Day 293 - Oil Droplets

I took these shots the day before yesterday but had too much on my plate to post.  I tried this from my "to-do" list, and I am NOT satisfied by the way they turned out.  I was hoping for a sharper focus, but I had very little time to spend on perfecting this.  Therefore, this idea remains on my to-do list to retry in the future.

The first shot turned out OK, but the second one almost got there, but missed! :(





Once I've perfected this, I will post a how-to.  I plan to do this again soon, so stay tuned.

Day 164 - A wasted photo op

I have been working very late every day and therefore getting home after it gets dark.  I left a little early because I had a technical problem that can't get fixed before tomorrow morning.  So, I left work thinking I would walk the last 3 kms home since I have been extremely stressed over the past few days.  I was exhausted but needed the exercise.
As I left the office, I observed the sky was gorgeous with the clouds hanging low looking like the smouldering ashes in a wood-burning fireplace.  I had wanted to enjoy the view, from my favourite part of the island where I live.

However, I lost time on the bus, then I lost time getting to the spot from where I thought I would get a nice view, only to realize that the path was blocked off by construction.  Then as I sadly walked home, I saw the last bits of the beautiful sky.  I had decided not to use my phone camera again since it delivers such poor results.  But I couldn't let myself give up and one optimistic corner of my heart led me to take a few shots.  The clouds in the sky seemed on fire, and the blue parts peeking out from behind the clouds reflected on the river.  It was breathtaking, yet what a waste without a camera.

This is the only shot that came out clear - the rest are horribly grainy.  But even from this poor quality image you can probably tell what I meant about the blue and the sunset colours reflected on the river.

Day 159 - When will the rains stop?

I got caught in a huge downpour just as I left work.  My umbrella flew off and turned inside out in the most awkward ways and I was sopping wet long before I got to the bus stop.  I didn't get a seat as usual, and I think it was a good thing today - I saw how beautiful the rain-slicked streets looked from the reflections of the colours in the puddles.

So, once off the bus (this time I wasn't impatient enough to jump off it) I rushed home, shed my wet coat (and did I tell you I bought it thinking it was waterproof and then realized I think too much?), didn't bother getting out of my wet shoes, had my son hand me my camera, and I ran out.  Although the rains had held up for a bit, it was still much too dark.  So, I bumped up the ISO and started shooting.  I tried looking for the puddles, and saw one that had nice reflections, but somehow couldn't get a shot I liked.  I am certain there will be more rain in the next few days, so I am going to take a shot at reflections again.  Here's one I got from this evening:

Noting that the light was getting feebler by the minute, I left that alone and walked over to where I saw a couple of red maple leaves amidst some yellow and brown against a nice grassy, green background.  And for the first time, I saw these yellow leaves all curled up into a ring!  Amazing little things - trying to figure out what they are.  Any idea?

Here's the little leaf ring!

The shot below could have been much better if I weren't hand-holding the camera at 1/10s.  I was finding it hard to focus (even after I turned the AF off, so I could focus manually) in the extremely low light but finally managed to get a somewhat clear shot.  I've cropped it in post to emphasize the droplet.  You can click on it for a larger view.

Day 153 - Boulder Bay

While on another walk by the riverside, I discovered this boulder in the river, and then as I got closer to it I found a little inlet (if I can even call it that) by the shoreline.  So, now my name for that little hidden cove (my imagination does make it sound exotic, doesn't it!) is Boulder Bay!  

So, I stood by boulder bay just breathing in the cooling autumn air and scents and realized that the moon was reflecting on the tranquil waters of the St. Lawrence.  I have very rarely seen the water as tranquil as it was this evening.  Since I was only armed with my 18-55 mm lens, I stood there and tried different perspectives.  I have a few other shots that came out pretty well, but I will have to take my time to sort through them.

Day 145 - Raindrops

Well, the most obvious subject after a rainy day would be raindrops on anything and everything.  I went out armed with only my macro lens and my tripod, but the high winds rendered the tripod useless.  The evening was dark and gloomy so I had very little light to play in.  Therefore, high ISO and noisy pictures were my lot for today.  I tried to remove some noise in post, but just not satisfied with what I got.

The following shots are definitely not worth my trouble, but I somehow liked the shape and the pattern of the droplets on the red leaf - they kinda all appear to be within the lines that are the veins on the leaf.   

This second one has this drop caught in between two leaves - I found that interesting.

More photos from today's outing in my Flickr photostream.

Day 130 - Reflections of a gorgeous sunset

Determined to get back on track a bit with my photo 365, I headed out with my camera, even though I felt totally uninspired.  Had no idea what to look for today, so just explored a new neighbourhood on the island where I live.  Found a few curious things, including an ivy covered lamp post.

I had a challenge exposing for the foreground that was the lamp post, because I'd wanted to include the interesting clouds in the sky.  Finally, gave up and just composed my shot with the lamp post, totally excluding the clouds, since they were getting blown out and the light was failing really fast.

Looking at this image makes me think like someone is towering over me and saying "I told you about the feet, didn't I?" (King Julian-style, in the movie Madagascar).

The image below was the only shot of the car I could get, because I was afraid someone might tell me off for photographing their car.  But I really like the reflection, and I managed to sneak a shot.  It didn't turn out too bad considering I had only the one chance.

The last ones here are not well composed at all!  I turned around at one point and saw the sky turning this incredible colour and I was in the thick of a residential neighbourhood.  I tried to get to the river side as fast as I could, because I knew that's where I would find all the colours, but I was on the east side of the island, and it would take me a good 20 min. brisk walking to get to the other side.  So, just to be able to record the colours, I shot into thin air, not caring about anything but the sky.  So here's the series almost SOOC, except for a little saturation and a crop in a couple of them.

Day 126 - Curves and lines

Photo club meeting day - running out of ideas.  So, led the group to this circular elevated structure (don't know what it exactly is) and started shooting the lines and patterns.

And my fascination with reflections in the windows never ceases!

Day 120 - Lesser Goldfinch

This is probably the female.  I had a really hard time getting good photographs as this little birdie was in a darker part of the foliage and I had the sun shining right in my eyes.

This shot was polarized and I like the way I see the shadow instead of a reflection.  Also, the colours look a lot better than when I was shooting without the C-PL.

This is an Eastern Forktail.  Unfortunately, in my hurry to get a nice close-up of this one, I forgot to check the aperture and thus lost out on the DoF.

Day 88 - She sells sea shells.. no.. she just sees shells!

The shots didn't quite turn out the way I wanted them, but I kinda like the second and last shots the best.  I used a lamp with a "soft box" to illuminate the shell from below in the last one.  The other two shots are taken in ambient light.   The background turned out the best in the last one, I think - I love the soft diffused background and the 2 levels of reflections.  

Av, spot metering, f/6.3, exposure compensation of -1, ISO 200

Av, spot metering, f/6.3, exposure compensation of -1, ISO 200

Av, spot metering, f/10, exposure compensation - 2 stops, ISO 200

Day 75 - Thunderstorm

I went out in the mini T-storm that we had yesterday evening.  My objective was to catch some lightning, but there were some major challenges - a) I didn't have a proper way to trip the shutter because I couldn't predict the lightning flashes; b) I used long exposures, but the lightning was really weak whereby there wasn't anything that was caught on camera; c) I waited for over an hour amidst the mosquitoes and other miscellaneous bugs that are characteristic of Spring and got a few bites as souvenirs.

I played with the WB on this one.  

These were unexpected shots of some Canada Geese treading water and taking off of the river.  I knew they always fly within some kind of formation, so I had to click continuously to get a shot that I liked.  

Day 74 - Night lights across the river

I didn't get very good shots this evening.  I didn't have my tripod and I'd just gone out to get a breath of fresh air after dinner.  I had to crank up the ISO very high since I had to hand hold the shot, but of course there's still a lot of camera shake besides a lot of noise in the picture.  Doing some night lights is on my agenda, but not quite sure when exactly that's going to happen.

And I also happened to notice the bugs on treetops when I was snapping the moon.

Day 64 - Rising with the sun

My day started at 4:30 a.m. and although I'd barely slept for 3 hours, I nonetheless decided to roll out of bed and head out with the camera.  I was rewarded with a beautiful sunrise, fresh air, some sleepy insects and bird calls.  The Philadelphia Oriole is still eluding me.  I saw it a couple of times, but couldn't snap it - my AF let me down!  I refuse to be discouraged - I'm going to persist!

Day 51 - Lots of food, lots of fotos

Had another great class today!  My students for the day were my friendly neighbours.  I'd been apprehensive if at the end of the class I'd be leaving them with a great experience where they'd be happy to bump into me, or just give me a cross look and pass me by.  I kept my friends, fortunately! ;-)

Too much cooking since yesterday, and then cleaning up after - I was exhausted and smelling of curry from head to toe.  So, I just decided to get some fresh air and feed the ducks some breadcrumbs, since I'd disappointed them last time.  I brought a lot with me and threw them around all over the place.   And the birds and the squirrels rewarded me for my generosity (ahem)! 

I also ran into my friends with their newborn daughter and clicked a couple of photos of the baby (not posting them without permission).  So, it was portraits of birds, flowers, animals and babies.  I even did a few quick gerbera shots and reflections before I went for my walk.  

The next one is a shot at high key.  Need to practise this.

I definitely need a macro lens for shots like the one below.  I couldn't get in much closer than about 10 ft to get in close to the ladybug - I was leaning over the railing of a bridge and a little bit more would have seen me land on my face on the hiking trail.