233. Wide - December 3-9, 2017
Kevin-
There were so many possibilities for Wide, but ultimately I decided I wanted to create a wide shot with real width by shooting a panorama of the Coon Rapids Dam which crosses the Mississippi River, measuring 2150 feet in width, length of whatever your preferred term would be. Panorama technology has come a long way and now the new Lightroom Classic CC makes it relatively easy by doing the assembly process right in the application, without having to go to Photoshop.
But it turned out not to be an easy week to think about this. First winter hit in a big way on Monday night, with plunging temperatures, followed by rain which turned to ice, then followed by snow. On Tuesday many roads were virtually unnavigable, with hours of delays. Then on Wednesday morning, for a brief time the sun was shining and skies were blue. Unfortunately I already had commitments. So it was almost noon before I arrived in Coon Rapids by which time the clouds had returned and they were expected to remain for the entire week. Oh what I would have given for blue skies and puffy white clouds in that sky!
So I hiked down to the edge of the Mississippi River, leveled the tripod, Placed the Nikon in vertical mode, leveled the ball head, used the Nikon's virtual horizon feature to confirm that things were straight and level (and I say that on the level), and began taking photo after photo, with only a slight pan of the tripod head between each shot.
I was already at ISO 64, and an aperture of f/13, but I wanted to slow the shutter down a bit to smooth out the waterfall coming through the dam, but not so slow that the turbulence in the water wasn’t visible. So I added a 3-stop neutral density filter, which gave me a shutter speed of 1/13th of a second. Nikon D850, mounted on a Manfrotto 055CXPRO4 tripod with a Acratech GP ballhead, 24-70mm f/2.8 Nikkor lens set to 70mm.
Eleven frames went into the panorama sequence which was automatically saved as an Adobe Digital Negative (DNG) file. The master image is a fairly massive 637.40 MB. Of course the attached jpg is smaller! Pity the lighting never cooperated, it could have been a much stronger image.
Finally I thought about reshooting the scene at night. But in online searching I could not find a single image of the Coon Rapids Dam photographed at night. Now moonlight could also have worked as the illumination, but that pesky cloudy sky was obscuring the moon. So I called Byron who lives closer to the dam than I do. He confirmed that the dam isn’t illuminated by artificial lights. Damn!
There were so many possibilities for Wide, but ultimately I decided I wanted to create a wide shot with real width by shooting a panorama of the Coon Rapids Dam which crosses the Mississippi River, measuring 2150 feet in width, length of whatever your preferred term would be. Panorama technology has come a long way and now the new Lightroom Classic CC makes it relatively easy by doing the assembly process right in the application, without having to go to Photoshop.
But it turned out not to be an easy week to think about this. First winter hit in a big way on Monday night, with plunging temperatures, followed by rain which turned to ice, then followed by snow. On Tuesday many roads were virtually unnavigable, with hours of delays. Then on Wednesday morning, for a brief time the sun was shining and skies were blue. Unfortunately I already had commitments. So it was almost noon before I arrived in Coon Rapids by which time the clouds had returned and they were expected to remain for the entire week. Oh what I would have given for blue skies and puffy white clouds in that sky!
So I hiked down to the edge of the Mississippi River, leveled the tripod, Placed the Nikon in vertical mode, leveled the ball head, used the Nikon's virtual horizon feature to confirm that things were straight and level (and I say that on the level), and began taking photo after photo, with only a slight pan of the tripod head between each shot.
I was already at ISO 64, and an aperture of f/13, but I wanted to slow the shutter down a bit to smooth out the waterfall coming through the dam, but not so slow that the turbulence in the water wasn’t visible. So I added a 3-stop neutral density filter, which gave me a shutter speed of 1/13th of a second. Nikon D850, mounted on a Manfrotto 055CXPRO4 tripod with a Acratech GP ballhead, 24-70mm f/2.8 Nikkor lens set to 70mm.
Eleven frames went into the panorama sequence which was automatically saved as an Adobe Digital Negative (DNG) file. The master image is a fairly massive 637.40 MB. Of course the attached jpg is smaller! Pity the lighting never cooperated, it could have been a much stronger image.
Finally I thought about reshooting the scene at night. But in online searching I could not find a single image of the Coon Rapids Dam photographed at night. Now moonlight could also have worked as the illumination, but that pesky cloudy sky was obscuring the moon. So I called Byron who lives closer to the dam than I do. He confirmed that the dam isn’t illuminated by artificial lights. Damn!
Paul-
Custom, time, materials and the scope of creative expression have allowed the Christmas tree to manifest itself in a wide number of ways. (I wanted to say “an astounding number of ways” but I needed to get the word “wide” in somewhere.)The library in which I work is celebrating the city’s (Beatrice) and state’s (Nebraska) 150th anniversary by pulling together a large array of Christmas-relayed objects from both its collection and from those of the public. These include toys, literature, decorations, religious artifacts, dolls, catalogs, trees, and some odd possessions that defy easy description. (Though “kitsch” comes pretty close.) Some of the exhibited material dates to the early 1800’s, but who’s counting, right?
Among the trees I photographed in the library: 1) A 12’ high tree displayed every year meant to pay continuing tribute to the people who donated the land where the current library is located (and on which a 12’ pine tree was found growing); 2) An aluminum Christmas tree, circa 1964, that still rotates and plays music when plugged in; 3) A small plastic tree on which gum drops were meant to be placed; 4) A “Feather Tree” which is what it sounds like and follows a tradition that originated in Germany in the late 1800s; 5) Shades of Charlie Brown….a little home-made Christmas tree so old and fragile we were instructed not to place any ornamentation on it; 6) A small tree constructed of horizontally-placed pieces of old wood and pieces of molding; 7) An even smaller tree made of folded paper and laced together with ribbon; and 8) A tree holding tags meant to invite the public to donate funds to services in the community helping the less fortunate.
Those of you who know my great (and possibly peculiar) attraction to the number “19” can imagine how disappointed I am that there are only 16 trees in the montage. For the record: This disappointment did not extend to me stealing, in a Grinch-like manner, any goodies under or nearby the trees.
Widening my options: Since I submitted 16 pictures in a photo-montage this week, let’s just say I adjusted the settings in my camera to fit the lighting of, location for, and detail in the respective trees. Most of the shots were taken around ISO 1000 with my lens (18-55mm) stopped down to f/11-f/16.
Post: The editing was done in Lightroom. The montage was created in PhotoScape.
Custom, time, materials and the scope of creative expression have allowed the Christmas tree to manifest itself in a wide number of ways. (I wanted to say “an astounding number of ways” but I needed to get the word “wide” in somewhere.)The library in which I work is celebrating the city’s (Beatrice) and state’s (Nebraska) 150th anniversary by pulling together a large array of Christmas-relayed objects from both its collection and from those of the public. These include toys, literature, decorations, religious artifacts, dolls, catalogs, trees, and some odd possessions that defy easy description. (Though “kitsch” comes pretty close.) Some of the exhibited material dates to the early 1800’s, but who’s counting, right?
Among the trees I photographed in the library: 1) A 12’ high tree displayed every year meant to pay continuing tribute to the people who donated the land where the current library is located (and on which a 12’ pine tree was found growing); 2) An aluminum Christmas tree, circa 1964, that still rotates and plays music when plugged in; 3) A small plastic tree on which gum drops were meant to be placed; 4) A “Feather Tree” which is what it sounds like and follows a tradition that originated in Germany in the late 1800s; 5) Shades of Charlie Brown….a little home-made Christmas tree so old and fragile we were instructed not to place any ornamentation on it; 6) A small tree constructed of horizontally-placed pieces of old wood and pieces of molding; 7) An even smaller tree made of folded paper and laced together with ribbon; and 8) A tree holding tags meant to invite the public to donate funds to services in the community helping the less fortunate.
Those of you who know my great (and possibly peculiar) attraction to the number “19” can imagine how disappointed I am that there are only 16 trees in the montage. For the record: This disappointment did not extend to me stealing, in a Grinch-like manner, any goodies under or nearby the trees.
Widening my options: Since I submitted 16 pictures in a photo-montage this week, let’s just say I adjusted the settings in my camera to fit the lighting of, location for, and detail in the respective trees. Most of the shots were taken around ISO 1000 with my lens (18-55mm) stopped down to f/11-f/16.
Post: The editing was done in Lightroom. The montage was created in PhotoScape.
Jerry-
I managed to do a homemade panorama by crudely stitching two images together of myself at work. Much of my time is spent setting up the av for dinners/conferences. At this particular event everything was up and running early so I sat my camera on nearby tables to capture these photos.
Camera was the Sony A6300 with 16-70 lens zoomed to 16mm, exposure was 1/5 @ F16, ISO 1000.
I'm being kind of silly with my ISO settings, picking non traditional numbers and avoiding 200 and 400, trying some of the in between numbers. Guess I'm in need of some excitement.
I managed to do a homemade panorama by crudely stitching two images together of myself at work. Much of my time is spent setting up the av for dinners/conferences. At this particular event everything was up and running early so I sat my camera on nearby tables to capture these photos.
Camera was the Sony A6300 with 16-70 lens zoomed to 16mm, exposure was 1/5 @ F16, ISO 1000.
I'm being kind of silly with my ISO settings, picking non traditional numbers and avoiding 200 and 400, trying some of the in between numbers. Guess I'm in need of some excitement.
Don-
Wide, so how about a wide-mouth jar?
Focal was a 24-70mm lens at 35mm.
Exposure was 1/320 sec; f/5.6; ISO 400. Aperture Priority
Wide, so how about a wide-mouth jar?
Focal was a 24-70mm lens at 35mm.
Exposure was 1/320 sec; f/5.6; ISO 400. Aperture Priority
Byron-
Using a wide angle lens allows you to include nearby objects without having to backup. I used that feature to capture this walkway that crosses Elm Creek. I also wanted to capture the Wintery coldness that existed at the time of the picture. I wanted to minimize my exposure to the cold so I used a minimum exposure. I used some post processing to enhance the cold look. I darkened some things and lightened others.
I used a GoPro Hero4 Silver, 3mm, f2.8, 1/4000 sec.
Using a wide angle lens allows you to include nearby objects without having to backup. I used that feature to capture this walkway that crosses Elm Creek. I also wanted to capture the Wintery coldness that existed at the time of the picture. I wanted to minimize my exposure to the cold so I used a minimum exposure. I used some post processing to enhance the cold look. I darkened some things and lightened others.
I used a GoPro Hero4 Silver, 3mm, f2.8, 1/4000 sec.
Darin-
Wide on wide.
This is a Zaid. A big guy on a fat bike. He works at the bike shop, eats a lot, drinks a lot and is an all around good guy.
With 4.80" wide tires, this Scott fat bike is designed to roll over just about anything, with it's specialty being sand and snow. If you ever sign up for the Arrowhead 135, an ultra-endurance race in the dead of winter of International Falls, Minnesota, this is the type of machine you'd want to ride... Just make sure you finish the race within 60 hours and with 3,000 calories on you (just in case you get lost), or you will be disqualified...
Many racers carry a stick of butter.
Wide on wide.
This is a Zaid. A big guy on a fat bike. He works at the bike shop, eats a lot, drinks a lot and is an all around good guy.
With 4.80" wide tires, this Scott fat bike is designed to roll over just about anything, with it's specialty being sand and snow. If you ever sign up for the Arrowhead 135, an ultra-endurance race in the dead of winter of International Falls, Minnesota, this is the type of machine you'd want to ride... Just make sure you finish the race within 60 hours and with 3,000 calories on you (just in case you get lost), or you will be disqualified...
Many racers carry a stick of butter.