Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Spring in Texas

I was hoping to get some wild flowers by March 17th. We did but they were just the common yellow daisy like flowers. With the drought-like Jan & Feb, I was concerned that we might not get any Bluebonnets this year.

Finally spotted some on Easter Sunday. My wife and I drove down to the IBM campus, in Austin. She pointed out to me that they water their lawns. (She worked in those buildings more than 10 years.)

Sure enought, fields of them. Immature, but definitely sprouting. That where I took the picture for the week.

For me, Bluebonnets are the official start of Spring in Texas.

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Saturday, March 22, 2008

Day Before Easter

Went to a different park to shoot a few photos. Crowded, people having Easter Picnics, I guess. Tomorrow is a 40% chance of rain. Today is clear sky and 77.

Found some kids riding around and around on their bicycles. Took some more panning pictures. A couple turned out. Better batting average than the other two outings.

Their mom came up, wondered what I was doing. So I told her and she was OK with it. I went over and thanked her when I was done.

There were some kids on the swing set. Tempting target for panning, but I didn’t want to introduce myself to yet another parent.

Wouldn’t want to post any kid’s picture without the parent’s permission. The bicycle pictures were just to see if I could do it.

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Thursday, March 20, 2008

Weekly Photo Is Up

Posted my picture for the week. Not overly attractive. Just a photo of the Light Tent that I created last week.

The set-up will work but I need to add an additional light source. The objects are recognizable but dark.

Weather cooperated on Wednesday, but wanted to try the “panning” trick. I did it again today but used a higher shutter speed. Actually got one to work out of 30+ shot.

I’ll be posting it as the weekly assignment over at DPS.

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Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Panning

The week’s assignment, over at Digital Photography School, is "panning." A technique that blurs the background while keeping the topic of interest focused. It takes practice.

Took my camera on the afternoon’s walk and shot cars over on McNeil. I seem to have the blurred background down. Unfortunately, so is much of the subject. This is going to take some effort.

I also have a new lesson learned. Since you want to slow the shutter down, you set the mode control for "S." That worked OK but the photo’s came out noticeably blue.

It seems the manual controls also bring up the White Balance options, if set. So it was using my 3000K from the night before. I’ll have to keep in mind what I’ve changed. Just powering down doesn’t make some things go away. (Which is good overall.)

Poking around further; the Wikipedia entry on panning suggests that I may have slowed the shutter down too much. A fast vehicle, F1 racer, can be caught at 1/125th. A runner might be closer to 1/60th. I was taking the cars at 1/20 to 1/30. So, I might have more success with a faster shutter.

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Friday, March 14, 2008

White Balance

Finished the cardboard box light tent. Joanne suggested we just wrap the muslin on all three sides with a single strip of cloth. That worked better than three separate squares.

Set it up and adjusted the clip on lamp. Then shot off some pictures of my small test subjects. They looked ok in the LCD.

They didn’t look ok when I moved them to the computer. They were red/brown like my earlier ones, using a high intensity desk lamp. Seems like the Reveal bulbs may not be as full spectrum as I thought. Back to the internet.

I knew I would, sooner or later, have to address color temperature. There wasn’t total agreement on the web concerning the reveal bulbs. Other than it is close to an incandescent and it filters out the yellow.

Took out the manual and figured out how to create a custom setting. This would be the technique for using a white or gray card. The light tent has White Bristol Board for a floor and walls. I pointed into the empty box as the white reference. Camera thinks it is 3000K. That’s pretty close to the internet findings. I went with that.

The second test shots cured the red/brown problem. But the figures seem darker.

It looks like I need more of the same light. And I may have to mess with the exposures.

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Thursday, March 13, 2008

Round Rock, TX

The week has zoomed by. I have been working on web related stuff rather than walk around and snap pictures.

The photo, for this week, is of the famous "Round Rock."

I am also experimenting with Flickr. The same subject but different sized photo is up at my Flickr account.

RRock003

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Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Light Tent

Weather has been off and on. Rainy yesterday, beautiful today, but more on the way Thursday. So, I’m confining my picture taking to indoors.

Set about on a related project. Making a light tent. Found a good description on the internet (of course). It uses a cardboard box for the structural elements.

I spent time after lunch gathering up the components. The Hobby Lobby was a good source for Bristol Board. And the Home Depot had the light fixture I wanted, a clip on work lamp.

I was spared having to go to the fabric store. My wife is a quilter, and there is a LOT of fabric around the house. She has a good supply of white muslin. So, that won’t be hard to get.

I had taken a few photos of small objects last night. The light I was using gave the backgrounds a decided yellow tint. I want to see if I can solve it with a light tent, and a full spectrum light source. It still may not be enough to get good photos of coins, but it is an experiment. And reasonably inexpensive.

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Saturday, March 08, 2008

Round Rock

Sunny weather today. So I went over to the park and shot some photos of the Round Rock. It was a landmark during the stagecoach and cattle drive days. And it is, literaly, a round flat (horizontal) rock sticking out of the stream. People knew they were getting close to Austin.

Shot off 50 pictures. Doesn’t take long when it’s three photos at a time with the bracket settings.

This time I was more interested in manual exposure correction. It requires pressing a button on the back, and the clicking of a dial in front. You can do it single handed, same hand you use for pressing the shutter.

Most of the better photos used a correction of +0.7 EV.

The parking lot has some bronze statues. One is a longhorn under a tree. A lot of shadows. Moving the exposure control up help to bring out more detail. You can see the dirt and leaves in front are a bit washed out, which I would expect from over exposure.

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Friday, March 07, 2008

This Week's Photo

I've posted my photo for the week. I also modified the photo page to show the most recent photo first. It will still depend on the browser you are using.

Looking forward to a sunny week-end so I can wander off to someplace new. Maybe just up the road, and take a picture of the world famous "Round Rock."

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Tuesday, March 04, 2008

Trees Are Blooming

Enjoying some nice weather between cold fronts. The upcoming weekend is supposed to be crummy. Starting to see signs of Spring. Many of the trees are starting to bloom. We’ve had dandilions for the last week or two, but no wild flowers yet.

I took the camera with me when I took my walk. There is a reddish/purple tree along the was. It is probably a Redbud tree. They bloom in the Spring, and really stand out against the other mostly bare trees.

I took some pictures but they weren’t as bright as my eyes could see. The +0.3 EV was better. I should have tried +0.7 just to see what I get. Maybe tomorrow, when I take a walk in the late afternoon, the lighting will be a little more favorable.

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