bay bulls

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Monday morning momentum missing

Posted by VickyTH on January 30, 2012
Posted in: Newfoundland & Labrador, nikon D70, photo, photography, photos, Travel. Tagged: , , , , , , , , . Leave a Comment
Canonized

(Focal length 18mm, Shutter: 1/1000, Aperture: f4)

Kick-starting the week is harder in winter. In summer, I leap out of bed, game for just about anything, but this is January. January and February are the months in which I officially celebrate the wonder that is coffee.

I also get myself the heck out of the house as much as possible, which seems counter-intuitive, but actually works. Plus it gives me something to talk about here, which is far more fun than saying, “Today, I stared out the window and moped. How about you?”

These pictures were taken in Bay Bulls, Newfoundland, a few days ago. There’s a church there, the Church of St. Peter & St. Paul, that has four upright canons in front of it, forming the gateposts. Atop these formidable historic munitions stand four saints. The standard joke is that they are the “canonized saints,” which is, of course, true regardless of the saint’s pedestal. Still, it’s the local joke and tourists love it.

I had two purposes in bringing up the canon of Bay Bulls. Three, actually, if you count posting the photograph at the top of this post. But two real points. Firstly, the picture below… look at it.

DSC_3952_032

Church of St. Peter & St. Paul and their electrical lines. (Focal length 18mm, Shutter: 1/750, Aperture: f11)

It’s not bad, right? Nice church, unique feature out front (canon with statues, always fun) and the white contrasts nicely with the sky, et cetera. Except for those blasted power lines. Now I know I could spend a deal of time taking them out, but I left them in this particular shot for a purpose.

Dear municipal planners and folks who decide about electrical services, please take note. If you have a limited number of  major tourist photo opportunities in your community (and while there are others in Bay Bulls, this is the one to which the buses gravitate), for the love of those saints there, run the bloody lines on the other side of the street. Or behind the building. Or anywhere else. Really.

I’m not so arrogant as to say that all such decisions should be made with a thought as to the aesthetics but…. actually, yes, I’m going to say it. For tourist attractions, consider the aesthetics. It will make you a better person.

The other point I wanted to make is about the numerous canon that can be seen all over Bay Bulls. Ask locals and they’ll point you to bogs, headlands and coastlines where old canon, relics of historical confrontations in the 1600 and 1700s rest easy. Rather than reiterate them here, I suggest you have a look at Jason Crummey’s post of a few years back. Some may have moved and there may still be more to find, but it’s a starting point.

One poor girl statue (Mary, maybe?) appears to have lost her head at some point. On Monday’s, I can empathize.

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(Focal length 70mm, Shutter: 1/1500, Aperture: f4.5)

Filtering

Posted by VickyTH on January 26, 2012
Posted in: camera, photography, photos. Tagged: , , , , , , . 5 comments
Bay Bulls River

(Focal length 18mm, Shutter: 1 second, Aperture: f22, Filter: ND 10).

For years I enjoyed photography with a 35mm SLR camera and worked more or less within the limits of the existing lens and what opportunity a polarizing filter could offer. I really didn’t experiment much with many different kinds of filters, mainly because it was expensive and time-consuming to conduct such experiments.

Sea Breath

(Focal length 55mm, Shutter: 2 second, Aperture: f16, Filter: ND8)

With film, there was always the initial outlay for film, the additional cost of developing and finally the week-long wait (unless you shelled out additional funds for quicker service) for the results, which might tell you that you had to go back and try again. Disheartening, to say the least. Expensive, too, for students on a budget.

With the DSLR, however, all of these constraints are removed. Taking two-dozen shots doesn’t cost me anything but time (and I supposed wear and tear on the camera, but that occurs in film photography, too). The developing time depends on how quickly I can dump the memory card and have a look at the results. If the results are less than stellar, I can head out again right away, if necessary.

Today I spent some time with a neutral density filter (ND, for short). The one I purchased has multiple stops, which means it gets lighter or darker, depending on where you set it. This allows me to adjust for varying light conditions.

What an ND filter does is basically cut down on the amount of light that gets into the camera. When there is less light getting in, you need to keep the shutter open for longer to let enough light in. When the shutter is open for longer, moving things blur.

The corollary of this is that without the filter, in situations with bright light or lots of reflecting light (ocean, snow, etc), it becomes impossible to keep the shutter open for long periods (if you WANT that blurred effect) without over-exposing the picture. Enter the ND filter. Today I took dozens of test shots, playing with the different shutter speeds. All this work was done with the Nikon D70, on either the manual setting or the shutter priority setting, ISO 320. (Not sure why it’s set on that. Must remember to change it!)

You can see the difference in the same spot of river, taken at different shutter speeds:

_DSC3981

(Focal length 70mm, Shutter: 1/1500, Aperture: f4.5) No filter.

_DSC3959

(Focal length 35mm, Shutter: 1/2 second, Aperture: f9.5) With filter.

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(Focal length 52mm, Shutter: 1/1.5s Aperture: f16) With filter.

Today’s shoot was more of a test run, to get a feel for the tool and to be able to deal with how my camera reacts to it when used in a critical situation (critical defined here as a time in which I care about the actual results of the shoot). Today was a day for experimentation without expectations and I’m pretty pleased with how it went.

A couple of notes:

  • when the filter was cranked up on blast, the camera had a hard time focussing. The work-around for this was either to manually focus or to make sure aperture and shutter speed were on manual, crank down the filter, half-press the shutter to focus, keeping the shutter half-depressed, crank back the filter to max and finish the shutter depression.
  • the above makes the remote shutter trickier to use. For that, go manual all the way.
  • Don’t try this without a tripod. It’s not worth it.