July 29, 2010 – Mediocre Image Thursday
Posted by Dave in Colorado, Fall Color, Picture of the Day on July 29, 2010
Fall color along Gold Camp Road
Thursday, July 29, 2010
http://www.davefry.net/rate/index.php?viewimage=681
Hey everyone! I’m going to start a new weekly feature here at Dave’s Picture of the Day. Every Thursday, I’m going to post a picture that’s totally, absolutely, horrendously mediocre. This is of course different from every other day because on Thursdays I’ll actually be calling them out as such. Exciting! I’ve got a ton of images that are mostly okay, as in they’re mostly in focus and such, but they just… don’t quite do it for me. They just aren’t quite interesting enough, or whatever.
So, today we’re going to kick it all off with this one! This was taken along Gold Camp Road, which is a dirt road that takes you from Colorado Springs out to Cripple Creek. Or, the other way around, if that’s your thing. There’s of course also a highway route that’s longer but much faster, but that one is not included in today’s picture. Only one route at a time, that’s what I always say. Why does it get the dubious honor of being the first image selected for mediocre-image-Thursday? Meh, I dunno. It’s got some nice elements, the nice bright yellow tree, all the detail in it. But the tree is sort of awkwardly placed. And the background isn’t really that interesting. It’s not a total train-wreck though, it definitely reminds me of when I was there, which can be a useful thing, if you’re trying to help yourself remember when you were somewhere. But it doesn’t really do a good job of reminding *you* when I was there, because you weren’t there.
Stay tuned, next week’s Thursday special will be even more not awesome!
Notes: Canon EOS Rebel XT, Canon 18-55mm kit lens. 1/125s, f/5.6, ISO 100. Focal length: 21mm.
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July 28, 2010 – Ixora Flowers
Posted by Dave in Flowers, Macro, Picture of the Day on July 28, 2010
Ixora Flowers
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
http://www.davefry.net/rate/index.php?viewimage=1480
So, I don’t actually really know that these are called Ixora flowers. I THINK they are, but I only feel that way because I did a bunch of googling to try to find an answer. I mean, sure, a google search for “ixora flowers” returns a bunch of results that look just like these. But the folks who posted all of those may have just made the same mistake that I did, and now we’re all in a giant echo chamber, assuming that if everyone else says that’s what they are, then that must be what they are. Of course, I didn’t just randomly guess “ixora”, and then hit up google to see if I was right. Ixora is kind of a strange word, honestly. I can’t remember how I stumbled on it, but it probably came up sometime when I was searching through a list of Jamaican flowers.
Oh, right, forgot to mention that little detail. This is another picture that came from Jamaica. These little guys were on the hotel grounds. Yeah, I totally worked hard to get the flowers that I did, I walked all the way down the sidewalk from my room. So, anyway, there they are.
At the time that I was in Jamaica, I didn’t yet have any of my totally crazy macro tools, so I ended up taking this with my Quantaray 70-300mm telephoto. It gets to 1:4 on its own. I guess I did have my reverse-mount adapter, but that would be way closer than I wanted to be. I also brought my “macro kit”, which is the set of little magnifying lenses that you screw on like a filter. I used that a few times on the trip too. But not for this one. I mean, seriously, why did you even bring them up??
Notes: Canon EOS Rebel T1i, Quantaray 70-300mm lens. 1/500s, f/8.0, ISO 200. Focal length: 300mm.
Popularity: 4%
July 27, 2010 – Saint Mary Lake
Posted by Dave in Mountains, Picture of the Day on July 27, 2010
Saint Mary Lake, Glacier National Park
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
http://www.davefry.net/rate/index.php?viewimage=176
Wow, new posts on Monday AND Tuesday?? Wow, you guys must have done something right, for sure. Today’s picture is fairly old, from back in 2003. At that time I was only recently sworn off of my 35mm SLR, and I was rocking my second little pocket-sized point and shoot from Canon. (Film purists would argue with my logic, but I truly felt that I was getting better results (and much more convenient results) from my digicam than I was with my full-size 35mm beast.) I spent a fair bit of time laid off from work, so I had the opportunity to go on a few nice, long roadtrips that summer. I ended up in Montana a couple times, including the time when I got this shot in Glacier National Park.
You’re looking at Saint Mary Lake, which is on the east side of the park, right along the main road. (The “main road” being Going-To-The-Sun road.) I had driven through west-to-east, but unfortunately I was on my way somewhere (Colorado), so I didn’t have any time to hang around or hike or anything. (In fact, I originally wasn’t planning on swinging by Glacier at all – it was a split second decision when I saw a sign for it along I-90, which resulted in a 2 or 3 day detour. That’s the joy of not really having a tight schedule though, you can afford to just toss in a few days here or there of “other stuff”. I hate only having a couple weeks of vacation a year.)
As I hinted earlier, this was taken with a little pocket point and shoot. A 3.2 megapixel in fact. I’ve said it many times before, but it definitely bears repeating: just because you don’t have a big fancy camera, you can still get some nice shots. It’s definitely true that there are things you can do with a fancy camera that you can’t with a point and shoot, but there’s no reason you need to let that hold you back.
Notes: Canon PowerShot S230 (Point and Shoot). 1/800s.
Popularity: 6%
July 26, 2010 – Lake Keechelus
Posted by Dave in Picture of the Day, Washington State, Winter/Snow on July 26, 2010
Lake Keechelus
Monday, July 26, 2010
http://www.davefry.net/rate/index.php?viewimage=1453
Okay, I’m back from San Francisco! And despite the fact that I was there in the middle of July, the weather down there felt like this. I don’t think it hit 65 degrees while I was there. Since when does California have crappy weather?? I had no idea, but apparently this isn’t that unusual? (Anybody want to comment on that??) But, I promise I will never again fantasize about moving down to the Bay Area when Seattle is trudging through another crappy spring. It was just under 80 degrees up here the whole time I was down there. Had somebody said early last week that there would be a time that I’d be leaving nicer weather in Seattle than I’d be getting in San Francisco, I wouldn’t have believed them. But, well, now I know.
So, this picture… This is Lake Keechelus. It’s right along I-90, just east of Snoqualmie Pass. I was literally parked in the shoulder when I took this picture, in fact. (Well, not a shoulder in the normal sense – there’s a large extra-wide shoulder right after Hyak that is presumably used as a truck stopover and chain removal zone. So it’s not quite as stupid as it sounds.) I can’t remember the details, but I think I was up there to snag a couple turns at Summit Central, but either it really sucked or it was closed, so I ended up just driving around for awhile, that’s why I ended up east of the pass. Not really sure. But, here’s the picture anyway.
Notes: Canon EOS Rebel T1i, Tamron 17-55mm f/2.8 lens. 1/400s, f/10.0, ISO 100. Focal length: 50mm.
Popularity: 5%
July 21, 2010 – Bee and Daisy
Posted by Dave in Animals, Flowers, Macro, Picture of the Day on July 21, 2010
Bee and Daisy
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
http://www.davefry.net/rate/index.php?viewimage=1611
So I always seem to gravitate towards posting some kind of macro shot, either of a bug or a flower (or, well, both..) on Fridays. Not exactly sure why I feel that way (that’s a total lie, I know exactly why, I just don’t feel like sharing), but it’s the truth. And, I know, this isn’t Friday, it’s Wednesday. But it might as well be Friday, because I’ll be out of town the next couple days, and thus I won’t be posting anything. Which means that you get to look at this little guy for the rest of the weekend.
This is the first picture I’ve posted (and among the first I took) with my new (to me) Tamron 90mm macro. So far, I’d say I’m reasonably happy with it. I had some decent results, but I also had some that were less than stellar. I’m not going to blame the lens for those just yet though, and to be fair I’ve only taken the lens out on a couple walks around the neighborhood, and it’s definitely shown some promise. Hopefully you’ll all get to see some more pics from it in the coming weeks and months and years (I know, bold statement, given that I’ve only been doing this blog for just over a year now.)
Have a great weekend!
Notes: Canon EOS Rebel T1i, Tamron 90mm f/2.8 macro lens. 1/250s, f/10.0, ISO 200. Focal length: 90mm (duh!).
Popularity: 9%
July 20, 2010 – View from Treasure Island
Posted by Dave in Picture of the Day on July 20, 2010
View from Treasure Island
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
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Hey again everyone. Today’s picture was taken from Treasure Island, which is this little splotch of land out in the Bay off of San Francisco. It was formerly a naval base or something, but now it’s the place where a friend of mine recently got married. That explains why I was there. What’s your excuse?
I’d be lying if I said I didn’t do some tweaking on this one. Mostly just bumping up the contrast a little bit, to cut through the haze. But I swear the water looked all inky like that even before I touched it up. It was right around this time that I got my new Canon 55-250mm low-end telephoto (to replace my old Quantaray 70-300mm low-end telephoto), but I can’t remember if I actually had it yet on this trip. I’m going to go ahead and guess yes, and thus tag the post with that one. But that could be wrong. Whatever.
Notes: Canon EOS Rebel T1i, Canon 55-250mm IS lens. 1/400s, f/14.0, ISO 100. Focal length: 208mm.
Popularity: 7%
July 19, 2010 – Flathead Valley and Whitefish, MT
Posted by Dave in Picture of the Day, Winter/Snow on July 19, 2010
Flathead Valley and Whitefish, MT
Monday, July 19, 2010
http://www.davefry.net/rate/index.php?viewimage=1420
It’s the middle of July. It’s perfectly sunny, hovering right around 70 degrees. Summer has finally arrived here in Seattle. And all I can think about is how badly I’m pining for winter. 6 months from now, I’ll be kicking myself.
Notes: Canon EOS Rebel T1i, Tamron 17-55mm lens. 1/200s, f/9.0, ISO 100. Focal length: 47mm.
Popularity: 5%
July 16, 2010 – Rose
Posted by Dave in Flowers, Macro, Picture of the Day on July 16, 2010
Rose
Friday, July 16, 2010
http://www.davefry.net/rate/index.php?viewimage=1599
I figure as long as I post at least 3 pictures a week, I’m doing okay, right. 3 days a week naturally lends itself to Monday, Wednesday, Friday, but meh, we can all stand to be a little bit more flexible. This is another picture of a rose from the Woodland Park Rose Garden in Seattle (yes, it’s in the same park as the zoo), and it was from the same photo session as the rose I posted a couple of weeks ago. It even looks like it could have been from the same rose, but I’m pretty sure it’s not.
I went into great depth on that post, so I’ll try not to do so again here, but this was taken with an old Kiron 105mm macro lens that I bought off eBay from a camera shop in the Netherlands. This particular lens was built for a Minolta mount, thus I had to buy a mount adapter from some random dude in Hong Kong in order to get it to fit on my Canon. But, it all works quite well together, with the exception that you have to set the aperture manually before you shoot, which makes focusing a pain. (Normally, the camera holds the aperture wide open while you’re composing the shot (which lets through as much light as possible, so you can see what you’re doing), then when you hit the shutter it steps down to the specified aperture before opening the shutter – but with this particular mount/adapter combination, you lose the automatic aperture control, and thus you have to make sure the aperture is set before you hit the shutter button.) But, it’s quite the lens, and if you’re patient and willing to look around, you can find lenses like this for quite a bit less than the modern equivalent.
That being said, I ended up at the camera shop this last weekend for an unrelated reason, and while there I took a look at the used lenses they had for Canon EF mounts. Turns out, they had a Tamron 90mm macro that I’ve had my eye on for awhile. Tamron has made two versions of this lens, and the one they were selling was the older one, but from what I’ve been able to tell it sounds like the optics are basically the same between versions, and both of them are generally very highly regarded, especially for the cost. Also, the price they were asking was *significantly* less than I’ve seen anywhere else for it (even used), so despite the fact that I had pretty much declared my near-term macro needs “fulfilled”, I decided I should go ahead and buy it, and if later I decide that was a terrible idea, I should be able to then sell it, and perhaps even make a profit. So far, it seems really awesome. I get back the automatic aperture and all that (since it was built to work with the Canon EF mount), and it’s also rated at 1:1 magnification, so the only question is the difference in image quality. All of the pics I’ve taken with that lens so far are still sitting on the camera, so that’s still an open issue, but I have no reason to think that they’re not going to be awesome. In the meantime, as I mentioned, here’s a shot from the other one.
And if you were curious, the reason I was in the camera shop in the first place is, while I was farting around on eBay not too long ago, I saw somebody selling a Sigma macro lens with an unknown mount. I believe it only goes to 1:2 magnification, but whatever, that’s not the point. The point is that I was able to get it for extremely cheap (20 bucks), because nobody knew what kind of mount it was, and thus nobody knew if they could use it or not. I figured I could buy it, figure out the mount, and then figure out if it would be worth getting a mount adapter and using it, or just reselling it with the added information of what the heck it was. It didn’t fit either of the mounts I could check (Canon EF/EF-S, or old-school Minolta), so I took it to the shop. They actually couldn’t tell either, it didn’t fit any of the bodies they had in the store. Granted, they aren’t a “used camera shop” in the true sense of the word, meaning they are mostly focused on new stuff, but they do a little bit of business in used goods, mostly for Canon and Nikon stuff. So, the current best theory is that it “may be for a Konica or Sigma”, but they didn’t have any way to test that theory for sure. Still unknown, but I ended up getting a cheap used Tamron macro out of the deal, so all in all it was a (somewhat expensive) success.
Have a great weekend!
Notes: Canon EOS Rebel T1i, Kiron 105mm f/2.8 macro (Minolta mount). 1/160s, ISO 200, aperture unknown (didn’t write it down.)
Popularity: 7%
July 14, 2010 – Italian Alps
Posted by Dave in Europe, Mountains, Picture of the Day on July 14, 2010
Hiking in the Italian Alps
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
http://www.davefry.net/rate/index.php?viewimage=812
Man, I swear I was supposed to be born in the Alps. I would LOVE to live over in Europe (preferably either in northern Italy or southern Switzerland), but unfortunately I’m not the type that has the courage to make huge life changes like that. Sigh. I guess I’ll just keep dreaming.
This is yet another picture from Parco Nazionale Gran Paradiso (Gran Paradiso National Park), in the Aosta Valley, which is in the far northwestern corner of Italy. The valley is capped at the end by Mont Blanc (they call it Monte Bianco), and this is also the valley that has both St. Bernard Passes (both Grand St. Bernard Pass – where they breed the dogs – and Little St. Bernard Pass), which cross into Switzerland and France, respectively. At the time I was there, not only did I not have any kind of wide-angle lens, the widest I could get was 28mm, which is a travesty. I guess I just need to go back.
This was along the Alpe Money (moe-NAY) trail, which spits out of the village of Valnontey and follows the river up the valley. We only had just under a week to explore all of northern Italy, so the fact that we were able to spend two nights in the park and go hiking for a full day was pretty amazing in and of itself. Some day I’d love to just spend a whole bunch of time hiking and exploring. But this stupid job thing just gets in the way. Sigh.
Anyway, enjoy the rest of your Wednesday!
Notes: Canon EOS Rebel XT, Tamron 28-300mm lens. 1/250s, f/9.0, ISO 200. Focal length: 35mm.
Popularity: 8%
July 13, 2010 – Big Four Mountain
Posted by Dave in Mountains, Picture of the Day, Washington State on July 13, 2010
Big Four Mountain
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
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Well gosh darnit, I missed Monday again. I hope I didn’t ruin anybody’s day because of it. Oh well, so much for my dreams of going 5 for 5 this week.
Today you’re looking at Big Four Mountain. It’s in Washington, along a scenic drive called the “Mountain Loop”. It’s hard to describe exactly where it is using just text, especially if you have no context, but it’s basically a loop (duh) that lies north of Highway 2 (Stevens Pass) and south of Highway 20 (North Cascades National Park), and isn’t on the way to anywhere. It is its own destination. It’s for sure a pretty road, but as is the case with most mountain roads here in Washington state, it stays down in the lowlands, following the rivers. As a result, you’re surrounded by huge rocky peaks the whole time, but you don’t realize it, because the trees are so thick around you. Once you can get up on the valley walls a bit, you realize how gorgeous the surrounding terrain is, but if you never leave the car, it’s easy to miss.
Big Four Mountain is one of the exceptions to the rule, that you can actually see from the roadway. In fact, there’s a really easy 1-mile-or-so hike that takes you up to the “Big Four Ice Caves”, which I’d highly recommend checking out for all non-hiker types. It’s a very easy trail, with big payoffs. The ice caves themselves form in these huge piles of snow at the bottom of huge granite cliffs. There’s streams that run underneath the piles of snow, which melt them out from underneath, resulting in, well, you know, a cave. Not a cave that you should go into, because they have been known to collapse and kill people, but other than that they’re very friendly. The trail is great for kids, even really little ones. Except for the walking into the caves part. That part’s not great for anyone. But now I’m talking in circles.
Notes: Canon EOS Rebel T1i, Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 lens. 1/320s, f/9.0, ISO 100. Focal length: 32mm.
Popularity: 9%
July 9, 2010 – Crazy Bug
Posted by Dave in Animals, Macro, Picture of the Day on July 9, 2010
Insect
Friday, July 9, 2010
http://davefry.net/rate/index.php?viewimage=1608
I realized earlier today that it’s been a little while since I’ve posted a crazy macro bug shot. So here you go. I’ve got a fair number of bug shots that I just haven’t for whatever reason put online anywhere yet, so I had to dig this one up in order to post it today. I took this one earlier this spring, when I went on a little field trip to one of the parks here in Seattle (Carkeek Park, for those that know the area), because I was sick of the lack of bugs in my neighborhood. (Crazy, right? That I’d be complaining about there *not being enough* bugs. Weird.) I was using my recently-acquired macro ring flash, and two extension tubes with my Canon 50mm prime. (I don’t know the exact lengths of the extension tubes, but it was the two longer tubes out of the set of 3. With the third one on there, the already tiny working distance was just too short to be of any use..)
It’s really not very hard to get cool bug shots if you’ve got the equipment (and the equipment is surprisingly affordable!), but it does require a lot of patience. Both looking for bugs to take pictures of, as well as not getting too frustrated when they inevitably fly away before you get set up. Also, getting the bugs in focus is a real pain in the ass.
Another issue that I had with this particular set up is what I just hinted at: the small working distance. In order to focus, the bugs are only an inch or two from the front of your lens. So depending on how skittish the bug is, it can be hard to get close enough without them flying away. Also, they move a lot (especially the crawling bugs), so it can be extremely frustrating. But, it’s fun, so it’s worth the perseverance. (Wow, spell check told me I spelled that last word wrong, and after correcting it, it’s totally spelled differently than I would have expected.) Ideally, it would be nice to have a macro set up that would get me a similar level of magnification (or even more!) with a longer working distance. That’s where 100mm and 180mm macro lenses come in to play. Also, my macro flash isn’t adjustable at all, it just fires at full strength every time. Which means that sometimes there’s just no way to NOT overexpose the picture, because I’m already at the smallest aperture my lens will go to, at the lowest ISO my camera will do. I suppose the options would be to either use a different lens (that can go smaller), to manually cover some of the flash, or to use a neutral density filter. Perhaps I’ll try those later.
Anyway, have a great weekend everyone!
Notes: Canon EOS Rebel T1i, Canon 50mm f/1.8 lens with Opteka macro extension tubes. 1/160s, f/20.0, ISO 100.
Popularity: 13%
July 8, 2010 – Aspen Leaves
Posted by Dave in Colorado, Fall Color, Picture of the Day on July 8, 2010
Aspen Leaves
Thursday, July 8, 2010
http://davefry.net/rate/index.php?viewimage=674
Another late/short post today. Sorry about that! These are aspen leaves in the fall, in Colorado.
Notes: Canon EOS Rebel XT, Quantaray 70-300mm lens. 1/320s, f/9.0, ISO 100. Focal length: 183mm.
Popularity: 10%