Photo of the Week 2024-07-22

 

' MW Arching Over Hay Bay '

A first go at capturing the Milky Way Arch. Six vertical images, themselves each a stack of 4 exposures, stitched into a panorama. Processed in LR, PS and ON1.

 

There is no shortage of 'nightscape' images on the internet showcasing the Milky Way over dramatic landscapes. There are nearly as many processing styles, with options ranging from subtle single exposure versions to the surreal using stacking and tracking techniques to extract the last photon of light and detail.

Recently I was treated to a clear sky forecast while at the cottage and decided to take advantage of it to try out the new (to me) Irix 15mm f/2.4 for some night sky shots. I spent some time planning with PhotoPills, TPE and other online resources to determine time and position of the Milky Way core. I had not thought to try a stitched panorama capturing the full MW Arch until I was out on the shore near midnight and noticed just how much of it I could see.

The process of image capture was relatively simple, though it was my first time out under the night sky with my R5 and with a hew lens as well. I ended up capturing six sets of four images over a roughly 150* (estimated) field of view. I applied lens profile correction in Lightroom, then exported to TIFF's, then used Sequator to stack each set of 4 exposures, following some online tutorials. The resultant output from Sequator (also in TIFF format) were touched up for light pollution and bright cottage lights in PS, saved back to the TIFF and then stitched in LR using photomerge.

 

Challenges came mostly from the quarter moon shining bright to the SW, blazing lights from cottages across the water, and the ever present glare of Tobermory and the Ferry dock megawatt lights. All the aforementioned challenges were tackled using a combination of Lightroom, Photoshop and ON1 Effects adjustments, dodge, burn, clone, heal and curves techniques and tricks to achieve the result shown above.

 

DJE

Photo of the Week 2024-02-12

 

' Hay Bay Pano 2024-01-11 '

There hasn't been much snow in my neck 'o the woods this winter and I always look forward to the arrival of the white stuff. We've had a couple of decent dumpings but nothing to establish the winter wonderland that I love so much to photograph.

When I woke to a dusting of new snow at the cottage a few weeks back, I headed down to the shore before the morning walk to capture the scene with it's fresh, thin, pristine white covering. With nothing particularly dramatic to zero in on, I decided to capture the view in 14 separate exposures and then blend them in post to come up with this image.The foreground appears much more dominant in panorama than it truly is, however presenting the almost 180* view is attention grabbing for the impression it conveys.

I've just come back from another visit and it was virtually devoid of snow and ice, a shame since winter is such a beautiful time there. With luck, some type of winter will still pay a visit, even if it's fleeting.

 

DJE

Photo of the Week 2022-12-12

 

A corruption to my Lightroom catalogue file had me scratching my head trying to figure out what had happened and during the recovery process I found some unfinished work from early October of this year ...

 

' Tranquility Base is right here ... '

 

A three frame stitched panorama depicting the end to a fall sunset on Hay Bay, Lake Huron, Northern Bruce Peninsula ON, my 'Tranquility Base'

Oh ... the corruption issue, it's fixed. Thankfully I know my way around a computer well enough to fix most things like this. My backup process came in handy again, though now that it's fixed, I think I could likely have got by without one. However, having multiple backups sure helps me to stay level headed and focus on the fix rather than what I've lost.

Again I'm reminded to go back through my catalogue of images to see what I've overlooked or forgotten about as I continue to add more and more and more ...

 

DJE

Photo of the Week 2022-08-01

 

On our 5th day in Scotland, we departed Edinburgh for Dundee. Before crossing the Firth of Forth, our tour stopped at the Forth Bridges Viewpoint and during an all too brief opportunity, I hurried about attempting to do the sights justice ...

 

' The First over the Forth '

I was very pleased to be successful in capturing 6 handheld frames that would merge into the above panorama of The Forth Bridge (sometimes referred to as "The Forth Rail Bridge" to distinguish it from "The Forth Road Bridge").

' Fourth Road Bridge against the Queensferry Crossing '

I quickly worked to find a decent composition that would include elements of both road bridges.

 

' Inchgarvie under the bridge '

 

My research tells me this is Inchgarvie or Inch Garvie, a small, uninhabited island in the Firth of Forth. On the rocks around the island sit four caissons that make up foundations of the Forth Rail Bridge.

 

' Forth Road Bridge '

The Forth Road Bridge reopened in February 2018, after being closed for repair and refurbishment. It is now designated as a dedicated Public Transport Corridor, with access to motor vehicles other than buses and taxis restricted.

' Queensferry Crossing & Forth Road Bridge '

After successfully merging several images into a panorama of the rail bridge, I decided to crop this single frame to similar effect for this pair.

' Holy Cables Batman ! '

Elements of the newer Queensferry Crossing intersect with those of the Forth Road Bridge.

' Approaching the Forth '

This frame captured one of the local commuter trains on the south approach to the Forth Bridge main spans.
 

After feeling very rushed and uncertain of what I was able to capture in a short amount of time, I ended up being quite happy with the results once I could work in Lightroom and Photoshop to stitch and process the individual frames. The lead panoramic image of The Forth Bridge is my particular favourite and somewhat of a surprise, a welcome one, given the few minutes I had to get situated and grab all of the shots. The Forth Bridge had the longest cantilever bridge span in the world until the Quebec Bridge was completed in 1919 - I see a trip to photograph the Quebec Bridge in my future :-)

 

Soon to follow on my flickr, Facebook and Instagram feeds are a couple of vintage images of The Forth Bridge ... stay tuned.

DJE

Photo of the Week 2021-02-22

 

From a second trek out to the Huron shore at the Cape Hurd Nature Reserves ...

Wide Winter Huron

... more wintry than the previous trip, we sat a while on the snow and ice covered shore, listening to the musical movement of floating ice shards on the gentle swells of Lake Huron.

 

The grandeur of some views can only be conveyed in a panoramic image. For this scene, not having brought my tripod, I made 8 handheld exposures rotating left to right. Combining the frames later while post processing, I cropped in on the sides to cover what I estimated to be a 120* arc which, according to Wikipedia, approximates the human visual field. So this is what my eyes took in as I sat and stared ... 

 

Though panoramic images do not display well on mobile devices, they are wonderful when displayed across the full width of a 24" or larger monitor display.

 

DJE

Photo of the Week 2020-07-20

Saturday night after dinner, the winds got up, the trees started to buffet around, the skies started to darken, there was thunder and then this passed overhead ...

evening stormfront

The rain started before I could get back inside and it came down, boy did it come down. Then in the morning, the skies were grey and heavy and it started to thunder and rain heavy again.

This image is a panorama stitched together in LR Classic from 6 vertical orientation frames, providing a wider view of the scene than I could capture in a single frame at 18mm on the M5 crop sensor.

DJE

Photo of the Week 2018-09-24

Adding a human element in a photo can provide a point of reference, a connection that helps convey mood and emotion. The lone figure in the image below was intentionally included for just these purposes.

'watching sunset'

Even an image comprised of 15 separate captures, merged in Lightroom to create a sweeping panorama of the view from Singing Sands as sun sets out over Lake Huron can benefit from the inclusion of a lone, unidentifiable, solitary figure, sitting contemplating the wondrous view.

I waited until the person, who had been walking along the shore, sat back down on the picnic bench at water's edge so they would be in the same position over multiple frames before staring the capture sequence. Small as they are, when the viewer notices them, the image takes on new meaning.

DJE

Photo of the Week 2018-08-06

arching

In some locations, weather patterns change quickly and what may not look promising at the outset can turn around to provide dramatic or unique scenes.

Such was the case the other evening when it looked as if sunset was going to fizzle out after showing promise earlier. Making the decision to head out in the kayaks proved the point and I was able to get a wide variety of sunset shots as the cloud rapidly changed over no more than 40 minutes.

I usually target evenings with calm waters, allowing me to work with the reflection of the setting sun and cloud on the smooth surface. While not particularly rough, the bay was far from still as I set out. Some may know that I'm not fully at ease on the water, but it's the ability to capture scenes like this that have me working to expand my comfort zone with each and every outing.

Finding a spot off a point of land where the waves off Lake Huron and their reflections from the far shore were creating a sort of dead area, eddy, I set up and worked to manoeuvre the kayak to obtain the composition I wanted. Trying to keep the scene framed in camera while rolling with the waves is a little like having your buddy constantly bumping you in the shoulder as he talks to you while you try and photograph (except you can't punch him back).  You just have to persevere and keep shooting until you have something you can work with.

Just to take it to another level though, I thought I'd try a hand held panorama, shooting multiple images that would be stitched together later in post. The sky was showcasing an arch formation of clouds that needed wider than my 24mm (equiv.) to get in the frame and I didn't want to miss it. On the first attempt, I managed 7 images rotating as much as I dared in the seat of the kayak without overturning it.

Not a bad result eh?

DJE

Photo of the Week 2016-12-19

A solo jaunt up north this weekend settled my separation anxiety and provided some much needed time to decompress. Yes, I need to get up north regularly lest I become restless and fixated on getting to my 'happy place'. It seems the more I'm there, the more I want (and maybe need) to be there.

With "the whole" weekend to myself, I had plans to take advantage of the many photo options available and to get a handful of items completed to be sure things were ready for our annual winter getaway between Christmas and the New Year. Oh where did the time go .....

On the photo front I decided to take a drive down some side roads I hadn't travelled in a while to see how winter's early snow had transformed the scenery ... but first I stopped at the Park Visitor Centre. I've had moderate success with multi-image stitched panoramas so I decided to climb the observation tower and capture the angry skies out over the islands and Huron.

Tobermory Skies 2017-12-17

Oddly enough, it was very calm while I was up there. Perhaps the calm before another squall came through because I could even hear bird life in the treetops. At one point I heard an eagle's cry but failed to put my eye or lens on it.

I stood at the top of this tower in  howling winds at -25* with the windchill for a photo on New Years morning a few years back ... maybe a panorama this New Years for "First Light". Hmmmmm .....

... and then it was off for a drive.

Photo of the Week 2016-09-26

I've been looking for something a little different to do with my photography recently, not in place of what I have been doing but in addition to ... 

Sunsets are a favourite and as always there have been some beautiful ones over Lake Huron lately. That's one drawing card to the area we chose for our cottage location, but this time I decided to turn my lens to the other end of the day, sunrise.  Mornings hold their own magic, it just seems easier for most people to stay up for sunset rather than get up early for sunrise. I'm usually up early, 5 am early, and yesterday that meant the stars were still out and from the deck I could see the constellation Orion clearly in the southern sky. I almost went out to capture some stary sky shots be settled in to have coffee and plunk around on the computer. Then with morning light arriving and with mist rolling out of Ragged Bight, I knew there would be a shot out there ... 

Morning Hues 2016-09-25 - Pano

When I reached the shore, not only was the mist beautifully ethereal, but the sky was aglow with orange, pink mauve and blue. The biggest decision was what portion of the scene to capture ... and then I recalled reading a recent article about stitching vertical images together for a panorama. So 13 frames make up this image (overlapping ~30% for each frame) which represents approximately 180* around the spot where I stood.

No tripod, no fiddling to find the nodal point, just pivot and shoot. Sure there are some issues with doing it this way but I'm no going to argue with the result. Besides, If I had gone back inside for my tripod and taken time to set up, I likely would have missed the magic.

DJE