The Blue Hour

The blue hour is a photographic term that describes the time of day when the light takes on a strong blue tone. The sky becomes a deep and rich blue that appears to have almost a smooth, creamy texture.

This is not an easy thing to do. I went out at what my Exsate caculator said was the right time last week. I think the image above was a little too early and the sky had some clouds to block the true blueness of the sky at that time of night.
This one was more what a blue hour image looks like but it's too light.

... because I had to lighten the image in Picasa to see the flowers and the donkey. The image was too dark.

The blue hour isn't really an "hour" at all. In reality, what photographers call the blue hour really only lasts about 20 minutes. The blue hour lasts approximately 20 to 30 minutes just after sunset and just before sunrise. The exact time of the blue hour will vary with location and will change depending on time of year and things like air quality.
So I waited... thinking that it wasn't dark enough and I got this...

You can see the blue sky on the right side of the image but this is more interesting because of the garden light and the light from the living room window.
And this one, of my garden shed  with a nice reflection in the small window. 

But still... this is not a true "blue hour" photography. I need to work on this when I'm downtown at night (which doesn't happen very often) or when I'm staying at someones house in a town. It's recommended that you take shots of city views, beach landscapes, sunsets and architectural images.
So I used the only outside, "lit at night", model  that I could find.

 A concrete lady with light reflecting from the solar garden light that I bought at the Tractor Supply store.

I love the reflections of light that moved over her face. You can see the blue tone to the photo but this isn't what I was trying to do. The walkway was picking up the "blue hour" blues but there is no sky in the photo. And, again, I had to lighten the photo to see it.
And then, faster than I expected, the sky was too dark... so I just call these "night shots".

and... "solar light in the hollyhocks".

 So, my first venture into Blue Hour photograpy was a bust. I still have a lot to learn with this technique. I think I need buildings or town lights. I also need to put the camera on a tripod and try my Tamron wide angle lens during this "blue" period of creativity. I suspect that some of the examples of "blue hour" photography on Google images are Photoshopped to death and have a fake blueness to them. Still some are beautiful and I'm the amateur. I've have a long way to go before I really know what these photos entail and learning to actually produce an image that I would be happy to call "blue hour".
It's a good chance that I may have caught one blue hour images in Germany two years ago and didn't even know it.

I found this one... taken as my sister and I walked to a Christmas Festival in Berlin one night. This, I believe, is a true "blue hour" photo... and I didn't even know it then. Sometimes ignorance is no excuse. I need to work on this.

Having fun with a Zinnia

My rugged Zinnias just keep blooming in the garden. Despise the lack of water and the very dry, dog days of summer, they persist.
This morning I took my Nikon D5100 camera outside, with a 105mm macro lens, and took a few shots. Then I had some fun with them in Picasa, a free, online, photo storage program, and transformed them with special effects.

 The beautiful reality

And the taking away of some color.

or the switching of color that focuses on the magical inner world of its center.

Another lovely reality

transformed into a drawing.

And finally the same zinnia... fresh out of the camera

And then... all zoomy in black and white.

This is how I spend a few hours of my retirement each day. It's a magnificent obsession... and so much fun.

Gourd art with Dremels and Other Dilemmas of Life

I hosted our SCAT art group at my house on Wednesday and because of some wonderful quirk of nature, the weather cooperated by being cooler than usual. This was a nice change in the weather and fortunate, because we had to work on our project outside. It was still very warm but not into the 100's like the week before.
My friend, Mary Jane, did a mini workshop on using a Dremel drill to decorate the outside of a gourd.
She showed us a beautiful example of what we needed to work toward.

And explained, in detail, how to achieve this affect using the right drill bits. How we would cut the curves into the gourd and remove the brown outside layer, leaving just the right amount to "shade the edges.

In theory, I understood what she was telling us and some of us caught on really fast. Some of us are very good at this sort of thing. Some of us had already started on this project ahead of time.

Me?... not so much.

Wait! I'm not finished yet. Staying on a curved line with a tool that moves clockwise, when you're left handed and want to go to the LEFT, is hard. I used a broken piece of gourd because I wanted to practice. Kind of looks like Freddie Kruger's scratch marks in Nightmare on Elm Street doesn't it?
Mary Jane was so kind. She helped all of us and tried to show me what I was, obviously, doing wrong.
We all worked diligently. The afternoon got quite a bit warmer.

We wore our masks when drilling. Gourd dust is notorious for creating chaos in the lungs, so you always want to wear some kind of mask while your working on one.

It was getting quite warm in the sun so everyone was trying to sit closer to the house, in the shade... except for the "redhead". She was trying for a suntan, like me. Some of us always try. I've been trying since I was in junior high school. You'd think that I would learn.

Red was doing a great job with the "curves". So, I kept working on my piece of artwork and even thought Mary Jane presented us with another gourd to inspire...

I never quite got it. This is how it looked right before I said something like, " I'm going to take a break and do what I know how to do."  Under my mask I was sweating and swearing to myself.

Just remember that in showing all of you this, I'm pouring out my insecurities and laying them on the table. Please do not comment on the quality of this gourd piece. It's hard to admit that carving is not "my thing", but it obviously isn't.

I brought more ice tea and water out to everyone, got my camera and did MY thing. Then we moved inside for dessert and drinks with lots of ice in them. We sat and enjoyed each others company. This is such a wonderful group of woman. I'm glad I know all of them.
They weren't allowed to leave until they took some tomatoes and I offered them some hollyhock seeds to go. I've been drying all the seeds and I have A LOT. Only three people took me up on my offer to send hollyhock seeds to them. The will each receive enough for their whole neighborhood shortly.

That night I came back from my walk and stayed out in the garden until after dark. I shot this photo of a French marigold just before dark with my new Speedlight flash and diffuser.

Then, when it got really dark, I took a flashlight and back lit the same marigold, without a flash, and got this shot.

And then the moon...

which will be full in three days. It's the first time I had EVER gotten detail on the moon surface. I'm so pleased. It's not tack sharp but I'll work on this until I get a good one. I want to work on the back lighting because the photography forum, that I joined, is having a contest using the technique called Contre-jour. This means "into the light". You can read about it here. I can't wait to work on this process and see what I can do with it. 
I think I was over compensating for my gourd drilling failure...staying outside in the dark... trying to do something amazing and creative, but the bottom line is that you can't be good at everything. Life is short... you have to pick your battles and your artistic endeavors.
I can loose time (and myself) when I'm walking around with my camera. I realize that photography truly is a passion and I can only say that about a few efforts in my life. Like raising children, gardening and writing stories, photography takes dedication and a willingness to swallow your ego, love what your doing and fertilizing your brain with information about the subject.  These special things in my life were and are a challenge, a learning process and  most of all they need PASSION.
 Next month we are going to do some felting at our SCAT meeting. I CAN DO FELTING. I can felt my little heart out. My confidence is back all ready, just thinking about it.

Flight to Adventure

"All my bags are packed, I'm ready to go..." (yes, I'm heading north for an adventure.)

'cause I'm leavin' on a jet plane
Don't know when I'll be back again..."
( Written by John Denver, 1966; sung by Peter, Paul and Mary.)

Got my maps, flashlights, bug spray and rain gear (just in case). I think we hit the right weekend because it's going to break records here in Northern California with 100 plus weather. Hopefully, up north, it's not going to rain and the weather will be pleasant. Either way, we will be prepared.
I will take my trusty, black New Balance hikers that I wore in Germany... broken in and comfortable.

... and these really comfy hiking sandals, that I found in Reno last month, for walking. Got to take care of my feet, 'cause if they aren't happy, the rest of me will be miserable.

 And I bought some new camera equipment. This is getting to be an expensive hobby. Fair warning to anyone who wants to "just buy a camera..." It doesn't stop there.

I'm leaving the hollyhocks and the bumble bees...

The dried clover that I've been so desperately trying to photograph with macro precision.

And the lizard who will be glad to see me go because I keep sprinkling him with the hose every morning. (I really think he likes it or he'd leave.)

I'm saying goodbye to the corgi boys and the Prospector...

"What... Where are you going now?"

and I will be flying to Portland to met my friend "D", who is driving from Montana. We are going to a photography workshop this weekend on the Columbia River. I think we will learn a lot and it will be fun. Then we will drive down the Oregon coast and "D" will bring me home.
I leave Thursday morning.


"The photograph itself doesn't interest me.  I want only to capture a minute part of reality." ~Henri Cartier Bresson

Focus Pocus

I have a new lens for my camera. It's a Nikon 105mm macro lens that is big, beautiful and heavy. It doesn't help that I'm also learning to use manual settings on my camera, a Nikon D5100, at the same time. I'm also learning to use a fixed 35mm lens. So when I tried to take some manual photos of the blossoms on the Catalpa tree behind the house this afternoon, with a tripod, I decided that there was more to this learning curve than meets the eye.
I would like to say that, at this point, I have more camera lenses than common sense and that the learning curve for all of this is just about ready to push me over the edge... and I'm a pretty calm person.

This is what happens when you use manual settings on these new lenses...
 and you don't know what your doing.

This is on automatic, with a tripod, and the focus is still not truly sharp. But, in my defense, the wind was blowing.

This is my effort to use manual priority.

This is automatic.

Holy $&*! manual is hard. Automatic is so easy. I know it's not the "professional" way to learn but I fall back to "auto" because I get such good results.
The online photography forum "pros" tell me that using manual is the only way to go... that I need to learn to use the manual settings on my camera to be a "photographer" and not just a weekend picture taker. So I persist.
This is manual...

I took over 29 pictures of this bee and this is the only one that was in focus and not too dark... and then the bee had the audacity to turn his rear end to the camera.

I finally got the flowers in focus and the bee flew away.
Later on I asked Cutter for some help.
This is Cutter.

He's giving me the evil eye but he did hold still. I got his nose in focus but not his eyes. Both of these new lenses have a very tiny depth of field ( Depth of field refers to the range of distance that appears acceptably sharp.)
In this one the eyes are fine but the nose is out of focus.

There's a small adjustment on the lens that helps with focus. I was laying on the floor for all of these dog shots, so they are not really sharp. It's hard to look a dog squarely in the eye without laughing anyway. That's my excuse. Which one do you like?
This one is a perfect corgi butt shot.

But the head is really blurred.That can be Ok but, I was a little too close to my subject.
Here we had a clear and focused  head

but the rear end, front and center, is blurred. Not good!
Depth of field is extremely small when focusing on close objects so finding the focus can be difficult.

This one wasn't bad. The hare stood very still for me and both the hare and the vase are in good focus... kind of.
This one, below, is the best one yet.

It's a little dark but it's focused, by God. Maybe there's hope for me yet. I will need a special flash attachment for "macro" work and a "soft box" to defuse the light. Oh, yes, this can be an expensive hobby.

I love seeing the world thorough a camera lens and seeing something that is so small that the eye might overlook it. This "macro" photography is more exciting than chocolate candy and that's one of the most exciting things I know... especially if it's See's.
All of the above photos were all "close up" shots, not true macro, which is extreme close up photography, usually of very small subjects, in which the size of the subject in the photograph is greater than life size.This last one is pretty close to being "macro" but I cropped it, so it really wasn't life size.  I'm getting nearer to the subjects every day.
I will keep practicing and one of these days this will all fall into place... or focus, for me.
Then I will look back and laugh. I hope...

Twinkle, twinkle, little star...

I've done it now. I've invested in some new camera equipment. My Nikon D40, my little workhorse, has been used and abused for almost four years now. It's been to the camera doctor for replacements and needs to go back again. I love this camera but something is wrong with it. It's not focusing all the time. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. I think something is wrong with the lens and my pictures are out of focus more than usual.
This is my excuse paragraph(above) for buying a new camera. I bought a Nikon D5100 camera with all the bells and whistles. I will tell you more about my new camera in a future post.
When I was ordering some other camera things I saw this filter. It's called a digital star8- 52mm filter. It only costs $3.31 and well... I found it hard to believe that this inexpensive filter would do anything for three dollars and thirty one cents. So I ordered it. It came yesterday and I have been having some fun with it.
This is called a "twinkle" filter and what they say it does, is allow you to remove unwanted reflections from non-metallic surfaces such as water , glass etc. Well, I need to use it a lot  and experiment with it to get some of the effects that they showed as examples, but yesterday and this morning I took some pictures with the filter attached.
This is an effect that you have to be careful with. You could overdue it and you could also ruin a really good photo with it, but I think I will have fun with this.

The shot above was taken on my porch, as the sun was coming up in the east. Do you see the eight point star in the bush at the end of the porch? This is the 8 Point Cross created by the filter surface, that generates crossed ray beams. They emphasize glaring sunshine when you take a picture directly into the sun.

I really like this picture, above. It's just enough to let you know that the sun is there but it's not distracting. But, oops, there are some blue dots in the middle of the photo. Now that IS distracting.
I just realized what it is. I took this picture through the sliding glass door. It's a reflection of MY CAMERA.You have to look where you are shooting from. You can ruin a good print doing dumb things like this. Unless, of course, you want a reflection of something in the glass. That can be good too.

 I thought this one was going to be too dark but look... there's a double star! Now the sun IS the main attraction.

Cutter wasn't impressed with my new toy, but he kept following me around, so I took a picture with the sun behind him. I should have use a flash for his face. Sometimes you need a flash when there is too much light behind your subject.  I do like the light around his head, ears and feet... and , of course, one of those Corgi looks of determination.. the steady stare.

I like this one but, as I said, I needed more light on the "pooch". I love shots with the camera on the ground. I'm not really happy with this photo though, but it does show the star rays from the sun.

Back in the house, I caught this little sun sparkle in one of the sun catchers in my kitchen window... One perfect little twinkle.

The sun was flooding into the living room and it hit the plant, lighting up the leaves and the container. Can you see the little stars on the upper left edge of the ceramic vase? The star8 filter translates that bright spot of white into a familiar image... a star.
Below, you can also see the prism rays from the sun across the photo because this picture was cropped and the original had the sun in it. I'm not sure what happened near the crow against the wall. That an interesting light anomaly that I don't understand.

This reflection is really kind of cool. It's a reflection from somewhere else, because that part of the sign is just like the rest of it... ochre colored and antiqued.
So, as you can see, I will have some fun with this filter. It seems very substantial and screws onto the lens without any effort. I can't wait to try it at night, in town. All the lights, especially Christmas lights in a few months, will be wonderful and twinkle like stars . I can see it all now.
 I guess I'm easily entertained and can get pretty excited over little things... but for three dollars and thirty one cents it's a cheap date.