Pics and stuff.
May. 14th, 2013 10:18 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kv0925As is my custom, a few photos from the past week or so!
The weather was really nice last Monday, so I came home early and we went back out to the Magic Kingdom for a bit. There's so much great photo potential in the Haunted Mansion alone, but it's pretty dark in there. Maybe when I finally upgrade to a full-frame dSLR I'll have better luck. :)
Amy on the carousel.
Meanwhile, back in the butterfly garden.. this guy is a red admiral who's been hanging around. They're pretty neat like that--they're territorial, so they stake out a spot and stay close. If you spook them they'll generally flit around a bit and then come right back. If you stand still, they may even land on you, which is fun. :)
This was a new visitor I had to look up--it's a Zarucco duskywing. I see that their (rather ugly) caterpillars eat plants of the legume (pea/bean) family, and we do have some pea plants in the backyard--I should check them for caterpillars and eggs, maybe that's where this one came from, or maybe it laid eggs back there.
The red admiral again.
Hermione managed to catch a lizard while we were out there. The girls just love trying to catch critters.
Cell-phone snap from Indianapolis. I love old brick buildings with old advertising painted on the side!
Saturday, as I mentioned, we went to the Baby Owl Shower at the Audubon Birds of Prey center. This was the only 'baby' I got a photo of--it's a great horned owl, about 6 months old. See how the feathers are still fuzzy?
Bald eagle, of course.
Red-tailed hawk. I love me some hawks. I just try to forget that they use that impressive beak to rip other birds and critters I like to shreds. :)
Kestrel. Such handsome little falcons!
So my latest discovery, photographically-speaking, is focus-stacking. See, when shooting macro, the depth of field gets really small--like a millimeter or less, depending on how close you get. So for a single frame, there's usually a choice about what to get in focus. Take this passionflower:
Here I've got the middle bits more or less in focus, but to do that I lose much of the detail in the petals.
Alternatively, I can focus more on the petals, but then I lose details in the middle bits, which are really interesting:
And neither of those frames captures the interesting curls at the ends of the petals in back.
Focus-stacking takes a series of images with different planes of focus, and puts them together to get back all that depth of field. Here's a composite of 11 frames (including the two above):
See what I mean?
Another example. The middle of these daisies are really interesting, but focusing there loses the petal detail:
And getting the petals (mostly) sharp loses that awesome center:
6 frames and some computerized magic gets us this:
So this is a technique that excites me! I've seen some REALLY awesome insect/spider shots achieved this way, but the problem there is getting them to hold still while you shoot a dozen frames (or more). Some people freeze them somehow, some people use dead specimens, some people go out early in the morning when they're still dormant (which can also make for some neat dew-bejeweled-insect shots). That part I need to look into, I guess. For now I'll experiment on stuff that holds still. :)
Sunday I took the girls to the Orlando Science Center to give Heather a few kid-free hours.
They are easily amused, just like their Dad.
Water flow tables like this are always fun!
Excavating dinosaurs.
Playing in the green-screen tv weather center.
And that's it for now! Last night I had that engagement shoot at EPCOT, but we got home past our bedtime and I haven't touched the photos yet. I'll maybe share some here or over on![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
shutterbuggery before long.
Later on today I'll munch a quick lunch here, then go watch the girls (and take photos, of course) in gymnastics class. And then I'll go shopping for my new Android tablet! I decided on a Google/Asus Nexus 7--seems like a good value for the price, and it has GPS, which not many tablets seem to include. Can't wait!
The weather was really nice last Monday, so I came home early and we went back out to the Magic Kingdom for a bit. There's so much great photo potential in the Haunted Mansion alone, but it's pretty dark in there. Maybe when I finally upgrade to a full-frame dSLR I'll have better luck. :)
Amy on the carousel.
Meanwhile, back in the butterfly garden.. this guy is a red admiral who's been hanging around. They're pretty neat like that--they're territorial, so they stake out a spot and stay close. If you spook them they'll generally flit around a bit and then come right back. If you stand still, they may even land on you, which is fun. :)
This was a new visitor I had to look up--it's a Zarucco duskywing. I see that their (rather ugly) caterpillars eat plants of the legume (pea/bean) family, and we do have some pea plants in the backyard--I should check them for caterpillars and eggs, maybe that's where this one came from, or maybe it laid eggs back there.
The red admiral again.
Hermione managed to catch a lizard while we were out there. The girls just love trying to catch critters.
Cell-phone snap from Indianapolis. I love old brick buildings with old advertising painted on the side!
Saturday, as I mentioned, we went to the Baby Owl Shower at the Audubon Birds of Prey center. This was the only 'baby' I got a photo of--it's a great horned owl, about 6 months old. See how the feathers are still fuzzy?
Bald eagle, of course.
Red-tailed hawk. I love me some hawks. I just try to forget that they use that impressive beak to rip other birds and critters I like to shreds. :)
Kestrel. Such handsome little falcons!
So my latest discovery, photographically-speaking, is focus-stacking. See, when shooting macro, the depth of field gets really small--like a millimeter or less, depending on how close you get. So for a single frame, there's usually a choice about what to get in focus. Take this passionflower:
Here I've got the middle bits more or less in focus, but to do that I lose much of the detail in the petals.
Alternatively, I can focus more on the petals, but then I lose details in the middle bits, which are really interesting:
And neither of those frames captures the interesting curls at the ends of the petals in back.
Focus-stacking takes a series of images with different planes of focus, and puts them together to get back all that depth of field. Here's a composite of 11 frames (including the two above):
See what I mean?
Another example. The middle of these daisies are really interesting, but focusing there loses the petal detail:
And getting the petals (mostly) sharp loses that awesome center:
6 frames and some computerized magic gets us this:
So this is a technique that excites me! I've seen some REALLY awesome insect/spider shots achieved this way, but the problem there is getting them to hold still while you shoot a dozen frames (or more). Some people freeze them somehow, some people use dead specimens, some people go out early in the morning when they're still dormant (which can also make for some neat dew-bejeweled-insect shots). That part I need to look into, I guess. For now I'll experiment on stuff that holds still. :)
Sunday I took the girls to the Orlando Science Center to give Heather a few kid-free hours.
They are easily amused, just like their Dad.
Water flow tables like this are always fun!
Excavating dinosaurs.
Playing in the green-screen tv weather center.
And that's it for now! Last night I had that engagement shoot at EPCOT, but we got home past our bedtime and I haven't touched the photos yet. I'll maybe share some here or over on
shutterbuggery before long.Later on today I'll munch a quick lunch here, then go watch the girls (and take photos, of course) in gymnastics class. And then I'll go shopping for my new Android tablet! I decided on a Google/Asus Nexus 7--seems like a good value for the price, and it has GPS, which not many tablets seem to include. Can't wait!
