the Monarchs

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Here in Santa Cruz, we have a Monarch Butterfly grove. For some reason, that fact had completely slipped our mind and we've almost missed them this year. They usually arrive some time in October and leave around the first of February.

Realizing that the time has almost passed, we thought we'd better hustle and go see how many were still around.


NOTE: I know I mention it a lot, but for these pictures in particular, they really look much better if you open them full size in a new window.

The grove is located at Natural Bridges State Park.
They've kindly built a boardwalk
that meanders through the eucalyptus trees
back to where most of the butterflies hang out.

There's also a freshwater lagoon.

The water is covered
with a green algae like substance.
It's not smelly or scummy,
and it's a pale shade of green.

The ducks like nothing better
than to glide along
with their beaks in the water,
scooping up the "goop"

We went all the way to the end of the boardwalk
and didn't see more than a dozen butterflies.
Oh no, had we waited too long?
Then we looked up . . .

These pictures are pretty dark,
it was pretty late in the day,
and the grove is heavily wooded.

And since the butterflies
were about forty feet up in the air,
it's a good thing
the new camera has a 35x zoom!

I never did get the shot I really wanted,
but at least I caught a few of these beauties.

There were also calla lilies.

This is my favorite shot of the day.
I tried it with both the camera and my iPhone.
For this shot, the iPhone did a better job.
I was mesmerized by the grain in this board.

After a walk down to the beach,
I took this shot of my sweet man.

We may try to go see these beauties again before they leave for the year. If we do, we'll go on a warm day and try to get there a little earlier in the day.

We also have plans to go and see the elephant seals at Ano Nuevo soon. If we take a day off every now and then, we've found it's better to go and do something really fun.

It keeps us motivated
and reminds us of what we're working for.

From Inside the Coal Mine

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Just one shot, because I've been working in the house all day!

So here's the deal, can anyone identify these guys?

Shooting in the Dark

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In thinking about light, I decided to try shooting dark.

Most of my Christmas shots were taken with the Canon SX40, so tonight I decided I'd see what I could get with my iPhone.

The iPhone's sensor (equivalent to the film) is small. Smaller sensors mean a lot more noise (pixelization), and generally, this is also true with the iPhone. That said, I've found the new iPhone 4s handles noise better than I had expected.

In this shot,
I played around with shutter speed,
moving the camera as the shutter was open.
It's my "arty" shot.

And I like the color.

I was pretty impressed with this shot,
hand held, using an app called ProCamera.
I like the sharp contrast
between light and dark.

Taken while we were stopped
at an intersection.
Not bad for no flash.
The texture and the pattern
appealed to me.

Finally, this shot, taken from inside the car.
Again, I like that the iPhone
was able to capture both the light and the dark.
And pretty much everything in between.

That's it for today.

What the Camera Sees

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I'm constantly amazed at digital photography.

Since I never did serious film photography, I'm not sure how film and digital relate, but the way it was told to me is that film photography is a chemical process.

It's all about how the light strikes the film, with each roll having a a particular chemical makeup. Even more chemicals are involved in the darkroom. It means that if you want to have complete control over your photos, you need to know what you're doing. You can still shoot good photos and have them professionally developed; however at that point you give up a lot of your creative choices.

Digital photography doesn't deal in chemicals, it deals in information. It's all 1s and 0s, like any computer program. And like so many computer programs, a lot of the information appears to be hidden, unless you know how to find it.

That's where photo manipulation in the computer comes into play.

Ideally, for the most information, you would shoot in a format known as Camera RAW. This pretty much bypasses most of your slick digital camera pre-sets (things like white balance, saturation, etc.). The drawback is that most RAW files are huge, so they slow your camera way down. Still, if you want to be able to extract the most information from your digital photograph, ideally it should be shot in RAW.

My Canon 7d shoots very quickly in RAW, but my iPhone 4s and my Canon SX40 shoot only in jpeg.

Jpegs don't have as much hidden information as photos shot in RAW, but there's still a lot more than you see when you download your picture to the computer.

So where is all this going? I want to encourage all you casual photographers to take a shot at playing with your pictures

Here's a shot I took of the small shelf in our bathroom. These are some of my very favorite things, and I take lots of pictures of them, always trying for the perfect shot.

This wasn't it.

Still, I wanted to see what I could do with it.

A bit of sharpening,
and a change in lighting for a hint more drama.
The difference can really be seen
if you click for a larger image.

And pardon the dust.

Later, around sunset,
I looked outside
and saw pink skies and a rising moon.

Now this bore absolutely no resemblance
to what my eyes were seeing.
I knew the camera had done better than this,
it just needed a bit of help.

A change in exposure brought this.
Not great but better.

Next I started really playing.
A bit more saturation,
a bit less contrast.

More saturation,
some softening.
It's moving into unreal territory,
but sometimes I like it there.

And finally,
completely unreal,
a soft dark dreamy quality.

Now take another look
at the original iPhone jpeg.

The camera saw all of these variations
from this one single washed out photo.

Pretty cool, huh?

So if you've never played with your digital photographs,
I encourage you to do so.

Remember,
the camera always sees more
than it shows you at first glance.

A Question of Light

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There REALLY wasn't much to shoot today,
but I did have to make a quick trip to the market.

The more I take photographs,
the more aware I become of light.
Photography is all about light.

I wish I understood it better.

With light in mind,
I decided to look for white objects.

I found these.
I love white flowers,
but I find them hard to photograph.

The detail often gets lost.

Now this next isn't a great shot by any means,
but I was fascinated by how
the satiny sheen of the mushroom came through.
(To see it better, click to enlarge).

This is what attracts me to photography.

Here's a shot taken with an iPhone.
The lighting?
Harsh supermarket fluorescents.
The subject?
Dirty mushrooms.

But for some reason,
the large mushroom (center right)
seems to glow.

This kind of surprise is what keeps me taking pictures.

A Day in the Life

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I'm not really one for New Years resolutions, but I do like to set goals for myself (like clearing the house!).

I've decided that this will be the year when I use my cameras, one way or another, every day.

Lately, it's been hard for me to find things to shoot. After moaning and groaning about the lack of subjects, I've finally decided that it's not about the scenery around me.

It's about what I see.

And then what I decide to do with it.

For instance, why do I like this shot?
Don't know, but I do.

When I keep myself aware,
I find beauty all around me.

Even at Costco!

I've decided that,
when my Canon isn't appropriate
(like in a store)
I'll just use my phone.

All but three of these pictures
were taken with my iPhone.

I find that trying to keep
my "photographer's eye" open
makes me see things I would ordinarily miss.

I'm also trying to see the same scene
in different ways.

There are so many camera apps
on the iPhone,
I'm trying to learn which ones
give me the results I want.

Then, just as I was thinking about
training myself to
"see" photographically,
I looked at the sky
and saw this.

A gift from nature.

Turning in the other direction,
I saw how huge it was.

Look how small the skyline is . . .
It was like a special effect in a film.
But real.

Then I looked up and saw the moon,
and decided to pull out the Canon sx40
for a zoomed in shot of La Luna.

And that's it for today.

More work in the house tomorrow.

A Happy New Year to You All

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A wonderful start to the New Year, here are a few shots of the beach. There's not much to say, so just enjoy (and if you're so inclined, click each image for a larger version).

Be seeing you in 2012!