52 Photographs - Week 26

This week’s photograph is from one of my favorite places to photograph pelicans. I was in Wisconsin for a brief visit and after meeting friends for breakfast on Tuesday, we went to the Rockton Dam to see if the pelicans were still there. For the last couple of years it has been the place to go to photograph these amazing birds. Here’s a link to a PDF book I produced from past photographs: A Pod of Pelicans.

Fortunately there were a few pelicans in the area despite all the rain they’ve had which resulted in a fast flowing river. Every time I’ve photographed pelicans I always get some interesting photographs. This particular photograph I captioned “OK, get busy. The supervisor flew in.”

“Tri-X, f/8, and be there.“

52 Photographs - Week 25

This week’s photograph is from a meet up with three other members of the Rock Hill SC Facebook group. Kiska Thompson set it up. We met at River Walk to do some macro photography. Along with Kiska was Connie Bauman and Cammie Marshall Brazzell.

I no longer have a macro lens but I do have two extension tubes. So along with my 12-200mm lens off I went. And I was pleasantly surprised at the results. I need to spend more time perfecting the use of that setup.

So with that said, here is this week’s photograph, a Hairy Scarab.

“Tri-X, f/8, and be there.“

52 Photographs - Week 24

OK, so it’s not just one photograph this week It’s a triptych of a Canada geese family I’ve photographed twice at Manchester Meadows Park. The first photograph I took of this family I have uploaded to my Flickr page: Canada Geese family.

I thought just one photograph would not tell the story I wanted to tell with these photographs. First one young goose takes a drink of water and then the other one takes a drink of water. 

So I created this triptych using Affinity Photo. I think this might be useful in future projects when one photograph does not tell the whole story.

“Tri-X, f/8, and be there.“

52 Photographs - Week 23

 Well this week got off to a slow start. First rain then more rain. Then a couple of appointments. I didn’t think I’d get anything worthwhile this past week.

But the other day I photographed this plant. I used Pl@ntNet to identify it and it is Wild Garlic, Allium vineale L.. Who knew?

Allium vineale (wild garlic, onion grass, crow garlic or stag's garlic) is a perennial, bulb-forming species of wild onion, native to Europe, northwestern Africa and the Middle East. The species was introduced in Australia and North America, where it has become an Invasive species.

I love the purple colors contrasting with the green background.

“Tri-X, f/8, and be there.“

52 Photographs - Week 22

This week’s photograph is of a Mimosa tree. I’ve seen them around at Manchester Meadows Park. They are certainly beautiful. A friend called them an invasive plant. I don’t think I had ever seen one before so here is what I found out about them.

Albizia julibrissin, the Persian silk tree, pink silk tree, or mimosa tree, is a species of tree in the family Fabaceae, native to southwestern Asia and eastern Asia.

In the wild, the tree tends to grow in dry plains, sandy valleys, and uplands. It has become an invasive species in the United States, where it has spread from southern New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, west to Missouri and Illinois, and south to Florida and Texas.

I love the color contrast of this photograph, the pink contrasting with green along with the dark background. It almost looks like a fireworks display.

“Tri-X, f/8, and be there.”

52 Photographs - Week 21

 Another very good week of photography. I got a lot of bird photographs. Many of them using Pro Capture to catch them in flight. I did screw up on a couple of those shoots because I didn’t check my settings before I began shooting. You can see the results on my Grumpy Old Photographer flicker page.

I also went to a nearby state park this past week, Landsford Canal State Park. It is home to the world’s largest population of Spider Lillies. After a short hike from the parking lot I found the Spider Lillies. A difficult thing to photograph as most of them were far out in the river. But there was a small group in close and that is this week’s photograph.

“Tri-X, f/8, and be there."

52 Photographs - Week 20

Well, this was a very productive week. But the choice was easy. As you’ll see in the post below this one, I have been trying to use Pro Capture to get some photographs of birds in flight. And given that I take photographs while out walking my dog, I don’t spend a lot of time hanging around one place waiting for a bird to launch itself in the air.

But yesterday an opportunity presented itself and after a short wait I was able to get four good images. And here is my favorite! 

“Tri-X, f/8, and be there."

Another Try Using Pro Capture...

Here's another try using Pro Capture. On Sunday, May 5, I posted some photographs using Pro Capture and explained what Pro Capture is.

Pro Capture is one of the many cool technologies on the Olympus OM-1. Pro Capture works by continuously taking images when you half-press the shutter, but only saving them in temporary memory.  If you let go of the shutter button, these images get deleted. If you fully press the shutter button it saves these images, and more if you keep holding the shutter down.

To set it up first you choose frames per second. I set mine to around 20fps. Second you set Pre Shutter Frames, and third Frame Count Limiter. If you set 15psf (Pre Shutter Frames) and Frame Count Limiter to 25, it means that 15 of your photos will be saved from before you press the shutter and 10 photos will be saved from after you press the shutter. After that, the camera will stop saving photos.

I rarely use Pro Capture because the situations I most often find myself in are not ones that would require its use. However this morning a Northern Mockingbird was hanging out on a fence post and I knew it would not stay too long. So I got ready and sure enough it took off. Better light would have helped, but these I am happy with.

"Tri-X, f/8, and be there."

52 Photographs - Week 19

Since the cicadas have made their appearance here in South Carolina, I really hadn’t thought much about trying to photograph them. However on my walk the other morning an opportunity presented itself and I took advantage of it. 

So here is my gratuitous cicada photograph. I like this one because it looks like the ants are not happy with the cicada being there and are advancing on it to chase it off.

“Tri-X, f/8, and be there.“

Trilogies 2022…

 In 2022 I entered several possibilities to a LensWork Community Book Project titled Trilogies 2022, three-image collections from LensWork readers. The book features 125 photographers and their three-image projects.

I was fortunate to have one of my entries selected for publication. And this is what was chosen.

These three photographs are part of a project I did photographing my father the last two months of his life. I put together a PDF book that you can take a look at by clicking Dad.

And here is the trilogie as printed in the book.

Since the publication, Brooks Jensen has been posting audio comments on each of the trilogies, beginning with the first one in the book. Today, May 2, 2024, he commented on my trilogie.

I recorded Brooks’ commentary on an iPad and used the audio along with the trilogie to produce the following.

“Tri-X, f/8, and be there.“

Another Try at Pro Capture…

Pro Capture is one of the many cool technologies on the Olympus OM-1. Pro Capture works by continuously taking images when you half-press the shutter, but only saving them in temporary memory.  If you let go of the shutter button, these images get deleted. If you fully press the shutter button it saves these images, and more if you keep holding the shutter down.

To set it up first you choose frames per second. I set mine to around 20fps. Second you set Pre Shutter Frames, and third Frame Count Limiter. If you set 15psf (Pre Shutter Frames) and Frame Count Limiter to 25, it means that 15 of your photos will be saved from before you press the shutter and 10 photos will be saved from after you press the shutter. After that, the camera will stop saving photos.

I rarely use Pro Capture because the situations I most often find myself in are not ones that would require its use. However this past week I saw a small, extremely fast bird flying over a local pond and splashing into the water. It appeared the it was going after bugs. So I quickly switched to my Custom 3 setting where I have Pro Capture configured and got these four photographs.

I was quite pleased with this series and am looking forward to trying this out in other situations.

“Tri-X, f/8, and be there.“

And also this Past Week…

 When Roxie and I were walking at Manchester Meadows Park last week, I spotted a female Cardinal on the fence at the soccer fields. I got off one shot before the male flew in and I witnessed the following “Cardinal Kiss”. I posted these photographs with the following lyrics from the song Lover Man.

I don't know why but I'm feeling so sad

I long to try something I never had

Never had no kissin'

Oh, what I've been missin'

Lover man, oh, where can you be?

“Tri-X, f/8, and be there.“

52 Photographs - Week 18

 And now for something completely different.

This weeks’ photo is from a walk along the Catawba River. Roxie and I go there once in awhile. I’ve seen a blue heron, cormorants, and a few turtles. But nothing like what I saw this past week. I was so surprised to see so many turtles in one place. And this is not the only collection of rocks the turtles were sunbathing on.

So here is a bale/dole/nest of turtles on the Catawba River.

“Tri-X, f/8, and be there.“

52 Photographs - Week 17

Quite a different photograph this week. Yesterday morning I went to Amélie's French Bakery & Café for the monthly meet up of the Rock Hill Photographers Facebook group. I parked my car across the street and this black lab stuck his head out of the window of the car in front of me. Who could resist?

“Tri-X, f/8, and be there.“

52 Photographs - Week 16

Well I say this every week and I’ll say it again. Another difficult choice. I got a really nice photograph of a male Cardinal looking right at the camera, a couple of nice photographs of a European Starling, a nice early morning photograph of a Robin, some photographs of turtles on rocks in the Catawba River, and several nice photographs of roses. But my favorite is this photograph of a Pennsylvania Blackberry, (according to Pl@ntNet).

“Tri-X, f/8, and be there.“

52 Photographs - Week 15

 Another week of difficult choices. I hadn’t planned on yet another photograph of a Northern Mockingbird, but this is certainly one of my favorites. Roxie and I were walking back to the car and this bird flew by and landed in a tree that we were walking towards. I couldn’t believe it stayed there as we approached. This photograph is essentially straight out of the camera. No cropping and just an exposure adjustment.

“Tri-X, f/8, and be there.“

52 Photographs - Week 14

Another week with too many good choices. And since it’s spring, here’s a photograph of dogwood blossoms from Manchester Meadows Park.

“Tri-X, f/8, and be there.“

52 Photographs - Week 13

Another stellar week of bird photographs. However, this week’s choice is a photograph I took of the moon floating on clouds. I’ve photographed the moon many times but always when the sky is dark. I even photographed a lunar eclipse in 2015. But this photograph was taken at around 7:30 am with a blue sky. Post processing and converting to black and white created this beautiful photograph.

“Tri-X, f/8, and be there.“

52 Photographs - Week 12

Well, this week’s choice is from the only photo shoot that I did during the week. I was in Wisconsin for the week for a doctor’s appointment on Friday. On Tuesday morning, I met my Grumpy Old Photographer friends for coffee and later that morning, my friend Bill and I headed out to Rock Cut State Park to see what we could find. And we found two pair of Greater Scaup ducks. I shot too many images and here’s only one of the best. A single male.

“Tri-X, f/8, and be there.“

52 Photographs - Week 11

And another week that had several possibilities. From more bird photographs to nature. And this week I selected a nature photograph.

While on my morning walk with Roxie last Saturday at Manchester Meadows Park I saw these rather small blue flowers covered in the morning dew.

“Tri-X, f/8, and be there.“

52 Photographs - Week 10

Well, look at this. It's not a bird photograph. I thought I'd try to get a good photograph of Roxie running and here it is.

“Tri-X, f/8, and be there.“

A Look Back with Today’s Software

 I had a Facebook comments “conversation” with a member of the Rock Hill, SC Photographers Facebook group yesterday.

Denise Wicker Cobb had posted a couple of photographs of a Cormorant. I commented: “Very nice. I have yet to get a photograph of a cormorant that I really like.”

Denise replied: “Chris Quillen they aren’t very pretty birds. I’m still trying to get a decent shot of an eagle.”

And I remembered that I had photographed eagles some years ago along the Rock River behind the Post Office in Beloit. So I got out my archive hard drive and began to search for them. It took me awhile but I did find them. The photos were shot using a Nikon D300 and a 12 year old 300mm f/4 Nikon lens. The D300 is a 12 megapixel camera.

At the time, I processed them with Lightroom. So I launched Lightroom and thought I’d see what I could do using Topaz Photo AI to sharpen the images and upscale one of them and wow, I was impressed with the results.

Here are three versions of one of the photographs. The first is the full frame, the second a cropped version, and the third cropped even more and sharpened and upscaled in Topaz Photo AI.

And here are several more with the full frame and the cropped and processed image.

And one that was just cropped and processed with Topaz Photo AI.

So for me here are the takeaways. Your thought may be different.

1. Unless you are going to make really big prints, megapixels do not matter. Most images today are viewed online; Instagram, Facebook, Flickr, SmugMug, a photographer’s web site, etc., so a high megapixel camera is really not necessary.
2. These eagle photographs were taken with a camera with no subject detection auto focus, no subject tracking auto focus, no in-body or lens image stabilization, and no frame rate higher the 6 frames a second. All those things make it easier to get the photographs you want but they are not necessary.
3. Topaz Photo AI can improve the quality of your images with careful processing. It’s worth it to take a look back at your catalog, whether Lightroom, Capture One, or some other software, and see which images could be improved by using Topaz Photo AI.

“Tri-X, f/8, and be there.“

  

52 Photographs - Week 9

Another week of bird photographs. I really need to start shooting different subjects. I feel like I'm in a rut. 

So here's this week's photograph. A Northern Mockingbird.

“Tri-X, f/8, and be there.“

52 Photographs - Week 8

 All of the photographs I took this week are of birds. 

Apparently I've turned into a bird photographer. Now I'm not the kind of bird photographer who puts on camo, sets up a blind in the woods, covers his lenses and camera body with camo, and sits all day with the lens poking out of the blind.

I'm the kind of bird photographer who takes his camera along when he takes his dog for a walk in the morning. When I see a bird, I bring the camera up and try to get the shot. If I miss it, I'm ok with that. If I get the shot, I'm surprised and sometimes astonished.

This week's choice was again a difficult one. So here is my choice out of ten possibilities.

“Tri-X, f/8, and be there.“

52 Photographs - Week 7

 Well, this was a very productive week. A lot of photographs of birds. And again, my approach to photographing birds is to take a walk with my camera and if I see one take a photo. Most of the time there no opportunity for a good photo. I just get lucky.

So here's this week's photograph of a Northern Mockingbird. One of my favorite photos of this bird.

“Tri-X, f/8, and be there.“

A Little About Focal Length...

 Sometimes even the longest lens you have still is not long enough. This is especially true when there is no way to get closer to your subject. Here is a case in point.

I was out at River Park this morning and saw a couple of cormorants on the large rocks in the Catawba River. Not the first time I've seen them. I had my Olympus OM-1 and the Leica DG Vario-Elmar 100-400mm lens. At 400mm the subject was just about 1/8th of the frame. Not too bad, but I wanted a tighter shot. So I used the 2X Digital Teleconverter that the OM-1 has. Here are three photos. The first was taken at 100mm, the second at 400mm, and the third with the 2X Digital Teleconverter. An amazing difference in reach.

“Tri-X, f/8, and be there.“