Tag Archives: Flowers

Borrow the Bouquet

February 20, 2011Cameras and Photography, TechniqueFlowers, TulipEd Rosack

If you’re a photographer, one side benefit of romantic relationships can be residual bouquet photo ops. Just be careful to make sure your significant other doesn’t think too hard about why their arrangements are so photogenic. You are, of course getting the flowers for them.

Flowers are an easy photo op, although many of us don’t bother since so many flower photographs have already been made. But there are reasons to try: It’s good practice with your equipment and technique. Maybe you’ll come up with a different and beautiful approach. Maybe you can learn a new lighting or processing technique. And maybe it’s a convenient subject when you don’t have several hours to load up and go out in search of birds or other wildlife.

Tulip

I bought Lynn some tulips for Valentine’s Day and wanted to make a few photos while they were still looking good. Please don’t tell any Strobists out there, but I used a flashlight for illumination in these images. Using a constant illumination light source instead of a strobe, allows you to see exactly how the light looks on your subject before you make the photo. In this case, I was trying to “spotlight” the front tulip to isolate it, but at the same time leave the tulips in the background just visible. I tried various positions for my light and no one single position worked. The ones that looked best had blown highlights on either the right or left side of the front tulip. I ended up making two exposures, intending to spend some time blending them by hand in Photoshop. Here are portions of the two exposures showing the front tulip:

Source photos for image above

After loading them as layers in Photoshop, I made an attempt to blend them by hand without much success. Instead, I hit on the idea of changing the layer blending mode to “darken” instead of “normal”. The lead image in this post is the result, with no hand blending at all. I like the effect and I like the smooth, out of focus definition of the tulip in the background on the left.

I also wanted to try one more thing before these tulips had to be retired.

Tulip two

For this second shot, I wanted to make the flower look like it was illuminated from the inside by shining the light up from the bottom. I also wanted to make the stigma / stamens as sharply focused as possible to contrast them with the out of focus flower petals. The outline of the petals framing the inside was a bonus. I’ll let the reader figure out what other techniques I used in this image (hint: I’ve written about it before).

So – go ahead. Ask your significant other if you can borrow the bouquet.

Ravine Gardens Update

February 12, 2011INSIDE FLORIDAFlowersEd Rosack

You can read my previous blog entry about Ravine Gardens at this link. In that article, I recommended that you visit this unique state Park in Palatka, Florida in the spring time so you can see the many flowers there in bloom. January through April is supposed to be the peak blooming season and Lynn and I wanted to check and see what’s happening up there so far. We’d hate to miss the peak flower time.

Eastern Redbud Tree in bloom at Ravine Gardens

There are a few flowers and trees in bloom already. We noticed the very pretty tree above right away. Most azaleas had buds, but there were very few so far in bloom. The 15th annual Azalea Festival is planned for March 5th this year, and we think that the azaleas will be at the beginning of their peak about a week before then (end of February). So if you want to see this place at it’s best, start planing your visit!

Unusual two trunk palm tree at Ravine Gardens

Goodbye, Kodachrome – we'll miss you.

December 31, 2010Cameras and Photography, OUTSIDE FLORIDA, VARIOUSFlowers, Germany, Kodachrome, Madonna, MunichEd Rosack

Kodachrome slide made in Munich, Germany in May of 1980.

Kodak discontinued the manufacture of Kodachrome slide film in 2009 and yesterday, the last Kodachrome film processing machine in the world (at Dwayne’s Photo in Parson, Kansas) was shut down. You had to be careful with it – but when well exposed, Kodachrome rewarded us with wonderful, detailed slides that exploded onto projection screens.

Kodachrome is also known for its storage longevity. I re-scanned one of my Kodachrome slides today to see how well it’s held up since I made it over 30 years ago – quite well, I think. I don’t have many other things still around that I owned that long ago. Do you?

Madonna, Child, tulips

My Favorite Photos of 2010

December 19, 2010VARIOUSAlligator, beach, birds, Cormorant, Cypress, Fish, Flowers, Koi, lighthouse, panorama, star, sunrise, sunset, tree, wildlifeEd Rosack

I hope that all of you and your families and friends are having a joyful and happy holiday season!

The weather has been pretty gloomy here this weekend, so I didn’t get a chance to go out and make any new photos. I thought it would be a good time to jump the gun and put together my second annual “Favorite photos of the year” post.

One again, I’ve gone through the photos I made in the last 12 months. I use Lightroom to rate them from 0 through 5 stars. My rating system definitions are:

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 ) any given photo 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 usually keep them, but they probably won’t get any more attention. I’ve used this system consistently, and it seems to work for me. Of course, this is all subjective and my opinion only. Feel free to disagree, but I hope you’ll enjoy looking at the ones I’ve chosen.

Again in 2010, I was really blessed with a huge number of photo opportunities. On my hard drive in my 2010 folder, I have about 11,700 files (not all are photos), taking up 145GB of space. Of these:

5997 of the 2010 images have been cataloged in Lightroom. Many of the rest are source images for multi-shot panoramas or HDRs, or high rate bursts that I selected from.
1139 are rated 1 star or higher
639 are 2 star or higher
88 are 3 star or higher
1 is 4 star, and
None are 5 star (I’m still not done taking photos yet!)

Of the 88 that are 3 star or higher, I’ve selected 10 images to include in a gallery of my favorite 2010 photos. You can click on each of these to go to Flickr, where you can see a larger version. One interesting difference from my 2009 Favorite Photos post is that all the ones this year were made in the Central Florida area.

So, here we go…

My #10 favorite 2010 photo is: Waving Gator. Gators always smile at you, but this one was even waving! No, I didn’t Photoshop the wave. The gator really did it all by itself. I have witnesses.

My #9 favorite 2010 photo is: Roadside Flowers. Wildflower photography is a little different in Central Florida than some other areas of the country. Some might say it’s more challenging here, and I doubt anyone comes to Central Florida specifically to photograph wildflowers. None the less, wildflower photo ops are around here too if you keep your eyes open. These are along the Florida Turnpike. I saw them while driving home from Gainesville, Florida and just had to stop and photograph them.

My #8 favorite 2010 photo is: Cattle Egret in Flight. For once, I was ready when this bird flew close by. Right lens, correct camera settings, and paying attention. I could almost feel my camera nail the shot. I wish I felt like that more often.

My #7 favorite 2010 photo is: One Second Koi or “One second, Koi” or “One second Koi?” I don’t usually make this sort of photo. On this occasion, I decided to experiment and I was very pleased with how it turned out.

My #6 favorite 2010 photo is: Sunrise, fog, palms, pond. This scene is close to the north-west shore of Lake Jessup. On this particular morning, the mist in the distance and the clouds on the horizon shaping the sunlight drew my attention.

My #5 favorite 2010 photo is: Burning waters @ Orlando Wetlands. We were at Orlando Wetlands Park back in late September before dawn. It was raining very softly, but not enough to discourage us from hiking out to Lake Searcy and capturing this scene. I like the light hitting the flowers on the left, the rain cloud in the distance, and the dawn colors in the sky.

My #4 favorite 2010 photo is: Grasshopper and Donuts perform photo-magic on the beach under the stars for an audience of three.

We have a local camera club and three of us decided to go over to the beach to try to photograph the Perseid meteor shower. My two friends went out on the beach while I stayed up on the boardwalk. At one point I looked down and could barely make out this scene in the dark. I like the way the camera’s LCD is lit up and draws the viewer’s eye to the two photographers. I also like how the three strangers (who were watching for meteors) look like they’re watching my friends.

I was using ISO 1600 and my “nifty 50” 50mm lens at f/1.8 to keep exposures as short as possible (I was trying to prevent the stars from trailing), and I had focused manually at infinity. All I had to do was switch on live-view, re-compose, and zoom in on my friend’s white shirt to manually re-focus. Fortunately no one moved very much during the 4 second exposure. It’s really amazing how modern cameras can capture scenes that are barely visible to our eyes! And yes, we did get a few meteor photos. (Grasshopper and Donuts are nicknames for the two photographers in the scene).

My #3 favorite 2010 photo is: Cyprus tree and knees. I wanted to try the Nikon D7000 on some landscape photos, but didn’t really have time to go anywhere special. This tree is very close to my home – along the shore of Lake Jessup in Central Winds Park. Cypress trees make very good photo subjects since they can provide both near and middle distance content for a scene.

My #2 favorite 2010 photo is: Cormorant at the Circle Bar B. These birds have been posing for me lately. I think it’s amazing how pretty they look in the right light.

And … my #1 favorite photo of the year 2010 is: Ponce Inlet light, sunset, bird. 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 the dusk sky. Imagine coming home and seeing the image that you imagined right there on your computer screen in all it’s glory. That’s what happened to me last August.

I’ve uploaded these photos to this Flickr set, and you can click this link to watch a slide show. When you watch the show, you might want to click the “show info” link.

Thanks for looking.

Circle B Bar Reserve – Lakeland, Florida

November 26, 2010Circle B Bar Reserve, INSIDE FLORIDA, Must do listbirds, Cormorant, Flowers, landscape, reviewsEd Rosack

Intro / Description

This nature wonderland in Lakeland, Florida is named after a cattle ranch that used to exist on the property. It was purchased by Polk County and the SW Florida Water Management District in late 2000. The area is 1,267 acres total and starting in 2005, 400 acres have undergone a marsh reclamation to recreate a natural habitat and food source for many kinds of resident and migrating birds and wildlife. The Circle B is also home to the Polk County Nature Discovery Center.

The western shore of Lake Hancock (from the Alligator Alley trail)

Circle B has a tremendous variety and number of birds. Alligators also inhabit Lake Hancock and can be seen from the trails in several places. There are a variety of different areas on the property including Oak hammock, freshwater marsh, hardwood swamp and the lake shore.

The Circle B has over 7 miles of marked trails for walking or biking. If you go, make sure you see at least the Alligator Alley and Marsh Rabbit Run trails. We hiked these as well as the Shady Oak, Windmill Whisper and portions of Wading Bird Way and Eagle Roost trails when we were there for a total hike of more than 5 miles.

Marsh Rabbit Run trail

In our one visit we saw Great Blue Herons, Great Egrets, Ibises, Cattle Egrets, Ospreys, Red Shoulder Hawks, Cormorants, Anhingas, Limpkins, Whistling Ducks, Alligators, Turtles, a very brave rabbit and some other things as well. One local photographer we spoke with told us about a Barred Owl in the area as well as some otters, but we never saw them. Next time!

Cormorant – These birds have been posing for me lately.

In addition to the wildlife, the scenery is quite beautiful and different from our normal areas near the coast. There were many types of trees and flowers, including this sunflower variety that was very abundant all over the property.

These sunflowers (?) were all over the Circle B Bar Reserve – very pretty. I wonder if they bloom all the time or if we just happened to be there when they’re in season?

Info for Photographers

Photo hints:

I’ve only been to the Circle B once, and need to go several more times to get an idea of how consistent the photo ops there are. If you have the kind of experience we did, you’ll have lots of opportunity for photos of still as well as in-flight birds. If you’re quiet as you walk, you can avoid scaring off the nearby birds and get some better shots. They are somewhat used to people here, but not overly tolerant. Make sure you look all around as you hike (especially up) and take an occasional glance behind to see if you’ve missed anything.

In addition to my photo set from the Circle B, visit the Circle B bar group on Flickr to see what others are photographing there and to read up on discussions about the reserve.

Tripod/Monopod:

Allowed, of course. Tripods would be very handy for landscape photos or (with a gimbal head) for birds. You’ll have to decide how much gear you’re willing to carry on your hike. Since this was a scouting trip, we traveled light and I wished several times that I’d brought my tripod.

Lenses:

Telephoto for birds / wildlife and and wide-angle for landscapes. You’ll need a good range of lenses to cover everything here, but you’ll be able to get some good photos no matter which lens you have with you.

Best time to visit:

As for any place when looking for birds and wildlife, early in the day (or late) is best. I’m not yet sure what times of year are the best here, but mid to late November is definitely worth a visit.

Other:

You’ll be walking a good bit. Make sure you wear comfortable shoes and bring some water with you.

Summary

You can click on any of the photos above to view them on Flickr, where you can also see a larger version.

My Gallery / Flickr photo set:	http://www.flickr.com/photos/edrosack/sets/72157625343566505/
Website:	http://www.swfwmd.state.fl.us/recreation/areas/circlebbarreserve.html
Address / Phone:	4399 Winter Lake Road (SR 540) Lakeland, FL 33803 (View in Google maps)
Central Florida Photo Ops Rating:	Another CFl Photo Op must do!

Macro photography – D7000 or D700?

November 7, 2010Cameras and Photography, Techniqued700, d7000, equipment, Flowers, macro, reviewsEd Rosack

There are many kinds of photography. I tend towards landscapes, birds & wildlife, and sometimes macro. When I was using a Nikon D90 and a D700, it was pretty easy to decide which camera to use for what. They had roughly the same number of pixels and well known ISO performance. I would use the D90 as my primary bird and wildlife photography body (especially in good light), and the D700 for almost everything else.

Now that I’ve swapped the D90 for a D7000, these questions have become a little harder to answer. The D7000 has better ISO performance than the D90, and more pixels than the D90 or the D700. Clearly, the D7000 is still a very good first choice for bird & wildlife (unless they’re especially cooperative and close), even more so than the D90 because of its improved autofocus and resolution. And in dim light, the D7000’s ISO performance should make it even more useful than the D90, although not as good as the D700. Using the camera now for a couple of weeks has confirmed all this.

But what about landscape photography and macros? This isn’t as easy a question. They’re most often done with a tripod and therefore ISO performance isn’t a factor, so you can use the camera’s base / optimum ISO (D7000 @ ISO 100, D700 @ ISO 200). Which body to use probably comes down to magnification and depth of field vs. diffraction. I hadn’t had a chance to explore using the D7000 for macros, so I decided to do a little experiment today.

My subject is a rosebud from our front garden (by the way, if you know what kind of bugs those are on our rose bush, let me know). The setup was fairly simple: Tripod mounted camera, using the Nikon 105mm f/2.8 VR macro, and a Neewer LED ring light with the rose against a black background. I used matrix metering, with an exposure bias of -3EV to avoid blowing out the red channel (every digital camera I’ve owned – including the D7000, has overexposed red roses). I tried to keep the positions / setup as close as possible but unfortunately, I had to go back and re-take the D700 photo and it isn’t exactly positioned the same. I used an aperture of f/11 with the D7000 and f/16 with the D700, since those values should give the most depth of field without any degradation due to diffraction. I also used the cameras’ base ISO settings. I then ran the two photos through Capture NX2 with the exact same adjustments ( daylight White Balance, vivid Color Control, Noise Reduction off, and Unsharp Mask set to 30/5/2) and created a .jpg of each.

Rosebud: D7000, ISO 100, Nikon 105mm macro, 1/20 sec @ f/11

Rosebud: D700, ISO 200, Nikon 105mm macro, 1/13 sec @ f/16

So what conclusions did I draw from this? With a sharp lens, using base ISO, the D7000 makes full use of all of it’s pixels and therefore has very good resolution when compared to the D700. For macro photography, the extra magnification, pixels, and increased apparent depth of field will almost always be an advantage. So my first choice for macro photography now will be the D7000.

What about landscapes? That adds a couple more things to consider (e.g. dynamic range, field of view), so it needs some additional thought and experimentation. I’ll let you know what I find out.

Note: A click on the photos above, will take you to Flickr where you can select Actions / View all sizes to see full resolution JPGs.

Lukas Nursery Butterfly Encounter

October 10, 2010Butterfly Encounter, INSIDE FLORIDAbirds, Butterfly, FlowersEd Rosack

Intro / Description

Lukas Nursery is a family owned business in Oviedo, Florida. You can find all sorts of plants and garden supplies in their well stocked nursery and they also have a small Butterfly Encounter where three of us from the Photography Interest Group went exploring last Saturday.

We were there when they opened at 9am so we could try to avoid the mid-day heat. Inside the Butterfly Encounter, they have a nice gift shop where you pay your $5 entrance fee. When you enter the butterfly area itself, there are a great many beautiful flowers and at least three types of small, colorful birds – but unfortunately there weren’t very many butterflies visible on the day we were there. I’ve been once or twice in the past when they were more plentiful. I wonder if this is a seasonal thing or we just caught them in between re-supplies? We did have fun stalking the butterflies we found and angling for good photos.

Info for Photographers

Photo hints: This is a good place to practice using your flash. I tried both the pop-up flash on my camera and an off camera flash triggered by the pop-up. With flash, you should be able to use a small aperture to increase your depth of field. If you want to experiment further, you can shoot in manual mode using a shutter speed within your camera’s flash sync range. Then vary the flash output and your shutter speed / aperture to control the ratio of foreground and background lighting to isolate your subjects.

Tripod/Monopod: Not prohibited, but there isn’t much room inside for a tripod so you should be polite and bring a monopod at the very most. In the confined spaces and with my subjects moving around, I left both my tripod and monopod home and hand held all my photos.

Lenses: A longer macro lens will be helpful. I had some success with my 105mm macro on a crop sensor body. You may also want to bring one of your longer zoom lenses to get close to butterflies that perch up high in the vines.

Best time to visit: Avoid the summer – it gets very hot inside. Think about calling ahead to check on the the butterfly population.

Other: Don’t forget to look for flower and bird photos too!

Butterfly Encounter Summary

My Gallery / Flickr photo set:	http://www.flickr.com/photos/edrosack/sets/72157625004319255/
Butterfly Encounter Website:	https://lukasnursery.com/butterfly-encounter/
Address / Phone:	1909 Slavia Rd Oviedo, Florida 32765 407-365-6163
Central Florida Photo Ops Rating:	Flower and birds plentiful, butterflies hiding.

P.S. I re-visited the Lake Jesup Wilderness area this morning and added a few more photos to my Flickr set. Click here if you’re interested.

A full bloom riot of flowers

October 3, 2010INSIDE FLORIDA, Lake Jesup, Lake Jesup SunflowersFlowers, landscape, Marl Bed Flats, Sanford Florida, Sunflowers, sunrise, sunsetEd Rosack

Last year during wildflower season, I hesitated to venture out into the Lake Jesup Wilderness Area in the dark. I’ve seen several types of animals and birds out there and never any snakes, but it sure does seem like prime snake country to me. And I don’t relish stepping on something dangerous in the tall growth and dim light. This year, I was a little braver (and very careful) and got out into the wildflower fields just as the sun came up.

Watching the sun rise

I really wish last weekend’s spectacular sunrises had repeated this weekend. But even though there were no clouds and very little sky color, the fields of wildflowers made up for it with a full bloom riot of Helianthus angustifolius var. canadense.

Lake Jesup Wildflowers – Narrow leaf Sunflowers, also called “Swamp Sunflowers

It’s not too late for you to go out and see this wonderful explosion of nature, but it will be too late soon. This morning, the blooms seemed to be just about at their peak, and they fade quickly.

You can see other photos I’ve made out there in this Flickr set. For more information, here are two other posts about this area:

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

https://edrosack.com/2007/10/07/storm-and-flowers/

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