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Random Photo thread

Bob, I've been meaning to experiment with light painting. I was stuck at nigt on standby at a jobsite last month and tried it on my work van. I think that my light was not strong enough. It brightened up the van somewhat, but not in a dramatic way. The other thing I've been trying to play with is, depending on what / who you read, called "shutter drag", in where a long exposure is used with a shorter then the exposure flash to have both blur and a sparp subject in the image. I can't seem to get past having a bunch of camera shake so far and I'm still learning the rather big flash submenu in the camera - TTL (sort of like auto mode for flash), manual flash, flash brightness, first vs. second and a host of others.
 
Metz hammerhead flash guns are cheap as chips these days for two reasons.
1. They were the province of wedding and event 'togs and most people don't like the size of them.
2. Most people think they don't work on digital.

Point 1 - I lusted after one for years and I now have three :)
Point 2 - They have an excellent 'auto' mode (thyristor cut-off) which is every bit as good as dedicated TTL in most circumstances.

If you don't want to lug a hammerhead around, Metz made literally millions of smaller flashes and most of them have the same auto mode which works fine with modern kit.
There's no need to go down the rabbit hole of Metz accessories / adapters, etc, as the auto mode only needs a simple trigger whether it be a PC cord or from the hotshoe.
 
I had formulated a typical thrown together plan as I often do... the nearly record early spring cold had frozen the dog’s outside water dishes into ice pucks with interesting trapped bubbles in the ice. I took note. At dinner time we used the unused Christmas tree shaped butter sculptures that life had prevented us from using last Christmas. I saw the empty molds and thought that they could make interesting ice sculptures. After making one water tight with hot glue, it was in the freezer. A couple of hours later, so was the other one, along with a water bottle to “glue” the trees to the ice pucks from the dog dishes.

It was a comedy of tragedy or humor. The second tree hadn’t fully frozen and lasted for exactly one pic before it fell and broke. Shortly later the other did the same despite being more robust. The light source threw out way more heat then I had anticipated adding yet another variable. Good times.

Ice by Glen Brenner, on Flickr
 
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Sunday about sundown, I was out in the garage mucking with something, when I glanced out the window in the door.
Down at the end of the drive, about 80 ft or so away, was one of the foxes that live in our neighborhood.
For once, I had a camera in the garage with a long lens, (I had been trying to get some birds that like a shrub near the door).
I barely had time to set the camera, take a shot or two, and she was trotting up the drive quickly, straight at me.
All of this was through a small, water spotted, pane of glass.

Right as she turned to trot up the drive - GX8, f/5.6, 1/125, ISO 800, 300mm (600mm eq)
Fox in the yard by R John Thieda, on Flickr

Totally missed the focus all the way up. Refocused three/four times and missed them all, but then she stopped for three heartbeats.

She stopped right in a beam of light from the setting sun. Watching the sunset, perhaps? - GX8, f/5.6, 1/160, ISO 800, 300mm (600mm eq)
Fox in the yard by R John Thieda, on Flickr

Must have realized I was there, as she turned, looked at me, and took off stage left. No decent shots.
So 42 photos, four somewhat in focus, and two OK to share. A good day! :cool:
 
I sometimes have deer and a single turkey go through my back yard. That little fox is a beauty. On occasion a group of 7-12 turkeys will cross the back also. And naturally, I never have a camera or phone handy to get a picture of them.
 
Nice job on the Fox and Squirrel. Foxes are so cool. There are a few Fox familes near the beach here and some local photographers have taken some incredible shots of them.
 
Baatfam said:
Still practicing with the 100-300mm lens...
Squirrel by R John Thieda, on Flickr
Click to expand...

Love the spontaneity of your fox shot and the sharpness of squirrel shot is very good especially being shot at 1/100th/sec. I spent a long time learning to use my 100 - 300 and get consistent results and still it's a work in progress. I now shoot it with shutter priority at 1/500, center focus with tracking, high speed burst and over expose by at least 1 1/3 stops if shooting birds in flight to compensate for backlighting. Otherwise regular exposure. The speed to eliminate any camera shake at long focal lengths, noise from higher ISO is easier to fix or live with than blur. Over exposure to compensate for backlighting because if it's accidently over exposed it renders better in Post than under exposure. I set my C1 with these settings so when I swap lens the settings are right there. I also learned the hard way to leave the long lens on when I'm hiking, biking or just driving round. The critters won't wait for you to swap lenses but the landscapes will. LOL Duh!
 
Sandy said:
Love the spontaneity of your fox shot and the sharpness of squirrel shot is very good especially being shot at 1/100th/sec. I spent a long time learning to use my 100 - 300 and get consistent results and still it's a work in progress. I now shoot it with shutter priority at 1/500, center focus with tracking, high speed burst and over expose by at least 1 1/3 stops if shooting birds in flight to compensate for backlighting. Otherwise regular exposure. The speed to eliminate any camera shake at long focal lengths, noise from higher ISO is easier to fix or live with than blur. Over exposure to compensate for backlighting because if it's accidently over exposed it renders better in Post than under exposure. I set my C1 with these settings so when I swap lens the settings are right there. I also learned the hard way to leave the long lens on when I'm hiking, biking or just driving round. The critters won't wait for you to swap lenses but the landscapes will. LOL Duh!
Click to expand...

All good info, thank you. :cool:
 
Great pics guys. Both the variety of interests and technical abilities are impressive.

Another snapshot of wind over snow patterns sculpted on a lake. The area covered is about 12' wide by 25' deep. Wind was from left to right.

 
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