A trio of swans

January 21, 2016 by Howard Dale Posted in Wildlife & Animals Leave a comment

While I quite like this composition it’s marred by the fact that it was a very bright contrasty day and the camera, a Panasonic Lumix ZS3 suffered from the typical problems of a small-sensor camera including a low dynamic range. So the highlights on the swan’s back are virtually blown out. To make matters worse the camera was only capable of shooting in jpg (i.e. no RAW), which limited the possibility of recovering the highlights. What’s the lesson here? I suppose if I hadn’t been rushing I might thought a bit more about this possibility and under-exposed somewhat to preserve the highlights. It would have probably been easier to recover the shadow detail. Well – you live and learn. Hopefully if a similar situation arises I’ll do better.

Another possibility might be to add a significant amount of film grain, which to a certain extent masks the “blown” highlights – see below:

Walking the Dog

January 18, 2016 by Howard Dale Posted in Black & White, People, Wildlife & Animals Leave a comment

For once it’s not me walking the dog, but me taking a picture of someone walking the dog. This was taken with a NEX-5n and 18-55mm kit lens. It was soon after I got the camera and I wasn’t all that familiar with it. It was early in the morning in November 2011 and I was walking in a park in Greenwich, Ct. Suddenly this group came out of nowhere and I took the picture.

At the time I wasn’t thinking much about why I took it, but in retrospect there are a few things I like. First I’m happy that I got something half way decent. Usually if it moves I miss it. Second I like the way that the adult’s feet are just about off the ground. Third I love the size of the dog and as I look at the picture again I notice that he/she is wearing a small hat. Finally I like the look on the child’s face. He’s obviously seen me taking the picture.

2015 Favorites – Black and White

December 28, 2015 by Howard Dale Posted in Abstracts, Black & White, Flowers, Landscapes, Nature, People, Wildlife & Animals Leave a comment

Lightbeams.

Another year has passed and it’s time to post some of my favorite pictures from 2015 – starting with some black and whites. Like last year I’m presenting my ten favorites – in no particular order.

I’ve been trying to find a focus for my photography, which at the moment is all over the place. I had thought that my primary interest was in old buildings. However, in looking at my favorites I was surprised to discover that none of them (black and white or color) contain old buildings. While I’ve taken lots of pictures of old buildings over the year it seems that I don’t consider any of them to be favorites. Just for curiosity I looked back at 2014 favorites and found that the same was true in 2014: pretty much no buildings. Go figure!

Last year I provided descriptions of each of the images. This year I provide only captions. All of the images appear in posts throughout the year and you can find the longer descriptions there.