More Reviews from the Past Year
First, I chose my friend Lindsay’s orchids. She is very good at growing them and I like to capture their images.
Secondly, I was capturing images of geese last April with not a lot of signs of snow.I wonder if these geese over-wintered?
The pastels in the skies were pretty last March.
Another “painting” of a gazebo in the central area of the city.
a close-up of a house finch that nested in the area.Liked hearing its song which was a pleasant change from the house sparrows but I know my neighbour was NOT amused by the singing just under his window every morning.
A magpie showing off it’s tail feathers. I wonder how the weather will be for the rest of winter, a lot has melted and the temperature is up-and-down like a yo-yo. One day at a time.
Take the Time
18 mm, 1/250 sec @ f/8, ISO 800
Take the time to go for a walk. You will never know what is out there if you don’t. After the sun sets, take the time to see what happens next. it is worth the wait.
Glorious
I had a visit with a friend the other evening to welcome her to Edmonton and we both got something we will not forget. As we came up out of the river valley, the sun was setting and rain was drizzling. There was a glorious double rainbow in front of us , in fact we could see the end of the rainbow right in the bushes below us. That prompted a lot of comments from passers by about finding “the pot of gold.”
My friend couldn’t get the entire rainbow in the lens of her point-and-shoot and my camera was at home a couple of blocks away so I ran as best as I could knowing that I might miss it all.The light had changed as had the position of the rainbow that had mostly faded out I still got some images of wonderful colour and light.
Silouettes and Sunsets
You got to love the evening light in January. I went along the river valley to shoot photos around the “golden hour”. The camera was hand held while using shutter priority. I edited using HP Media Smart Photo, sometimes using the auto lightening feature which brought out the colour the way that I saw it but could make the photo “noisy”. The Sharpening feature works very well. A good basic editing program., alas, no noise removal.
1/160 sec @f/4, ISO 800
1/125 sec @f/8, ISO 800
1/125 sec @f/4, ISO 800
1/50 sec @f/4, ISO 800
Sunset on Trees
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1/125 sec @f/5, ISO 500 shutter priority, 170mm
I like the reflected colours of the sunset on the trees, so warm against the backdrop of blue sky which is nice to see after so many cloudy days. It takes my mind off the icy streets, windrows and deep ruts that beckon then trap my wheels.
Before and After the Sun Set
I went out too late to take decent shots of fall colours in the daylight but the colours looked promising for the sunset. Holding my camera on a fencepost to steady it I did my best to capture the sun as it was setting.
Then I turned my camera more to the right because I liked what was happening in the clouds.
then waited a bit after the sun went down, because then the reflections hit the clouds.
There was still more to come but more subtle.
Good night.
Catching the End of the Day
It was a busy day today, felt very happy meeting with friends for coffee, rendezvoused with others at a park for a picnic, went back to my place to do errands and clean up then came back and walked the dogs, again grabbing my camera. Just caught the last moments of light. No regrets. The camera was hand held with a zoom lens-I was afraid that if I changed the lens I would have missed the last rays of the sun. There is less light now and the evenings are cooling down, a reminder to enjoy every moment. Exposures averaged about 1/8 sec, ISO 400,f/6.3-9.
A Beautiful Night
Took the dogs out for a walk and grabbed the camera as I went out the door – it was that kind of night.
Some Nice Oranges
You thought, perhaps, that I was talking about the fruit? No, I am still seeing the colours of the last remaining leaves around the city and rather than yellows and greens I am seeing the orange tones. And I am noticing the colour of orange in the reflections on the water from the setting sun around the city. This photo shows the rays of late afternoon sun as it hits the trees and bushes in the wood lot. I tried getting enough focus in the foreground without such a narrow depth of field that I lost too much emphasis in the background so I could still pull the composition together as a whole.
I have been extremely busy taking courses at a learning centre in preparation for job-hunting after being on emotional and mental health leave. I am sorry that I have not been able to keep up with your blogs or even mine for that matter, but have kept up to some of you without commenting.It has been an amazing opportunity to learn about myself, regretfully some of the learning has been about self care and not knowing when to stop. I feel pressured to keep working so hard because of the fear of losing my insurance benefits but have paid the price of my health and the bronchitis that has been holding on for weeks has now gone deeper into the lungs and turned into pneumonia. So I have brought things to a halt. Again.
I started a short-term dose on Prednisone to take down the inflammation in my lungs so have been a total insomniac.(Absolutely everything in my apartment is so well organized now!) I was hesitant to take antibiotics because of the drug-resistant bugs but now am taking antibiotics especially since taking having x-rays taken.
I am mending . I am growing . I am learning so much about Microsoft Word and resumes and references and cold calls and getting along with people and focusing on personal values and goals and problem-solving skills. You name it, it has been covered. Ha Ha! Maybe a little “wanting” in the category of setting limits and boundaries.
I am so grateful that Activia yoghurt has brought out the new flavour of Strawberry Rhubarb in the larger containers. That is just one of the amusing things that I am grateful for because I have been counting my blessings. I am grateful that I could take the time to get outdoors with my friends to grab images of the last bits of autumn colour.Enjoy.
©Jane Chesebrough
Golden Hour
The golden hour refers to the time before, during and after the sunrise or sunset when you get spectacular or beautifully subtle colour in the sky and reflections off trees, buildings, people, etc.
I went out before sunset with my friend, Diane the other night which reminded me that sunset really is getting earlier every night. We left at 6:15 p.m. and found a hilltop perch so we could get high enough to see the skyline without trees and buildings getting in the way and blocking the sunset effects. I still am going to scout around for various viewpoints.
She is great to go out with because we goof around and take funny or embarrassing pictures of each other and laugh a lot, plus I am inspired by how she sees things from various points of view. Being inspired is so much better than being jealous or envious.
There were some challenges in getting the blue in the sky to show with all the orange. To solve this, I tried different exposures then settled on shooting in Tungsten White Balance. Also there were power lines in the view so I chose to evade them and in one case,did a major crop. I find that for night shooting I get the best results using Shutter Priority or in Canon terms, Tv, which stands for Time Value. I tend to go dark because I get better saturation of colour in the sky, closer to what I actually see.
After downloading, using Lightroom I heightened contrast to bring out the colour because I did not think the exposure gave the colour that I actually saw reflected off the trees. In other situations I did slight crops and straightening except for the high wires where I did a big crop. Had to use my healing brush for erasing dust spots which were prominent. Boo Hoo. Someone from the photo club has suggested HDR and higher exposure to show the details in the buildings with graduated filter for the sky. Lots more to explore and have fun with in the future.
©Jane Chesebrough
©Jane Chesebrough
©Jane Chesebrough
©Jane Chesebrough
©Jane Chesebrough
©Jane Chesebrough
©Jane Chesebrough
Dancing Trees
©Jane Chesebrough
I got to the park just before the sun was about to disappear beneath the horizon but I managed to get a few shots. There was just a slight breeze but it was bone-chilling – my glasses kept fogging up and couldn’t see a thing and my fingers were freezing and even the camera was a little slow. I was feeling like it was minus 20.But I liked this group of trees that I shot and it seemed to me that they were dancing in the last glimmer of light before the sun set.
Once home, the local weather station reported that it was -19 celsius but, (don’t you love this), feels like -28 celsius. Hot chocolate and flannel pajama weather.LOL
Skyline at Sunset
©Jane Chesebrough
Was having trouble uploading my photo. I am not well at this time and SLOWLY recovering so picking a photo from earlier in the month.. Not a good time to deal with anything stressful like problems up-loading.This shot was taken at dusk and darkened for a better effect and truer to what I actually saw. Taken with a 34 mm lens at f-stop of 4.5 and ISO 400 It will be nice to get out again and get shooting.
Sunset Near Edson
Last fall I visited a photo buddy in Edson and we went on a grand tour of the countryside.I was looking at the pictures today and I thought that I would post this one because I like the dramatic lighting and the shapes of the clouds.
©Jane Chesebrough
That Focal Point
When I see a potential picture I get excited and snap away-seem to forget to think about composition. For instance, using the “law of thirds” and getting a focal point in the cross section of the imaginary lines that divide a photo into thirds. Got feedback on the barn that it would be so much more powerful if I cropped it and got the back window(focal point) in the part of the photo at the cross section of the lines that divide the photo into thirds. That is why I am taking a course-because I want to turn my ideas into better, even great shots.Today’s shot was a spur of the moment shot taken last night when I was excited by the beauty of the sunset and clouds. I did make the choice to get the trees in ther but then the focus is on the trees, not the sky. And where would the focal point be? Hmmm, something to explore.
©Jane Chesebrough
©Jane Chesebrough
Comparing this with yesterday’s photos, what do you think?
My Heartsong 