Posts Tagged Canon 18-55
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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June 8, 2010 – Ingalls Creek
Posted by Dave in Fall Color, Picture of the Day, Washington State on June 8, 2010
Ingalls Creek in Autumn
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
http://davefry.net/rate/index.php?viewimage=691
It’s been awhile since I’ve posted a fall colors pic (has it? I actually don’t know, I haven’t been paying attention), so I figure a random Tuesday in June is the perfect time for one. Besides, with the crappy spring we’ve had up here in Seattle, it feels like fall anyway. I mean, seriously, I’m sick of temps in the 50s, I’m ready for some effing sun. Goddamn.
You’re looking at Ingalls Creek, which is up Highway 97 in Washington State, a little ways north of Blewett Pass. (Basically, on the eastern slope of the central Cascades.) The road (Ingalls Creek Road, appropriately enough) is blocked right at the trailhead for the Ingalls Creek Trail, although there’s a bridge and the road keeps going on the other side. (Although if you follow it up the hill for a bit, you soon run into a landslide that blocked the roadway, that’s probably why it’s blocked. Not sure where the road ends up, but it’s sad that they decided to just go ahead and block it off rather than maintain it, in my opinion anyway.) Why am I telling you all of this? Because I’m trying to get across that this picture was taken on the other side of the bridge, just a couple minutes from the trailhead. That’s all.
Ingalls Creek seems to be a pretty decent trail for checking out fall colors. Most of the surrounding forest is evergreens, but right along the creek there’s a bunch of nice bright yellows. I’ve honestly never gone further than an hour or so up the trail (various reasons, whatever), but the part I’ve seen just nicely meanders along the water. No big views or anything, but some nice wildflowers and fall colors (not at the same time though.) So, go check it out. Or, alternatively, don’t.
Notes: Canon EOS Rebel XT, Canon 18-55mm kit lens. 1/100s, f/5.6, ISO 400. Focal length: 27mm.
Popularity: 20%
May 3, 2010 – Mt. St. Helens
Posted by Dave in Mountains, Picture of the Day, Washington State on May 3, 2010
Mt. St. Helens
Monday, May 3, 2010
http://davefry.net/rate/index.php?viewimage=493
Hey everyone! Looking back at last week’s entries, it was apparently “orange” week. That wasn’t intentional at all, but it really does look like I planned it out. Weird. I haven’t yet decided what this week’s theme won’t be, so we’ll find out as it develops I suppose.
There’s a couple big events coming up here in the next couple of weeks. The first one is of course the one year anniversary of the first post on this blog. (Which is somewhat interesting, because at the time, “this blog” didn’t exist per se, it was sort of an afterthought after my cousin Deanne pointed out that I should make a fan page on Facebook. I didn’t know what I should put on it, so I grabbed a random picture that I normally wouldn’t post online, and wrote some stuff about it. It wasn’t until a few weeks later that I actually sat down and got my hands on some blog software and started hosting it myself. I’m not sure why I’m going into all this detail here, I’m totally stealing my own thunder for my 1 year anniversary post. Garr, I’m such an a-hole.
Back to what I was saying though: there are TWO big things to commemorate this month. That one, and also the 30 year anniversary of the explosion of Mt. St. Helens. And, it just so happens that both of them fall on the same day! Wow! One of them will be remembered as a momentous event that had a permanent and lasting effect on the topology of the planet, and the other one was an effing volcanic explosion. I’m not quite sure how my blog will live up to that kind of hype, I’m still working it out. But you’ll see, it’ll be huge.
I haven’t been back to Mt. St. Helens in awhile, and I want to make it back this year. I almost certainly won’t make it back in time to post any newer pics here before the actual event (although maybe I should use that as an excuse to encourage a field trip), but I’ll try to post at least a couple Mt. St. Helens pics here this month from several years ago when I was last there. Starting with today. As you can see, in the 30 years since the event (well, 26 years at the time this pic was taken), the area hasn’t yet begun to resemble the way it looked on May 17, 1980. It’s actually not quite as desolate as this picture makes it look, there are a fair number of scrubby bushes and stuff growing around, but by and large it’s still a huge area of remarkable devastation. Definitely worth checking out if you’re in the area.
Notes: Canon EOS Rebel XT, Canon 18-55mm kit lens. 1/500s, f/5.6, ISO 100. Focal length: 55mm.
Popularity: 16%
April 23, 2010 – Dandelion
Posted by Dave in - Best of Dave's POTD -, Flowers, Macro, Picture of the Day on April 23, 2010
Dandelion
Friday, April 23, 2010
http://www.davefry.net/rate/index.php?viewimage=1534
Oh, sure, today’s post is all significant because it’s the last one this week and everything. But just wait till Monday’s post. That’ll be big doin’s. Awwwww man, Monday’s a big deal. And yes, I’m being intentionally vague. Right, anyway…
In the last couple weeks, I looked outside and noticed that things had started blooming. Springtime once again. So, I decided to pick up where I had left off last summer with my macro toys. To give a quick refresher, I started out with a standard telephoto “macro” lens (quotation marks because it’s only 1:2 magnification, not even 1:1 like a “true” macro lens). Then I started doing stuff like buying little “macro kits” (little magnifying lenses that you attach to the front of your regular lens), and I ended up buying a reverse-mount adaptor near the end of the summer. I’ve talked about it many times before, but it’s a little metal ring that you screw on to the front of your lens like a filter, and it allows you to connect your lens backwards to the camera body. This gets you ridiculous macro, all for the exorbitant price of 12 dollars. (Although you lose nice things like autofocus and aperture control, since the electrical bits of your lens are no longer attached. – you can mitigate that a little bit by not using your fast glass – I’ve been using my kit lens – but it takes what is already a frightfully small depth of field and shrinks it further.)
Oh, before I move on, I should explain something. Magnification ratio. That’s a fairly important concept when it comes to macro. The magnification ratio is the ratio between how big something is in real life vs how big the projection of it is against your camera sensor (or <retch> film). So, an object that is 35mm across, when using a 1:1 magnification lens, will be projected life-size on your sensor, and if you’re using a 35mm camera or a full-frame sensor digital, it will take up the whole frame. (And then, when you print the picture or view it on your computer, it’ll be effing HUGE.) With most digital cameras (mine included), the sensor is actually smaller than the full 35mm, so in the case of the 35mm object, at 1:1 magnification it would be *larger* than the frame. So, a 1:2 magnification ratio means that the projection on your sensor will be half-life-size. Most standard telephoto zoom lenses have a 1:2 or 1:4 magnification ratio, for your reference. True “macro” lenses usually achive 1:1, and Canon makes this one crazy 65mm macro-specific lens that STARTS at 1:1, and goes all the way up to 5:1. 5 to 1. Think about that. The thing you’re taking a picture of will be FIVE TIMES BIGGER than life size on your itty-bitty sensor. That means that a fly’s eyeball will take up your entire sensor. Now imagine that you’re looking at a picture of a fly’s eyeball blown up to poster-size. Yeah, crazy, right?? That’s where I want to get someday. But that lens costs 1000 bucks, so someday is not today.
ANYWAY… all that talk about magnification ratio, and I actually have no clue what kind of ratio I have on this picture. I’m going to guess somewhere between 1:2 and 1:1. But using the reverse mount, I’m pretty sure I can fairly easily get past that magic 1:1 mark. When you’re using the reverse mount, the usual rule of “larger focal length means more zoomed in” is no longer true. If you’re using an 18-55 lens (like I was), the 18 end is the super close in end (which is actually too close in to really be usable) and the 55 end is more of a normal ridiculous macro. This shot was right out at the 55 and, and you can tell it’s still pretty neat. You’re looking at a dandelion, if that wasn’t obvious.
Why all this talk about macro stuff? Because I bought more macro stuff. Some of it should be getting here today! The rest, hopefully tomorrow, maybe Monday. What’d I get? Well, two things..
First, I got a set of macro extension tubes. Amazon link. You use them by attaching them between your lens and your camera. This moves the optical elements of your lens further away from the sensor, which essentially zooms you in. (Although it also makes it so you can focus closer in, at the expense of being able to focus to infinity.) Basically, it gets you wicked close. How close? Not sure. I’ll let you know after I play around with it. Although, I do know that it has a much more dramatic effect on shorter lenses. As in, if you attach your super-long telephoto lens with them, it won’t change that dramatically, but if you hook up your little tiny 50mm prime, you’ll rock your world so hard they’ll feel it in Australia. Or so I’ve heard. We’ll see. There’s no optics in the rings, they’re just hollow rings. But they DO pass through the electrical connections, so you can USE YOUR APERTURE! WOOOOO! We’ll see how this goes.
The other thing I got is a macro ring flash. Amazon link. This is basically a ring flash that you mount on the front of your lens. It, you know, shines light on stuff. In this case, stuff that’s right in front of your lens. One of the side effects of taking pictures of little tiny things is that you’re dealing with dramatically smaller quantities of light than, say, typical landscape photography. So you have to deal with things like high ISO and low shutter speed. Hopefully, this flash will help out. I started out with a cheapie-cheap one, so I can play around with it and see how well it works. the “real” ones cost much more, like 500 or 800 dollars. So I’m not there yet. Someday, someday. Not today.
So, hopefully next week (maybe even Monday?? Nah, already got a picture picked out for Monday) you’ll get to see some initial results! I can’t wait! Have a great weekend!
Notes: Canon EOS Rebel T1i, reverse-mounted 18-55mm kit lens. 1/500s, ISO 800. Aperture unknown. Focal length was somewhere around 55mm, but reverse-mounted.
Popularity: 32%
April 19, 2010 – Upper Silver Lake
Posted by Dave in Picture of the Day, Washington State on April 19, 2010
Upper Silver Lake, Buckhorn Wilderness
Monday, April 19, 2010
http://davefry.net/rate/index.php?viewimage=562
So, reflections are kind of fun. If you’ve got a piece of still water handy nearby, you can usually make just about any picture a little bit more interesting by reflecting something in it. Now, it doesn’t always make things more interesting an interesting way, if that makes any sense, but it never hurts to try. Long-time readers of the Picture of the Day may realize that I’ve posted shots in the past of just about this same spot, where I feel like I made better use of the reflection. But this one is still kind of nice I think.
This was taken at Upper Silver Lake, in the Buckhorn Wilderness. That’s on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State if you don’t have a map handy. There’s a national park on the peninsula, Olympic National Park, that encompasses a lot of the mountains and a decent-sized chunk of the coastline, but this wasn’t inside the boundary. There’s a couple ways in to the lake, one of which follows the Mt. Townsend trail almost all the way up. That’s the way we got there. The other trail is I think a little bit easier (in that there’s less up, then down, then up), but I wasn’t in charge of picking the trail, so what do I know. This was taken a little while after sunrise, when the surrounding peaks were nicely lit up, but the sun hadn’t made its way down to the lake yet.
Anybody have any requests for the rest of the week?
Notes: Canon EOS Rebel XT, 18-55mm kit lens. 1/125s, f/4.0, ISO 400. Focal length: 28mm.
Popularity: 20%
March 9, 2010 – Mt. Shuksan
Posted by Dave in Mountains, Picture of the Day, Washington State on March 9, 2010
Mt. Shuksan
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
http://www.davefry.net/rate/index.php?viewimage=631
I don’t like this picture. I mean, I *really* don’t like this picture. The foreground is all muddled up with a shapeless mess of green stuff, and not only does it not nicely frame the mountain in the background, it actually partially blocks it. I really really don’t like this picture. But for some unknown reason, it seems that everyone else does. At the time I’m writing this, it’s got 53 votes, with an astronomical average of 8.96!! What?!? I mean, I can understand the odd high vote here and there, but normally by the time a mediocre picture gets 53 votes, sanity has prevailed and the average rating has fallen to a more reasonable level. But not with this one.
Am I wrong here?? What do you people see in this picture that I’m missing? There’s got to be something, right? Anyone??
Notes: Canon EOS Rebel XT, 18-55 mm kit lens. 1/200s, f/5.6, ISO 100. Focal length: 22mm.
Popularity: 34%
February 9, 2010 – Washington Park Japanese Garden
Posted by Dave in Fall Color, Picture of the Day, Washington State on February 9, 2010
Woodland Park Japanese Garden
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
http://www.davefry.net/rate/index.php?viewimage=697
Meh.
Popularity: 20%
February 5, 2010 – Fort San Cristobal
Posted by Dave in Picture of the Day on February 5, 2010
Fort San Cristobal, San Juan, Puerto Rico
Friday, February 5, 2010
http://www.davefry.net/rate/index.php?viewimage=463
Whoa, wait, what happened to Thursday? Dang. I had the perfect crappy picture too! Oh well. Maybe next week. Instead, today, I’ll share with you this one, which I really like, but the rest of you… not so much. (judging by all of the votes in Rate Dave’s Pictures anyway.)
This is Fort San Cristobal, in old town San Juan, Puerto Rico. It’s been around since like 300 BC or the 1500’s or something like that. It’s way older than just about anything I come across each day. (Not surprising considering I live in a city that’s a grand total of 100-some years old.) The thing I like so much about this shot is the color. All the swirly multicolored designs that have just slowly appeared in the several-hundred-year-old-concrete-or-whatever-it-is. That’s what really fascinated me when I was there. I don’t know what color all of the intimidating walls and such were to start out with, but now they’re… beautiful. When I was taking this picture, I was trying to contrast the super old stuff in the foreground, with the modern city of San Juan in the background, peeking out through that little archway. It turns out that the little archway is way too small to make out any detail really, but I ended up loving the picture anyway just because of that delicious texture on the walls. (And I like how the blue sky mixes in too, it’s just a steaming pile of color casserole.)
Vorrei dire “avere un grande fine settimana”, ma ho il vago sospetto che nessuno sia in realtà la lettura di questo. Invece, io dico: “Mi piace il formaggio giallo!”
Notes: Canon EOS Rebel XT, 18-55 mm kit lens. 1/200s, f/5.0, ISO 100. Focal length: 21mm
Popularity: 4%
January 19, 2010 – Green Bottle Fly
Posted by Dave in - Best of Dave's POTD -, Macro, Picture of the Day on January 19, 2010
Green Bottle Fly
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
http://www.davefry.net/rate/index.php?viewimage=1040
Alrighty, I finished up with that whole travelling to Montana thing. Now, back to real life. My original plan was to use something from that trip here, but honestly, I haven’t had a chance to even BEGIN going through them yet, so instead today I’ll fulfill one of last week’s requests. (If you want to request anything, either leave it in the comments or contact me directly – dave (at) davefry (dot) net. I’ll see if I’ve got anything that works.)
This is a green bottle fly (or at least that’s what my (really) brief research on google suggested), seen through a reverse-mounted 18-55 mm kit lens. I talked about this already at length in this post, so if you’re at all interested in this kind of stuff, please do yourself a favor and read that entry too. But, long story short, you buy a little adapter for your lens, and then the magic happens. Wooo!
I’ll try to at least do something resembling a first pass on the Montana pics tonight, at least as far as finding one worthy of posting here. We’ll see how that goes.
Notes: Canon EOS Rebel T1i, reverse-mounted 18-55mm kit lens. 1/320s, ISO 200.
Popularity: 17%
December 15, 2009 – St. Thomas Sunrise
Posted by Dave in Picture of the Day, Tropical/Beaches on December 15, 2009
St. Thomas Sunrise
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
http://www.davefry.net/rate/index.php?viewimage=459
Welcome back everyone. Today’s shot takes us back to my honeymoon a few years ago, in (among other places) St. Thomas. St. Thomas is in the Caribbean, in the U.S. Virgin Islands, for those of you who need a quick geography refresher. This was the view at sunrise from our hotel complex. It was really hazy while we were there, which may very well be the way it usually is, I really have no idea. But, it made for these somewhat unexpected colors during sunrise and sunset, kind of cool.
I went back and forth for a little while about which picture I should post today, this one or a similar image, taken horizontally, which didn’t have nearly as much sky in it. In a lot of ways, that one is a better image, because this has all the interesting stuff way at the bottom, and just a bunch of dead space up top. Except that it’s not quite dead space. It’s got that huge color gradient, from yellow to deep navy blue. The other one cut off right where the yellow turned into the mud brown. So in the end I went with this one, since it was the amazing color that made me want to take the picture in the first place.
Be sure to check back tomorrow, because I’m going to post another picture of… actually, I have no idea, but I’m sure it’ll be utterly fascinating. See you then!
Notes: Canon EOS Rebel XT, 18-55 mm kit lens. 1/400s, f/5.6, ISO 100. Focal length: 30mm.
Popularity: 15%
December 9, 2009 – Fly
Posted by Dave in Animals, Macro, Picture of the Day on December 9, 2009
Fly
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
http://davefry.net/rate/index.php?viewimage=1111
I know, I know, a lot of you think pictures like this one are kind of disgusting. And let’s be honest, they kind of are. But they’re still really cool. And, you have to admit, it’s been quite awhile since I’ve posted one.
This was taken with the 18-55 mm kit lens that came with my Canon, reverse-mounted using one of these guys: http://bit.ly/hCi4n . It’s truly ridiculous how close-in you can get that way, and all you need is a cheesy little 13 dollar attachment. Unfortunately, since you’re attaching the lens to your camera backwards, you obviously don’t get the benefit of any of the electronic controls, which means the focus is totally manual (although focusing at that distance consists of simply rocking back and forth on the balls of your feet) and your aperture will be wide open. However, I don’t think shrinking the aperture would help you at all anyway, since there’s such a pitifully small amount of light reaching your sensor anyway.
As you can tell, the depth of field when taking pictures like this is quite literally microscopic. In normal landscape photography, you can take a photo with everything from 15 feet in front of you out to infinity all in focus. Here? The only thing in focus is a very narrow band between the fly’s back and the front of his head. We’re talking maybe a millimeter here. It’s weird. Another odd thing about doing this kind of stuff is how close you have to get to your subject. This fly was literally less than an inch from the front (well, the back) of my lens. As you can imagine, this introduces a whole host of new issues. Such as: flies tend to be a bit skittish. So it can be hard to get close enough to even get a picture. And, I don’t know about you, but I’m not good at standing perfectly still. I tend to rock back and forth a bit. When I’m taking a picture of a mountain, an inch or two in either direction doesn’t really make a difference. But when your depth of field is a millimeter, it’s a bit different. And, even on top of that, it’s worth pointing out that flies are FAST. They move a LOT. So while normally the biggest concern is using a fast enough shutter speed to avoid camera shake, with these shots you need to get much, much faster than that, so that you don’t get motion blur. (1/400th of a second is a great place to start.) So to say getting this picture was a bit frustrating a bit of an understatement. Let’s just say, it’s a good think I was shooting digital, because I had a couple hundred frames of complete garbage. (Not an exaggeration.)
One thing I like about these shots, and this one in particular, is that they’re very illustrative of what happens when you move away from the focal point. The eye is fantastic, because you can see what it looks like in focus, and you can very clearly see how it degrades from that into the general out of focus mushy stuff. Fun times, all around.
Before I let you go today, I’d like to point something out real quick. If you see that bit.ly link above ( http://bit.ly/hCi4n ), that’s a link to Amazon, to the actual reverse-mount attachment I use. If you use that link to go to Amazon, then buy ANYTHING on the site, it’s linked up to my referral account, so I get 4% of your purchase paid to me. So I would urge you, if you’re going to do any Amazon shopping this holiday season, to please go to Amazon via that link, help me out a bit. If you buy enough stuff, I’ll send you a free calendar!! What could be better than that?! Oh, a lot of stuff, you’re right. But it’s still pretty awesome!
Notes: Canon EOS Rebel T1i, reverse-mounted 18-55 mm kit lens. 1/400s, ISO 800.
Popularity: 17%
December 7, 2009 – Gold Creek Pond and Chikamin Peak
Posted by Dave in Mountains, Picture of the Day, Washington State on December 7, 2009
Gold Creek Pond and Chikamin Peak
Monday, December 7, 2009
http://www.davefry.net/rate/index.php?viewimage=615
Wow, that was close, I almost missed Monday. Got it in just after business hours closed on the west coast. That’s fine, that just means that this picture will be the “latest post” for a shorter time, which is probably good, because it’s not my favorite. They can’t all be winners, of course, but it still stings when one loses.
This is Chikamin Peak and Gold Creek Pond, seen from the Gold Creek Pond picnic area near Snoqualmie Pass. I’ve talked about it before so I’m not going to go into any more than that now. This is a good illustration of why sometimes you hear people say that the best light for pictures tends to be either early in the morning or late in the afternoon. The mid-day light tends to just flatten out the colors, which results in a more ho-hum picture. Still great for some purposes (like documenting a hike you go on, for instance), but you’re much more likely to get the really dramatic “keepers” closer to the fringes of the day. The light then tends to be a lot warmer, and the angle of the light leads to nice shadows and such, which do a great job of emphasizing details and adding depth. Also, there can be a lot of haze during the day. Nothing will kill color better than a little bit of haze. It doesn’t even have to be a LOT of haze. There’s haze here, but you wouldn’t even know it. It drains the color from stuff in the distance, and gives it a flat bluish hue. The haze goes away late in the afternoon (for whatever reason) so the details in the distance can look a lot more interesting.
That’s fine, whatever, it’s a pretty spot, worth visiting if you’re in the area, etc, etc, etc. Okay, go watch the football game now, I’m done with you! 
Notes: Canon EOS Rebel XT, 18-55 mm kit lens. 1/250s, f/6.3, ISO 100. Focal length: 31mm.
Popularity: 4%