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!

Cracker Christmas 2016

December 4, 2016Fort Christmas, INSIDE FLORIDAAntiques, buildings, music, panorama, peopleEd Rosack

Lynn and I went out to the Fort Christmas Historical Park this morning and met Nancy T. there for the 39th annual “Cracker Christmas”. There are craft vendors and historical demonstrations and it’s a great way to revisit some of our Florida history and maybe find a few unique gifts for friends and relatives.

The Union School – Originally established in 1906, it was expanded in the 1920s and used until 1969.

I was glad to go since I was hoping to make some photos for a blog post. I haven’t done any photography all week until today. Which is why this post is a bit late.

Victrola and RCA Victor record

One of the small buildings at Fort Christmas has a nice display of Victrolas and Edison phonograph machines. They have recordings too and it was a treat to listen to one of their wax cylinders from the late 1800s or early 1900s.

There was live music too:

Skeeter Creek band

Other things I enjoyed seeing were the tractor displays:

Farmall Tractor

And even the old furniture, some of which was very ornate.

Dragonfly and flowers chair

There was plenty to eat, too – although we left before lunchtime.

This post is a first for me. All of the photos are from my iPhone (in JPG mode no less!) with a bit of Lightroom magic added. I also carried my micro 4/3 cameras, but for some reason ended up not using them. Curious.

You can read other posts I’ve written about Fort Christmas at this link. And I’ve collected my Fort Christmas photos in this album on Flickr.

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!

The Great Wall of Photography

November 20, 2016China, OUTSIDE FLORIDAblack and white, landscape, people, travel, vacationMaryKate

If there’s one person who loves travel as much as me (or more), it’s my cousin Phil. That’s why I was so excited for our whirlwind adventure to China! Our journey was just five days, so I had to pack lightly, but I wish I could have brought my Dad and more camera equipment with me: the photography conditions were tricky! Since he couldn’t be there with me, he processed my photos after, and has joined me in this post with photo hints. So here it is: Central Florida Photo Ops official furthest-away post ever!

MK and Phil on the Great Wall – Mutianyu

First, we visited Shanghai – If you have the chance to go, I highly recommend the Shanghai Museum, and then a meal at the Living Room restaurant on the 87th floor of the Park Hyatt Shanghai. From there, you’ll find sweeping views of the Bund and the Huangpu River, and on a clear day like we were lucky to have, you’ll gain an amazing appreciation for just how large the city is.

My Dad lent me his polarizing filter, but I enjoyed the meal so much I didn’t think to use it on this shot while we were indoors.

View from the 87th: Shanghai

Editor:  A polarizer can be useful to darken skies, reduce the fog / haze in a photo, and eliminate reflections when shooting through glass.  It doesn't always work - success depends on the conditions (amount and direction of the light).  I always try to carry one with me and use it if I remember.   I processed this image through DxO Optics Pro for sharpening / noise reduction.  Then in Lightroom, I adjusted the exposure, and contrast, straitened buildings, and used clarity and dehaze adjustments along the horizon with a radial filter to lessen the haze.  Here is a "before version":

The highlight of Beijing was, of course, the Great Wall of China. There are several places along the wall you can easily visit from Beijing. We chose Mutianyu for its sweeping views (and it’s reputation of being less crowded than nearby spots). While we had perfect weather in Shanghai, fog almost completely enveloped us at Mutianyu. But every once in a while the fog would shift and we’d get a quick but miraculous glimpse of just how Great the Great Wall is.

Mutianyu is about an hour from Beijing. I recommend hiring a private driver – we used John Yellowcar – for about $150 USD, we had our own private driver/translator/tour guide for the entire day. We thought this was a great value for a 10-hour day trip. While there are restaurants and souvenirs at the wall, bring water/snacks and wear comfortable hiking shoes! Also remember that haggling with vendors is accepted and expected at the Wall.

Misty Mutianyu Watchtower

The fog was too thick for the polarizing lens, so I tried to take as many photos as I could and hoped my Dad could help when I got home! Here are some pointers from him on how he was able to save these photos, and in hindsight, things I could have done differently to make the photos even better.

Winding Wall and Watchtowers – Mutianyu

Editor:  MK faced some tough photo conditions.  Fog greatly reduces contrast and the amount of light.  It also diffuses the light so that the polarizing filter won't be much help  (sorry MK!) and the filter itself also reduces the amount of light getting to the sensor by 1 or 2 stops.  About the only thing I could recommend is to be careful with exposure (sometimes fog can cause underexposure). I processed this photo like the previous one.  DxO Optics Pro and Lightroom.  In these conditions, clarity and dehaze adjustments are again very helpful.  I used quite a bit of dehaze in this image.  It's easy to go too far - be careful.  Here's the "before version" of this one:

More photos from my trip (with my Dad’s amazing edits) can be found here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/marykate/sets/72157676855966605/

Thanks to our roving correspondent MK for our first ever opposite side of the globe post! And thanks to all for stopping by and reading the blog. Now, go make 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!

The last late sunrise…

November 6, 2016INSIDE FLORIDA, Merritt Island NWRbirds, blue hour, BPWD, landscape, sunrise, wrenEd Rosack

For a while anyway. Many photographers would agree that daylight savings time and “fall back” make it harder to get up for sunrise. Photography Interest Group members Kevin K., Kevin M., Tom M., and I met at 6am last Friday for a photo expedition over to Merritt Island. It was the last time we’ll be able to set the alarm that late until next year. Despite sleeping in, we arrived well before dawn. This was the scene at the boat ramp at the Titusville Municipal Marina.

Blue hour at the marina

There weren’t a lot of clouds, so my expectations for color were low but we did see a bit as the sun started to rise.

Calm morning

And as usual, after it was light we went looking for wildlife on Black Point Wildlife Drive. There are some winter visitors showing up there now. We saw warblers, wrens, and Kingfishers. But the ducks, Avocets and others are still missing. They’ll show up before long.

Marsh Wren (?) – At least I hope it’s a Marsh Wren – that would be a life bird!
At the rest area on Black Point Wildlife Drive, MINWR

So once again it was a good trip to one of my favorite places.

I’m going to miss sleeping later on photography mornings. By the way: New research says turning back the clock is not just bad for photographers. It impacts mental health too: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/11/05/turning-back-the-clock-1-hour-takes-a-serious-toll-on-your-mental-health/

A couple other updates:

My friend Jim B. has heard that Biolab road in the Merritt Island Wildlife Refuge is closed due to hurricane damage. No reports on when it will open again.

The Cat and Turtle blog has a report on winter birds returning to Orlando Wetlands Park. Check it out: http://www.blog.catandturtle.net/2016/11/04/winter-birds-returning-orlando-wetlands-park/

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

Around Dixie Lake

October 30, 2016INSIDE FLORIDA, Lake Louisa State ParkCypress, landscape, panorama, reflection, sundog, sunsetEd Rosack

We spent a few days last week at Lake Louisa State Park. We stayed in one of their very nice 2 bedroom cabins with our friends Nancy and Howard T. The cabins are up high with a fabulous views of Dixie Lake, one of the three main lakes in the park. The photos in this blog post are all of this lake.

We were eating dinner on Tuesday evening when this started to develop. I quickly grabbed my camera, excused myself, and rushed to photograph this superb sunset.

View from the shore of Dixie Lake at dusk

We also enjoyed riding our bicycles – the hills are a change from the flatlands where we live. Returning from a ride on Monday, Howard noticed this Sundog – one of the most colorful I’ve seen.

Sundog

The cabins are just a short walk from the lake shore. The reflections and reeds made a pretty scene even in the middle of the day.

View from the shore of Dixie Lake

Across the lake from the cabins, the park has kayaks for rent. Wednesday morning we started there and paddled all the way ’round. It was windy and got stronger as we went, but we planned well and travelled clockwise which helped a bunch. The eastern shore sheltered us from the strongest winds and on the last bit along the western shore, the wind moved us along at a good clip. I like the many interesting trees and stumps we saw on the way.

Cypress stump

Wildlife was scarce on this visit. We did see a gopher tortoise on the way in and a few birds including (what I think was) a Common Nighthawk, a hawk or two, ducks going after fish and some others. I didn’t spot any deer, turkey, or even alligators but I’m sure they’re there.

Lake Louisa is close to Orlando and a wonderful place to relax and get away from it all. I highly recommend going if you get the chance! You can see other posts I’ve written about it here on the blog. And I’ve collected an album of Lake Louisa photos here on Flickr.

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

A walk in the park

October 23, 2016INSIDE FLORIDA, Orlando, Orlando Wetlandsbirds, black-bellied whistling duck, landscape, Little Blue Heron, Palm Warbler, sunrise, wildlifeEd Rosack

I usually walk in my neighborhood several times a week. It’s a good way to get some exercise and say hello to folks. I did something different last Friday and drove over to Orlando Wetlands Park for my morning hike.

It was still dark when I arrived and I could hear owls and whistling ducks calling on the way out to Lake Searcy – one of my favorite landscape places. I didn’t like the view this time since the water was low and the appealing mirror like reflections were missing. I ended up moving to a new location for this:

Middle marsh mystery island

Morning color was disappointing, but I do like the image. After sunrise, I wandered around and made some bird photos. There were many Little Blue Herons:

Pretty little blue

And the Palm Warblers are here in force, bobbing their tails as they pose in the reeds:

Palm Warbler

And here’s one of the whistling ducks. I caught it mid-preen:

Black Bellied Whistling Duck

The last time I was at Orlando Wetlands was in February. It was good to get back and a lovely walk. And carrying weights (photo equipment) made it better exercise. Plus, I made some photos!

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

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.