Author Archives: mc

Sunlight on the Deck

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What is it that makes something that you have seen every day for 10 years suddenly interest you photographically? Is it a different texture of light, or maybe a particular angle of the sunlight striking? Maybe you have some emotional attachment to the sight, and today your emotions get control, making the ordinary seem extraordinary? Or some new brain chemistry just happens, and you see something in a way you’ve never seen it before? Can you capture that? Will others see it as you did?

Sunlight on Side of Deck

Sunlight on Side of Deck

On The Curb: New Beginnings?

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On The Curb

Is this the picture of a family having been evicted from their home, possibly a casualty of the ‘great recession’? Have the children been forced to uproot their friendships and attend a new school where they know not a single person yet? Will their pets be allowed to live in the new residence, or must they give them up? Can the marriage survive the strains that financial insecurity and change place upon it? What psychological scars will be etched on both the young and the old from this wretching experience? How long will those scars last before they eventually fade away to the effects of time?

Or maybe this is the portrait of a family moving up the ladder as growth and financial security return to a hopeful and waiting United States? Are they leaving this rented residence on the way to a new house of their own that they were finally able to purchase? Maybe there’s a new car in the budget now too, or even a second car? A bigger back yard, better schools, safer neighborhood, quieter surroundings? Perhaps a little less time available for Dad to be around the house, but then there’s always some price to pay.

There’s a story behind this. I wonder what it is?

Supermoon

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Like 3/4 of the worlds known population, I decided to shoot some photographs of the August 10th SuperMoon.

When a full moon occurs at the same time as the moon being closest to earth in it’s elliptical orbit, that’s a SuperMoon. It can be up to 14% larger in appearance and 30% brighter luminosity, than the full moon at other placements in it’s orbit.

I have been working on my moon shooting skills in the nights leading up to that event. I’m shooting with a 200mm zoom lens which is not known for stellar (HA!) performance at the long end of it’s range. Focusing is very difficult for these old eyes, but critical for the detail I want to show. What I wouldn’t give for a Nikon 300mm fixed length F4 lens right about now.

So everything goes swimmingly, and my results are improving, as I practice every night shooting a fuller and fuller moon leading toward the August 10th peak. Then, on August 8th, clouds and heavy rain move in.

And so it remains, until the night of August 11th, one day after the peak SuperMoon viewing. In the below shot, you can see a slight darkening toward the lower right of the Moon, indicating it is just past peak.

SuperMoon_Aug122014

There is a lessor SuperMoon coming again in a month, on September 9th. I plan to be out there shooting it.

I wonder how the weather will be?

 

Trees Deciding They’ve Had Enough

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So it’s all awesome and wonderful living under the big, shady, green trees on the edge of the lake. Or, it is until they come down. In the lake. And you have to get them out.

treedown01

It’s a perfectly clear afternoon (albeit there had been heavy rain on the previous day), blue sky, no wind, quiet and peaceful. Then 2 large pine tree trunks, without any warning, begin falling toward the lake. The tree is what is called a combinant tree. It has two trunks coming out of the same root body.

treedown02

At first there was hardly any noise. Then gunshot loud cracking sounds as the falling pines land on and take with them a beautiful 10″ Maple.

treedown03

Now I don’t mind too much losing the 2 pine tree trunks, other than the expense involved to get them out of the lake. But the loss of that gorgeous hardwood Maple tree just breaks my heart. The violence and volume of the cracking noises it made as those 2 pine tree trunks took it down is something you can’t un-hear. The poor thing was fighting hard for it’s life all the way down, as it was nevertheless relentlessly broken.

That’s enough drama for a while, Mother Nature.

Nobody Eludes Me for Nine Years!

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Easily the most skittish of the animals on the lake, this guy will flee in panic if a human comes outside, even on the far side of the lake. Up until now the only shots I have been able to get of him have been thru window glass from inside the house.

But no more! I got him! I saw him coming and managed to sneak into hiding and wait until he stalked by right in front of me.

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He is a Great Blue Heron (Wikipedia) and frequently hunts around the edge of our lake. I have been trying to get an up-close out of doors shot of this guy for like 9 years now. With an average life span of 15 years in the wild, it’s possible that this could be the very same guy who has been frustrating me all of this time.

Redemption.

blue_heron03

Capturing a Moment In Time

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I have always looked at photography, among other things, as capturing a moment in time. One point of time, frozen forever, viewed as I saw it, and framed for others to see as I would like them to see it.

I recently resuscitated my Imacon Flextight Photo scanner and have been going back over some points of time that I have frozen from years past. This is one of those moments, taken back in the early 1980’s in Piedmont Park, Atlanta Georgia. Obviously triumphant at having finished the Peachtree Road Race, this woman absolutely radiates happiness as she collects her race commemorating t-shirt at the finish line. It’s a point in time 30 years past now, but do you think she remembers this moment in her life?

racegirl_www

Hungry Hawk Hunts

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After all the brutal cold, ice, and snow around here, this big guy (click on the picture for a larger image) showed up today on the first sunny afternoon. He is a Red Shoulder Hawk, hungry and paying close attention to where his next meal may come from. Funny thing how the forest gets real quiet and empty when he’s around. I’ve seen him get squirrels, snakes, fish from the lake, and of course, other birds. Now if only that list included Canadian Geese. In spite of his predatory behavior, he is one of my favorite animals. If I could come back as a bird, he is what I would be.

Infrared Digital Photography

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I recently bought a IR760 filter to use on my Nikon D200 camera, as I’ve developed an interest in taking infrared digital photographs. This filter mostly allows only infrared wave length light to pass thru it and be recorded by the camera’s sensor.

With some trial and error, and long exposure times, I managed to get this shot of the lake in full 1PM afternoon sunlight.

lake_under_ir

Most digital cameras have a built-in filtering function to block infrared wave length light. That’s because for ‘normal’ light images, infrared light will damage the quality of the photograph. So with an un-modified digital camera, you are somewhat fighting one thing to achieve another. You are trying to collect and use infrared wave length light, while your camera is trying to block those same wave lengths of light.

Unfortunately for my infrared photography, the Nikon D200 is known to have a very effective block of those ‘un-wanted’ infrared light waves. This results in very little infrared getting to the camera sensor, and correspondingly long exposure times. Not ideal.

So I’m thinking I will eventually get another camera body – modified especially for infrared ability. The modification involves removing the built-in filtering block on infrared light.

More equipment to carry. More expense.

It never ends, does it.