A time away

This past week Ralph and I went to Collingwood for a few days.  We were joined by Lawrence and Teresa and John and Grace and enjoyed some golf together.  Ralph and I went a day earlier with the intention of shooting some stars and simply to relax and have some fun.

It's interesting how the weather is changing.  We found that it was much cooler especially being close to the water.  Thankfully we had planned for this and had sweaters and jackets with us.  Ralph and I enjoyed a lovely sunset up near Thornbury.  There was some nice clouds adding some interest to the sky.  It amazes me how much earlier the sun is starting to set.  It goes down close to 8:00 pm now.  We stayed until about 8:30 and then headed back to the hotel to relax for a while before going out to photograph the milky way.  We weren't sure what to expect though as it had been pretty cloudy for most of the day.

We left the hotel at around 10:15 and headed back towards Meaford.  We had found a spot with a barn in the foreground which we thought would be nice to include in the photos.  Of course it depended on where the milky way was in the sky.  Hah hah, when we drove down the road, it was so pitch black out that we couldn't even see the barn.  We had to guess and only saw later if we captured it in our pictures.

There was still alot of clouds which added some interest.  What we didn't realize when scoping out the area, was that there were so many hydro wires.  I sure had to do a lot of editing to remove them.

We stayed at this location for a little over an hour and then thought we might try another spot however as we were driving it started to rain so we had to call it a night.  It was  probably a good thing as we had a round of golf planned for the next morning with everyone else.

The next day we played golf at Monterra which is right by Blue Mountain.  This was a pretty course to play and we enjoyed our time all together.

We enjoyed a nice bbq afterwards at a beach beside Georgian Bay.  There was lots of delicious food and it turned out to be a very beautiful day.

The following day we played at Lora Bay.  This is one of my favourite courses.  I love the scenery as it overlooks the Bay. It's so pretty.  Ralph and I arrived early so we went down to a beach just down the road and enjoyed a coffee.  We were surprised to still see colour in the sky from the mornning sunrise.

Golf was fun.  We sure do enjoy our time all together.  I look forward to our next adventure.

Wasps or hornets.... whatever they are

I am not a fan of wasps or hornets. I know that God placed them here on earth and they have a purpose but they give me goosebumps when I see them. 

I went back to the park by Burnhamthorpe today with the hope of seeing a hummingbird.  It came and went by so quickly that no photograph was taken. It was also pretty windy making it challenging to photograph the flowers.  As I was walking around I spied a hornets? nest.  It was very active with lots of hornets or wasps going to and fro. I set up my camera and tripod (far away) and attempted to get shots of the activity. The nest was amazing and so beautiful in its intricacy. It was constantly being worked on.  I thought I would do a little research to see if I could learn some more.  This nest is a "hornets" nest.  Below is a link on how they are built.  It's actually very interesting.

I spent about an hour and a half watching them.  It's amazing how fast they are.  I set my shutter speed at the fastest it would go and my ISO to auto letting the camera make the selection.  I think I'll need to do a bit of research to see how I can get a clearer picture.

I did take a few picture of the flowers but not many. As I said it was very windy making it a challenge.

I am very thankful for the summer flowers.  It gives me something to challenge myself with. I hope you to are blessed with God's beautiful creation around you.

What once was is no longer

Have you ever had it where in your mind you envision something and the more you thought about it the more excited you got. I had that recently. Last week I asked Ralph if he had noticed if the sunflowers were blooming at the Joshua Art Gallery. He had confirmed that he had seen them and of course me being me, I started planning an early morning photo excursion. I thought I could drop him off while he played golf and then I would spend a few hours photographing the beauties. In my mind there would be a myriad of colours and I started planning different compositions. Oh how fun it would be just to get out and see them. So, early Wednesday morning I got up at 5:15 with Ralph and got ready for my morning adventure.  I had hoped that there would be some mist rising because of the temperature change and thought that I might get a nice shot of the early morning sun over the pond at Pipers Heath. That was not to be. When we turned into the drive of the course there were several workers on the green beside the pond and definitely no mist. I wasn’t off to a good start. After saying goodbye to Ralph I headed to the gallery. To be truthful I drove right by it. As I glanced to my right while driving by I didn’t see any sunflowers at all. Hmmm, they must have planted them on the back side of the garden. I turned around and headed back. Upon arriving at the garden I discovered that there was only a few sunflowers. Probably leftover seeds from the previous year. The garden itself had plenty of vegetables and other smaller flowers like lavender planted but wasn’t what I had planned for. I stayed for a short while and took a few pictures and then decided to drive along Burnhamthorpe Rd to see where it would take me. So much construction and new development was underway. The road was not real pleasant to drive on. I turned off onto a country side road for a while but that wasn’t enjoyable either. I was driving the speed limit (60) and cars were wizzing by me. Alas, my dream of a fun outing didn’t turn out as planned. 

I decided to go to Whole Foods and do a bit of shopping for some groceries. That took a total of 7 minutes. Hah hah...what a morning it was turning out to be. It was now 8:10 and Ralph wouldn't be done until at least 10:30.  I parked at the Mall thinking  I would do some Mall walking.  No luck there either as the doors were locked tight. I guess they are discouraging Mall walkers because of Covid.  Oh well.  I decided to slowly drive back to the course and see what caught my eye along the way.  I noticed an interesting piece of art so I pulled into the side road and there was a park that I never knew existed.  I parked the truck and went exploring.  What a beautiful park it was filled with many gardens full of flowers.  I spied a few photographers grouped together near one garden and they all had "huge" telephoto lenses on.  Curious, I approached and asked what they were shooting.  Hummingbirds they replied.  Respecting the social distancing, I chose not to join the group, but rather made a note to myself to come back early one morning and see if the hummers were there when it wasn't quite so busy.  I continued to wander around the park and took full enjoyment from all the beautiful flowers.  It was a good way to the pass the time while Ralph finished his golf round.

Patience and perserverence rewarded

Ralph suggested that we try to go out again and photograph Comet Neowise.  Oh how exciting to be able to attempt it a 2nd time.  This time we did a little more research on where to look in the sky.  There were more clouds but they didn't interfere with what we were doing.  We think the day before we were still too early.  It is getting harder to see in the sky but if you look closely below the big dipper and to the left you will see it. Definately a challenge to photograph and we still have lots to learn but it was still fun to go out and try,

Here is another attempt using textures.  While this is pretty overdone, the purpose was to give the feeling that a storm was coming in as the sun was setting.  I used 3 photos to create this one picture. The very bottom layer is a photo of a stork as it was coming in to land.  It was a very sunny and bright afternoon without much interest in the sky and as a result a pretty uninteresting picture.   I masked in a 2nd photo which was a full array of colours which I thought might mimic a sunset.  I reduced the opacity and removed the colour layer on top of the stork.  I then added a 3rd photo of dark stormy clouds.  On this layer I also reduced the opacity to let some of the pink and blues shine though and removed the cloud layer from the top of the bird.  I'll have to mull over whether I am happy with the result. Sometimes I'll leave a picture for a few weeks (sometimes years) after which I'll go back and decide if it's worth keeping.  This was done primarily to teach myself the technique.  

This was the original shot of the stork.

It has been another nice week.  The weather is cooler in the morning which makes it enjoyable to sit outside again.  It's nice to look around the backyard and see the flowers flourishing.  I harvested the majority of our lettuce at the beginning of the week but I noticed this morning that more leaves are coming.  Maybe there will be enough for sandwhiches.

I enjoyed a fun round of golf with Claudia and Arja.  We had some beautiful skies while golfing.  I really enjoy these days together. The temperature was really nice as well and not as humid as it has been.

We spent a couple of days in Niagara again golfing.  These are fun times.  We're really enjoying the tailgate bbbq dinners and are planning another one soon in August. It's a short but nice break. The weather was nice although we did have a bit of rain but not enough to stop us.  There certainly was a lot of drama in the sky.

On our way home we drove by the falls.  There were very few tourists which was surprising since it was the middle of the afternoon.  You most certainly didn't need to worry about people being close by.  We didn't stay long as I only wanted to get a quick couple of photos.

It's hard to believe that another week has gone by so quickly.  I'm sure loving these summer days.  My garden is growing well with the heat but it needs a lot of water right now, especially the tomatoes in the pots.  When we came home they were quite wilted.  I hope that they will be ok.  I harvested two zucchinis this morning.  I think we'll enjoy them on the bbq this weekend.  They are the perfect size.

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good.  His love endures forever.  Psalm 136:1

Working with textures and macro photography

During the course of the pandemic I have had plenty of time to research and learn new techniques with photography. Some of it is new while others are things that I had placed on the back burner for a long time. I have a real fascination with the photos I have seen on Facebook where the User is applying a texture. Some of the photos are just amazing and so beautiful. Research into this shows that many photographers are doing this and using multiple platforms to achieve the results. Photoshop is one of the applications along with Topaz, Lightroom, ON1 and Luminar. Hmmm so many choices. For now I’m sticking with what I have and am using Lightroom, Photoshop and Luminar. It seems to work for me but I’m sure that as I learn more I may be tempted to add another application to my "go to" toolkit. Time will tell.

Adding textures to a picture involves selecting a new background that will compliment the subject of the photo. There are plenty of free textures found on the internet and many available for purchase as well. So far the freebies have met my needs. I’m sure that there is an easy way to remove the background in Photoshop but I don’t know how to do that and most photographers indicate that it sometimes helps improve the interest of the picture by leaving the background there. I generally develop my original picture in Lightroom and then transfer it to Luminar. I am able to manipulate the texture to make it bold, softer, more opaque etc and this is all matter of personal taste. I generally play with the strength of the texture after I have finished my developing. The next step is choosing what to bring forward on top of the texture. This is where most of the work takes place. Lots of decision making is done at this step. I’ve enjoyed playing around with this. Right now I photograph flowers with the intent of using them with a texture. I’d love to do a country scene and hope in August that I can capture a few barns to do this with. It would be fun.

Another thing that I have been playing around with is macro  photography. Every time I’m out golfing I have been looking for feathers. They are a good tool to practice with especially if you have to stay inside.  Adding a spritz of water helps to add some interest. Ralph helped make something to hold the feathers. These are made out of small wood blocks, dowel and craft clothespins. Using my macro lens I get up really close to the feather and take multiple pictures (5-7) focusing on different parts of the image. This done because the camera is unable to bring everything into focus when it is at such a close range. It's very important to ensure that the subject doesn't move (which is a challenge when the air conditioner is on).   The multiple photos are then uploaded into Lightroom where they receive their normal tweaks. From there the photos are sent to Photoshop where you “align” all the pictures (to make sure nothing has moved). If anything (a fine feather for example) has moved, it will be seen at the end and then it must be erased out of the final picture. Once aligned, the photos are then stacked or blended together. There is a feature in Photoshop that does this for you. It will take all the pictures and reveal the sharpest portions all combined onto one shot. I know it sounds like a lot and for me it was pretty intimidating but after trying it a few times it gets easier.

The above shot is a combination of focus stacking and textures.

Just for fun I decided to try adding a flag to the droplets hanging off of some ornamental grass.  We received paper flags in the mail for Canada Day which was perfect to use for this exercise.  It's important to remember that when looking through the droplet, refraction will occur causing the item item behind it to be upside down.  So to combat this I turned the flag the opposite way.  When focusing on this, I shot 3 pictures focusing on each of the 3 droplets.  Isn't it amazing that you can see the flag through the water drops.  I'm pretty happy with the result.

Last night Ralph and I went out to try to shoot the comet Neowise.  It was late by the time the sun had set and it was dark enough to see the stars.  We were joined by another photographer who wanted to try to capture the comet as well.  He seemed to know what he was doing and had an app on his phone which said exactly where the comet should be.  I'm not sure it was correct, however I took multiple pictures and saw something flashing in the sky but I wasn't successful in getting a half decent shot of it.  I did however take some pictures of the moon which I am pleased with.  This phase is called the Waxing Crescent.   This is the first phase after the New Moon and is a great time to see the features on the moon's surface.  If you enlarge the picture you can see some craters.