2017 Project 52, Second Quarter by Joe/ Joebranko

[joebranko]

Visited a First Nation Reservation about an hour from home, recently, and took some pics.

This first one is a "Longhouse". The Longhouse is the political and spiritual institution of the Iroquois Confederacy. In the times before European contact and up until the 1800’s, longhouses originally served as the living quarters of Iroquoian people. Stretching between 40 and 200 feet long, longhouses were long rectangular structures that housed a number of families belonging to a particular matrilineal clan family. Along the inner walls were open compartments for each nuclear family with a long courtyard in the center, which connected the two entrances on each end of the building. Two adjacent families would share one hearth at each compartmental increment.




The second is a pic from a famous location in First Nation Grand River history. It is the birthplace of Poet Pauline Johnson.

[purplehaze]

Hi, Joe. Those longhouses are something, aren't they? I have visited the Huron village up on the Niagara escarpment and would like to go again sometime.

The second image is interesting to me because of the juxtaposition of the house and the tree, but the first falls a little flat compositionally. I am wondering what other options you had and whether you took advantage of them. Do you have any other shots you want to share?

[joebranko]

Hi, Joe. Those longhouses are something, aren't they? I have visited the Huron village up on the Niagara escarpment and would like to go again sometime.

The second image is interesting to me because of the juxtaposition of the house and the tree, but the first falls a little flat compositionally. I am wondering what other options you had and whether you took advantage of them. Do you have any other shots you want to share?

Thanks Janice. For me the composition is really the juxtaposition of the tree and house. However I feel the tree is too dominant in the shot, perhaps because of it being so tall. Had I climbed a tree to get higher, and used a long lens, then the perspective would have been better and the compression of the longer lens would have brought the tree closer to the house. Oh well, my tree climbing days are at least 50 years behind me and I did not have a longer lens with me.

[purplehaze]

No, no, not asking you to climb, Joe! My critique was of the first shot, the longhouse, which I find a bit tight and lacking in depth, perhaps because of the tightness.

[Shadowman]

Nice shots.

[joebranko]

These tulips are from my back yard. They are growing behind a small fence in the garden. To get this shot I leaned over the fence and shot from above. I had set up to use max aperture so as to blur the background as much as possible. The flowers appear very soft , because a wind came up as I shot causing difficulty in getting a tight focus in the shallow DOF.




This next shot is of the trees in my neighbor's back yard. The leaves look somewhat autumnal; But this was taken a few days ago, the colour thanks to the late afternoon sun.

[Shadowman]

Nice efforts.

[skitterbug]

These tulips are from my back yard. They are growing behind a small fence in the garden. To get this shot I leaned over the fence and shot from above. I had set up to use max aperture so as to blur the background as much as possible. The flowers appear very soft , because a wind came up as I shot causing difficulty in getting a tight focus in the shallow DOF.




This next shot is of the trees in my neighbor's back yard. The leaves look somewhat autumnal; But this was taken a few days ago, the colour thanks to the late afternoon sun.

Hi Joe ~ Trying to take pictures when the wind is causing havoc is definitely a challenge! I'm still trying to get decent settings for outside camera work without causing too much noise in my pictures. I like the tulips but as you mentioned some are in focus and the ones around them are a bit softer. I guess I would have set the DOF for better focus and then used PP to try and achieve the blurring of the background. I've been playing with the radical filter tool (in LightRoom) but can't say yet whether the results are as they should be. Overall though I like the results you have with your tulips!

Your second picture with the light shining through the trees is a nice picture showing spring trying to return! You've caught the glow from the sunshine as you hoped to.

These 2017 P52 projects are definitely a challenge ~ lots of fun though! Enjoy the day!

[Wavelength]

Very lovely images; liked all of them

[Geoff F]

Real life flower photography is so difficult, Joe; particularly with yellow, or red, blooms which get over exposed/saturated so easily.

Getting sufficient focus depth is always another tricky situation which often requires stacking multiple focus points, but that isn't much use when the wind is blowing!

When faced with this sort of dilemma I try to get the foreground blooms well focused and allow those in the rear to gradually fade into softness.

Two days ago I was attempting to do a shot of a single Spearwort flower, and bud. Although I managed to get suitable focus shots I couldn't get a stable exposure on those shiny yellow flowers. Even in shade I was having over saturated areas compared with other petals at a slightly different light angle. Eventually I just gave up and went to an easier subject.

Nice bit of wispy cloud in the second scene.

[joebranko]

Thanks Geoff. Focusing on the nearest I think would have worked better. I was focusing more on the center of the display. But with all the movement, I don't really know what my camera locked on!

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[joebranko]

Nice efforts.

Thanks

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[joebranko]

Hi Joe ~ Trying to take pictures when the wind is causing havoc is definitely a challenge! I'm still trying to get decent settings for outside camera work without causing too much noise in my pictures. I like the tulips but as you mentioned some are in focus and the ones around them are a bit softer. I guess I would have set the DOF for better focus and then used PP to try and achieve the blurring of the background. I've been playing with the radical filter tool (in LightRoom) but can't say yet whether the results are as they should be. Overall though I like the results you have with your tulips!

Your second picture with the light shining through the trees is a nice picture showing spring trying to return! You've caught the glow from the sunshine as you hoped to.

These 2017 P52 projects are definitely a challenge ~ lots of fun though! Enjoy the day!

Thanks Sandy. It was challenging trying to get them in focus.

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[joebranko]

Very lovely images; liked all of them

Thanks Nandakumar.

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[joebranko]

Visited Bay Front park yesterday to see if there was anything new happening there. It is a park close to down town Hamilton which has a lot to offer; lots of water fowl, fishing ( ice fishing in winter), boating, biking and jogging. Yesterday we saw a pair of swan caring for their eggs, hoping to bring some signets into the world.
I had been shooting at 1/320" when the swan, reacting to the near presence of a goose had taken objection to this and chased the goose off: I had not anticipated this so my exposure time was too long. As you can see the wing movement is a blur.





In case this should happen again I switched to Time Value and set exposure to 1/1000.

1/1000, f 4.5, ISO 200

I chose to leave the ISO at 200 because I worry about noise at high ISO values. I probably would have a better result at ISO 800 without any appreciable noise. The result of this decision was that my lens was wide open, the depth of field was narrow and the image not sharp. Additionally I had not brought my tripod with me.

[purplehaze]

I had not anticipated this so my exposure time was too long.

Ah, reads all too familiar, Joe. I can emphathize. (I was shooting landscapes yesterday, when a frisky silver fox emerged on the trail by my side.) Still, we can hope that, with practice, we will learn to see these things coming and respond intuitively with all the speed and dexterity required. The important thing is to be out there, practising, so good on ya (and me, for that matter).

Edit: I meant to add that, while it is good to be critical of yourself, these are probably better than you think they are.

[Wavelength]

Lovely images

[Geoff F]

Looks like it was a somewhat overcast day which always poses potential problems with exposure although that probably helped to prevent the swan's wings from over exposing and losing detail. The last shot works fine.

Too often I 'temporarily' make an adjustment for one shot and forget to reset to my 'default settings' so end up with problems of slow shutter speed etc.

Under average conditions I can usually shoot at Iso 400 without any serious noise issues; but yes, I get nervous at 800 or above.

[skitterbug]

I'd be happy to have the results you achieved. Some like the motion being apparent in wing movement, etc. The rest is sharp and clear. You have a good series.

ps: I fight with my camera settings all the time. It seems like no matter what I choose, there could have been a "better choice" LOL. Yours worked out just fine in my opinion!

[joebranko]

Ah, reads all too familiar, Joe. I can emphathize. (I was shooting landscapes yesterday, when a frisky silver fox emerged on the trail by my side.) Still, we can hope that, with practice, we will learn to see these things coming and respond intuitively with all the speed and dexterity required. The important thing is to be out there, practising, so good on ya (and me, for that matter).

Edit: I meant to add that, while it is good to be critical of yourself, these are probably better than you think they are.

Thanks Janis. The shots were not bad, but I could have done better.

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