Traveling the Journey of Light | Photoblog Thoughts, feelings, and techniques behind the photography of Derrald Farnsworth-Livingston

OLOH - The Self-Assignment of One Lens, One HourPosted by drfl on April 21st, 2010

I often participate in giving myself self-assignments and one of my most frequent assignments is what I call “One Lens, One Hour”. In this assignment, I give myself 2 constraints, I can only choose one lens to use and I only have one hour in which to utilize said lens. While I do not usually limit myself to filters or other accessories, I usually go forth with only the camera in hand, lens mounted, and nothing else.

Ever since purchasing the 135 f/2l, I’ve been in a shallow Depth of Field mood and since I only have one other lens that can open wide, I choose to go out with my trusty 50 Compact-Macro. I visited our local Arboretum and shot the beautiful trees that were blooming. Now, I don’t usually photograph flowers, and my last two posts have contained images of flowers, but I think that variety helps breed creativity. Besides, they were colorful and pretty and the weather was perfect during my hour! All images were captured with a Canon 5D Mark II (Extra Crispy) and a 50 CM Lens.

 
Shot at f/3.2

Shot at f/2.8

Shot at f/2.5
 

The Imperfect ImagePosted by drfl on July 23rd, 2009

I have always imagined capturing an image of a leaf under the ice.  In my imagination the leaf was preserved in pristine condition with a nice thin layer of ice covering it to add texture and depth.  Last winter at the OPPD Arboretum I went on a particularly cold day to capture some ice pattern abstracts and leaves trapped in the frozen pond.  I found a fallen fellow that was close to what I wanted, but when I returned to my computer I immediately dismissed the image as not “perfect” enough. 

7 months have gone by and I have reviewed the image again and this time I made a realization:  It is the imperfections which help give this image character and make it more “real”.  99% of the leaves I have seen trapped under the ice are somehow “misshapen”, but this is nature at work - decomposing and renewing for the following year.  In this image the bubbles and the notch out of the side of the leaf give it added interest that would not have been there otherwise.  Sometimes imperfection in our work shows a different glimpse of the beauty of nature.

Technical Details:
Canon 5d Mark II, 50 CM lens, f/10, 1/125 sec.
OPPD Arboretum, Omaha, Nebraska

This image can be viewed on my website at: http://www.journeyoflight.com/journey06/photo.asp?pictureid=FrozenInTime&xmlfile=/journey06/xml/color/midwest.xml&x=27

More From the 50DPosted by admin on January 10th, 2009

On the Hunt

Technical Details:
Canon 50d, 300 f/4l + 1.4 tc, f/5.6, 1/1600 sec., ISO 800

Today I went to the arboretum to give the 50d another try. There was a woodpecker there when I had my G10 and I wanted to see if I could get some good up close shots. In the past I would have used my 20d, but that would not have allowed for much cropping at 8 megapixels. The woodpecker was there, but I didn’t get a good angle, like I had last visit, plus I was crunched for time so I focused on the squirrels busily hunting for their hidden nuts. After a walker startled these guys, they carefully came back to their position, where I was waiting with my camera.

Munch, Munch
Technical Details:
Canon 50d, 300 f/4l + 1.4 tc, f/5.6, 1/1600 sec., ISO 800

Frozen PatternsPosted by admin on January 4th, 2009

Recently, I had been wanting a camera that was portable, but still had some of the main features I wanted in a camera, namely the RAW format and a flash shoe. I also wanted something with a video function, that way I could easily bring it to family functions without lugging some big gear. I settled on the G10 after looking at the G9 for sometime and deciding it had the best mix of funcationality and portability. Overall, I have found that the G10 is a fun camera to shoot. It’s nice to just pull it out and snap a quick shot. On a fairly cold day last week I decided to take it to the OPPD arboretum and just walk around with it and see what I could capture. During this time of year crazy ice patterns emerge from the bottom of a little ravine. I got down and used the macro mode, all hand-held. I found the image stabilization of the camera really helped. I also found that the nearly 15 megapixels made for some really detailed images. The big drawback, however, is the noise at higher ISOs. After shooting with a Canon 5d Mark II, I really found the noise objectionable at anything more than 200, and even then that could be pushing it. If you stay in the 80 or 100 range the photographs are simply sharp and beautiful for a “pocket” camera. It has very seldom left my side in the past couple of weeks and I look forward to capturing some more spur of the moment type shots.

Technical Details:
Canon G10, 6.1mm, f/4, 1/250 sec.
Desaturated with a cyan-blue tint (more like how I saw the ice)

Floral PatternsPosted by admin on August 1st, 2008

On an overcast day at the arboretum, I focused on the center of this flower and the interesting patterns intentionally throwing the rest of the flower out of focus.

Technical Details:
Canon 5d, 50 CM Lens, f/5.6, 1/125 sec.
OPPD Arboretum

To view other photographs, order this photograph as a print, or purchase licensing rights, please visit my website at http://www.journeyoflight.com/.

Lily in BloomPosted by admin on July 28th, 2008

It has been a while since I done any photography at the OPPD Arboretum so I went there last week on an overcast day to see what I find. The lilies in the small pond looked particularly pertty in bloom so I grabbed a couple of images.

Technical Details:
Canon 5d, 70-200 f/4l @ 200+ 1.4 tc, f/5.6, 1/800 sec.
OPPD Arboretum

To view other photographs, order this photograph as a print, or purchase licensing rights, please visit my website at http://www.journeyoflight.com/.