Author: circadianreflections

My name is Deborah Zajac. I'm a photographer living in Nevada at the base of the Eastern Sierras. I am a passionate nature, landscape, night/astro photographer. I shoot predominately in color and use Nikon Digital Cameras, and lenses. I hope you enjoy seeing some of the photos I've taken while on my travels. Please feel free to leave a comment I'd love to hear from you.

Oh, the clothes I would have…if only I could sew

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Copyright © Deborah M. Zajac. All Rights Reserved.

This is my first sewing machine. The Universal De Luxe Family Sewing Machine. My parents bought it for me second-hand the summer before I started 7th grade. Sewing was required the first semester that year. I had to make an entire garment for the final. I made a little cotton dress with long sleeves, and  a zipper up the back. I barely passed the class.
I’ve always wished I could sew. Alas, sewing takes an engineering mind. One must be able to think inside out, upside down, right side out, and a step or two ahead all at once. My seam ripper has seen more action and been more successful than my sewing machine.
Irony…I have 3 sewing machines.

I’m afraid I don’t know the history of this machine; age or where it was built. I  did have the case, but it didn’t hold up through the years. I had to throw it away a few years ago. I’ll have to try to find one for it.

Nikon D700| Nikkor 85mm f1.8AF-D @ f8| 1/10sec| ISO 200| Manual Mode| Tripod| Clamp light w/daylight bulb camera right| Texture by Muffet

Fill Me with Serenity

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Fill Me with Serenity, originally uploaded by dmzajac2004-.

Via Flickr:
Copyright © 2012 Deborah M. Zajac. All Rights Reserved.

While hanging out at home during the rainy week-end my mind turned toward “Still Life” photography. Something I don’t do often.
So I’m playing with some ideas, themes, and natural lighting. My favorite “go to” lens for this is my 85mm f1.8 AF-D.

Nikon D700| 85mm f1.8@ f5.6| 1/10 sec| ISO 160| Manual Mode| Tripod| Texture by Boccacino

In the Face of the Sun

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Copyright © 2012 Deborah M. Zajac. All Rights Reserved.
“To fling my arms wide
In the face of the sun,
Dance! Whirl! Whirl!
Till the quick day is done.”
~ Langston Hughes-Dream Variations Sunrise over Lick Observatory San Jose California Last week on the 21st of March several friends and I rose before dawn to meet to photograph the Crescent Moon rising over Mt. Hamilton, and James Lick Observatory in San Jose, CA.

We also knew that shortly after the Moon rose the sun would also rise over
Mt. Hamilton, and the observatory, but we needed to change our location
to get the angle right. Arriving at our chosen place; a wide open field that once was a neighborhood, long torn down;

the only reminders were the scars of streets, foundations, and the trees, shrubs, and grass which dripped with morning dew.

We walked carefully through it avoiding the holes that housed the Gophers who reside there now until we found just the angle that faced the Rising Sun.

We set up our tripods, camera gear, and we donned special armor this day; a filter to protect and shield our sensors, and eyes.

Then we waited and watched the brightening sky for the first little glimmer of the golden halo that announces the rising morning star!
Blended double processed frame + 1
Nikon D700 & D300s| Nikkor 80-200mm + Tamron 1.4x Extender
How I made it
When I took the photograph I used a Solar filter which protected my camera’s sensor, and my eyes.
This is what it looks like RAW from my camera. I really like all the foliage in silhouette, but I knew in order to recover the color
of the sun I would lose all that detail.
I wanted a finished photograph that included the silhouetted foliage, and color in the sun.
To do that I would have to blend or combine at least 2 frames. I made a copy of the negative above then uploaded that into my photo editing software Lightroom 4.
Then I removed all the color and silhouetted foliage in order to recover the sun’s color.
Once that was done I had this frame. I made another copy of my original negative then uploaded both it,
and the edited negative above into Photoshop CS5 where using layer masks I blended the two frames together.
It was pretty, but I thought it lacked something to make the composition balanced, and a bit more interesting so I added a Golden Eagle.
A photo I had taken back in January of this year. I cloned out the sun flare spot, and added my copyright signature et Voila! Fini!
My companions that morning have published their photos from the morning which
you can see by following the links here, here, here,and here,

The Keeper of the Heart

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Copyright © 2012 Deborah M. Zajac. All Rights Reserved.

Here’s another creation from my Smoke Photographs. Do you think this one looks like a Cylon holding a heart? Or the keeper of the Holy Grail?

Nikon D700| Nikkor 35mm f2 @ f11| 0.3 sec| ISO 800| Manual Mode & focus| Hand-held| Flash SB600w/Snoot

Smoke Gets in Your Eyes

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Copyright © 2012 Deborah M. Zajac. All Rights Reserved.

What do you do on a rainy day and you’ve got an urge to break out the camera and shoot something? Try something new! About a month ago artist/photographer Linda Clower whose creativity, and talent I’ve long admired began experimenting with Smoke Photography. Her results are stunning, and I’ve wanted to try it myself since seeing hers.

I set my Nikon D700 mounted with a 35mm f2 lens on a tripod with the on board flash set to fire, and used a lamp on camera right. Using a couple of yards of Ultra Suede purchased for a DIY back-drop which I taped with painters tape to wall  then draped the excess over my sideboard to use as a base to set my incense dish. Setting the incense about a foot from the back of the backdrop I lit the incense, dimmed the lights and took a few shots. Below is my first attempt.

It’s rather soft. Not at all the crisp photo I had hoped to create, but I do like the surreal, and arty feel to this finished work.  However I wanted to be able to get the crisp shot I was hoping to capture.

I think the room was too bright. I decided to try it again on another day.

I woke up early motivated to try Smoke Photography again, but with changes. I decided to use my Nikon SB600 Speedlight instead of a lamp or clamp light, but I needed a Snoot to direct the light on the smoke. I’d seen DIY Snoots before and knew I had just about everything at home to make one so, I rooted around the kitchen cupboards looking for a box to make the Snoot. I found the perfect box in the refrigerator; a large rectangular tea box.  I cut it to fit around my Speedlight then covered both sides with Gaffers tape. Not having any velcro in the house to seal it closed around the Speedlight, and be able to re-use it in the future I used painters tape to close it. Soon I’ll purchase some velcro for it.

Here’s my DIY 7.5in Snoot

Now it was just a matter of waiting for evening when the light would be dimmer. The light got really dim outside due to rain clouds so I closed the blinds and set this up then started shooting before the sun came out again.I changed my set up this go round. Here’s the set up I used this afternoon D700 mounted w/35mm f2 lens, hand-held. I moved the lamp(camera right) closer, and I tried to keep the light from spilling onto the back with the shade. I wanted the light from the lamp to light up the smoke so I could focus on it and get the crisper shot. The Snoot was camera left.  My settings were: ISO 800, f11, 0.3 seconds, Manual mode, and manual focus.

I’m much happier with this result.

Nikon D700, D300s, 35mm f2, and 50mm f1.8

Here are some tutorials that  I used to  help me create this shot and  get some help with post editing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iv39UmuiYNA&feature=player_embedded#!

http://www.sublime-light.com/index.php/2007/06/14/smoke-part-2-how-to-process-smoke-photographs/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2d281_HoEQ