Tag: Nikon D700

Misty Valley

Posted in California, Landscapes, Photography, TravelTagged , , , , , , Leave a comment

 

Copyright © 2012 Deborah M. Zajac. All Rights Reserved

This poem Mist Valley
by James Longenbach came to my mind when I came across this old photo of mine a few days ago.

At the end of August, when all
The letters of the alphabet are waiting,
You drop a teabag in a cup.
The same few letters making many different words,
The same words meaning different things.

Often you’ve rearranged them on the surface of the fridge.
Without the surface
They’re repulsed by one another.

Here are the letters.
The tea is in your cup.

At the end of August, the mind
Is neither the pokeweed piercing the grass
Nor the grass itself.
As Tony Cook says in The Biology of Terrestrial Mollusks

The right thing to do is nothing, the place
A place of concealment,
And the time as often as possible.

Nikon D700| Nikkor 17-35@26mm| f11| 1/60sec| ISO 200| Manual Priority| Tripod

 

Swanton Berry Farm

Posted in California, Photography, TravelTagged , , , , , , , 2 Comments

 

Swanton Berry Farm, originally uploaded by dmzajac2004-.

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

Full disclosure I bought the cake and not at Swanton’s. I was just fooling around with a triptych idea last month and forgot about it until a Triptych challenge came up in a group I’m in this month. This isn’t eligible as it was taken in late June and July.

Swanton’s Farm is on Hwy 1 in Davenport, CA. It’s been there for as long as I can remember. You can pick your own berries. Inside the store you can buy jams, and fresh berries, and pies and you pay for it on the honor system.

I’m going to miss strawberries when they go out of season. I eat them by the basket full during the summer months.
I only eat fresh fruit and veggies in their true season. The exception is Bananas. Do you?

Nikon D700| Tripod
Photo 1) Nikkor 17-35@17mm f6.3| 0.5 sec| ISO 200
Photo 2) Nikkor 50mm @ f5 | 1/13 sec| ISO 200
Photo 3) Nikon 50mm @ f5| 1/13 sec| ISO 200
Texture by MStewart

 

Strawberry Moon

Posted in Astrophotograhpy, PhotographyTagged , , Leave a comment
Copyright © 2012 Deborah M. Zajac. All Rights Reserved.


I went out in the backyard to take this photograph of the Strawberry Moon. I thought it looked pretty in the Twilight with the interesting clouds, and that halo.
Native Americans called this Moon a Strawberry Moon because the short season for harvesting strawberries comes during June.
This is a composite blend of 2 frames.

Nikon D700| Nikkor 180mm| f11| 1sec & 1/125 sec| ISO 250| Manual Priority| Tripod

Cock-a-Doodle-Doo!

Posted in Photography, Still LifeTagged , , , , Leave a comment

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

I took this photograph back in March when it was cold and rainy out, and I was longing to be out with my camera. I broke out my clamp lights and started playing with Still-life compositions.

Nikon D700| Nikkor 85mm| f8| 1/20 s | ISO 200| Manual Priority| Tripod| Clamp light camera right| Textures by Bea Pierce & Exothermic

Test Driving Adobe’s ACR 7.0

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

I recently received the new version of Photoshop CS6. I downloaded it and had some time to play with ACR 7.0 today.

ACR is the acronym for Adobe Camera RAW. The latest version has had a total revamp. They’ve retooled all the sliders and the algorithm giving us more control to recover highlights, shadows the blacks, and whites.

They’ve replaced the Recovery slider with several new sliders.imagethey’ve given us a Whites, Blacks, Highlights, and Shadows sliders.

I’ve got quite a few files in my archives that I’ve been saving for the time my editing software would be able to recover the data and save the photo. Let’s look at what I’ve been able to recover today.

I took this photo in January 2012 while on a New Year’s Trip in the Eastern Sierras with friends. I haven’t done any retouching to it at all in this shot. I only added my tag, and resized it for the web.

It’s completely blow out in the upper left sky where the sun was shining, and a lot of the mountain range is lost in the shadow. I thought I used my 2 stop Graduated Neutral Density filter on this shot, but by the looks of it I grabbed my 1 stop by accident.

Here’s what I was able to recover using CS6 new ACR 7.0.

It’s amazing the amount of color  that I was able to recover, and there are even a few wispy clouds there that couldn’t be seen!

I made all the adjustments in ACR using the new highlights, shadows, whites, and black sliders. I also adjusted the contrast,  and exposure then I opened  it in Photoshop to remove some spots, add my tag, and resize it for the web.

ACR 7.0 made the upgrade worth it to me.

 

 

They dance!

Posted in Nature, Nikon, Photography, Travel, WildlifeTagged , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

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

I’ve been a bit  behind working on my photographs from my trip to Oregon to see Clark and Western Grebes do their Spring mating courtship and Dance. I’ve still not transferred my files from my laptop to my PC where I do my processing and editing, but I have finally finished some.

By the last morning of our trip I still had not taken any photographs of the Grebes dancing that I liked. I had nearly given up hope of getting any really good photos as they tend to be very shy; keeping themselves pretty far from shore which really tested the limits of my focal range of 300mm + a 2x Teleconverter which gave me an effective range of 600mm. It wasn’t far enough!

We decided to go back once more before leaving for home. After spending 2 mornings on the pond we learned they’re awake and most active beginning about 8AM and settling down by 10AM, so arriving just before 8AM we set up in our favorites spots and waited for them wake up. About half past 8AM this is what I saw and captured with my camera…

The Visual Connection

 

After a quick sizing up one after the other dipped their heads in the water and then flung the water off!

I feel the tension rising as both were totally oblivious to anyone or anything around them. They only saw each other as they flung the water over and over again. This went on for a full minute!

and suddenly they were up gliding across the water in perfect synchronization!

The sound of the beating water was the only sound I heard. It was marvelous, and thrilling to watch. I feel very blessed to have seen it, and to have shared the experience with good friends.

Nikon D700| Nikkor 300mmVRII + 20eIII TC =600mm| Tripod| Wimberley Sidekick