Photo of the Week 2020-09-28

 

This week's post comes as a bit of lesson, a reminder or tip if you will. It's not breakthrough, just a basic, fundamental reminder ...

 

TIP: When you are using any of the 'AUTO" options on your camera, remember to keep an eye on what values these auto modes are setting, you may find them unacceptable, or you might have accidentally switched out of an auto mode altogether.

The back-story:

 

I'd been working to fixate less on the technical aspects when out shooting and just let myself react more to the scenes in front of me. I may have become a little too reliant on the camera to take care of the exposure settings, at least on my causal walks. I didn't pay enough attention and some otherwise decent images from a wonderful outing in the misty morning woods suffered :-/

 

I have my Canon EOS M5 set up by default to use Auto ISO. The camera also has a customizable "Dial Function Button" on top of the body at the right side. I've had ISO set as one of the options for this button as a quick way to make adjustments when in manual mode. Why are these details significant? Well, on more than on occasion I have managed to bump this DF Button, changing ISO a 'notch", which happened to be from Auto ISO to ISO 25,600. I'm not sure if I did this accidentally with my thumb while adjusting exposure compensation (the dial beside it) or in just general handling of the camera as I walk around with it slung over my shoulder. Somehow it happened and I didn't notice when I was out in the bush one morning to capture some wonderful light.

 

As expected, the resulting photos suffer greatly from noise and poor detail but I decided to see to what extent I could salvage them with Topaz DeNoise AI and Topaz Sharpen AI. They are nowhere near printing standards, but almost make passable images at web resolution and I'm hopeful that publishing this post will help me remember to check camera settings more often while I'm out shooting.

 

glowing leaves

 

a forest trail

Note to self:  Don't fixate but also don't forget to watch your exposure settings

 

DJE

 

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Photo of the Week 2020-09-21

 

obstruction

Always drawn to the darkness within, rough brittle branches make it difficult to penetrate the slender closely spaced trunks in this area of the woods without getting scratched or poked to the point of bleeding. 

 

As if to impede access through this family of small trees, one alone seems to block the way, obstructing access for all but the most determined. Up to now, I've only stopped to peer through into the shadows and photograph ... one day I will forge a path in.

 

DJE

Photo of the Week 2020-09-14

 

woodland spirit

I've long pondered a project that would have me presenting a collection of images  conveying the sense of spirit I sense in some members of the arboreal community. I'd started a working document to explore the lexicon such a collection would use to title and describe such images. Those that follow my photography may (or may not) know how I select a title for a particular image. This can come quickly and easily as I select a subject scene and prepare my composition or it can come from the sub-conscious working of my mind as I move on to other things. Sometimes it's a struggle and on few occasions it never comes.I've often wondered why one way one time and another way the next ... a exercise for perhaps another time, fuelled by a whisky or two.

 

The scenes and subjects of the forest, that I react to, regularly have a perceived persona or character. Anthropomorphism is long rooted in human culture and storytelling. Perhaps most frequently associated with animals, domestic or wild, it also has it's application to trees, so I am by no means alone in this.

This weeks photo, ' woodland spirit ', is a first addition to the collection and a good example. I'll be adding more as I re-discover them in my image library and out in the woods ...

 

DJE

Photo of the Week 2020-09-07

Tanglewood (in colour)

Reviewing the image catalogue, looking for images from Guelph, I came across this version of an image originally processed and published in B&W.

Over time preferences may change. With new processing software development and skills, alternate or improved renditions of old images may be possible. It's not often that I go back and re-envision an image but it's an interesting exercise, one I should perhaps explore more often.

This image, made shortly after I'd upgraded one of my camera bodies to the full-frame 5D MkIII, caught my eye again a while back. At that time I reprocessed a colour version and saved it off to the hard drive ... and kinda forgot about it until I stumbled on it recently.

DJE