Category Archives: VARIOUS

Veterans Day 2011

INSIDE FLORIDA, VARIOUS, , , , ,

The Armistice ending World War 1 was signed on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918 and U.S. President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed Armistice Day for November 11, 1919 to commemorate.  President Dwight Eisenhower signed legislation in 1953 renaming it Veterans Day and extending the holiday to honor all veterans and their service to our country.

Especially in today’s world, those who choose to volunteer for the military endure long periods far from home and loved ones.  They live under conditions without comforts that all of us take for granted.  They face danger and overcome fear to protect our freedom and way of life.  And they give their all – in far too many cases sacrificing life and limb.

To all veterans and active duty service members:  Thank you.  You honor us with your service.

Fallen Soldier Battle Cross Sculpture in the Winter Springs, Florida Veterans Memorial Park

Fallen Soldier Battle Cross Sculpture in the Winter Springs, Florida Veterans Memorial Park – The Fallen Soldier Battle Cross is a symbolic replacement of a cross on the battlefield or at the base camp for a soldier who has been killed.

They went with songs to the battle, they were young.
Straight of limb, true of eyes, steady and aglow.
They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted,
They fell with their faces to the foe.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning,
We will remember them.

From “For the Fallen” by Laurence Binyon

Previous Veterans related posts:

Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog. Now – go make some photos!
©2011, Ed Rosack. All rights reserved

Using Selective White Balance to Fix Problem Photos

INSIDE FLORIDA, Technique, Washington D.C., , ,

I thought about going to Orlando Wetlands Park on Saturday before it closes for the winter (in mid-November), but the weather was quite bad. This morning, I wanted to get up early in search of a sunrise but instead had to deal with a migraine headache (I need to be much more careful about restaurant MSG). So anyway, no new shots to post this weekend.

Instead, let’s go over a technique that can be quite useful in certain situations. Normally I shoot in RAW format and use Lightroom to adjust color balance globally over the whole photograph. This works well in most situations, but sometimes a photograph can be improved substantially by correcting white balance selectively.

How do you do this? The way I do it is to open the photo in Photoshop, duplicate the image in a second layer, and adjust the white balance globally in each layer, but for different areas of the photo. So in layer 1 the sky may look good, but the ground may be off – while in layer two the opposite is true. Then I blend the two layers together using a layer mask, taking the best portions of each. If you don’t already use layers and layer masks in Photoshop, you should really learn about them. They provide a very useful tool in many situations and the ability to paint in (and erase) from one layer to the other gives you a great deal of flexibility and control over the results.

In this first example, I initially used a “day light” color balance and this brought out the sunset colors in the clouds, but the clear sky and terrain are a little too warm.

Neighborhood Sunset – before selective white balance adjustment

In Photoshop, I left the color balance as is in one layer, and in the second layer, I made it much more neutral. I then painted the clouds from the first into the second.

Neighborhood Sunset
Neighborhood Sunset – after selective white balance adjustment

This second example is even more dramatic than the first. The scene included both the pre-dawn sky and artificial lights along the far shore of the river. No matter what I did with the global white balance adjustment, I couldn’t get it to look right.

The pre-dawn Potomac River – initial white balance

Again, duplicating the image into a second layer and blending with layer masks allowed me to neutralize the color balance of the lighting on the far shore and still make the sky and water more natural looking.

The pre-dawn Potomac River, Georgetown, and Washington DC from the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Rosslyn, Virgina
The pre-dawn Potomac River – after selective white balance adjustment

You owe it to yourself and your photography to try this technique. It some situations it can save a photo.

Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog. Now – go make some photos!
©2011, Ed Rosack. All rights reserved

If you’re a birder, go see it!

VARIOUS,

“The Big Year ” opened in theatres this weekend.  It’s a comedy about competitive birders starring Owen Wilson, Jack Black, and Steve Martin.  If you enjoy birding or bird photography, ignore the mixed reviews and go see it – it’s good.  Lynn went with me and we both liked it.  A lot.

 

The movie is based on a book by Mark Obmascik about the competition to sight the most bird species in a single year.  In the movie, the winner (played by Owen Wilson) sacrifices everything else in his life to set the record at 745.

 

There are 924 species of bird in North America.  362 are common in Florida, 341 in Alaska, and 444 in California, so to reach 745 requires a lot of dedication, knowledge, and travel across the country.   I have a long way to go.  In my Lightroom catalog, I have photos of  67 different bird species.  I’ve probably seen about 20 more that I’ve identified.  745 is a big number.

 

More info:

  • Trailer:
  • Soundtrack:
  • Article about the possible impact on Florida birding: http://www.foxnews.com/travel/2011/10/16/big-year-big-movie-big-boost-to-florida-birding/#ixzz1aziemeTk(sorry – no longer available)

Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog. Now – go make some photos!
©2011, Ed Rosack. All rights reserved

The Lake Jesup Flowers are back!

INSIDE FLORIDA, Lake Jesup, Lake Jesup Sunflowers, Must do list, , , , ,

We may not get much Autumn color on our trees in Central Florida, but we do have one wonderful sign that fall is here – the sudden appearance of  huge fields of Swamp Sunflowers (Helianthus angustifolius, also called Narrow Leaf Sunflowers) covering the Marl Bed Flats in the Lake Jesup Conservation Area.

If you haven’t driven over Lake Jesup on the 417 toll road to see this year’s flower extravaganza on the north shore, now’s the time .  They started blooming last weekend and the peak will probably last through this coming weekend.  You can see my earlier posts for more info:

Here’s a photo I made last Sunday evening near sunset:

Marl Bed Flats Flowers
Marl Bed Flats Sunflowers: They bloom in late September / early October and cover a large part of the Lake Jesup Conservation area.

You can look at other photos I’ve made here in this set on Flickr: www.flickr.com/photos/edrosack/sets/72157622430520287/

Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog. Now – go make some photos!
©2011, Ed Rosack. All rights reserved

Neighborhood Sunset

INSIDE FLORIDA, Technique

Beauty is all around us. You don’t have to journey thousands of miles to an exotic location with many pounds of  gear to make a good photograph. Often, you can find one in or very close to your back yard. And since you know your area better than any other, you know where the beauty is. Make a photo of it.

Neighborhood Sunset
Reeds, pond, sky

I went for a walk after dinner last night and photographed the sky reflected in this pond not very far from my home. We have an obligation to notice, capture and share the beauty all around us with others.

Technical notes:  I made this photo (with a small camera and no tripod) using the technique I described in this post.  Here though, I used four images instead of two.  Because I had four source images, I didn’t try to blend them by hand.  Once I auto-aligned the layers, I used Photoshop’s “auto-blend” layers capability.  I also used one extra technique: white balance blending.  When I imported the four original photos into Photoshop, I set the white balance to “daylight”.  When I finished blending them and had them back into Lightroom, the clouds looked good, but the rest of the image was too warm.  So I made a virtual copy, did an auto white balance adjustment on it and then blended these two versions in Photoshop using a layer mask.  The resulting master file is 4668 x 6352 pixels (~30 megapixels).

Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog. Now – go make some photos!
©2011, Ed Rosack. All rights reserved

Big Tree Park – Home of the Senator

Big Tree Park, INSIDE FLORIDA, Must do list

January 16, 2012 update:  A fire has destroyed The Senator.  See this post for more details.  –Edro

Intro / Description

What if you could visit one of the oldest living things in the world, something that’s been alive since 1500 BC, when the Hittites were storming Babylon, and the Mayans were just getting started?  What if you didn’t have to travel across the country or the world to do so?

Well, you can do this in Central Florida.  The Senator is the largest bald cypress tree in the United States, and is thought to be the oldest of its species (~3500 years old). It’s also the fifth oldest living tree and most likely the largest tree east of the Mississippi River.  The tree’s size is particularly impressive because it’s survived many hurricanes, including one in 1925 which destroyed the top 40 feet.

The Senator
The Senator: 3500 year old Bald Cyprus tree in Big Tree Park, Longwood, Florida

Info for Photographers

The Senator is located in Big Tree Park in Longwood, Florida.  A wooden boardwalk leads from the small parking area through the swamp to the two large trees.  The second tree is “Lady Liberty” and is about 2000 years old.

The Lady
Lady Liberty: 2000 year old Bald Cyprus tree

Photo hints:

The two large cyprus trees aren’t the only things in the park.  Keep your eyes open for other vegetation and occasional wildlife such as Owls, and Turtles.  The tree canopy can also be quite interesting, so look up too.

Tree canopy
Tree canopy: That’s a very tall palm tree!

Tripod/Monopod:

Bring your tripod so you can bracket your images.  You’ll be shooting up and the contrast between the sky and the dark foliage is a perfect application for HDR techniques.

Lenses:

To me, this place cries out for a wide-angle lens and the wider the better.  I made the photos in this post with a Sigma 8 – 16mm zoom on a crop body camera.

Best time to visit:

If you haven’t seen this yet, then by all means go whenever you get a chance.  It’s a quick trip and you can visit just about any time of the day or year.  Cyprus trees do change color in the fall, so an autumn view might be interesting.  You’ll want to avoid bugs and heat, so plan accordingly.

Other:

There’s a small playground for the kids, and it’s right on the cross Seminole bicycle trail.

Summary

My Gallery / Flickr photo set:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/edrosack/sets/72157627576645761/
Website:  http://www.seminolecountyfl.gov/guide/parks/park1.aspx
Address / Phone:
761 General Hutchinson Pkwy
Longwood, FL 32750

(407) 321-1693
Central Florida Photo Ops Rating: Another CFL Photo Op must do!

Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog. Now – go make some photos!
©2011, Ed Rosack. All rights reserved

September 11 Sunrise – Orlando, Florida – 2011

INSIDE FLORIDA, Orlando, VARIOUS, ,

Orlando skyline sunrise, 9/11/11
Orlando skyline sunrise, 9/11/11

The human capacity for evil, ugly, cruelty is overwhelming if contemplated in isolation.  To stay sane and somewhat unafraid, we must consider it in concert with our greater capacity for good, kindness, and beauty.  Of all the events from this day 10 years ago, we should remember the uncounted acts of heroism, bravery, and kindness.  On the other hand, our enemies should remember how we overcame that evil and that no matter how long it takes, we will bring them to justice.

Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog. Now – go make some photos.  Create more beauty in our world.
©2011, Ed Rosack. All rights reserved

My "New" Olympus Pen Camera

Cameras and Photography,

I acquired another “new” camera.  This one is an Olympus Pen FT, from the late 1960s.  These cameras are “half frame” meaning they use standard 35mm film, but make two exposures in the space of a single 35mm frame.  Modern Olympus micro 4/3 digital cameras are also half frame (actually the 4/3 sensor size is ~1/4 of a full frame camera).  You can buy adapters to use lenses like the 40mm f/1.4 that came with this camera on digital 4/3 system cameras.  They’ll be manual focus and there’s no electronic coupling with the body.  But f/1.4 is nice.

Olympus Pen FT camera with Olympus G.Zuiko 40mm f1:1.4 lens
Olympus Pen FT camera with Olympus G.Zuiko 40mm f1:1.4 lens

Aside from a few scratches on the body, this camera’s in pretty good shape.  The lens is clear and the focus and diaphragm work correctly.  The body is relatively clean too and the shutter and exposure counter work.  The self timer is a bit dodgy, but that’s OK.  The FT model has a built-in light meter, but it uses a mercury based battery which is supposed to be hard to get in the US.  I haven’t even tried to get a battery, so I don’t know if the meter works or not.  It’s surprisingly heavy (all metal construction) and very well made – it lasted for 45 years so far and still works.  Do you think today’s cameras will still work in 2056?

I did run some black and white film through it.  And I re-discovered that manual focus can be a bit tricky, especially if you shoot at f/1.4 with a relatively dim view finder, like this one.  Here’s a couple of sample images:

Metalwork: Pen FT, 40mm f1:1.4 lens, Kodak BW400CN film
Metalwork: Pen FT, 40mm f1:1.4 lens, Kodak BW400CN film

 

Figure, Pen FT, 40mm f1:1.4 lens, Kodak BW400CN film
Figure, Pen FT, 40mm f1:1.4 lens, Kodak BW400CN film

My first photography teacher – Mr. Dove, had an Olympus Pen.  I don’t remember if it was an F or an FT model.  Someone stole it from him while he was teaching us and he really missed it.  I wonder if he ever recovered it or replaced it.

Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog. Now – go make some photos!
©2011, Ed Rosack. All rights reserved

An HDR photo and some tips

Cameras and Photography, Circle B Bar Reserve, INSIDE FLORIDA, Technique,

Here’s another photo from our trip last week to the Circle B Bar Reserve:

Sunrise marsh
Sunrise marsh: Early morning at the Circle B Bar Reserve near Lakeland, Florida

The dynamic range of the light in a scene like this is extreme – a perfect opportunity to try your hand at High Dynamic Range (HDR) photography.  I won’t get into the details on how to do HDR.  You can find an excellent tutorial on Trey Ratcliff’s site.  But I wanted to offer a some hints.

  • For sunrise / sunset images such as this, I usually bracket 9 frames at 1 EV apart.  This allows me to capture the very bright sun, details in the sky, and even details in the shadows.  You may want to consider biasing your overall exposure to underexpose slightly since it’s usually the sun’s brightness that is hard to capture.
  • When you process your images, select only the ones you need.  I look at the image and histogram in Lightroom and use that to pick which ones to use.  In this example, I didn’t process the brightest exposures.  The reason for this is that as you use more and more exposures, you increase the chances of introducing noise and ghosting into your final output.
  • If you can afford it, try different software to process your image.  Photoshop, Photomatix, and HDR Efx Pro (and others) all have their strengths and weaknesses and one may work better on any given image than the others.

Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog. Now – go make some photos!
©2011, Ed Rosack. All rights reserved

Before and After, Again

INSIDE FLORIDA, Ponce Inlet, Technique, , , ,

This is another entry in my occasional series on reprocessing photos. You can see the other posts here, here, and here. You can also read the original blog post about this image here.

Post-processing skills as well as taste develop over time. New tools come out or get updated.  Reviewing your image library for things you may want to change is a good idea.  Just don’t spend too much time on post processing – leave enough to go out and make new images too!

This is one of my favorite photographs and one that I’ve even sold, but re-looking at it I saw several things I thought I could make a little better.  Here’s the updated version after all my re-edits (which are described below):

Ponce Inlet light, sunset, bird (re-do)

After: Ponce Inlet lighthouse, sunset, bird, Final Edit

I started over from the RAW file (you do save your RAW files, don’t you?) and re-did the basic adjustments in Lightroom (color balance, initial exposure adjustments).  Then I moved into Photoshop and cleaned up distracting elements (tire tracks, poles, the tip of the cloud just right of the lighthouse, …).  I then added a duplicate layer and ran that through Topaz Adjust using the “Spicify” preset to bring up structure, detail, and color saturation.  I don’t usually like applying this filter all over an image at 100%, so once back in Photoshop I added a hide all layer mask and partially painted in the  effect, using a higher opacity brush for the sky to let more of the filter show and a lower one for the rocks and ocean to mute the filter effect.  I then took the result  back to Lightroom for final tweaks to color balance, sharpening and a crop to remove part of the sky.  I thought that the colors of the sky and rocks were still a little off, so as one last tweak I added graduated filters to help adjust their tints.

For reference purposes, here’s the old edit of this photo:

Ponce Inlet lighthouse, sunset, bird

Before: Ponce Inlet lighthouse, sunset, bird, Initial Edit

Note:  you can click the two versions above to go to my Flickr account, where you can view larger versions.

And also for reference, I uploaded the original RAW file (with default development settings in Lightroom) below.

Ponce Inlet lighthouse, sunset, bird, RAW Capture

Would I go to this much effort for every image?  No.  But sometimes a photo really appeals to me and I want to get the absolute best I can from it.  It helps that I enjoy working in Photoshop and learning about new techniques.

So what do you think?  Quite a few changes, some more subtle than others – but overall I like the new version better.

Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog. Now – go make some photos!
©2011, Ed Rosack. All rights reserved