Star chasing

Last week Ralph and I decided to go up north with the hope of capturing some pictures of the Milky Way.  We had a few coupons for golf at Lora Bay and Cobble Beach so we packed up our things and drove north.  It was a "hot" week which turned suddenly cold.  What a dramatic change in weather.

Our first day was spent at Lora Bay where we enjoyed a fun round of golf and then spent the evening looking for a place to set up our cameras.  Sadly the evening was very cloud covered with some rain so we weren't able to get out but the next day sounded like it would be promising.

We found a little park near the water close to Thornbury. We walked the pathway so we would know where we were going in the "pitch black night" and were all set.  The sky was very overcast. I'm sure it was part of the humidity that we were experiencing although the weather reports did say that it was going to clear around midnight.  We set the alarm for 12:30 and went to bed early figuring we would be out for a couple of hours.  When the alarm went off Ralph looked out the door of our hotel and said that he couldn't see any stars.  About a half an hour later I went outside and there wasn't a cloud in sight so we got dressed and drove back to the park.

It was a beautiful sky although there were some lights in the area that we hadn't anticipated but we're still pleased with the end results. If you look at the colours in the sky in the photos below you will see that there are significant differences between the two pictures.  Ralph and I chose to set up our cameras with slightly different settings to see the impact to the colour.  This is dictated by the White Balance.  The top photo has more yellows in it and is a warmer colour vs the bottom which has more blues in it.  Along the treetops you can see some of the light pollution that was coming from a field nearby.  I'm really happy with both shots that we took.

On Friday, we golfed at Cobble Beach in Owen Sound.  It was a much cooler day which was actually quite refreshing after the past two days.  After our round we headed to Tobermory in anticipation of some very dark skies.  We arrived just as the sun was setting.  It was a stunning sunset with beautiful red skies.

After enjoying the sunset we went and had dinner at one of the local micro breweries.  By the time we were finished we knew that it would be dark enough for us to see the Milky Way.  We drove out of town and started looking for a good place to stop that was well enough away from any passing traffic.  We saw a sign for a small local airport and thought that might be a good place to start.  The road was nice and dark and we thought that there wouldn't be any traffic on it.  Were we ever surprised.  We had just set up when not one, not two but at least 5 cars went by in a matter of minutes.  Obviously we had picked a well travelled road.  So we packed up and headed back towards Owen Sound in search of another place.

Below are two pictures that we took near the airport.  If you observe a large star on the bottom centre part of the picture - this is the planet Saturn.

If you look closely on the bottom right hand side of the picture you can see a shooting star.  

After driving for a period of time, we headed down this road that was suppose to take us to a Lighthouse and shoreline.  We soon saw signs talking about construction and caution notices regarding soft shoulders.  All around us were these really tall trees.  There was no way we were going to set up our cameras in this area so we decided to turn around.  The positive thing was that it was very dark and we didn't expect to see any traffic but wouldn't you know it, as soon as we turned we saw a vehicle approaching us with their high beams on.  Oh well, it wasn't meant to be.

We made one final attempt near a farmers field.  It's wasn't the best location but it was getting late (12:30ish) so we set up our cameras and starting shooting.  There were all sorts of Hydro lines in our way and neither one of us wanted to venture into a deep ditch to avoid them. I figured I could erase the lines when developing the pictures.  We had only been set up for about 15 minutes when Ralph noticed that the stars were disappearing and sure enough there was heaving cloud cover moving in.  Oh well!  It was an adventure.  We drove back to Owen Sound and by that point in time it was about 1:30.  We parked in the Walmart lot and enjoyed a beverage before putting our seats back for a short nap.

We were up early (5:00 am) and ready for a coffee.  It was "cold" in the truck.  We hadn't planned to sleep in the vehicle and as a result had no blankets or pillows.  The temperature had dropped down to 9c and we sure could feel it.  After a coffee to warm us up, we headed for home.  During our drive back we were blessed with the most amazing sunrise.  I sure love this time of year as the sun is often a beautiful colour of red and it was so vibrant.

All in all it was a lovely mini vacation.

Misty morning

This past week I attempted to get outside with my camera.  With the weather getting a little cooler at night it made me think that the early morning fog will start covering the fields.  I wasn't disappointed.  Early on Friday morning, Ralph woke me up as I mentioned that I wanted to travel with him to the course to take some pictures.  Initially I decided to stay in bed and forget getting up so early.  I was so tired that morning but as I lay there, I imagined the beautiful fog and changed my mind and got up.

Ralph graciously made me coffee and breakfast as I got ready.  I was still pretty tired and not really thinking clearly.  I grabbed my tripod and the camera without a thought to what lens I might need.  Ideally the wide angle would have been perfect, but as I said, I was pretty tired this morning and didn't even give it a thought.  As we were driving,  I started getting pretty excited by what I was seeing long the highway.  Beautiful "fog".  Then I started thinking about how I would set up the camera and what areas to drive to for that "perfect" shot.  It was at that point that I realized that I had only one lens with me and it was the "macro" lens.  Hah!!  Now that will be a challenge.  I had just recently watched a video that talked about the various ways you could use a macro by changing up some of the settings on the side of the lens.  Well I thought, it will be the perfect day to test this out.  Our macro lens has 3 settings on it.  I usually keep it on the 0.3m-0.5m as I use this for closeups of insects and flower.  There is also another setting of 0.5m - Infinity as well as a setting called "Full".  I decided to use the "Full" setting as I found the camera having difficulty focusing at the 0.5m to Infinity setting.  I had read as well that it's better to use "manual" focus instead of auto focus as the fog tends to confuse the camera.  I didn't really find that was the case today but maybe because it was off in the distance.

My first stop was by the pond at the entrance to Piper's Heath.  I love the pond and have taken several pictures of it this year. There wasn't alot of fog here but still enough to take a few shots.  I hope that one day the swans will be in the middle as I think this would make a beautiful picture.

This was taken around 6:30 a.m. and the colours were nice and warm. The fog add's a nice glow to an already beautiful view.  This was taken on Trafalgar Rd.  I stopped at the side and set up my camera.  It was so busy with traffic - kind of scary actually as there isn't alot of room on the side.

This is my favourite shot.  It was taken around 6:45 on a side road that runs behind the golf course. The red was so vibrant as it was shining through the tree's while the sun was coming up.  There really wasn't alot of colour in the sky but the fog magnified the colour of the sun beautifully.

Developing with style of my own

It was a rainy day today, so I thought I would spend some time working on my pictures to get them ready to include in my photobook.

While we were on our vacation, we learned a lot about using the Histogram feature on our camera and the importance of "exposing" to the right.  It makes alot of sense knowing that if we take care not to over expose or under expose your picture, you are then able to pull out the detail of what you were photographing when you developed it.

This became quite evident today as I was working on the photo's.  It took us a while to realize the benefit of this and as a result some of our shots are both under and over exposed.  I can still fix them but not to the same degree as the ones that are kept in the confines of the histogram.  As long as you don't go past the right edge, you can very nicely pull back the expose and detail that is needed.

The above picture was taken on the Big Island in Hawaii.  It is challenging to capture both the dark rocks and the light (white) portion of the waves.  Making some adjustments to the exposure and eliminating some of the shadows and also sharpening the picture, you can then get a good sense of the waves washing up along the shoreline.

This picture was taken in Kauai at Shipwreck Beach.  Pushing the Aperture to F22 allows the sun to come through in a "star" shape format.  I love doing that especially when you see it peaking through the tree's or as its starting to rise up early in the morning.  This picture was developed by splitting it into two parts.  The top of the picture (sky/sun) was left at the exposure that was set when taking it but the bottom of the picture was lightened up a bit to bring out some of the colour along the cliff.  We left the lens open for about 20 seconds which helped to smooth out the water.

Another example of the star created by setting the Aperture to F22.

Before and after pictures.  The top picture is the RAW file, which was under exposed. Pushing the exposure to the right definitely helped to pull up some colour and lighten the shot,  I also changed the camera calibration to Camera Landscape and cloned out the people walking on top of the cliff.

It always amazing me how much a picture can change with just a few changes in Lightroom.

Tree Tunnel Road in Kauai was one of my favourite inland areas to drive through.  These are eucalyptus trees that were planted over a 100 years ago.  It's a beautiful drive underneath the these tree's.  Many art shops have photographs of this road.  While you can't see it in the picture, this was a very busy road with traffic going both ways.  Ralph and I waited patiently for the vehicles to go by and then I would run into the middle of the road with our camera and tripod and take one or two pictures while Ralph watched for oncoming traffic.  Because of the age of the tree's, bald spots in the canopy were starting to show through.  Using a cloning tool, I added a few more branches to thicken it up and I also erased a few vehicles that were driving down the road.

One of my favourite bridges in California.  The Bixby bridge is located along Highway 1.  I really didn't have to do much to this shot except to crop it in a little.  The day was beautiful and sunny with really pretty clouds in the sky.  Adjusting the exposure helped to bring out the colours in the sky and along the edge of the cliffs.

Exploring my garden

I've fallen behind in my posts for the past couple of weeks.  With our truck being stolen and all the running around we've had to do, I haven't had a chance to get out with my camera.  Today was quiet in the afternoon so I thought I would take some time and see what I could discover.  The above was a fly that was sitting on the petal of one of my flowers.  I really dislike flies thinking that they are a real nuisance but when. you look at them close up you can see that they have been beautifully made by our Creator.  Isn't the colours on their body beautiful.  It almost looks like armour. They are a pretty amazing thing to look at.

Would you recognize this as a geranium?  Up close they have the most beautiful flower.  I had fun developing this one.  I really tried to emphasize the softness of the flower.

This past week we went away for a few days with John and Grace.  We golfed at a couple of beautiful courses and had a lot of fun together.  I didn't take that many pictures, but I did pull out my camera on the 18th hole as I loved the contrast of the colours of the deck chairs against the Club house.

I really enjoy watching the birds at the feeder.  Here is a young blue jay announcing his happiness at finding food.  It was fun sitting back and enjoying the show.  I had to set up my camera on a fast shutter speed to capture the movement as they are constantly moving.  Needless to say I had a few blurry shots but was happy with a few of the ones that I captured.

This photo was captured through the window at Carolyn's house.  I don't often see a female cardinal at our feeder so I was pretty excited to see this one.  Most of the body was hidden in the shadow of the feeder so I cropped it in close to focus on the face only.  She is enjoying a sunflower seed.

Driftwood can be very beautiful.  We often see it along the shoreline.  I wish that I could collect a great big pile of this and place it around the garden.  Wouldn't it be beautiful having vines growing through and around the dried up branches?

It was really nice to share some time with our granddaughters.  We really look forward to these visits and can't wait to be together again soon.

Enjoying the little things around us

This week I spent time in my garden and also out by the Pipers Heath Golf course trying to capture the summer colours.  As I was photographing some of the flowers I noticed bee's gathering pollen.  I thought it would make an awesome picture if I could capture the bee in action.   To do this, I handheld my camera and used set it to Shutter Priority. I had my macro lens on hoping to capture as much detail as possible of the bee.  It took many attempts to capture these.  Next time I'll push the shutter speed even higher to try to capture and stop the wings in action.

Since I had my macro lens on - I decided to photograph this flower.  It is about the size of half my baby finger nail.  The flower is actually a part of the stamen.

On Thursday, Ralph and I went golfing at Pipers Heath.  I took my camera with me with the hope of capturing some of the beautiful colours around the course and also planned to go see the sunflowers on Burnhamthorpe Road.  I wasn't disappointed.  This first photo is a picture of the 14th hole.  The beautiful grasses and flowers/weeds growing all around were just what I was looking for. It was a bit of a challenge as the sun was shining quite brightly.  I brought down the exposure level significantly to ensure that it didn't get "over exposed".  This is the result of a few attempts.  I decided I liked this one the best.  I like how the pathway leads the eye ithrough the photograph.

I have a real fascination with barns.  This shot was also taken along the 14th hole.  The sky was starting to darken as the weather was changing.  I boosted some of the colouring in the sky and also highlighted some areas within the picture to add to the drama.  It would have been really nice to set up a tripod and take a few photographs to merge together, but time while golfing doesn't allow for that.

After we finished our round Ralph and I drove down Burnhamthorpe Road and stopped at the Joshua Tree Heritage Centre.  They have a beautiful garden with sunflowers.  It's was really difficult to take these pictures with the sun high in the sky but I thought it would make a good challenge.  My goal was to ensure that the exposure was kept very low and to not shoot into the sun where possible.

Overall I am happy with the results.

The above picture is my attempt at something a little abstract.  I shot into the sun with the idea that it would shine through the leaves.  I developed the picture into a square 8x8 size.  I really love the colours that came out in this one.

There is such an abundance of different colours in the garden.  It certainly was fun walking around and admiring their beauty.  I plan to go back early in the morning as I'm sure that the colours will be significantly warmer and would be really beautiful to see.

I took my macro lens out into the garden and spent some time shooting this Russian sage flower.  The slightest breeze will make them sway making it a real challenge.  I'm always so amazed at how much detail this lens can capture.  The little hairs on the flowers are really picked up yet when looking with the naked eye you don't really see them.

Today some bee's were enjoying gathering pollen.  Just before golfing I was able to capture a few pictures.  These were taken using our macro lens and a remote.  I'm pretty happy with the result although I'll keep trying to get them even more clear.

A little bit of this and a little bit of that

It's been a while since I updated my blog and I thought that maybe I would start keeping a record of some of the pictures that I have been developing.  With work being so quiet, I need something to keep my mind active, so I've decided to spend more time focusing on my photography.  It doesn't always come easy for me, so I've been spending a lot of time reading and practicing.  My weakness is composition.  As well, I have a lot to learn with respect to developing the actual photo's.  I shoot all of my picture in RAW which creates a somewhat flat looking photograph.  From there I go into Lightroom and clean up the exposure, noise, sharpness and colours.  I've added another "add-on" program called ON1 Effects which gives added enhancements that can be used.  I now need to learn moderation.  I tend to lean towards bold colours and strong images.  I guess that's my style.  I'll be working on trying to tone that down over the next little while.  There sure is much to learn and I look forward to it.

The following pictures are a few that I have taken over the last month.

This is a flower that is in one of my pots in my backyard.  I was inspired by the fluff (which I think was from a dandy lion).  I really like the way it just floated in the air by the small purple flower. I used my macro lens to help draw out the lines in the fluff.  

Another flower in the garden just as it was starting to open.  I believe this is a Dahlia.  This was taken later in the day and I took liberties by boosting the colour and background a little to make it more vibrant.

Some  mornings I'll drop Ralph off at golf and this barn is located on the property.  It was early morning with the sun coming up.  It cast a beautiful golden colour on the barn.  It actually was a clear day without a cloud in the sky.  I added a few clouds to create some drama.  Below is the original picture.

I really do love sunflowers.  I saw these at the Joshua Creek Heritage Centre and I couldn't resist stopping and taking a few pictures.  I think I may have been a little strong handed with the developing and will revisit this one again to see what I can do to soften it up a bit.  

This photo was taken near Killarney when we stopped near the Lighthouse.  It was taken on my older camera.  I love the sky in this one but struggle to figure out how to fix the noise that I see in it.  It could be partly due to a dirty lens.  I'll keep playing with it.

These two photo's were taken at Asher and Carolyn's house.  They have a backyard full of birds and it is so fun to watch them.  The suet on top of the squirrel guard makes it look like snow.  I really love how the bird is looking towards to the camera.

Every week I am hoping to work for at least a half day to improve my developing skills and also ensure that I keep practicing everything that I am learning with respect to taking the actual photo.  I'm looking forward to the challenge of improving and I hope that Ralph will join me in this endeavour as well.