Fall Photos

I spent the morning with a friend at the Greenway entrance to The Clery Farm Natural Area in Allendale, NJ. We were looking for Fall Still Life images in the fields. There had been a rain during the night so there were water droplets all around.  All images were with the Canon 1D MkIV with the Sigma 150mm f/2.8 OS Macro. Because of the breeze I shot some images at f/4  to help stop the motion with a higher shutter speed and used a 2 shot image stack for the depth of field and also for exposure of the highlights.

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Pocket Camera for Landscapes

Many times while I am out in the field, I am carrying 400mm telephoto lens on a Canon 1 Series Body, which is large and after a while becomes heavy.  So I usually do not carry a second body or second wider lens. But I do not want to miss opportunities if I come across a great shot that is not right for the 400mm. I usually have a Panasonic LX1 compact camera in my pocket for those instances where I want to take a few wide or detail shots while my main camera with long lenses. I have used the LX1 for years and it still works well even though it is getting a little dated in todays fast paced technology feature updates. It has the ability to shoot raw files which is important for my workflow and the images it produces are fine for prints up to 16×20 prints & even up to double page landscape spreads in my ebooks. Newer cameras like the Sony RX100 II & similar cameras are also excellent & handy backup cameras. Sometimes if I think I might need  a wider zoom range I use a Panasonic GH2 m43 camera with a 14 – 140mm lens (equivalent to 28 -280mm on full frame cameras). Even though it is smaller than a DSLR and easier to carry, it still would not fit in a pocket and might get in the way. I have also tried images from my iPhone, but I do not think it is a viable option yet. All examples here are with the Panasonic LX1.

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Caterpiller Wreath

I found this rolled up caterpillar on a bench. I thought it was interesting with the spikes and colors. The caterpillar reminded me of a wreath. Canon 1D MkIV with the Sigma 150mm f/2.8 OS Macro. The caterpillar was in the shade so I used f/8 to get some depth of field for the spikes and tried to shoot straight down with the front of the lens  parallel to the caterpillar to get as much in the plane of focus. I ended up with 1/30 of a second exposure at ISO 800 , handheld, so I shot a burst which enabled me to pick the sharpest exposure in the series. I believe it is a Smeared Dagger Moth Caterpillar, a stinging caterpillar. It uses poison filled bristles to defend itself. 

Fall Spider Web

Here is my last photo from my walk at the Celery Farm Natural Area on Monday. I saw this spider web as I was going over the small bridge on the way to my car. I only had my 150mm macro, but took a few shots to try to get something. The web was about 20 to 25 feet away. Here is an extreme crop, but I still liked it.

Milkweed Pods

Took a walk around Lake Appert at the Celery Farm Natural Area and came across Milkweed Pods by the Butterfly Garden. I thought they looked interesting with side/backlighting. Used a Canon MkIV with the Sigma 150mm f/2.8 Macro lens.

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Colors of Fall in the Northeast

I spent the last few days wandering around a few of my local shooting areas looking for local Fall Color. You do not have to go far, look around your own yard or local park, you might be surprised at what you find. Here are a few from my yard and The Celery Farm Natural Area, 107 acre fresh water wetland. All were taken with my Canon 1D MkIV and the Sigma 150 f/2.8 macro. The 150mm macro is a great lens and the right focal length for these. Most of the time I set an f/stop of  f/2.8 if they were in the shade and increased to f/5.6 in brighter light. I wanted to keep a shallower depth of field to keep some backgrounds less obtrusive. I also tried to shoot straight in to my subjects (parallel) to maximize sharpness across the leaves. You do not have to travel far to get some Fall Color Images and it can also be a challenge to see what you can shoot.

Favorite Images from the Celery Farm Natural Area in Northern, NJ – Sunrises & Sunsets

The Celery Farm Natural Area in Northern NJ is a local wildlife area that is close to home so it is easy to get to and wander around with a camera for an hour or two. It has a little over 100 acres to explore.  Over 240 species of birds have been spotted here along with a variety of mammals, insects, and reptiles. I used to often get there early for sunrises and see the birds flying through the warm colors. Sometimes I would go back in the evening to catch a sunset. Here are a few images from those early morning/evening  photo treks.

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Bombay Hook NWR

I was looking through some of my backed up files and found images from Bombay Hook, National Wildlife Refuge in Smyrna, Delaware. The refuge has a Wildlife Drive that is about eight miles long along the Delaware Bay and covers over 16,000 acres. You can find many subjects for your photography – Wildlife, Birds, Flowers, Landscapes. and macro subjects.  There are also many trails and lookout towers. So depending on the day, you can find a wide variety of subjects for your vision. Usually we only drive through quickly on our way to Blackwater NWR in Maryland. We are planning to go back to spend the day and fully explore the refuge.

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Water Droplets

A lot of photographers do not like it when it rains, cuts down on their photography. I like a rain showers, when it ends or just drizzles a little, it gives you an opportunity to go and add water droplets to your photos. It adds interest and dimension to leaves and other subjects. It is like a Treasure hunt and you can do it in your own yard or a local park. When shooting wet leaves, sometimes it helps to use a polarizing filter to cut down on the glare if the sun comes out. Most of the photos shown here were shot using the Panasonic GH2 m43 camera with an older manual focus Canon FD 200mm f/4 macro lens. I like using this combination for macro. With this combo it is like using an f/4  400mm macro that goes to 2X without extension tubes. Your depth of field is also extended because it is a 200 mm lens, but with the 2X crop factor of m43 giving you 400mm. Plus you are not right on top of your subjects, gives you a nice working distance. You just press in the exposure compensation and the image in your viewfinder zooms in for critical focus. Then you just touch the shutter button and it zooms out for the full image on the viewfinder. Also as you stop down, the image remains bright in the electronic viewfinder, but you also see the full depth of field of the  aperture you set.  After you shoot your shot you also instantly see a preview of what you just shot for a second and will give you “blinkies” on a bright area that might have gotten blown out so you can instantly compensate and reshoot a darker exposure. So enjoy and go out and look after a rain shower to see what you can find.

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Web Browsing

I like a different kind of Web Browsing. It is fun to wander around either in my yard or parks looking for spider webs. Sometimes I get lucky and find nice webs with morning dew with interesting backgrounds & backlighting. But more often I find webs in difficult areas to get to or in really dark areas with bad light and wind blowing it around. If you keep an eye out for webs while you are out shooting other subjects, quite often you will come across them. Sometimes I try to get in as close as I can for more detail in the web and spider. Other times I back out to show more of the whole web. For whole webs you do not need a macro lens. If you want to get closer and do not have a macro lens, try extension tubes or achromatic filters. They work quite well on 70 – 200 or 300mm zooms or even 50mm normal lenses. You can even try a short extension tube on wide angle lenses. When shooting spiders close-up, try just moving up or down slightly  to get different backgrounds. You do not have to move too much to get different background effects and density variations. Either way, give it a try and have fun.

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Twenty four shot image stack assembled in Photoshop
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