Going retro – or a recent experience with severe "film deja vu"

February 1, 2010Cameras and PhotographyAntiques, camera, equipment, film, Flowers, Orchid, reviews, RoseEd Rosack

A little bit of background. I’ve been seriously interested in photography for a long time. I owned several film SLRs before I switched to a digital camera at Christmas time in 2000. It took me a while to change over, since I wasn’t convinced that digital quality matched film. Once I did switch, I haven’t looked back (until now), and I’ve been happily shooting digital ever since.

When I used film, I always wanted a pro level Nikon camera and could never afford it. This started with my first SLR, which was a Yashica entry level model (I don’t remember which one). The best film camera I ever had was my last one, a Nikon 6006. I bought this sometime in the 1980s and it was a great camera, but it wasn’t a “pro” model.

So recently, I was browsing eBay and ran across a listing for a Nikon F4. This tank of a camera was introduced in 1988 and was Nikon’s top of the line film camera until maybe 1996 when the F5 was introduced. To make a long story short, I couldn’t resist.

This particular one is an F4S and is in great shape for a camera this old. It comes with an MB-21 auto-winder: can you imagine ripping through almost 6 frames of film a second with this puppy? A whole role of 36 gone in 6 seconds! Another feature that’s really nice is that this one can meter / focus with all Nikon lenses, including the newer G series (although you can’t control the aperture directly). For more information on the camera, you can look at the Nikonians website article on the F4 or visit Ken Rockwell’s site, where he talks about it. Also, a Google search will reveal several places on the web where you can download a PDF file of the camera manual.

After the frost. Tri-X film, Nikon F4S, 60mm f/2.8 macro lens

When the camera arrived, I went to my local drug store to buy some film. To my surprise, they carried Kodak Tri-x B&W ISO 400 film! This is the first film I ever used in my rangefinder and SLR cameras and I used to load my own 35mm photo canisters from 50ft. rolls of film and do all of my own development. So … of course I bought a roll to run through my “new” camera. 24 exposures later, I brought it back to get developed. “Do you develop Tri-X black and white film?” I asked. [Photo clerk looking at film canister] “Of course we do. Do you need it back in an hour?” “No, I said” [Thinking to myself – ‘this is amazing’], “I’ll come back later tonight to pick it up.” So I leave and on my way home, I get a call from the clerk: “Uh, sir, we can’t develop this film.” Apparently they can develop B&W film that’s designed for color print film chemistry, but not good old Tri-X. Anyway, my local camera store (Colonial Photo and Hobby) does develop Tri-X and can also scan it to CD for you as part of the process. I also ran some color print film through the camera, and ended up shooting a total of three rolls.

Weeds. Kodak Ultra Max Color Print film, Nikon F4S, 60mm f/2.8 macro lens

The camera works pretty well. The focus and exposure seem good. So what else did my tests reveal? How was the experience? What impressions did the Nikon F4S make? Did I finally fulfill my desire for a pro film camera? Will I give up digital and go back to film?

First of all, the controls were very familiar, so I didn’t have any problem using the camera. The locks were annoying to me – I’m not used to having to unlock the on/off switch. One thing that using the F4 emphasized is that film cameras are simpler to operate than modern digital cameras. Most of this is because on a digital camera, you not only have to control the camera, you also have to control / adjust the sensor response. Loading your film into a film camera determines the white balance, ISO, color profile, etc. for you.

Second, this is the heaviest camera I’ve ever used. An F4S weighs 45 oz. vs 37 oz. for a D700 or 25 oz. for a D90. That’s a big difference. Maybe I’m glad I didn’t have to carry this around all the time.

Third, I shot three different kinds of ISO 400 film: Tri-X, Ultra Max, and Black and White (CN 400). Grain is apparent in all of the shots although much less so in the CN 400. In fact, the grain is much more apparent than noise in either a D-90 or D-700 shot at ISO 400.

Orchid. Kodak Black and White (CN 400) film, Nikon F4S, 60mm f/2.8 macro lens

Fourth, having 24 or 36 exposures to work with instead of hundreds is quite different too. There’s much less experimentation and more ‘get it right the first time’. Even though I was only testing this camera and not on a serious shoot, I still found myself conserving film instead of shooting with abandon.

Fifth: Chimping is really handy! With a film camera, you can’t tell if you got the shot until much later. There’s a lot more “trust the camera” and “trust your skills” involved. I remember a trip to Germany in the early ’80s with many rolls of slide film and its narrow exposure range. I felt a lot of anxiety then until I got the processed slides back.

So, am I going to abandon my digital tools and revert to the good old days of Film? Absolutely not. It was fun to play with the camera and it brought back a lot of memories. But we’ve come a long way and the F4S is going on my shelf to look at. I won’t be looking through it too often.

You can click on any of the photos above to view them on Flickr. You can see the rest of my test shots here.

A Focus bracketing / stacking experiment

January 24, 2010Cameras and Photography, TechniqueFlowers, Helicon Focus, macro, Orchid, reviewsEd Rosack

This post is not my usual Central Florida Photo Op entry. Instead I want to cover a technique and some software I’ve been experimenting with.

One macro photography challenge is to get the desired portions of the subject in focus without using such a small aperture that the image quality is degraded by diffraction effects. One solution is to combine multiple images focused at different depths within the frame to extend depth of field. In this post I’ll talk about how to do this, including software that can be used to automate the process. I’ve posted one focus bracket image before in this blog. That image was created manually. Using software to help is much easier.

Note: double click any of these images to view them on Flickr, where there is a larger version available. You can also visit the entire set at this link or view a slide show at this link.

Back-lit Orchid – 15 separate captures at f/8.

As with all macro photography, good technique remains important. Focus bracketing will not make up for poor composition and exposure or sloppy camera handling. But for stationary subjects focus bracketing can give the photographer complete control over depth of field, background appearance / bokeh, and help optimize image quality. I used a program called Helicon Focus for this experiment. I think you can accomplish the same thing using Photoshop CS4, but I don’t have this latest version, so I haven’t tried. Helicon Focus is available as a fully functional 30 day trial download, so you can experiment with it too.

The Helicon Focus web site has a lot of information on how to use their software. To learn more, browse these links:

Here are some of my additional hints based on what I learned while evaluating the software.

Use good macro and general technique
- As for any type of bracketing, a sturdy tripod will help make sure all images are aligned.
- Use a cable release or remote so you don’t jar the camera.
- Use the mirror lock up function on your camera with low shutter speeds
- Know your lens and camera.
  - Which aperture has the best image quality? (Usually ~ 2 stops down from wide open)
  - Make several test images at a different apertures. Use them to select the aperture to use with the focus bracket series. You can also use one of these later if you like the background bokeh better than in the focus bracket result.
  - Where does diffraction start to affect the image quality? (About f/11 for full frame cameras and ~f/8 for APS C size sensors
  - Don’t forget about composition.
    - Eliminate unnecessary image content
    - Remember (or not) the Rule of Thirds
    - Isolate the subject and make sure the background isn’t distracting (e.g. bright spots)
When you’re ready to start the focus bracket capture, set your camera in manual focus and exposure modes. Also set your camera to a manual white balance, or do this post capture if you use RAW.
Make a series of captures working from far to near and varying the focus slightly closer for each one. I found that the smallest movement of the focus ring that I could make worked best.
I saved the images in RAW format and processed them through Capture NX2 in batch mode to apply the same pre-processing edits (overall lighting adjustment, some highlight recovery, a little dodging and burning and some basic sharpening) to each photo. I also used NX2 to convert the RAW images to TIFF format.
Then I ran the TIFF images through Helicon Focus. By the way, it is Intel i7 aware and so it runs pretty fast on my iMac. The only change I made to the default settings was selecting Lancos8 resample quality.
My resulting composite image had a few areas that could be improved by cloning from one of the source images. Helicon Focus supports this with a “resampling” mode which allows you to clone from any of the source files into the final before saving.
Once I had the final composite output saved, I opened it in Photoshop. Since I liked the bokeh of the f/36 image, I cloned from that background into the composite – and I was done, except for importing into Lightroom where I added some clarity and adjusted contrast.

Here’s a series of images to illustrate.

Wet Back-lit Orchid at f/5.6. At this aperture (2 stops from wide open) the lens optical quality is very good, but the depth of field is shallow. Parts of the flower and the stem are not in focus. The background is completely blurred out.

Wet Back-lit Orchid at f/36. At this very narrow aperture, the depth of field is maximized. The out of focus leaves and background are pleasing. But the small aperture is causing diffraction to degrade the optical quality of the capture.

Wet Backlit Orchid – focus bracket. In this composite photo made using the Helicon Focus program and 16 individual captures at f/5.6, the depth of field covers the entire flower and stem and the background is completely blurred. The optical quality is improved since the wider aperture does not suffer from diffraction.

The final image: Wet Back-lit Orchid – focus bracket with small aperture background. You can completely control the background. If you prefer the bokeh / background of the f/36 image, selectively clone it into the focus bracket image.

Conclusions: Focus bracketing is a useful technique that can give photographers a tremendous degree of control over depth of field in situations where the subject matter is still and there is time to set up, capture and process for it. If you add a manual step to the final output, you can selectively enhance the bokeh. Helicon Focus runs well and does what it is supposed to – make this process easier.

Viera Wetlands – a birder's paradise?

January 17, 2010INSIDE FLORIDA, Must do list, Viera WetlandsAmerican Coot, birds, Caracara, Great Blue Heron, Ibis, landscape, reviewsEd Rosack

Intro / Description

OK, so maybe you don’t look at the top of my blog very often, where it says “Central Florida Photo Ops – What & Where they are, and tips on how to photograph them”. That’s the main purpose here – to let others know about all the great places to make photographs in the Central Florida area. So I feel like I owe an apology to all my loyal readers and the wildlife / nature / bird photographers that have visited my blog in the past without finding any mention of the Ritch Grissom Memorial Wetlands at Viera, also known as Viera Wetlands. I’m sorry and I’ll try to do better – but I do have a day job! And there are so many fabulous places to photograph around here!

Note: you can click on any of these photos to go to my Flickr photo stream and view a larger version (click on the magnifying glass icon at the top). There’s also links at the end of this entry to the my entire set, my slide show version of the photos, and some links to other photos of Viera Wetlands.

Viera Wetlands

Our Phototgraphy Interest Group traveled to Viera Wetlands yesterday. Located at the west end of Wickham Road, in Melbourne, Florida (behind the water treatment plant), the Viera Wetlands offers birders and photographers a close encounter with many species from the comfort of their automobiles. Since cars are such a good blind to photograph from, you can often get quite close to the wildlife without disturbing them. I’ve only been there one time (so far!), but if my visit with the Photography Interest Group yesterday was any indication, this is a very nice place to watch and photograph birds. I should have checked it out ages ago.

Un-cropped photo of Great Blue Heron. I did get out of the car for this one!

Info for Photographers

Photo hints: You can get photos of many of the species right from your car. The dirt roads are fairly narrow – so if you do exit your vehicle to get a “down low” perspective, or whenever you stop to get a shot – be courteous and make sure you pull over as far as possible to one side.

The roads are one way. The perimeter road runs counter clockwise and so most of the photo ops will be on the driver’s side, although the roads through the center of the Wetlands do have some scenery and birds out of the passenger side.

The Viera Wetlands official site has a visitor’s checklist brochure you can download that lists all the species that have been sighted in the area, along with a map and some other information. The brochure is here: http://www.brevardcounty.us/environmental_management/documents/VieraWetlandsChecklistV3WEB.pdf. It’s well worth looking at before you go and gives you an indication of how common each species is in the Wetlands.

An American Coot (the bird – not the author)

A Crested Caracara in flight. (Photo by Kevin McKinney)

Tripod/Monopod : Definitely allowed – you can bring all the gear that will fit in your car. You may also want to bring a bean bag so you can rest your camera on your car’s window sill.

Lenses: Some of the birds get quite close to the side of the road. I probably don’t have to tell you that for birds, longer lenses are better. But you can get by with a not so long lens here. I used my 70 – 300 on my D90 (1.5 crop factor = 450mm equivalent). I also got some good frames with my 70 – 200 on the full frame D700.

Best time to visit : Now is a great time. There’s lots of activity and the weather is what Florida is famous for. Many of the birds are getting their breeding plumage. In general, early February through June (nesting season) should continue to be a good time to go. Go early in the day when the light is good and the animals are active.

Breeding colors are starting to show in this Glossy Ibis.

Other : Normal hours are Monday through Sunday, Sunrise to Sunset. The dirt roads through the wetlands are sometimes closed due to heavy rains. If this is the case, you can still walk in. You can also call ahead to make sure the roads are open (see below).

Summary

The photos I’ve posted here are just a few of the ones we made on Saturday, and this was just some of what there is to see. This is a place worth going to multiple times. Check out the links below for more images of different species. You could also visit the Photography Interest Group on Flickr to see the photos that the others made yesterday.

Also, there’s a group on Flickr that appears to be pretty active and has many photos and discussions about Viera Wetlands. If you’re interested, you may want to visit there to learn more and even join. Here’s the link: http://www.flickr.com/groups/1224030@N24/

My Gatorland photo set on Flickr:	The set: http://www.flickr.com/photos/edrosack/sets/72157623223995224/ A slide show version: http://www.flickr.com/photos/edrosack/sets/72157623223995224/show/
Website:	http://www.brevardcounty.us/environmental_management/VieraWetlands-Home.cfm
Address / Phone:	10001 Wickham Road Melbourne, FL 32940 Information: 321-637-5521 Current Road Conditions: 321-255-4329
Central Florida Photo Ops Rating:	Bird fan bonanza – shoulda gone sooner!

Gatorland in Kissimmee, Florida

January 9, 2010Cameras and Photography, Gatorland, INSIDE FLORIDA, OrlandoAlligator, birds, Great Blue Heron, reviews, wildlife, Wood StorkEd Rosack

Intro / Description

Great Blue Heron portrait

In a “ToDo” post last year, I promised to visit and report on Gatorland and to compare it to the St. Augustine Alligator farm for you. I was finally able to go and this post is the basic review. I’ll follow-up with a comparison to the Alligator Farm shortly. Gatorland is a vintage, Florida, roadside attraction (started in 1949) and has grown into a 110-acre, photographer friendly theme park featuring some great shows with many kinds of animals on display. Although there are a lot of things to do in the park, the two that may attract nature and wildlife photographers more than others are:

The Bird Rookery: Created in 1991 as a natural breeding area for the gators, the 10 acre Breeding Marsh has over 100 adult alligators and is a completely natural environment. It attracts wild birds,which tend to nest above the alligators, since they provide protection against some of the bird predators such as raccoons and snakes.

The bird rookery and breeding marsh

The Swamp Walk: This is located at the southern end of the park and is a self guided tour on a raised wooden walkway through a Cypress Swamp and affords visitors a rare look back into what much of Central Florida looked like before development.

There is also quite a bit for the non-photo family members to do, including shows, a small water park, a petting zoo, and displays of other captive animals.

The gator jumparoo show

Photo hints: Gatorland reinstated its photo pass in 2012. It allows entry at 7:30 and lets you stay inside until dusk. Quite an advantage for bird photography.

Tripod/Monopod : Gatorland is a photographer friendly place. You can bring all of your equipment, including a tripod or monopod and there is ample room to use them as long as you are courteous.

Lenses: Of course, long lenses are a must for most bird photography and they will certainly help you at Gatorland. But since many of the birds are so used to people you can get very close to some of them, so very good shots with not so long lenses are possible.

Wood Stork and Alligator bokeh

Best time to visit : Early February through June (nesting season) where the weather is also not as hot.

Other : Normal hours are 10:00am – 5:00pm. Be sure to ask about Senior Citizen and Florida Resident discounts.

Summary

Families will find lots to interest them at Gatorland. It’s a good value in today’s overpriced theme park environment. And photographers will enjoy visiting this park multiple times.

My Gatorland photo set on Flickr:	The set: http://www.flickr.com/photos/edrosack/sets/72157623039154783/A slide show version: http://www.flickr.com/photos/edrosack/sets/72157623039154783/show/
Website:	http://www.gatorland.com/
Address:	14501 S Orange Blossom Trail Orlando, FL 32837 (407) 855-5496
Central Florida Photo Ops Rating:	Birds and gators galore – family fun too!

My favorite photos of 2009

December 31, 2009VARIOUSAnimal Kingdom, birds, boat, BPWD, Cypress, fishing, Glacier Bay, Gorilla, Great Blue Heron, Humpback, Lake Lily, landscape, panorama, sunrise, tree, Whale, Whistling Duck, wildlifeEd Rosack

First, I want to wish all readers of this humble photo blog a very

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Second, this year your devoted author has decided to join the growing tradition where photo blogs post a collection of their favorite photos from the year.

To accomplish this, I’ve gone through the photos I made in 2009 and used Lightroom to rate them from 0 through 5 stars. The rating system I’ve adopted is as follows:

1 star – The photo is interesting
2 stars – The photo is worth showing to others
3 stars – The photo is the best of (or one of the best of ) a given shoot
4 stars – My favorite photo of a year
5 stars – My favorite photo (ever)

Photos without stars are seconds or not so good versions of other photos. I’ll keep them, but they probably won’t get any more attention. Since adopting this rating system, I’ve tried to use it consistently. Before this I would rate images, but the meaning of the ratings would vary. As far as what they mean now, it’s all subjective and my opinion only. Feel free to disagree, but I hope you’ll enjoy looking at the ones I’ve chosen.

I was really blessed in 2009 with a huge number of photo opportunities. On my hard drive in my 2009 folder, I have about 16,000 images, taking up 164GB of space (I shoot mostly in RAW). Of these:

3804 of the images have been cataloged in Lightroom. Many of the remainder are source images for multi-shot panoramas or HDRs, or high rate bursts that I selected from.
1084 are rated 1 star or higher
692 are 2 star or higher
75 are 3 star or higher
1 is 4 star, and
None are 5 star (I’m not done taking photos yet!)

Of the 692 that are 2 star or higher, I’ve selected 44 (mostly 3 star) images to include in a gallery of my favorite 2009 photos. You’ve seen many of these photos in this blog, already. But where it made sense, I re-processed them to try and improve them. Here are the top ten. You can click on each of these to go to Flickr, where you can see a larger version.

My #10 favorite photo is: Great Blue Heron in flight. This heron didn’t like me aiming my camera at it. It’s making a lot of noise as it leaves the area. I was able to pan with its motion to get a sharp shot.

My #9 favorite photo is: Ketchikan harbor. The trawler Isis, a house in the background, and the parked float plane are very representative of Alaska.

My #8 favorite photo is: Black Point Sunrise. This reminds me of a boundary of a set of points in a complex plane (i.e. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandelbrot_set)

My #7 favorite photo is: Glacier Bay Sunrise, A dawn panorama heading in to Glacier Bay National Park.

My #6 favorite photo is: Black-bellied Whistling-Duck in flight. We saw this unusual and photogenic duck at Orlando Wetlands Park.

My #5 favorite photo is: Lake Lily Park tree and bird at dawn. Sometimes you go out specifically to photograph. Other times you go out just carrying your camera. It’s exciting to me when I find a photo like this one while I’m just out carrying my camera. The light on this Cyprus tree caught my eye as we walked around the Lily Lake one Saturday morning looking at their flea market. The bird in the middle distance was a bonus.

My #4 favorite photo is: Black Point Wildlife Drive: Wide angle, winter dawn. On this particular morning, it was hard coming up with any good photo inspiration for the sunrise. There were no clouds, not much color in the sky, not a lot of interesting landscape detail, no cooperating wildlife, the wind was blowing pretty hard, etc. This palm tree had an interesting vine growing in it that was pointing back toward the road, so I made it the subject of the picture and violated all the composition rules by putting it way off too one side. To me, the road leading past the tree could represent the last part of the long journey of exploration and learning that led to being able to make this photo in this place at this time. The road is empty because each person’s journey is unique. Oh, and BPWD just happens to be a one way road – toward the photographer. The somewhat surreal colors come from a program called “Photomatix” that will “tone map” multiple, bracketed exposures. Anyway, I liked it too.

My #3 favorite photo is: Gorilla watching people, Pangani Forest Exploration Trail, Disney’s Wild Kingdom.

My #2 favorite photo is: Breaching humpback, off shore from Juneau, Alaska. In the full res version, the two white dots in tree to the upper left behind the whale are bald eagles.

And … my #1 favorite photo of the year is: Ship, water, glacier, rock. A multiple shot panorama showing Johns Hopkins Glacier in Glacier Bay National Park from the cruise ship MS Westerdam. The full res version of this photo is 7747 x 4716 pixels = 36.5 megapixels.

I’ve posted a gallery of all 44 images on my website at www.edrosack.com/BO09. I’ve also uploaded them to this Flickr set, and you can click this link to watch a slide show at Flickr. When you watch the show, you might want to click the “show info” link.

Thanks for looking.

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays!

December 23, 2009VARIOUSastronomy, ChristmasEd Rosack

I hope that this season finds all of you healthy and happy and able to spend time with your families. I wish you well and only the best for now and throughout the coming new year.

The following Christmas greeting translations are provided by wikipedia. (Please see the original site for more entries and proper characters.)

* Gëzuar Krishtlindjen dhe Vitin e Ri – Albanian, “Merry Christmas and Happy New Year”
* Shenoraavor Nor Dari yev Pari Gaghand Eastern Armenian
* “Shenoraavor Nor Dari yev Soorp Dzuhnoont” Western Armenian
* Zorionak eta Urte Berri On! Basque for Merry Christmas
* Nedeleg laouen na bloavezh mat in Breton
* Tchestito Rojdestvo Hristovo in Bulgarian
* Bon Nadal i un Bon Any Nou! in Catalan
* Bon Nadal – Catalan for Happy Christmas
* Nadelik looan na looan blethen noweth Happy Christmas and Happy New Year in Cornish
* Sretan Boži? – Croatian for Happy Christmas
* Veselé Vánoce a š?astný nový rok – Czech language, “Merry Christmas and Happy New Year”
* Glædelig jul – Danish
* God jul – Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, lit. “Good Yule”
* Gleðilig Jól og gott Nýggjár – Faroese – Merry Christmas and happy New Year
* Vrolijk Kerstfeest or Zalig Kerstfeest with en een Gelukkig Nieuwjaar – Dutch, “Merry Christmas and Happy New Year”
* Gajan Kristnaskon “Merry Christmas” in Esperanto
* Häid jõule – Estonian
* Maligayang Pasko – Filipino word, a Common Christmas Greeting in the Philippines which was Merry Christmas in English Translation.
* Hyvää joulua – Finnish
* Joyeux Noël – French for “Happy Christmas” used in France, French Canada, Belgium, Luxembourg, Louisiana, Switzerland, the Lebanon and Francophone Africa
* Noflike Krystdagen en in protte Lok en Seine yn it Nije Jier! in Frisian
* Frohe Weihnachten/Fröhliche Weihnachten und ein glückliches/gutes Neues Jahr – German for Merry Christmas/Merry Christmas and a Happy/Good New Year
* (Kala Christougenna) – Greek for Merry Christmas, also used in non-Greek many Eastern Orthodox nations, as the first Christian masses were celebrated in Greek.
* Mele Kalikimaka – Hawaiian
* Boldog karácsonyt/Kellemes karácsonyi ünnepeket : Merry Christmas/Pleasant Christmas Holidays in Hungarian
* Selamat Natal: “Christmas best wishes” Indonesian
* Idah Saidan Wa Sanah Jadidah in Iraq
* Nollaig Shona Duit – Ireland, (Irish Language), Gaeilge, lit. “You have a happy Christmas”.
* Buon Natale – Italian for Happy Christmas
* Natale hilare et Annum Faustum! in Latin
* Linksm? Šv. Kal?d? ir Laiming? Nauj?j? Met? – Lithuanian “Merry Christmas and Happy New Year”
* Schèine Chreschtdaag an e gudde Rutsch in Luxembourg dialect
* (Sre?en Boži?) – Macedonian for Happy Christmas
* Il-Milied u s-Sena t-Tajba – Malta – “Happy Christmas and a Happy New Year”
* Nollick ghennal as blein vie noa in Manx Gallic
* Meri Kirihimete in Maori
* Weso?ych ?wi?t Bo?ego Narodzenia in Polish
* Feliz Natal in Portuguese
* Cr?ciun Fericit! Romanian for Merry Christmas
* S’Rozhdestvóm Khristóvym! or, more commonly, simply (S Rozhdestvóm!) for the informal Christmas greeting, while the traditional religious greeting is Khristós rozhdáyetsya!, meaning “Christ is born!” and the traditional response is Slávite!, meaning “Let us glorify him!”; (S Nóvym gódom!) – Happy New Year! in Russian.
* Heughliche Winachten un ‘n moi Nijaar in Low Saxon
* Nollaig chridheil huibh in Scottish Gaelic
* “Sre?an Boži?” (Serbian) “Merry Christmas” also Hristos se rodi.
* Veselé Vianoce a Š?astný Nový rok – Slovak language, “Merry Christmas and Happy New Year”
* Vesele Boži?ne Pražnike Sre?no Novo Leto or Vesel Boži? in sre?no Novo leto in Slovene
* Feliz Navidad y próspero Año Nuevo – Spanish lit. “Happy Nativity and prosperous New Year”
* God Jul and (Och) Ett Gott Nytt År in Sweden
* Sawadee Pee Mai or Souksan wan Christmas in Thai
* Mutlu Noeller – Turkish – “Happy Christmas”
* (Z Rizdvom Khrystovym) or, when meeting in person, (“Khrystos narodyvsya! – Slavimo yoho!”, lit. “Christ was born! – Praise be with Him!”) in Ukrainian.
* Nadolig Llawen a Blwyddyn Newydd Dda – Wales (by Welsh speakers), “Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year”
* Boldog karácsonyt! in Hungary
* (Shèngdànjié kuàilè) – Merry Christmas!, (X?nnián kuàilè) – Happy New Year! in Chinese
* (Meri Kurisumasu) – Merry Christmas!, (Yoi o-toshi-o) (before), (after) – Happy New Year! in Japanese

A quick visit to Fort Christmas

December 13, 2009Fort Christmas, INSIDE FLORIDA, OrlandoAntiques, black and white, cabin, fall color, Fort ChristmasEd Rosack

Lynn wanted to take Christmas cards to the Christmas, Florida post office to be postmarked. So we drove over there this morning and dropped them off.

On the way back, we stopped for a few minutes at the Fort Christmas Historical Park. Here’s a few of the photos I made while we were there. We’ll have to re-visit this place when we have more time. There’s definitely some interesting photo opportunities lurking about, and I’ll report on them once I have a chance to explore.

The laundry area on the porch

A shed out behind an old cabin. Animal hides hanging on the walls.

A bedroom in one of the cabins.

I also took this photo of Crepe Myrtle berries and leaves this morning before we left. There’s so little fall color in Florida, that this caught our eyes.

Around Denver over Thanksgiving

December 6, 2009Colorado, OUTSIDE FLORIDAastronomy, Bison, Buffalo, Colorado Springs, Garden of the Gods, Pikes Peak, sunrise, Thanksgiving, travel, vacation, wildlifeEd Rosack

We had a family reunion of sorts in Denver last week for Thanksgiving. Mary, Mike and Sara met Lynn and I at my mother’s place and we were able to see most of the Aunts, Uncles, Cousins and in-laws. We had a great time and the Thanksgiving dinner was especially good, with 25 relatives at my sister’s house to consume two turkeys along with various gourmet attractions including sweet potato stuffed oranges.

We also had a chance to visit some Denver area photo attractions: Buffalo Bill’s grave and museum at Lookout Mountain in Golden, The city of Denver’s bison herd, Garden of the Gods, and Pikes Peak. We also got in a few minutes of browsing at the antique store along I-70.

Here are some of the photos from our visit – I’ve only posted a few of them here on my blog. Click on any of them to go to Flickr, where you can look at a higher res version. You can also see the rest of this set on Flickr at this link.

We drove up to Lookout Mountain last Monday to visit the Buffalo Bill Museum and Grave site, which is only about an hour from my Mom’s place. The museum is nice, with a lot of information about Buffalo Bill and the wild west. We especially liked the dress up area, where you can don chaps and a cowboy hat, climb up on the legless horse and rope a plastic calf. There’s also some very scenic overlooks from the parking area.

A little further up the road (I-70, exit 254), the city and county of Denver has a herd of bison that you can stop and see.

On Thanksgiving morning, Lynn and I got up very early and drove down to the Garden of the Gods before sunrise. You might remember my earlier post about this place. Let me just say that it’s even more beautiful at sunrise and well worth the early trip.

Saturday, we drove down to Pikes Peak and rode the cog railway to the top and back. The visibility was much better this time than it was the only previous time we did this. That time we had heavy fog and weren’t able to see much of the landscape. This time, in spite of clouds – it looked like we could see forever.

It was a wonderful trip, we really enjoyed ourselves, and we’ll cherish the time we spent visiting these places with our family forever.

Return to Seaworld – Orlando

November 21, 2009INSIDE FLORIDA, Theme ParksSeal, Seaworld, wildlifeEd Rosack

Today was our annual pilgrimage to Seaworld, courtesy of United Way. It’s always enjoyable to stroll around the park. There are a lot of images waiting to be made. I posted the ones I made on my Flickr photo stream in the Seaworld November 2009 set. Here’s one sample. This fellow is watching me very intently, and I think he’s starting to realize my D700 isn’t a fish.

Nikon D700 @ ISO 200, Nikon 70-300 @ 270mm, f/5.6, 1/320 sec, cropped

Another new bird sighted at Orlando Wetlands Park

November 15, 2009INSIDE FLORIDA, Orlando Wetlandsbirds, Butterfly, Flowers, Ibis, wildlife, Wood StorkEd Rosack

The Photography Interest Group visited Orlando Wetlands Park yesterday and had another nice trip. There was lots to see and the weather was pleasant. We came across this very pretty bird with iridescent feathers and we’re wondering whether it’s a Glossy Ibis or a White-faced Ibis. My vote is that it’s a Glossy because of the dark eyes. A White-faced Ibis should have some red in the eyes. Does anybody reading this know for sure?

Nikon D90 @ ISO 200, Nikon 70 – 300 @ 300mm, f/11, 1/160 sec., cropped

We also saw a Wood Stork:

Nikon D90 @ ISO 200, Nikon 70 – 300 @ 300mm, f/11, 1/400 sec., cropped

And lots of flowers and a butterfly or two:

Nikon D90 @ ISO 200, Nikon 70 – 300 @ 300mm, f/8, 1/160 sec., cropped

You can see other photos we made yesterday in my set on Flickr and in the Photography Interest Group photo pool.

By the way, if you want to go out and explore Orlando Wetlands Park yourself, you’ll have to wait until next year. The park closes on November 15 and reopens on February 1.