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Photo of the Day : December 2010

pdxflint said:
I liked how her face was mostly hidden, and the shape of her nose in the backlight seems to match the waves in her hair...
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Yeah, that's the really terrific part. Your background in photojournalism obviously served you well with that shot; it was surely something you had to see and shoot very quickly.

pdxflint said:
Again, another very striking and beautiful landscape. It's almost surreal, the color in the sky above the clouds contrasted with below. I'll have to say that your landscapes have evolved into a very nice body of work.
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I really appreciate you saying so, pdxflint. I've been trying very hard to improve my photography, especially the landscapes and museum/stock work. However, I've proven to myself that I'm a truly lousy sports photographer, a fact I reconfirmed on Saturday by blowing a couple of hours taking countless crappy shots of skiers. Nonetheless, I'll probably continue to beat my head against that wall too. Alas, fools rush in where angels fear to tread…


And for today, a landscape I shot on Saturday near the top of a ski run. The slopes had closed, and the lifts had stopped running. It was getting dark, and there I was about 6,000 feet high, in the frigid wind with the legs of my tripod planted in more than a foot of snow. And yet I'm pretty sure I was having more fun than any skier did that day… ;)


PeakExperience.jpg
 
Christmas lights

p965868768-4.jpg

Canon 7D with 17-55 at 33mm; 1/25 @ f2.8 +1EV; ISO 800

Every year, VanDusen Botanical Gardens puts on a spectacular Festival of Lights at this time of year. It's sensory overload and a challenge to photograph.
 
DSC_5704-as-Smart-Object-1.jpg


Nikon D3S
AF-S VR Zoom-Nikkor 200-400mm F/4.0G IF-ED
Manfrotto 055XPROB and Wimberley Tripod Head Version II
Manual shutter speed / manual aperture
ISO12,800, 1/30sec, 200mm, F/4.0. Preset white balance.

I've left the EXIF in the image, so you can inspect that if you are interested.
 
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Phrasikleia said:
And for today, a landscape I shot on Saturday near the top of a ski run. The slopes had closed, and the lifts had stopped running. It was getting dark, and there I was about 6,000 feet high, in the frigid wind with the legs of my tripod planted in more than a foot of snow. And yet I'm pretty sure I was having more fun than any skier did that day… ;)

PeakExperience.jpg
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I used to do a lot of late afternoon and night skiing, and there is nothing like this hour up on the slopes. I know what you mean about feeling like the one having more fun... this is another stunning image.

avro707 said:
DSC_5704-as-Smart-Object-1.jpg


Nikon D3S
AF-S VR Zoom-Nikkor 200-400mm F/4.0G IF-ED
Manfrotto 055XPROB and Wimberley Tripod Head Version II
Manual shutter speed / manual aperture
ISO12,800, 1/30sec, 200mm, F/4.0. Preset white balance.
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This speaks of why I really, really, really want a D3s. It's not just the usability of the image at ISO12800, but the shadow detail on the airplane at that ISO is stellar. Nice capture of a huge double-decker plane.
 
In a previous day, ISO6400 was not possible to use, it gave you grainy images. Even if you got a sharp image at some crazy slow shutter speed, you then had a difficult post-processing job ahead of you. Clean up the noise, wipe out the detail. Keep the detail, keep the noise too.

D3S makes that much easier. I can save my time to worry about getting the pictures I want - rather than wondering how I'm going to process the noise.

The remarkable thing about that image is the fact you can see the frosting/condensation on the outside of the plane so easily, even in the dark, as it descended out of the cold atmosphere into the warmer temperatures near the ground.

D3S is easily the best low-noise/low-light camera at the moment, and it is the camera that is most rewarding to use. If you can imagine the image, you have a great chance of capturing it.

VirtualRain: Plane won on all accounts. Then it parked in front of me - preventing me front taking any more photos of anything... Huge tail of A380 blocked my view. ;) Which was fortunate I guess, I'd parked in the airport car-park, $21 for two hours, and after 3 hours is $52! :eek:

PDXFlint: Late afternoon, early evening, or early morning is the best time for photography, the colours are amazing. That mountain photo above is awesome!
 
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Mixing autumn with Christmas. And I can tell I want more leaves in my 50mm aperture, but that's not my priority for lens choices right now. Unfortunately the f/1.8 version didn't have as sharp of a focus on the leaf. I don't know if the focus was just off or the leaf was too curved to provide enough surface to be in focus at that setting. f/2.8 just came out looking a lot better overall.

 
I think the F/1.8 you tried might not have had enough depth of field to be entirely in focus. F/2.8 gave bigger depth of field.

A tilt-shift lens (aka perspective control in Nikon terms) might have achieved the effect you wanted. Regardless of that, it's a beautiful image. :)
 
avro707 said:
I think the F/1.8 you tried might not have had enough depth of field to be entirely in focus. F/2.8 gave bigger depth of field.

A tilt-shift lens (aka perspective control in Nikon terms) might have achieved the effect you wanted. Regardless of that, it's a beautiful image. :)
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That's what I was thinking (about the f/1.8 vs f/2.8). At any rate, I'm happy with the one I got. I appreciate that you appreciate it, too. :)
 
Lilly, my pet rabbit and photographic star

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macrumormonger said:
This was in the evening? Great use of long-ish exposures!
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Well, I guess I think of sunset as being in the evening, but when it's at 4:30pm, I suppose it's actually still late afternoon. I came to the site to do a "Blue Period" shot, as I call them, and got all set up well in advance. Glad I did because the sky decided to put on quite a show during sunset, and I managed to catch the tail end of it.

VirtualRain said:
p965868768-4.jpg

Canon 7D with 17-55 at 33mm; 1/25 @ f2.8 +1EV; ISO 800

Every year, VanDusen Botanical Gardens puts on a spectacular Festival of Lights at this time of year. It's sensory overload and a challenge to photograph.
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That looks like a really fun place to take a camera. Your photo enticed me to Google for more shots of this location with its holiday lights: what a feast for the eyes!

seattle said:
Great shots everyone.



Bubble by Northwest dad, on Flickr
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Very nice! I had to look at this one for quite a while before figuring out what it was. At first I thought it was some kind of chrome bar with a hole in it, but your caption made me look harder. The trail of bubbles at the left really makes the shot, narrating in miniature what is happening at the center.

avro707 said:
DSC_5704-as-Smart-Object-1.jpg


Nikon D3S
AF-S VR Zoom-Nikkor 200-400mm F/4.0G IF-ED
Manfrotto 055XPROB and Wimberley Tripod Head Version II
Manual shutter speed / manual aperture
ISO12,800, 1/30sec, 200mm, F/4.0. Preset white balance.

I've left the EXIF in the image, so you can inspect that if you are interested.
Click to expand...

Great photo of a landing plane! The car in the foreground adds a really nice sense of scale as well as a speed reference. Did you manage to get any shots while there was still some color in the sky?
 
Phrasikleia: No, afraid not. I started at about 8:20pm. ;) And that was 9:13pm - so quite late. I prefer to take photos at night, it's more challenging.
 
gnd said:
Looks like the bird is carrying either a GPS device or a mobile phone :)
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Actually it is a tracking device that was attached to him when he was a Juvenile. It is about to fall off of him, as it was explained to me they are designed to come off after about 3 years. One could assume that this bird is about 3 years old!
 
harcosparky said:
Actually it is a tracking device that was attached to him when he was a Juvenile. It is about to fall off of him, as it was explained to me they are designed to come off after about 3 years. One could assume that this bird is about 3 years old!
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Here in Cumbria we have a pair of Ospreys (fish eagles) that nest each year. They seemed to be a devoted, inseperable couple, until they were fitted out with tiny radio transmitters... so their every movement could be tracked. Every autumn they fly south for the winter, but soon split up. They winter apart, in different parts of Africa. This spring they arrived back at the nest overlooking Bassenthwaite Lake on the same day. Amazing...

Winters apart: the secret of every good relationship?... ;)

The transmitters only record where the birds fly... not what they get up to...
 
Mount Etna Sunset

This is an interesting picture of an A380, which gives you some idea of the scale of the thing. I was on one of those bad boys recently, a couple of weeks before the engine blew up.

avro707 said:
DSC_5704-as-Smart-Object-1.jpg
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Otter, I'm enjoying these photos (as I do all your photos) but am scared of where this series is going ...

otter said:
MG_4910.jpg
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Here's a sunset on Mount Etna from September.




Canon EOS 1000D/0.004 sec (1/250)/f7.1/200mm/ISO 200
 
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