camera

Exposed

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We had a full moon last night and I went out to experiment with some long exposure shots using my phone’s camera.

I have a mini Gorilla Pod that I bought before the move, but haven’t had a chance to use other than testing it when I first bought it. I was able to use it to attach my phone to our driveway gate for a few shots, then at one of the wagon wheels on the fence beside the gate for a few more.

First, my favourite of the bunch.

This was taken from the wagon wheel beside the gate, using the manual setting on the camera. To be honest, I can barely see the numbers on the screen, so I was really winging it when adjusting the settings. For this one, it was taken using f/1.5, 4 second exposure, ISO-50.

This one was taken just a few minutes earlier, from the gate.

It’s a terrible picture, but it demonstrates just how much colour and brightness a long exposure can capture, even in the dead of night!

f/1.5, 30 second exposure, ISO-3200.

While I was taking shots at the gate, I flipped the camera and took a shot of the sky. So this next photo was taken in the exact same location as the bright photo above; just pointing the camera lens straight up.

I was really surprised by how blue the sky turned out! Other pictures I tried later, with longer exposures, from further down the driveway had a black sky. Possibly because this area was much brighter from the full moon?

f/1.5, 10 second exposure, ISO-1600

I’m rather liking this little Gorilla Pod I have! One of these days, I’ll even be able to use it for the purpose I bought it – once I reclaim my crafting table. :-/

The Re-Farmer

Playing with Macro

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This morning I realized I’d forgotten to put the battery for my daughter’s Nikon D80 to charge last night.  Since our other D80 is broken, however, we have a spare, so I went digging through the camera bag to find it.

You’d think it would have been an easy find, but it took a while. :-D

In the process, I was noticing some of our other lenses, including one of my old favourites, a Tamron macro lens.  It’s been a long time since I’ve used it.  My younger daughter’s orchids happen to both be blooming right now, so I figured I’d give it a shot! (pun fully intended)

I moved the plants to a well lit location in the kitchen, which meant no tripod space.  I promptly was reminded of just how vital a tripod is for me these days.  My hands shake so much!  Normally, it’s not an issue, but as soon as I start using them in certain ways that involve even minor strain to my hands, I just can’t keep them still.  It’s why I don’t draw anymore, because I can’t hold pencil to paper to do the detailed work I used to.

Of the various shots I took, here are two of them.  These images are resized to 30% only; I have done no adjusting for lighting or anything like that.  To they’re pretty much raw from the camera.

pink orchid

This tiny orchid was harder to shoot than the bigger one.  I’m happy with how this photo turned out, and one or two others, but none of the photos are anywhere near as crisp as the lens is capably of, simply because of the shake.

Love that depth of field, though!

The pink orchid has only two open flowers right now, with many buds, so I look forward to trying again as more of them open.

white orchid

This larger orchid is in full bloom; I think there’s 10 flowers in it, alternated on the stem.

Again, I got several good photos, but the the focal points are still not as crisp as I know the equipment can do.

Which is not always a bad thing.  There was one photo where nothing was in focus – but the soft focus that resulted was so attractive, I ended up setting it as my background image.

I know I can make up for some of it with my Paint Shop Pro, but I wanted to post these without any adjustments, just as an example.

We used to do so much photography, back when we were all able bodied and youthful! :-D  We used to go hiking for hours in the ravine near where we lived and take hundreds of photos.  It was a rare day that went by that didn’t involve at least a few photos.  My husband was especially keen on photography, and quite good at it.

I think, now that we have moved out here, I will be able to take it up again.  I even have a monopod I can take with me, to help with the shake.  Hopefully, we’ll be able to get some more pain control for my husband and he’ll be able to get back into it more, too.

The Re-Farmer

Noooo!!!

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Well, crap.

Yesterday, a few more photos were taken, so this morning I uploaded the last of the pictures on the camera.  As typical, I removed the old photos from the card completely, so that it would go back into the camera with maximum space on it.

As I was transferring the files, I got a pop up.  Did I want to replace files?

Sure, I thought. This typically means I’ve already uploaded some photos and didn’t want duplicates, so I usually just let it override the old files, so there are no duplicates.

I forgot two things.

One, I was uploading files from the camera card, not my phone, which I copy from, not remove completely.  So it’s not unusual for me to accidentally overlap and grab images I’d already uploaded.

Two, my daughter had her camera set to restart files from 001 on an empty card.

Normally, it wouldn’t have been an issue, because I organize my photos in folders by date, but these were photos from yesterday, and they went into yesterday’s folder.

I didn’t realize it until I went to review the photos, but I overwrote the first dozen or so images I’d uploaded previously.

Crud.

Now, most of those first photos were the ones where I was using the 18-55mm lens, then switching the settings around, so they weren’t good photos to begin with.  The “ghost bird” photo was the very first one I took, so I do have the modified version of that one (cropped and resized for the blog).  But the rest are gone.

The settings have now been changed.  It won’t happen again!

*sigh*

Meanwhile…

Here are some photos from yesterday.

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Downy woodpecker

My daughter got this one for me.  The downy woodpecker decided to check out the seeds. :-)

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White Tail Deer

You see this?  THIS is why I asked to borrow my daughter’s camera.  There is no way I could have gotten this shot of Hungry Girl without that 70-300mm lens!  No amount of zooming in with my phone camera could have gotten this photo, even though she was so close to the house.

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Barbecue, meanwhile, was even farther away, but I could still get a wonderful shot of him eating.

Even resized to 30% (my usual resizing on the DSLR photos; my phone camera photos get resized to 25%), you can see those little lips and that tongue, picking up seeds.

Details like that are why I love taking so many photos.  Once they are on the computer, I can see so much more than I could, looking out the window.  Those little details, frozen in time.

I love technology.

The Re-Farmer

 

Got a Camera

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Hungry Girl and Barbecue visited again this morning.  I didn’t even try and take photos with my phone.  Instead, I just enjoyed watching them.

After they left, the birds came back in full force, including a total of 5 blue jays!  Usually, it’s just two or three.  There were also the massive numbers of redpolls (which I’d mistakenly identified as chipping sparrows, previously), lots of pine grosbeaks, chickadees and nuthatches.  Squirrels made their appearance, too.

After a while, I broke down and finally asked my daughter if I could borrow her Nikon D80.

After a bit of maintenance (lens cleaning, battery checking, etc), I set it up and tested it, using the 18-55mm lens she had on already.

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Ghost bird!

Then I took it off the manual setting. :-D

Though ghost birds are rather neat photo subjects.

I then switched from her 18-55 lens to the Nikkor 70-300mm lens we were using on the old camera.

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Blue jay

Blue jays are one of my favourite birds.  I love their incredible colour!  It’s interesting to see how they try to pack so many seeds into their beaks at once.  I didn’t realize they did that until I started taking photos of them with the zoom lens.

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Pine grosbeak, male

It’s a real challenge to get photos of the birds when they are in the bush nearby.  Usually, in the time it takes for me to notice them, then swing the camera around on the tripod, they are either gone, of have moved to another branch.  One of these days, I’m going to get a picture of a nuthatch perched upside down on a twig.

The grosbeaks tend to hang around on the branches a bit longer than the chickadees, nuthatches and redpolls – they’re too big to hop around the way the little guys do.  So I was able to get a pretty decent shot of a male grosbeak in the trees.

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Pine grosbeak with redpoll

There tend to be a LOT more females than males among they seeds, but even they are usually outnumbered by the redpolls.

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Downy woodpecker

Getting any images of this downy woodpecker was a challenge, too!  It kept moving around, then went behind the branch in the foreground.

My daughter just swung by to let me know she got pictures of the woodpecker while I was posting this.  I’m glad I made sure the camera still had a memory card in it when I took out the one with the above photos to upload!

The Re-Farmer

 

Five!

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This morning, things were quiet at our feeding station.  Basically, just a few birds.  Then, after I put more feed out, I was able to get this shot…

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Butterscotch, in the middle of a pile of seeds, watching the birds flying in and out around her.

Sadly, those were the last photos our Nikon was able to get today.  Though I took more shots, and some even showed up on the preview screen, as they normally do when they’re saved to the memory card, none were actually there when I looked at the card. So even when it seemed to be working, the camera wasn’t working.

Which left me using my phone for any other shots I managed to get when the deer arrived, shortly before noon.

My goodness, what a show!

I could see some movement through the spruces, into the garden, letting me know that a deer was coming.  Then, as that one started dashing around the edge of the trees by the garden, I could see more.  Soon, there were FIVE deer, all running over around the corner of the spruce grove!

Hungry Girl had been in the lead, but the other four soon drove her off.  She stayed by the compost pile near the garden for a while, as Barbecue, Mama and the twins began eating.  Then Mama chased away Barbecue, who went over by Hungry Girl and stayed.  After a while, Barbecue started come come closer, only to get chased away by one of the twins!  As if that wasn’t surprise enough, Hungry Girl not only stood her ground, but chased the twin.  It worked out to chasing it back to the feed, but still, it was good to see Hungry Girl standing up for herself.

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Farthest away on the left, Hungry Girl, with Barbecue nearby.  At the feed, the twins are in front, while Mama is behind one of them.

Then Mama chased them both off.

Over the next while, there was all sorts of back and forthing, as the deer chased each other to assert dominance (Mama is the Alpha.  No question!).  Then I saw the twins running around, thinking at first that they were going after Hungry Girl and Barbecue, but no.  They were just playing!

Eventually, Mama and the twins left, and Hungry Girl came running in for her turn at the feed.  Barbecue came around, too, and started to chase her off, but she instead moved to another pile of feed, and they ate together.

It was just incredible to watch them!

My husband and I are now talking about getting a motion sensor camera outside, to record some of the activity out there.  It was something I’d considered already; a system something like what my older brother has around his out.  Plus a remote control gate!  If we set one up at the corner of the house by the living room window, we should be able to get all kinds of cool activity. :-)

All in good time.

Things quieted down when the feed was pretty much gone.  The birds still found enough to come back.

Then this guy showed up.

20180205.little.deer

This tiny little guy was very shy and nervous coming over, alone.  After looking closely at the photos, this is either a new visitor, or one of the twins, come back on its own.

Either way, it’s so cool!!!!

The Re-Farmer

 

 

Deer Drama

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It has been very busy at our feeding station!

I had a sleepless night last night and had gone into the living room at around 4 or 5 am, unintentionally startling some deer.  After I had a snack and turned the lights out, I saw one had returned.  The moon was incredibly bright, casting shadows so sharp, I thought I was seeing two deer instead of the one that was there!

My husband posted a video of Mama and her twins, taken a couple of hours later.

After that, Hungry Girl showed up.  I think she’s starting to look less hungry!  Then off in the distance, through the trees, I could see a couple more deer coming closer.  After a while, I couldn’t see them anymore, but it was Hungry Girl who showed me where they were.  One little guy was gingerly making its way through the bushes.  Much to my surprise, she actually defended her space and chased it back.  Another little one tried from another direction, and she stood her ground there, too.

Then Mama showed up and chased Hungry Girl off, so that her twins could eat.

For a short while, all for of them were there, but the presence of the Mama and twins made Hungry Girl very nervous, and she moved away.  Mama chased her off a couple of times, too.

The twins are looking so round and fuzzy!  And Mama is a big girl!  I’m sure she’s taller than Barbecue, and just as sleek, though not as round an meaty.

Unfortunately, our camera has started acting up again, the motors refusing to focus and the shutter sticking again.  I was only able to get a few photos.  Here are the better ones.  I will check the images I got on my phone later and see if any of them are worth uploading, too.

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The birds were busy, too, but I was only able to get one decent photo of this pine grosbeak.

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Look at how fuzzy the twins are!  Their coats are so thick.  Even their faces look rounder.

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Here is Mama with one of the twins.  You can see the burrs stuck under the baby’s chin.  They had burrs stuck in their tails, too.

Mama kept a very close watch on us in the window!

It think we should look into some sort of film coating for our window.  Partly so that the animals can’t see us inside, while we can still see out, and partly to reduce reflections, as birds are flying into the reflections of the trees on the glass.

Now, it’s time for me to go and start some sourdough bread baking.  My younger daughter had taken on the break baking role, but she’s not feeling well today, so I get to do it, this time! :-D

The Re-Farmer

 

 

 

An Excuse for a Post

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Ever since an OS upgrade some months ago, I have had all sorts of issues with my phone’s autocorrect.  It would change things that didn’t need to be changed, not change things that should have, insert the strangest alternative words to replace words that were fine…after I hit “post”, and capitalize words all over the place, instead of just at the start of the sentence.

I have just downloaded and installed the Grammarly Keyboard, and this is my first use of it.

So far, so good.  It is checking my typos and seems quite intuitive.

So, to give a reason for this test post (oh! It just did a great job dealing with an accidental word mash up!), I will share this photo.

I have put a new metal ring on my phone for the lens magnet, and this one is holding. I experimented with macro shots first, then tested the telephoto.  Everything held fine.

I’m not sure I like the telephoto lens much. It really doesn’t seem to be any better than my camera zoom.  Even modestly low light seems to throw it.

I will have to test the 2 fisheye lenses next.

The Re-Farmer

Testing Macro

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Years ago, when we were more able bodied and had more discretionary funds, we were all quite into photography.  With changing technology, my husband acquired lenses for his smartphone camera.

The lenses are held in place by a magnet that holds it to a metal ring adhered around the phone camera lens. Last night, he placed a spare on my phone and this morning, I tested the macro lens.  This is one of the results.


I later tried to test the larger telephoto lens on the birds at our feed. Unfortunately, the weight of the lens was too much for the adhesive holding the ring in place, and it fell off before I could even zoom in to try for a photo.

I will have to figure something out for that, because I can see myself using at least two of the lenses, regularly.

I rather miss photography.  It would be good if we can get back into it, now that we’ve moved.  Our old equipment still works fine and is more than adequate.

The Re-farmer

Camera set up

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This is our new set up to take photos of our feeding area.

Unfortunately, when the deer came this morning, she could see me through the window, taking the lens cap off, etc, and took off.

Also, in case you are wondering, yes those are marker flags in the plant pot.  They, and the yarn, are there to protect the avocado plant from the cats. They decided that this pot was a perfect bed and broke one of the branches off before I could rescue it.

The Re-Farmer