Night Shots.....Point and Shoot...Nope

Yesterday it was windy and warm for 54 degrees or so.  Cloudy all day with the sun peaking out late in the day.  Then last night it really got quiet until the thunder and lightning started.  Wind blew up every now and then but generally remained calm.  Somewhere around 11:00 PM or so I looked out and it was dead still.  Water on the pond was smooth as glass and there was a low fog hanging in the air.  Looking up you could see broken clouds and some stars.  That's not all that bad considering we live close to several cities so I would suspect reflections of their lighting.

I decided to set the camera to monochrome as I would really like to get better at black and white photography.  At any rate I set it up to these numbers for this image. 

Definitely not a point and shoot. 

Exposure - 0.4 sec @ f5.0
Focal Length - 18mm
ISO - 6400 (hence the graininess)
Program - manual
Metering - spot
Flash - no
Cropped to - 4064 x 2396 ppi (before reducing for .jpeg)
Lens - Tamron 18-270mm VC Di II
Preset - monochrome

Some Macro Photography Experiments

My better half just had a hip replaced.  She received some flowers for her recovery so I thought I would take the opportunity to use the flowers for some photography trials.  I wanted to see what I could do with my Tamron 18-270mm lens.  Here are six that I took.  They were sitting in a room that is lit only with a chandelier that has 60 60watt clear candle shaped lamps.  I did not use a flash, I hate flash pictures unless it is added light in the daytime.  Just my likes, not an opinion.  F-stops were either f-6.3 or f-11.  focal lengths were 270mm except for one which was 91mm.  Shutter speed was either 1/13 sec or 1/20 sec.  Tripod and timer of 2 sec. plus mirror was in locked up position.  ISO ranged from 1250 to 5000.  Manual focus was the norm and was used in setting the blur effect.  Picture number two was set to monochrome in the camera.  Enjoy and enlarge if so desired.

Decembers Halfway Scenic Update

I realize that I didn't get the picture taken yesterday but I was laid up in the hospital for a procedure that had me there at 6 AM. I'm retired and had forgotten that there is such a thing as 6 AM. Seven in the winter is tough. That's why my pictures are taken at 8 or very close to it. I figure, no rush to get up when I'm not going out.

Big difference in the days of choice. Yesterday was sunny and today we had ourselves a small snow storm. It made the morning rush hour quite miserable for those that had to get out in it.

The whole intent of these pictures is setting the camera up on the same spot and shooting for the exact same, or as close as I can get with my knowledge of the day, picture for one year. It is to show how the scene out the east end of my house changes over time. Looking back in the archives will let the viewer see the change in color, weather and light. If I was ambitious enough I would probably get up earlier but then it would just be darker in most cases in the winter months.

Currently, if you look back at the 12/1 image you will see the sun coming up in the left hand side of the frame and as we go into the warmer months it will move to the left.

Today I took two shots. One in color but of course the color of snow is white and being such a heavy snow fall the sky is really dark. The snow turns orange with the sodium vapor street lights. The second picture is monochrome. I did this just to see if it looked any colder than the 17 degrees the weather people were reporting.

Canon EOS Rebel XTi, Tamron 18-270mm VC DiII lens.
Shutter 5 sec., Aperture 4.0, ISO 100, Exposure compensation -2, Focal length 35mm, White Balance is Daylight, Manual Focus and Picture Style is Landscape.

Same camera and lens.
Shutter speed 8 sec., Aperture 4.0, ISO 100, Focal length 35mm, shot in manual mode and Picture Style is of course Monochrome.

Poor Weatherman

I'm sure that everyone has one, if not more, weather persons that we all figure like to hear themselves talk. It is their moment of glory when some sort of weather disturbance comes into town.

It isn't like the weather is going to change in the next thirty minutes or even the next hour or so and yet, they stay on the airways. Interrupting the local and national programming to bring you the latest up to date information. Like I said, it isn't going to change very quickly.

This latest storm, and I use that loosely, pretty much came in like they said. Started with rain and turned to snow on just about the exact time frame they said it would. We even got the winds, although, I doubt we got exactly what they meant for us to get with their warnings of gusts from 30 up to 40 mph.

As usual, north of I-70, that all mighty line of concern in this area, it was a little more intense but then they usually get it north of here or anywhere else that has a north of here.

I have tried to do justice to a particular photo that I took this morning. This is after the snow (storm) started at about 6 AM Sunday morning. I have been able to make the trees in the distance look frosty. I took it in monochrome for a gloomy look and tried to highlight the sunny side of the image to show that there is light at the end of the storm.

I'm not belittling the weather people, I'm just saying do your job and report the weather. Don't give me a play by play of each and every street, road crew, snow flake or rain drop. I have windows as most people do and I can see what is going on.