Tag Archives: Flowers

Olympus and focus bracketing

November 28, 2015Technique, VARIOUSFlowers, focus stacking, OlympusEd Rosack

I’ve written before about computational photography and focus bracketing / stacking. And if you’re curious, you can find much more info on the web.

Today’s post is inspired by a gift the Olympus Camera Company has just given to owners of their OM-D E-M5 Mark II and E-M1 cameras. They’ve issued free firmware updates that add new capabilities, one of which is focus bracketing. Here’s an example image I made while learning about the new features. I wanted all the orchids sharp and the background to stay blurry.

Orchid – a focus stacked image processed in Photoshop from 14 frames made with the new focus bracketing feature in the E-M5 Mark II. Individual frames are at ISO 200, f/4, 1/25 second, 60mm (120mm eq.).

~~You can read about the firmware updates at this link on the Olympus website~~ (sorry – no longer available).

There are several camera companies providing new features in firmware updates to existing cameras. The Olympus engineering team is exceedingly clever and seem to really enjoy exploiting their hardware to come up with novel features, many of which are computational in nature. Focus bracketing is the latest example. Here are my first thoughts about this mode:

Of course, you can focus bracket manually, but having the camera do it for you is a big help.
When you frame your composition, leave room to crop. The stacking process can introduce anomalies at the edges.
Your starting focus point should be on the closest area. The bracketing function will step the focus away from the camera.
You control the number of exposures and relative step size. The step size you use depends on the situation and you’ll have to use trial and error to set it until you gain some experience. If your step size is too great, it’ll leave blurred areas in the processed image.
Set the number of exposures greater than you think you’ll need. Once you look at them on the computer you can discard any unnecessary ones. You can get very good control of depth of field and background blur by selecting which frames to use when post processing.
Focus bracketing uses the camera’s electronic shutter, so there are some limitations from that (e.g. flickering / banding due to fluorescent lights; An 8 sec. longest shutter speed limit; others?)
As with many kinds of multi-frame computational images, subject or camera motion will introduce artifacts. Focus bracketing works best for stationary subjects with your camera on a tripod

Here’s another example. And yes, including this may give you some idea of how old I am – I’m old enough not to care about that.

My engineering school calculator – a focus stacked image processed in Photoshop from 21 frames. Individual frames are at ISO 200, f/4, 1/40 second, 60mm (120mm eq.).

For comparison purposes, here is a single frame from the series. You can see the tremendous difference in depth of field.

Testing the new focus bracketing feature in the OMD EM5 MII. It works well - big thumbs up to Olympus for putting out this free firmware update. This is a single frame. It works well - big thumbs up to Olympus for putting out this free firmware update. — My engineering school calculator – single image

I have more focus stacked images in this album on Flickr.

I’m very pleased with how well this works. Olympus deserves a big thumbs up for putting out this update for free. Doing things like this can earn a lot of customer loyalty.

Now if we could only combine it in camera with other computational photography tricks: focus stacking, plus high res mode, plus HDR, plus … maybe next time.

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

Viera Wetlands – 11/20/15

November 22, 2015INSIDE FLORIDA, Viera Wetlandsbirds, black and white, Flowers, insects, people, reflection, TamronEd Rosack

I slept in a bit Friday. Instead of getting up for sunrise, I met Kevin M. at 7am to go to Viera Wetlands. I know, I know – missing dawn is for photo wimps. Well, don’t do as I do – do as I say! Get up for sunrise!

On the way, we stopped by the boat ramp at SR 520 and the St. Johns River for a few minutes. Water Lily photos are a bit cliché, but I like how the tear in the leaf only shows in the reflection.

Reflection Imperfection

This is a popular place to launch boats. I caught this one coming back into the ramp and liked the way the wake patterns look.

A boat on the St. Johns River

There were a few herons along the boardwalk and a great many Swallows – which I have trouble photographing. They seem to almost always be in the air and change directions before I can track them. My Tamron 150-600mm lens was also acting up. For some reason, it has an intermittent focusing issue. After I use it a while, the focus seems to slow and then stop. Usually I can turn the camera off and back on and it will work again, but yesterday that didn’t help. I did some research on-line when I got home and many folks are complaining about this. Two of my friends have this lens and theirs sometimes do it too. I cleaned the contacts on the lens and camera – maybe that will fix it. If not, Tamron has a 6 year USA warranty.

When we got to Viera Wetlands, the road was closed (lots of rain lately), so we got to walk the circuit around the nearest ponds. There are very few ducks so far. But there were lots of Wrens, Terns, herons,and egrets. We also had a Black Crowned Night Heron, an Osprey fishing, an American Eagle fly over, a Caracarra, a Harrier, and a Belted Kingfisher – all in the distance. I missed getting a photo of the eagle because I was fooling around with my phone. Again, don’t do as I do – do as I say! Quit messing with your phone!

Forster’s Tern in flight – and example of when my Tamron would focus

Kevin spots things all the time that I don’t notice. He discovered an American Bittern back in the reeds. They have very effective camouflage. It took me several minutes to find it – even with him telling me where it was.

Flower and fly – Another flight shot

The Click ponds have been closed for a while. They’re open now but almost empty of birds. Maybe next time.

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

Beauty and Bugs in the Soggy Swamp: Sunflowers, 2015

October 10, 2015INSIDE FLORIDA, Lake Jesup, Lake Jesup Sunflowers, Sanfordblack and white, Flowers, Lake Jesup Conservation Area, landscape, Marl Bed Flats, SunflowersEd Rosack

I don’t know how long the Sunflowers have staged their fall nature extravaganza along the north side of Lake Jesup near Sanford Florida. I’ve been photographing them since 2006, and my first post about them was in October 2007 – a few months after I began the blog.

I didn’t make it last year and just had to see them this time, so off I went yesterday morning (October 9) to the Marl Bed Flats in the Lake Jesup Conservation area.

Looking up

The flowers are just about in peak bloom. If you want to hike out there, you’d better make plans quickly. The blooms only last a couple of weeks, so by next weekend, they’ll be fading.

Monochrome flowers

The flowers are beautiful, but the bugs are swarming. I didn’t make any photos of the insects, but I did bring home souvenir mosquito bites. Wear long pants and a long sleeve shirt and use insect spray too. It’s also wet. I didn’t get far from the forest edge – but the water was already several inches deep. Waterproof boots are a great idea.

Lake Jesup Sunflowers at Marl Bed Flats

There are other things to see out there too. It’s a good local birding spot with at least two Bald Eagle nests reported.

When you go, please be careful. Don’t stop on the side of 417 – it’s dangerous! It’s a bit of a hike from the parking area out to the flowers. And it’s still hot – wear a hat and bring water with you.

The Lake Jesup Wilderness area really is wild – I’ve seen bobcats and worried about wild hogs. I haven’t seen any snakes, but I’ll bet they’re around. And Lake Jesup has one of the densest populations of alligators in Florida. So enjoy, but be careful!

You can browse some of my photos of the area in this set on Flickr. I also have more info on the area collected in these older articles:

And here are some more Florida Sunflower links you might find interesting:

~~Kelly Del Valle’s post about her trip this year~~ (sorry – no longer available)
Jeff Stamer’s post (with excellent directions) about his trip this year
And a post on Florida Rambler about Florida Sunflowers in other locations

For reference, here’s a Lightroom map of the area with the locations of photos I’ve made out there. The streets leading in are also shown, so you can see how to get there (click for a larger version).

Marl Bed Flats area on the north shore of Lake Jesup

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

Fisheye, fog, and Flower

March 7, 2015Cameras and Photography, INSIDE FLORIDAfisheye, Flowers, fogEd Rosack

Wow – it’s been over a year since I’ve posted any fisheye photos on the blog. So one day last week, I mounted my Rokinon 7.5mm Micro Four Thirds lens and went out looking for some photos. I ended up at Central Winds Park in Winter Springs. It was very foggy and the light was a bit dim – it was a good thing I brought a tripod with me. I noticed several kinds of wildflowers blooming and decided they might be good subjects..

Fog and mist can blur detail unless you get close. Fog in the background can also help isolate your subject. Getting close with a wide-angle lens (especially a fisheye) will emphasize close in objects and make them stand out. So I got close to this flower. It was off to the side of the path and I was able to frame it against the dead leaves so colors also helped it stand out.

Flowers in the forest by the footpath in the fog

Using an approach like this can give your image an almost 3d look. I stopped down to f/8 which made my depth of field large enough to cover the flower, but shallow enough to blur the background a little. At base ISO (200) my exposure was 1/50 second. I used -1 stop of exposure compensation so the sky in the background didn’t blow out, and this also helped with saturation. The Rokinon is manual focus. Since focus was critical, I carefully used magnified live view to get it just right. I like how this turned out, but looking at it now maybe I should have gotten even closer.

You can see more of my fisheye photos in this set on Flickr.

A note about the blog: I’m working to add Gallery / Portfolio pages to my site. I’ve posted two so far. You can get to them from the pull down menu at the top of the page, or by clicking these links: Florida Landscapes, Florida Wildlife. Please take a look and let me know what you think.

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

My favorite 2014 photos

January 1, 2015VARIOUSbirds, black and white, favorite, Flowers, infrared, landscape, reflection, sunrise, tree, wildlifeEd Rosack

Happy New Year! I hope that all of you, your families, and your friends have had a joyful and happy holiday season!

The beginning of the year is a good time to review results and contemplate how to improve any endeavor and photography is no exception. I’ve put together these “Favorite photos of the year” posts since 2009. This is a hard process for any photographer. For me, it’s difficult to separate my opinion about a photograph from the emotional connections that I have with the subject, scene, or situation. But making the effort is important and part of the learning process. I don’t claim to be objective – these are simply the photos that I like best. Feel free to disagree, but I hope you’ll enjoy looking at the ones I’ve picked.

This year, all of my favorites were made in Florida. I’ve listed the date and place for each and included a link to the blog post where you can find out more about the image. You can click on the photos to go to Flickr where you can see a larger version. Or you can click on this link to view the complete set on Flickr.

February 2, 2014 – Cocoa Beach

Let’s wait a bit to set sail

More info: edrosack.com/2014/02/08/viera-wetlands-222014/

March 8, 2014 – Viera Wetlands

Black Skimmer in flight

More info: edrosack.com/2014/03/09/universal-set-up/

April 6, 2014 – Marineland Beach

99 seconds in the dark

More info: edrosack.com/2014/04/12/lessons-from-a-photogen…

May 17, 2014 – Viera Wetlands

Marsh Moon

More info: edrosack.com/2014/02/08/viera-wetlands-222014/

May 31, 2014 – Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge

Preening Spoonbills

More info: edrosack.com/2014/06/07/merritt-island-may-31-2…

June 18 2014 – Fort Christmas

Wild Orchids

More info: edrosack.com/2014/12/13/modern-monochrome-homew…

July 19, 2014 – St. Johns River, Near Cocoa

Let’s go fishing!

More info: edrosack.com/2014/08/01/lets-go-fishing-how-i-m…

July 19, 2014 – Viera Wetlands

Wet wings and itchy back

More info: edrosack.com/2014/07/25/viera-wetlands-on-7-19-…

November 2, 2014 – Lake Louisa State Park

Morning mist

More info: edrosack.com/2014/11/09/lake-louisa-state-park-…

November 19, 2014 – Barberville Pioneer Settlement

The Schoolroom

More info: edrosack.com/2014/11/30/pioneer-settlement-at-b…

These links will take you to Flickr where you can view sets of my favorite photos from earlier years: 2009, 2010, 2011, and 2012, and 2013.

I hope you’ve had a great photo 2014 too. If you send me a link or leave one in the comments, I’ll be sure to take a look at your favorites. Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog. Now – go make some more favorites of your own!
©2011 – 2014, Ed Rosack. All rights reserved

Birds Abound at Black Point

December 20, 2014INSIDE FLORIDA, Merritt Island NWRbirds, BPWD, Flowers, NASA, plover, reflection, sunrise, wildlife, WilletEd Rosack

I spent last Wednesday morning at Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge. I hadn’t been in a while and I enjoyed seeing what’s going on over there.

As usual, I arrived early for a sunrise photo. I’ve photographed from this spot on Gator Creek Road several times, but I’ve never noticed flowers blooming there before. I think they make a nice foreground accent.

Another day begins

After the sun was up, I drove around both Black Point Wildlife Drive and Gator Creek Road. There were a tremendous number of birds around – the winter visitors are here in force!

You can get an idea of which species to expect at MINWR (and when) over at this page on ebird. Here are the ones I recognized on my visit: Northern Shoveler, Lesser Scaup, Hooded Merganser, Pie-billed Grebe, Wood Stork, Double Crested Cormorant, Anhinga, White Pelican, Great Blue Heron, Great Egret, Snowy Egret, Tri-colored Heron, Little Blue Heron, White Ibis, Roseate Spoonbill, Black Vulture, Turkey Vulture, Osprey, Red-shouldered Hawk, American Coot, Black-bellied Plover, Killdeer, Willet, Ring-billed Gull, Laughing Gull, Black Skimmer, Mourning Dove, Belted Kingfisher, Loggerhead Shrike, and Savannah Sparrow. I’m sure a more experienced birder would have recognized even more. I also saw an Alligator or two and a River Otter.

And my online blogging friend Jim Boland also spotted a Red-headed Duck there recently.

This bird was posing on a mound of seaweed next to the causeway. I was able to crouch down and make some eye level photos with a nice out of focus background.

Black-bellied Plover

And this Willet was hunting in the surf, also along the causeway. The sun was coming over my shoulder and the small waves rolling in made the blue sky reflections contrast nicely with the sandy bottom showing through the water.

Willet

And here’s a bonus sunrise photo – made with my long lens. I like the group of birds flying in front of the sun in the distance.

Merritt Island Morning – The sun rises next to NASA’s Vehicle Assembly Building at Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge

What a nice visit to one of our Central Florida Photo Op treasures! If you haven’t been over there recently, now is a great time of year to check it out. You can see other photographs from MINWR in this set on Flickr, and from BPWD in this set.

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

Lake Louisa State Park – Nov. 1, 2014

November 9, 2014INSIDE FLORIDA, Lake Louisa State Parkblack and white, Flowers, landscape, reflection, sunrise, sunset, treeEd Rosack

Lynn and I went back to Lake Louisa State Park last weekend and spent a very relaxing couple of days. It was a little chilly – our first Florida “cold” front rolled through while we were there and made us both appreciate the gas fireplace in the cabin. We didn’t see as much wildlife this time, but I did enjoy making some photos. Here’s one at sunset from just behind the cabin, looking out over Lake Dixie. I like the way the field glows in the light coming through the trees.

Grass, trees, lake, and sun

The sky was very clear after the cold front, so there were no dramatic clouds to work with. I think the low morning sun on the trees and the mist on the water look nice in black and white.

Morning mist

There weren’t as many flowers blooming as there were last May. But the few we did see were lovely. These were along a path just off the road.

Wildflowers

Lake Louisa is a wonderful, relaxing getaway in Clermont, Florida – very close to Orlando. If you haven’t been, check it out. My full writeup on the park is at this link and this set on Flickr has many more photos I made there.

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

Wild Orchids and more at Fort Christmas

June 18, 2014Fort Christmas, INSIDE FLORIDA, OrlandoAntiques, black and white, Flowers, Orchid, SunflowersEd Rosack

I follow Florida Hikes and they tweeted about wild orchids blooming at Fort Christmas,

Fort Christmas Historical Park is east of Orlando close to Orlando Wetlands Park. I’ve written about it before:

I hadn’t ever seen Orchids in the wild and I hadn’t been out there since 2012, so this was a big enough motivation to make me want to visit again. I ended up exploring with Tom M. on a morning last week.

Once we knew what to look for, the orchids weren’t hard to find. There were a lot of them higher up in the large live oak trees. The strong back light, wind, and distance made them hard to photograph well, but with a longer lens, a flash, and some careful camera positioning I managed to isolate these blooms against a dark background. I like the colors and background, which remind me of an oriental flower painting.

Wild Orchids – Up in the live oak trees. Two frames, with flash, different focus points, hand merged in Photoshop. I believe these are Florida Butterfly Orchids (Encyclia tampensis).

Sunflowers were also blooming in one of the small gardens on the site.

Sunflower bloom – In the garden. Single frame, ambient light.

We also spent some time looking around inside the buildings. You’re free to enter most of them as long as you’re careful. And since we were there on a mid-week morning, there weren’t many other folks around. Until two busses of summer camp kids showed up around 10:30.

In the bedroom – Single 1/2 second exposure at f/8 for depth of field. I didn’t have a tripod, so I rested the camera on the window sill

Antique fixtures and appliances fill the rooms. These and the wood and fabric textures make for some very photogenic settings – perfect material for a bit of nostalgic, B&W processing.

In the kitchen – I was able to hand hold this one when I opened the aperture to f/2.8. The depth of field is acceptable since there’s nothing too close to the viewpoint.

Here are some photo hints for you:

For the orchids, you’ll probably want a longer zoom lens, a flash, a tripod and remote release.
Some of the flowers and other items would make good macro subjects.
For photos of the building and room interiors, I found a wide-angle lens very useful. A tripod might be handy for this too, but I was able to brace my camera and / or use the pop up flash to eliminate camera shake / blur.

I’ve posted other photos from Fort Christmas in this set on Flickr. It’s a wonderful year round photo-op. And the blooming orchids in the summertime are a nice bonus.

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

Lake Louisa State Park

May 11, 2014INSIDE FLORIDA, Lake Louisa State Park, Must do listbirds, black and white, Cypress, Flowers, infrared, landscape, panorama, reflection, sunrise, tree, wildlifeEd Rosack

Update (5/30/14): See this related post on 5 Mile Road.

Intro / Description

Lynn, Mary, and I spent the first weekend in May at Lake Louisa State Park (LLSP). It’s located just southwest of Orlando in Clermont, Florida. LLSP is 4500 acres of rolling hills including six lakes with 105 acres of shoreline. There’s a range of camping options and 20 very nice, two bedroom, furnished cabins that you can stay in. Activities include fishing, canoeing and kayaking, biking, swimming, hiking, and horseback riding.

This is another case of me wondering why it took so long to visit somewhere. My friend Kevin M has mentioned it several times, but I never seemed to get over there – until now. It’s truly scenic and I’ve included more images than normal in this post – I apologize if it loads slowly.

Info for Photographers

There’s a lot to photograph there and the variety of landscapes is greater than many places in the area. Hills are rare around here, but this park has them, some over 100 feet high. I made this photo on the hillside above the road by the cabin where we stayed.

Wildflowers and dewey grass at dawn

May 5-11 is national wildflower week and LLSP was doing its part. Several wildflowers were blooming, including Prickly-pear Cactus, Passion Flowers, Lantana, and others. I think we were lucky to see such a variety in bloom. The Passion Flower blooms are supposed to last for only one day.

All of the lakes in the park are great habitats for Cypress Trees and Spanish Moss – very scenic and a classic Florida landscape look.

Lake Dixie shore – From the fishing dock in the campground on the south side of the lake

The Cypress tree trunks can also be very interesting.

Nature’s sculpture – The older, weathered cypress tree shapes can be very unusual

There’s a variety of wildlife at LLSP, although not as much as some other locations in Central Florida. For instance, eBird lists 112 species at LLSP vs 293 in Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge. We spotted nesting Ospreys (with chicks / juveniles), Red-bellied Woodpeckers, Cardinals, Black Vultures, Wild Turkeys, Nighthawks, a Swallow-tailed Kite, wading birds, vultures, Gopher Tortoises, Alligators, Deer, Crayfish, grackles and a few other species.

An Osprey returning to her nest to check on her chick

Photo hints:

Most state parks in Florida seem to open at 8am, which makes early morning photography a challenge. Since we were staying there, we could photograph whenever we wanted. This one is on the western shore of Lake Louisa.

Cypress dawn

Cypress dawn – by Lake Louisa.

Tripod/Monopod: Yes – take yours and use it when needed.

Lenses: There are so many photo ops here that you could probably make use of every one of your lenses. Macro for flowers, wide-angle for landscapes, long telephoto for wildlife, etc. You’ll have to decide how much to carry and what to concentrate on.

Best time to visit: Any time, but of course winter months will be cooler. Late April and early May will be better for wildflowers and nesting Ospreys too. We often heard Ospreys calling. It was fun to watch the parents bringing food back to their very demanding offspring!

Other:

There’s a nice beach and picnic area on Lake Louisa. If you swim there be careful though, there’s no life guard and there are alligators.

The park also is a popular place to bicycle, so bring yours if you have room.

The Florida Rambler website has a nice writeup on Lake Louisa and the cabins there.

The kayak launch at Lake Dixie across from the cabins is an easy put in. The one at Lake Louisa requires a long carry, so bring a friend or a kayak trolley if you plan to paddle there. You can also put in at the Crooked River Preserve just to the north of Lake Louisa and paddle down to the lake.

I didn’t get a chance (yet) to hike the many trails in the park. There are 9 main ones ranging from 1/2 to 5.5 miles and some of these lead to smaller lakes which might be very scenic.

The Citrus Tower is close to the park. It was built as a tribute to the citrus industry in the area. There’s a great view from 226 feet up, but a lot fewer orange trees visible now than there were in 1956 when it opened.

Cloudy in Clermont – View from the top of the Citrus Tower, looking south along HW27.

There are also many restaurants within a short drive from the park if you don’t want to cook in your cabin.

Summary

Lake Louisa State Park is a relaxing and scenic destination. It seems a world away from busy downtown Orlando. It’s perfect for a weekend get away. If you haven’t been there yet, you should go. I’m very glad we did.

Be sure to visit my Lake Louisa set on Flickr to see these and more photos.

My Gallery / Flickr photo set:	Lake Louisa set on Flickr.
Website:	http://www.floridastateparks.org/lakelouisa/
Address / Phone:	7305 U.S. Highway 27 Clermont, Florida 34714 (352) 394-3969
Central Florida Photo Ops Rating:	A CFL Photo Op must do!

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

Lake Jesup Flowers – 2013

October 6, 2013INSIDE FLORIDA, Lake Jesup, Lake Jesup SunflowersFlowers, SunflowersEd Rosack

An update on the Lake Jesup Flowers – they are indeed back in full force.

Tom M. and I went over last Wednesday morning to check on them. They seemed to me to still be a little before the peak. I think they’ll get a bit higher and fuller before they start fading away in the next several days. If you want to see them this year, you don’t have much time left.

The Marl Bed Flats are a little soggy. There were places that were dry, but a large part of the area away from the woods had an inch or two of standing water. The sky was incredibly clear and there was a soft wind blowing too – not ideal conditions for flower photography, but we looked for interesting compositions anyway.

With the sun so low, it was hard to keep myself out of this shot – hence the photographer shaped shadow in the middle bottom

Finding flowers that reach above their neighbors is one way to isolate subjects

The light was very pretty in spots. This blossom was sheltered in a pocket of calm along the path out to the fields. With a nice dark background, it called out for a close up.

For a different perspective and an example of how diverse the view here can be, look at this blog post from Jeff Stamer. Jeff timed his visit better than we did and hiked out before sunrise on Thursday when the sky was beautiful.

Here are links to previous articles with more info:

And you can browse some of my photos of the area in this set on Flickr. There’s also an article about the flowers in this month’s Orlando Magazine.

When you go, please be careful. Stopping on the side of 417 is dangerous. And the Lake Jesup Wilderness area is wild. It’s also a bit of a hike from the parking area out to the flowers. Bring water and use sun screen and bug spray. Long pants and waterproof hiking boots are a good idea too.

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