During this week’s snow “storm,” we pretended to be without electricity — just to see what it would be like.
Candles
photography
70-300 Zoo
Why are elephants seem so wise? Because it looks as if every experience is etched on their face:
Why do giraffes seem so elegant yet goofy? Lumpy, bumpy heads.
Why do baby orangutans seems so playful?
Because they are, even with empty Folgers containers.
Why does the Girl seem more and more independent? Because she is. She gets her zipper going, hops with joy, then rips off the jacket and cries, “Try ‘gain!”
She’s not quite this independent, but give her some time — she’ll be there before I’m ready.
She already realizes how far away she is from baby-hood.
New Lens
We’ve had the wide end covered for some time now. I bought a Sigma 10-20mm before heading to Polska last year, and of course the camera came with a decent 18-70mm standard zoom. What we were lacking was a high power zoom.
It was never much of a priority, so I wasn’t looking to spend a lot of money. Sure, I’d love to have Nikon’s 80-200 2.8 lens, but at nearly a thousand dollars, it was well out of my budget. If I had no budget, I’d be ordering a
- Nikon D3x
- AF-S NIKKOR 50mm f/1.4G
- AF-S NIKKOR 24-70mm f/2.8G ED
- AF-S NIKKOR 14-24mm f/2.8G ED
- AF-S VR Zoom-NIKKOR 70-200mm f/2.8G IF-ED
- AF-S Micro-NIKKOR 60mm f/2.8G ED
- AF-S VR Micro-NIKKOR 105mm f/2.8G IF-ED
Having a budget that doesn’t quite make the approximately $13,000 necessary to buy that equipment, I looked back at SIgma, being very pleased with the 10-20. So for well under $200 I got a 70-300 4/5.6 zoom. Is it a great lens? For the money, yes.
The bokeh is particularly warm and deep, but that’s to be expected at this kind of focal length…
Photo Session
Tree
HDR
I was initially opposed to the idea of high dynamic resolution imaging. I still think it’s something that’s easily abused. Still, it’s a fun idea.
I’ve finally started playing with it. I don’t like any of the results — they all look fake. But here are three:
I posted a non-HDR version of this earlier.
Leaves
We have quite a few trees in the backyard, including a yellow poplar — also known as a tulip poplar, which is reflected in its Latin name — that’s probably over 200 years old. There’s another one close to it, but it’s not nearly as big.
This was one of the things I truly longed for in Poland. The leaves of the few deciduous in Poland, in my experience, simply turned brown and fell off.
We didn’t make it to the mountains of North Carolina this year, so a bit of yellow in our backyard will have to do.
Of course nothing can compare to autumn in New England. Reds and oranges that almost make the eyes ache.
Still, it’s nice to have a touch of color yellow in one’s immediate vicinity.
In the Park (Redux)
Cleveland Park in downtown Greenville has undergone a renovation, and it’s a favorite destination for the Girl.
We only took the Sigma 10-20mm lens with us. It’s a challenging lens to use because it’s so difficult to fill the frame.
It also severely distorts some things: lengthens noses (for all the obvious reasons) and generally does weird things to body shapes.
But it can certainly provide some interesting perspectives.
Storm
A storm approaches over the Tatra Mountains of southern Poland. Often a land of gray skies.
Wide-Angle Photos
8
We got a bit of new equipment yesterday: a Sigma 10-20mm wide-angle zoom.
Thinking of what’s possible with this lens in, say, Zab, overlooking Zakopane and the Tatra mountains — almost makes us (well, me) giddy.
Really — in Zab it’s going to be spectacular. Not to mention ulica Florianska…
50mm f/1.8
I took an old Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 manual focus lens and put it on our digital camera. That’s one reason to go with Nikon: they’ve never changed their lens mount.
Walk
Snow Day!
When it looks like this at night
it’s pretty obvious you’re going to have a snow day.
“Snow day?” my Polish students once asked. “Why, we’d never have school if we had such a thing here!” they declared enviously.
Snow in South Carolina — who’d have guessed?
In the Basement
Part of the super deal we got on this house was a free pool table. The previous owner didn’t think it was worth his time to move it, I suppose.
Not only does it provide endless entertainment for L, sitting on the table and watching the balls as I roll them to and fro, but it also provides a bit of entertainment for K and me.
Not to mention a new subject for photography.
300+ pictures
Yesterday, during the late afternoon/early evening, I uploaded about 340 pictures to Flickr. It’s all part of a new plan to start using Flickr more and our own computer’s hard drive less. We have a 250 gb hard drive, and because of pictures and now films, we’re about full.
Most of the pics are from Poland, and so they’re at least two to four years old.
Surprise
When I photograph L, I try to avoid using a flash — for somewhat obvious reasons.
Photoshopped
French photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson (Wikipedia) was a purist. He claimed that he didn’t even crop any of his photos, let alone indulge in the darkroom magic of dodging and burning. Had airbrushing been available to HCB, I very much doubt he would have done much more than laugh at it.
In this digital age, it’s difficult to be such a purist. Yet there must be some limits, some standard.
How much digital manipulation can you do before it’s no longer a “true” image?
Wandering around Flickr, I’ve noticed a preponderance of heavily manipulated images — Photoshopped to an inch of the digital existence. The results are striking, but somehow false. I get the feeling that I’m looking at an advertisement of some sort.
Examples include:
I’m not discounting the quality of the composition, nor the impact of image, but it just seems to be a little too much.
When I do digital manipulation (and I rarely use Photoshop for that anymore), my goal is simply to make the image look as it did when I took the picture.
Carolina Night Sky
Views from a walk
Writing with Light
