photoartflightMore Blackwater NWR Landscapes and Panoramas
Posted on January 5, 2019
Some more panoramas & landscapes from our visit to Blackwater NWR. Featured image is a 3 image panorama, shot @ 48mm with a m43 Olympus and a 14-140mm lens. Assembled in Photoshop. Below are more assorted landscapes and panoramas from along the Wildlife Drive as the sun was setting.
Sunset setting @24mm Olympus OMD mk-1
Sun Setting along Wildlife Drive @14mm Olympus OMD mk-1
BWR Sunset Along Wildlife Drive @32mm. Eagles roosting on first tall snag and forth tall snag. The nest is in a tree further down to the right. Olympus OMD mk-1
BWR 3 img panorama before sunset @ 14mm, m43 Olympus OMD mk-1
BWR Sunset @ 14mm m43, Olympus OMD mk-1
BWR Sunset 14mm, 2 img stacked pano, @14mm, Olympus OMD mk-1
Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge Is Open
Posted on January 4, 2019
We went to the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge a few days ago. We were not sure if it would be open during the government shutdown but the Refuge & Wildlife Drive were open and we had a great 2 days there. The visitor center and gift shop were closed though. Lots of Snow Geese, Tundra Swans & Canada Geese, etc. We also saw quite a few Bald Eagles but not many close by. But the sunsets & clouds were amazing.
Sunset near end of the Wildlife Drive. OMD E-M1, Mk I, With 14-140mm @14mm
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
Great Egrets Preening At Blackwater NWR
Posted on November 19, 2018
I finally got a chance to go through images I shot at Blackwater NWR a couple of months ago. Here are two Egrets preening in a tree along the Wildlife Drive. The featured image is a 3 image blend, shot with a 400mm lens with a 1.4x teleconverter. I purposely shot the top and the bottom image a little softer so the main center area stood out more when I blended the images in Photoshop.
After I photographed the featured image series another Egret flew by behind the two in the tree, giving me an opportunity to photograph something flying! We then mostly concentrated on Landscape Panoramas and dragonflies the rest of the day. The cloud formations were spectacular so it was still a wonderful day to photograph at the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge!
Sun Starburst Through The Leaves In The Woods.
Posted on November 7, 2018
I liked the yellow color of the leaves that were backlit from the sun shining through them. I shot at f/16 to help get a starburst with the sun shining through the leaves for the featured image. This was near the end of one of the paths through the woods at the Park.
2 image panorama, nearing the end of the path through the woods. 14mm, m43
Fall Landscape Panoramas At Davidson’s Mill Pond Park
Posted on November 6, 2018
These are a series of multi-image panorama landscapes @14mm with m43 format images. The featured image is a series of 4 images, blended and combined in Photoshop. It was a clear day, but the trees had already lost a lot of their leaves. But it was nice to see some with some bare spots. I thought it looked interesting to see spots of color here and there.
3 image panorama version of the featured image, 14mm horizontal images, m43 format
3 Image panorama, 14mm horizontal images, m43 Camera @ small pond
Wider Panorama, 4 images, more overlap on each, 14mm, m43 Camera
Davidson’s Mill Fall Landscape Panorama
Posted on October 11, 2018
We were looking for colorful photo subjects on the Farm Road Trail at Davidson’s Mill Pond Park. I was looking for more detail type images so I was using a 300mm f/4 lens. On the trail I liked the colors and trees on the far side of the pond. I shot 11 handheld images to get all I wanted in my panorama. I overlapped the images a little more than usual so the images would assemble easier for the final panorama image.
Additional Pond Image taken with my small pocket camera
Another Pond Image zoomed in a little, again from my small Panasonic pocket camera.
Fall Milkweed At Davidsons Mill Pond
Posted on October 9, 2018
We went to a local park, Davidsons Mill Pond Park, to look for photo subjects. The Milkweed Plants were starting to look the worse for wear, but that is what happens this time of year. I liked the weathered “look” of the plants and the “feathery” pods as the season is coming to a close. I was using a 300mm close focusing lens for these to try to capture the fine detail of the weathered pods and keep the backgrounds somewhat softer. These are a series of images taken from 1 image each up to 4 handheld images which I then aligned and combined in Photoshop. It was windy so it was difficult to get some of the series to blend well, but I got quite a few. The next series will feature the Milkweed with Large & Small Milkweed Bugs, which adds some color but not good for the plants. The Milkweed is a favorite for Monarch Butterflies.
Blackwater River Panorama Landscapes Near Sundown
Posted on August 12, 2018
When we were going to the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge, we planned for the first day to include the sunset and the second day to be there for the sunrise. Usually they are very dramatic and colorful at Blackwater NWR. Normall we go to the end of the Wildlife Drive for sunsets and the beginning of the Wildlife Drive for sunrise. The sunrises are better on the Little Blackwater River. While the sunsets are better by the Blackwater River. While we were on the Wildlife Drive heading for the far end, we noticed and liked the colorful clouds on the Blackwater River so we stopped and shot a few panoramas as the sun was getting lower. Even with 12mm or 24mm lenses, it still did not give me all I wanted in my shots. So I shot a series of images handheld, to blend together to get the view I wanted. The featured image was a series of shots in a vertical format to blend together. I wanted to include more sky and reflections in the water. The image below was a series of images shot horizontally to blend together. With 12mm or 24mm lenses it seems like you have to shoot the images with a lot more overlap on each image than with longer lenses. Also instead of using Photoshop to automatically align and blend the images, they come out better to manually align each image manually and make soft edge masks to blend together for the final image. Photoshop tends to really distort the few images on each end and distort the edges badly, especially the extreme images on each end. The clouds and reflections then look really distorted and warped.
photoartflight 