Visual Notebook

Asian Bells, Nikon D7000, Nikkor 50mm f/1.4, f/11, 1/6 sec, f/11, ISO 100, Topaz Adjust

I left the Botanic Gardens with about 350 photos on Saturday and while it’s true many are throw-outs, I ended up with some keepers.  The goal from these outings with our Meetup is not only to socialize with like-minded people, but also to perhaps learn something.  Well, learn something I did, but not because of anyone else.  Actually, I learned two things:

1. My Nikkor 70-300mm f/4-5.6 is just not very sharp past about 180mm.  As you may recall I decried using cheap circular polarizers especially on a long lens such as this – I stand by that statement, having seen both before and after shots taken using and not using that polarizer.  Yet, even using the lens by itself, on a tripod yielded an inferior sharpness.  The lens is about 11-12 years old, and reviews of it have been universal disappointment above 200mm.  Long story short – I’ve replaced it with a new VR version which has gotten positive reviews, even above the 200mm mark.  Time will tell.
2. My Vanguard tripod isn’t as  rock-solid as it should be.  I was using the 2 second self timer for shots and yet you could once in a while see almost a double exposure look due, I suspect, to a lens that wasn’t quite finished settling, or one that was effected by mirror-slap.  I won’t give up the tripod this year, but next year?  History.

Stone Path, Nikon D7000, Nikkor 70-300mm f/4-5.6, f/13, 90mm, 1/13 sec, ISO 100, Topaz B&W

Poppy, Nikon D7000, Nikkor 70-300 f/4-5.6, f/5, 180mm, 125 sec, ISO 100

I hope you enjoy these additional images – I’ll be out of town from Friday thru next Tuesday, but I may try to get a post up on Sunday or Monday.  If not, it’ll be Wednesday of next week.

Thanks for reading!

John

Garden, Nikon D7000, Nikkor 70-300mm f/4-5.6, f/22, 1/20th sec, ISO 100, Topaz B&W, Adjust

Spent a few hours Saturday morning at the Denver Botanic Gardens; it was a Members-Only event, allowing existing members admission at 7 a.m. instead of the usual 9.  The SW Denver Photo Team  (a Meetup group I’m a member of) met there, but I did very little socializing, preferring to head off on my own and work at my own pace.  A lot of the members hung out together for a while, I noticed, but it didn’t take long before everyone drifted along their own paths, meeting up occasionally as they passed each other on the way to capture another shot.

This was my first visit to the Botanic Gardens – I had no idea how large the place is!  How it ranks compared to Botanic Gardens in other states I can’t say, but I was impressed. There are 42 different gardens here, focusing on various themes – for example, Conservation Garden, Japanese Garden, Lilac Garden, Shady Lane to name only a few.

LightAndDark, Nikon D7000, Nikkor 70-300mm f/4-5.6, f/11, 190mm, 1/125sec, ISO 100

I really didn’t pay that much attention to where I was at any given time, preferring instead to wander along the many trails tucked away in unexpected areas.  I found myself in one garden with a small pool with a couple tired lily pads floating in the dark water, with a wall on one side covered with the cool green of ivy and shaded by large trees.  It was a quiet place, almost hidden.  I spent a good 15-20 minutes there, and not a soul disturbed me, except one confused bee who soon realized I had nothing to offer.

ForGeorgiaOKeefe, Nikon D7000, Nikkor 70-300mm f/4-5.6, 300mm, f/5.6, 1/500 sec, ISO 100

I probably explored only 25 percent of the place making multiple trips a necessity; oh, too bad!  Of course, as the spring and summer progresses, there’ll be new plants and flowers introduced which also makes it necessary for other trips.  It’s a wonderful place to visit and should be on your short-list if you come to Denver!

Thanks for reading,

John

Blue Window, Nikon D7000, Tokina 12-24mm f/4, 16mm, f/8, ISO 320, 1/80th sec

This was a Meetup I attended on Saturday – we congregated in front of the Episcopal church and wandered around Manitou Springs for a couple of hours.  It was an formidable group of about 15 photographers armed with a variety of gear – mostly Nikon stuff I might add, though I did see one Canon guy and one lady shooting a Sony (that would be you, Cori!).  There may have been others, but I didn’t notice.  Jason Odell, a local professional organized the walk (see Jason’s photos at http://www.luminescentphoto.com/).  There was plenty of eye-candy, that’s for sure!  I saw a Nikon D4, a D3S, some really nice lenses and one guy actually had a D800.  Okay, it’s official, when you start referring to cameras as “eye-candy” you’ve gone over the techno-geek cliff.

I’d never been to a photo-walk before and it was pretty close to what I envisioned.  Jason gave everyone a run-down of where we would be heading and then we were off.  After five minutes I had already separated from the group.  A blue window had grabbed my attention and I took a bunch of shots, hoping I’d get one or two in focus (it was in an awkward position for shooting).  I did and the result is the photo above.

Still, most everybody hung together overall.  People would drift off and come back together later – there was no pressure to stay with the group, and really, how could there be? We were, for the most part, adults and could handle being apart from the others.  Photographers seem to be a rather independent lot anyway.

Spring Ghost, Nikon D7000, Tokina 12-24mm f/4, f/11, ISO 200, 1/125th sec

The sun was intense, despite it being the morning, and fortunately I decided to bracket all my shots to varying degrees (some 1 stop, others up to 2).  Glad I did too, there were times when, even bracketed, the highlights were blown to bits.  I shot just over 300 photos in about four hours (yes, I said a couple hours above, but after the walk had officially ended I lingered for a while and took some additional images).

Manitou is a quirky little town, with a mix of old and new, steep streets, houses in nooks and crannies where you’d least expect them.  When I was stationed at Ft. Carson in the 70s, Manitou was where all the hippie-types hung out.  Guess what?  They still do.  However, instead of being peaceniks you have these kinds of people -pan-handling for Star Wars gaming pieces (or so I’m told).  It’s all different now, yet somehow the same.

Panhandling, Nikon D7000, Tokina 12-24 f/4, 22mm, f/11, ISO 200, 1/250th sec.

Though I didn’t get any spectacular images, my goal was to meet a few new photographers and gain a different perspective on how other people shoot and what kind of gear they use, and in that regard the day was a total success.  The shot below is an old brick and stone oven built into the earth behind a restaurant currently operating – hopefully, they aren’t still using it!

Stone and Brick Oven, Nikon D7000, Tokina 12-24mm f/4, 12mm, f/8, ISO 400, 1/13th sec

To top it off, after I finished shooting I stopped at a coffee shop, had a cup of coffee and one of the best muffins (Strawberry-Blueberry) I’ve ever had.  In case you haven’t realized – I thoroughly enjoyed the morning and won’t hesitate to participate in these types of events again.

Thanks for reading,

John

Clouds And Flyover, Sony Nex-5n, Sony E 18-55 @ 27mm, f/5.0, ISO 100, 1/1000 sec

The title sounds like it could result in a lengthy entry, but it’s not.  It could be, of course, but I normally prefer to distill verbiage down to its essence, to “bottom-line” it.  Arguments can be made to the contrary, and they are, yet those arguments are a house of cards.

The other day I went out to Red Rocks Park (see my previous entry), specifically because there was a tree there I wanted to shoot. I’d been there last year shooting with my then new Nikon D7000 when I spotted this tree, stripped of its foliage, perched high on a stretch of red rock.  I was immediately drawn to it as a subject and I used my  Nikkor 70-300mm lens to capture it.

Later, when I worked with the resulting RAW files it never seemed as though the images were particularly sharp, even on the images using less than 200mm.  I was dissatisfied and decided none of the photos were usable.  That left the question of “Why were they not sharp?”.  Turns out I was using a cheap Circular Polarizer on the lens and it was the culprit of the substandard photos.  I made a mental note to return to get a good shot of the tree.

Fast-forward and I now have a batch of new shots. They are sharper, but remain unsatisfying. Why? I was there early, the light was decent, if not optimal. There were even a few clouds to add a bit of drama.  I believe the problem is either one of two.  It may not be a good subject – when I showed the photos to my wife she commented she never really liked that tree.  It seems to lack “character”.  The tree is bare, and the limbs tend to be straight, boring, with few offshoots to liven up the appearance.  Or second, it may be the angle of the shot needs to be changed – instead of taking it from the side, perhaps from the bottom looking up with the red stone leading up to the tree would result in a more compelling image.

I may try once more; I suspect the result will not be much better.

I realize I didn’t really discuss “Recognizing Good Subjects” but, and here’s the distilled part, the “bottom-line” of it:  a good subject is what you think a good subject is.  Wow.  Pretty simplistic, I know. However, I think it’s mostly true.  I’ve seen technically excellent photos that, to me, have subjects that are a disaster or distasteful even though the image itself has received accolades, and the opposite is true too.  Things I’ve considered good subjects in the eyes of others don’t work.  They’re just opinions. And that may be a naïve opinion, but it keeps me from hanging crap on my walls!

The image above is one I really like – the clouds look good, the flyover has nice texture and is sharp.  Mostly though, I like it because when I first looked at the image on my lcd screen on the back of the Sony I thought I had captured a car moving along so quickly it was just a blur.  I was surprised when I opened it in Lightroom to discover what first appeared to be a moving car turned out to be a cloud. Excellent!

Thanks for reading,

John

3 Windows,3 Stumps and a Junction Box, Nikon D7000, Tokina 12-24mm f/4, 18mm, ISO 100, HDR, Topaz B&W

I’m off to a Meetup shortly, so this post will be abbreviated today and I haven’t had the time to decide on the subject matter.  We canceled our planned trip to Moab this last weekend due to the threat of storms.  From the weather reports we were seeing, Moab was going to be fairly socked in both Saturday and Sunday. I’d monitored the forecast everyday and on Friday, I finally decided I didn’t want to waste the money on a trip that seemingly was guaranteed a wet time.  How the actual weather fared, I don’t know and I don’t want to – once the decision was made, it was done.

We’ll make up for it in the near future – my one time in Moab was at the end of a three day mountain bike ride on the Kokopelli Trail from Fruita, Colorado to Moab.  A spectacular, but very difficult ride.

Our Meetup this evening is called “What To Do when the Light Ain’t Right” and it’s something we, as photographers, often face.  I frequently end up in a location during mid-day, when the light is so soft and warm (ha!), so I know what I do (look for shade mostly).  We can never stop learning and hopefully I’ll pick up some good ideas on this.  If so, I’ll post them here – may as well share the good fortune if there is any.

Today’s shot is from Red Rocks Park.  I paid it a visit for a couple of hours this morning and my favorite shots weren’t of the red rocks, or the spring flowers starting to bloom.  It was of this small outbuilding next to the Trading Post that got my attention.

There’s a story that goes along with my visit, but I’ll save that for a mid-week post, say Wednesday or Thursday.  See you then!

Thanks for reading,

John

Cloud and Building, Sony Nex-5n, 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6, 55mm, ISO 100, 1/400 sec, conversion to B&W with Topaz B&W

I continue to use the Sony Nex-5n in essentially a test mode, but that’s winding down now – it’s a keeper, with caveats.

I was out using it Friday to capture images for my ongoing project about Denver’s Light Rail, though I suspected I wouldn’t manage anything usable since I was out in the midday sun.  I was correct about that – the light was harsh, brutal, glaring and out of the sixty or so images I captured, none will find their way into the finished project.  However, I have to mention using the external EVF once again.  I continue to be disappointed overall by its performance in real world working conditions – I’d return it except for the fact that it is better than the LCD panel alone.  I guess I’m irritated by this because it’s marketed as the $350 panacea to the LCD and it’s not.  Okay, I’m done with complaining about it.

As I mentioned last week, the image quality is the reason for keeping the camera, but little quirks keep popping up here and there, nothing that I’d consider a deal breaker (though I have been tempted…).  The biggest of these little annoyances is how easy it is to accidentally push the Menu button.  I’ll be holding the camera and bring it up to my eye for a shot and there’s the menu instead of the image.  Backing out’s not a big deal unless there’s an image you see that requires a quick shot – if that’s the case, you’ve probably lost it.

***

This should be an enjoyable weekend coming up – we’re going to Moab for a couple days. I’m hoping to get some good  dawn/dusk images from Arches National Park.  We’ll be there only one full day so I’m trying to decide this week which of the arch(es) to photograph.  Let’s see, there’s Balanced Rock, Delicate Arch, Double Arch, Tower Arch, Broken Arch, Landscape Arch, and many more, though some are pretty remote and I rule them out for this trip.  Any favorites out there?

Thanks for reading,

John

Allie, Sony Nex-5n, Sony E 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6, 46mm, f/5, ISO 800, 1/5sec handheld

Well, I’ve been using the Sony Nex-5n along with the 18-55 kit lens now for a week and thought I’d give a brief report on it.  First off, I’m not a reviewer and I’m not going to be technical at all, so if your eyes are already starting to glaze over they can stop, these are only my non-technical impressions.  For those who like their desserts first, here’s mine:  I’m keeping the camera, despite its negatives, of which there are several.

I based my original decision on this purchase on reviews I had read and primarily on DP Review (http://dpreview.com). To me they seem to be the most rigorous with their testing.  Maybe not.  They rated the 5n at 79%, while the Nikon D7000 received an 80%.  Perhaps the testing methodology is different for non-DSLR cameras, but if so, that should be stated up front. The only explanation I can think of for this might be the rating itself is heavily weighted in favor of image quality, and the bells and whistles only account for a very small percentage.

Let’s start with the LCD screen and the EVF.  The LCD is unusable in bright sunlight.  Period. End of story.  Yes, you can see vague outlines of structures or people, washed out, no details, but that’s all.  Forget composition. Forget waiting for the right expression on a person’s face before taking the image.  Forget reviewing the photo you just shot. Not going to happen until heavy clouds roll in or you go inside. Enter the EVF.  Better, yes.  Optical finder replacement?  Not yet.  When its really bright out, even the EVF has problems with contrasty subjects and you still lose details.  It’s definitely much, much better than the LCD screen, but it still has a ways to go.  And $300+?  Overpriced by a mile in my estimation.

Then we have the effects – the Twilight Hand-held, Panorama, HDR, etc.  Lots of effects to choose from.  But all shot in JPEG format.  The twilight hand-held is one that’s touted a lot – but essentially it just jacks up the ISO, takes five quick shots and merges them into one noisy image.  The automatic HDR doesn’t seem to be that effective either, though I’ll continue playing around with it under different lighting conditions. Bottom line on the effects – I think you can have a lot of fun with them as long as you don’t take them too seriously. The panorama feature looks interesting, but I  haven’t gotten to it yet.

I mentioned the automatic HDR above, but you can also bracket your exposures and combine them in Photoshop or Photomatix Pro or any other HDR software.  Unlike the Auto-HDR you can bracket with RAW files.  The problem here is you can only bracket up to .7 EV. On my D7000 I can go two full stops either way.

Other negatives (my opinion, of course) include the menu system which seems cobbled together without a whole lot of thought.  For example, Metering Mode is under the Brightness/Color selection, while Autofocus Mode is under the Camera selection.  Auto ISO uses the full range of ISO available up to 25,600 – I’d never go above 3200 given a choice.  Unfortunately, you can’t tell the camera what the maximum acceptable ISO or the minimum acceptable shutter speed is. In single-shot mode there’s a noticeable lag between releasing the shutter and seeing the image on the screen. The touch-screen is only moderately usable. The selection wheel is easy to depress when you’re trying just to rotate it.  Last negative (so far), the kit-lens is pretty soft at the edges, and has a huge problem with flare.  Okay – that’s it for the negatives – at least for now.  I haven’t used everything yet, including video, so who knows?  Oh, wait:  battery life.  Not so great.

So, after all that, why am I keeping it?  With that rather long list of negatives it would seem like I should have this thing packed up and on its way back to the camera store.  Well, overall, I like the images it produces and since I shoot raw, and in Aperture priority 90% of the time it does what I ask of it.  I like the portability. I like the thought of getting an adapter and using my existing lens collection with it.  I like the APS sized sensor.  And I like the JPEG processing it applies (even though I rarely use JPEGs).  I’ve heard some people complain that it overdoes it, but I don’t think so.  Looks good.  Oh, wait:  battery life indicator – I do like that it reflects a percentage of power left.

That’s it – like I mentioned, I haven’t discovered everything the camera offers, but the main thing, shooting raw in Aperture mode with a decent sized sensor is the reason I bought it and for that, it delivers.

Thanks for reading,

John

Well, I’ve returned from my blogcation.  What’s a blogcation, you may ask?  It’s just like a real vacation, except you don’t go anywhere fun, continue to go to work, do chores around the house, chip away at the honey-do list (guess this is practically the same as chores), don’t visit blogs you normally visit, try shoot a few photos, and worry about not posting to your blog.  Yeah, just like a real vacation.

As I write this entry, the wind is howling outside – 30, 40, 50 mph gusts pummel the area, and since we’ve been dry now for several weeks (either too much moisture at once, or we’re arid), it’s no surprise that on the way home today, I spotted smoke curling from beyond the first layer of foothills, and further on, the smell of smoke became stronger as I neared home from a different fire.  I could see the plume of smoke to the west, but nothing serious – at least not when I arrived home.  An hour later and I had to close the house up due to the smell of smoke.  Outside, this is what I saw:

Sun through smoke, Nikon D7000, Nikkor 50mm

Smoke from fire, Nikon D7000, Nikkor 70-300mm lens

Hopefully, this isn’t a harbinger of a difficult upcoming fire season.

***

As you may recall, in my entry for 2012 Plans, I said I wanted to purchase an EVIL camera.  And I did – deciding on the homely, but capable Sony Nex-5n.  With its APS sized 16MP sensor, and overall package size along with some of the glowing reviews I’ve seen (not to mention the D7000 shooter in the camera store I spoke with,  who bought and loves his). Heck, it may even be the same sensor that’s in my Nikon, after all, Sony manufacture’s Nikon’s sensors.  So far, some of the capabilities seem a little gimmicky, for example, the hand-held twilight feature takes six shots and then blends them to create one well-exposed image.  However, to do this, it jacks the ISO up to 6400.  The resulting image is fine for family snaps, but certainly nothing serious.  But, you’ve got all the PASM modes (I use Aperture mostly shooting and it works pretty well here using the LCD screen), raw files, and a sensor that can provide a nice blurred background.

Sony NEX-5n, Nikon D7000, Nikkor 50mm lens, two SB600s

I’ll post photos from it soon.  Of course, the question I anticipate most is, will it replace my Nikon?  No – the D7000 has features the Nex doesn’t have.  Like a built in viewfinder (though I did spring for the EVF for the Nex), a hotshoe, faster shooting, better flash support, the ability to set the maximum ISO and shutter speed when using Auto ISO (the Nex only allows you to use Auto ISO and it’ll set it where it pleases,  and frankly anything above 3200 doesn’t appeal to me).

In 5 or 10 years, DSLRs with their pentaprisms and mirrors will probably be a thing of the past.  Not yet. They still have life, though the writing’s on the wall.

Thanks for reading,

John

New Leaves, Nikon D7000, Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 @ f/2.0, ISO 200, 1/1250sec

I took Monday off in anticipation of receiving my new printer (Epson 3880), but it was actually delivered on Friday afternoon. I decided what the heck, I’ve reserved the time off, may as well take it – besides it would give me the opportunity to test the printer’s capabilities (hint: really nice output, with the notable exception of text on a matte surface, but more on that in another post).  Monday was also the first day of 70+ degree temperatures, and I was itching to get out and enjoy it.

I walked – specifically, the Platte River Trail, an area I’ve frequented many times in the past simply because it’s easily accessible.

Spring is just getting under way and this was the first weekend we’d had that felt like winter was on the run.  Walking the trail showed a landscape which, at first , seemed to challenge that thought – brown everywhere, brown leaves, brown grass, brown dirt, brown trees, brown bushes; even the water in the river seemed brown!  But as I walked, I became more in-tune with the surroundings, and began to see what I’d hoped to see – green inevitably making an appearance.  It wasn’t much, but when I saw the first leaves of groundcover I just stopped. I had to take a moment and allow my eyes to absorb what I was seeing.  This was what I was looking for!

Old and New, Nikon D7000, Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 @ f/11, ISO 200, 1/80 sec

The green of spring buoyed my spirit and I continued on, the sun warm on my head and shoulders.  It felt wonderful. And then, more green.  Life was winning the battle with winter and soon the brown would be on the run – at least for a few months, until the cycle repeated itself as it must.  But for now, with the sun beating down, the new growth peeking from the old, the green days approach and for a while winter will be a fading memory, dim and chilly in the dark corners of our minds.

Thanks for reading,

John

Ann, Nikon D7000, Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 @ f/6.3, 1/160sec, ISO 100

As you may recall, one of my “plans” for 2012, was to have more photographs of people.  This is my first, and while it’s a nice shot, my weakness, that of directing the model, came to the forefront.

A little background to this story may be in order.  I joined the Southwest Denver Photo Team Meetup group several weeks ago, so I could attend the Colorado Railroad Meetup event (See “My First Meetup”,  http://jstrongphotos.com/VSBlog/2012/02/19/my-first-photography-meetup/ ), had a great time and posted a few photos from the event.  Several other meetups were scheduled, including “Studio Lighting 101″ which was to meet in a studio environment in order to have exposure to studio lighting instead of hotshoe or built-in flash lighting.  The meetup was full – 18 slots, 18 reservations, but I put myself on a waiting list.  A few days before the meetup I received an email informing me there was a cancellation and I was in. Cool!

The studio we had access to was pretty good sized, with an impressive array of softboxes, umbrellas, striplights, and so forth, used in conjunction with Alien Bees studio strobes.  Large rolls of paper, white, black, maroon and others were hanging on the walls.  Props, chairs, stools, stuffed animals, musical instruments, crowded one corner of the studio.

We ended up with 20 people and five models (this is Ann that you see here).  Bob was the organizer/instructor and he went through the basics of lighting using the strobes and how we would be shooting.  Then we began creating the images, and that’s where my problems began.  Probably half the folks there had firm ideas of how they wanted the models to pose, what positions, half of the remaining group had tentative thoughts on posing.  Head tilt this way, shoulders that way.  I, on the other hand, was absolutely clueless when it came to directing a model.  And having to do this in front of 19 other people! Well, let’s just say my “fear factor” kicked in and it was all I could do to get a few shots and then slink innocuously back into the group.  I’m actually surprised I got any images.

What I took away from this meetup was a brief jolt to my self-confidence.  But self-confidence is to a large degree dependent on knowledge – the more you have in a given subject, the more confidence you’ll have.  For me, this is an absolute.  Unlike some of people, I don’t have the ability to bluff my way through a situation, appearing to be confident when, in fact, I’m not.  My only resolution is to be prepared.  The only way to be prepared is to study and gain experience.    I can look at model posing guides (and I will – it’ll help), but that can’t replace experience.  That’s where I’m weak, that’s where I have to concentrate my efforts. Just not in a large group environment.

I’m not looking at being a “seniors” type of portrait photographer, but only to have an idea of the image I want from whomever I’m photographing.  The more I photograph people, the more confidence I’ll have. There’s no way around the learning curve.  It’s sort of like death and taxes!

Thanks for reading,

John