Print of the Week

I like the contrast of the green leaves and the red ladybug. And the low side light highlighting the texture of the leaf and casting the ladybug's shadow.

This was from one of my first outings with the new RX100 at the community garden just near our house. There were lots of ladybugs around. Apparently they congregate in the fall as they look for spots to overwinter.

The RX100 doesn't focus quite as close as I'd like so this is cropped a fair bit, but it has plenty of resolution for that, even for a large print. The focus is slightly back from the eyes, where I'd like it, but pretty good for handheld automatic focus.

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Print of the Week

I haven't printed many abstract images so I thought I'd give this one a try. As you may have gathered, I like water and reflections and color :-) This is from my Prince Rupert Harbour set.



I actually ended up hanging it upside down since I liked it better with the dark part at the bottom. What do you think?

These kinds of images remind me of my father. He took a trip out to BC one time (possibly for a photography workshop?) and came home with some lovely reflection photographs. He would have enjoyed being able to make large color prints so easily.

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Print of the Week

14" x 20" on Exhibition Fiber

This is a split toned black and white conversion. The original image didn't have much color to begin with - a little blue in the sky, and a little warmer wood and early light. (The truth is, if the original image has much color I have a hard time giving it up!)

Here's the original untouched image (i.e. just default raw processing):

Considering I was shooting straight into the sun, the camera did a pretty good job on the exposure.

Here's the image after adjustments, but without the tint:

It's ok, but I liked the warmer feel of the original so I used the Split Toning in Lightroom and applied a similar tone to the highlights (leaving the shadows untinted).

As you can see I recovered some of the highlights, and lightened the shadows. I debated whether to make the far riverbank black, or to lighten it up even more. I decided to leave it dark but with a few details visible.

Although I've never obsessed over resolution, it's nice to have my "pocket" camera have enough resolution to comfortably make large prints like this.

As always, if anyone is interested in prints of any of my photos, let me know.

This is from my recent More Fall Colors set (not that the fall colors are visible in this one)

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More Fall Colors

More photos of the fall colors, mostly taken walking to work. We've had lots of sunny days to enjoy the autumn. I find the colors amazing, but really hard to capture, so I keep trying :-)








The morning view from my home office window.

These were all taken with the RX100 on automatic. (Although I closed the aperture to F11 for the office view to enhance the starburst effect.) I find it a bit small and the controls fiddly, especially with gloves on cold mornings. But I'm quite happy with the results.

See all 13 photos as overview or slideshow.

Fall Colors

Some random photos from the last week or so, taken with the new RX100 on the way to and from work. I love the fall colors, but its hard to capture the true feeling of them.







See all 13 photos as an overview or a slideshow.

River Kayak and Geese

We got out Sunday for probably the last kayak of the summer. It was a beautiful sunny day and the fall colors were wonderful. There were lots of Canada geese around, congregating for their trip south. I love how there are special words for groups of different kinds of birds. Geese on the ground are a "gaggle", when in flight a "skein", "wedge", or "team", and when flying close together they are a "plump". As usual, Shelley was very patient as I dawdled along taking pictures. The current was fairly strong and when I'd stop to take photos I'd drift back downstream and have to paddle like crazy to catch up.

(click to view larger)








View a slideshow of 22 photos or an overview.

See also: Shelley's post

PS. I've widened my blog layout to allow for bigger inline photos. Let me know if you have any problems with it.

Print of the Week

A triptych of three of my gull photos from last week (13x19")

Gulls on the River

When I was out running I noticed there was a big flock (a "screech") of gulls on one of the sand bars. So Sunday morning before the sun got too high I headed down there with my tripod and long lens and took a ton of photos (almost 400).

(click to view 27 photos)


Sadly, most of them were underexposed (too dark), not sure why. I corrected for this in Lightroom but the result isn't as good as if they had been correctly exposed to start with. Also, none of them were very sharp. That was a little disappointing after going to the effort of using a tripod. I'm not sure if it was focus problems or camera movement or something else. Obviously, the birds were moving too, but that's understandable.

I struggled with trying to track flying birds - that's a challenge with a 750mm (500 x 1.5) equivalent lens.

On the positive side, I got some good action shots. I just need to work on the image quality. It's all good practice.







View a slideshow or an overview of the 27 photos.

What's Up Doc?

I was walking home and I spotted something on a lawn. At first I thought it was a cat, but as I got closer I realized it was a rabbit.



I thought it would run away but it seemed quite calm so I stopped and pulled my camera out of my pack. As usual, I started taking photos from a distance in case that's all I got. But I moved slowly and it let me get quite close.

(click to view larger)


Finally, when I got within about six feet it ran away.



I haven't seen any rabbits recently so it was nice to get a good look at this one.

These were taken with the new RX100. The closeup shot is surprisingly sharp considering it was handheld at 100th of a second. (late afternoon on a cloudy day)