One More Landscape Shot with 10mm Sigma Lens

More I use this lens more I am impressed with what it can do. Here is a shot from about 2”above road with lens axes parallel to the road. Every part of this shot is sharp – from about 10” to infinity. Incredible!

ISO 200, 1/500 sec at f/5.6, 10mm shot in RAW

Snow Shadow of a Tree

Yesterday we had most unusual weather that I have ever seen here in South-Western Ontario. It was a beautiful sunny morning with temperature hovering around freezing point. Then, within few seconds, no exaggeration, we got hit by a blizzard that reduced visibility to about 30 yards and covered lawn in a blanket of snow. Just as suddenly the clouds disappeared and it was sunny again. When I looked outside I noticed that all the snow has melted except in shadows. That is when I spotted the tree clearly outlined by snow. By the time I grabbed my camera, adjusted all settings and shot couple of frames the snow that laid where small branches were has already melted. Two minutes after this shot all the snow was gone. We got few more one-minute blizzards after that but I have not seen the shadows again. Still, I consider myself very lucky to see this.

Walk Along Stony Creek

Here are some photographs I took along local small creek. It was beautiful sunny day so it was difficult to shoot images that didn’t have highlights blown out. After all, there is only so much you can do in Photoshop before it becomes un-natural looking. Next time I will wait for an overcast day.

Photo Excursion December 13th

I just love to get out early in the morning! From early spring to late fall it usually means getting out on golf course or out to the garden but in the off season if the weather is OK I like to get out and shoot some pictures and if the weather is lousy it is either computer or kitchen work. Here are some pictures I took yesterday morning before heading out to London. First three pictures were taken just one minute apart and last two were taken 10 minutes later.

 The Sun is poking through the trees just above number 7.

On the way to London we have spotted and photographed Snowy Owl (previous post) and on the way back driving through Amish settlements we saw two Amish man loading corn on horse drawn wagon and taking it to the barn for storage. The corn was harvested more than 2 months ago and the corn stalks were neatly stacked into a 6 foot high pyramids. All their storage bins were full with corn cobs so it looks like they are set for winter.

Interesting Morning Photo Shoot

Yesterday (December 10^th) I have witnessed very rare occurrence when sunrise and full moon set coincided within minute of each other. It was quite coincidental discovery for me. I was driving west to shoot a sunrise over a local wood lot when I have spotted huge moon setting in north-west direction. The moon was full, huge and had a yellowish tint while the ground was almost red because of dramatic sun rise at the same time. I shot about 20 frames of each. For the moon I was lucky to have my 600mm with 2X extender with me, that gave me 1,200mm long tele lens. The Sunrise was even more dramatic, blood red and for about half a minute all the fields were red like Savannah in Africa. Now I have to find out when the sunrise and full moon set will coincide again but I guess that it is quite rare, maybe once in a lifetime occurrence when you factor in the weather.

Celestian information from Garmin MapSelect.

Canon Rebel T1i, 160mm lens, f/5, 1/3,200, ISO 400

Sunrise

Canon Rebel T1i, Vivitar 120-600mm zoom plus 2X extender, f/5.6, 1/60, ISO 400

...and most incredible Full Moon Set. Once in the lifetime chance to see both at the same time!

Note: These are raw and un-altered pictures.

Fun with Camera – October

I know that lots of people like Fall but for me it is not a favorite part of the year. I know that for few weeks it is very colorful time of the year, especially here in Ontario, and that it offers tons of picture taking opportunities, but for me it is a sad season. Everything around me in nature is dying or coming to rest and I just don’t see beauty in that. I love Spring when everything is fresh and growing and everywhere you look there is new life. I guess I have to wait 6 months for that so meanwhile, as far as picture taking opportunities go, I’ll shoot some leaves and the usual fall pictures.

Last month I bought variable neutral density filter (ND) for my 18 – 55mm and 70 – 300mm zoom lenses. What an incredible piece of equipment! It lets me stretch the shutter speed and gives the picture very interesting quality. You see pictures of waterfalls, rivers, lakes etc. in magazines and calendars but most people don’t know how that blurry, sort of dreamy look was achieved. Last few weeks I around with this ND filter and here are some examples.

Ornamental grasses on a windy day.

f/11, 1.3 second, ND filter, ISO 100, Aperture Priority. Thanks to longer exposure made possible by use of ND filter you can see the movement of the grasses.

Lake Lisgar, Tillsonburg.

f/16, 15 seconds, ND filter, ISO 100, Aperture Priority. With ND filter set about 3/4 maximum the lake looks flat, not even a ripple. Anytime I use the ND filter I rely on my super heavy Manfrotto tripod.

Lake Lisgar, Tillsonburg.

f/20, .5 second, ND filter, ISO 100, Aperture Priority.

Otter Creek, Tillsonburg.

f/5, 1/20 seconds, +1ND filter, ISO 100, Aperture Priority

In regular shot the rapids look fast and choppy.

Otter Creek, Tillsonburg.

f/11, 1.6 seconds, ND filter, ISO 100, Aperture Priority. With longer exposure the rapids appear slow and smooth.

Port Bruce, Lake Erie.

f/10, 1/8 second, ND filter, ISO 400, Aperture Priority. Here the ND filter acts as a regular polarizer filter, which it basically is, and darkens the sky.

Black Walnut, Sparta, Ontario.

f/7, 1/200 second, ND filter, ISO 400, -1 Exposure compensation, off camera flash with E-TTL on. Since I was shooting straight against the sun the flash was a must.