No use crying - 5/29/19

Michael Ward April 18, 2020

For something completely different, I took one evening to have a bit of fun with some product photography.

The idea was to get a mug free floating with a liquid coming out of it.

So the first was to get a clean backdrop. I have some white and black foam boards. Black would do nicely for this, here’s an out of focus picture I probably took by accident when I started to frame up.

Canon 5D Mark II w/28-135mm @28 - 1/13 Sec - F5.0 - ISO 3200

After I’ve got my black background I needed to get everything in focus and in the right lighting.

Too fast of a shutter speed? You get half the image in darkness.

Canon 5D Mark II w/28-135mm @70 - 1/800 Sec - F5.0 - ISO 100

Eventually I would figure out about where I needed to hold my hand, I took some pictures of the mug with me holding it in different areas so I could cut and paste to get my hand out of the shot. Then I needed the liquid.

I had picked a nice green mug, so for a different color that would stand out I mixed some water, milk and corn starch together with red food coloring.

Canon 5D Mark II w/28-135mm @70 - 1/250 Sec - F5.0 - ISO 100

Then it was just a matter of spilling it, without making too big of a mess.

I put a plastic tub on the table where I was doing this, tried my best to cover up the camera equipment. And got to shooting.

There was a lot of back and forth motions so the liquid would be in motion already by the time I made the spill. In my other hand had the trigger release for the camera.

Eventually I had done this enough times to think I had what I needed. It was just a few hours of photoshop left to do. Cutting and clipping the liquid spills, getting the mug in the right spot. Color tweaking so the liquid was more red and not pink.

Of course logically it doesn’t make sense, there’s no way that much liquid could come out from so many different angles. But damn it looks cool.

Sometimes you get a feeling of what would be cool to do. And though you’ve never done it you just work on it until you get what you’re looking for.

Hoot Hoot - 5/25/19

Michael Ward April 17, 2020

May 25th 2019.

Saturday Morning

7AM

Well the first photo is timed right at 7, so probably more like 5 or 6 we got up and went for a walk. I brought all my camera stuff just in case. It’s a damn good thing I did.

We’re out at the same park that I talked about in the last few posts, playing pokemon. Doing the exercise thing. I’m looking for anything to take a picture of. A lady out walking sees my camera gear I’m lugging around and informs me of an owl in the area just up ahead. I thank her profusely and move ahead to see what I can spot.

That’s when I hear it, doesn’t sound like the hoot of an owl at all. But a screech of some kind of animal. It is an owl though, the most adorable cute little baby owl I’ve ever seen.

Canon 5D Mark II w/Tamron 150-600mm @600 - 1/200 Sec - F6.3 - ISO 3200

Afraid the little guy would take off at any second I immediately started shooting. After a few minutes I realized even if he did take off I would have gotten what I wanted. So now I could play.

Set up the tripod, the remote trigger. All the toys came out.

I’m selecting some of the best photos, but I took more than a hundred and fifty images. And keep in mind the 5D I was using is not known for it’s speed. Clocking in at 3.9 FPS, for comparison the camera I shoot with now has about 3 times that. I was there for about 3 hours in total once I saw the owl.

My girlfriend hung around for the first half hour or so, maybe an hour it’s hard to remember. Thankfully she handled most of the people who came up questioning. Which was a lot. We were directly on the trail and as I’ve mentioned it’s a busy park. Everyone that came by had to stop and ask what I was taking pictures of, then get out their phone and zoom wayyyyy in to take a nice blurry photo themselves. I can’t blame them too much, I would do the same if I didn’t own a DSLR. You don’t see this everyday.

I doubt I would strike up a conversation with the photographer, but that’s because I don’t prefer to initiate conversation anyway.

Canon 5D Mark II w/Tamron 150-600m @150 - 1/160 Sec - F5.6 - ISO 800

So you can see this one was at the low end of the zoom, to give it a full idea of how far away it was. It was a good ways up, thankfully I found the perfect spot to see through the leaves.

Canon 5D Mark II w/Tamron 150-600mm @600 - 1/160 Sec - F6.3 - ISO 3200

This little guy was so cute. He did a good bit of calling out early on, we looked around and my girlfriend spotted I assume the mother, which helped me identify them as Barred Owls.

However neither the mother nor my girlfriend stuck around for long. One of them I told to keep walking because I wasn’t going anywhere for a while. And if they finished their walk and I still wasn’t done they could head home and come back for me. Which is what happened, like I said I was there for hours observing.

Canon 5D Mark II w/Tamron 150-600mm @600 - 1/100 Sec - F6.3 - ISO 3200

Canon 5D Mark II w/Tamron 150-600mm @600 - 1/125 Sec - F6.3 - ISO 3200

I’m sure the mother was thrilled that the baby was just sitting and calling for it over and over. I kept my distance and even got out of sight so I wouldn’t be bothering the little guy, but he just sat there calling. The mother was obviously trying to get in some early morning hunting. I bet that went well with this little guy raising such a racket.

It did get interested with a cluster of leaves , and by interested I mean in the destruction of them. I managed to get a few shots of it going to town trying to rip the leaves off the branch it was standing on.

After a few minutes it succeeded and the bunch came free of the branch and tumbling down towards the ground. Not sure what exactly the end game was there. But he looked pretty pleased with himself after that.

Canon 5D Mark II w/Tamron 150-600mm @600 - 1/250 Sec - F6.3 - ISO 3200

This is another one of those times where being in the right place, with the right equipment, was just lucky. Going out for walks isn’t something I do. Exercise isn’t really something I do, though I should. Unless there is a secondary goal, like playing Pokemon Go, I never went outside just to be in nature. Photography was the reason on that day, and I’m sure glad it was.

It definitely helped me get the urge to keep going back out, keep trying to get better. More practice at photography and the better I would get at it.

River wildlife - 5/21/19

Michael Ward April 17, 2020

A Tuesday evening after work and I had dropped by home to grab my camera bag, a quick snack and then I was back out walking the trails. Still hitting up local parks hoping for something to see. A google search tells me deer typically give birth around the end of May and into June. It’s the end of May and what happened to be strolling through the woods eating was a pregnant Doe.

That was enough to seal the night off as good. I actually found a deer like I was hoping, and better than that it was more than I could have asked for. I kept my distance of course and it continued on grazing. I walked a trail route a few more times, I had found there was a quieter trail that was specifically for walking. Although there were still assholes riding bikes on it, despite the signs saying not to.

The trail goes along the river, both sides actually. There is a large paved road for bikes on one side, and a dirt path with wooden bridges on the walking side.

I wandered for a few hours up and down the walking side, finding spots to sit by the river and watch.

That’s when, right in front of me. A little water creature swim by.

The water was shallow directly in front of me, and he came up to use the bottom of the river to stand on while he chowed down on something.

Canon 5D Mark II w/Tamron 150-600mm @191 - 1/50 Sec - F5.0 - ISO 3200

Canon 5D Mark II w/Tamron 150-600mm @ 600 - 1/40 Sec - F6.3 - ISO 3200

Canon 5D Mark II w/Tamron 150-600mm @600 - 1/25 Sec - F6.3 - ISO 3200

This went on for just a few moments, then as quick as he appeared he swam off. I found a spot further down the river that I suspect to be their home. But with some research discovered the likelihood of me seeing them around their home is slim. They make entrances and exits deep underwater.

But the entire event was quite exciting. I believe I texted the group chat with my siblings

“BEAVER”

And then shared pictures with them later once I got home and emptied the card.

Now these next two images are technically from the following weekend. But the next post covering that day will be covered by another subject. So they live here.

During the shooting of the next subject I looked over towards the same river as the beaver, I saw this beautiful Mallard in the water. The color really did pop, but maybe not quite that much. I think I overedited this one just a bit, since there’s a good bit of purple all over the duck and not just where it should be.

Canon 5D Mark II w/Tamron 150-600mm @600 - 1/500 Sec - F6.3 - ISO 200

Also once I finished with the main subject and I was waiting for my ride, I saw this dragonfly in front of me that I managed to snag a shot of.

Every image tells a story

But not the full story

No use crying - 5/29/19

Hoot Hoot - 5/25/19

River wildlife - 5/21/19

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