

Focal Length 50mm
Manual Mode
ISO 100
F/1.4
1/4000
SOOC

Just Joey at 300mm

Focal Length 300mm
Manual Mode
ISO 100
f/5.6
1/100
SOOC

Just Joey at 50mm

Focal Length 50mm
Manual Mode
ISO 100
f/1.4
1/3200
SOOC

Sheila’s Perfume at 300mm

Focal Length 300mm
Manual Mode
ISO 100
f/5.6
1/100
SOOC

Sheila’s Perfume at 50mm

Focal Length 50mm
Manual Mode
ISO 100
f/1.4
1/3200
SOOC

Rio Samba at 50mm

Focal Length 50mm
Manual Mode
ISO 100
f/1.4
1/2000
SOOC

Just Joey (again) at 300mm

Focal Length 300mm
Manual Mode
ISO 100
f/5.6
1/100
SOOC