Monthly Archives: January 2016

Winter at the Zoo

Posted by Mike on

Rosamond Gifford Zoo, Syracuse , NY

Help! Each January the Rosamond Gifford Zoo in Syracuse has a photo contest. I have participated in the past but last year I never managed to get my butt out to the zoo. As I stated in an earlier post this week, I planned to change my image capture dry spell this weekend with a last weekend opportunity to capture some images of the cool residents of the zoo.

Although it was the end of our month at work and I had to spend the morning getting parts out the door. I got back home around noon, changed my clothes, loaded up the camera and lenses, and hopped in the car for the hour drive to Syracuse. There were a few clouds in the sky but the sun managed to make an appearance a few times as I wandered the grounds of the zoo. Temperatures were in the low 40’s which made it a glove free time outside.  I had a great time!

Before my luck changed I made the rounds on the outdoor path to see who was out and about. There were a lot of chances to photograph the animals. I just need more practice at moving objects. Some of those critters just didn’t want to sit still for me.

I was smart this trip (and due to my change to the Olympus mirrorless system) I brought everything I might need in my messenger bag. This allowed my to switch lenses as the need arose. Some of those compounds let the animals escape us “shooters” by laying down a long way away. I was very happy with the performance of my 40-150mm lens (which is 80-300mm equivalent). Also, the 12-40mm f/2.8 lens let me get a fast enough shutter inside which I have struggled with in the past. I will also say that the internal stabilization of the E-M1 camera let me capture at a much lower shutter than I could with my old Nikon cameras.

Now for what I need your help with. I can submit two images for the photo contest. I narrowed down my choices to the following five. I would really appreciate everyone’s thoughts as to their favorites. If you can let me know in the comments which ones catch your eye then I will submit the two with the most votes. Thanks for helping me!

 

MLCreations Photography: Blog Post Related &emdash; Resting

Resting
Olympus OM-D E-M1, M. Zuiko 40-150mm f/4-5.6 R, 1/200s, 40mm, f/5.6, ISO 200

 

MLCreations Photography: Blog Post Related &emdash; Sleep

Sleep
Olympus OM-D E-M1, M. Zuiko 40-150mm f/4-5.6 R, 1/125s, 150mm, f/5.6, ISO 200

 

MLCreations Photography: Blog Post Related &emdash; Spying

Spying
Olympus OM-D E-M1, M. Zuiko 40-150mm f/4-5.6 R, 1/160s, 145mm, f/5.6, ISO 200

 

MLCreations Photography: Blog Post Related &emdash; Deep in Thought

Deep in Thought
Olympus OM-D E-M1, M. Zuiko 12-40mm f/2.8, 1/30s, 40mm, f/2.8, ISO 1600

 

MLCreations Photography: Blog Post Related &emdash; Stare

Stare
Olympus OM-D E-M1, M. Zuiko 12-40mm f/2.8, 1/160s, 32mm, f/2.8, ISO 1600

 

Photo Fix Friday

Posted by Mike on

Photo Fix Friday

I have been posting quite a lot of my Disney images lately as a stop gap to my current trend of not capturing anything new with the camera. That trend I plan on remedying this weekend! So as not to get everyone to hate Disney I thought I would try something different – Photo Fix Friday.

I was looking over my older images (from 2012/2013) to see where I started and try to understand if I have improved any over the years. The improvement can come in many forms – image composition, style, post-processing, etc. I think it is good to review your older work. It definitely lets me appreciate my current work even more.

So on to the “fix”…

This image was captured at the beginning of my journey. I had just spent 9 months learning about photography and using my Sony point -n- shoot for all it could give me. I had just purchased my first DSLR, a Nikon D5100 and a pair of lenses to get me on the next leg of my photography trip. This is also during the phase of constant Google+ theme participation. This image being part of my Grass series of images.

As you can see from the original I was experimenting heavily with post-processing. This particular image getting the old sepia treatment. I hadn’t learned of the word subtle yet… 🙂

 

MLCreations Photography: Blog Post Related &emdash; Three Sisters

Three Sisters – Original
Nikon D5100, Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8-4, 1/640s, 42mm, f/4, ISO 400

 

I liked the composition for Three Sister. I was also fascinated with shallow depth of focus as you can see. If I was to capture this image again I would definitely increase the DoF to get more of the foreground grass in focus. This second image is practically what came out of the camera. A few minor tweaks in Lightroom but my starting image none the less.

 

MLCreations Photography: Blog Post Related &emdash; Three Sisters

Three Sisters – Start
Nikon D5100, Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8-4, 1/640s, 42mm, f/4, ISO 400

 

For this Photo Fix I chose to go with a less cramped crop on the grass. I know now that I cropped the image to remove the lump of blurry, green grass on the left of the image which I felt was a little distraction. Today, I used Photoshop to blend it away. The larger crop allows for more of the background to be visible and provide some breathing room for the subject.

I also stayed away from the sepia tone and went with my more preferred silver tone for the black & white processing.  You will also notice a little less contrast in the new image which gives a more natural look to the details in focus and not so much a processed look.  I can now look at this image without cringing…  LOL.

 

MLCreations Photography: Blog Post Related &emdash; Three Sisters

Three Sisters – New
Nikon D5100, Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8-4, 1/640s, 42mm, f/4, ISO 400

Youngster

Posted by Mike on

White Rhinoceros
Kilimanjaro Safaris, Africa, Animal Kingdom

MLCreations Photography: Animal Kingdom &emdash; Youngster

Youngster
Olympus OM-D E-M10, M. Zuiko 60mm f/2.8, 1/250s, f/8, ISO 400

King of Pride Rock

Posted by Mike on

Wordless Wednesday
Kilimanjaro Safari, Africa, Animal Kingdom

MLCreations Photography: Animal Kingdom &emdash; King of Pride Rock

King of Pride Rock
Olympus OM-D E-M10, M. Zuiko 60mm f/2.8, 1/640s, f/8, ISO 400

Put your right foot in…

Posted by Mike on

Kilimanjaro Safaris, Africa, Animal Kingdom

I always take a ride on Kilimanjaro Safaris in the Africa section of Animal Kingdom. It is a ride which is the ultimate challenge for a photographer. The ride is not smooth. You will bounce around in the safari truck. There are animals on every side so you must decide at the start which side to focus on. The lighting will change throughout the ride. And of course, the animals might not be out.

In October I had my Olympus OM-D E-M10 camera which has in camera stabilization. I chose to use the 60mm lens so I didn’t have to worry about changing the focal length. And then I always ask to sit in the last row. It might be a little rougher but I can turn around and shoot out the back without any people in my view. I also got very lucky on this particular trip… I had the back row all to myself! I was like a kid in the candy store!

 

MLCreations Photography: Animal Kingdom &emdash; Put your right foot in...

Put your right foot in…
Olympus OM-D E-M10, M. Zuiko 60mm f/2.8, 1/800s, f/8, ISO 400

Motion Blur

Posted by Mike on

Imagination Pavilion, Future World, Epcot

Mondays are always difficult. The start of another work week. The first get up after a relaxing weekend. But they are also known in my Disney Photography world as Monorail Monday. I have posted lots of monorail images and as any frequent reader will know I have a thing for those darn monorails. 🙂

Today’s monorail image is a little different. It is more of a hint of monorail image than anything else. I also have a thing for photographing the reverse waterfall at the Imagination Pavilion in Epcot. This image combines those two favorites.

I was right in the middle of the evening blue hour. The sky still had that deep blue color and near the horizon you can catch a glimpse of the sun reflecting off the clouds. I setup the tripod with the thought of capturing the monorail as it approached the waterfalls. In order to freeze the monorail I would have had to increase my ISO to get a fast enough shutter speed.

I went in the other direction. I triggered the shutter as the monorail approached and captured the whole passing in a 25 second exposure. This allowed for a nice smoothing of the waterfall and monorail.  You can still make out a few distinguishing features of the monorail…  the red stripe, the white body and the window area.  The headlight created a great reflection in the water.

MLCreations Photography: Epcot &emdash; Motion Blur

Motion Blur
Nikon D7100, Tokina 12-28mm f/4, 25s, 12mm, f/11, ISO 200

Light & Shadow

Posted by Mike on

Spaceship Earth, Future World, Epcot

MLCreations Photography: Epcot &emdash; Light & Shadow

Light & Shadow
Olympus OM-D E-M10, M. Zuiko 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 II R, 1/1250s, 41mm, f/8, ISO 200

Boardwalk Glow

Posted by Mike on

Crescent Lake, Walt Disney World

I am going to go with the excuse that I have not been feeling well and that work has been really hectic as the reason for not venturing out with the camera of late. That is my story and I am going to stick with it. So that leaves me looking through my photo library for something interesting to show.

I seem to be stuck on night/pre-dawn/sundown type images recently. I know I can attribute this fixation on the fun I had during my vacation over Christmas. I came away with quite a few great images and it sparked a desire to learn more.

This image is from my October trip to Walt Disney World. An early morning walk around Crescent Lake which ended up having a very foggy sunrise. This is the Yacht Club Lighthouse looking toward the Boardwalk about thirty minutes before the official sunrise. Usually there would be wonderful deep blues in the sky and if there were only a hint of clouds the morning colors would be bouncing off of them. What I captured is the glow of the Boardwalk lights soaking into the clouds and fog.  The colors create a different mood but they work together.

MLCreations Photography: Around WDW &emdash; Boardwalk Glow

Boardwalk Glow
Nikon D7100, Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8-4, 20s, 21mm, f/16, ISO 200