New to the world

I have been away for awhile. I have been suffering poor vision problems. I have my vision back now just in time for spring! I saw this little guy (and I mean little)  the other day with his Mama. Both are miniature horses. Today I was able to get close enough to them to get this shot. If this isn't a sign of Spring I don't know what is. I have a dog bigger than him. It has been very hard not being able to take pictures or even read other blogs for so long. It is good to be back again doing what I love.

Snow Puppy

Well southern Vermont finally got Winter! On Feb. 29th we got well over a foot of snow. I took our new puppy Mia, out to play in the white stuff. It was almost impossible to catch her much less photograph her. So I got down on my knees in the snow and waited until she came over to see what I was doing. She is VERY curious! This was the one and only good capture I got from the whole ordeal. She looks annoyed but I assure you all she was having a ball. It was dark and cloudy. The light was not in my favor especially with the huge white background everywhere. Once I changed my ISO to 400 I started to get better shots. All in all it was worth kneeling in cold wet snow and watching her run as best she could in the stuff. She is only 12 weeks old. She is a pomeranian so lots of hair to collect ice balls.

Ice Fall

I drive by this scene every day. It is on the side of a busy highway. (If there is such a thing in 
vermont) Not much room to pull over so I kept on driving by thinking I should stop and 
snap that. We don't have much of anything that resembles Winter here in Vermont. The trees are bare and a few spots of snow. This ice fall is a testament to the time of year it really is. I finally risked my life and stopped. It was twilight so I had to set my camera for low light. The first shot was at 1/160 sec at f/28, Focal length at 18mm ISO at 800. The second shot was 1/80sec at f/28, Focal length at 55mm ISO at 100. The two images were shot maybe ten minutes apart just at sunset. I was fascinated by the blue ice that showed up in my pictures that I did not see with my naked eye. I did tweak the contrast in the second image in Lightroom 3 and the blue popped out more. I did not like the noise I saw in high resolution so I have to start taking more low light images and figure out the right ISO to get the shot with less noise. I love a challenge. If you are driving South down Rt 30 in Southern Vermont towards Brattleboro....you will see this amazing ice fall! One of the very few signs that winter is here sitting with all her beauty wrapped in ice on the side of a road .

A Rose is a Rose

I have always been a die hard Apple Aperture

user for many years. Lately I have been very frustrated with the lag in time it takes to edit one image.  Sometimes ten minutes! It uses a lot of ram. So today I changed my "apple ways" and deleted aperture from my laptop. I researched for a few days before this decision and I went with Adobe Lightroom 3. I have been playing with it all day! The speed of this photo editor is amazing. The image on the top is edited with aperture and the image below is Lightroom 3. I found I had so much more control and an easier interface. It didn't take me long to find my way through the adjustments and tools. I won't be going back to aperture. For the price ($149) half price on adobe site until march 5th compared to $200. for Aperture on the Apple site. You get a lot more for your money. In my opinion. I try hard to set my camera when taking pictures to get the best possible image with the least amount of post editing. However that is not always the case. This is where Lightroom 3 will be my new best friend. Making a simple capture of a rose into a fun piece of art. Now I know a rose is a rose but there are seemingly no limits to what you can do with an image of one in Lightroom 3. 

On the Fence

 You would not think that one broken down fence would be such a hub of bird activity.
Behind the Diner I used to own such a fence existed. I used to put day old muffins on it to attract them. Then on my break I would go out with my camera. In one summer I took over 5000 pictures of just birds on this fence. Every kind of bird. Mostly these twelve sparrows that waited each morning for the muffins. One of my dear customers called them the 12 bandits. The woodpecker and the mocking bird were regulars as well. I had to learn to be fast with the focus ring. I still love to bird watch. I spent last Summer stalking a pair of bald eagles not far from my house. They are much tougher to get a capture of then my friends from the fence. I never really did get a good one. It takes a lot of patience to just sit and wait sometimes for hours. Much like fishing sometimes you get a good one sometimes nothing. But it is always worth it.

For the Love of Fruit

 I spent the day yesterday with my macro lens and a light box. That's what I do on a rainy cold Vermont day. I have photographed  a lot of fruit and I have to say grapes are my favorite. I took no less the 1227 images. Some of the tricks I use ( besides a spray bottle ) a can of silicone spray to make them shiny. An eye dropper to get that one perfect drop of water where you want it. A very sturdy camera mount. I built it myself from old tripod parts.  Lighting is a given. The best "new" thing I have found is tethering. I have a Mac book pro and the software was not very expensive. Add a shutter release cable and the camera is stock still for the best focus. Water and a mirror offer some great effects. The irony of all this is I am allergic to fruit. I became allergic as a teenager and have not had one bite since. I pay homage to my love of fruit that I can no longer have.

                                                                                   

                                                                                 

He Waited

When you happen upon a little guy like this it is truly a photographer's dream. His brothers and sisters were all running around the camp I was visiting. Of course I was chasing them and trying to sneak up on them for that"GREAT SHOT" but to no avail. I finally gave up and walked around to the front of the camp and sitting in a flower pot was this cute little guy. Just like you see in the picture. He waited for me to get my shot and ran off. I was very thankful. I was smart enough to have a telephoto lens on so I didn't have to get too close. Shooting wildlife can be tricky. Especially birds. My first 1000 images or so were all birds and wildlife. If you want to get to know your camera start out that way. I learned so much on the fly so to speak just sitting by a rock out in the woods waiting. I had to keep resetting the aperture with the changing light and different angles. This little red squirrel made it easy for me. He waited!

Race against the Sunset

Sometimes the sky just won't be ignored. I knew it was getting dark and I was losing the light. I had been taking pictures through the back roads of farm country on my way home. As I drove on the sky just kept screaming to get out and shoot this. So I did. The first few shots were fuzzy and dark until I realized my ISO was to low. It was a race against the sunset. My exposure was 1/3200 my f stop was 4. focal length was at 70. I had a canon EFS l series 70/200 mm lens. No filter. My camera was Canon T1i. The sun had set by the time I got all this figured out. But I still like the shot. What I learned that day was know my camera better to get the shot quicker. I don't do "AUTO" anything. The more I shoot the faster I get at the right exposure and f stop. I take my camera everywhere.

Two Headed Cat

Our two cats , Camel and BB often take naps together. They are not related but look so much alike (except for size) they blend into one cat sometimes. I thought this image was one of their best "blended naps" Looks like a two headed cat to me. 

Peanuts for Pictures

This little guy came to the back of my restaurant every day for his peanuts. When I started taking pictures he was one of my first subjects. The tamer he got, the closer I got with my lens. My first real DSLR was a Canon Rebel Xti. It came with a kit lens and I practiced different settings with different light everyday .By the end of the Summer I got this and a few other shots I am really proud of. That was 6 years ago. I no longer have my restaurant and I have upgraded my camera 3 times plus a whole gear bag of lenses and equipment. I will always be grateful to that friendly little squirrel that traded peanuts for pictures.

Pets and Posing

 When I moved in with my partner a year ago I was delighted to adopt her small menagerie of animals. (2) dogs, (3) cats and (2) red squirrels we saved from the wild. As time with them moved on they got used to me and my camera. I started to notice it seemed as if they all were posing for me. I use a Canon T1i with a EFS 17-55mm f/2.8 lens. It took me a while to figure out the best time of day for the right light to hit the couch. Then all I would have to do is sit with my camera and the posing would begin. They are real hams. lol I don't have to chase them around. Taking pictures of pets is ALWAYS fun! It is probably one of the first things a new camera owner does. I did it my self many years ago. Living with these K9 models and there ability to sit still for me is a treasure. Oh by the way....the Pomeranian is Kai and the toy Pom Chi is Peanut. I am still trying to teach the cats how to sit but I fear that is a long task. As everyone knows it is really the cat's world and we just live in it. I don't mind chasing them. I get my exercise that way. 

Macro is fun

I started with a rose in my light box. I had a spray bottle and kept adding water drops.Then I tried to get one big drop on one petal. I had so much fun. It took 77 pictures to get this this one image.