First Weekend of Spring, pt2

The weather was perfect this afternoon for photography in wooded areas this time of year - overcast but bright, with intermittent filtered sunshine. But disaster struck once I found myself well within Boeing Creek Park: I had forgotten to bring the new waist pack in which I keep my filters! Thankfully, I just keep my macro lens's polarizing filter on the lens itself (I use it so much that I just leave it on, and really only take it off for cleaning). So it was a close-up day for me.

So here's an interesting plant - and I finally figured out what it is! It is usually referred to as red deadnettle or purple deadnettle (Lamium purpureum), and I think this ended up being my best-yet picture of it. It was somewhat in the shade of a larger plant, which combined with the filtered sunshine to lend it the diffused lighting you see here.

I also got a couple of sweet shots of a budding red-flowering currant (Ribes sanguineum) shrub. I was able to get a pretty narrow depth of field, and thus smooth background, at an aperture of f/8!

And, lastly, some pics of salmonberry () flowers. Most of these shrubs are not blooming yet, but a few of the ones in really sunny places of Boeing Creek Park were blooming pretty impressively. As you will see, these ones were more challenging in terms of getting a smooth background (I didn't want to lose too much depth of field on the flower itself; at widest apertures I lost some of the center of the flower). The first one is the best; the next two weren't as good but were still good enough to post.

First Weekend of Spring!

I had been planning on a sunrise, but unfortunately it clouded up too quickly. Already awake, I changed plans and headed to the Arboretum instead. There weren't quite as many things blooming as I had expected, but there was plenty!

This first one came from my new lens. Check it out! I like the perspective.

I also had a chance to photograph a rather large bed of Lenten roses with my new lens. The first one I did with a narrow depth of field (wide aperture). The second I did with a narrow aperture (f/22) for a wide depth of field. It worked, although that aperture loses a lot of sharpness so I'll have to do some heavy-duty touch-up work if I ever use it for anything.

Next, some classic closeups. I don't have any interesting stories for these - just the usual difficulty of pinpointing the focusing. I'm not convinced by the first one; too much of the flower is blurry perhaps. The others are better but still not perfect.

Finally, a few other random things. I actually really like this next one of new growth:

These next two were attempts at including reflections in compositions; unfortunately, they didn't turn out to be as colorful or as compelling as I would have hoped. I'll have to work on that.

And this last one. Just a nice compositional arrangement of different flowers, I thought.

Inaugural Sunset 2012

That's right. Yesterday evening - a beautiful day by any measure - marked my first sunset of the year. Last year, my first sunset did not happen until May, so this bodes well for the new year.

I didn't spend much time at the beach, so I only have one picture to show you. I used my new wide-angle lens and decided to try doing a shot of the sunset with driftwood in the foreground. Mercifully, there were no people in the frame. I shot it at f/14. I was going to use a narrower aperture, but when you get past about f/11 or so you start to lose some sharpness, and it turned out that f/14 gave me enough depth of field. And - this is nice - there wasn't too much distortion! Barely any barrel distortion on the horizon, which is good news. A bit of vignetting, but not enough to be a problem.

It's not as good as I'd like though, because the sun flares in my graduated ND filter, and the lens itself flares more than my old/normal lens. Also I think there is a scratch in my filter, which is really annoying, and the sun was shining in that as well. You can't really tell here on the internet, but there are a few places in this picture in which flares and other ugly things show up. Still, I like it.

I got some good ones this morning that I'll post later. Spring weather is finally here! And flowers are starting to bloom. In addition to the Indian Plum, salmonberry and currant are popping up. The Arboretum is also awash in blooms, mostly non-native ornamental trees and shrubs.

Boiling Skies

The sky yesterday evening was amazing! I was actually headed to the Arboretum to take pictures of some early blossoms, but I saw the skies exploding overhead and changed course to Discovery Park. Following are the pictures that I thought best evoked the sky's grandeur (these ones taken with my old/normal 18-200mm lens).

Wow!

Now, I suppose you're wondering where the pictures are from the new lens that I've been screaming about. The short answer is: there aren't very many that are blog worthy, because there are a lot of things I have to get used to. Below are the major challenges that I didn't have with my normal lens:

- Things getting smaller. This is probably the biggest one. Subjects (such as the clouds last night) that I could make a reasonable size in my normal lens end up looking very small at my new lens' extreme focal lengths. If something is close enough to the lens - and big enough on its own - I can make it look even bigger compared to the background, but a lot of things look small. A related issue is that the field of view is so wide that the frame includes objects that wouldn't have gotten in to my old lens's pictures. I will be able to make best use of this lens in situations where there are large, attractive subjects (e.g. flowers) and a dearth of buildings and ugly stuff anywhere nearby to get in the frame.

-Unequal polarization. I already had this to deal with when using my normal lens, and this problem only increases with the new lens. Basically, in a wide-angle shot the polarizing filter polarizes areas of the sky differently, which looks a bit weird.

-Vignetting. My filter holder - the one I use for my graduated-ND filter - actually shows up in the sides of the frame at 10mm.

-Distortion with the close up filters. The edges get super distorted, so it looks like the close up filters will be special-occasion filters rather than all-the-time filters. Oh well, at least they were pretty inexpensive.

Here are the three most promising shots. Try to imagine the foreground as being very green with large flowers, rather than looking like the middle of a very wet and cold March.

Fully armed and operational!

I am now the owner of a 10-20mm Sigma ultra-wide-angle lens!

It's pouring down rain and a bit breezy as well, so I obviously haven't been outside playing with it. But here is a little unscientific demonstration. Both of these pictures were taken from the same position on my couch; the first at 18mm on my normal 18-200mm lens (its widest focal length), the next at 10mm on my new lens. Check out the difference!

What a difference! The minimum focusing distance is also closer, which will make a big difference in the field. Also, check out how the built-in flash creates a shadow. Careful! I obviously won't be using that in the field; I'll use my attachable flash or, more often, none at all.

In addition to the lens, I bought:
-A polarizing filter and set of close-up filters for the new lens
-Lens caps to replace the ones I've lost
-A filter pouch to replace a number of aging filter cases; the pouch can attach to my belt for quick access!

I am thinking about buying a new tripod, because the one I use now is starting (more like continuing) to fall apart. It's still functional, though, and I'm leery of spending more money. But I found a nice one that's a bit lighter than mine and scrunches down to a shorter minimum height than mine, while still getting up past 6ft (a non-negotiable). We'll see.

Frosty Spring

I made an early-morning swing to Discovery Park yesterday. On the one hand, my pictures were not quite as successful as I would have liked in some respects. On the other hand, I was a bit adventurous and was pleased with the results given that I was pushing my boundaries, even if only slightly.

1) Pictures of frosty red flowering currant buds
I took these just before sunrise, which is something I usually don't do with close-up photography due to the long shutter speeds required and the possibility of slight breeze ruining the photo. I knew, though, that the frost wouldn't last long on these little buds.

Of all my tries, these two were the best. Neither is ideally sharp, but both are within an acceptable range. Also, in the second picture, I had been hoping to move the point of focus a bit closer, i.e. to the closest extension of the bud cluster. None of my attempts to do this worked, so I posted the best of those with the farther focus point. It's not perfect, but I think it works okay.

2) Backlit flowers
This is actually the same bush that I shot backlit last time I went to Discovery. This time, however, there were flowers on the branches, which I think made the shot much more interesting. The background is a bit dark, but that can be remedied somewhat, although the picture is pretty high-contrast and some blacks might have gotten lost. Also, I would want to tweak the white balance to bring out the green of the leaves more, I think. This could also be remedied, particularly since I have a copy of this image in RAW format. (Been busy lately and still haven't mastered editing in RAW. But we'll get there!) I like the composition, although the dead space in the top left and especially bottom right corners is unfortunate.

Next time, I will obviously better attend to white balance in the field. Also, I might try getting closer to a flower or group of flowers.

3) Flowers - worm's eye view
This one needs some work. The first thing you will notice is that it is way dark. But there isn't too much contrast in the picture, so this will be an easy fix. I stopped the aperture down to F9 and still the depth of field was quite narrow. There's a bit more definition in the background than is ideal, but for the flowers' sake, I wouldn't really want a depth of field much narrower than this. I think this is a concept worth trying again sometime. In the picture below, my composition wasn't fantastic - what you see is a vertical crop out of a horizontal picture! And it still has a bit of dead space at the top. Maybe with some creative cropping (along with the brightening) this picture could be fully salvaged. Still, I think it's a good start.

In other news, in a few days we might get another cold spell with snow levels at 500-1,000 feet! NO! I am so done with that winter weather nonsense! That would have been okay in early February, but not now!!

Spring?

Spring is so close, and yet so far...

It snowed a bit overnight, and I was able to snap a few shots before it melted (it melted off the flowers considerably even during the few minutes I was out taking pictures). The NWS claimed this morning that it temperatures might climb as high as 60 degrees by Thursday, a remarkable turnaround to spring-like weather. Not a moment too soon.