Learning to Take Pictures

Caterpillar

Sun, 15 Aug 2010 02:06 +0200

I guess this is a caterpillar... It was introduced to eat these yellow flowers (which are apparently non-native and choking off local flora).

Caterpillar Crecent

Sun, 15 Aug 2010 01:17 +0200

This is another macro in NIR. I liked how this caterpillar was making a crescent shape that followed the flowers, but in color it is too much yellow and the caterpillar blends in too well. In NIR everything turns white except the black bands on the caterpillar.

Not A Bee

Sun, 15 Aug 2010 01:15 +0200

I should spend more time taking macros with the NIR. I generally avoid it because my NIR camera is a D50, which is far more difficult than my trusty D300, but the NIR macro pictures can be really interesting. Those flowers are all bright yellow, as is this bug (which I do not think is actually a bee), making macro shots a boring sea of yellow. In NIR, however, the bug turns black and the flowers turn white giving this timeless perfume ad look.

Calf Tongue

Sat, 14 Aug 2010 23:39 +0200

Man, that is a long tongue... We saw these guys on the side of the rode and stopped for a little photo shoot.

Redwoods

Sat, 14 Aug 2010 21:50 +0200

You can really see the effect of the NIR here--turning the needles white and the sky black. It makes the redwoods look like giant cotton swabs.

Clovers

Sat, 14 Aug 2010 21:48 +0200

This is another picture that only works because of the NIR. These clovers are, of course, green and blend into the background, but they turn bright white in NIR giving this sort of ghostly look.

Jigsaw Tree

Sat, 14 Aug 2010 21:09 +0200

This picture reminds me of a jigsaw puzzle, how the tree in the foreground fits with the background.

Where's Waldo

Sat, 14 Aug 2010 21:00 +0200

It is really difficult to convey just how big these redwoods are. Look carefully at the lower right and you will see a person in there for scale.

Layers

Sat, 14 Aug 2010 20:58 +0200

I like this picture, but I'm not completely sure why... The effect of the leaves turning white with the lens flare and tall trees just sort of comes together for me.

Not Cherry Blossoms

Sat, 14 Aug 2010 20:53 +0200

I took this with my trusty 70-200, but on the NIR camera. It is one of my favorites from the hike because it looks like cherry blossoms--in normal color the leaves would be dark green and have no contrast with the sky, but the NIR turns the leaves white and the sky black.

Tall Trees

Sat, 14 Aug 2010 20:49 +0200

I'm not 100% sure if this is in Oregon or California because it is so close to the border, but I decided to shoot everything on our hike in NIR. The effect is that the leaves of the trees turn white, the sky turns black, and the trunks of the trees show more detail.

Barn Owl

Fri, 13 Aug 2010 21:09 +0200

Apparently barn owls are notoriously ill-tempered... And this guy was no exception. He would swap between awesome poses such as this one (which I love because the contour of the owl fits in the background perfectly) and biting the hand he is standing on.

Falcon

Fri, 13 Aug 2010 21:01 +0200

I think this guy is a falcon... Again, standing on one of those big leather bird-gloves, hence the crop. I love this bird's eyes.

Hawk

Fri, 13 Aug 2010 20:50 +0200

I forget what type of hawk this is, but he's standing on someone's arm on one of those huge leather bird-gloves, hence the crop.

Bald Eagle

Fri, 13 Aug 2010 20:46 +0200

I spent a lot of time with the giant 70-200 stuck on my camera on this trip and learned that birds in captivity are super fun to take pictures of.

Over the Edge

Fri, 13 Aug 2010 19:30 +0200

This was my favorite of the gazillion pictures of lizards I took. I like how it gives a lizard's eye view of the world that looks infinite with the focal blur. And you can see the brilliant blue belly hanging out the left side.

Blue Belly

Fri, 13 Aug 2010 19:26 +0200

Rather than macro, I took this with my 70-200. There was no way to get close enough for the macro. I'm still getting the feeling for this lens and I cut the depth of field a bit narrow, but this photo generated some ancillary photos of me balanced on my belly over a rock wall taking this picture that is pretty funny.

Wild and Scenic Rogue

Fri, 13 Aug 2010 19:25 +0200

A little taste of the Wild and Scenic Rogue River for those who have never been to Southern Oregon.

Osprey

Wed, 11 Aug 2010 21:21 +0200

This osprey has a nest across the street from my grandpa's house. The longest lens I have is 200 mm so I had to crop this thing like crazy (but it is a fast 70-200 that works great with focus-tracking so it isn't all bad). Notice the fish in his talons with the head missing? He is taking the rest to the nest to feed the other osprey that was yelling at him.

A Bee

Wed, 11 Aug 2010 20:17 +0200

By comparison to the tiny pollinator, this bee was like an 18 wheeler.

Tiny Pollinator II

Wed, 11 Aug 2010 20:14 +0200

Ok, one more of the tiny pollinator, this time with a neat background.

Spinning

Wed, 11 Aug 2010 20:11 +0200

Here's the little pollinator again. Notice that the blur is from the motion of the big spinning on the tip of the flower, not focus.

Tiny Pollinator

Wed, 11 Aug 2010 20:10 +0200

I have no idea what this bug is. It is a pollinator (see the blue pollen all over its legs), but not a bee. It is also super-tiny: about the size of the head of a honey bee. This one was also moving so fast that there is motion blur even at 1/125... I could have spent all day taking pictures of it had I not had to hold bizarre and uncomfortable poses for extended periods to get these pictures.

Schooling

Mon, 09 Aug 2010 21:15 +0200

Capturing the awesomeness of seeing schools of bait fish swimming past you at eye-level with a camera just isn't possible. They are too dynamic. This picture--which was again very difficult because of the low-light and fast-moving fish--gives you some idea. You can see part of the school facing you and the arc that these fish will follow as they turn down and right.

Jellies

Mon, 09 Aug 2010 21:06 +0200

At the Monterey Bay Aquarium they were very clear that these are "jellies" and not "jellyfish" because they are not even remotely related to fish. They had tanks and tanks full of them, but photography was difficult: low light, the accumulated fingerprints of thousands of children (seriously you could scrape them off with a butter knife), and (surprisingly) fast-moving jellies.

Bird Yoga

Mon, 09 Aug 2010 20:08 +0200

I wonder if the pleasure derived from stretching is proportional to the length of your legs. If so, this bird is experiencing nirvana.

Nap Time

Mon, 09 Aug 2010 20:07 +0200

Normally a picture like this would be accompanied by a long description of the type of bird, its habitat, etc. This one, however, was taken at the Monterey Bay Aquarium (notice the band on its leg) which is why I was able to get so close.

Lingcod

Mon, 09 Aug 2010 19:11 +0200

For those who have enjoyed it on their plate, but never seen one: this is a lingcod. They are prehistoric-looking fish with sharp teeth that apparently have to be kept by themselves because they will eat almost anything. They also live about 100 years.

A Fish

Mon, 09 Aug 2010 18:51 +0200

Even though it's just a picture of a fish I like it... Something about the expression on the fish's face that says "Why don't you stop and take a picture."

Live Oak at Nigth

Mon, 09 Aug 2010 06:00 +0200

This picture is nothing special, but it is of Live Oak Beach, where my family has had a house for half a century and where I have spent many summer days playing in the surf and digging up sand crabs.

Harbor at Night

Mon, 09 Aug 2010 05:50 +0200

This little harbor is in Santa Cruz (not too far from the Board Walk). I shot this just after sunset, standing on a dock which was moving and, of course, all the boats are slowly moving so everything is a touch blurry, but I like the effect.

Bronze Surfer

Sun, 08 Aug 2010 00:40 +0200

For those who have never been to Santa Cruz CA, this statue has its back to the ocean and sits on a long trail that runs from the Board Walk to Natural Bridges.

Munching on a Crab

Sat, 07 Aug 2010 19:25 +0200

This sea otter was hanging out just past the rocks riding the surf in to grab crabs off the rocks, munching on a crab meant, and repeating the entire process for long enough that I got bored and left... Which is a long time :) Unfortunately the longest lens I own is 200 mm so I had to crop this quite a bit.

Yaaaaaawn

Sat, 07 Aug 2010 19:18 +0200

I had no idea a seagull could do that. This yawn started while he was looking away and just got bigger and bigger as he rotated towards the camera.

Queued

Sat, 07 Aug 2010 19:15 +0200

It looks like they're waiting in line for the bus.

Beach in IR

Sat, 07 Aug 2010 18:10 +0200

This is again a picture of Live Oak Beach in Santa Cruz, but shot in NIR. If you look closely, the plants on the shore line are lighter than they would be in a normal BW photo because in NIR plants turn white.

Roots

Thu, 27 May 2010 14:32 +0200

I don't know what these are, but they are sold as giant bundles of roots like this.

Nuts

Thu, 27 May 2010 14:29 +0200

These are seeds of some sort, not sure what, but they were fun to photograph on the way through the flower market.

Pink Tulips

Thu, 27 May 2010 14:28 +0200

I was showing some guests around Amsterdam and they were having fun taking snapshots, so I couldn't resist taking them to the flower market. If I lived in Amsterdam, I might go to this market every day with my camera. Between the masses of people from all over the world, the stores that extend into the canal, endless macro opportunities, the translucent ceilings lighting all kinds of hanging plants, hilarious "marijuana in a can" starter kits... You couldn't possibly run out of photographic opportunities. On this day we were just passing through so I grabbed a couple of close-ups.

Fiets Worden Verwijderd

Thu, 27 May 2010 11:13 +0200

I always like pictures of bikes in front of signs telling you not to put your bike there (this one warns that your bike will be removed), but this one has the added fun of being in front of a Buddhist Temple in Amsterdam.

Beach Houses

Wed, 19 May 2010 11:14 +0200

These were everywhere in Texel... Changing rooms, I guess? Fun to photograph, anyway.

Wipe Out

Wed, 19 May 2010 11:12 +0200

There were all these rafters and kayakers, presumably part of some big class, and clearly beginners. They were wiping out left and right in the tiniest surf--the kind of waves we would let little kids play around in California... Anyway, I was trying very hard to get a funny picture of the constant wipe-outs, but it was too hard to convey via film, so I opted to crop this one tight, moments before another wipe-out, and somehow made him look like he knew what he was doing :)

Beach Chairs

Tue, 18 May 2010 15:53 +0200

I think I missed the composition here. Another shutterbug on the trip took the same picture and posted it on Flickr and I like his better.

Texel Houses

Tue, 18 May 2010 14:16 +0200

These houses are in Oudeschilde, a small town on a small island called Texel (but pronounced 'Tessel').

One More Lamb

Tue, 18 May 2010 13:49 +0200

Ok, one more lamb picture... Because they are adorable.

Dutch Lamb

Tue, 18 May 2010 13:49 +0200

Well, it doesn't get much more Dutch than a lamb standing in front of a windmill :)

Botched Tulips

Tue, 18 May 2010 12:43 +0200

I finally got to take a swing at a tulip field (in Texel, a Dutch island) and I totally screwed it up. With my 18-200 I have the hyperfocal distances nailed on the wide end, but for whatever reason the same settings on my 24 mm prime lens gave me a blurry foreground and slightly-out-of-focus background. Very disappointing, but I had to show something from my first tulip field!

One More from Borough

Sat, 01 May 2010 12:28 +0200

Again, not a terrific picture, but because London is generally so full of people and I didn't want the faces of a thousands strangers enshrined on my photoblog, I took many, many pictures at low enough shutter speeds to blur anything moving. I tried this a lot with the big, red buses and streams of people entering/exiting buildings, but none came out very well. In this picture enough people are moving that it almost achieved the "river of people" effect that I was going for. I would have stuck around and tried to get it right (e.g., without the glare on the sneeze-guard), but I hit my dirty-look-quota for the afternoon... And I was hungry.

Borough Market

Sat, 01 May 2010 11:58 +0200

I include this picture not because it is particularly good, but because I wanted to include a picture from the Borough Market. It is an outdoors-ish market in London that seems to be a combination of every market I've frequented from California to Groningen, plus some fun English specialties like cheeses and meat pies. I was even able to find tomatillo sauce at this market! I would guess that roughly 2/3 of the people at the market were dragging a camera around, so if you want to see some good photos, Flickr is probably full of them.

Columns

Sat, 01 May 2010 10:39 +0200

Still abusing the color filters, I realize, but this isn't a terrible picture of some neat architecture.