Jelly Beauty

While I was in Oregon I visited an Aquarium in Newport and had a great time. I was stunned by the beauty of ocean life and especially of the Jelly Fish. I knew of them but having not been near the ocean more than a couple of times in my entire life so I really didn't know much about them. However when I was visiting here I was excited as I put my camera up near the glass and steadied it so that I could take an extended exposure since the lighting was rather low. They are so beautiful and the grace of how they propel themselves through the water was so fun for me to watch. Here are a few examples.

A quite walk in the afternoon

I took a walk Sunday afternoon with my son , daughter-in-law and granddaughter. It was very sunny and as I left with them I wondered what I might see today to photograph. I had already learned that if I had my camera I was sure to be able to find not only something but many things that would be worthy of an image. Of course there was always the little family and I did do pictures of them while we walked but I also found some other things as well and pictured below is what I found. Enjoy, the images will hopefully bring peace and calm to your day. No special photography skills needed to do this kind of an image sequence just a knowledge that there is beauty all around you all the time.

Unlikely pair

For those of you who may have been raised around a farm as I was might find this just a little bit funny. My Brother-in-law who lives next door to me loves to rope and has several steers that he practices on as well as a mechanical one. Well I saw this interaction between the mechanical one (who wasn't giving back at all), with one of the other steers that appeared to be about the same size. I just couldn't resist getting the pictures. (Add your own comments about what the live steer might have been thinking if you want.)

Fun with the Sun

So one of the fun things to do with the sun is to create shadows out of people and things and letting the sun dominate the lighting. We did these on the Oregon coast at Lincoln city and just had a lot of fun doing it. Requires a small aperture f22 to and a fast shutter speed is all it takes and then of course trying not to look into the sun while focusing since it will come right through to your naked eye. Take care doing it and focus on the subject with the sun blocked out of your view finder.

I love to watch Deer

This fellow was standing to the side of the road and having some confusion so instead of turning and running into the forest he started down the road toward us. It made for a great opportunity to shoot him several times and then we both left happy about it. I used to hunt deer with a rifle but find that I like doing it much better with a camera. (The bullets from the camera don't kill even though I know a lot of people who are afraid of camera's just the same.)

Stitching in CS3 Photoshop

On my way to Oregon with my wife she wanted to stop at the lookout where we could see the entire way up and down the Columbia River Gorge. SO we did and for the first time out of three that we have been there it was a clear day so I decided to take several shots of the gorge and then stitch them together in photoshop. It is really easy even though I didn't do the portrait image for the original images it still did a really good job with the landscape ones. I have included the original images from which the stitching was done and then added the piece of it that was actually used by photoshop to make the final image.



Here is the final image. The river is bent but that is because I just did a standard stitch however I think there is a way to make it look straight I just haven't experimented with it yet to find out.

Same Falls, Different Views

So one of the places that we visited on our trip to Oregon for a family reunion was the Silver Falls. We did a seven mile hike and saw 13 sets of falls and I don't remember the names of them at all. But while there I tried several different techniques for photographing falling water. I had a small tripod but due to the fact that I was hiking with 10 other people part of which were teenagers with attitudes I couldn't take the time that I really wanted so that I could use it each time. But I did the next best thing and found trees to steady my camera and allow for time exposures. I used a #4 Neutral Density filter since it was a very clear and bright day but was often surprised that I didn't need it since we were hiking into places where the moss hung thick on the huge tress and the light was not nearly as bright as I thought that it would be. This set of falls, as did several of the others, had a trail behind them so that you could hike to the other side without having to cross through the river. That trail allowed for me to take several pictures from different views of the falls.
So here is a quick rundown on part of the images that I took. The first three images were taken with different shutter speeds. The first was taken for 1/320th of a second with an F stop of 3.5 and an ISO of 1600.  I love digital cameras since you can change the ISO each time you take an image. It is really a lot more fun than carrying several cameras with different speed film loaded into each one.

This one was taken for .4  seconds with an F stop of 13.0 and an ISO of 200. My family in this image gives a little sense for the size of the falls.

This third one was taken for 1/8th of a second with an F stop of 3.5 and an ISO of 200. I loved the way the light was coming onto the falls making them very pretty from this particular angle.

This image was taken from almost directly behind the falls looking down to the rocks where the water first landed.  This was handheld at 1/160th of a second with an f stop of 5.6 and an ISO of 3200.

Here is the next one taken from the same location as the last only looking up to where the water came over the falls. Again this was handheld at 1/2000th of a second with an f stop of 5.6 and an ISO of 3200.



Taken at 1/500th of a second, f5.6 and ISO at 3200 I did the middle of the falls. As soon as  get a chance I want to try to stitch them together but I don't hold out much hope for a good image, just wanted to try it with a vertical set of images not horizontal as it is usually done.



Here is a look at the falls from the other side from the trail as it first comes past the falls. .5 sec, f 5.6, ISO 100.  Portrait orientation.


Here is a look at the falls from the other side from the trail as it first comes past the falls. .5 sec, f 5.6, ISO 100. Landscape orientation.


Finally this one was taken at 1/60th of a second, f 8.0 and ISO 1600. Again handheld and quickly shot with no tree to steady me as I was hurrying back to catch up with the group that had not waited for my fun to end there at those falls. (It did still take us about 4 hours to make the hike that they had expected to do in two and the others who couldn't or didn't hike were waiting at home ready to have dinner long before we got there. Oh well I probably will never get to visit these falls again and I didn't feel bad about taking the time. The others still got to eat and maybe not on schedule but the hike was far to beautiful to just run past them. Part of being a photographer is taking the time to do it as you go so you have some good images, with the bad, to choose from when you get back.)