My Favorite Tree with My Favorite Lens

Last night, restless and wanting more camera time, I had the idea to go out and take a night picture of my favorite tree, near a local shopping center, with the 50 mm. It's not a super big tree, but it has so much character and just sits stoicly with all the retail and activity around it.

Boogieman drove and we listened to all the sports talk radio after the big Redsksins victory over Dallas. We first drove to Lake Whetstone, to scope out how to get shots of the lights reflected in the lake. Those shots are too blurry, even with the 50 mm, and I want to re-do those when my tripod gets here.

I want to re-do this tree shot too, to get it more crisp, but it is a cool enough shot for me to post here, and then compare later when I get the tripod. I actaully wanted to shoot it from the other side, the view that I'm most familiar with, but Boogieman insisted on driving around to the *closer* parking lot. Much bickering ensued until I looked out the car window and saw the perspective of the tree atop the slope with a light to its right. I shut up and apologized.

I love how eerie the night shots with the 50 mm are.

This shot is unprocessed:


f/1.5, 1/2 SEC, 50 MM, ISO-800

Here is a version post-processed with auto levels, contrast, and color; and then shadows lightened and mid-tone contrast boosted:



I can't wait to try it again with the tripod.

Location: Montgomery Village Shopping Center
Time: 8:30 PM

Playground (AKA No more Trees!)

Falling asleep Friday night, I wondered where I could go the next morning to shoot. I wanted to try to get away from all the woods and trees that I have been shooting and try something different. Of course, it's not that I'm tired of shooting in those environments, it's just that I want to keep trying new things and challenging myself.

I thought of the playground as a place with interesting shapes and lines.

When I woke up this morning, with the light peeking in the window, I desperately wanted to pull the covers up and hunker down for another hour or two of sleep and sports radio. But then I remembered: playground! I also remembered that I had stashed a diet coke in the refrigerator last night before I went to bed.

I got up, threw on some clothes, grabbed a CD for the car, and of course the diet coke. As I drove down the road, less than a mile, the weather was overcast and everything was still damp from a night of rain. Good shooting conditions.

I tried to use my tripod, but it is a piece of shit leftover from the videocam days of shooting our cute little kids (they are not as cute anymore!). So now I'm on the hunt for a good tripod, or maybe even a monopod to start out with.

Here's some of the fun I had:













































One of the things that I like to do after shooting, if I have time, is to drive around and scout other places and things to shoot. I had been wanting to shoot this lake that is in the middle of our community, so I drove there to see how I could get to it and what I might like to shoot.

But instead of scouting, I just began to take pictures! There is lots more of this lake, and the path that goes around it to explore, but I'll post the shots I got when I get them processed.

Location: East Village Playground
Time: 7:30 AM

About all those close up weed shots...

I learned something today, quite by accident (or by my insistance on shooting so many of the same type of shot, whereby I was bound to learn something). I love all these shots, with the different textures and shapes, but it really enhances the shot when you have a background that creates interesting colors or shapes of its own.

Here's an interesting weed:



And here's one with a visually interesting background:



Even this soft focus (ok, blurry) one is interesting because of the color and patterns in the background:



And here are all the rest (they look better larger, but I did not want to take up vast amounts of blog real estate with the images, click through to the enlarged view if you so desire):















Yeah, I am definitely developing a thing for weeds. I think I am going to have to get a weed identification guide or something because you should see the ridiculous names that I have to come up with for the images to differentiate them.

Shooting wide open on the speedy little 50 mm is definitely my current favorite thing to do. I captured the frost on these leaves...



...and then managed to get so much light that the background disappeared! It's interesting that way, like they are just suspended there.



Speaking of frost, I will leave you with this last one -- not a weed!



Notes:

Location - Watkins Mill Road
Time - 9 AM

Post-Processing in Photoshop Elements

Boogieman and I were out shooting together this morning. We were in an area with woods and a creek and lots of interesting weeds. :)

I'll post more shots later, as well as a learning that I had (yay), but I thought I'd post my approach to post-processing all these woods and tree shots that I take with this particular shot of woods and sky. I'm sure there is much more that I have to learn and can do with PS Elements, but this is my standard approach until I learn better.

First, without any post-processing:


f/22, 1/50 SEC, 50 MM, ISO-640

I almost always use auto levels, and I often use auto contrast and auto color. Sometimes I don't like what the contrast and color corrections do to the shot. It just depends. For shots of trees and woods, I usually use all three.

Auto levels, contrast, and color:


My next trick is to darken the highlights (on the same sidebar with all the other quick fixes). I just love the way it warms up the images and makes them closer to what my eye sees.

Darken highlights:


I'm still having challenges with an overexposed sky (not terribly, but still not what I want) in my landscape shots. One way that I've minimized it is to only include a small section of sky in my shots, as I did in this shot.

The other thing that can be done is to burn (with the sponge tool in PS Elements), or darken, the sky section of the image. The change is subtle, but I think it improves the image a bit. (Well damn, I don't even think you can see the difference in the uploaded versions, but I promise you I can on my originals.)

Burn tool on sky at 5%:


The other solution to different exposures for land and sky shots that I just read about is a graduated density filter. I'm planning on adding this to my arsenal very soon, since I am forever taking these kinds of shots.

Notes:

Location - Watkins Mill Road
Time - 9 AM

Howard Chapel Cemetery

I got up this morning and headed out early to shoot more with my new lens. I had an idea that I wanted to get some shots of this really cool tree that is near some historic houses nearby. On the way there, I stopped and got some shots of a little, red brick Methodist Church that I had been meaning to shoot someday. I also passed the field that I shot for Red Barn 108 and stopped to capture it in the early morning light, with moon shot too. And I found a new road, with lots of fields, barns, and trees to explore the next time I'm out.

After all that, I just drove around, taking random turns and back roads -- it's so fun to try to get lost -- all the while listening to a new mixcd that I had burned the other day to send to a friend. It was quiet and blissful.

It was in that mood, that I happened upon this cemetery, pseudonymous with the road that I was traveling on. I pulled the car over and treaded lightly. As I read the sign and peeked through the trees a feeling of sacredness overcame me. I know that might sound cliched, but there really was a sense of history, time passing, and remembrance of people that came before.





I tiptoed through the leaves and branches, careful not to step too close to any of the markers, even though the grave markers must have shifted through the years. And I wondered about these people and what kinds of lives they led.



























Three of the markers had coins left on top of them. One with a quarter, another with a dime, and another with three pennies. Does anyone know what the significance of the coins is?





I hope these pictures convey something of the feel of this wooded burial ground, now surrounded by houses and fields of horses.

Notes:

Location: Howard Chapel Road
Time: 9 AM