Moon Eclipse - Patience Rewarded with Surprise Photo

On September 27th I decided to set up my gear on my pool deck and wait for an opportunity to get a photo or two of the eclipse of the Supermoon.  Our town, Safety Harbor on Florida's west coast was socked in by clouds.  The Moon was nowhere to be seen.  But patience yielded just a two minute window between 8:20 and 8:22 PM when the clouds cleared a bit.  I took just four images between 7:30 and 10:30 PM.  The airplane crossing in front of the Moon was in only one of those photos.  The only manipulation that I did with this photo was to crop the image into a square format as well as some global sharpening.

This photo generated more than 1200 Likes on Facebook and over 100 on Google+.  The photo was shared countless times. And, it continues to generate feedback.  It is so nice when a plan comes together!

Camera: Nikon D750, Lens: Nikon 200-400mm f4.0 on an Induro tripod with a Wimberly II gimble head.

Macro Photography - Spider

Does anyone know what kind of spider this is?  Photographed in Safety Harbor, Florida...Olympus OMD-EM10 with Olympus 60mm macro lens, f11 at 1/30 second.  This spider was less than 1/2 inch long.

When I get bored I go back to my backpack and fish out a lens that I haven't used for awhile and just use that lens exclusively for a while.  That's what I did near my house to get this photo.  This is also a good time to get nice pictures of spider webs that glisten with the morning dew.

Olympus 45mm 1.8 Lens - First Shoot

I recently added a Olympus 45mm 1.8 lens to my kit.  I decided to use it for the first time recently at the Safety Harbor Fall Craft Fair.  It was the only lens that I took with my Olympus OMD-EM5 micro four-thirds camera.

I really like the lens.  It appears to work really well for street photography.  As has been suggested in other blogs and reviews the lens is good and sharp at the focus point and softens to a nice bokeh.

I shot all of these photos at f4.0 which seems to be a safe spot for me to get sharp focus and still deliver a nice softly blurred background (bokeh).  I think that the next time out with this lens that I will go step out of the box and open it up to it's largest aperture at 1.8 and see what it will do.

Your thoughts are always appreciated.

Nikon D750 Photos - First Look

Here are a few of my first photos taken in low light with my Nikon D750 full frame camera and the 24-120mm f4.0 lens.  All of these photos were taken hand held at f4.0 and ISO 3200.   These pictures were photographed at Safety Harbor Florida's December 3rd Friday event.  

The Dunedin Concert Band performed a series of Holiday songs at the Gazebo.

Vendors and merchants displayed items along Main Street.

I really like the bokeh that I am able to get with the Nikon 24-120mm f4.0 lens.  I think that I could have cropped the ISO back to 1600 and I still would have gotten good resolution. I look forward to experimenting more with this lens. And, the next time I will remember to bring a monopod for even sharper photos!

Very Busy Photographing Car Shows, Reunions and More

I have been very busy lately...and that is a good thing...photographing Lynn's 50 Year High School Reunion in Ft. Lauderdale, a 25th Anniversary party and on Saturday, our Mercedes Benz Club's monthly social at the British Car Club Show in Safety Harbor.

Members of our group surround one of my favorite vintage cars...a Morgan.  These beautiful cars continue to be custom made at a small factory in England.  They are identified by the leather strap, prominent across the hood.

Though it might not have been one of the most reliable cars of the '60s the Jaguar XKE  certainly was one of the most beautiful. (I can say that since I owned a '60 Jag Mark IX saloon car which spent more time being serviced than driven.)  

All of these photos were taken with my Olympus OMD-EM5 micro 4/3 camera with the 17mm prime lens.

Opossum Family

This sighting was a first for me.  I came across this mother opossum yesterday while on an early morning walk.  At first I thought that the animal was moulting, but a closer inspection revealed that this was a mom with many babies.  I got off a couple of shots.  This was my favorite.  Shortly the opossum noticed me and took off into the bush.  I took this picture with my tiny (just slightly larger than my iPhone) Panasonic LF-1.  RAW in Aperture priority, f5.9, 43mm, ISO 200. When I got home I researched the opossum family and learned that a mom will birth as many as 15 babies and will carry them like this on their backs and in her pouch for up to 3 months. When opportunities  like this come up It is not important which camera you have with you.  It is only important that you have a camera!

Whimsical Fun with a Fisheye Lens

Fisheye lenses aren't for every occasion, but they are certainly a good idea  in certain instances like this one where I wanted to get everything (house, deck and pool) in the photo.  You can even see my shadow in the pool since I got up on top of the slide to take the picture (:g).

I like the way that the fisheye bends the trees in a whimsical fashion.  Hey, if you are looking for an arbor of trees without any luck you can always take along a fisheye and create one!

Fisheyes are great for panorama photos.  Here I wanted to get the old historical building, the beautiful palm trees and a hint of the modern building next door.

In this case I think that the fisheye effect gave the photo of this Mexican restaurant a more tropical feel as the deck and its tiki like umbrellas wrap around the building.

In this fisheye photo of my kitchen I added a white vignette to enhance the effect. My fisheye lens is an 8mm Rokinon (all manual...no auto settings).  I keep the lens set at Infinity and f5.6.  This is a Nikon mount lens.  I used it for these photos on my Nikon D300 camera.  The Rokinon lens is really built strong. It looks great, and the optics are terrific but it costs a pittance of what it's Nikon competitor sells for. Rokinon offers fisheye lenses for other camera bodies as well.  I added one to my wishlist for my Olympus EM-5 too.

 A fisheye is a great lens when you want to give your photography a creative charge.  I like to put mine on the camera,then I leave all of my other lenses in the bag at home and just spend a few hours seeing what I can create with the fisheye. What do you think?

Home Town Photos.

Safety Harbor Gazebo

I have found that some of the best photo opportunities are right here in my own backyard.  I try to pass through the historic Main Street in Safety Harbor near my home at least once a day to get ideas for photo projects.  I have been photographing the Safety Harbor Gazebo in John Wilson Park for many years. The city does a beautiful job of  rotating the flowers in front of the Gazebo seasonally.

Yesterday, during my visit to town I spotted this beautiful new planting and just felt the necessity to photograph this scene with my Panasonic Lumix DMC-LF1, my tiny go-everywhere camera.  This camera also is my constant companion on my daily walks.  It is amazing the different things that I have photographed right in my own backyard...wildlife, landscapes, architecture, people and flowers.

 Butterfly on Red Flowers

The photo above was taken at a new park in town, Mullet Creek Nature Park. The local garden club is doing a great job in keeping the flowering plants blooming.

Neighborhood Sunrise

This sunrise photo was taken literally outside of my front door.  I was out just before sunrise to pick up the newspaper when I spotted this incredible sunrise.  I knew that I only had seconds before this scene would be gone.  I ran in the house and grabbed the Panasonic DMC-LF1 and took this picture just an instant before this beautiful scene disappeared. 

Learn your neighborhood...Walk around...Get some great photographs.

Selfies Using the XShot Extender

My my 1998 Mercedes-Benz SLK 230 is now 15 years old and I am still having a ball with the car.  I waited on the MB for 16 months. I ordered the car in 1996 on the day that Mercedes Benz announced that they were going to build a sporty car with a retractible hardtop. I took a few "selfies" with my XShot extender yesterday. 

 

 Not only can you take cool selfies with the XShot, but you can also get the camera into crazy angles that are difficult to get without a really tall tripod or a ladder.

 Car Lights on for great photos. I learned that from Joe Farace.  

All of these photos were taken with my Panasonic Lumix DMC LF1...ISO 80, Aperture priority, f4.0, 10 second delay attached to my XShot. The XShot only works with small compact cameras.  I guess that it would also work on an iPhone. You can check this cool device out at  XShot  I bought mine at Hunt's Photo and Video.

Happy New Year - Welcoming 2014

"Hanging Out"

Happy New Year to all of my photographer friends.  It has been a great year with many interesting adventures.  I was fortunate to be able to photograph Tahiti, snorkeled and shot photos underwater for the first time.  The Great Sand Dunes National Park in southern Colorado  always intrigued me, particularly after visiting the tallest sand dunes in the World in 2011 in Soussesvlei Namibia.  The remoteness of these 750 foot high US dunes was as interesting to me as the massive sand fields.  I got to photograph lifelong friends at two 50 year high school reunions.  I attended Marathon High School in the Florida Keys.  I left Huntington, Indiana just before the 8th grade, but my childhood friends invited me back for the last 3 Huntington High School Class of 1963 reunions as their friend and photographer.  Also, I was invited to photograph and MC a benefit that raised thousands of dollars for a young lady that was seriously injured in a head-on car accident in upstate New York.  And Lynn and I also gave back by helping to landscape a new house for Habitat for Humanity.  I took some pictures there as well.

 Then of course there were the family events...my daughter Holly's beautiful wedding on Clearwater Beach, the many trips to Colorado to visit and photograph our daughter, Heather and granddaughter, Savannah.  Savannah turned 5 in November.  What a momentous event that was.  

So, my wish is for the best for all of my friends in 2014...but most of all for your good health, great relationships and super photographic opportunities.

British Style

1954 Jaguar Mark IX Salon

I recently spent a couple of hours at one of my favorite car shows, the annual Safety Harbor British Car Show.  The British have always been known for their unique auto designs and this show always features the best of the best.

1951 Bentley

Approximately 100 Jaguars, MGs, Bentleys,  Sunbeams, Rolls Royce and other exotic British offerings are featured on Main Street in quaint Safety Harbor.

1990 Morgan

These are a few of my favorite cars from the show..  All were photographed with my Olympus OMD-EM5 camera, 12-50mm Olympus lens at ISO 200 and f8.0 aperture.  I added the Gaussian blur in Photoshop CC.

Colorado Fall Portraits

Hi.  I love this photo.  I was surprised that the fall color held on so long in Colorado.  This incredible mountain of yellow and gold leaves piled up in my daughter's front yard and gave me the opportunity to take this Fall photo of Heather and my granddaughter, Savannah.  I processed this in Lightroom.  I did basic adjustments in Raw then I used Lightroom's Adjustment Brush to create a layer over the girls.  I then brightened and sharpened them. Next I used Lightroom's Radial Tool and created a layer surrounding Heather and Savannah.  I then adjusted the brightness etc.  of the area surrounding my subject.  Finally I cropped the image, blurred some of the background in Photoshop and created a Yellow Stroke (frame} around the image.

I am printing an 8X10 in additon to a slew of X6 images.  I hope that you like it.

Vintage British Car Show in Safety Harbor

Recently I spent a couple of hours at the annual British Car Show in Safety Harbor, FL  This is a show that I always try to attend, but unfortunately there is generally a conflict with an event with one of my own Mercedes-Benz car club events.  The car above is a 1957 Jaguar MK-7..a classic salon car.

(Above) A Morgan.  The show extends all of the way down Main Street...appproximately 8 city blocks of MGs, Jaguars, Sunbeams, Morris Minors and Morgans.  No Rolls Royces this year.  This is a show of elegant vehicles.

This is a rare Sunbeam. The Safety Harbor British Car Show displays a collection of cars that causes me to drool with envy.  More later...

My New - Tiny Lumix LF1 Camera

I just received my newest camera...a Panasonic Lumix DMC LF1.  I just received it last night.  Don't you just love Amazon Prime? I brought it with me to the airport I  haven't even been able to charge the camera yet, but here are a couple of observations. The package was tiny. The camera is smaller than my iPhone 5 in its Mophie case. That's pretty small. It includes a USB and AC charger. You just plug the phone into an outlet or a computer for about 3 hours and it is good to go.

The camera appears easy to set up and it's easy to use. I am looking forward to using the wifi function.  The Leica lens zooms to 200mm and focuses down to about 3 inches for macro photography. It shoots in RAW mode and RAW plus JPEG. It has 2 custom settings on the command dial. I will use one for HDR bursts. The second one I will use for portraits at the largest aperture that the camera will bear which is 2.0.

This is going to be fun and rejuvenating.  More later...

I hope that your labor Day is Photogenic!

Happy Labor Day!  I am adding a couple of photos to my recent post about our recent adventure in the Texas Hill Country.  One of the biggest thrills about traveling is getting home and reviewing the pictures.  Sometimes you realize that you might have had more fun than you remembered.

I took this photo in the Cave with No Name near Boerne, Texas...a Natural Historic Landmark.  The cave was first entered in 1935 and has been an attraction since 1939.  I find that caves are very difficult to photograph.  Usually, the stalactites and stalagmites show on the monitor as dull pieces of rock with very little vibrance. I like this particular shot due to the water in the foreground.  I spent a lot of time with this image and finished it in Nik Color Efex Pro.  When I was done I saved my work as a preset for the next time that I have a challenge in a cave.  This photo was taken with my Olympus OMD-EM5 with the Olympus 12-50mm lens.  I used the Olympus FL600 Flash as well.

Near the end of our time in the Hill Country we toured all of the famous missions in San Antonio with the exception of The Alamo which we had done before.  Four missions are operated by the National Parks Service including this one, Mission Concepcion.  The church was founded in 1716.  I think that the black and white treatment gives this historic place authenticity.  This image was made with the same Olympus equipment as above sans flash and finished in Nik Silver Efex Pro 2.

More later....

Black & Yellow Crowned Night Herons.

It has been a wet month here on the west coast of Florida.  As a matter of fact it is thundering and threatening at this very moment.  With all of the standing water in the Park I am seeing birds in places that I have never seen them before.  This week on a couple of occasions I spotted a pair of Black Crowned Night Herons.  I have never seen them there before.

Black Crowned Night Heron

Interestingly I always have seen Yellow Crowned Night Heron in the Park.  But, since the rain they have disappeared.  Do you think that the Yellow Crowned Night Herons and The Black Crowned Night Herons are having a turf war?  I guess only time will tell.

Yellow Crowned Night Heron

On my walks through the Park I always carry my Canon G1x camera.  This camera only zooms to 105mm making it really difficult to get sharp bird shots.I definitely don't want to get so near  that I stress the bird out. However, my shooting with this camera generally results in noisy unusable images. I feel pretty good about the shots above.   I am making some comparisons for a replacement for this camera with a longer zoom and better Macro capabilities.  

-More later...

First Hair Cut

Our shih tzu, Gabby at 9 months old.  I thought that I would share this photo to demonstrate the quality of my new Olympus 17mm lens shot wide open at 1.8 on my Olympus OM-D EM-5.  I was not more than 2 feet from the dog when I took this picture.  ISO 1000, 1/25 sec, EV +1.0. No flash. I am having so much fun with this micro 4/3 camera.   What do you think?

Big Weekend of Mini Events

It was a great weekend to visit and photograph in the Tampa Bay area.  On Friday, a couple of friends and I visited the practice session for the Honda Grand Prix.  It is a great time to take photographs of the drivers as they parade toward their cars.  In particular we wanted to see the Indy drivers and hoped that we could get a photo of the top drivers as they headed toward the track.  Here are my photos of the top 3 drivers.

2nd Place - Helio Castroneves

          

Winner - James Hinchcliffe

3rd Place - Marco Andretti

 On Saturday, Lynn and I stopped by Main Street in Safety Harbor to get a glimpse of the Chalk Art Festival which was to take place on Saturday and during the Arts and Crafts Fair on Sunday.  There are some really talented artists that participate.

On Sunday, we attended the horse races at Tampa Bay Downs.  Our Mercedes-Benz Club sponsored Race 3 of the event.  A drawing determined the names of 4 of our members that were able to go  into the Winners Circle to get their pictures taken with the winning horse and jockey.

The weekend was overcast, but we were never bothered by rain at any of these events.