Skateboard Photography: Backside castle flip

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Okay, so the actual name of this trick is a backside kickflip.  Photo taken today in New Jersey, and that is my friend Joe Rajsteter partaking in his favorite hobby as he has done for the past 2 decades.

NJ skate photo

Joe Rajsteter showing he is king of this New Jersey castle by nailing a backside kickflip. Photo taken with the Tamron SP 70-200mm F/2.8 VC lens and the Canon EOS 60D DSLR.

The intermittent clouds and occasional harsh sun made for challenging exposure conditions today, but I think this frame winds up with a “near vintage” color temperature and tonality.  Photo taken with the Tamron SP 70-200mm VC lens and the Canon EOS 6D DSLR.  Exposure settings: 1/1000th F/2.8 ISO 250, 177mm focal length.

Critical Focus in Photography: Spotted Orbweaver

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It is a widely accepted concept in people photography and wildlife photography that getting the eyes of the subject sharp will make or break a photo.  One obvious exception being abstract photography.  In can be pretty tough to gauge sharpness on macro critters, and it is not easily achieved in outdoors field photography.  By my estimations, I take at least one dozen shots of each composition while looking through the viewfinder and being thoughtful of my shutter speed to get the photo I am after.

Araneus diadematus

A magnified view to aid in image sharpness checking. RAW preview on left and optimized JPEG on right.

A composite image shows one of the few frames that met my sharpness standard for this capture of an Orbweaver spider.  It is not blurry before processing and it is not blurry after processing.  The main changes are contrast enhancement along with light noise reduction and global sharpening.

New Jersey spider picture

An outdoors spider in New Jersey, photographed handheld with the Tamron SP 90mm VC and the Canon EOS 60D.

Above we see the full view of my macro photo in its native 3:2 aspect ratio with no cropping performed.  Using my 60D and Tamron 90mm VC, I manually exposed with settings of 1/100th F/4.0 ISO 200.

Image Optimization for Wildlife Photography: Common Yellowthroat

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I do get occasionally get asked about my post-processing workflow.  I am an advocate of “getting it right in the camera”, and most of my photographs are presented in a straightforward manner so I spend a trivial amount of time in the “digital darkroom”.  When shooting at higher ISO’s (800 and above), I find the need to apply a little extra TLC to photos.

post-processing before and after

The left side is my photo with my default RAW conversion settings applied. The right side is my final optimized image with additional selective noise reduction and sharpening performed for maximum image quality.

The above side by side view shows my typical RAW file with default settings applied (very light noise reduction and sharpening).  On the right I have gently applied more noise reduction on only the background, and additional sharpening on the bird’s face only.  This took me less than 5 minutes to prepare my photo for web and basic print usage.

NJ bird photo

One of our most common Warblers in New Jersey, here is a striking male in his typical habitat. Photographed with the Tamron SP 150-600mm Lens and the Canon EOS 7D.

The photo above is finalized JPEG for online presentation.  Cropping would increase the apparent signal-to-noise ratio of the image, and I did not feel a crop was in order for this shot.

This male Common Yellowthroat (Geothlypis trichas) was photographed at the Troy Meadows Natural Area in New Jersey.  Photography equipment used includes: Tamron SP 150-600mm VC Lens, Canon EOS 7D DSLR, Manfrotto 055x ProB tripod.

Exposure info: 1/160 F/8 ISO 800

Fog on Lakeshore

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This landscape photograph was taken at 7:16 AM at Ricketts Glen State Park in Pennsylvania.  The composition is framed using several points of alignment to the rule of thirds.  An obscured background tree caused by the dense layer of fog adds the essential element of mystery to the photo.

Fine Art Nature Photography

A few minutes after sunrise, a blanket of fog sets the mood on Lake Jean at Ricketts Glen State Park in Pennsylvania. Photographed with the Tamron 14-150mm Di II and the Olympus PEN E-PL3 compact camera.

Equipment used: Tamron 14-150mm Di III Lens, circular polarizing filter, Olympus PEN E-PL3 micro four thirds camera, and Benro carbon fiber tripod.  Aperture Priority exposure mode resulted in camera settings of: 0.6s F/10 ISO 200.  17mm focal length, RAW image format, 2 second timer.

Fall bird photography: Savannah Sparrow

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With the days in New Jersey growing gradually colder and shorter, I am always a bit remorseful to see the dwindling of the vibrant insects that I like to photograph.  Other wildlife like Reptiles and Amphibians also become less active.  However, the cooler airs bring visiting songbirds that seldom or never breed in our Mid-Atlantic region.  The Savannah Sparrow is a grassland bird with very fragmented breeding habitat in NJ, but the birds that bred further North now visit in search of food.

Passerculus sandwichensis

A migrant Sparrow pauses very briefly in New Jersey atop the fence of a local ball field. Photo taken handheld with the Tamron SP 150-600mm VC Lens and the Canon EOS 7D.

Above photo of a Savannah Sparrow was taken handheld with the Tamron SP 150-600mm VC Lens and the Canon EOS 7D.  A manual exposure of 1/500th F/8 ISO 400 was set, and I believe this is the only frame where I captured a good head angle before the small bird flew off.

DSLR Nature Video in HD: Great Spangled Fritillary butterfly

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Here is some DSLR nature footage that I shot in the tail end of this summer in New Jersey.  This was one of my first times using a fluid head on a tripod, and I practiced smooth vertical and horizontal panning motions to avoid jitters in the video.  The YouTube video below is a splice of 3 separate angles of a Great Spangled Fritillary in butterfly, a species I consider one of our most regal flighty residents.

Please watch in 1080P for full resolution

Equipment used in filming and production: Tamron SP 90mm VC F/2.8 1:1 Macro Lens, Canon EOS 60D DSLR, Manfrotto 700RC2 Mini Video Fluid Head, Manfrotto 055x ProB Tripod.

The acoustic guitar is my Washburn D10 CE using mostly Major 7th chords.

Shadow Darner in Autumn

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This another “right place, right time” photo, one of my favorite kinds of photography.  There was a light rain when I went out to shoot so I had the mindset to do long exposures of running water (which I did).  I did a brief walk around a pond before heading home and barely noticed this Shadow Darner dragonfly at rest against brilliant fall foliage.

Fall leaves and dragonfly in NJ

A dragonfly at rest against red and green October foliage. Taken with a Tamron all-in-one lens and an Olympus Micro Four Thirds Camera.

Taken with the Tamron 14-150mm Di III Lens, a circular polarizing filter, the Olympus PEN E-PL3 Micro Four Thirds Camera, and a carbon fiber tripod.  Camera settings 1/20th F/8 ISO 200, Auto White Balance, RAW Image Format.

Fog on Lake Jean

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Having woken up at 4AM to make a sunrise trek from New Jersey to Ricketts Glenn, I had tripod in hand and was ready to capture mirror-like images of the morning sun hitting the horizon over Lake Jean.  However, that wasn’t to be, the dense fog rendered visibility to about 20 feet.  Not a problem!  When interesting atmospheric and weather conditions occur you just roll with the punches!

PA Fine Art Photo

Long exposure landscape photo of a foggy morning at Ricketts Glen State Park in Pennsylvania.

The above photo was taken with the Tamron 18-270mm VC Lens and the Canon EOS M Compact Systems Camera with the shutter at 5seconds, an aperture of F/13, and ISO 100.  Taken in Aperture Priority Mode with -1/3 exposure compensation dialed in.  Carbon fiber tripod, Spot Metering, 2-second delay, Auto White Balance, RAW image format.

Beech Leaf and Cascades

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This morning I had the pleasure of meeting up with Ed Heaton, a Tamron Image Master, renowned  for his landscape photography expertise and his equally talented son Zach to capture some views of Autumn in Pennsylvania.

Most of my photos today were with the Tamron 14-150mm Di III Lens and my Olympus PEN E-PL3 Micro Four Thirds Camera.  A small and lightweight combo that can capture a great diversity of scenery.  Here is one of my favorites:

Fine Art Waterfall Photograph

Autumn in Pennsylvania captured with the Tamron 14-150mm Di II Lens and the Olympus PEN E-PL3 Micro Four Thirds Camera.

Camera settings: 14mm (28mm equivalent) @ 1/2s F/9 ISO 200.  Aperture Priority Mode -2/3 EC, Auto White Balance, RAW file format, Spot Metering, 2-second delay.  Camera mounted on Benro carbon fiber tripod.

Motion Blurs in Photography: How Much is Too Much?

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…or how little is too little.  Quite a subjective topic, and of course there are no laws in the arts while “rules” are merely guides.  Having done a lot of nature photography in the past seven-odd years, I generally find that my first impression when proofing my own photos is what appeals most to me aesthetically even in the long run.  Do viewers and peers share my visual preferences?  I’m not sure.  Please do feel free to tell me how you feel about these photos in my comments section.

Today’s subject material ended up being the common Pokeweed plant.  I haven’t done many abstract closeup photos before, so I tried some different camera motions to try to coincide with the shape of the berries and stem.  All photos taken with the Tamron SP 90mm VC F/2.8 1:1 Macro Lens and the Canon EOS 60D, handheld.

#1 – My finalized photo:

NJ Fine Art Abstract Photo

Optimized image with intentional camera movement, ICM.

Settings for above photo: 1/5th F/11 ISO 100.  A slight circular motion of the camera was made.

#2 A split screen comparison of the SOOC shot versus my end product:

photoshop comparison

Lower left is the straight out of camera shot, upper right is what I deemed to have a good amount of contrast for web viewing.

#3 An outtake, not enough motion makes this look sloppy to me

Phytolacca americana

A slow hand movement has rendered a fair amount of sharpness on the subject but still left faint signs of blur.

Above photo settings: 1/5th F/11 ISO 100.  Camera was moved in a slow fashion.

#4 Another outtake.  To me, the subject is unidentifiable and this photo lacks a sense of order:

very blurry view of foliage

Created with a very fast downward motion of the camera as the shutter was closing.

Above photo settings: 1/5th F/11 ISO 100.  Camera was moved in a very quick fashion.

Which do you think looks best?