Archive for category Picture of the Day
July 5, 2011 – Columbia River Valley
Posted by Dave in Picture of the Day, Washington State on July 5, 2011
Columbia River Basin
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
http://davefry.net/rate/index.php?viewimage=2340
Hello, welcome back! (That was directed at me more than anyone else.) Those of you in the US probably already know why I didn’t post anything yesterday. (It was a holiday – Independence day!) Those of you *outside* the US probably also had a strong suspicion that you knew why I didn’t post anything yesterday (because I am lazy), but you were wrong! Actually, no, you were right, but that was only the secondary reason.
Regardless, I didn’t post anything. But today I did. It’s not a new picture or anything (yeah, I don’t take those anymore), it’s from last summer. Well, last spring. Whatever. Last year. This was taken on the east side of the mountains here in Washington state. For those of you unfamiliar with the topology of Washington state, it’s … kind of weird. The western part of the state (where I live, in Seattle), is extremely lush and green. We get rain *all* *the* *time*. Seattle has the reputation that it does for a reason. But, nearby to our east are the Cascade mountains. The effect of the mountains on the weather is kind of like squeezing a sponge. Basically, if you drive just a couple hours east of Seattle, over the mountains, you get to a desert. Yeah, it’s weird. But it’s the way it is.
So, that’s where this was taken. Before the Columbia River forms the border between Washington and Oregon, it heads basically straight south for awhile through the heart of Washington State. And Highway 97 runs along it for awhile. And that’s where I took this picture. So this is not the “Columbia River Gorge” that you hear a lot about, which is also pretty. But it *is* a gorge-like area formed by the Columbia River. So, there you go.
Notes: Canon EOS Rebel T1i, Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8 lens. 1/160s, f/9.0, ISO 100. Focal length: 11mm.
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June 30, 2011 – Mt. Rainier from Crystal Mountain
Posted by Dave in Mountains, Picture of the Day, Washington State, Winter/Snow on June 30, 2011
Mt. Rainier from Crystal Mountain
Thursday, June 30, 2011
http://davefry.net/rate/index.php?viewimage=2542
Hey again everybody. I apologize that the last two mountain-y pictures I’ve posted have both been wintertime shots. That wasn’t really the intention, it’s just kind of the way things worked out. But, I figured this one was appropriate because I just used it (earlier today!) to enter some cheeseball photo contest that Crystal Mountain (the ski resort) is having. Normally I make it a policy not to enter photo contests. Officially, my reasoning is that photos themselves (and the “quality” thereof) is entirely subjective, and thus the judging of photos to choose the “best one” is completely absurd. That there can be no such thing as a “best” photo, and so to pretend that you are judging photos as such is kind of insulting. Unofficially though, the real reason is because I know I wouldn’t win, and then I know that would make me feel bad. I generally prefer to not feel bad, so I save myself the trouble and I don’t enter, convincing myself that the *real* reason I didn’t enter was the one stated above.
So.. why did I enter this one, then? Not really sure, I guess I was just in a photo contest entering mood. And that’s a total lie. The reason I entered this one is because they were showing some of the other photos that had been entered so far, and they all basically sucked. I mean, like, photos-taken-with-cell-phones sucked. So I basically qualified my reasoning from above, by adding the clause “once the photos meet a certain, fairly low quality bar”. As in, “Once the photos meet a certain, fairly low quality bar, there can be no such thing as a ‘best’ photo”. I still don’t think I’ll win, because I figure the chances are pretty low that mine will be the only “real” (ie non cell-phone) photo entered, and it’ll probably be fairly arbitrary which one is picked as the winner (meaning, “somebody else will enter a picture that’s actually really effing cool”), but hey, we’ll see what happens. The rules were somewhat strict, in that it had to be a picture of Mt. Rainier taken from somewhere on Crystal mountain. But, since you can basically only see Rainier from the ridgeline at the top of the resort, most of the photos entered looked… basically the same. This one’s just a little bit different from the standard view (an example of which can be seen here, which was almost the one I submitted), so I’m hoping that counts for something. I had some *really* different shots, zooming way in so you could just see some of the trees you can see in this shot against the glacier in the background, but it wasn’t readily identifiable as Mt. Rainier, so I figured that might be a bit of a stretch. So, I settled on this one, and then moved on with my life. Which is also a lie, because clearly I’ve been talking about this stupid little photo contest for two paragraphs here on my entirely unrelated blog, so obviously it’s been on my mind most of the day, which is absurd. But, there it is.
Notes: Canon EOS Rebel T1i, Canon 55-250mm IS lens. 1/200s, f/14, ISO 100. Focal length: 65mm.
Popularity: 27%
June 27, 2011 – Daisy
Posted by Dave in Flowers, Picture of the Day on June 27, 2011
Daisy
Monday, June 27, 2011
http://davefry.net/rate/index.php?viewimage=2531
I’m going to call this a daisy. It might not be a daisy, I don’t really know. I don’t even remember for sure which lens I took it with, so the one listed below is not much more than just a somewhat educated guess. Educated in that I know which lenses I own, so there’s a pretty good chance it was one of those.
Notes: Canon EOS Rebel T1i, Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 lens. 1/200s, f/9, ISO 200. Focal length: 50mm.
Popularity: 6%
June 24, 2011 – Ladybug
Posted by Dave in Animals, Macro, Picture of the Day on June 24, 2011
Ladybug
Friday, June 24, 2011
http://davefry.net/rate/index.php?viewimage=2533
So, here’s a ladybug. I used my Tamron 90mm macro lens that I picked up used at Glazer’s a year or two ago. The more I use it, the more I’m convinced that it doesn’t result in quite as nice of images as my Minolta-mount Kiron 105 that I got on Ebay. But, it’s a heck of a lot easier to use. That’s because it’s actually a modern, electronic lens that is designed for working with a Canon body, as opposed to an old, physically actuated lens that was designed for a mount that I’m not even sure they make anymore. The reason that makes a difference in usability primarily comes down to the aperture. With modern lenses, the aperture is held wide open as you’re focusing and composing, then it’s closed down to the desired size when you hit the shutter button. The minolta-mount lens has the same idea, but it’s done physically – meaning there’s a little spring-loaded rod in the mount that, when moved to the side, holds open the aperture. When you hit the shutter button on a camera that uses that mount, it then moves something out of the way that was previously holding that rod in place, thus the spring that I mentioned then closes down the aperture. But obviously, a modern Canon-mount camera doesn’t support that.
So, the upshot of all that is that when you’re using the Kiron lens, you have to close down the aperture before taking the shot. Which means that you’re restricting the amount of light that you have to focus with, sometimes severely so. And, to make matters worse, you’re enlarging your depth of field at the same time. So it becomes extremely difficult to tell if you’re focused on just the spot you want, particularly so when you’re taking macro shots, where being off by a millimeter or less can ruin the shot. Yeah, it’s hard. So, that’s what I mean when I say the Tamron is easier to use, because you can use the wide open aperture to focus, and it’ll automatically step down when you take the shot. But the images aren’t as nice. So it goes.
Notes: Canon EOS Rebel T1i, Tamron 90mm macro lens with Opteka extension tube and Phoenix macro ring flash. 1/160s, f/16, ISO 100.
Popularity: 15%
June 23, 2011 – Stars over Grand Coulee
Posted by Dave in Picture of the Day, Washington State on June 23, 2011
Stars over Grand Coulee
Thursday, June 23, 2011
http://davefry.net/rate/index.php?viewimage=2541
Well, how’s that for irony? I finally got around to uploading those pics I was talking about, and then I never got around to posting one. Whoops. Oh well, here you go, one day later than intended. And, as you can clearly tell, this is not a photo of the northern lights.
That’s because I didn’t see any northern lights.
Also, this is facing south-ish.
I was out looking for the northern lights, but I don’t think they were quite visible at my latitude. The forecast said they should be, but I was pretty close to the forecasted limit, so I don’t blame them too much. I know what you’re thinking though – why would I expect to see the northern lights from inside a big canyon? Yeah, yeah, I know.
The problem was, first I needed to find clear skies. And that turned out to be a lot more difficult than it should have been. The clearing that was forecasted (by a different set of forecast people) didn’t work out either, so I had to head about 3-4 hours east of Seattle before I could even see stars. I was at that point heading northeast from I-90, through Grand Coulee. That’s where I was when I took this. No northern lights, but a nice view of the sky. So I stopped to take a few pics.
Depending on how bright you have your monitor set, you can pretty clearly see the milky way here, and I believe some “city” lights (from the “city” of Soap Lake) down there at the bottom. This was a 45 second exposure, which I discovered was about as long as I long as I could go before the natural movement of the stars started showing up in undesirable ways. (Right, right, it’s not the stars that are moving, rather it’s the Earth that’s spinning. Shut up. The stars were moving relative to my point of view.) That was surprising to me. I mean, of course I know that you get a lot of movement in long exposures, but I figured I’d have to go an order of magnitude longer (like, say, 10 minutes or more) in order to actually see movement in the resulting image. But no, anything over a minute showed just enough blur to be annoying. I mean, sure, you can make cool pictures that have big long star trails. But in order for those to not suck, you have to have them be long enough to not just be mistaken for camera shake or for your focus being off. Plus, the effect was exacerbated since I was looking south. (Since the further away you get from the north star, the more movement you get.)
But anyway, here’s today’s picture. That’s all. Move along.
Notes: Canon EOS Rebel T1i, Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8 lens. 45s, f/3.2, ISO 800. Focal length: 11mm.
Popularity: 26%
June 21, 2011 – Echo Lake
Posted by Dave in Colorado, Flowers, Mountains, Picture of the Day on June 21, 2011
Echo Lake
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
http://davefry.net/rate/index.php?viewimage=1631
Yeah, I forgot to upload those pics again. Sigh.
So, instead, here’s a picture of Echo Lake, with Mt. Evans in the background. This is in Colorado. You can actually drive to the top of Mt. Evans, and it’s paved the whole way. That’s noteworthy, because you can *also* drive to the top of another sort-of nearby fourteener, Pikes Peak, but *that* road is *not* paved the whole way. Pikes Peak is right outside Colorado Springs, which is where I grew up. Now you know.
So, right, Mt. Evans is not Pikes Peak, so that’s the last mention Pikes Peak will get today. Mt. Evans is near Idaho Springs, which is a little ways up I-70, west of Denver. Echo Lake is on the way up, but it’s before the spot where you have to pay. Because yes, you have to pay to drive up Mt. Evans. It’s worth it though. If you’ve got an afternoon to kill, it’s a great way to get up into the high country. And you can get some really nice photos after only barely getting out of your car. My kind of place!
Canon EOS Rebel XT, Tamron 28-300mm VC lens. 1/60s, f/18.0, ISO 400. Focal length: 65mm.
Popularity: 21%
June 20, 2011 – Glacier National Park
Posted by Dave in Mountains, Picture of the Day, Winter/Snow on June 20, 2011
Glacier National Park
Monday, June 20, 2011
http://davefry.net/rate/index.php?viewimage=1407
Dang, dang, dang, dang. Dang. I’ve been meaning for more than a week now to toss up a picture or two from my northern-lights-chasing-adventure, but I keep forgetting to upload anything from my desktop machine at home. And now, it’s even worse, as I took some pictures of ladybugs this weekend that I was hoping to post, and I forgot to upload those too. Dang. Try again tonight, I guess.
In the meantime, here’s another shot from Whitefish Mountain Resort in Montana. This is a view over into Glacier National Park from the top of the ski hill, that’s why I labelled the post the way I did. Whitefish Mountain Resort (formerly known as Big Mountain), is, not surprisingly, just outside of Whitefish, Montana. It’s one of my favorite three ski hills in the world. Although, saying “in the world” is slightly misleading, as I certainly have not skied everywhere there is to ski. I *have* skied outside the US, so my opinion is at least an international one, but that was only just across the Canadian border in BC, so that’s hardly fair, even to the rest of Canada. But whatever, I still stand by my statement. This is one of my favorite three places to ski *IN THE ENTIRE WORLD*. Deal with it. Or, better idea, just go ski there. Perhaps it won’t become one of your three favorite places to ski, but you’re almost guaranteed to at least have a good time, and you’ll also get to try someplace new, which is also awesome. Unless you’ve been there before, in which case that particular incentive won’t apply.
Notes: Canon EOS Rebel T1i, Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 lens. 1/500s, f/10.0, ISO 100. Focal length: 50mm.
Popularity: 12%
June 16, 2011 – Diablo Lake
Posted by Dave in Mountains, Picture of the Day, Washington State on June 16, 2011
Diablo Lake, North Cascades National Park
Thursday, June 16, 2011
http://davefry.net/rate/index.php?viewimage=2111
This is Diablo Lake (I’ve also heard it called Emerald Lake) in North Cascades National Park. It’s not a natural lake strictly speaking, as it is the size it is because it’s dammed (which you can just barely see on the far right edge of the frame), to generate power for the city of Seattle. Whether or not it was a (much smaller/shallower) lake before it was dammed is not something I know. Actually, it’s dammed on both ends, as the next lake up the chain, Ross Lake, which is a long, narrow lake that extends just over the Canadian border, is also created via dam, and spills into Diablo.
And yes, it really is that color. The water is primarily glacial meltwater, and as such it’s filled with all sorts of silt and mineralage, which is what makes it look all milky like that. We get a fair bit of that here in the PNW (like the White River which comes out of Mt. Rainier National Park – it’s only a little tiny river, but the water looks like diluted milk, kinda weird.)
So, have a great rest of the day and all that.
Notes: Canon EOS Rebel T1i, Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8 lens. 1/200s, f/8.0, ISO 400. Focal length: 11mm.
Popularity: 37%
June 15, 2011 – Bee and Poppy
Posted by Dave in Animals, Flowers, Macro, Picture of the Day on June 15, 2011
Bee and Poppy
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
http://davefry.net/rate/index.php?viewimage=2515
Well hello there, folks. Looks like Tuesday never happened, huh? That’s too bad. This is the picture I was planning to post, before the day just kind of got away from me. Remember on Monday how I was talking about taking pictures of bugs that were flying? Yeah, turns out it’s hard.
The focus is really the hardest part. I mean, sure, you could just zoom way out and all that. But (in case you didn’t notice) I have a bit of a macro obsession. I want to get in close. I want to be able to see the little hairs on the bug’s body. I want to see the romantic bits of flowers. Actually, that’s jumping ahead a little bit. But since it’s done, I’ll go ahead and mention that: I figured the only way it would be even kind of possible is by hanging out near flowers. That is, hanging out near places where there’s a good chance they’ll be landing and/or taking off. Then you can at least try to just focus on the flower, and then be quick on the shutter when a bug flies by. There’s still a good chance that the focus will be a bit too close or far, but then you at least stand a chance. But it’s still tough, because bees like to go to where there are hundreds of flowers. Meaning, if you decide to just focus in on one in particular, you’ll probably be sitting there all day while they land on every single flower there except for the one you’re focused on. It’s annoying.
So, I compromised a bit. I didn’t get in as close as I’d like to, because then it would have been just plain impossible. I zoomed out a bit, and then I just took lots and lots of frames. And then a couple of them turned out okay. It was also annoying that the sun which I had been counting on disappeared behind the clouds as soon as I went outside. Meaning, I had to crank the ISO a bit in order to keep the shutter speeds fast enough. (That’s another problem. Those suckers are MOVING – so if you’re using anything less than like 1/1000s, you’ll get motion blur.)
So, right. It’s hard. Here ya go.
Notes: Canon EOS Rebel T1i, Tamron 90mm f/2.8 macro lens. 1/1250s, f/5.0, ISO 400. Focal length: duh, 90mm.
Popularity: 11%
June 13, 2011 – Mayflower Gulch
Posted by Dave in Colorado, Mountains, Picture of the Day on June 13, 2011
Mayflower Gulch
Monday, June 13, 2011
http://davefry.net/rate/index.php?viewimage=1046
Amazingly enough, I actually made it out to take a few pictures late last week and over the weekend. And no, this isn’t one of them. But I figured it’d be worth mentioning, so you can know what to expect once I finally get around to tossing them online. This weekend the weather appeared to finally be nice enough to allow the bugs to start coming out to play. So, I spent some time trying to take pictures of bees flying as they were either preparing to land on flowers, or just taking off from flowers. Turns out, it’s really hard. More on that later.
Also, late last week I went on an epic 14-hour adventure, chasing the northern lights. There was an aurora forecast that suggested that they should be visible from my latitude, so I went driving, hoping to find a location that was a) away from city lights, b) had a view of the northern sky, and c) wasn’t cloudy. I basically succeeded in those three after a lot of effort (I ended up at a location that, were you to drive straight there, would be just under 5 hours from where I live), but there were no northern lights to be found. BUT, I got some decent pics along the way, so you’ll see some of those eventually.
In the meantime, here’s a shot from Mayflower Gulch in Summit County, Colorado that I grabbed today just so that I’d have something to show you.
Notes: Canon EOS Rebel T1i, Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 lens. 1/250s, f/6.3, ISO 100. Focal length: 39mm.
Popularity: 17%
June 10, 2011 – Ant, Lupine
Posted by Dave in Animals, Flowers, Macro, Picture of the Day on June 10, 2011
Ant on Lupine
Friday, June 10, 2011
http://davefry.net/rate/index.php?viewimage=1733
Hey, lookie here, this is the 5th post this week! I actually did it – I actually posted one picture here per day on, umm, the picture of the day. I think I deserve a pretty serious pat on the back for that one. Also, I’ll probably over-compensate now by not posting anything else for a month and a half. Hmm.
These are lupine flowers. You see them a bunch up in the mountains here in Washington. That’s an ant. You see them a bunch just about everywhere in the world I’ve ever been. Okay, that’s all I’ve got.
Notes: Canon EOS Rebel XT, Tamron 28-300mm VC lens. 1/200s, f/6.3, ISO 200. Focal length: 300mm.
Popularity: 12%
June 9, 2011 – Headlee Pass
Posted by Dave in Picture of the Day, Washington State on June 9, 2011
Headlee Pass
Thursday, June 9, 2011
http://davefry.net/rate/index.php?viewimage=1950
So in the past, I’d go through literally every picture that came off my camera. I’d look at every single one, throw away the real duds, and then go through again and do a little bit of post-processing on all of them that were even a little tiny bit good. Then I’d throw them into a big pile (the Rate Dave’s Photos thing), which I then go through to grab pics to post here. But over the last few years I’ve gotten amazingly far behind. In fact, I’m only halfway through the last day that I’ve gotten to, and it was so long ago that I was still using my old camera and my crappy Tamron 28-300mm VC lens. Thus, I’ve had a huge influx of images of marginal quality that I have to wade through when picking out a picture each day. Some of them are more marginal than others, but this is one of them.
This was taken near Headlee Pass, which is on the Sunrise Mine Trail, off the Mountain Loop Highway about halfway between Stevens and Snoqualmie passes in Washington state. It’s a great hike, blah blah blah, I’ve said all this before. Lake Elan was behind me when I took this picture, if that helps you get your bearings. I mean, it won’t, but it sounds good, and I felt like I needed a little bit more text to round out this post. See? It got me a couple extra sentences, not bad.
Notes: Canon EOS Rebel XT, Tamron 28-300mm VC lens. 1/50s, f/11.0, ISO 400. Focal length: 92mm.
Popularity: 21%