Rosebud

I haven’t processed any new images in the past few weeks. The films are still in the cameras unfinished. I was poking around in my archives looking for an image for this week that wasn’t trees, water, rocks or fog. I found a nice one.

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I shot this photo a few years ago when I was shooting color transparency film almost exclusively. Yes, this macro of a rosebud was converted manually from a scan of a color slide. I like the B&W version. It captures the essence of rose without the distraction of color.

This photo would have been taken using my usual macro rig: Nikon f3HP, Nikon 75-150 zoom with nikon 3T two element close-up lens and of course mounted on a tripod. The film was either Fuji Provia or Astia.

If you’re curious, here’s the link to the original color version (second image).

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“Grab Your Camera — There’s a Hawk in the Yard”

The first and only time I got a decent shot of a hawk was on a cloudy Sunday afternoon about 7 or 8 years ago. My wife was all excited. She ran upstairs to tell me there was a hawk in the yard and I should grab my camera. I happened to have a roll of ISO 400 B&W film in my F3HP so I snatched the camera and my longest lens, went out and took the following series of shots.

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This small Cooper’s hawk sat there on the branch unconcerned that there were humans prowling about. There was no time to get my tripod and no good place to set it up anyway so I shot handheld and hoped for the best.

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The sound of the shutter from my first shot must have caught the hawk’s attention because the bird is looking right at me here. This photo is nearly identical to the first except for the hawk’s head. The tree branches are sharper here because I probably stopped the lens down a bit.

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This image is my favorite. I worked my way behind the hawk and got much closer. I was on the edge of the slope leading down to the small creek braced against the trunk of a tree that leaned out over the edge. Whew! I managed to get a decent shot without a tripod and without falling into the creek.

I had a 200mm Nikkor lens and a Nikkor 2X tele-extender on my camera so the effective focal length was 400mm. I have no idea of shutter speeds or aperture because I didn’t take notes. The extra two stops from the ISO 400 film helped a lot.

This wasn’t the first time we had a hawk in the yard. Unlike the red-tailed hawks that have landed in the yard on occasion, the smaller Cooper’s hawk preys on small birds and isn’t spooked when people are around.

I missed a great shot of a red-tailed hawk one day because I had the wrong camera. I was in the yard with my tripod mounted 4 X 5 Speed Graphic on the other side of the yard when a red-tailed hawk landed in the middle of the yard with an unfortunate pigeon in his talons.

I’m grateful I had the right type of film in the right camera when the Cooper’s Hawk showed up to have it’s picture taken on that Sunday afternoon.

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A Hungry Tree: Ceres Park Nature Preserve

I love to play so I thought I’d engage in a bit of whimsy this week, hence the strange, Hungry Tree title. When I visited the Ceres Park Nature Preserve one day in mid-May, I carried two cameras with the notion of taking photos that struck my fancy.

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This image was taken with my 50/1.4 SMC tak (lens). I was playing with selective focus. Notice how the hungry tree is slightly out of focus, the new growth beyond in sharp focus and the background generally blurred. When I processed my film I was delighted. The photo reminds me of a young bird waiting to be fed by mother.

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Move in and switch cameras. A closer shot was taken with my Nikon 85/2.0 lens. This time the tree is in sharp focus while the background is merely suggestive.

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Same Nikon lens for the closest view yet. The background is nearly gone along with context. The focus is on the texture and forms of a small part of the hungry tree.

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Here’s a wide angle (28mm tak) photo for context. I took this one on an earlier visit to Ceres at the end of April. This tree fascinates me. Each time I pass it I take another photo.

Two visits, two cameras, three different lenses and three B&W 35mm film types. The first image was shot with Ilford FP4+, the next two with LP400 (aka Fuji Neopan 400) and the last with Kodak Tri-X.

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Magical Light & Closer Looks: Ceres 2011

I had no idea what I would photograph when I visited Ceres Nature Preserve last week. I knew I wanted to get closer so I carried one camera with a 75-150 zoom and another with a close focusing 35mm lens, both loaded with B&W film.

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The personality of the forest changes from season to season, hour to hour and even minute by minute. With the trees heavy with foliage and the ground in deep shade, the life of the forest reveals itself in small, magical sunlit patches.

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No thing in the forest is ordinary when seen and felt closely. Is this a vine covered tree stump? or a rough skinned creature of the woods poking through the foliage? Or shall we simply enjoy the image without naming?

I came across the works of the late John Daido Loori a few weeks ago. He was an accomplished nature photographer, Zen priest, and abbot of Zen Mountain Monastery in New York. I have two of his books now — “Making Love With Light: Contemplating Nature with Words and Photographs” and “The Zen of Creativity: Cultivating Your Artistic Life.” Both books highly recommended. They are helping me enrich my life and photography.

Life is a creative journey. It’s delicious.

Addendum: Here’s a link to Zen Photography, a uTube video with John Daido Loori.

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A Red Rose in Mom’s Garden

Mom has a beautiful rose bush in her garden near the front door. The small red roses are in bloom now so I took my F3HP, tripod and macro gear over to her house yesterday afternoon. I figured it was about time I got serious about macro photography again.

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This is a red rose — honest. I think I managed to capture the “roseness” of this beauty without the distraction of color. The image was shot on Fuji Acros B&W film with a red contrast filter. The only post scan processing was crop to 4 x 5, tonal adjustments and sharpening — all done with Picture Window Pro.

Without the filter, the film would have seen the red rose and the green foliage as the same (or very similar) tones. The red filter lightened the red rose and darkened the green foliage to give me the contrast I needed for a convincing image. I also tried a green filter but that idea bombed. No matter, I’m happy with one good photo out of the series.

I used my Nikon F3HP and 75-150 series e zoom lens with a two element Nikon close up lens (3T) — my favorite macro phototography setup (mounted on my tripod of course). This was fun so I’ll be doing more B&W macro photography. Stay tuned.

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Mom’s Roses and 2 New Orchid Blooms

The first two shots were taken with my wife’s tiny Canon PowerShot SD1100 IS Digital Elph. The last time I visited Ceres Nature Reserve I wished I had a color camera along. It was overcast and the vegetation was vibrant with color. Since I don’t have a digital camera, I’m experimenting with the little Canon.

Canon PowerShot SD1100 IS @ f2.8 -- Click to enlarge

This is a close in shot of one of my mom’s rose bushes. It was raining (not hard). I switched the camera to manual and underexposed by -1EV to get better color saturation.

Canon PowerShot SD1100 IS @ f2.8 -- Click to enlarge

Here’s an even closer shot of a different rose. This time I underexposed by -2/3EV. I’m satisfied enough with these images that I’ll continue playing with my wife’s camera.

S-M-C Tak @ f4.0 - Ilford FP4+ -- Click to enlarge

My main interest is B&W film photography. The photo of mom’s orchids I posted two weeks ago had two buds that opened last week so I made a new image using the same camera and lens (S-M-C Takumar 50/1.4). I used Ilford FP4+ film this time and stopped down to f4.0 — enough to get more of the blooms in focus yet blur the background nicely. It worked. This is a much better photo.

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Mom’s Orchids

Mom is 88 — she loves orchids. We went on an orchid hunting expedition a few weeks ago, first to Lowes where we found one she liked, then to WalMart the next day where she found two more lovely plants. Mom arranged the trio in front of the windows near her reading and TV watching (and now orchid admiring) chair.

50/1.4 Tak @ f2.8 - Neopan 400 @ 640 - Click to enlarge

Here’s a close in shot of one of her new prizes. The day was bright and sunny, the orchids gently back lit with soft indirect window light. I took this picture hand held with my 50/1.4 lens. I stopped down to 2.8 to keep the background soft and out of focus (and use a faster shutter speed).

The photo was taken with 35mm B&W film, developed in my kitchen and scanned into my computer using VueScan and my Minolta Scan Dual III film scanner. I shot a couple rolls of color negative film last year, none at all this year.

I want to do some B&W macro photography. Mom’s orchids are the first, a spur of the moment shot because I liked what I saw and happened to have my camera with me. The 50/1.4 lens is a Super-Multi-Coated Takumar screw mount from the early 1970′s. It’s a marvelous lens. Next time I’ll use my tripod.

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Monday Musings: River Birch

I was looking for a few new macros when I came across a folder containing a bunch of shots I took in my yard last summer using my wife’s $150 digicam. I didn’t use a tripod. Most of the shots are — yawn! But I decided to fool around with a few of the more promising images in PWP.

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I like all the green shades and the young leaves in this one.

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More young leaves and a wanna be leaf. Some of the leaves are a rich bronze with purple when they first appear. Then, as they mature, they turn all green.

These shots were taken on July 1, 2009. I cheated and looked at the EXIF data. I’m so accustomed to film that I forget to look for the EXIF digital info.

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Monday Musings: Remembering Spring

I was going through my color negatives a few weeks ago and came across this image.

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I have no idea what this is but the young leaves and colors of spring attracted me so I thought I’d share this one.

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Monday Musings: Barberry Bush

I dug through the old to find something new. I found a Fuji Reala color negative from a roll of film that I shot way back in the Spring of 2001. This was when I first got back into photography after a long hiatus, but before I began using color transparency film exclusively for my macro shots.

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This is a shot of a single branch from a barberry bush we once had in our side yard. I always liked this image but had forgotten about it until today when I went through my old color negative archives.

I scanned the neg with my Minolta Scan Dual III powered by VueScan software (highly recommended). Then I switched to my editor, Picture Window Pro (PWP).  I cropped the left and right edges of the image from 4 x 6 to a 4 x 5 proportion, boosted the saturation about 10% and applied two rounds of USM sharpening. The first was a local contrast enhancement using a small amount (20%), radius = 40 and zero threshold. The second was 50% with a radius of 2 and zero threshold.

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Just for kicks I decided to do a B&W conversion. I like it. I used the monochrome transformation with a green filter in Picture Window Pro, then I tweaked the contrast using curves and gave the image another sharpening with USM (not too much). The green filter darkened the berries nicely.

Which version is better? I like both.

I took this picture before I got my F3. I used a Nikon FG, probably my 100mm lens (I don’t remember now) and a cheap tripod. The FG is a nice little camera but not suited for serious macro work because you can’t stop down the lens to preview depth of field and the mirror has no lock up either.

The frustrations I went through early on led to my decision to buy a used Nikon F3HP on eBay. I got a good one at a good price not long after I took this picture. I’ve never once regretted the purchase.

I’m going to dig into my old color negatives again over the next few weeks to see what goodies I can find. I shot so much color negative film back then (in the beginning) that I don’t remember what I have. It will be fun.

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