Category Archives: VARIOUS

The St. Johns River near Sanford and Deland

September 30, 2010INSIDE FLORIDA, Sanford, St. Johns River, TechniqueAlligator, fishing, panorama, reviews, sunrise, wildlifeEd Rosack

Intro / Description

At 310 miles, the St. Johns is the longest river in Florida. It’s one of the few rivers in the US that flow from south to north. Near Orlando it forms the dividing line between Seminole and Volusia counties, and it’s a favorite destination for fishermen, boaters, and folks on jet skis. It should be a favorite destination for photographers, too.

Fishermen___DSC3130-EE — A beautiful place to catch some fish

Vince invited Tom and I out on his boat for a photo expedition a while back. We finally took him up on his offer a couple of weeks ago. We were up early, put in near the I-4 bridge right around dawn, and motored north.

There’s a rule of thumb about sunrise and sunset. The rule of thumb is that there’s no rule of thumb telling you when the good colors / conditions will occur. You have to hang around and keep making photographs until you’re sure the show is over. The next photo is a good example of this rule (or is it a lack of rules?):

The St. Johns River near Blue Springs

When we first got out on the river around sunrise (~7am), there was some color in the sky, but nothing spectacular. About an hour later the conditions were quite different and much more photogenic.

This image is a 5 frame panorama that I merged in Photoshop. I made the exposures hand-held from a moving boat, so they weren’t aligned all that well. In post, I first ran all 5 RAW frames through Lightroom and adjusted several parameters identically, including color balance, lens profile, and camera profile. Then I moved to Photoshop to do the merge. After that, I worked on it a little more to take a small curve out of the shoreline, and then used Topaz Denoise 5 to selectively reduce the residual noise that you could see in the full res version. The last step was to add a duplicate layer and run it through Topaz Adjust 4. Back in Photoshop, I modified the transparency of the resulting layer and the strength of the Topaz filter. I also selectively erased portions of the Topaz layer until I liked the result.

Info for Photographers

Photo hints: We saw many kinds of birds and several alligators. But the wild life doesn’t like power boats very much. We had a hard time getting close to any of the birds, and alligators would see or hear us coming and submerge long before we got close to them. If you have time, you might try coasting in from a longer distance – but that could take a while and we didn’t try it so I can’t tell you whether it will help. You can also look for alligators on docks. They don’t seem to be as skittish when they’re out sunning themselves. In fact, they seem quite friendly.

Gators always smile at you, but this one was even waving!

Tripod/Monopod: They won’t do you much good on a moving boat, so save yourself some trouble and don’t bring them unless you’re going ashore.

Lenses: The boat motion will also make hand holding a long lens difficult, so don’t bother bringing really long glass either. Instead, carry your wide-angle lens and maybe a short telephoto or zoom.

Best time to visit: Early in the morning on a calm day before the other boats show up. The water should be calm, undisturbed, and very scenic. And you can get some photography in before it gets too hot.

Calm, dawn light___DSC3074 — Calm, dawn light

Other: There are several places to stop and eat along the river. If you want to grab lunch ashore, do some research first. Also, if you don’t have a friend with a boat, don’t let that stop you. Nearly every marina we passed had pontoon and house boats for rent.

By the way, if you’re visiting Florida you may not know that it’s probably not a very good idea to swim in the river. The alligator in the photo above was about 5 feet long. It (along with some larger relatives) lives in the river. We also occasionally have people infected with water-borne diseases (such as amoebic meningoencephalitis), although that usually occurs in lake water.

Summary

We had a great time and were very grateful to Vince for taking us out. I got a photo or two that I really like.

My Gallery / Flickr photo set:	http://www.flickr.com/photos/edrosack/sets/72157624991879878/with/5010338576/
Website:	N/A
Address / Phone:	View in Google Maps
Central Florida Photo Ops Rating:	Very scenic. If you have a boat, go!

Photoshop CS5 Merge to HDR Pro – Ghost Removal and Colors

September 25, 2010Orlando Wetlands, TechniqueHDR, reviews, sunriseEd Rosack

Burning waters @ Orlando Wetlands – Sunrise and flowers at Lake Searcy

I’ve been using Photoshop CS5 for a while and I really like the new capabilities. Using content aware fill to delete/ replace areas in photographs works amazingly well.

The new “Merge to HDR Pro” also works better than the CS4 version. I had also been very impressed with the “Remove ghosts” check box when merging images into an HDR. This automatically identifies and fixes features in the image that move between the multiple exposures used to create the HDR. In the image below, the wind was blowing and caused the flower to move between shots. It shows how effective the automatic Ghost removal can be.

Left: Ghost removal off; Right: Ghost removal on

But… I’ve noticed some issues with color when using CS5 to create several of my HDR photos. Very bright areas sometimes have sections that are discolored, as in the example below.

Discolored areas in CS5 HDR image processed with Ghost removal on

This puzzled me until I discovered today that the discolored area seems to be related to Ghost removal. Here is the same image, but this time processed with Ghost removal off. You can see that the discoloring is gone (or at least greatly reduced).

Discolored areas in CS5 HDR image do not appear with Ghost removal off

So, how can you get around this problem if you have bright areas like a sunrise or sunset and you want to use Ghost removal?

What I did was run the Merge to HDR twice – once with Ghost removal on and the second time with it off. Then I copied the results into separate layers in a single file and used a layer mask to select which version I wanted in different areas of the photo. For the sky, I chose the layer with Ghost removal off and for the foreground area with moving vegetation, I used the layer with Ghost removal on. It is an extra step, but definitely worth it for an image you really like, like the one at the beginning of this post.

A post of many questions

September 18, 2010Cameras and Photography, OUTSIDE FLORIDA, Techniqueblack and white, Flowers, Japan, Mt. Fuji, warEd Rosack

Something a little different this week. I have some guest photography along with many questions and some information about our photographs and the future.

Cherry blossoms, moon and Mt. Fuji, photo by Edward V. Rosack

Why do you make photographs?

Is it because you see something (interesting, beautiful, unusual, …) and would like to share it with others?

Are you documenting memories so that you can revisit them later?

Are you using the camera as a tool to let you see something you couldn’t see or didn’t notice at the time?

Will your photographs be lost to you or others in the future?

What steps are you taking to make sure they survive? Do you backup? In multiple places? Online? Outside your house?

Are your photos safe from:

Equipment failure? If you Google “Hard Disk MTBF” you’ll find hard drive failure rate predictions are between 1% and 14% a year. And this doesn’t count bit errors that can corrupt single files. And then get copied to all of your backups.
Media failure? DVD lifespan is predicted to be anywhere from 2 to more than 100 years.
Technology obsolescence? Have you tried reading data from a Floppy disc lately? How many years into the future will we still be able to read CDs?
Natural disasters? How many people in New Orleans were able to take their photos to safety during Hurricane Katrina?
Getting hidden in the shear overwhelming number of photos that are made every day? 4,974 photos were uploaded to Flickr in one minute before I wrote this sentence. What about all of the rest of the photo sharing sites? How about the ones that weren’t uploaded? How will someone (even if they’re interested and trying hard) find your photos among the incredible (and increasing) number that exist now?

Pacific Island, photo by Edward V. Rosack

Do your photographs stand alone?

What will people think of them when you aren’t around to explain them and provide some background? Will they even think of them?

Will people look at your photos after you’re gone and wonder where and when they were made and who the people in them are? Will they even know who the photographer was?

The gang at Shuri Castle in Okinawa, Japan; photographer unknown — "The gang at Shuri Castle" in Okinawa, Japan; My uncle is 2nd from the left in the top row; photographer unknown.

Do your photos need words and information along side them so the viewer can understand them?

Do your photos have meta data associated with them? Do you keyword and caption them? Is the EXIF data recorded by your camera and the IPTC data entered by you intact, or stripped away by one or more steps in your work flow?

Do you organize your photos into a meaningful folder structure to make them easier to find?

Do you rename them to something that makes sense?

Do you organize your photos using a proprietary program that may not exist in the future?

Conclusions and Credits

Ted Rosack, Macarello, Henley, On the wing of a German Aircraft after WW II; Photographer unknown.

The photographs in this post belonged to my uncle – Edward V. Rosack. There’s very little information to go along with them. I recognize my Dad and my Uncle, but none of the other people. I can tell from the context more or less where they were made. A few have short captions. I imagine that to my uncle, these photographs were important because they are a record of people and scenes that had a large impact on him as he helped fight WW II.

They were made and printed more than 60 years ago and although they are not in very good shape they’ve lasted until today. Will they last another 60 years? Will any of yours or mine?

Badly damaged church, photo by Edward V. Rosack

There’s a lot to think about and do if you want your photos to last, and people to look at them and see and feel what you want them to see and feel. If you don’t take steps to make them last, no one else is likely to do it for you.

Reminders

August 21, 2010INSIDE FLORIDA, Lake Jesup, VARIOUSFlowers, Marl Bed Flats, Sunflowers, sunriseEd Rosack

A short post today with two reminders.

1. I updated the blog’s table of contents again. If you haven’t looked at it, please do. In the TOC, I list the places I’ve blogged about along with links to the blog entry and the image gallery. It also has a collection of links to other resources on the web where you can find photo-op info. If you’re doing research on photogenic locations in Central Florida (and some other places too) this is a good start.

2. The Lake Jesup wildflower season is almost here. This photo-op is seasonal and usually starts in late September and is over by early October. If you want to photograph it, get ready. You can find info in two of my blog posts:
Here: https://edrosack.com/2007/10/07/storm-and-flowers/

and here: https://edrosack.com/2009/10/10/lake-jessup-conservation-area-wildflowers/

Lake Jesup Wildflowers at sunrise: September 30, 2007

Ponce Inlet, Florida – Lighthouse and night photos

August 14, 2010Cameras and Photography, INSIDE FLORIDA, Ponce Inletastronomy, panorama, sunsetEd Rosack

Imagine if you will, a perfect dusk scene with sunset colors drifting up from beyond the horizon. In the distance is a photogenic lighthouse that’s illuminated just enough to make it stand out against the bright sky. Beneath your feet, slow-moving Atlantic Ocean surf rolls up on rocks. You spot a bird in the surf and hope it will be still while your shutter remains open for the seconds necessary to record the image as your mind’s eye sees it – tack sharp from foreground rocks all the way to the distant lighthouse, with silky smooth water reflecting light from the dusk sky. Imagine coming home and seeing the image that you imagined on your computer screen in all it’s glory. This imaginary trip can be made real for you too if you venture over to Ponce Inlet, Florida and have a bit of luck, like we did.

Ponce Inlet lighthouse, sunset, & bird – (Nikon D700, Nikkor 24-70mm lens @ 70mm, 5 second exposure @ f/11, ISO 200)

Once again my friends, the Photography Interest Group braved many hazards to bring you extraordinary photographic insight into another wonderful place for outstanding Central Florida Photo Ops. Three of us wanted to do something a little different from our normal photo excursions. We’ve been talking about night-time / low light photography so we decided to visit Ponce Inlet last Thursday night to try out some techniques. It was also an interesting day from an astronomical perspective, since there was a conjunction of Mars, Venus, Saturn and the Moon in the western sky after sunset, as well as the annual Perseid meteor shower to observe later in the evening. We planned this as a “scouting trip”, since we’d never been there (photographically at least), and our expectations for “wall hanger” images were pretty low. We figured we’d scout the place and come back another time armed with knowledge and hoping for good results.

The weather report wasn’t very good. Earlier in the week, heavy cloud cover and rain were predicted, and it was cloudy and rainy earlier that day. But by the time we arrived at Ponce inlet the clouds had parted and we were left with beautiful (but very hot) conditions.

We stopped first at the jetty and I made several photos including the one above and this one of a fisherman below the conjunction.

Ponce Inlet at dusk, fishing under the Moon and Venus – (Nikon D700, Nikkor 24-70mm lens @ 32mm, 13 second exposure @ f/22, ISO 200)

Next, we ventured over to the lighthouse looking to pair it with the conjunction. We had a bit of trouble finding the right place to park. This photo is from the parking lot on the south side of the lighthouse. We didn’t get there in time, but it’s possible that the view would have been better from the lot on the north side – something to try next trip. I made this two shot panorama with a 70 – 200mm lens. You could use a wider angle lens as well.

Ponce Inlet light, Moon, Venus, Mars, Saturn – (Nikon D700, Nikkor 70 – 200mm lens @ 70mm, 6 second exposure @ f/8, ISO 200, 3 exposure composite panorama)

When we finished at the light house, there was time for a “Slurpee break” to cool off before moving down the beach. We found a good off beach parking area not far from the lighthouse and stopped to look for debris from comet Swift-Tuttle’s tail. Within the first few minutes (before our camera gear was set up), “Grasshopper” saw a large fireball meteor. But that was the only large one that night. Here’s a photo of “Donuts” and “Grasshopper” making star / meteor photos.

Grasshopper and Donuts perform photo-magic on the beach under the stars for an audience of three – (Nikon D700, Nikkor 50mm lens, 4 second exposure @ f/1.8, ISO 1600, manual focus on Donuts’ white shirt with Liveview)

For the set up at this place, I combined my old 50mm f/1.8 lens with the high ISO capabilities of the Nikon D-700. I wanted to make my exposures short so that the stars didn’t trail. I shot in manual exposure mode and checked the results to make sure I was getting what I wanted. There were some high clouds and haze and coupled with the light pollution in the area that made exposure tricky. It was too easy to overexpose the haze / glare, leading to an incandescent glow that hid the stars and meteors. I also used manual focus. I started by using Liveview enlarged around what I wanted to focus on. But with the 50mm lens, it was just as simple to use the infinity mark on the scale. I did manage to catch a couple of meteors, and here is one photo I made.

Long, dim, green Perseid meteor – (Nikon D700, Nikkor 50mm lens, 3 second exposure @ f/1.8, ISO 1600, manual focus on infinity mark)

All in all, this was a very fine expedition and we all had a lot of fun. It exceeded expectations and you should try it sometime!

If you do want to try this, make sure you have both wide-angle and telephoto lenses and a sturdy tripod with a cable release. You can also read my post on night time photography for some hints on technique.

Click on any of the photos above to see them larger on Flickr. You can go here to see my Ponce Inlet photo set. “Donuts'” photos are here, and “Grasshopper’s” are here.

Evansville, Indiana photo ops

August 12, 2010Cameras and PhotographyAntiques, Flowers, sunset, travel, Trivets, vacationEd Rosack

Sorry about not updating my Blog last weekend. We were on vacation and didn’t get back home until late on Sunday. Having to be at work all week, starting on Monday morning has really interfered with my photographic activities.

For our vacation this year, Lynn and I attended the Pressing Iron and Trivet Collectors of America (PITCA) 2010 Convention in Evansville, Indiana.

The convention was held and we stayed at the Aztar Casino Hotel in downtown Evansville – right on the Ohio River. I enjoyed the parts of the convention that I attended – it’s amazing how knowledgeable people are. But I also used some time while Lynn was busy with trivet things to explore the area looking for photo ops. Here’s a couple of views from the Casino area:

Sunset at the Aztar Casino, looking southwest over the Ohio River

Night time Ohio River at Evansville

Evansville has a very nice river walk and they’ve done quite a bit of flower gardening along the way. Here are some examples of what it looks like:

The Evansville, Indiana visitor’s center

Evansville also has a museum with a transportation center showcasing several rail cars and railroad equipment.

The USS LST-325 Ship Memorial in Evansville is the home of the only remaining operational Landing Ship Tank (LST) in the world. The LST-325 has quite a history and is a very lucky ship. She made 44 trips between England and France during the WW II invasion of Normandy. Here is an interesting account of how the ship was acquired, repaired and sailed across the Atlantic by a crew of US Navy Veterans in 2000.

By the way, all of the photos I made of the ship were with a Nikon 16-35mm f/4 VR lens, combined with auto ISO on my D-700 DSLR. The lens VR combined with setting the minimum shutter speed to 1/15 sec and the ISO range of 200 – 1600 allowed me to shoot without flash in the dim interior of the ship. I also was able to make sharp hand held photos down to a shutter speed of 1/8 sec, when the light was even dimmer.

On the second day of the convention auction, I left the hotel early to visit the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, which is a little over 3 hours away from Evansville. It was worth the time, although I didn’t stay very long due to the heat.

The Gateway Arch, St. Louis, Missouri

I’m sure there are many other photo ops in the area that I didn’t have time to explore. For instance there is a zoo and botanical gardens in the city, and several caves within driving distance. The PITCA convention will probably return to Evansville next year, so I may get a chance to continue my search.

I’ve posted more of my photos (and larger versions) from this trip in a gallery here: https://edrosack.com/Evansville/

Photo Location Block

August 1, 2010Cameras and Photography, INSIDE FLORIDA, St. Augustine, Techniquegraveyard, sunriseEd Rosack

This is a nice photo I made recently. I’d rate it a “2” meaning it’s good enough to show other people. But it’s not that good, and I keep thinking there was a better photo there and I just didn’t find it.

Crypts at dawn (click to view on Flickr)

I’ve been by this particular place several times. Each time I see it, I just know that there must be one or more great photographs lurking about. All I have to do is find them and push the shutter.

At many places it works out that way for me. I’m able to capture amazing images and come back with something special. Sometimes it doesn’t work. For some reason I can’t “find the photo”. I’m calling this “Location Block”. The location above has bothered me since I first saw it. I’ve tried several times and so far, I haven’t ever been really happy with any of the photos I’ve made there (including this one). Have you ever felt this way?

I’m still searching for a solution. Is it the time of day? Lighting? Clouds? Lens? Filters? Position? Random Luck? Am I mistaken in the first place and there really is no truly great photo there? I don’t know yet, but one of the very interesting things about photography is that there are rules of thumb and guide lines – but there’s no surefire formula. Sometimes you have to keep exploring. Each time you try something different you learn. And if you have to try a large number of things over a long time to get a great photo, it’s fun. You’ll learn a lot and when you finally do get the photo, the satisfaction will be immense.

At least that’s what I’m hoping.

Cleaning House

August 1, 2010Blogging, VARIOUSblog infoEd Rosack

This past week, I noticed a problem with my blog. I was looking at an older post and the photos weren’t showing up. I’ve been working to correct this all week and I almost have it done. What happened? Read on.

In early 2009, I wasn’t happy with the flexibility and customization provided by Google’s Blogger service, so I decided to move my blog to my own web server and use WordPress. I won’t get into a debate here about the relative merits of the two platforms – you can find too much info about that on the web. Suffice it to say that after more than a year of use, I’m very happy with WordPress, it’s useability, flexibility, and how easy it is to customize. I don’t regret my decision to move at all.

However, this particular problem has been a bear to fix. When I switched to WordPress, I used one of its features to import all of the posts from my old blog into my new one. This worked very well and made the switch mostly painless. I guess I should have known that was too good to be true.

The import process of course imported all of the links to photos within the existing posts. But the links point to the original location – on Blogspot. At the time, I realized this and since everything displayed correctly, I just accepted it and moved on. Over a year later, it turns out that the source of my problem with missing photos is that some of those links no longer work. So I only postponed the work – I didn’t avoid it.

What I’ve been doing intermittently over the past week is going back through all of my older posts and changing all of the links that point to Blogspot. For photos, I can point to copies on my server or on Flickr. But sometimes, I don’t have a photo anywhere but on Blogspot and in those cased I have to upload the photo as well as change the link. One thing that’s been really helpful is the search function within WordPress. I can easily search for “blogspot” in all of my posts and know which ones I still have to work on.

This is a fairly straightforward problem and solution. It just takes some time to fix. And it also points out that having control of web content used in your blog posts is important. If you’re switching to WordPress, it’s something to be aware of.

I apologize if this has been a problem for you. I should have everything corrected later today, and if you notice any lingering issues in the future, please let me know.

Make use of wide angle lens perspective

July 18, 2010Cameras and Photography, INSIDE FLORIDA, St. Augustine, TechniqueCastillo de San Marco, equipment, fort, sunriseEd Rosack

In photography, wide angle lenses typically have a focal length that is much shorter than the diagonal dimension of the image sensor (or film). For a full frame 35mm digital camera, the diagonal measure of the sensor is about 50mm, and this is considered a “normal” focal length. Wide angle lenses have a focal length shorter than this (typically 12 – 35mm). It’s important to understand the characteristics of shorter focal length lenses so that you know how to use them in your photography.

Of course, wide angle lenses take in a wide field of view. They also have a larger depth of field when compared to normal or telephoto lenses. And they are also very good at helping you vary the perspective of your image. What’s perspective? It’s the relative scale of nearby and distant features. This is what I want to discuss today.

Take a look at the two photos below. Both have the same subject matter. They were both shot with similar focal lengths, but the perspective differs greatly. In the first photo, the nearest tree is only about 1/3 of the length of the fort in the distance. In the second, the same tree is almost as tall as the fort is long. This is a huge change in the relative size of the image elements.

How can you achieve a similar effect? Wide angle lenses exaggerate the size of things that are close, and make things farther away look smaller. The wider the lens, the greater this effect is. When you have a wide angle lens on your camera, you can move closer or farther away from things so that you can control the relative size of close image elements and those that are farther away.

I wasn’t happy with the composition of the first image. I made the second by moving in closer to the trees. Since they were nearby, and the fort was in the distance, the trees were enlarged much more than the fort. Simply adjusting where I placed the camera allowed me to vary the relative size of the trees and fort.

Castillo de San Marco at sunrise, 17mm focal length, f/4.0 @ 1/800 sec, ISO 200

Sunrise at Castillo de San Marcos #4, 16mm focal length, f/11 @ 1/13 sec, ISO 200

Now that you understand this basic principle of photography, you too can use it to control the relative size of the elements in your composition. I will leave a discussion of why wide angle lenses aren’t used for portrait photography very often as an exercise for the reader.

Alligator Farm Spoonbill Chicks Take Off!

July 6, 2010Cameras and Photography, INSIDE FLORIDA, Must do list, St. Augustine, St. Augustine Alligator Farmbirds, Spoonbill, wildlifeEd Rosack

I’ve found that one of the pleasures of bird photography and bird watching in general is the repeated observation of locations over the course of a nesting season. When you return to a place regularly, you can watch the behavior of the parents over time as well as the young birds as they develop.

I’m fortunate to live relatively close to the St. Augustine Alligator Farm Bird Rookery and I was able to visit four times recently. This was the first year that Roseate Spoonbills have nested there and the farthest north that they’ve been recorded nesting. In this post, I’ll show you a sequence of photographs made over about six weeks of the two easily seen Spoonbill nests at the Rookery. Nest 1 is on the right side of the boardwalk closest to the entrance. Nest 2 is the one you can see from the far end of the boardwalk close to the large tree.

This first photo was taken at the end of May and shows one Spoonbill above and to the right of nest 2. At the bottom left you can barely make out one of the very young and small Spoonbills. This is the first photo I managed to make of the chicks. Sorry about the quality. The chicks didn’t come out in the open at all when I was there that time.

Mother Spoonbill keeps an eye on chick, nest 2. May 30th, 2010

Here is the same nest (#2) two weeks later. The chicks have grown a bit, have some beginning feathers, and are more active.

Roseate Spoonbill Mom and chicks in nest 2, June 13th, 2010

And this photo shows how large the chicks had grown yesterday when I visited – quite a difference in only 16 days!

Roseate Spoonbill Mom and chicks near nest 1, July 5th, 2010

Several of the young Spoonbills have fledged and I was able to capture this photo of one of them trying its wings:

Juvenille Spoonbill tests its wings, July 5th, 2010

So you can see how fast these Spoonbills develop. From just hatched and barely moving to flying in about 6 weeks. I’ve enjoyed following their progress this year. What a wonderful opportunity!

The bad news for those of you that haven’t yet visited the Alligator Farm is that you’ve missed most of the nesting season. Make your plans for next year!