photoartflightAudubon Plainsboro Preserve Winter Landscapes With Strong Shadows
Posted on January 13, 2021
We decided to go for a walk at the Audubon Plainsboro Preserve and see what we could find to photograph. The sun was somewhat low but that made long shadows in the landscapes and great starbursts on the lower sun in the sky. I was using one of my lenses that I do not use much – the Canon 17-40 mm lens.
Multi-Image iPhone Panoramas From Plainsboro Preserve
Posted on November 17, 2020
I like doing multi-image panoramas for my landscapes. But shooting with wider lenses on a Full Frame camera, I tend to get more sky & foreground in my images than the areas I want to have as the main subject. With an iPhone 11 Pro using the panorama feature you tend to get a distortion or a “bowing” effect in the middle of the image which to me looks strange or distorted. So for panoramas with the iPhone I shoot a series of overlapping horizontal or vertical iPhone images and “blend” them in Photoshop. Depends on the scene I am trying to capture as to iPhone orientation. If my subject is closer up I would use vertical images, if farther away I would use the iPhone horizontally. On the iPhone 11 Pro if I am using the 1.5mm lens (Field of View on a Full Frame Camera equivalent is ~13mm) I would shoot even more images for the panorama, with more overlapping on each of my images. If using the 4.3mm lens, I would overlap a little less. When using the 6mm lens I could use even less for the image I want to photograph. Basically you have to do a few and see what works best for you. Most of my Multi-Image iPhone panoramas are horizontal images. If doing a Vertical overlap the images more. The featured image is 10 overlapping vertical iPhone 11 images shot with the 1.5mm lens.
The iPhone Camera Lenses Field of View Equivalents:
Photoshop Auto-Align Layers Window for Blending The Panoramas. Cylindrical seems to work well for iPhone 11 Pro multi-image panoramas, especially when using the 1.5mm lens.
Once you load all the images into Layers you have to Align the layers before blending. With the small lenses in the iPhone 11 Pro, I tend to use the “Cylindrical” setting most often because of the small 1.5mm, 4.3mm or 6mm lenses. But you may have different outcomes. For larger sensor cameras I usually use the “Auto” setting. Also you will have some white or blank areas usually in corners. So while “blending” the layers you can check on “Content Aware Fill” to let Photoshop Fill In these Areas Automatically. If you try one setting and do not like the effect, just go back in History and try a different setting. For Full Frame Digital Camera images I usually use the “Auto” setting.
Plainsboro Preserve Landscapes @ 12mm & 24mm
Posted on October 29, 2020
We went to Plainsboro Preserve to take a walk and to see what we could find to photograph. Looking outside before we left we saw the clouds were amazing. So I decided to travel light and only brought a 12-24mm lens on a Canon R, thinking I would concentrate on landscapes with the clouds. And if I saw something else interesting I also had my iPhone 11 Pro. The Plainsboro Preserve includes over 1,000 acres of undisturbed open space with nature trails and the 50-acre McCormack Lake. The New Jersey Audubon Society manages the preserve on behalf of Plainsboro and Middlesex County County, NJ.
4 images @ 12mm, 2 overlapping images top half, 2 images overlapping bottom half, Canon R
Mc Cormack Lake Multi-Image iPhone Panoramas
Posted on October 27, 2020
On our recent walk at Plainsboro Preserve, we took a different trail that took us to the farthest viewing point of McCormack Lake. We had never been at this spot in the woods before. There were many trees in the way, but I liked the view looking through the trees seeing the distant shoreline with the trees & clouds across the Lake. I was using a Canon R with a 12-24mm lens, but for this post I am only using the images I shot with my iPhone 11. Most of these iPhone images are multi-image shots to get wider views or a little taller views to get more foreground & more of the clouds. The featured image is 4- iPhone 11 Pro images with the 1.5mm lens to get more width and more sky & foreground. On a Full Frame camera this would be approximately equivalent to a 13mm lens field of view.
Female Common Whitetail Dragonfly
Posted on June 30, 2020
A few images of a female Common Whitetail Dragonfly taken along a walk at the Audubon Plainsboro Preserve in NJ. I was using a Canon 300mm f/4 lens on a Canon 7D, mainly because it was lighter to carry for a long walk. The background is a little busy with the sandy & pebble path. But it cooperated by not flying off!
Red-Spotted Purple Butterflies
Posted on April 18, 2020
Since we are following stay at home guidelines these were taken on a photo walk at Plainsboro Preserve last year to look for dragonflies. We only saw a few dragonflies and most were very worn looking. But then we saw quite a few Red-Spotted Purple Butterflies. I was shooting @ 600mm and for closeups I did a series of different focus points and then let Photoshop align and combine the sharpest areas into the final image. The featured image was 3 shots, the one below was only 2 before it flew off.
Plainsboro Preserve Lake
Posted on September 27, 2019
5 image Panorama of 50-acre McCormack Lake at Plainsboro Preserve. The Plainsboro Preserve is a collaboration with the Township of Plainsboro, the County of Middlesex,
and New Jersey Audubon. Close to 1,000 acres of lands were preserved by the County of Middlesex and the Township of Plainsboro that supports a diversity of habitats and wildlife, with one of the largest lakes in the area. The featured image is a 5 image panorama, each section shot @ 14mm on a m43 Olympus Camera. Then assembled in Photoshop. When doing panoramas with a m43 Camera, I tend to overlap each image more because of the smaller format. It just seems to lineup better and give better “blending” of the individual frames. On full frame cameras I do not have to shoot as many sections to get a “Smooth” overlap.
Bench view of McCormack Lake, 14mm m43 Format
Buckeye Butterfly @ Plainsbore Preserve
Posted on September 5, 2019
While we were looking for photo subjects at Plainsboro Preserve, I spotted this Buckeye Butterfly working this flower. The Butterflies and Dragonflies all seem to have a look of wear & tear now this time of year. But it is still fun to get some photos. I was using a Canon 400mm f/4 DO lens with an extension tube for closer focusing. This Buckeye had quite a bit of wing damage.
Recent Dragonfly Images
Posted on September 1, 2019
Here are a few images of Dragonflies and a Damselfly from a few local parks in our area. Most were shot with a close focusing 300mm f/4 lens with either extension tubes to get closer or 1.4X or 2X teleconverter. A few I used a Canon 400mm f/4 DO with Extension tubes and 1.4X teleconverter. The featured image is a female Eastern Pondhawk that was quite cooperative for extreme closeups. Image taken with Canon 7D, handheld, 300mm @ f/8, 1/1000 sec, ISO 400.
Blue Dasher extreme closeup – 2 image focus stack Canon 7D, Canon 300mm f/4 IS, 1.4X teleconverter, w/extension tubes
Blue Dasher extreme closeup – 2 image focus stack Canon 7D, Canon 300mm f/4 IS, 1.4X teleconverter, w/extension tubes (f/11, 1/200 sec, ISO 400)
Damselfly – multi image stack, 400mm f/4 DO with extension tubes, f/8, 1/50 sec, 1600 ISO, camera on tripod
Female Eastern Pondhawk- f/11, 1/320 sec, 300mm f/4 w/ 1.4X teleconverter
Slaty Blue Dragonfly, f/11, 1/160 sec, +1/3 exp. comp, 300mm w/ 2X teleconverter, Single image, flew off before focus stacking images
Slaty Blue Dragonfly, f/10, 1/320 sec, 300mm w/1.4X teleconverter, effective 420mm
Red-Spotted Purple Butterfly
Posted on August 31, 2019
While we were looking for Dragonflies at Plainsboro Preserve I noticed this Red-Spotted Purple butterfly warming on the ground. I was using a close focusing 300mm f/4 lens with a 2X teleconverter so I could get closer images of distant insect subjects (usually Dragonflies) so I manually focused on 3 different areas to blend them into 1 sharp image in Photoshop. Using f/4 for my f/stop (with a 2X teleconverter it is actually f/8 then with the 2X teleconverter giving a 600mm focal length) and focused on middle body, then antennas and lastly rear wing edge. I used to mainly use a 1.4X teleconverter for this type of shooting but the Canon R files are extremely clean even at much higher ISO’s so the 2X gives me more working distance. Then used Photoshop to blend the sharpest areas automatically into 1 merged image. Photoshop usually does a good job on this, but here in there I might also do some manual editing to what Photoshop does. To bad it is getting late in the season for butterflies & insects. They are beginning to show signs of wear. Especially the Dragonflies!
Another on a leaf still at f/4 (actual f/8 with 2X teleconverter but it flew off before I could do my near & far focus points. That is why I sometimes shoot center, then the near & far points.
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