Hello to all and welcome!
I can't really say what you should expect to see here as I've never before tried blogging or anything similar. It'll have to be a work in progress. I'll probably talk about photography in general (and mine in specific) as well as point out different things that are going on that I find interesting or worth commenting on. If anyone (assuming anyone actually ends up reading this) has questions or suggestions on topics, feel free to let me know.
I'm here you're with me, here at the beginning of all things.
Roger
p.s. Comments and feedback are very welcome.
Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS
I missed the last comet that was visible around here, so I didn't want to miss Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS. Last Sunday was probably the last opportunity I would have since it is quickly fading and not out for all that long.
Here are the best of the shots I captured. The Milky Way was also out, but very faint and it will take some more work to try and get an image that contains both it and the comet.
I learned several things in this endeavor. First, even though I can see fine, my eyes suck. A lot of the other people were saying they could see the comet with their naked eyes, but I was not one of them. Instead it took a little help from someone with binoculars pointing it out to me (quite a first impression) and then hunting around taking pictures until it was visible therein. The second thing I learned is that you don't need to zoom as much as I had expected. The first image below was taken with my 100-400 zoom, but the others were wide angle. The comet is easily seen in all of them. Third, meteors make a nice addition to any space scene.
Bird Practice
The past couple of weeks, I've been out at Wood Lake with the intention of taking photos of birds. Actually, I was hoping to get an osprey, but none showed up. The other plan was to figure out how the "preshoot" and continuous focus modes work, especially together. Both of those are actually what they sound like. Preshoot buffers around 5 seconds worth of images before you actively start shooting. This lets you get images like birds taking off that you might otherwise miss due to slower reflexes. The Continuous Focus lets you keep a moving object (like a bird) in focus as it is moving.
The first two and last images are straight photos. The others combined the two modes.
Night Skies
At the start of August I went on my first photography workshop in well over a decade. What convinced me to do so was the topic - shooting the night sky over Lake Superior. It ended up being a series of firsts for me, both in terms of location and results.
The night we arrived up north, there really wasn't a chance of capturing a good night sky photo, so we ended up shooting around the harbor in Duluth (a place I've only driven through in the past, so my first first of the trip). Duluth is one of the two cities in Minnesota that still has a working Lift Bridge (the other being in Stillwater). The need for such a device becomes apparent when you see the varying sizes of boats/ships that travel under it, from regular motor boats to behemoths like this freighter.
Here's a shot of Duluth at sunset.
Night Two proved to be the best night for shooting the night sky. We started off at Split Rock Lighthouse (another location I've never visited, let alone shot at). This is one of the most iconic and most photographed locations in Minnesota. I enjoyed trying to capture different views of the lighthouse. The first is playing with the pools that for amongst the rocks (unfortunately, massive mosquito breeding grounds). The second is a more typical view, but I like the colors in the twilight.
Unfortunately, because of the time of year, the Milky Way was not going to align itself with the lighthouse, so it was time to set up a different view for that. Shortly after capturing this image (complete with some lucky meteors), I realized that I had not set up exaxtly where the Milky Way was, so I had to reframe my image.
This is a 7 shot composite, which was necessary to capture as much of the Milky Way as I could.
After leaving Split Rock, we stopped at Twin Point Park/Iona's Beach. Here's a Milky Way shot from there.
While capturing that and some other images, I couldn't help but notice how nice and bright the Big Dipper was over the trees to the right. So, I had to get a shot. Then I saw what else was going on and had to get many more. Here's my favorite.
Day Three brought us to Gooseberry Falls, yet another iconic location I've never been to. It is much harder to get a shot than I realized because of all the people swimming in the pools around the falls. This was the best I could manage.
The Milky Way wasn't as bright and colorful that night, so I decided to convert it to black and white (this is a 6 shot stitched panorama). The glow around the tree is from a city to the south, possibly Two Harbors.
Our final day and night were on and off rainy, so we knew we wouldn't get night skies. However, it did stop raining enough to get out and shoot around Two Harbors. Here are some of my images from that.
Two Harbors is one of the largest loading areas for taconite in Minnesota [taconite is an iron ore that is shipped as pellets...it is the reason the hills around Duluth are called the Iron Range]. Here you can see the ore docks as well as a supply of the taconite pellets.
It was a really good trip and one I would do again, but at a different time of year (mostly to get the Milky Way and Split Rock Lighthouse in the same shot). And now I know how to get similar results in other locations I want to visit.
Challenge #4 - December
It turns out December was an incredibly blah month. Not good or bad, just blah. I complained back in Challenge #3 about getting snow all through April. In December, none untid the 31st, and even then just enough to change the color of the ground from brown with dead grass to white with dead grass. An improvement, but nothing to write home about or go out and shoot.
So, shooting in December was a challenge (pun intended).
To start off, some Chanukah shots. I thought my little baby gargoyle would add some fun to otherwise kinda ordinary shots, which is why it's perched at the top and bottom.
For these next two, I wanted to show the interesting patterns and textures left by the melted candle wax.
I play pub trivia every Wednesday with some friends. This is Molly, the trivia mistress, on the night of holiday trivia. She gave extra points for people who showed up in holiday dress. The closest I could come is a green shirt.
Every year, my brother and sister-in-law bake cookies for the holidays and give them out to friends and family. During the year they practice new recipes. Here's this year's assortment. [side note: All this baking led them put publish a cookie cookbook. If you enjoy baking, check it out at https://www.heritagecookies.net/]
Since it's December, holiday lights are a must. Here are a couple of houses near met (and note how the neighbors get into the act in the second photo).
I have very geeky friends. My friends Dave and Mary invited me over for a holiday meal. Here's a small sample of how they decorate their tree.
Finally, one thing I knew I wanted to capture was a nice roaring fire. It is endlessly fascinating and mesmerizing.
Challenge 3 - It's not that easy being green
This is the third photo challenge my friend Cynthia has put out. I'm starting this one off with the required self-portrait as it serves as a good starting point to explain my approached. This photo was taken on April 1 of this year, after yet another snowstorm. In fact, this has been either the 2nd or 3rd snowiest year on record. In fact, I could have taken a very similar photo a week later as that's when we had another 8.5" of snow. Even now, trees are barely starting to bud.
So, I realized very early that I wasn't going to be able to approach this challenge in a normal fashion. Instead, I thought "why not try it in reverse?" So, there is no greenery in any of these photos. No leaves. No plants. Nothing that normally makes you think "green/spring".
So, I started off at home. I enjoy interesting looking rocks and minerals. The first image is a malachite ?geode? I've had for a long time. The second one is a slab of jasper.
These are some alibrejes that I bought down in Sayulita, Mexico on one of Cynthia's photo workshops.
This is the next subject I knew I wanted to include. It is a Jade Mountain that is on display at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. I'm constantly amazed at the detail that was included in this. The first image shows one side of this massive piece of jade and gives a small sense of the amout of carving that went into its creation. The others are details from different areas.
Since I was already at the MIA, I thought I might as well go and see their current show, which is on Chinese Ritual Bronzes. After all, there had to be a lot of green there. My favorite of these is the second one. I love the shadows.
I still wanted to include some outdoor greenery if possible. The obvious example was this mallard. Unfortunately, none of the other birds or other creatures I expected to see were out, probably due to the cold.
The last image I knew had to be included was this one. Street signs are a ubiquitous green and show up better at night when they are lit. I've also wanted an excuse to capture an image from here for a long time (Franklin Avenue bridge over 35W for any locals).
So, those are the images I managed to capture for this challenge. To give you a sense of what I wasn't able to include, here are some older photos that fit the theme:
I did think about buying an avocado and including that, but none of the ones in the supermarket were ripe. Instead, here's a kiwi I shot after my first workshop with Cynthia. These were inspired by here friend and neighbor Denis Brihat.
This is actually the first year I haven't seen painted turtles out yet. I'm still surprised I couldn't include one.
Snapping turtles are maybe more of a May reptile than April, but are so primordeal that it's worth including them in any collection you can.
This Leopard frog might also be more of a later spring reptile, but oh well. Besides, considering the blog title, I had to include a frog.
I was really hoping that some wood ducks would be out. The above image was taken in April, so it was certainly a possibility.
This guy would have been a great ironic image to close on. It's a green heron, although I have no idea where it got that name since I've never seen any green on them.