Hardly Harley

Today's shot is a 5 shot HDR, handheld. This was difficult to process because it was extremely windy, as you can see by the flag in the center. Normally I really like HDR for the detail it brings out in the clouds, but because of the wind and the fast moving clouds what we get is more of a blur, which I liked for this shot. The station itself is pretty neat looking. Definitely not what I think of when I think of a government building. Click to see larger

Week 13 of the Google Plus Project 52 was playing with light. I had a concept for what I wanted to do. Sadly what came out as the photo was not what I had in mind. I liked this photo so much that I considered not submitting a shot for this week. If you really want to see it (and the 12 other photos so far) you can go here . The photo shown below is not from my project 52, consider it as a substitute for this. It's a nice shot of the Trinidad pier. It's under construction currently so you can't walk on it, but it's a cool place none the less. Click to see larger

Back to to a rejected photo from my 52 week project over on Google+. It's another HDR shot, but I went extreme and took 9 exposures (2/3, 11/3, 2, 3) though in looking at it I don't think that many were necessary. The lighting was pretty even and things were either in shadow (wheels and such) or they were in evenly lit sunlight. In fact the plane itself looks pretty much the same from regular exposure to this HDR final. What did change were the clouds, which was what I was really wanting to get. The HDR'd clouds seem to pop, giving them some texture and presence that was lacking in the regular exposures. I don't dislike the shot, but the tarp over the cockpit of the plane kind of ruined it for me. It's understandable due to the rain recently, but it just didn't work for me. Sadly I couldn't get shots of some of the other planes on the field due to silly regulations about non-staff wondering aimlessly around on a runway with spinning propellors. Click

Click to see larger Planes, train, and automobiles. A decent enough movie, if I remember correctly, but was the theme for week 12. I had initially wanted to do the shot literally, but the odds of me being able to get into a position and location where I could shoot a plane, a train, and a car at the same time were very much against me. Also my Photoshop skills are virtually non-existent for that kind of work. So I threw out cars (too easy) and went for planes. Then it rained. And rained.

Still going through the break in period of the new camera. I'm finding it to be far more sensitive than the Canon, which is both great and infuriating. Today's shot is one I took while just trying to get used to it. Possibly the smallest lighthouse (though not in service, I believe) located in Trinidad, CA up in Humboldt. Click to see larger

Click to see larger I can't believe it's already week 11, and I'm still keeping up with it. I'll have to admit I've considered not taking a shot a couple times, and thought I'd have to be forced out due to my camera circumstances, but so far so good.

I knew that a better camera wouldn't make a better photographer, but I'm finding there is a learning curve moving from a point and shoot to a more fully featured model. With the SX10 I found that my settings tended to fluctuate between extremes because it was only at these levels that I could see a result. Also, when talking about aperture settings, the Canon had a 2.8-8 whereas the Panasonic has 3.5-22 and as a result I need to start recognizing light with this larger spread. Or I can do what I've been doing, using the Intelligent Auto setting to catch what the camera would use for aperture and shutter, then start from there in Aperture Priority. My other issue I've been having is remembering to take the camera out of auto bracketing after shooting an HDR shot. Not realizing I've left it in auto bracket leads to the next five shots of different subjects have exposure values anywhere from -1.33 to +1.33, which when trying to take a panorama shot could be annoying.

This week our theme was depth of field, the measurement that determines what in a photo is in focus and what is not in focus. There are several factors that determine this, but probably the biggest one is the aperture setting, or controlling how much light enters the sensor. The larger the hole the smaller the f number. So on my lens, 3.5f is the largest aperture setting, with 22f being the smallest. In most cases a large aperture will only keep in focus those things that are closest to it, blurring the background and the smallest aperture setting tends to keep the most if not all of a scene in focus. This is probably over simplifying things, but is enough to get the gist of things.

To replace my dearly departed Canon SX10is I have chosen the Panasonic GF2, a camera in the Micro Four Thirds family. The Micro Four Thirds family of cameras were the first mirror-less interchangeable lens system cameras. A conventional DSLR uses a mirror to show the picture prior to taking it, then on shutter press the mirror flips up letting the light hit the sensor thus taking the picture. With these new cameras the mirror is taken out of the equation and uses the sensor to show the picture when framing. This allows for smaller bodies and still have DSLR picture quality.

Trying out some "features" in Picasa and found I could directly blog this recent album I uploaded. A couple have already been seen on this blog, but there are some that haven't. Have a look and let me know what you think. Hopefully clicking on Paul and Babe below here takes you to the album.

I was hoping today's post would be about my new camera with at least a photo of the new camera, but UPS has deemed Friday to be delivery day. Today's photo helped hammer home to me the demise of my Canon. I had originally planned on taking some HDR brackets of Battery Point Lighthouse, but when I looked at the shots it quickly became apparent I was going to have to use the brackets to get a somewhat decent shot. The original, non-HDR'd shot, which showed on the LCD as well exposed, came out looking very under exposed, making the bright sky look dull, and the shadow areas a black hole. When I got home and saw these on my computer I was really disappointed. I had really high hopes for this, and other shots I had taken, but unless it was in direct bright sunlight, all my shots turned out under exposed. I initially thought I had a setting wrong on the camera, but then I saw some shots taken at the same time by another camera using about the same settings and it was much