172. Reflections in Water - September 25-October 1, 2016
Byron-
I strayed from my norm to get this picture. That's the beauty of WPOTM. I found a place that has an excess of water. That would be Elm Creek Park. The typical size of Elm Creek is small. Because of the rains last week, it is over flowing its banks. I loaded the camera, lens and tripod on my bike and found a spot where the water reflected the sky. To make it interesting I brought along a neutral density filter. My exposure was f11 at 2 seconds. The sky looked a little bright so I used a printing technique called dodging. I held my hand so it covered the sky. I used the remote to trip the shutter. After 1 second I lifted my hand. The sky and the water were now close in exposure.
ISO 100, f11, 2 seconds, 3 stop ND filter.
I strayed from my norm to get this picture. That's the beauty of WPOTM. I found a place that has an excess of water. That would be Elm Creek Park. The typical size of Elm Creek is small. Because of the rains last week, it is over flowing its banks. I loaded the camera, lens and tripod on my bike and found a spot where the water reflected the sky. To make it interesting I brought along a neutral density filter. My exposure was f11 at 2 seconds. The sky looked a little bright so I used a printing technique called dodging. I held my hand so it covered the sky. I used the remote to trip the shutter. After 1 second I lifted my hand. The sky and the water were now close in exposure.
ISO 100, f11, 2 seconds, 3 stop ND filter.
Kevin-
It was a very rainy week in Minnesota, in a season where more rain fell than had ever been recorded. So what did I decide to do? Photograph autumn leaves reflected in the water as raindrops fell.
Except for the fact that I don’t particularly enjoy standing outside shivering on a cold, rainy, windy day. And while my Nikon D4s is waterproof, my clothing is not. So what did I do? Drag a few things to the studio of course!
First was a pan of water. Next was a branch of autumn leaves which had fallen to the ground. I hung this upside down so their reflection showed up in the water. Then one Nikon SB-900, at 1/2 power with a blue gel on it was aimed at the white background behind to simulate the look of the sky the morning after the rain. Another SB-900 at 1/16th power was aimed from very low at the leaves, to simulate the rising sun. Finally I used an eyedropper to create drops falling into the water, mimicking the dripping from trees after the storms.
Nikon D4s, mounted on a Manfrotto 055CXPRO4 tripod with a Acratech ballhead, 70-200mm f/2.8 Nikkor zoom lens set to 200mm, ISO 200, f/2.8 @ 1/250th of a second.
It was a very rainy week in Minnesota, in a season where more rain fell than had ever been recorded. So what did I decide to do? Photograph autumn leaves reflected in the water as raindrops fell.
Except for the fact that I don’t particularly enjoy standing outside shivering on a cold, rainy, windy day. And while my Nikon D4s is waterproof, my clothing is not. So what did I do? Drag a few things to the studio of course!
First was a pan of water. Next was a branch of autumn leaves which had fallen to the ground. I hung this upside down so their reflection showed up in the water. Then one Nikon SB-900, at 1/2 power with a blue gel on it was aimed at the white background behind to simulate the look of the sky the morning after the rain. Another SB-900 at 1/16th power was aimed from very low at the leaves, to simulate the rising sun. Finally I used an eyedropper to create drops falling into the water, mimicking the dripping from trees after the storms.
Nikon D4s, mounted on a Manfrotto 055CXPRO4 tripod with a Acratech ballhead, 70-200mm f/2.8 Nikkor zoom lens set to 200mm, ISO 200, f/2.8 @ 1/250th of a second.
Paul-
Around a month ago, Kevin and Byron drove down to Lincoln to visit. Events like this are precious to me, so I made sure to take them to see one of Lincoln’s foremost attractions: The city’s former garbage dump and swamp pit. Of course, this was only the case until around the 1900’s. Among one of the nation’s countless civic projects to get people back to work during the During the Great Depression, was to transform this abandoned, blighted plot of land into something which future generations of Lincolnites could be proud. (No insulted intended to local historians: For all I know, it may have been a world-class garbage pit. A veritable jewel of refuse and rot.)
Anyway, people eager for a job went at it in 1930—removing from a 1.5+ acre pit water and accumulated garbage. What they built—and what a team of volunteers and naturalists have maintained since then—is what the National Geographic Guide to Public Gardens has called one of the “300 Best Gardens to Visit in the United States and Canada.” Honest.
Total cost for the project at completion: $2,500.00.
The site, now officially called the “Sunken Gardens”—perhaps as a nod to its origin and the obvious fact that it sits below street level—is lovely. And this despite that fact that it is flanked on two sides by busy and regrettably noisy streets. Still, you wanna see a place dotted with beautiful statuary, an amazing custom-made wrought iron cupola, two reflecting pools, three levels of walking paths, a waterfall, meticulous landscaping and slightly over 30,000 plants? This is the place to come to. (I can only hope Mr. Gordon and Mr. Braton will back me up on my smallish-city pride.)
Both of the reflecting pools are stocked with koi…some are quite large. The fellow I captured in my photograph is a runt compared some of his neighbors. But the addition of a small fish gave me the opportunity to capture the central theme while also adding a sense of movement and context into the mix.
Reflecting back on the photo shoot: 55-200mm lens set at 100mm; aperture priority; 21-point metering, ISO 1000; 1/60 sec. at f/19; white-balanced for direct sun. Contrast, clarity, shadow and saturation received slight tweaks in Lightroom. Note: Special thanks goes to Byron for his long-term loan of a Lietz 100mm macro lenses. I used it (among other lenses) for this theme, but didn’t capture any images I wanted to submit.
Around a month ago, Kevin and Byron drove down to Lincoln to visit. Events like this are precious to me, so I made sure to take them to see one of Lincoln’s foremost attractions: The city’s former garbage dump and swamp pit. Of course, this was only the case until around the 1900’s. Among one of the nation’s countless civic projects to get people back to work during the During the Great Depression, was to transform this abandoned, blighted plot of land into something which future generations of Lincolnites could be proud. (No insulted intended to local historians: For all I know, it may have been a world-class garbage pit. A veritable jewel of refuse and rot.)
Anyway, people eager for a job went at it in 1930—removing from a 1.5+ acre pit water and accumulated garbage. What they built—and what a team of volunteers and naturalists have maintained since then—is what the National Geographic Guide to Public Gardens has called one of the “300 Best Gardens to Visit in the United States and Canada.” Honest.
Total cost for the project at completion: $2,500.00.
The site, now officially called the “Sunken Gardens”—perhaps as a nod to its origin and the obvious fact that it sits below street level—is lovely. And this despite that fact that it is flanked on two sides by busy and regrettably noisy streets. Still, you wanna see a place dotted with beautiful statuary, an amazing custom-made wrought iron cupola, two reflecting pools, three levels of walking paths, a waterfall, meticulous landscaping and slightly over 30,000 plants? This is the place to come to. (I can only hope Mr. Gordon and Mr. Braton will back me up on my smallish-city pride.)
Both of the reflecting pools are stocked with koi…some are quite large. The fellow I captured in my photograph is a runt compared some of his neighbors. But the addition of a small fish gave me the opportunity to capture the central theme while also adding a sense of movement and context into the mix.
Reflecting back on the photo shoot: 55-200mm lens set at 100mm; aperture priority; 21-point metering, ISO 1000; 1/60 sec. at f/19; white-balanced for direct sun. Contrast, clarity, shadow and saturation received slight tweaks in Lightroom. Note: Special thanks goes to Byron for his long-term loan of a Lietz 100mm macro lenses. I used it (among other lenses) for this theme, but didn’t capture any images I wanted to submit.
Jerry-
While I did try some reflections in water puddles without much luck/skill/success, I knew I had to put my plastic skull to work, thinking it would be fun to see it reflected in a cup of some dark liquid like rootbeer. What I ended up doing was taking a photo of a very dark funky Halloween skull at the local Target with my phone. I then used photoshop to put the skull in a cup of coffee. A good title for this shot might be "Time to Quit Drinking Coffee".
The cup was taken with the Sony A6300, 16-50 zoomed to 50mm. Exposure was 1/320 @ F11, ISO 25,600. Lighting was from the office overhead fluorescent lights at the U.
The skull was taken with the iPhone5c, 4mm lens, exposure 1/20 @ F4, ISO 100. Target supplied the lighting - big fluorescent lights overhead.
While I did try some reflections in water puddles without much luck/skill/success, I knew I had to put my plastic skull to work, thinking it would be fun to see it reflected in a cup of some dark liquid like rootbeer. What I ended up doing was taking a photo of a very dark funky Halloween skull at the local Target with my phone. I then used photoshop to put the skull in a cup of coffee. A good title for this shot might be "Time to Quit Drinking Coffee".
The cup was taken with the Sony A6300, 16-50 zoomed to 50mm. Exposure was 1/320 @ F11, ISO 25,600. Lighting was from the office overhead fluorescent lights at the U.
The skull was taken with the iPhone5c, 4mm lens, exposure 1/20 @ F4, ISO 100. Target supplied the lighting - big fluorescent lights overhead.
Don-
I did not feel like driving up to the mountains for
a lake shot. Lots of them near but it seemed so overdone.
So you all get the reflection in a fountain. The fountain
is in our courtyard and the tile art thing is on a wall.
I shot this with a 24 to 70 mm lens set at 40mm.
Exposure was 1600th sec; f/8; ISO 560; camera in Manual.
I did not feel like driving up to the mountains for
a lake shot. Lots of them near but it seemed so overdone.
So you all get the reflection in a fountain. The fountain
is in our courtyard and the tile art thing is on a wall.
I shot this with a 24 to 70 mm lens set at 40mm.
Exposure was 1600th sec; f/8; ISO 560; camera in Manual.