Saturday morning marco photo walk

This past Saturday one of the photo clubs I am a member of had a Macro photo walk at a local park. We decided that it should be held at 6:30am so we could get out and shoot before the bugs became too active and the breeze started up. We have several members show and had a good time.

All these photos were shot using my Canon Macro 100mm f/2.8 lens. All of these were shot using natural light.

My first photo from the day is of an orange bug on a yellow flower. I like this photo because of the way the light was on him and the edge of the flower. My setting were: iso 200, f/3.5, 1/100sec

My second photo is of a spider. I like the way he was sitting there with the light hitting him. I would have liked to have taken him from a slightly different angle but he moved when I moved. My setting were: iso 200. f/3.5, 1/100sec

My third photo is of the spider's web. This was a bit of a challenge because I could not get all the web in focus because my depth of field was too shallow and the water I misted it with kept evaporating very fast. My setting were: iso 200, f/3.5, 1/320sec

My last photo is of a bee. He was very active and was a bit of challenge to get one that I liked. My setting were: iso 200, f/5.6, 1/160sec

All of these photos were very minimally edited, most of these have not even cropped.

Boyson Trail

I have been on many mornings going out with my camera on the Boyson Trail. The trail goes from near Bowman Woods winding along the Indian Creek through Thomas Park ending at
Hanna Park.

On these walks I take pictures of whatever catches my eye that morning. I don't take a lot of pictures and sometimes I don't quite get the shot I wanted. The nice thing is that I can try again the next time I am on the trail. I will be posting pictures off and on from this trail as we go through the year as a way to see how it changes through the different seasons.

The lens I have had on my camera for these walks is my Canon EF-S 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS Zoom. This lens is not as sharp as my macro but is a better walk around lens.

This first photo is of a squirrel with a nut in his mouth. He chirpped at me until I noticed him and then he ran into the tree. He is not as sharp as I would because I had my camera set too slow because I had been taking pictures of some wildflowers along the trail. The settings for this photo were iso 200, f/8, 1/12sec

The second photo is of two bees on a yellow wildflower. This photo is much sharper than the squirrel but is not as sharp as my macro lens. I took this photo after I had taken the squirrel photo. My setting for this photo were iso 100, f/9, 1/50sec

These are the only two photos that I am going to share this week from my walks along the Boyson Trail. I will be back on Boyson Trail and there will be more photos. This is a very popular trail here I have never been on the trail when I did not run into a lot of other people on it as well.

Out early one morning

This past week it has been much nicer so I have been out more to taking photographs. I have been heading to near by park first thing in the morning sometimes before coffee. Usually this time of year the parks flower beds are over flowing with flowers but this year they are not doing as well because of the very hot and dry weather we have been having.

Here are some that I took Friday morning at Noelridge park using my Macro lens using natural light. The reason I chose these to share is that they are bright and cheerful to me.

Here is a Sunflower. I like the way the leaves are pointing both right and left and that there are still a few dew drop still on it. My settings for this photo were: iso 200, f/11, 1/80sec

Here is a bee on a Sunflower. My setting for this photo were: iso 400, f/11, 1/125sec

Here is a close up of the same bee. My setting for this photo were: iso 400, f/11, 1/64sec

Here is the center of a lily with an ant on the petal near the center. I just love the color of this photo. My settings for this photo were: iso 400, f/11, 1/50sec

Fireworks Again

I tried shooting fireworks earlier this summer at a Kernels baseball game but the photos were not the long tails that and brilliant lights that we associate with fireworks.

My problems was that my iso was too high, my f stop too low and my shutter too fast and needed a tripod to hold the camera.

I had another chance on July 4. We, my family and I, decided to go to the Kernels game and watch the fireworks they had. We also were able to see the Cedar Rapids Downtown ones from the game as well and occasionally there were other fireworks going off.

This time I lowered my iso to 100, raised my f stop to f/11, and used my shutter remote to have the exposures of 2 seconds or longer. While I was not able to take in my tripod I was able to take my monopod. These were  much better.

This was one at the very beginning when the field lights were not completely dimmed. I really like the the field in the foreground with the fireworks with long tails in the back and the starring of the fireworks just before they exploded.

The next two are during the Kernels firework show with the downtown fireworks in the background.

The next two are after the Kernels fireworks show ended but the downtown one was still going on. These were further away and we had a little bit of monopod movement but I like the effect it gave to these.

These are a lot more interesting that my previous attempt with fireworks. I can still see a lot of room for improvement but these are so much better. A tripod would have been better because they are much stabler than a monopod but the monopod made these possible because there was no way I could have hand held my camera for these. Also using my shutter release cable allowed my to have longer exposures without adding any movement from pressing the shutter release button on the camera.

Orchids

Reccently I went to a local greenhouse during the week and was able to take pictures of some of their flowers. I usually like to be able to move the flowers around a little so I can get the best angle for the picture but this time I was not allowed to touch at all. So I had to try to get a good angle.

This Orchid photo was one of several that I took. I like how one bloom was in focus with the others less so and the background as totally out of focus. It has to me a peaceful garden look. I had a couple of people suggest that I should have tried a vertical photo. Maybe next time.

The settings for this photo was iso 400, f/5.6. 1/400sec

This next photo is of a Dragon Orchid. I am not as happy with this photo because I could not get futher away from it or an angle that I was happy with. This was one if I could have turned the pot a bit I could have moved a bit and gotten a better photo. Sometimes this is how life goes.

The settings for the Dragon Orchid photo was iso 400, f/11. 1/160sec

Trying Fireworks

Recently we went to a Minor League Baseball game, the Cedar Rapids Kernels, and after the game they had fireworks. They have fireworks after games through out the season so I can go back and try fireworks again and again.

I took pictures of the games and fireworks but want to share the firework photographs. I was hand holding the camera for all of these shots. I will talk about how I could improve them after the photos.

Fireworks one. iso 800, f/3.5, 1/20sec

Fireworks two. iso 800, f/3.5 1/20sec

Fireworks three, iso 800, f/3.5, 1/10sec

All of these photos have the same problems.

1- I had my shutter speed too slow. I should have had it at 2-4 sec which means that I would have needed a tripod of someplace to set my camera.
2- too low of f stop. A higher f stop would have helped because I would not over expose the image with a slower shutter speed.
3- lower iso. This would have allowed for longer shutter, lower noise and better quality image.

If I had done these I would have had more colors and longer tails which would be more interesting to look at and come closer to what we see with our eyes.

In images one and two more in the foreground would have helped make a more interesting by giving more dimension to the images, where as image 3 had things in the background that added interest.

I will try again with fireworks and share my results. While I did not photograph the firework well I did learn what I did wrong so I can improve next time.