Tales from the darkside

Man oh man did this shot come out really dark! My issue is that I really liked the way the sky came out so blue in this first shot however I really dislike how dark the tree bark detail came out.


f/8
1/100 sec.
ISO-400
18 mm
WB-5200k (sun)
UV filter
Freehand
No Flash

f/8

1/40 sec.

ISO-400

18mm

WB-5200k (sun)

UV filter

Freehand

No flash

Couple of things that I may have been able to do to change things here.

1) Polarizing filter?

2) 1/60 sec. exposure ?

Anyone have any input on this? I actually had a similar situation yesterday afternoon where I had a foreground of snow with a mid of deciduous wooded area and an end field of a low sunlit, cloud tattered sky. I know it would have been a breathtaking shot if I nailed it. I still have to take a look at the exposures tonight to proof for the blog.

Thanks for looking !!

C~

For Sale

Hurry, just in time for the summer season. Move right into this beautiful single family home with spectacular water views. Just waiting for the right growing family to make this house a home :)

A tad washed out on this exposure. The light (sun) was present but low and filtered behind the swamp grass.


f/7.1
1/200 sec.
ISO-400
75 mm
WB-5200k (sun)
UV filter
No flash
Freehand



I thought the branches reddish color popped nicely on this shot. The background became a little washed out, but that is the point of this shot. It was all about the nest and not the grass.

f/4

1/400 sec.

ISO-200

70 mm

WB-5200k (sun)
UV filter

No flash

Freehand

So, the answer is "Yes".

Yes, I did get a better shot of yesterdays post. Amazing opportunity that I did not get to take great advantage of. I should have been somewhere in the middle of the exposure ranges that I used.... maybe around 1/80sec.

I don't know how or why but he let me get to within maybe 10 feet of him before he poked his head in the hole to hide. Tough call on how close to let yourself get while taking the risk of losing the shot. You want to be able to get as close as possible so you can see all the details of the cute little faces but not so close that you scare the little bugger and lose the shot all together.


f/7.1
1/20 sec
ISO-400
300mm
WB-6000 (cloudy)
Tiffen UV Filter

f/7.1

1/125 sec.

ISO-400

300mm

WB-6000 (cloudy)

Tiffen UV filter

I was actually standing on a ladder for this shot, 2 feet above ground level. I snapped a few pictures as I was climbing but, the more I climbed the more he drew into the hole deeper and out of sight. I actually had lost him to the inside for a bit and then he came back out for another shot but after that one he disappeared for good.

Enjoy !!

One in a million

To be able to get a shot like this .....

I had seen this once since we moved into the new house and thought that if I did not get that shot I was never going to. Then yesterday... it happened. They are actually cute little buggers when they are not trying to rip apart your bird feeders :)

I can neither confirm nor deny that I do or do not have a better shot of this same composition to share. I guess you are going to have to check back in tomorrow and see for yourselves.

f/5.6

1/125 sec.

ISO-800

300mm

WB - cloudy (6000)

Tiffen UV Filter

f/7.1

1/80 sec.

ISO-400

300mm

WB - 6000

Tiffen UV Filter



Now if I can just get the Deer to stay still long enough for a coupe of "worthy" shots !!!

Remember me?

I know, I know it has been a little while since I have posted anything up here. It has been a busy few weeks with working on a project, building custom built in bookcases for a customer and friend as well as working on our own house. I did not want to simply run outside and take a bunch of pictures of random nothingness just to say that I posted something. While I may be practicing, I do not want to make a habit of being "boring".

I did get to have some fun along the way while working. My father in Law and I got to hang out and cleaned up the woods around the house here and got to build a good old fashioned great big bon-fire. What guy doesn't love that !!!

Discovered that the woods (some of them anyway) are going to be built on by an abutting neighbor. So I had to go to Town hall to find out what that was all about to see if I could fight it. I can, and I will. They are going to need to blast to build back there and they are going to be scaring off much of the native wildlife in the meantime. We have a 60 foot buffer of town forest behind our house as well as all of the neighbors to the right of my house as you are looking at the front of the house. There is a house set way back in the woods from another street who owns a few acres of land that touch our immediate neighbors property. They want to tear down the existing home and replace it with a road and 4 new houses. Personally I wish I had the money to buy the land and tear the house down and leave it alone just like that. Let the animals have a place to roam.

Trust me or ask my wife I can rant for hours on this subject and so could she :) We bought our Home with woods as a neighbor. We don't want a house up on the hill looking down into our backyard.

Stay tuned for some posts !
C~