Category Archives: VARIOUS

Cruising Wildlife

December 31, 2016Cameras and Photography, Cruise Shipsbirds, Brown Booby, Magnificent Frigatebird, Masked Booby, travel, vacation, wildlifeEd Rosack

Lynn and I were fortunate to be able to cruise the Caribbean once again earlier this month. I love watching birds and wildlife and trying to make photographs of their behavior. On this trip we both saw something for the first time.

On more than one occasion, birds followed our ship and dove for fish right along side.

Brown Booby

There were mostly Brown Boobies with a few Masked Boobies mixed in.

Masked Booby

Flying Fish were also plentiful along our route and the ship’s wake seemed to scare them up as we passed.

Flying Fish

A closer look at the Flying Fish

Photographing the birds catching fish wasn’t easy. You have to track a bird (at high magnification) as it moves just above the water and focus / shoot continuously – then hope you catch the right moment before your camera buffer runs out. I managed to get a few frames although the quality is not high. This is probably the best one.

Just before the catch

I was using a new camera (Olympus E-M1 II) for the bird / fish photos. The frame rate and continuous focus capabilities really helped. There’s a new “Pro Capture” mode on this that I couldn’t use (didn’t have the right lens). It captures frames with the shutter button pressed half way and saves them with a final frame when fully pressed. It would have made this use case easier. I’m looking forward to seeing how the camera works in other situations.

We also saw Magnificent Frigatebirds. They seem pretty common in the Caribbean – mostly in the harbors. I’ve only seen a few here in Florida, along both coasts

Female Magnificent Frigatebird

Cruise directors plan interesting things for passengers to do while at sea but these may not appeal to everyone. It’s good to have an alternative activity available like wildlife observation and photography when you’re looking for something fun to do.

I’m collecting other photos from the trip in this album on Flickr. And I have several other blog posts that feature photography from cruise ships. If you’re interested, see this link: https://edrosack.com/category/photo-ops-categorized-by-place/cruise-ships/

By the way (no.1): I realize that some spam filters may reject the email for this post due to the names of the birds. If it happens to you, sorry. You can always read the latest content on the web at https://edrosack.com

By the way (no. 2): I think the search problem on the blog is resolved. If anyone still has issues, please let me know.

By the way (no. 3): Happy new year! I hope all of you have a great holiday and prosperous and delightful 2017!

Thank you for stopping by and reading my blog. Now – go make some photos!

Merry Christmas, 2016!!!

December 18, 2016VARIOUSChristmas, landscape, manger, sunriseEd Rosack

I hope that all of you have a wonderful holiday and enjoy spending time with your family and friends!

To get you in the mood, here are a few seasonal photos from my archives – I hope you enjoy them.

Santa’s Workshop – In Barberville, Florida

Merry Christmas to all – Santa inbound through Ponce Inlet

Seasons Greetings!

Nativity Scene – Cincinnati, Ohio

Our Lladro Manger Scene

For those of you from other faiths, I sincerely hope that all of you are having a blessed time too. We have so much to be thankful for.

I very much appreciate you stopping by my blog. Enjoy the holidays!

Wouldn’t it be nice…

December 10, 2016Cameras and Photography, INSIDE FLORIDA, Lake Jesuplandscape, sunset, technologyEd Rosack

Lynn and I were driving back from dinner one day last week. The sky was beautiful and I liked the way the clouds and color looked so I pulled out my iPhone and made this photo as we went across the 417 bridge over Lake Jesup.

Sunset over Lake Jesup

This isn’t an earth shattering photo by any means, but there are things about it that are interesting. I used the Lightroom mobile app on my phone to capture it in RAW mode. Then I edited it (using the same app) and posted it from the car before we exited 417 a few minutes later. When I got home, the image (captured version and edits) was already on my desktop computer. What a frictionless experience.

Wouldn’t it be nice if we could do the same with our stand alone cameras?

Camera manufacturers are moving in this direction, but their progress seems slow. You can connect many cameras (e.g. Olympus, Sony, Fuji, etc.) with an app on your phone and then process and post from the phone. But it’s sometimes clumsy and not as well-integrated. Phone manufacturers are moving toward higher quality mobile photography at a faster rate. The 12 megapixel, RAW capture, stabilized images output from the iPhone approach (or exceed) the sensor image quality of some older DSLRs. And RAW processing / editing on phones is really coming along.

Do you think the mobile capabilities of stand alone cameras will catch up with phones before the image quality of phones is more than good enough? The question may already be decided.

Hmm – two blog posts in a row with nothing but iPhone photos. What’s the world coming to?

Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog. Now – go make some photos!

Reprocessing reminder

November 27, 2016Cameras and Photography, Colorado, OUTSIDE FLORIDA, Techniquebuildings, landscape, mountain, Reprocessing, technique, travelEd Rosack

Do you have a favorite photo that you made a while ago? Perhaps with an older camera? If so, you may want to see what new versions of software and your revised tastes and improved skills can do differently.

I had a request for a print of this image. It’s from way back in 2007, made with my first DSLR – a Nikon D80:

Littleton, Colo. cabin

I like this photo. A lot, and not just because of the subject. It reminds me of driving along the road between where my Mom used to live and my Sister’s house, and visiting them both. It’s been on the blog before: here and here. If you’re interested, please take a look at these two posts to see earlier versions.

Fortunately, I was saving my digital files in RAW format even back then, so I can take full advantage of any improvements in photo software. I decided to run this through my current imaging workflow before printing. Using DxO Optics Pro, Photoshop, and Lightroom, I was able to reduce noise, improve shadow and highlight detail, and tweak color, contrast, and brightness. I feel the new version is better.

Using current software on an image made with 10-year-old technology can be amazing. I even see a spider web hanging from the near door that I never noticed before.

What do you think? Do you ever reprocess your older images?

Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog. Now – go make and / or reprocess some photos!

Pocket Computational Photography

November 13, 2016Cameras and Photography, INSIDE FLORIDAcomputation, iPhone, people, softwareEd Rosack

If you’ve followed this blog for a while, you may have seen my earlier posts on computational photography. If not, you can review them at this link: https://edrosack.com/?s=computational+photography. The term refers to using software algorithms to supplement or replace optical capture processes. Common examples are multi-frame panoramas, focus stacking, HDR processing, post capture focus, and other techniques. You can read more about it at this link on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computational_photography

As phone capabilities increase, their computational photography power is growing. Camera phones have long been able to do on the fly panorama and HDR capture. And here’s an example of a new capability that arrived on the iPhone 7+.

Bokeh

Apple calls this “Portrait Mode”. It’s available in Beta on the iPhone 7+ in the latest version of IOS. Since the 7+ has two cameras separated by a small distance, it provides the info necessary to compute a “depth map” of pixels in the frame. The software uses this to selectively blur pixels based on distance to add a “Bokeh” (shallow depth of field) effect that helps with subject isolation. For comparison, here is the non-computed version of the image. You can see that the background looks very different.

All isn’t perfect. The algorithm has problems around small features at the boundaries. Look closely at the next frame and you can see blurring issues at the edges of the reed.

The processing blurred parts of the reed that we wanted sharp. For the first photo above – I cheated and used Photoshop to correct the problems. Maybe in future versions the software will be better.

Here’s one more example. This is Lynn, rocking an election day t-shirt. First, the portrait mode version.

And finally, the original. In this case, the software did much better, with no obvious blurring issues. These two are straight out of the camera with no processing on my part.

It’s fascinating how photography and computers are merging. For someone who started out programming a large room sized Univac in FORTRAN with punch cards, the power and ability that fits in my pocket is just stunning. I’m glad to have it with me.

What can they possibly think of next? Do you use computational photography techniques? Do you like or hate them?

Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog. Now – go compute some images!

Regarding image selection

October 16, 2016Maine, OUTSIDE FLORIDA, Repost, Techniqueblack and white, infrared, landscape, lighthouse, rock, travel, vacationEd Rosack

Editors note: Although I’m feeling much better, I’m still going to take a sick day. I’ll repeat this post from September 2014. If you haven’t read it before, I think it’s still very relevant and worth a look. If you have – then I apologize for the repeat.

If you use raw format in your photography, they look different from jpg photos. Raw format is just the data read directly off of the sensor with no processing by the camera. Depending on how you configure your camera and software, raw image contrast and sharpening can be very low, white balance may not be optimized, and exposure is often set for capture / low noise instead of display / print.. This can make it tough to judge raw photos and decide which ones merit further processing.

When I returned from Maine and reviewed my photos, I bypassed some. When I finished working on the ones I’d identified as “selects”, I went back and re-looked at those I’d set aside. Some of them deserved attention.

A calm morning on Bubble Pond

It’s not just raw images that can be difficult to evaluate. Infrared photos usually need processing to optimize too.

Bass Harbor Light

And multi image panoramas make seeing composition and field of view a challenge before the individual frames are stitched together.

Behind Sand Beach

I can’t tell you how to rate your images and select your best. But what I can tell you is to be very careful not to discard something before you’re very sure that it’s not worth pursuing. Give your photos a second chance. Learn your software so you know how far you can go with adjustments. And as with any thing worth pursuing, practice will make you better.

Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog. Now – go make some photos!
©2014, Ed Rosack. All rights reserved.

iPhone vs. "big" cameras?

August 6, 2016Cameras and Photography, Technique, Utah, VARIOUSiPhone, landscape, sunriseEd Rosack

When I’m traveling, I try to take an iPhone photo when I get to a new place. Sometimes I forget but when I can remember, the iPhone’s GPS capability records the location for me. Then when I’m back home, it makes it easier to map out exactly where I’ve been.

This is one of the first photo’s I made on our trip out to Utah a few weeks ago:

Cedar Breaks National Monument amphitheater iPhone panorama

When I posted it on Flickr, I commented “Straight out of the iPhone’s panorama mode. I’m not sure why I have all these other cameras.” And I do like the photo. Phone cameras do pretty well, especially in good light. So I wondered …

When I got home and processed the rest of my photos, I took a look at some of the other iPhone images compared with similar images from my “big” cameras (interchangeable lens cameras with larger sensors). Here’s another example:

Sunrise at Point Supreme, iPhone version – Panorama mode

Although the light was very pretty that morning, it was also very challenging for the iPhone sensor and lens. I’ve tried to adjust the photo to be as similar as possible to the one below. But I can still see major differences. I made the next photo a minute or so later and very near the same spot with an Olympus E-M5 II micro four-thirds camera and the 12 – 40 mm f/2.8 Pro zoom lens.

Sunrise at Point Supreme – Olympus version – multi image panorama

After looking at several cases where I had similar photos, I think this example shows why we need to keep our big cameras.

The exposure latitude and dynamic range capability of sensors that are larger than the one in the iPhone means that the dark areas have more detail and less noise, and the bright areas are less likely to blow out. For high contrast light (sunrise / sunset) this helps a lot.
The lens in the iPhone didn’t handle the flare / glare very well.
The resolution capabilities of phone cameras are growing. But with careful capture, I can create much larger images with the big cameras. For instance the last photo above is 58 megapixel. The amount of detail in a file that large is enormous compared to a phone photo.
Control: For me, the big cameras beat phone cameras in flexibility / control and ergonomics. I can easily control everything from lens choice to aperture, ISO, shutter speed, etc. You can get apps for your phone that add better controls, but I find them inconvenient and don’t often use the ones I have.
Color / white balance: The default color and white balance on the phone are very good. But when I use the big cameras, I can shoot in RAW format, which makes adjusting white balance and color much easier in post processing. RAW format also allows more adjustment latitude, since I’m working with a 14 bit file in RAW, instead of an 8 bit jpg file. RAW is coming to the iPhone soon, which should help.

So there are some reasons why I think big cameras are worth the extra weight / trouble of bringing them along. I use my phone camera to supplement them. How about you?

Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog. Now – go make some photos!

In the yard

June 26, 2016INSIDE FLORIDA, VARIOUSastronomy, birds, Lizard, moon, Red Shoulder Hawk, wildlifeEd Rosack

Good morning, good readers!

I’ve been busy recently learning all about the Raspberry Pi computer and using it on a project for our home. It’s incredible how much capability you can buy today for $35. Anyway, the project (especially learning to code in Python!) has left me with little time for photo excursions. So this week I’ll have to show you some photos I managed to make from our yard.

I made this first photo standing on our front walk, just before last month’s full moon. I like the way the sun was hitting the clouds. It’s a single frame, handheld, and slightly underexposed to keep detail showing on the moon.

Pretty moon tonight

Lynn put a small statue of St. Francis in our front flower garden. This brown anole likes to bask there in the morning sun.

St. Francis and the lizard

And last, an update on our backyard visitors. The cardinal pair built a nest on our neighbor’s patio and raised one chick that’s now fledged and fully grown.

But for the last couple of weeks, we haven’t seen too many smaller birds in the yard. Perhaps it’s due to this:

The hawk on the lamp-post

I’ve seen this Red-shouldered Hawk sitting on the lamp-post on several mornings recently. It doesn’t seem to scare the lizards, but small birds don’t like having it around.

By the way, the basics of my Raspberry Pi project are working, so I should have more time now for photography.

Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog. Now, go make some photos!

Happy Father's Day

June 17, 2016Gatorland, Orlando, VARIOUSbirds, Great Egret, nest, wildlife, youngEd Rosack

Yes, it’s been a horrific week here in Central Florida. So bad that some might question celebrating a holiday so soon after these terrible events.

We should keep in mind that there is danger and evil in the world. We should keep the victims and everyone touched by these events in our hearts and minds. But we should celebrate, I think Because there is also peace and goodness in the world, and there are vastly more good people than evil ones.

So, to all Dads out there: I hope you have a wonderful day on Sunday and I hope you get to share it with your families. Celebrate the good in the world and help overcome the evil.

I wonder where Dad is? Mom said he would feed us this time. Two young Great Egrets, waiting for their next meal at Gatorland in Orlando.

Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog.

#OrlandoStrong

#OrlandoUnited

No photo post today

June 12, 2016Orlando, Plaza Theatre, VARIOUSEd Rosack

We woke up this morning here in Central Florida, to news of the worst mass shooting in US history.

Please take a moment of silence and direct your thoughts and prayers to all the people killed and injured in Orlando this weekend, their relatives and friends, and the first responders and medical people helping them.

#plazalive

#PulseNightclub

Central Florida Photo Ops

What and where they are and how to photograph them.