photoartflightHigh Flight Of Snow Geese At Blackwater NWR
Posted on January 2, 2019
We went for 2 days to photograph at the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge in Cambridge, Maryland. Early in the morning, along the Wildlife Drive on the second day we saw a huge flock of Snow Geese flying out under a heavy cloud cover. They were quite high and took a few minutes for the waves of them to pass by. Probably 500 to 700 (or more) passed by in multiple waves.
14-140mm lens @ 14mm with Olympus OMD Mk1
Palm House Cone Tree
Posted on December 24, 2018
In the Palm House area of the Conservatory is this Tropical Christmas Tree. It is an amazing tree with tropical plants and flowers. Very colorful to photograph but difficult with all the visitors trying to take in all the colors and textures. A fun photo subject!
Distant Landscape In Setting Sunlight
Posted on December 24, 2018
When we were walking out of Longwood Gardens after photographing Christmas displays, I noticed in the distance, the setting sun casting interesting sun rays in the clouds on some homes. I liked the “warm” light and the opening in the clouds for the sun to cast the rays. Because my subject was quite distant, I shot at 95mm with my 14-140mm m43 lens for 2 images to combine in a panorama. If I just zoomed out I would have too much dark clouds above and too much foreground below so it would have lost some of the highlighted sun rays impact on the image. Using Adobe Camera Raw enabled me to pull even more detail and tones from the raw digital file.
Christmas Lights At Longwood Gardens
Posted on December 23, 2018
We went to Longwood Gardens, in Kennett Square, PA, for their annual Christmas light displays. These are just a few of the outdoor displays at night. There are also many other displays throughout the Conservatory and other buildings. One of the other very interesting displays was a room full of decorations with amazing ornaments made from books and other paper pages. They must have been cut/fabricated maybe by laser cutting. But it was amazing to see the intricate cutting & fabrication. I will post some of them next. Most of the images I shot with an Olympus OMD-1 mk I with a 14-140mm Panasonic lens (with the lens stabilization turned off). I was also using a Canon body with a 12-24mm lens, but was relying more on the OMD for in-body stabilization. Much lighter to carry and with the stabilized body worked well for the images in early evening. I found the Olympus in-body stabilization worked better than the Panasonic lens stabilization. Plus if you stop down to f/22 you can get some really cool motion blurs or spins with the Olympus OM-D. I saw a few tripods being used, but you usually have to get a free permit for them and cannot use tripods after 2:00. Plus it was so crowded it would have been in the way, so they probably would not allow it for this time.
The featured image above was at 22mm with the 4/3 Olympus OM-D mkI.
We had to get there early, before 2:00 in the afternoon, otherwise, even being members, you had to have a timed entrance because of the huge crowds that come to see the night displays. Also getting there later you have to park off site and take shuttles to the facility. But there is plenty to see before the evening lights up! It takes hours to go through the Conservatory, which is all decorated for Christmas, and you still probably will not see everything.
Late afternoon along the walkways, getting ready for the full impact of the lights at night.
Fountains set to music – when darker they would have colorful lights
Along the path to other fountains & displays starting to get dark.
3 image panorama @14mm- assembled in Photoshop
Birdhouse Display early evening before dark, 18mm, f/10 @ 1/5 sec
Bird house display in the dark, f/ 5.6 @ 0.3 sec
3 image panorama – 14mm. Also these were cascading lights, so in a way it is also an Image Stack that included the cascading lights as they “fell”. 14mm, 1/3rd of a second each exposure, handheld. Pano & stacked in Photoshop. f/8 @ 1/8 sec, handheld
2 image vertical panorama & stack. Panorama to show reflections in water and stack to include more of the cascading lights.
Single image, m43 15mm, 1/8 Sec to show green lights before changing to another color, handheld.
Christmas Tree Changing Color of Lights, 1/13th sec, handheld, m43 @ 32mm
Tree with Lights and Color Spotlights on Tree Trunk. f/ 4.5 @ 12mm Canon, 1/30th sec
Another Tree with Lights, 12mm Canon, f/ 4.5 @ 1/13 sec. handheld
3 image Panorama, 24mm Canon, f/ 5.6 @ 1/8 sec. handheld
Blackwater NWR Thunderhead Cloud Panorama
Posted on November 23, 2018
I am still going over images I shot earlier this year towards the end of Summer. Work seems to have gotten in the way of doing this sooner. This is from the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge in Maryland, one of our favorite places to photograph. Especially for Eagles and landscapes. The clouds were amazing this day which was great for panorama landscapes. I liked the colors and brightness in the center of the Thunderhead cloud and shot the series so there was more darkness below the cloud. I thought it made the cloud stand out more and look more interesting. I was using 4 different cameras this day, depending on what I was photographing with lenses ranging for the Canon Bodies from 12-24mm, 24-105mm, 300mm & 400mm and a few macro lenses. We never know until we get there what we will find interesting to photograph. So we usually bring an assortment of lenses. Birds were scarce, so we concentrated on Dragonflies and landscapes. For this image I was using a m43 Camera with a Panasonic 14-140mm lens, equivalent to 28mm FOV on a Full-Frame Camera. I only used 2 horizontal images stacked because with a third it seemed too square to me and lost some impact. Lately I seem to be doing more panoramas or stacked images mainly for the practice & challenge of them working out. Plus it is fun (when it Works!) Also images tend to work out better when you have tried various techniques and know when to shoot more or less for certain situations. It does seem the wider you go with the lens, the harder it is to blend sometimes. Below are with the 12-24mm on a Canon Body.
Looking out from the middle of the Lookout Platform – @12mm, 3 Vertical images panorama
Opposite Direction on the Lookout Platform – Early am – 3 img horizontal panorama @ 12mm
4 horizontal images @ 22mm panorama – looking out from behind Information Kiosk
Looking down the Wildlife Drive by the Observation Platform – 2 img vertical panorama to include large main cloud
photoartflight 