Day 323 - Colourful Chaos

After two days of intensive training at work, and then hours of fighting to revive my home computer, I was exhausted.  I had a different subject in mind than what I'm posting here.

I was on the phone with my friend Swati, when I saw these gorgeous colours in the sky.  I knew I wouldn't get a good shot because I had no time to change into outdoor clothes and then leave home to find a proper location for a shot.  Therefore, I had almost resigned myself to not taking the shot, but gave in to Swati's urging to go capture the sunset.  And so I did!

I lost time when I tried to change the lens on my camera and the beautiful light was slipping really fast, as is usually the case for sunsets or sunrises.  So, I just dropped the idea of putting the camera on the tripod and had to use a faster shutter speed.  This led me to add a stop of light in post-processing.  I haven't touched the image otherwise.

The striations in the sky were much more pronounced when I looked at the sky initially.  I missed the opportunity to capture that.  Furthermore, it took me a while to try to make some sense out of the chaos of barren trees silhouetted against the fiery sky, and the ceiling of the balcony that I wanted to frame the shot with.

Day 292 - The Sky's the Limit!

While I waited for the bus for close to an hour, I saw the strangest shapes of clouds in the skies.  The setting sun turned the sky into a riot of colours and the drifting clouds passed by like shape shifters.  Incredible!

All the images were taken with my cell phone.  I have done very minimal post-processing (slight saturation, cropping and noise reduction) as the quality of these images would otherwise deteriorate a lot.  So, please excuse the quality of the images today.

Day 272 - Frozen at Sunset

Not just the river, but also my fingers!  I always pick the wrong day for staying out.  It was freezing cold at - 22 deg Celsius when I left work, but I am certain by the time I got to the pedestrian bridge next to the highway, it was much colder.  I couldn't stay out in the freezing cold for more than 20 mins or so, and that included my walk up to the bridge, which takes a good 5 - 7 mins. from the bus stop.

I will probably have to drop off the radar for the next couple of days, because I have another cooking class coming up.  However, I know I will have to do some food photographs again, so maybe I will be back sooner, who knows!

I didn't have my long lens, and I was pretty far from these giant reeds, and couldn't zoom in with my 18 - 55 mm.  Therefore, I had to compose with the taller ones silhouetted, as opposed to only the shorter backlighted ones, which was initially my plan for this image.

The river is completely frozen!  I loved the reflections of the setting sun on the icy parts.

Day 184 - Arc en ciel

I had decided not to touch my camera today - exhausted after a night of very little sleep.  I was relaxing on the couch, after I got home when my son alerted me to the colour of the sky.  And not only was the camera lifted, but the lens was changed in record time, coat donned, feet slipped into running shoes, and the shoes were running away with the feet in probably less than two minutes of witnessing the light outside my window - there was a huge rainbow!

On my way home I had seen the heavy, dark clouds with a tear in them and the sun shone through it and lit everything up with a strange, iridescent light.   I knew that if I were in my right mind, I should go out.  But that's the thing - I wasn't in my right mind.  I was so tired, I had almost dozed off on the couch.  Had it not been my son asking me to look out of the window, I would never have known.  If my son has identified a photo op, then it's gotta be real good!  Normally, he just couldn't be bothered, because he doesn't quite figure out why I do what I do, every day!

Anyway, to cut long story short, I ran out to try and shoot the rainbow, since I've tried and failed to produce a good shot in the past.  This occasion was no different.  By the time I fiddled around with the settings, it was reduced to a blur! :(  But on turning back to return home, I was rewarded with the most incredibly red sky that I have ever seen!  I took a couple of pictures of that, and headed back home as it had started to drizzle, and I was bitterly cold having gone out without socks or gloves - and the temperature definitely felt sub-zero with the wind and the moisture.

These shots are SOOC.

Day 169 - I crossed the bridge when I got there...

... but only after I had snapped up this sunset.  Gorgeous colours and the clouds tell a story of their own.  I tried different perspectives, but this low-down shot through the railings got me the best one.

These shots were taken a couple of days ago, but I just hadn't had the time to upload them because of my work schedule.  It's finally lightened up a bit, and although I'm exhausted, I figured I should start clearing my backlog.

Handheld @ 1/15s, f/11, 21 mm, ISO 100, Aperture Priority

Handheld @ 1/25s, f/11, EV -0.33, 34 mm, ISO 100, Aperture Priority

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 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 151 - Abandoned boat

I found this canoe next to the river, in a really deep part of the woods on my evening walk.  I processed this in Lightroom 3.

Day 148 - First attempt at HDR

I had taken these shots a few days ago and was thinking of trying this out.  Since I didn't get a chance to go out and do any photography, I downloaded Photomatix and tried out the HDR.  Being a trial version, I was getting a watermark, which was obviously really ugly.  Therefore, I did an exposure merge on a series of 5 bracketed shots in PSE8 and then fine-tuned it a little bit in LR3.   But I couldn't do the tone mapping that is usually done in Photomatix, so the results aren't as great in PSE8.

If you have any tips on doing HDR photography, I'd love to know.

Day 131- Another gorgeous sunset

I love the banded sky in the one below, but I wish I had something else in the frame - it's a little bit too stark.  I was in a thickly wooded area and I was trying to move around to find a better angle, but almost fell into a ditch and twisted my ankle.  I gave up trying!  :-(

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 87 - More birds

Two men and their dog gone fishing on the St. Lawrence River.

I spotted two more birds this evening - the common grackle and a couple of cedar waxwings.  I saw a couple of yellow warblers, but it was already too dark and they were too high up for me to snap them.  Oh, well!

This is most likely a lincoln's sparrow, but I'm not completely certain.  

The beautiful colours of the common grackle, captured in the glow of the setting sun.

The cedar waxwing - it very difficult to snap this one as he was hiding behind leaves.  Took a while to get shots clear of branches.  This is the best one I could get.  

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 71 - Sunset on Ile des Soeurs

The evening walk had to be cut short because of the bug infestation this little island is witnessing.  You have bugs mobbing you like there's no tomorrow.  You have to keep swinging your arms around to chase the bugs away and be able to see where you're going!  If you blow up the first photo, you'll know what I mean.

This shot was handheld.  I need to use my tripod to see the difference in details.