Flowers and greenery sneak through the dry desert in front of Shiprock in New Mexico.
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Platypod can help you get low in the field or tighten up your studio shooting space. Here’s an image I made with the camera on a very low angle to feature the flower against Shiprock in New Mexico.
It’s been and interesting year and a half. No doubt about it. I’m watching people start to come out from their cocooned lives and make their way to interaction with others. For many it was as if they have been locked in a cage.
Dreamer – Escape from Confinement
I had the pleasure of working with my muse, Pash Galbavy, on a video project where using her many skills of dance, mask making and visual storytelling. I’ll let the video tell you the rest of the story….
You can find more work and information about Pash on her unmask it site. Her work is inspiring.
One of my favorite parts of the 100-400 is being able to add the 2X teleconverter MC20. While I lament the f/13 aperture I enjoy the extended reach. The field of view is similar to a 1600mm lens on a full frame 35mm camera. Makes getting more frame-filling images when photographing wildlife a whole lot easier.
100-400mm with 2x teleconverter on FotoPro Tripod
Here’s a close-up I was able to get of a dragonfly. It’s pretty amazing that it even shows the facets in the eyes. The camera was mounted on a Fotopro Eagle E6L Tripod with built-in gimbal head for easy adjustments as the little critters maneuver between reeds.
Moon
I was enjoying the dark skies of Sedona from my back patio. Just for fun I grabbed the 100-400mm 2X combo on the OM-D E-M1 Mark III and shot the moon.
Incredible detail handheld 1600mm field of view.
Lens fully extended. Handheld at 1/400th of a second. After cropping down to the square I ended up with a file size about 2200 pixels.
Slices of sublime beauty wait in the wetlands of Sedona. The more time I spend in nature the more gifts seem to come my way. I have found however, that I have to be open to the experience.
Open to the experience
Pursuing dragonfly images in the wetlands is joy to me. Having to slow down and observe moments and behavior allow my brain to take a break. Sometimes I have the end in mind to such an extent that I forget to leave room for happy accidents.
This day was not one of those.
Reeds from the wetlands in Sedona, AZ form beautiful shapes curves and lines
Because I use back button focus when photographing wildlife the camera only changes focus when it is engaged. Because I have to search for the wildlife through a long lens the focus was slightly off as a scanned the reeds. What I saw was a little slice of magic. That serendipitous moment led me to try this as a technique. Light and shadow in yellows and greens played soft silhouettes in my viewfinder.
I worked the scene and share a couple of the resulting images here.
Post processing
Very little post-production was done on these photos. A little spot cleanup here, a tiny dodge and burn there were all that was needed. I hope you enjoy these as much as I do.
Yours in Creative Photography, Bob
PS – if you have any questions let me know
** I am testing the 100-400mm lens. Release date is September 15th, 2020
I’m testing out my build on my RAV 4 for boondocking by staying at a local campground. Two nights here and get to play with imagery including water, unique looking rocks and a full moon.
I’ll be sharing some of the things I found out in some future posts. In the meantime here is my office today and a couple quickly processed images.
Here’s my office for the day.
Hopefully a better version of this image is coming tonight as the sun will be higher in the sky when the moon makes it’s appearance. Two images combined.
Earlier in the day I found this dragonfly perch.
More soon…
Yours in Creative Photography, Bob
The Oly OM-D E-M1 Mark three is becoming a favorite. The Lumix LX100 has become my BTS camera. Fits comfortably in a small camera bag, the Mirrorless Mover 20 from Think Tank There is a newer LX100ii version that is a couple hundred dollars more…
The Olympus cameras now have a feature called LIVECOMP. This is short for live composite. You set a base exposure and then the camera repeats that exposure but only allows new light to be added. You get to view this as it is happening live, hence the name, which allows you to stop the exposure when you have gathered all the information you need.
Most current Olympus cameras have the feature. You’ll find Live Composite Mode in OM-D, PEN and TOUGH cameras.
If you need more time to capture the light effects of your scene and were to increase your exposure time the dark areas of your image would begin to become muddy and over exposed. It is definitely a specialty feature, but one that has some great uses. For example, keeping your frame exposed to catch lightning, car trails, carnival rides and fireworks. I’ll let you imagine the others but I’m going to share some settings and images made during the fireworks from the fourth of July.
Fireworks
F/14 4 SEC ISO 100
With the camera firmly mounted on a Fotopro Eagle E6L tripod I found the base exposure. I was looking to render the building lights and allow the fireworks to be against a dark sky. Knowing from past experience the fireworks would have time to streak in the sky showing the burst if they had about three to eight seconds ISO 100 @ f/8. I choose four seconds for my base exposure. Once I started seeing results on the camera back I made adjustments to the aperture to allow the fireworks to record just a bit more color and changing to f/11 then f/14.
Single frame capture
F/14 4 SEC ISO 100
Normally, to get multiple bursts in a single frame I combine images in post-production. With the LIVECOMP in play each image you see here was done in camera. The shutter was opened and recorded a four second exposure with the shutter still open additional four second exposures were recorded adding only the new bursts of light. When I saw enough bursts were captured I ended the exposure.
Next time
In the next fireworks post I’ll share settings for automatic recording of captures using the time-lapse mode of the Lumix G9.
Yours in Creative Photography, Bob
For infrared conversion of my cameras I use LifePixel. Infrared allows you to put an older camera to use and opens up a new time time of day for productive image creation.
Fotopro tripods are well worth checking out. You can learn about the ones I use and recommend by clicking on the Fotopro Tripods link at the top of this page. If you want to see what other tripods might fit your needs check out the Fotopro.com website. Check back with me before you buy as a Fotopro Ambassador I’m able to get you discounted pricing including complementary continental USA shipping for my followers that you won’t find through retail outlets.
Learn Photoshop in a fun environment. Aaron Nace applies the right amount of fun with easy to understand and follow tutorials. Actions and brushes are included with lessons!
Lightning, waterdroplets, sound, time-lapse, HDR sequences, smiles and much more control for your camera!
Cameras Get Smarter -
A High Speed Smart Camera Remote
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Platypod has become a great resource for being creative in getting your camera gear easily into unusual places. As an Platypod Pro I get to work/play with the gear even before it comes out. Head over to Platypod, subscribe to the newsletter and you will get special discounts reserved only for subscribers.
