dr_phil_physics | Entries tagged with digital photography

Our Spring melt was very orderly this year, especially as we didn't get a lot of rain. Or rather it held off until Wednesday and Thursday.

Thursday afternoon "lake" next door, shot from the road. (Click on photo for larger.)
©2015 Dr. Philip Edward Kaldon (All Rights Reserved)

Our neighbors on either side had pulled their trees in order to have a front lawn. Brian to the west leveled it and brought in dirt -- the guy to the east didn't, so his front yard is sunken and floods as you can see. We got a little standing water amongst our pines, and a fairly full drainage ditch by the road on one side, but not much else. And certainly nothing in the basement as in April 2013.

Momcat and Joe are visiting -- I missed the business meeting at MIAAPT on Saturday (darn) to come back and we had a wonderful dinner at Pereddies in Holland.

Mrs. Dr. Phil and her mom Momcat at Sharkey's at the Hampton Inn in Holland, Friday night. Not seen, a huge wedding party pre-game dinner and meet up to the left. (Click on photo for larger.)
©2015 Dr. Philip Edward Kaldon (All Rights Reserved)

I left home for MIAAPT at maybe 7:17am Saturday. I-96 to I-496 through Lansing. Exit 9 to Trowbridge to Harrison and MSU. Trowbridge parallels the Amtrak line -- I never get to see a train at the East Lansing station. Except at 8:55 on Saturday, when I spotted Amtrak 126 peeking between two buildings. I pulled in between the two buildings -- the station is on the other side of the train. I could see a lot of legs from underneath the train -- must have been a big crowd boarding.

Fired off a quick shot with the Nikon D100, not knowing how much time I had. Been experimenting with using the Matrix metering, rather than the center weighted I am more used to. Heavily backlit in the morning sun -- no lens hood. The full size photo doesn't show the moire/stairstepping of the rails crossing the frame at an angle. (Click on photo for larger.)
©2015 Dr. Philip Edward Kaldon (All Rights Reserved)

Overriding the camera to get a little better exposure. (Click on photo for larger.)
©2015 Dr. Philip Edward Kaldon (All Rights Reserved)

For whatever reason, Amtrak seems to run a lot of Michigan service trains with two GE Genesis P42DC locomotives, one at each end. This means the trains don't have to be reversed at the end of the run. But they could run a cabbage -- a former locomotive with the prime mover pulled and used as a cab+baggage unit -- or a cab control ex-Metroliner car on one end. On the other hand, running two locomotives means you should have have a backup. My point is you don't need 8500 hp to drive this train.

Because I didn't have a timetable and the train was double-ended, I didn't know if it was eastbound or westbound. Had it been eastbound, I could have pulled out and gotten a nice shot at the grade crossing at Harrison -- or maybe even the overpass over Farm Road. Alas, all those happy students were heading west towards Chicago, so I just headed off to my meeting.

The rest of the train. (Click on photo for larger.)
©2015 Dr. Philip Edward Kaldon (All Rights Reserved)

As I was getting ready to leave East Lansing at 3:30, I noticed the construction crane, freewheeling like a weather vane in the stiff wind. I snapped a picture, hoping to have it swing back and show more of the crane -- alas, it wasn't going to perform for me.

Stupid crane looking boring for me. Rather tricky to make sure the AF was locked on the the crane and not the tree branches. (Click on photo for larger.)
©2015 Dr. Philip Edward Kaldon (All Rights Reserved)

The construction project involves updating the NSCL National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory to FRIB -- the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams. It's really cool, they expect to add thousands of new isotopes to the list of some 3000 isotopes in the Chart of the Nuclides, by simulating some of the conditions inside a supernova. The name change is because they're removing the two superconducting cyclotrons, the K500 and the K1200 -- and building a novel new linear accelerator.

But not a particularly cool photo -- thirty seconds earlier...

Dr. Phil

Posted on Dreamwidth
Crossposted on LiveJournal

Slim Pickings

Last Saturday had some nice weather and I knew we were losing all the good leaves. Despite the risk of not getting any more leaves, I didn't take the time to go out. With the heavy rains and winds, most of the bright colors were gone this week. But it's been a funny fall color season, with a number of trees still green. By the end of the week, there were some new trees featuring the strong bright yellows that I've seen a lot of this year.

One Last Run

So I took the Kodak DCS Pro SLR/n out for one last run around town.

I haven't been through the Allendale Community Park in the long time -- this tree was just off the access road to the water tower. I opened up the lens to keep the background soft, but the depth of field was thinner than I wanted. (Click on photo for larger.)

This backlit tree was shot from the Blazer in the turnaround by the recycling area. (Click on photo for larger.)

I'm a sucker for backlit leaves and backlit/windblown flags -- by the Allendale Post Office I was able to get both around 4:45pm. (Click on photo for larger.)

There are some other photographs of fall colors shot in the last two weeks, but we'll have to wait to see them -- for the first time in years I've been shooting some film. Will get the rolls developed and scanned. Now that I'm running the Kodak at its full FX 14MP resolution, I figure comparing it against 35mm film would be useful.

Dr. Phil

Current Mood: pleased

The Autumnal Equinox Has Come And Gone

The average temperature this time of year is supposed to be around 72°F. Saturday the high was around 57°F -- and it's been in the 60s and low 70s all week, with the same for next week. And we've had a lot of rain, even hail. Hell, there've been a couple of water spouts on Lake Michigan recently, including one by South Haven today.

So I debated taking a camera with me on my errands late in the afternoon. Dark clouds. But also bright white ones and a good blue sky. I grabbed the Nikon D1 commuter bag and headed out.

Once again I didn't even get out of the driveway -- or out of the Blazer for that matter -- before I had my first shot. Bit of a risk with the D1, because its CCD sensor can overblow highlights, but not totally bad. (Click on photo for larger.)

Grab shot out of the Blazer's front windshield of this rainbow against a bright white cloud in blue sky and sunshine. I saw black clouds and rain in different areas, but never got rained on myself. (Click on photo for larger.)

Lots and lots of great clouds -- little black ones against white ones, etc. -- but mostly not in places where I could frame a good shot. Still it was a nice drive and I mailed some bills and did some errands.

The Elusive West Michigan Wild Turkeys

We've seen a lot of wild turkeys around here lately. Damned things are hard to photograph, despite the fact that we've seen flocks of a dozen or more at a time. Whatever they're eating, the hot weather this summer seems to have suited them.

Last Saturday when I went out on a picture taking expedition, I spotted a flock of turkeys crossing 78th Avenue north of M-45 -- they were silhouetted against the road by being in the shadow of trees on either side of the road. Despite (a) having the Kodak Pro SLR/n with me, (b) with the 70-300mm mounted and (c) sitting on the seat next to me, I couldn't come to a stop, get out and grab the camera before the whole ten or twelve crossed. And it wasn't like they were strutting all that fast.

Hunters talk of being made fools of by wild turkeys -- and I can attest to photographers having the same troubles. (grin)

On Tuesday I took the back way from M-45 to Wilson Avenue and spotted what I thought was a flock of Canadian geese in a field. But as I got closer I realized they were turkeys. Turned around and rolled the window down. I only had the little Sony, but I did record them. (Click on photo for larger.)

But this Saturday on the way back from Allendale, I slowed down because two vehicles ahead of me had stopped. Closer, I saw a couple of turkeys cross the road. Figured I'd missed them, but moving slowly I, too, had to come to a stop for another crossing.

Grab shot of wild turkeys lurking by the side of the road. (Click on photo for larger.)

Why did the turkey cross the road? To challenge drivers and photographers, of course. (Click on photo for larger.)

Still, one of the better wild turkey shots I've gotten, despite all the backlighting.

Dr. Phil

Current Mood: pleased

It's Rather Surprising

It's been not quite two years since I got back into Nikon SLR photography (DW) when I picked up a Kodak DCS Pro SLR/n. The intent was to get a relatively cheap Nikon FX digital SLR so I could use my old Nikon lenses from "the film era" (grin) with a full-frame 24×36mm sensor. But I ended up getting some newer CPU-chipped auto-focus lenses to work with the electronics of the Kodak.

So the Pro SLR/n is a bit of a Frankenstein, with the Kodak digital camera parts grafted onto a Nikon F80 consumer film SLR chassis. Lightweight and sometimes a bit squirrelly. Just under a year ago I spend even less money (grin) on getting some older Nikon D1-Series DX digital SLR cameras (DW), with the smaller 16×24mm DX sensor. The D1s are tanks -- much heavier duty and reliable than the Pro SLR/n.

The result is I haven't used the Pro SLR/n in a while. Which is a shame because (a) I have the thing and (b) it's a 13.87 megapixel camera, compared to the 6MP D1X and the 2.7MP D1/D1H. The funny thing is that I've been using the Pro SLR/n in a 6MP JPEG mode -- never taken more than one picture at the full resolution.

On Saturday, that ended as I went out on a sunny mid-70s September afternoon to see what I could get at 14MP. Of course, I'd forgotten in the interim that one has to meter the Kodak a little more closely than with the D1s. It's really a better studio camera than a field camera, which is why I got the D1s in the second place. (double-grin) And sometimes it fails to write to the memory card the first time, so you have to remember to flush the buffer. Like I said, I haven't given it much use time in 2012.

I think of all my lenses as my favorite lens. (grin) But I haven't nearly spent enough time with the ultrawide 20mm f2.8 AF-Nikkor -- I briefly had a 20mm lens for my Pentax equipment in high school and been a big fan of the 20mm ever since. This is a new house going up on 84th Avenue, which I've been documenting all summer. I used the 20mm to emphasize the hill of lawnless dirt it rests on. (Click on photo for larger.)

Between the summer drought and the coming fall, the fields are yellowing up. Here's some volunteer corn sticking up in a field on M-45 Lake Michigan Drive, shot with the 70-300mm f4-5.6 ED AF-Nikkor at 300mm. (Click on photo for larger.)

Distant dirt mounds off M-45 for the construction development at the Placid Waters ski-jumping water park. Looks like it should be part of some ancient archaeological or pyramid site. 70-300mm lens at 190mm. (Click on photo for larger.)

Part of our luxuriant goldenrod crop in the front yard at 300mm. Enlarged you can see the tiny bugs flitting around the flowers. (Click on photo for larger.)

Another shot. (Click on photo for larger.)

Slightly cropped shot of our thistles in fluffy bloom, still at 300mm. (Click on photo for larger.)

A somewhat abstract shot of partly backlit ground leaves in our overgrown front yard, with the unruly vines beginning to change colors. Also at 300mm. (Click on photo for larger.)

Overall, a good test run. I've got to play with the settings some more. Wasn't enchanted with the famous Nikon Matrix metering, so I reset all my DSLRs to do center-weighted metering. The D1s do okay, but some of the shots I didn't post here with the Kodak, I couldn't quite pull a decent image out of what was there. Needs more saturation.

Dr. Phil

Current Mood: accomplished

I Used To Be A Photographer

I worked on my school's yearbooks from Junior High through college. Eventually I had a pile of Nikon equipment and took a lot of pictures. My SF writing has taken up a lot of my "free" time, and computers in general have dulled interest in film. So my Nikons have languished for years. I've had a couple of nice little digital cameras -- all have had excellent lenses, especially the two Sony cameras with Carl Zeiss optics.

But what I wanted was a Nikon digital camera, which could use some of my old glass. Alas, the first digital Nikons have had DX sensors -- smaller than the 24mm×36mm image size of 35mm film. Thus you don't actually use all the glass in the Nikon SLR lenses, which makes the effective focal lengths longer. Plus they were expensive.

So what I really wanted was an FX sensor Nikon digital camera -- one with a full size 24mm×36mm sensor. Eventually the Nikon D3 and D700 came out, but still cost thousands of dollars.

Last Week I Had A Brainstorm

What about those Kodak digital SLRs that use a Nikon chassis and take Nikon lenses? I looked on eBay and found the Kodak DCS Pro SLR/n. Last produced in 2005, this is a 13.87 megapixel FX camera -- and they were going for far less than the Nikons. Took four auctions to get a clean unit, with a reasonable of service life left on the sensor, for a price I was willing to pay.

Welcome to the future:

The lens is a Nikon 35-135mm f/3.5-4.5D AF zoom I got on eBay for $94. Turns out that though the Pro SLR/n will use all my Nikon lenses, it won't use its exposure meter because the old lenses don't have a CPU chip in them. So I thought a general purpose lens which used all the functions would be an advantage.

But wait, Dr. Phil, I thought you said it was a Nikon? It says Kodak all over the place, not Nikon. You weren't paying attention. Kodak started with a Nikon F80 AE/AF (auto-exposure and auto-focus) film camera and grafted on the Kodak sensor and hardware. And it does have a Nikon logo on it -- see? It says "Nikon F-Mount" right there:

The Real Reason For Posting Pictures On The Internet

My cat Sam. Internal flash, 6MP original, ISO 800, reduced to 20% size.

And our cat Blue. Internal flash, 6MP original, ISO 800, reduced to 20% size.

Still working on getting settings tweaked. I'd forgotten that I'd jacked the ISO sensitivity up to 800, so the image is a little noisier that I'd expect. But I'll get the hang of it.

This is going to be fun.

Dr. Phil