Wet Leaves in the Sun

I turned the sprinkler off by our pepper plants, and noticed the leaves on the tree were dripping water. I had to get a few photos with the setting sun throwing light on the leaf with the droplets of water.

Date: 06/05/2011
Camera: Canon EOS 40D
Lens: EF100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM
Exposure: Program
ISO: 200
Shutter: 1/320 sec
Aperture: F/5.6
Focal Length: 100mm

A few minor tweaks of blacks and lighting in Photoshop.  I also cropped part of the photo.

Frog in the Rocks

As I was watering plants outside, I swore I could see a rock jump.  On the double take, I realized it was a interesting colored frog.  After watering everything, he was still there, so I grabbed the camera and got some pictures.  This was my favorite.

 

Date: 06/05/2011
Camera: Canon EOS 40D
Lens: EF100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM
Exposure: Program
ISO: 800
Shutter: 1/250 sec
Aperture: F/5.0
Focal Length: 100mm

Little if any editing in Photoshop.

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Blooming Sunset

We had another awesome sunset this evening.  I didn't go out at first.... but once the sun went all the way under, it just lit up the clouds to the point I needed to go out and take a photo.  The tree in our backyard of course became the subject again.  This time though, the leaves are blooming out in full force.

 

Date: 05/30/2011
Camera: Canon EOS 40D
Lens: EF-S 18-200mm f/2.5-5.6 IS
Exposure: Manual
ISO: 100
Shutter: 1/30 sec
Aperture: F/5.6
Focal Length: 28mm

Photoshop was a slight WB adjustment.

Flowers and Grass

Steven's Lake has an bald eagles nest. I went down there looking for the bird to photograph, but did not have any luck. We hung around for a while, but rain was moving in and I was not going to get the camera wet. I took some photos of the flowers as we were leaving.

Date: 05/30/2011
Camera: Canon EOS 40D
Lens: EF100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM
Exposure: Program
ISO: 200
Shutter: 1/100 sec
Aperture: F/5.0
Focal Length: 100mm

 

Photoshop involved cropping a bit of the top off the photo and a minor tweak of the WB.

Beetle on Pedal

I switched over to the macro lens and started to look at individual flower pedals.  I found this little beetle crawling around. I liked this photo with the little bug's antennae on the flower.

 

Date: 05/29/2011
Camera: Canon EOS 40D
Lens: EF100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM
Exposure: Manual
ISO: 200
Shutter: 1/125 sec
Aperture: F/3.2
Focal Length: 100mm

 

Photoshop involved cropping the photo in closer.  

Flowers on the Hill

On the hill behind the cabin, we have an old lawn roller that is rusting away.  The neat part was the two grouping of flowers that were positioned by the roller.  

Date: 05/29/2011
Camera: Canon EOS 40D
Lens: EF-S 18-200mm f/2.5-5.6 IS
Exposure: Manual
ISO: 100
Shutter: 1/13 sec
Aperture: F/13
Focal Length: 32mm

Photoshop was a minimum of  WB tweak and a little bit of cropping.

Playing with the Hose

The second water photo of the day was when Dakota was playing with the hose.  In this photo, the part I love the most is the color of the water. 

 

Date: 05/28/2011
Camera: Canon EOS 40D
Lens: EF-S 18-200mm f/2.5-5.6 IS
Exposure: Program
ISO: 200
Shutter: 1/250 sec
Aperture: F/7.1
Focal Length: 200mm

Again, only minor WB tweaks (if I even did that, I don't remember now). 

Drink of Water

Once the sun finally poked out on Saturday, Dakota needed to get out and play in the water.  Dad had the pump running with ice-cold water coming up.  Even though it was FREEZING, it didn't stop her from playing in it.  I had two photos I really liked of her with the water, this being the first one.

Date: 05/28/2011
Camera: Canon EOS 40D
Lens: EF-S 18-200mm f/2.5-5.6 IS
Exposure: Program
ISO: 200
Shutter: 1/320 sec
Aperture: F/7.1
Focal Length: 175mm

 

Small tweak of white balance in Photoshop, but that was it.  

Pouty-Faced Baby

It has been almost a week since I broke the camera out, but I managed to take a bunch of photos this long weekend.  I first started with Mason, my nephew.  I positioned him in the light and got a bunch of pictures of him smiling and giggling... but then he got upset that he was laying down.  He got this big pouty-face on him, and I just love how his lips bunched all up in the photo. 

Date: 05/28/2011
Camera: Canon EOS 40D
Lens: EF-S 18-200mm f/2.5-5.6 IS
Exposure: Manual
ISO: 400
Shutter: 1/50 sec
Aperture: F/9
Focal Length: 200mm

 

I played around in Photoshop a little bit for this picture.  I took the "shadow" slider made it brighter so the shadows that were across the bottom right of the picture and his face lightened up a bit to make it look better.  Other than that, maybe some minor tweaking of white balance, but nothing else.

Foggy Bridge

On our way home for the weekend, it was a nice sunny day until we get up to the Mackinac Bridge to cross northward.  As we approach, I see it is blanketed in fog, so we had to make an emergency stop to try to photograph the bridge in the fog. 

Several lessons learned -

1) In fog, any dust will stand out in the photo - I really need to clean my filters...
2) Why these bayfly bugs hatch, they are everywhere, maybe some of my "dust" are these bugs (I know it is some dust, since I looked at the filter since I got home),
3) Bugs are annoying when photographying, I should have had long pants on :-P

I was not thrilled with how the photo turned out.  It's not bad, but it didn't "wow" me. 

 

Date: 05/22/2011
Camera: Canon EOS 40D
Lens: EF-S 18-200mm f/2.5-5.6 IS
Exposure: Aperture
ISO: 100
Shutter: 1/125 sec
Aperture: F/16
Focal Length: 150mm

I did a little cropping, but the big help of Photoshop was the "spot" tool, to help me get rid of the dust/bugs that were dotting the photo originally. 

Apple Tree and Bee

The apple tree was in full bloom at Kerry's Grandpa's house.  It was alive with a buzzing sound, that I found to be many bees doing what they love best.  I chased these guys all over the tree.  I first tried to use the tripod focusing on one flower, but they moved around too much and too fast, so I went to hand-holding.  In the photo, I wish I would have bumped my ISO even more to allow for a faster shutter.  Another lesson learned.

 Date: 05/21/2011
Camera: Canon EOS 40D
Lens: EF100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM
Exposure: Manual
ISO: 100
Shutter: 1/400 sec
Aperture: F/5.6
Focal Length: 100mm  

I cropped in Photoshop.

Mackinac Bridge

We traveled to lower Michigan for the weekend for Kerry's Grandpa's memorial service.  On our way over, I had to stop and try to get some cool photos of the Mackinac Bridge.  We stopped and had supper to give the sun a little more time to go down to get that better light for photographs.

 

Date: 05/20/2011
Camera: Canon EOS 40D
Lens: EF-S 18-200mm f/2.5-5.6 IS
Exposure: Program
ISO: 100
Shutter: 1/250 sec
Aperture: F/11
Focal Length: 50mm

This was originally taken as a vertical photo, but I cropped it, since the trees below and the blank sky above did not add anything.  Did some minor spot removal - not sure at this point if it was dust or bugs, since they were having a big bug hatch.

Backyard Sunset

This is why I like Denmark and our backyard of an open farmer's field (and HATE the fact they may be selling it as housing lots this summer!!).  Color in the clouds this evening was amazing.  I had to take a photo, and the tree in our backyard with the clouds and color background provided the perfect photo for the day.

Date: 05/17/2011
Camera: Canon EOS 40D
Lens: EF-S 18-200mm f/2.5-5.6 IS
Exposure: Manual
ISO: 100
Shutter: 1/80 sec
Aperture: F/3.5
Focal Length: 18mm

Very minor editing in Photoshop - straightened out the horizon some, and a little cropping, but that is it.

Trillium on Bark

I placed a Trillium on a piece of bark.  I setup the photo this way to pick up the bark.  I shot some at a small ampeture, but it was this one at f/16 I liked the most, since it shows the most texture. 

 

Date: 05/14/2011

Camera: Canon EOS 40D
Lens: EF100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM
Exposure: Manual
ISO: 100
Shutter: 1/10 sec
Aperture: F/16
Focal Length: 100mm

Slight white-balance tweak in Photoshop, but nothing else.  Didn't even crop it!

Trilliums Part 2

We were at Kerry's folks this weekend and went down to the woods (camera and tripod tagging along of course), and I got some photos of some more Trilliums. 

 

Date: 05/14/2011
Camera: Canon EOS 40D
Lens: EF100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM
Exposure: Manual
ISO: 100
Shutter: 1/400 sec
Aperture: F/2.8
Focal Length: 100mm

I cropped a little tiny bit off the top and bottom.  Other than that, no changes in Photoshop.

Spider in the Basement

I started plastering our basement tonight.  As I was putting up the last tools, I seen this bad buy crawling around by my freshly plastered wall.  I grabbed the macro lens and wanted to try getting some shots.  I'm not thrilled with how it turned out.  I needed more lighting on the spider itself.  Extension tubes would have been helpful to get in closer as well... I might need to buy some of them :-)

Date: 05/06/2011
Camera: Canon EOS 40D
Lens: EF100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM
Exposure: Manual
ISO: 800
Shutter: 4.0 sec
Aperture: F/13
Focal Length: 100mm

I just did some cropping in Photoshop - nothing else.

Last Bullets Standing

After shooting this weekend, the comment was made, as we were putting up the empties, that I had something new to shoot, with a camera that is.  Turns out, Lindsay was right.

 

Date: 04/28/2011
Camera: Canon EOS 40D
Lens: EF100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM
Exposure: Manual
ISO: 100
Shutter: 1/13 sec
Aperture: F/14
Focal Length: 100mm

Cropped in photoshop - no other adjustments.

Eagle's Perch

We were over to my wife's parents for the weekend.  I brought the camera and gear hoping to get out at some point to snap some photos.  Saturday was dreary, not a good day.  This morning however, was a big change.  I woke up, starting going down the stairs, looked out the window at the landing, and right back up I went to find the camera.

This eagle has a nest about a mile away, but likes to sit up in the tree across the street from Kerry's parents to scope out the pond and the open fields.

Date: 04/24/2011
Camera: Canon EOS 40D
Lens: EF100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM
Exposure: Program
ISO: 100
Shutter: 1/200 sec
Aperture: F/5.6
Focal Length: 350mm

I cropped a bit in Photoshop, but that is all I did for post-processing.  

Thundersnow

April 19, 2011 - Wisconsin gets hit by a snowstorm predicted to drop 8-12 inches.  The snow is wet and heavy, sticking to everything it touches.  This was the first time ever where as I was shoveling, I got to watch lighting and hear thunder almost constatntly.

Our potted plants were put out two weekends ago, because the calendar said Spring.  The snow stuck to the stems from last years dead stems.

 

Date: 04/19/2011

Camera: Canon EOS 40D

Lens: EF100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM

Exposure: Manual

ISO: 100

Shutter: 0.8 sec

Aperture: F/16

Focal Length: 100mm

Post processing in Photoshop just involved cropping. 

Flooded Farm Field

Down our street is a flooded farm field that I have noticed ducks, geese, and a few cranes flocking to the water each night.  After supper, I drove down and snapped several shots out the car window (some of the birds flew away with just me driving by and slowing down).

 

Date: 04/17/2011
Camera: Canon EOS 40D
Lens: EF100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM
Exposure: Program
ISO: 640
Shutter: 1/400 sec
Aperture: F/7.1
Focal Length: 400mm

I cropped the RAW file for this JPEG, zoomed in a little to make the ducks the focus.