Close-ups in the Gloom

It was a gloomy and rainy day for most of yesterday. I was watching all the birds going to town on the food in the bird feeder. There was food on the ground too, and the birds were everywhere. Then I noticed something on the ground that was not a bird. After getting out the binoculars, I discovered that a shrew was also being sneaky and grabbing food. I tried getting a picture of the little critter, but he was too sneaky for me to get a good shot.

So, I decided to get a few shots of the last bits of plant life before winter sets in. Above is a branch from my bridal veil bush.

Here's some funkiness on a log. If you click on it for the larger version, you can see just how weird it is.



And then, of course, we have all our grape vines. I've never been quite adventurous enough to try eating one of these home-grown beauties.


Techie Corner
I used a f-stop of 2.8 on these images at very close range, so the focus is very selective. I was balancing on a ledge to get the grape shot, so it wasn't as crisply focused as I would have liked.

Experimenting in HDR

We went to the Franconia Sculpture Park on Saturday. We usually go there once a year to see what new and weird sculptures they have. Emphasis on weird.

This sculpture was installed recently, and it's huge--over 23 feet tall. Some of those parts are from actual steam shovels.

Here's another head-scratching creation.


Techie Corner
I figured this would be a great place to experiment with HDR. That sounds like some kind of drug, doesn't it? Actually, HDR stands for High Dynamic Range. It's a fancy way of saying that you want to have a wider range of light and dark tones in one image than your camera can handle. To achieve this wider range, you have to take at least three images and vary the exposure. (under-exposed, over-exposed, normally exposed) Then Photoshop (and other programs) will combine all the varying exposures into one image.

Both of the images above are HDR creations. If I exposed only for the sky, the sculptures would be too dark. If I exposed only for the sculptures, the sky would be a washout.

Here are single images of both the sculptures. This is the best I could do without HDR.

Fall Beauty

I absolutely love the colors of fall! God has all the best brushes and knows how to use them to create true works of art.

We planted this tree in 2005 and it has been growing like crazy! That's OK by me.

Fence Post #4

Last Saturday we finally got the rest of the fence up. Hooray! All that is left is to cut off the excess from the 4x4s, cap them, and make a gate in one part. That will all probably get done next spring. It's a huge improvement on the back yard already, just the way it is!


Someday, we plan to add a retaining wall on the side of the yard and extend the fence further. But that's another project for another day...or year...or decade.

A Cold Day in the UP

I'm wrapping up my Michigan vacation pictures with a couple images from the Upper Peninsula.

It was raining when we left Mackinaw City and headed north over the wet and wiggly grates of the Mackinac Bridge. Thankfully, the rain cleared off shortly after we left town. We had to stop along the way so I could throw on a warm jacket over my rain jacket and motorcycle jacket. I was turning into a popsicle! (The almanac high temperature for that area that day was 46 degrees, but the windchill factor on the back of the motorcycle made it a tad more brisk, I'm sure.) We visited Tahquamenon Falls State Park and I got this shot of the Upper Falls. It was so beautiful there!

After that, we headed further north to Whitefish Point. Maybe during the summer this is a fantastic place to be, but on this day it was extremely desolate. The blustery wind on the beach felt colder than the motorcycle ride!

The visitor center was about to close, so we didn't stay long. There also wasn't even a gas station up there, so we had to stop in Paradise on the way back for gas. Now we know why the town is called Paradise! It sure seemed like paradise after being to Whitefish Point!

Techie Corner
I wanted to slow down the motion of Tahquamenon Falls, so I used the smallest aperture I could. If I had brought my neutral density filter along, I would have used that too.
Shot at 1/6 Sec @ F27, ISO 200