Madison, WI - Experimenting with Macro Lens, and Night shots

Madison, Wisonson is a beautiful city.  It has the largest capitol of all the states, with spokes radiating out in all directions.  I had to try to capture the magnificent capitol at night. 

At 9:45 pm, the illumination is apparent.  Shot with f4.5, 1/30 sec, ISO 1600:

Then shot again after midnight. f5.6, 1/15 sec, ISO 1600:

Next, some macro photography of insects...

 f5.6, 1/80 sec, ISO 100, 90 mm

 f5.6, 1/40 sec, ISO 100, 90 mm

 
f5.6, 1/200 sec, ISO 100, 90 mm

Nothing exciting about the insects, but good practice with macro lens.  Would be ideal catching the insects with unusual interaction. 

Assignment - Neighborhood Photo < 1 Mile from Home

I live in Hartland, so my options were rather limited.  A neighborhood is a community, so I wanted to avoid flora and fauna as subjects, and focus on people.  Though I suspect landscape would be fair game.  We have one shopping center a mile away, so I took my camera and stood in the parking lot.  I did not have a subject in mind.  At first I thought it would be interesting to film a stand-alone coffee shop and pull up vehicle making a transaction.  But then I observed something as mundane as a gas station.  I noticed there was a certain symmetry when two cars fueled up on either side of a pump.  Exposure 1/60 second, f5.6, ISO200, AP, pattern metering, 300 lens.

Post processing I centered the histogram, changed to B&W, used lens correction, and saved as BMP.

Working with Photoshop

I tend to gravitate toward black and white photos.  Politics are not black and white.  Emotions are not black and white.  But when it comes to pictures, there is a certain truth (at least to me) that is laid bare with black and white images.

The CCC is having a photo contest in October.  I know, that is several months away.  Part of the exercise is using Photoshop, which is pretty much expected when post processing raw images.  Actually, the photographer may also use Lightroom and Elements.  I have access to all, but thought I would concentrate on Photoshop first. 

I took several photos in Colorado, including the Air Force Chapel.  It was an overcast day, and the building structure was primarily a light brown.  The only strong color came from the green trees.  I processed this as black and white and felt the lines really stood out.

My CCC assignment is to take a photo of anything within one mile of my neighborhood.  While obviously this is not in my neighborhood, I am going to look at potential subjects with a grayscale eye.

My First Foray Into the Jungle

My wife and I ventured to Jacobson Park in search of ever elusive bird.  Any bird.  I wanted to try some tips I had picked up from my first camera meeting.  Camera set on AP.  ISO 100 (bright day).  F/5.6.  Partial metering.  I used manual focus, as I remembered I needed to focus on the eye of the bird.  I thought I did pretty well for my first day.  Got home, threw the raw images on the computer, and almost ALL of them were out of focus.  Here is one that was not out of focus, but that was pure luck...

So, by doing some fancy Googling, I discovered I needed to adjust the diopter on my camera.  Took a few test shots in my backyard and the focus was on target.  Any day you learn something new means it's not a wasted day.  So hopefully pictures like the above will the rule instead of the exception.  As far as composition, white balance, etc, that's for the future.  I first want to feel comfortable in the knowledge I can take a photo with the camera set on manual and not worry I will come back with a ton of fuzzy images.

A Novice Photographer Joins Creative Camera Club

Went to my first meeting.  Hi, I'm Mark and I'm a recovering... oops, wrong meeting (just kidding). Was a nice group of people gathered to view a presentation by Lisa Langell.  Lisa take wildlife photography, and displayed beautiful pictures of bears and other wildlife from her ongoing excursions to Alaska.  The discussion revolved around composition, rule of thirds, aperture settings, and patience/luck getting the right photo.  And not to take the usual bird/flower photos, but to look at your subject from a different perspective.