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This winter’s weather has not presented many opportunities for wintry photography. I did manage to get to a frozen section of Wherspann Lake here in Omaha and do some leaf and ice abstracts. While leaf in ice photographs are fairly common, each is still beautiful in it’s own unique way.
Technical Details:
Canon 50D, 50 CM lens, f/11, 1/100 sec.
Chalco Hills Recreation Area, Nebraska
For years I have visited DeSoto, my family often in tow. My eldest daughter, Riley loved to run the halls of the visitor center and look at the artifacts of the old Bertrand steamboat that had met its end in the mud and muck of what became DeSoto lake. I would occasionally visit by myself, finding a quiet solitude on the Cottonwood trail or on the shore of the lake.
The flooding of the Missouri this past spring, summer and into the fall affected lives, changed landscapes, and even modified the course of the river. Nuclear power plants stayed shut down, roads and highways were under water and destroyed, houses and farms were devastated. DeSoto was among the areas that was hit hard. The lake rose several feet and aerial photographs showed a large body of water covering the land that once existed in the former oxbow of the Missouri River.
The water has now receded. A week ago I returned to photograph it once again with a friend, Jayson Alder. Today I am presenting some images from that trip. I invite you to also check out Jayson’s blog to see what he captured as we hiked along the Cottonwood trail. I would also like to thank him for letting me use his 100 2.8 Macro lens. I really don’t need any help in wanting more equipment, but I must say the lens performed well. From the short time I used it, I do recommend taking a look at getting one if you are interested in doing some macro. Right now I use a 50 CM lens which works well, but you have to be close to your subject and it autofocuses ssssllllloooooowwww. Of course, it is one of only two lenses that remain from Canons original EF lineup from the 80s! The faster focus and longer distance of the 100 2.8 Macro was nice!
Happy Arbor Day!
A little bit about Arbor Day from Wikipedia:
Arbor Day (from the Latin arbor, meaning tree) is a holiday in which individuals and groups are encouraged to plant and care for trees. It originated in Nebraska City, Nebraska during 1872 by J. Sterling Morton. The first Arbor Day was held on April 10, 1872, and an estimated 1 million trees were planted that day. The national holiday is celebrated every year on the last Friday in April; in Nebraska, it is a civic holiday. Each state celebrates its own state holiday. The customary observance is to plant a tree.
Arbor Day Lodge State Park is one of my favorite state parks in my home state and every fall I try to make it down to Nebraska City for Apples and to see the large variety of trees transform to their autumn dress. Today’s photograph was taken last fall at Arbor Day Lodge State Park under a beautifully changed Maple tree.
Technical Details:
Canon 50D, 50 CM, f/7.1, 1/100 sec.
Arbor Day Lodge State Park, Nebraska
Another photograph from Schramm State Recreation Area in eastern Nebraska. This is a blue phlox that blossoms in early spring throughout the forest. While generally not a long-lasting bloom, the blue really pops against the green.
Technical Details:
Canon 50D, 50 CM + 12mm extension tube, f/4.5, 1/400 sec.
Schramm State Recreation Area, Nebraska
Welcome Spring!
View More Spring Photos on Journey Of Light
Technical Details:
Canon 50D, 50mm f/2.5 CM, f/3.5, .4 seconds
Schramm State Recreation Area, Nebraska
In addition to my normal Photo Friday image, today I’m going to do a mini-review of Silver Efex Pro 2 by Nik Software. Having used Silver Efex in the past, I became quite a fan of the engine and options behind the filter. Besides giving me some granular control over the image, I was able to modify items such as film grain, structure, color filters, and contrast with ease which helped take my black and white conversions to the next level. Silver Efex Pro 2 takes all of this and adds even more. All the same stuff is there, but now they have added fine structure, soft contrast, image borders, the ability to amplify both the whites and blacks, and a feature for selective color. The normal presets are still there with the ability to set your own and export and import them. This is great because if you develop a “look” and want a team of people to have access, it can be readily available. One last item to note, the software seems faster to me than the previous version. While version 1 wasn’t a slouch, I am impressed by how quickly it rendered the output. The only nit I found was that when changing presents, sometimes I had to click on the image to get it to update. Not a huge problem, but it was somewhat annoying, initially.
Last week I photographed a duck feather I found with my daughter and I thought it the perfect opportunity to put the software through a test. Below are some of the looks I created with Silver Efex Pro 2. Mind you, this is only scratching the surface, but it can create some wildly varied output. See the examples after the jump.