Not really leaning. We would like to have another dog, it’s true. But we also don’t want to be tied down at the moment and the expenses were higher than we had expected.
FundyBrian’s Explorations
- Thread starter FundyBrian
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Not really leaning. We would like to have another dog, it’s true. But we also don’t want to be tied down at the moment and the expenses were higher than we had expected.
I can totally relate.
I think the hardest part for me is not being able to explain to my animal companion that we’re coming back soon. All they know is that they are being left behind and they give you the sad-eyed look. Especially for a pet you know has a previous history of being left alone or even abandoned. It’s just too heartbreaking putting them through more uncertainty. I can’t stand it anymore. So if we get another dog it has to be able to go with us wherever we go and unfortunately that’s not possible.
May Day, May Day! That’s what they must have said when I was born. We had a few friends over to help celebrate my birthday, which was nice. Interesting, though, that a few of our conversations centred around getting older and seeing life from the latter half of life as well as the number of people our age who didn’t make it any further. We’re the survivors, in more way than one. 3 of 4 men have battled cancer and are so far doing OK.
My daughter sent me a most unusual card.
Taking it out of the envelope it started out like a regular card, except for some odd folds and cuts.
Then, how do you open this thing?
Ahhh. It’s a pop-up.
The middle part has 4 planes occupied by, foreground-to-background, a whale tail, a sea turtle, an angel fish, and a happy birthday balloon [emoji324]. And there are seashells, a sand dollar and star fish to round out the seashore theme. It also appears to be made by my daughter. How delightful.
My daughter sent me a most unusual card.
Taking it out of the envelope it started out like a regular card, except for some odd folds and cuts.
Then, how do you open this thing?
Ahhh. It’s a pop-up.
The middle part has 4 planes occupied by, foreground-to-background, a whale tail, a sea turtle, an angel fish, and a happy birthday balloon [emoji324]. And there are seashells, a sand dollar and star fish to round out the seashore theme. It also appears to be made by my daughter. How delightful.
- Real Name
- Lisa Waddell
- Device
Wishing you the happiest of birthdays, Brian! Your daughter is quite talented. The card is beautiful!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!
What a wonderful card! It’s beautifully made... she is very talented! Hope you’re having a fab day.
EDIT: Looks like I’m a day late!
Hope it was wonderful!
Thanks for the birthday wish. [emoji4] We had a few friends over to help celebrate. I didn’t pay much attention to my birthday for several years but Fabi brought more of a sense of fun to my life. There’s a time you don’t want to think of your age and then there’s a time you realize you can be proud and thankful you made it this far.
My daughter tells me she made the card, at her aunt’s place, using a Cricut machine to make the precise cuts.
My daughter tells me she made the card, at her aunt’s place, using a Cricut machine to make the precise cuts.
Snow.
Here’s a photo I made for this thread but forgot to post. Now the pile is snow is much smaller, about the size of my car. There is still some snow in the shady woods, especially in north-facing areas. All gone from nearby my house though.
Here’s a photo I made for this thread but forgot to post. Now the pile is snow is much smaller, about the size of my car. There is still some snow in the shady woods, especially in north-facing areas. All gone from nearby my house though.
Fantasyscape
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- Real Name
- Lisa Waddell
- Device
Beautiful!
More Focus Stacking efforts. I have been using the focus bracketing function found (with some searching) in the Camera Pixels app. It also makes DNG files as an added bonus but lacks custom white balance. This is much better than the other focus stacking apps I have tried. Affinity is the only app I have found that can develop a DNG focus stack.
First, an image focused in the distance.
Next, the nearer focused image, which was actually #5 in the stack, indicating I could have used a much closer front subject.
Finally, the Focused Stack image.
The focus stacking process selects the sharpest areas from each image to assemble into the finished image. In this case there is the closest tree on the left and the ground goes from near to far on the right 2/3 of the image. Even the closest tree on the left required more than one image to get it all in focus.
First, an image focused in the distance.
Next, the nearer focused image, which was actually #5 in the stack, indicating I could have used a much closer front subject.
Finally, the Focused Stack image.
The focus stacking process selects the sharpest areas from each image to assemble into the finished image. In this case there is the closest tree on the left and the ground goes from near to far on the right 2/3 of the image. Even the closest tree on the left required more than one image to get it all in focus.
Hope you had a wonderful birthday [emoji512]
Portrait mode in close-ups.
Here’s a banana face I posted over in Found Faces. I wanted to increase the blur in the background to minimize any untidiness back there. Portrait mode in the Apple camera has been designed to work in a specific distance range and when you try to use it for close-ups you get messages saying to move further back. Since the distance calculations of the camera seem to be based on the focus position within the overall focus range, if you put on a close-up lens those distance calculations are changed based on the new focusing range. At least that’s how it seems to work based on my experiments.
Other cameras such as Halide and Camera+ have their own depth mode and they don’t seem to be bothered by close-ups. Others are Focos and Depth Cam. Darkroom allows editing of the depth map info of the picture so you can fine tune the areas you want to be foreground and background and edit basic things like exposure and saturation independently in foreground and background.
Here’s a banana face I posted over in Found Faces. I wanted to increase the blur in the background to minimize any untidiness back there. Portrait mode in the Apple camera has been designed to work in a specific distance range and when you try to use it for close-ups you get messages saying to move further back. Since the distance calculations of the camera seem to be based on the focus position within the overall focus range, if you put on a close-up lens those distance calculations are changed based on the new focusing range. At least that’s how it seems to work based on my experiments.
Other cameras such as Halide and Camera+ have their own depth mode and they don’t seem to be bothered by close-ups. Others are Focos and Depth Cam. Darkroom allows editing of the depth map info of the picture so you can fine tune the areas you want to be foreground and background and edit basic things like exposure and saturation independently in foreground and background.
Today we hiked up West River Mountain, which is visible from the upstairs windows of my house, looking east. Sort of a local landmark.
In this view I’m looking west towards Alma. Right in the middle you can see route 915 heading up the green valley. I live on the right side of the road just near the bottom of the green field. If you look back one page in this thread for the aerial view you will see my house, and West River Mountain in the background so you have a grasp of the lay of the land. They are both wide angle photos so the distance isn’t as far as it looks in the photo. It’s a little less than 3km from my house to the mountain. Not a mountain like the Rockies, just a higher than average hill. About 150 metres elevation from the base.
Our small group numbered 5 people and we set out from the Dennis Beach Road near the old West River church. Part of the trail up has been recently flagged but for the rest you’re on your own. I’m glad I brought my GPS to help find the highest point through all the ups and downs. Spring is the best time to go up before the leaves all come out and block the views. I’ve been there before and been disappointed that I couldn’t get a clear view from either of the vantage points. This time I brought my 16 foot extension pole and iPhone attachment and remote shutter release. I made several photos in each place with my iPhone at the top of the pole to get an unobstructed view. This photo is a 7-shot panorama stitched in Affinity. It did a super job even though some of the photos were quite crooked because of the wind and difficulty keeping the pole straight. Altogether it was about 3 hours up and down, including a 20 minute stop for lunch. What a beautiful day!
In this view I’m looking west towards Alma. Right in the middle you can see route 915 heading up the green valley. I live on the right side of the road just near the bottom of the green field. If you look back one page in this thread for the aerial view you will see my house, and West River Mountain in the background so you have a grasp of the lay of the land. They are both wide angle photos so the distance isn’t as far as it looks in the photo. It’s a little less than 3km from my house to the mountain. Not a mountain like the Rockies, just a higher than average hill. About 150 metres elevation from the base.
Our small group numbered 5 people and we set out from the Dennis Beach Road near the old West River church. Part of the trail up has been recently flagged but for the rest you’re on your own. I’m glad I brought my GPS to help find the highest point through all the ups and downs. Spring is the best time to go up before the leaves all come out and block the views. I’ve been there before and been disappointed that I couldn’t get a clear view from either of the vantage points. This time I brought my 16 foot extension pole and iPhone attachment and remote shutter release. I made several photos in each place with my iPhone at the top of the pole to get an unobstructed view. This photo is a 7-shot panorama stitched in Affinity. It did a super job even though some of the photos were quite crooked because of the wind and difficulty keeping the pole straight. Altogether it was about 3 hours up and down, including a 20 minute stop for lunch. What a beautiful day!
- Real Name
- Lisa Waddell
- Device
It looks like it was a beautiful day! Nicely done.
Today I was going out for my first bike ride of the season. I got my bike out of the shed and when I came back to pump up my tires I fount this rumpled looking Magnolia Warbler sitting on my door mat in my car port. It must have flown into something looking for the way out.
It had its eyes closed 1/2 the time. I didn’t want to frighten it so I stepped back and watched for a bit. Then decided to try a shot or two. Turning my iPhone upside down so the lens was at the bottom to get a better angle. Using the regular 1x lens with some zoom.
Then I backed away to let it recover some more. Next time I came to the door it had flown up to perch on something higher and shortly after that it flew off.
Photo unedited.
It had its eyes closed 1/2 the time. I didn’t want to frighten it so I stepped back and watched for a bit. Then decided to try a shot or two. Turning my iPhone upside down so the lens was at the bottom to get a better angle. Using the regular 1x lens with some zoom.
Then I backed away to let it recover some more. Next time I came to the door it had flown up to perch on something higher and shortly after that it flew off.
Photo unedited.
- Real Name
- Lisa Waddell
- Device
Beautiful little bird. Glad this story had a happy ending.
What a sweet beauty.... all puffed up and fluffy. So glad she’s okay.
Wonderful photo you got.
Now that spring is here I’m feeling unsettled in my photography. When I go outside everything is in motion.
Life is in motion. Everything alive is in constant motion. Every blade of grass, every branch and leaf on the trees, every flower.
I tried several show shutter photos but wasn’t happy with the blurry frozen motion they showed. Even while moving I could see the clear details in the moving flowers.
View attachment 110193
These short gifs only represent about 16 frames of video so just a small sample. Yet any motion is better than none.
Yet much of the type of photography I’m enthusiastic about at the moment requires stillness for the multiple exposures I want to be in register. I’ll have to become a rock photographer. Or switch to video.
One minor problem with video - I like to do a lot of verticals. Vertical video clips don’t integrate well into a regular video.
Life is in motion. Everything alive is in constant motion. Every blade of grass, every branch and leaf on the trees, every flower.
I tried several show shutter photos but wasn’t happy with the blurry frozen motion they showed. Even while moving I could see the clear details in the moving flowers.
View attachment 110193
These short gifs only represent about 16 frames of video so just a small sample. Yet any motion is better than none.
Yet much of the type of photography I’m enthusiastic about at the moment requires stillness for the multiple exposures I want to be in register. I’ll have to become a rock photographer. Or switch to video.
One minor problem with video - I like to do a lot of verticals. Vertical video clips don’t integrate well into a regular video.
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I was just looking back in my camera roll at all the hundreds of photos I’ve made recently that I haven’t had time to look at since I made them. None are edited. No time. That’s sort of what is happening in this thread.
I saw these mysterious tracks on the beach, obviously made after the tide went down. Hmmmm.
I think it must be the tracks of a small crab running back to the water. The path is about 3” wide.
I saw these mysterious tracks on the beach, obviously made after the tide went down. Hmmmm.
I think it must be the tracks of a small crab running back to the water. The path is about 3” wide.
I had to bring this dandelion seed head indoors to avoid the wind, but still in natural sunlight.
CameraPixels & Affinity. 2x lens & close-up lens.
This is a focus stack of 20 images.
CameraPixels & Affinity. 2x lens & close-up lens.
This is a focus stack of 20 images.
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A lot of clarity but there seems to be a fair amount of noise.
Yes, accumulated over 20 images. I made this test shot and decided it was a bit underexposed but when I went to do another exposure I found the sun had gone. To minimize noise I need more light and better exposure. However, my primary objective was to get more depth of field.
Here’s a single image from the series to compare the depth obtained.
I always find iPhone close-up photos lack sufficient depth of field.
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Beautiful!
Tiger Swallowtail convention.
Today during our evening walk we startled a group of Tiger Swallowtail butterflies from a damp area on the gravel road. We didn’t see them until they all flew off from their spot on the road. We backed up a few feet and stayed still. I figured if whatever was on the ground had attracted them all here then they might come back. After several minutes they started swooping back in. Very hesitantly circling around the spot. About 8 came back.
I knew we couldn’t get very close without spooking them again so I made a few photos with my Olympus TG-4 compact camera because it has a zoom lens. Then I put my Moment Tele lens on the 2x lens of my 7 Plus. This is the uncropped full frame photo made from about 8 feet or 2.5 metres. Then I started to edge closer. Off they went again.
Butterflies are often attracted to mineral salt deposits on damp ground.
Today during our evening walk we startled a group of Tiger Swallowtail butterflies from a damp area on the gravel road. We didn’t see them until they all flew off from their spot on the road. We backed up a few feet and stayed still. I figured if whatever was on the ground had attracted them all here then they might come back. After several minutes they started swooping back in. Very hesitantly circling around the spot. About 8 came back.
I knew we couldn’t get very close without spooking them again so I made a few photos with my Olympus TG-4 compact camera because it has a zoom lens. Then I put my Moment Tele lens on the 2x lens of my 7 Plus. This is the uncropped full frame photo made from about 8 feet or 2.5 metres. Then I started to edge closer. Off they went again.
Butterflies are often attracted to mineral salt deposits on damp ground.