2016 Project 52, 2nd Quarter by Janis

[purplehaze]

Scrambling to catch up...

Week 14

I missed my timing on this first shot, but I thought I would include it for the contrast with the images at the end of my 1st Quarter thread that were so full of the promise of spring. This was shot through my sunroom window on April 1.



Week 18

My pocket camera had been languishing on a shelf for a while, so I gave it to a friend whom I thought needed it more than me, but then I missed it, so I went out and splurged on the Sony RX100 Mark IV. It is almost too feature-rich, but I am loving the electronic viewfinder and the articulating LCD, among other things. This is a detail from a lovely school in my neighbourhood, the school my mother attended as a child.



Week 19

These are some of the many images I captured on a day trip to the opposite side of the lake from the one I am usually shooting from, to capture the last of the spring breakup. All but one were shot with my beloved Sigma 18-35 mm Art lens.

#1
The Lake Winnipeg Research vessel docked at Gimli Harbour.



#2
The harbour seawall, which has been embellished with paintings of local history.



#3
The harbour entrance.



#4
A stylized image of a wooden statue on the beach. This was shot with the Sony, which had slipped off its RAW setting, ergo the banding at the top from my processing, which I don't really mind.



#5
Indulging my penchant for nature abstracts.



#6
The north end of the beach.

[Kaye Leggett]

You've used a glorious day to capture some beautiful shots. Particularly like the shot of the harbour entrance

[IzzieK]

All very nice shots and compositions, Janis...life and work would have gotten in your way. I've missed your posts and responses to some posts. When I saw your first shot, I thought "you still have snow at this time of the year????" then I looked at your location and wasn't surprised. You certainly have long winters over that way...
I like your composition of the Winnipeg Research vessel. And of course your processing. It is very neat. The harbour seawall is very nice too. We have something similar here near the entrance of the strip mall and I just stared at it. What a wonderful idea to photograph them! And that mooring metal provided an anchor for your shot. Very nice.

The harbour entrance -- what a beautiful day when you shoot this one! The reflection spoke of a calm day. Nice shot. I do not see any banding on #4. In fact I like the composition there too. What a pretty place #6 is...do you have to travel far to get to this one? Just curious...

[Shadowman]

Love the first having experienced a bit of it this past Sunday. Nice blue series, very vibrant captures.

[purplehaze]

You've used a glorious day to capture some beautiful shots. Particularly like the shot of the harbour entrance

Thanks, Kaye. It was an exceptionally beautiful day and I was glad to be out with cameras in hand.

[purplehaze]

All very nice shots and compositions, Janis...life and work would have gotten in your way.

Thanks, Izzie. Yes, the older I get, the harder it is to keep all my balls in the air.

I've missed your posts and responses to some posts.

Very nice of you to say. I have missed visiting, but it is kind of fun to come back after a while and see what's new (Brian's getting a macro!) and how much progress some people have made.

You certainly have long winters over that way...

It wasn't the worst by a long shot.

I like your composition of the Winnipeg Research vessel.

I am fond of that boat as the people on it do a lot of good work. Lake Winnipeg is very, very sick and they are helping to diagnose its illnesses and propose solutions.

What a pretty place #6 is...do you have to travel far to get to this one? Just curious...

Gimli is only 55 miles north of Winnipeg, so less of a trip than it is to our side of the lake. It was originally settled by Icelandic fisherman and is known for its summer Icelandic Festival. They also have an outdoor summer film festival on the beach. Now that my brother has a yacht, I am going to propose that we sail across the lake to catch some of the film festival.

I had originally intended to drive only as far as Winnipeg Beach, but had forgotten that the beach had been torn out by a devastating storm last year. The beach was inaccessible as earthworks were underway to rebuild the beach and make it more resistant to erosion. Ever since the government put in the series of big hydro dams on the northern rivers that drain the lake, the lake level has been kept artificially high, and interfered with the natural cycle of beach building and erosion. Now we just have endless erosion.

Winnipeg Beach and Gimli and the surrounding area have a high density of resident artists and artisans who together throw open their studios to the public on two weekends a year. The circuit is known as the Wave Tour and I am happy as, for once, the spring event doesn't conflict with a dragonboat festival. I hope to be able to show it to you in a few weeks.

[purplehaze]

Love the first having experienced a bit of it this past Sunday. Nice blue series, very vibrant captures.

Thanks, John. Where were you on Sunday that you had a taste of snow?!

[IzzieK]

Thanks for the detailed response. I will look forward to your shots of the festivals over there. I am sure it will be as thrilling and exciting to be there and do a sort of a photoshoot, street photography and all that kinds.

[purplehaze]

Week 20

So, a few months back when I was wanting to do studio-type work, I picked up this reversible black and white collapsible background from the camera store, approximately 6 ft by 9 ft. I am a quarter inch shy of 5 ft tall. Can you guess what's coming? Yes, that damn thing has become a permanent fixture in my dining room. I think I even had a dinner party with it sitting there propped up against the south wall. (A casual dinner party, natch, with some of my arty, paint-spattered friends.) Anyhow, I was passing the entrance to the dining room one day when I noticed that the sunlight coming through the piano-style windows behind the background was silhouetting the various items on the ledge. I grabbed the new Sony RX100 Mark IV and squeezed off a few frames before the light shifted. I then played a bit in SEP.

[purplehaze]

Week 21

Shot in Week 20, processed in Week 21. These were all processed using Colour Efex Pro, and Viveza as needed. Mostly I was experimenting with the various contrast filters (Tonal Contrast, Pro Contrast, Contrast Colour). I made no attempt to keep the WB consistent across the images; I was just trying things out, at times straying outside my comfort zone, saturation-wise. C&C more than welcome.

These first images are of a marsh at the south end of Lake Winnipeg. Some person or persons set fire to the marsh in the middle of the night a month or so ago; the volunteer fire department came and put it out, and an hour later the same or copycat arsonists torched it again. The damage to human property was minimal. I imagine some birds and animals lost their homes, but on this day, the marsh was teeming with songbirds and amphibians and there were signs of new construction.

#1


#2


#3


The road south past the marsh leads to a large lagoon, which opens out onto the lake. This was shot more or less at the mouth of the lagoon, looking north.

#4

[IzzieK]

The fire that you mentioned, that was not the same as the big one reported here in the US or is it? I am always wary of fires. I think the vandals makes them worst or they started it, for whatever reasons, it hurts something, or cost lives. I am glad that the area is now slowly going back to normal...

#1 is such a beauty with the top of the tree etching the blue clouds. I like the composition there...
#3, the reflections are excellent. It must be a very quiet, windless day that day...
#4 -- is my favourite. I particularly like the arrangement of the stones forming a cove to the land and the ripple of the water.

Well done.

[purplehaze]

Thanks, Izzie. #4 is my favorite as well.

This was a wee little fire that didn't even make the news in Winnipeg. The fire that you probably heard about occurred two provinces west and much further north, in the area of the Alberta tarsands. I actually know the main town that was evacuated (Fort McMurray), having lived there for three months nearly forty years ago. At the time, it was one of the most cosmopolitan towns I have ever seen, with people come from all over the world to make their fortune extracting oil. Being quite isolated, it was a hard-drinking town starved of entertainment, so when a bunch of kids of which I was a part started up a coffeehouse, it was a huge hit. The abundance of local musical talent was amazing.

[Geoff F]

Compositions look fine to me, Janis. The only very tiny thing I would change is to clone out a small bit of stem just showing on the right side of the first image.

Was it a bit on the cloudy side? These photos are all a bit on the dull day rather 'flat' looking side. If that was the natural state of those scenes on that day and you like the results, then everything is looking good. Otherwise they may take a little bit of selectively brightening and 'warming up' although I would be very careful about doing anything extra to the last image.

[purplehaze]

Thanks, Geoff. Yes, it was overcast, but it had rained, and the sun was trying to break through, so what colour was there had some vibrancy to it, though probably not so much as you see in the first three. #1 and #3 both look overcooked to me, but sometimes I have to look at stuff for a while to know exactly what I don't like about it. I don't think any of those three are great compositions. I was on a walk with friends, and didn't have the luxury of lingering to select the best framing. I am happier with #4. I think it is a decent composition and it doesn't look so overdone.

[purplehaze]

Week 22

Spent part of the weekend reading about the Nikon autofocus system and was eager to practice what I had learned about using the dynamic focus area. As it turned out, Stella gave me an opportunity yesterday when she scared up a red squirrel. I was thrilled with the results; for you to take me down a peg or two and tell me what I could have done better. All images were shot handheld with the 70-200 mm Nikkor. The camera was on shutter priority and auto ISO. I chose a shutter speed of 1/500 sec., resulting in a fairly shallow aperture of f/4. I think I might have used half that speed, but I am new at this.

#1
This first image was underexposed by two full stops, but I include it to show you the quality of my focus.



#2
Caught some motion blur with this one.



#3


#4
I can tell my focus is off here, but I have included it because the squirrel is so cute and the light was so perfect.



#4
Eventually she ran over to the wood pile and I was able to get quite close to her.



#5


#6
And finally, la pièce de résistance:

[IzzieK]

Your squirrel is orangy in colour -- in my backyard we have greys...yours is nicer than ours. Anyway, this is a very nice experiment. Even though I already know my camera a little or as much as I have already learned, I decided to take an online class/seminar about it at creativelive.com. They have a Fast Start class on my specific camera on sale for $29.00 right now.

[Sam W]

Great shots of the squirrel Janis. I especially like #5. You might consider cropping a bit off the left and top to reduce the negative space in the top right.

[bnnrcn]

Hi Janis , so many nice images I love the 5th image of week 19 which is an abstract landscape.Although it is nice as is, I think cropping some of the sand might give some nice compositions too.

[Geoff F]

The squirrel shots have come out OK, particularly well considering the rather shallow focus depth at F4.

Maybe I would selectively tone down some of the brighter background spots. Some background over exposure was bound to occur with those scenes where you had to expose for the main subject. What was the Iso? I would probably have risked a bit of noise by going as high as Iso 800 in order to have a bit of spare capacity with the shutter speed/aperture options.

[purplehaze]

Your squirrel is orangy in colour -- in my backyard we have greys...yours is nicer than ours.

Actually, Izzie, we have a lot more grey squirrels than we do red, so it was a treat capturing this girl. I was reading on the bus this morning that our North American red squirrel is quite different from the Eurasian one, which has long, rabbit-like ears.

Anyway, this is a very nice experiment. Even though I already know my camera a little or as much as I have already learned, I decided to take an online class/seminar about it at creativelive.com. They have a Fast Start class on my specific camera on sale for $29.00 right now.

Sounds like a good deal. There is much to learn about how cameras function; I don't think the average person can absorb it all at once and it takes time to put it all together.