January Squares: Up #2
Opened Up all the way.
An ongoing experiment photographing flowers and plants with various unusual lenses. In this case a fast portrait lens gave me a nice soft but colourful background.
A look back at some of my personal favorite square photos from previous months of squares. Some were popular, some not so popular at the time.
This was a post in Up Squares Month and is my day 14 contribution to Becky’s October Squares on the theme of Past Squares.
This is my very light hearted contribution to the Weekly Prompts Wednesday Challenge: Camera prompt.
Meet camera using Dave the Rubber Ducktographer who specialises in tracking down rare wildlife.
A selection of flower photos taken with a fast, portrait lens for shallow depth-of-field and using negative space.
Photographed on a walk on the South Bruce Peninsula, Ontario yesterday afternoon. I added a slight vignette to the photos when editing.
This is my contribution to Dale’s Cosmic Photo Challenge: Focus on Flowers prompt.
This is my contribution to the Lens-Artists Photo Challenge: Your Inspiration theme set by Patti.
I had a few ideas for the challenge before thinking of the back to basics inspiration I have been working with for some time.
A few of years ago I got tired of the auto everything aspect of modern camera equipment. I was inspired to put together a small kit of manual focus prime lenses. That kit allowed me to shoot digital the way I shot film as a photography student all those years ago.
Then, a little over two years ago I had an accident which left me with a damaged right humorous and limited movement in the right shoulder.
As a result I needed a smaller and lighter kit. That resulted in me getting a small mirrorless camera and three small manual focus prime lenses. That kit fits in a small Domke F-10 JD camera bag. By far the smallest camera bag I have used over the past 40 years.
That was my go to kit for a year and a half while I had physiotherapy and built up the strength and range of motion in my right arm and shoulder.
In the past six months I have added a couple more lenses to the kit. As a result my back to basics kit now requires a medium sized Domke F-6 camera bag. That bag is slightly smaller than the Tenba P595 Pro Pak I was using 40 years ago.
Portrait of a Coneflower also known as Echinacea. Part of an ongoing project photographing flowers and plants with various unusual lenses. In this case the Kamlan 50mm f/1.1, a fast portrait lens.
Clouds moving across Colpoy’s Bay at sunrise. Two inspirations here. A three minute live composite exposure, a technique I started experimenting with a year or so ago. I used the new TTArtisan 7.5mm fisheye lens, the latest addition to my back to basics kit.
Intentional camera movement of trees on the South Bruce Peninsula in early summer. A continuation of my experiments with intentional camera movement. Taken with the TTArtisan 17mm lens, a recent addition to my back to basics kit.
Star trails and shooting stars over Colpoy’s Bay, White Cloud Island and the Niagara Escarpment on the South Bruce Peninsula, Ontario. An early experiment with the live composite feature of an Olympus camera. Taken with the Samyang 12mm lens, one of the original three lenses in my lightweight mirrorless kit.
A portrait of two Orange Daylilies in front of a large limestone boulder.
I thought the background was different and used negative space to emphasize it. Another test of the TTArtisan 50mm f/1.2 lens for photographing flowers and plants.
This is my contribution to the Weekly Prompts Colour Challenge: Orange.
This is my contribution to Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Shiny prompt.
Portrait of a male Common Grackle on the South Bruce Peninsula, Ontario in early spring.
My Saturday Bird this week is a portrait of a Greylag Goose (Anser anser).
This individual was photographed in the mid 1980s when most of the Greylag Geese in the U.K. were feral birds associating with Canada Geese and other wildfowl species. Recent population numbers for the species across Europe show a dramatic increase, possibly due to climate change affecting their migration patterns.
The bird is at “The Mere” on the edge of the town of Ellesmere in Shropshire, England in winter.
