Silent Sunday
West Canada Creek
Color Rapids
Olympus OM-D E-M1, M. Zuiko 12-40mm f/2.8, 2s, 19mm f/5.6, ISO 200
Color Rapids
Tag Archives: long exposure
Perseid Meteor Shower
Backyard
As a meteor hunter, I am not very good. I can probably chalk it up to lack of experience and/or opportunity. Of course, there is also the fact that when I went to bed Thursday night the weather forecast was calling for rain. Waking up at my normal time for work (3:30am) I noticed I could see stars out my window. I quickly fed the cats and headed out into the back yard to see what I could capture.
I only spent fifteen minutes pointing my camera at various sections of the sky. My Olympus is not the perfect camera for high ISO night photography but I did manage to snag a couple of meteors. In the first image the meteor is dead center and traveling vertical. The second image I barely caught the meteor over near the top left, also traveling vertical. I can say I did see quite a few more meteors in other portions of the sky, mostly as my camera was exposing in the wrong direction! LOL
Perseid Meteor 1
Olympus OM-D E-M1, M. Zuiko 12-40mm f/2.8, 30s, 12mm, f/2.8, ISO 3200
Perseid Meteor 2
Olympus OM-D E-M1, M. Zuiko 12-40mm f/2.8, 30s, 12mm, f/2.8, ISO 3200
Rainy Day Creek
Backyard Creek
Rainy Day Creek
Olympus OM-D E-M1, M. Zuiko 12-40mm f/2.8, 3.2s, 12mm, f/16, ISO 200
Hinckley in the Morning
Hinckley Reservoir
Sunday morning was the perfect day to get up early and catch some pre-dawn images. I finished reading Below the Horizon by David Delnea (you can see more about the eBook here) and was inspired to drag my butt out of bed. This book talks about light at the edges of the day. I spend a lot of time getting photographs during this time frame but David’s book still provided me with great information. I truly enjoy the authors and books you can find on the Craft & Vision website.
The two pictures in this post were captured only 4 minutes apart. As the sun approaches the horizon the light is changing drastically. You can see this in the color tone shift between the two images. The first image is cooler in tone with blue hues being the most dominant. The second image is starting to get warmer as more of the sunlight is crossing the horizon and lighting the sky above the reservoir.
This was another chance for me to play with my filter set. Not only did I have the circular polarizer working for me but the first image also has the 2-stop ND graduated filter. It is a soft edge filter which means the transition is gradual. That zone is centered on the horizon. By using the graduated filter I was able to get a single exposure image without any areas being too dark or light.
For the second image I added a 4-stop ND filter which allowed my to get a full 1 minute exposure time. This allowed the slow moving clouds to blur as they worked their way toward the horizon. It also allowed me to show the slight breeze with the blurring of the lake grass as it swayed.
I’m going to keep my eyes open for more opportunities like this… 🙂
Hinckley Pre-Dawn
Olympus OM-D E-M1, M. Zuiko 12-40mm f/2.8, 15s, 17mm, f/16, ISO 200
Hinckley on the Move
Olympus OM-D E-M1, M. Zuiko 12-40mm f/2.8, 60s, 12mm, f/13, ISO 200
The Watch Never Ends
Delta Lake State Park
I went back to my old stomping grounds last night for the sunset. I hadn’t been back to Delta Lake State Park since I purchased the filter system. There were not a lot of clouds in the sky but I was hoping the few along the horizon would add some color as the sun passed below. I was also itchin’ to try out the graduated ND filter combined with the circular polarizer. Neither disappointed…
The Watch Never Ends
Olympus OM-D E-M1, M. Zuiko 12-40mm f/2.8, 5s, 12mm, f/16, ISO 200
Motion Blur
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.
Motion Blur
Nikon D7100, Tokina 12-28mm f/4, 25s, 12mm, f/11, ISO 200
Morning at the Bridge
192 Causeway over the Indian River
We had just spent the last two days at Disney. It was Wednesday morning and I was planning on taking the kids up to Kennedy Space Center. I had time, they were not getting up any time soon. I had just downed the cup of coffee my mother-in-law had made so the caffeine was going to kick in at any time. When I looked out the window I could see the sunrise was going to be beautiful.
The day we arrived in Florida I had taken the kids over to Melbourne Beach. My Leave Your Cares Behind post was from that little excursion. It wasn’t a great day then but I didn’t care. I was in Florida and on a beach. On our way over to the beach I had spotted a little park right on the edge of the Indian River where the 192 Causeway crosses over. I had a good feeling the view of the sunrise would be best from that vantage point.
When going out for sunrise pictures it is always best to arrive early. You want to be there at least thirty minutes if not an hour before the sun is suppose to break the horizon. The reason for the extra time is two-fold. One, you want to be able to search out a good location (if you haven’t done so already). The second is the light before the sun rises is actually the best. The time just before sunrise and/or just after sunset is known as the blue hour.
During this blue hour the sky takes on an extra deep shade of blue, fading as the sun nears the horizon. If you are lucky enough to have a few clouds in the sky, the sun will color those shades of red and orange as it rises. This is what I was hoping to capture this morning. I got lucky…
Morning Bridge
Olympus OM-D E-M1, M. Zuiko 12-40mm f/2.8, 25s, 12mm, f/11, ISO 400
Shoot the Middle
Olympus OM-D E-M1, M. Zuiko 12-40mm f/2.8, 30s, 12mm, f/16, ISO 200
Going East
Olympus OM-D E-M1, M. Zuiko 12-40mm f/2.8, 25s, 12mm, f/16, ISO 200
Big Rocks
West Canada Creek
Although the last day of the year was an overcast day I took the opportunity with the recent rains to go play in the West Canada Creek. The area just below Trenton Falls is a favorite spot of mine and always provides me with great views for images. I was also trying out my adapter ring to allow me to use my old 77mm circular polarizer with my 12-40mm lens. I can’t use the lens hood with the filter but on a day like yesterday, a hood wasn’t needed.
There was a light coat of snow on the rocks around the overflow area which made for some slippery footing. My biggest fear was ending up in the water! Luckily I avoided that concern with some good balancing maneuvers.
I’ve mentioned before that capturing the water flow is a balancing act in itself. I don’t want too long of an exposure and completely smooth out the water, but I also do not want to freeze the motion with a quick shutter either. For this image an almost 1 second exposure produced the water flow I was looking for. The polarizer did not help a great deal with the shine on the rocks but I think the shine adds a nice contrast to the water.
These water images always look better in black & white. I also do not do as much sharpening on these water images as I like the look of the water with the long exposure. After all processing is done, I add just a slight silver tone to the image which is really just a personal preference.
Staring at the image I can still hear the water rushing past… it is very hypnotic.
Big Rocks
Olympus OM-D E-M1, M. Zuiko 12-40mm f/2.8, 0.8s, 25mm, f/16, ISO 200
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