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Woodbutcher / Picture a day 2016

5/26/2017 - "Hello Alexa, how do you take a product photo?" Got a new toy today and goofed around with a couple of flashes to take some pictures. One with a portable softbox on it. Camera and one flash were handheld. Test exposures to get background black. Add flash until I'm happy. Keep the fstop low to keep the background blurry.

 
Amazon Echo. Voice activated assistant/speaker/jack of all trades. You can ask it to look up stuff, play music, control lights, thermostats, door locks, garage doors. Basically can act as your voice interface to a lot of things. Cool toy, might turn into something useful.
 
Amazon Echo. Voice activated assistant/speaker/jack of all trades. You can ask it to look up stuff, play music, control lights, thermostats, door locks, garage doors. Basically can act as your voice interface to a lot of things. Cool toy, might turn into something useful.

aka HAL 9000.
 
5/27/2016 - Dinner for two. Not the greatest shot, but had the 150-500mm lens on. Bit long for a closeup.

 
5/28/2016 - Selfie reflection. Stopped at the Motorcycle museum in Vanderpool as part of the Pie Run after ride. As I processed this image I saw myself in the tank.

 
5/29/2016 - Daytime visit to Austin's graffiti park. Was out doing a belated 25th Anniversary dinner. Thought this was appropriate.

 
5/30/2016 - Back to a theme. Our Tiger lilies are very prolific this year so I have been getting lots of shots with them. In the morning, the light was nice and the sun was just peeking through the tree near them. Got the remnants of rain drops too. Single shot, tripod, f16 for as much depth of field as I could get. Could have tried f18 for f20, but very slight breeze and it was swaying. So I wanted to keep shutter speed over 1/100th of a second.

 
5/31/2016 - Another month done. The rains here in Africa...no wait, that's a song. Rains in Austin have been bringing long lasting flowers. My wife usually has killed everything by early May. Here's a Zinia.

 
6/1/2016 - I've been wanting to do something like this for a while. Here's a three shot selection showing the difference between an ultra wide lens, a wide/normal, and a zoom. My subject this time is my bicycle. I had a nice ride and decided to use it as a subject. The bike takes up just about the same amount of space in each image. The scope of the background is what changes. Tell me which image you think works best.

First up, the ultra wide angle. 11mm lens.



Now at 35mm:



And at 70mm and ignore the white car in the background, it was just driving by and I didn't notice until too late. :headbang:



What you see is how different focal lengths affect how much is in the background. So to isolate the subject, go long. To include more of the background in the "story", go wide.
 
Actually, I think the ultra wide also kind of isolates the subject. It pushes everything back into the distance. It is more of a spatial isolation versus a focus isolation. So 1 and 3 both work in that regard and 2 is just kind of blah. Now, of 1 and 3, I like 3 because it doesn't suffer the shape distortion seen in the wheels and helmet size in 1.
 
I'm toying with the idea of of an ultra-wide prime lens. Your 11mm lens on a crop sensor camera makes me think I'm on the right track with a 16mm on a full-frame.
 
You can play with my ultra-wide. It will fit a full frame. It is a Tokina 11-16mm zoom. It will vignette on yours at 11 and 12mm, but will be fine from 14mm-16mm.
 
To me, the background on #1 is busy. Sometimes you want that, but to see all the cars and stuff through the spokes detracts from the bike. Wish I could have backed up enough to get one closer to 200mm.

Anyway, I encourage you all to try the same experiment. I've done it with flowers in the backyard too. Just find something that isn't right up against a background and start close and work your way back, going though the zoom ranges (or swapping primes). Keep the subject filling about the same amount of the viewfinder each time.
 
I did the same thing with my 70-200 lens.

70mm
70mm_zpsujzya21k.jpg


130mm
130mm_zpsqftjkdlo.jpg


200mm
200mm_zpsg5tqvxxq.jpg
 
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6/1/2016 - I've been wanting to do something like this for a while. Here's a three shot selection showing the difference between an ultra wide lens, a wide/normal, and a zoom. My subject this time is my bicycle. I had a nice ride and decided to use it as a subject. The bike takes up just about the same amount of space in each image. The scope of the background is what changes. Tell me which image you think works best.


And at 70mm and ignore the white car in the background, it was just driving by and I didn't notice until too late. :headbang:



What you see is how different focal lengths affect how much is in the background. So to isolate the subject, go long. To include more of the background in the "story", go wide.

I prefer the 3rd image. The first has a lot in the background that distracts from the focal point.


You might enjoy this article on lighting for flowers - http://digital-photography-school.c...etter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=June-0216

Jennifer
 
Interesting article. A couple of those things I've figured out on my own. This project has forced me to take more pictures so I experiment more. Helps me learn that way.
 
6/2/2016 - Dinner, thanks to my friend Camilo (CDC). He brought up some Columbian style sausages a while back and we just got around to cooking them. He taught me how to cook them right and they are much better that way. These still have some time on the grill to go, but are starting to look mouth watering. Thought you all might find this a nice change from birds and buds.

 
Great pic. Now tell us the secret way of cooking sausages. :-P
 
Great pic. Now tell us the secret way of cooking sausages. :-P

Low and slow. Fork 'em to let them drain. I did them wrong the first two times then he cooked some for me. Major taste difference when they are cooked right. I got them right this time.

Oh, and I'm back at it. Was off camping for the weekend and finally have the stuff I shot ready.
 
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