Larry at Larry's Images.com: 10/2/11

Saturday, October 8, 2011

Large Milkweed Bug

Large Milkweed Bug Molt Residue

Yes, they crawl out of their skin. There were several on this side of the milkweed seed pod when I started setting up. They felt uncomfortable with my presence and moved around to the other side. The "skins" did not move.

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Friday, October 7, 2011

We are almost full circle with the Narrow-leaved Willow Herb

Long-leaved Willow Herb

You may remember that I discussed the Long-leaved Willow Herb earlier. This is my latest shot of it. The stems and seedpods are contrasting with the green background. It stands out. It will look like it did in that previous blog, soon.

Last year I thought that I saw them in the bottom by the covered bridge. I can't seem to find them this year. As I remember, there were many there. That is a mystery that I may or may not unravel.

Thursday, October 6, 2011

Steve Jobs, Apple and Me

Larry with Apple II Computer

My first thought this morning when I heard about Steve Jobs was that of a loss. My second thought was that I use Windows. Many photographers use Macs for image editing but I use Windows. My third thought was that, as Steve said in the speech at Stanford Commencement 2005, Windows is what it is because of the Mac. I am not sure that Steve was involved with Apple When the Apple II came out. I think he might have gotten involved about the time they started making The Macintosh. This shot of me is from the mid to late eighties. I guess I owe a lot to the legacy started by Steve at Apple. I really liked his speech. If you have not already, take a listen.

Foggy Morning

Foggy Cloudy Morning

I could not see individual clouds moving when I looked skyward. I almost did not start the image capture because of it. I thought, "Well, maybe I will see something with time lapse that I don't see with my naked eye." I went ahead and ran it. The time lapse video shows the SW to NE flow clearly. It was hard to believe. We had that low pressure system that stalled over the Midwest for so long and generated that movement.

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Time-lapse of Sunrise

Sunrise at Gorman 9-28-11

With all the rain, I was happy to see the sky like this that morning. I had been practicing my time-lapse for several mornings and was starting to feel more confident. I set my aperture at f/22 which exacerbated the problem I am about to discuss. My Canon EOS 20D had dirt on the sensor usually. This is in part because I don't clean it enough and it does not have the auto sensor cleaning feature. I decided to use it for time-lapse because I do not need large files. I save only the raw files and really the 8 mp sensor is large enough. I was very excited about the whole shoot during which I had made 430 captures until I viewed the images on my computer and discovered the blemishes. I had been shooting at f/11 for time-lapse previously and it had not been too much of a problem. For some reason f/stops beyond f/11 really bring out the dirt on the sensor in areas like the sky. I really liked the sequence but could I show it with the dirt so evident. The first day I worked on it I felt that I had failed. I almost deleted the raw files at that point. As I slept that night, I seemed to remember that I had read about batch blemish removal in ACR, Adobe Camera Raw. I decided to try it. I did not find that I was happy with the result because, in the following images, the blemish removal scarred the images (You work on the top one and apply it to all the others. Theoretically, the blemish should be in the same location on all captures.) I tried making an action in PS5 to remove the blemishes to no success. The next day, as I was about to throw them all away again, I decided to try the blemish removal in ACR one more time. I tried a slightly different technique. I placed the tool in the center of the blemish and dragged it outwards to the outside edge of it. I was careful not to drag the tool any more than I had to. I selected all the images in ACR and synchronized often. It worked! I was able to make the video. The image above still has the blemishes visible but the video used the corrected ones.

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Indian Grass

The dew was very heavy that morning. The Indian Grass, heavy with it, was hanging out into the trail. I like the regular spacing of the water drops and the blurry back ground. I think that the color of the stem is complemented in the background. I love the contrast between the sharpness of the foreground and the softness of the background.

I made a special effort as I set up my tripod to get the sensor of my camera parallel to the stem for maximum DOF, depth-of-field. I used: Canon EOS 7D, Sigma 105 mm macro lens. I used f/5.6 for maximum sharpness. Shutter speed was 1/6 ". I used mirror lock to minimize camera vibrations.

Monday, October 3, 2011

Another Friend

Jan

I have been running into Jan on the trail for years. Lately, I have been trying to remember to photograph the people that I meet on the trail. Jan carries her Canon SLR almost all the time. She finds things to photograph that I don't even see. The shot that I have of the goldfinch in the nest is courtesy of her pointing it out to me. She tells me that she has a daughter with whom she likes to travel to different out of state parks for visits. She uses an online service to make her prints. She always has a shot on her camera she would like to share with you.

Sunday, October 2, 2011

Portal to Meadow


Meadow Portal

This is the portal through which I pass each morning as I enter the meadow habitat. I like the meadow because it gives me a laboratory in which to observe the light's effects. Lately, I have been going through before dawn to catch the time-lapse images of the sunrise. I love this passage which never disappoints me as to the variety on the other side.