This week’s theme – Icicles

By anyone’s standards this has been a rough winter. Probably not any worse than when I was a kid, but it really doesn’t affect kids.

The cycle we have had here on the North Coast, has been days and days of subfreezing weather, mixed with a day or two of near non-freezing temps and occasional sunshine. What this does is set up a cycle of melt, freeze, melt, freeze, etc. So, lots of icicles.

In some cases you can see the layering that takes place each time it happens. But in most instances you just get icicles that continue to grow.

Pick a theme, then fight cabin fever by taking your camera out for a walk.

Caption Info: All photos make with a Nikon P7700 camera. At right, a weed is encased by layers of ice belowing a dripping eave. Clockwise, below: Ice forms as the snow on top of a grill grating melts; an ornamental star above a door is encased in ice; a single icicle droops from the roofline at the end of a caboose; icicles form along a dormer;

Click on an image to see a larger version.

Vision

I think we all take a lot of things for granted, health-wise. I’ll be the first to say I’ve been lucky so far. And as a photographer, any eye problem I take seriously.

I have had small “floaters” in my eyes at times. Annoying, but they went away after a bit. So a couple of weekends ago, while driving, I saw some bright flashes in the outer corner of my left eye. Over the next half day my vision became cloudy with dark floaters and a smoky haze, I called my local eye doctor. He saw me on Monday and quickly set up an appointment with a specialist for Tuesday morning. Turns out that I had a detached and torn retina. The darkness I was seeing was from a blood vessel that had burst when the tear occurred. In photo terms, my CCD went bad.

Photo by Sue SchaeferThe Dr. gave me my options, one of them being laser surgery, which seemed the least invasive. He said “good choice” and I asked when it would take place. He said, “now.” So off we went to another room. There was a lot of whirring, clicking and extremely bright flashes as he worked with his hand-held laser. I joked to the Doc that I should take a photo of this. His reply surprised me, “fine with me.” So I handed my iPhone to the nurse and she stepped back and made a photo.

I am thankful to Dr. David G. Miller for the repair, and give credit to Sue Schaefer for taking the photo for me.

At the follow-up appointment a week later I was told everything looked good, but hard to tell since my eye was still so cloudy. It’s kind of like having a grey sunglass lens over my left eye with the wrong prescription, with some floating blobs. I’m told it may take up to two months to clear.

Focusing a camera is a challenge (thank you auto-focus), as is focusing in on detail on a computer screen, but I can still work. I’m told this is  a “getting older” thing. And that had I waited, it could have been a lot worse.

So if you have any sudden change in vision, don’t mess around, see a professional.

Baby, it's cold outside

This has been a tough winter. More so than usual it seems, but maybe it was because last winter was so mild.

As a kid I lived in the snow belt of Western New York. I don’t remember the schools closing just because it was cold or for less than a two-foot snowfall. And we lived in the unfortunate location of being a half block less than one mile of the school, the distance allowed for taking the bus.

Anyway, this recent cold snap reminded me of how the air and light change when it gets cold, really cold. Anywhere around the 0 degrees mark, give or take.

So I went out this week just after sunrise to see what I could see. Here are a couple of images from the jaunt. I was out and about for about 30 minutes, and could have gone longer but for the fact of having to take my gloves off to operate the camera. I don’t remember that piercing cold that settles in the joints and makes your fingers not want to cooperate.

Of note to photogs: Batteries die quick in low temps. Make sure you have a spare battery and keep it next to your body (or even better, take the battery out of the camera, keep it warm and then put it in the camera when your are ready to make some photos). Keep your camera inside your coat until you are ready to use it. Don’t shoot with the light, shoot against it. Look for patterns. Good luck.

Then and Now

I’ve written before about my study of the Civil War. I love to combine that with my photography. Sometimes strange things happen.

A couple of years ago I learned that the Civil War Trust sponsored an annual photography competition for Civil War themed photos. It included a category called “Then and Now” in which they asked for two photos to be submitted, one from a vintage photo, the other from present day taken from the same perspective. On a trip to Washington, D.C. and the Antietam National Battlefield Park a couple of years ago I decided to give it a try. I downloaded some views from the Library of Congress that I thought would work. I did a good job on finding the locations, and it was interesting, but somehow lacking. However, I submitted several entries. Nothing happened.

About that same time I began to see instances of photographers holding old photos at arms length that matched the wider angle view seen in front of them. Much more whimsical.

Then I discovered a number of stunning images where photographers took vintage photos and superimposed and blended them with modern day views. The first one I saw was by historical expert Jo Teeuwisse, from Amsterdam. Her images are stunning. Please view them.

So on my next trip back from D.C. I stopped at Antietam again, armed with copies of the vintage photos. I finally settled on one scene by Alexander Gardner, showing Confederate dead along the Hagerstown Pike. From books and previous visits I knew the spot. In fact, there is a plaque near the site that shows the original photo. I made a number of images, slightly varying my focal length and position, moving front and back, left and right, up and down.

In Photoshop, I took the old image, toned it and pasted it on top of the “now” photo, sized them to match and then erased around the “then” image to blend them together.

I’m proud to say that I won first place in the category.  There were so many quality photos. The award is registration to the 2014 Center for Civil War Photography “Image of War” seminar, to be held in Fredricksburg, VA. Can’t wait.

Let Nature do the work

I don't make a lot of images using the tone mapping (HDR) technique. But while on a morning walk this week at a nearby nature peserve, I came across this scene. This was really a no-brainer, the light was perfect, accentuating the trees in the background. I had very little to do other than point and shoot. Nature had done all the hard work. There was so much color I almost felt bad for enhancing it.

I didn't have my tripod with me that I usually use when making an HDR shot. But I did have a small monopod I often carry when travelling light.

For the techies, it was made on my Nikon P7700, Aperture Priority, 200 ISO and a five-frame bracket, one f-stop apart. I would have gone to two stops but the camera only allows a max of one. Exposure was f5.6 with shutter speeds ranging from 1/1000th to 1/60th. Images combined and tuned in Photoshop CC.