View allAll Photos Tagged Pixelshift
A 3 frame panorama shot of the Black Canyon of the Gunnison. The large cliff feature on the right is called the "Painted Wall" for obvious reasons. It is truly spectacular to see in person, and as I mentioned in the previous shot, somewhat difficult to photograph! Second shot from Black Canyon from my recent Colorado trip. This is the first true multi-frame pano that I've ever posted here, though I've tried some others. This one is also a multiple exposure merge using the Pentax K-3 ii pixel shift. So, there are a total of 36 separate images merged here. The original TIF file after the merge is 415MB. By far the largest image I've ever created. Wish I'd had the fancy motorized pano head that we saw one photog using at Mesa Arch a couple of days later!
Very cool to see this hit explore (peaked at 24) on August 10. Thanks to all for viewing, faving and commenting!
Little did I know when I took this photo how totally it would fit with what will surely be the phrase of the year: "social distancing". I can't quite bring myself to use this as the title because it's too obvious and it's become a rather annoying phrase. Distance, however, has many meanings and I always like titles with layers of meaning.
Taken in late Feb in Mesquite Dunes, Death Valley National Park. In fact, I did have some awareness by this time of what was coming and some sense of the personal risk. I was in Las Vegas for a conference, with participants from around North America and Europe. The lockdown was in full swing in Wuhan province by now, and the first cases had appeared in Italy and in Washington State. However, there was not yet any state of emergency and the WHO had yet to declare this a pandemic. But people were starting to talk, there was an uneasiness if someone coughed, and I personally wanted to get well away from the bustle of the Vegas strip. However, I wasn't wiping down every surface I touched and I certainly wasn't "sheltering".
After a few busy days, a little side trip up through DVNP and on to Alabama Hills became possible and so I jumped on it, even though it meant a lot of driving in a short amount of time. I'm certainly thankful I did as it was productive, and as it turns out, was to be the last photography outing I'd get to do for some time. This is starting to feel like a distant memory, but certainly a pleasant one!
In Mesquite Dunes there are multiple ways to get in to the dunes. The most common is to park at the main entrance and march through the dunes with hundreds of other people. One can also park further up on the side of the road and take a longer walk through the salt flats in to the eastern edge of the dunes. This is my preferred route because hardly anyone else takes this route, so the dunes are generally undisturbed, and there are some good vistas from that side of the dunes. However, the dunes are a longer distance from the road so it's a good hike in, and an even longer one out in the darkness after sunset (and one needs to keep a pretty good mental compass so as not to end up lost in the desert).
I particularly liked this visual arrangement with the gradual build up of smaller dunes to this central peak, with the shadowed mountains and the setting sun in the backdrop. Fortunately there were clouds to create some rays, and this one lone photographer on the top of the tallest dune in the distance. Social (and physical) distancing at its finest! I took two camera bodies with me (my K1 full frame and this one, my older K3ii crop sensor body) since I wanted both a wide angle and a telephoto, and from past experience I learned the hard way that one should not attempt to change lenses in the middle of the dunes!
I hope everyone is healthy and managing to cope. I've been doing my part to keep my little neighborhood craft beer store in business. Now I am looking forward to the opening up of some possibilities for photography outings in the hopefully not-too-distant future. Whenever that comes to pass, I shall surely be maintaining some distance for a while!
A small (2cm) pencil sharpener photographed with a combination of old and new.
The lens is a 56 year old Macro-Takumar 50/4, pre-set, 1:1, extended to its maximum magnification. The shot uses in-camera Pixel Shift – merging four nearly identical photos into one, for more clarity/detail. Minor crop off the pencil to the right, to keep the width of the horizontal plane to less than an inch.
#MacroMondays #LessThanAnInch
Bumper crop of White Oak Acorns.
Common for the season.
www.flickr.com/photos/michaelina2/51426631607/in/explore-...
This is probably my favorite photo (of my own making) of 2020. The intense winds of Abraham Lake Alberta are renowned for scouring the snow off the lake revealing amazing patterns of methane bubbles, but they also create wild ice pile ups on the shore. At first glance it just looks like a jumbled mess, but when you get down in it, like on your belly hiding from the wind, these piles of ice reveal some interesting forms, including these crazy bits of snow covered by wind shaped ice. They looked to me almost like petroglyphs carved in the snow and preserved under the ice. Let's call them "Glacioglyphs". And then there is the horse's head poking through on the right. I loved that bit. A magnificent place that fired my imagination almost like no other. Sort of a Canadian version of the sandstone slot canyons.
I have an amusing story to relate, which should serve as yet another cautionary tale for anyone shooting in similar environments. First of all, the ice is incredibly smooth, and the wind here truly is ferocious, blowing a pretty constant 20-40mph the whole time we were there. On this morning, as I said, I was down on my belly trying to line up comps among these ice flows. Just moments after taking this picture, I removed my outer gloves and placed them on my bag for just a second, so I could adjust the camera position when a gust of wind swept through and grabbed one of the gloves, sending it sliding along the ice.
I jumped up and then watched dismayed as it rapidly slid away down the icy embankment. I was prepared to give it up when it caught on a snow ridge so I started to move towards it, a bit reluctantly since I didn't think I had much chance to retrieve it but had to give it a go. The wind then decided to have some fun with me and flung it further away just as I was about to reach down to grab it.Annoyed, I decided to run after it to see if I could grab it.
Again it snagged on a bit of snow and I hustled towards it, only for it to whip away from me as I was almost upon it. Now, I had a decision to make as it was nearly out on the open ice of the lake where surely I would have no chance. To set the stage some more, I've got heavy boots on and ice crampons slipped over the boots, and the ice on the lake is extremely smooth and slippery. I had to decide whether to really put on the chase and sprint after it before it hit the smooth lake surface, or whether to be smart and just give it up.
Of course, you know I chose the dumb route or I wouldn't be writing this. So off I go full sprinting for a good 20 seconds across the broken ice surface praying the wind would break for a second. Well, the wind did slow just enough to let me think I could catch it just as the glove slid on to the lake. I put it in to top 100 meter olympic sprint gear, getting closer, and then the glove starts picking up speed and I'm almost ready to accept the bronze medal for my efforts, when I see a small patch of snow lying ahead and realize I have one last chance. I'm fully committed to the chase now, it's do or, well you know, I probably won't die but it is sure gonna hurt like hell when I inevitably fall on my ass. It's not *quite* the stupidest thing I've ever done. But it is inexplicably stupid for a 50-something year old man to be risking broken bones, not to mention looking like a complete idiot, sprinting after a $25 glove in a wind tunnel. The glove catches, ever so briefly, on the snow patch. I am 5 meters away. I have a second or two at most. So I launch in a glorious full-body dive across the ice, sliding over that glove like it's home base in the 9th inning of game 7 of the World Series. So, there you have it. Don't put your damn clothes down for a second in this kind of environment! I was pretty damned lucky that I came away with a story and no hospital bills. I only wish there'd been a video camera catching the action.
Ceiling of the Bell Tower of the Church of St. John the Baptist, Cirencester, Gloucestershire. The title of the shot comes from the two carved faces visible in the upper left and right areas of the photograph.
I am pretty sure that the middle (wooden) section can be removed...(in other words it's an access hatch)....enabling the bells of the church to be hoisted into place within the tower or lowered and removed as necessary.
This was originally 2 x (Pixel Shift) photographs (one photo couldn't quite fit the entire ceiling in) taken (with a Sigma 35mm f/1.4 DG HSM ART lens) by placing the Pentax K3 II on the flagstone floor (the camera was jacked up on one side with folded paper (all I had to hand!!) as the camera doesn't quite sit level on it's back), shutter release via Pentax remote, subsequently I used 'Photomerge' in Photoshop to blend the two images together into one and then edited religiously in Snapseed on iPad Pro.
For more info. on the church:-
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_of_St._John_the_Baptist,_Cir...
For more info on Pixel Shift :-
www.pentaxforums.com/articles/photo-articles/how-pentax-k...
Sun setting, waves rolling in.
Heavily backlit shot.
With the recent release of the 2 m43 cameras, OM-1 and GH6, it appears that the improvement in images claimed are mostly down to in-camera as well as manufacturer’s RAW developer software. If so, why pay for this when you can achieve the same in post processing?
Still waiting for the detailed analysis of the OM-1 sensor dynamic range and high ISO noise performance to determine if any of the claimed improvement is actually due to the new sensor.
Speaking of in-camera softwares, Nikon has in-camera focus stacking while Sony has pixelshift. Olympus however has the most in-camera software features; handheld high resolution, handheld focus stacking, pixelshift, live composite, live ND, live bulb and pro-capture. Olympus Live ND is similar to the Sony Smooth Reflections app although the OM-1’s version can now be used handheld.
I believe many of these in-camera softwares are 3rd party and are licensed for use by the different camera brands at a cost. This obviously adds to the cost of Olympus cameras since so many apps came already installed in the body.
Sony was previously on the right track when they offered many of these softwares for purchase from their Playmemories site, Sky HDR and Smooth Reflection apps were particularly useful, you buy only what you need instead of being dumped an entire suite of it regardless of whether you ever use them or not. This stopped being available in newer cameras released after the A7Rii however.
When people buy a camera, they look at the sticker price, not the value of the loaded software apps in-camera and Olympus (now OM) will do better if these apps can be bought separately and hence excluded from the initial price of the camera.
I remember considering between the Nikon D500 and Olympus OMD E-M1 Mkii, both launched at around the same time and at roughly the same price. Much as I like m43, the decision was relatively easy and I bought the D500. The value of all those Olympus super duper in-camera apps did not convince me, in fact the cost of Olympus including all those apps probably dissuaded me from buying it at initial launch price!
I do wish the Playmemories “Sky HDR” app can be used handheld someday. Lugging around a tripod all day is a hassle, so is constant putting on and taking off ND, GND, CPL etc filters.
Holidays and work have taken their toll on my flickr presence lately. Also I've run in to a horrid stretch of mediocre light conditions and bad weather over the past 4-5 months. Mother nature likes to test our commitment occasionally, by not cooperating with epic sunsets and sunrises and so one has to look for other opportunities that have some unique and interesting beauty.
Recently completed a short trip out from Vegas with Kevin Benedict, and stopped for a morning shot at Coal Mine Canyon near Tuba City, Arizona. While not as deep as the nearby Grand Canyon, it nonetheless is pretty spectacular and is a little bit off the beaten path photographically (indeed we were the only ones around on this day). The whole west coast seemed to be socked in with an enormous cloud system and we charted a path where we thought we'd have the best chance for some interesting light conditions, and also access to slot canyons that pretty photogenic in any light. Coal Mine looked promising but as it turned out the sunrise was largely blocked out by cloud. For a few brief minutes just after sunrise some gaps in the cloud allowed a few rays of sun to peek through, which cast some interesting highlights among the deep shadows in the canyon.
On the far right in the foreground you can see the evidence for how Coal Mine canyon got it's name, there are patches of dark coal seams visible all around the canyon rim.
Title is a line from one of my favorite movies. As soon as I saw this pattern of light in the canyon I thought of it. www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbq0OuJtErs
We are now deep in to the dog days of summer, being either baked by heat or drenched by rain here in the south, and my thoughts turn to those crisp autumn days and delightful fall colors. In fall of 2017 I took a trip out west to Portland, Seattle and BC. Met up with Kevin Benedict and drove out to Boardman OR where the incredible Boardman Tree Farm was located. I say “was” because it has been sold and most of these stands of Poplar trees have been harvested and converted over to cattle range. Good article on the Boardman Tree Farm operation (before it was sold) here: www.amusingplanet.com/2013/09/boardman-tree-farm-of-green...
I love the delicate waviness of the trunks in this particular stand. The leaves were also nearly uniform in color and at absolute peak gold, a few more days and they’d be turning brown and/or dropping. We spent the better part of an evening and a morning exploring the different stands and trying some different experiments. I tried several panoramas but I didn’t really compose them correctly. It’s a shame that I didn’t try one on this particular stand because I’d love to have a slightly wider shot and a pano format would make for a delightful print. I may try a print anyway, need to start experimenting more with printing.
Not wishing away summer, as I do love the warmer temperatures, but at the same time I am so looking forward to fall photography! I've only posted one shot from this location before but have quite a few I could post so it seemed like a good time to revisit. Shot with Pentax K-1 and Pentax 70-200mm using Pixel Shift feature.
Edit: well, somehow the jpeg export of Lightroom just murders the saturation on the yellow leaves. Had to go back and bump up sat a bit to try to compensate.
Edit2: that didn't work either, still comes out very flat, lacking in vibrance. Switched the default sRGB colorspace to 'Display P3' and that is much closer (at least on my display).
Hasselblad 501CM
Carl Zeiss Sonnar 5.6/250 Superachromat CF
f11
1/8th second
Rollei IR400 (EI 25)
Hoya R72
Gitzo GT3532LS
Arca-Swiss Z1
Self developed in DD-X 1:4 at 19.5 C for 8.5 mins
Digitised using 16-shot pixel-shift capture
Toned
(best viewed fullscreen in the lightbox)
I debated posting something other than an Iceland photo today, but well, I haven't posted *that* many yet so maybe just one more for now.
This is the beautiful Vestrahorn mountain, lit by the last light of the setting sun. This particular section of the dunes really appealed to me because of the streaky lines of white-on-black left by the blowing snow on the volcanic black sand, with those lovely grasses artfully interspersed.
Shot with Pentax K-1 and Pentax 15-30mm lens using "PixelShift"
I thought I would try some Halloween themed still lifes.
2 x 4 panorama focus stack, with 4x PixelShift. 80mm x 50mm frame size for each focus stack. Print size @360 dpi 37" x 48".
This is castle Neuschwanstein built on the edge of the Tyrol mountains in southern Germany by King Ludwig II of Bavaria. The King was a reclusive sort and he dreamt of a fantasy castle out of the legends from the era of knights and the holy grail. By his own account he wished to be an "eternal mystery" and held himself aloof from society, and dreamed of constructing this fantastic retreat from the world.
It truly is one of the most magnificent castles in the world and in an absolutely spectacular location. The final chapter of King Ludwig's story is a sad one, while he stayed in the castle during construction, he never lived to see the completion. His dreams were beyond the capacity of the Bavarian Kingdom's finances, and he was eventually declared insane by the government and deposed, dying under mysterious circumstances after being interned in Berg Palace.
I'm not sure what moral, if any, to take from this story, or if its just a sad story. Seen as a piece of art, it is possibly the finest example of castle architecture anywhere. Millions visit it each year now and it is supposedly the inspiration for Disney's "princess castle". So like many a great artist through history, his artistic vision and passion ultimately drove him mad, but had a lasting impact which only grows over time.
Photo taken on a recent visit to Munich Germany, where I had a free weekend so decided to see if any fall colors were still clinging to the hills around the castle. I was pleasantly surprised to find some pockets of color still remaining. It's a nice hike up to the Marienbrücke bridge that looks across to the castle. I highly recommend doing it in the early morning. I did it first at sunset and there were so many tourists bashing about the bridge that it wouldn't stop shaking long enough to get a decent shot. In the morning though, I saw only one other couple in an hour wandering around up there.
Perhaps one of the most difficult aspects of our unprecedented global pandemic and the accompanying economic depression is that it puts a brutal chokehold on the hopes and dreams we all lean on to carry us through the day. We just don't know when we will have the freedom to pursue these again!
As a photographer (well, a wanna-be anyway), a lot of mine are built around the freedom to explore and capture our beautiful natural world. To grow my skills and roam ever more boldly in the hopes of capturing the epic and wondrous landscapes around the world. Of course, those wishes were always balanced against the need to perform well in my job (not just that, but to enjoy and be successful in it as well), and to sustain and be there for my family. A delicate balance to fulfillment at the best of times.
But now? I find myself needing to tamp down thinking about the future and try to concentrate fully on the now. I don't know when the next trip will be. I don't know if I'll be able to afford it even when the possibilities arise again. It has caused me to rethink my approach to fulfillment and happiness. To lean on hopes that are too precarious and too distant to power ones daily actions is to try harnessing butterflies. Not going to get you far.
Now I am learning to modulate my expectations and alter my approach to life. Perhaps I had the luxury to count on dreams that could be readily fulfilled. Most of the world does not. In some sense, this pandemic is the great equalizer, we are all captive to the here and now. In many other very real ways of course, it further exacerbates the tremendous inequalities around us, and I am acutely aware of that.But I am also made more aware of the happiness and delight that exist around me every day. Blasting the music while I work on photos. Enjoying the magnificent extended spring weather on my nightly walk. Soaking up the laughter of family games around the table. So much to be grateful for! And a reminder of how much I may have taken for granted in the past. I hope I can take this for an opportunity to slow down and introspect, and maybe to grow up a bit. And one day, one glorious day to look forward to, I'll be back in the mountains breathing in the scent of pine.
So how does all this bullshit relate to the image here? Well, in better times I had an extended business trip in Europe and I decided that instead of hanging around Munich, I'd catch a train to one of the most exotic landscapes on the planet - the Dolomites of Northern Italy. Having seen many glorious images from there I came in with high hopes of capturing something truly exceptional! Nature decided not to play along this time, but instead to gift me with three glorious days of sunshine - and not a single cloud for hundreds of miles. Literally, nothing but blue skies. This was rather disappointing, but I still found it to be an incredible location, and on my last afternoon just before returning to the train station in Bolzano, I found a few clouds around Lago di Carezza (Karersee). They disappeared just before sunset naturally, but it was better than nothing! Unfortunately the lake level was rather low limiting the potential compositions. But it was a magnificent warm spring day and a nice finale to my quick trip through this exquisite landscape.
Forest Road 2052, Nantahala National Forest
Pentax K-1
Pixel-shift super-resolution mode
SMC Pentax 1:3.5 35mm
Iridient Developer
Sassy male American Goldfinch dusting-off/bathing in a puddle near my garden.
Common. Seasonal spring showers seem to be in play for the next few days.
Vue depuis le "Vivier" Cote Sauvage Presqu'ile de Quiberon France.
Mode pixel-shift : 4x 15s de pose.
Dans cette prise de vue je n'ai pas gagné en définition d'image, cependant lors de développement avec Rawtherapee (logiciel gratuit pour tous Linux, Windows et Mac), on peut choisir l'image de base parmi les 4 poses prises par l'appareil. Cette technique est d'un grand intérêt pour traiter les sujets aléatoires comme ici les vagues : en effet au moment où vous déclenchez, vous n'avez aucune aucune idée de l'évolution des vagues pendant les quatre fois quinze secondes d'exposition qui vont suivre.
Est ce que vous avez remarqué mon ombre sur les embruns ?
Have you noticed my shadow on the water droplets ?
Haben Sie meinen Schatten am Rand des Sprays vermerkt ?
It was too good an opportunity to miss: with covid restrictions suggested keeping within Perthshire, but weather forecast suggesting oodles of thick fog around the time of sunrise around Rannoch, I just had to get up and go.
For once, the weather didn't disappoint. The fog was indeed thick, the sunlight came with a first flush of red to the east and pink to the west, then faded obscured by mist, returning golden around sunrise itself.
The low cloud was so thick and consistent I never even saw the favoured mountain, Schiehallion, all morning; but the views across the loch to the trees on the opposite shore were awesomely atmospheric.
I'm particularly impressed at how still the trees stayed despite it being 25*4 = 100s exposure (thanks to pixel-shift).
Prints, masks, cards and other things are available from the website: Misty Morning, Loch Rannoch 1.
The red rock landscape of Canyonlands after sunset at Dead Horse Point State Park in Utah. The direct light of the sun had faded and left just a bit of indirect glow on the eastern side of the Colorado River canyon. I really liked the warmth of the red rock in this light, enhanced a bit with a long 80 second exposure through Lee Filters Little Stopper (6 stop) ND filter.
This is the second shot I posted from Dead Horse Point, something I don't normally do, but I'm making lots of exceptions for this trip. The light and the composition are very different from my previous shot. This shot taken using the Pentax K-3 ii pixel shift and the Sigma 18-35mm F1.8 Art lens.
Experimenting with the new Pixel Shift feature in the Nikon Z8.
You can certainly see every bug LOL!
Possibly the most photographed tree on the planet. In the running at least, and rightfully so, it is a glorious tree on screen. I had the good fortune of a trip out to Portland during fall season so this was an absolutely *mandatory* stop. It was not quite peak fall color, was about a week early for this particular tree, though some of the other japanese maples in the gardens were in the deep rich red stage. In my previous post I talked about not having done much image modification with Photoshop yet. However, I sometimes do quite a lot of tweaking in Lightroom, so In FULL disclosure, I have shifted the colors in this image some to bring out a little more orange and red. In my initial take I shifted it dramatically but then realized that the near rainbow of colors here was quite compelling in its own right and decided to pull back to a more delicate shift in the 5-10% range. Clearly a lot of vibrancy used in this too, though I went pretty light on the saturation (+5). It's one of those images that depending on my mood and the lighting in the room, etc., I will either be very happy with it or want to continue tweaking it.
Met up with fellow photographer Kevin Benedict on this trip. There was a major downpour for multiple days in Portland but we managed to catch a small window where the rain lightened up enough for us to hit the famed Japanese Gardens for this epic tree. The tree is surprisingly small, and even after reading very specific descriptions of its location and warnings that you can easily walk right by it, I did in fact walk right by it. To shoot it, one needs to set up very low to the ground and so it was a bit of a challenge shooting upwards through the dripping canopy in rather dreary light (although that ultimately helped make the dynamic range more manageable). It took multiple attempts with the drying towel handy before getting a clean shot. Fortunately the poor weather kept most people away and so we were able to shoot in peace for quite a while. There was almost no breeze at all so the "Pixel Shift" feature on the K-1 together with the terrific Tamron 15-30 lens grabbed some nice detail.
For those who have the opportunity, the Gardens are well worth the effort and time, they are gorgeous, especially in fall, and recognized as one of the finest public Gardens in all of the USA. An absolute treat for fall color photographers.
Best viewed in full screen.
Simple things: waves lapping around an outcrop of hard rock surviving erosion by the sea
Prints and things are available from the website: www.shinyphoto.co.uk/photo/Water--Water-and-Rocks-deaa67f...
I just couldn't drive past that caramel light on the way home today ... so glad I stopped by Boonerah Point - Have a great weekend folks :-)
The incredible Multnomah Falls in Oregon, with some terrific fall color popping in. The Eagle Creek fire famously caused a lot of damage along the Columbia River Gorge near Portland and access trails to many of its famous waterfalls were shut down while the natural area recovered and damaged infrastructure was repaired. To my great disaappointment, many of the trails and falls to the east of Multnomah are still closed and inaccessible. However, Multnomah is open and as beautiful (and popular) as ever.
I cloned most of the people off the bridge here (in a pretty quick and dirty edit - don't look too close), but found the one figure silhouetted by the falls to add an intriguing detail, so I let them live (jokingly referring to the "god mode" ability to delete unwanted people from pics of course). In my previous shot of the falls from last year I used a vertical composition but with all the fall color surrounding, I decided to go wide. This is a pretty straightforward shot, the only thing you have to is patiently wait for people to make room for your tripod, oh and make sure you don't overexpose and blow the highlights on the water. D'oh!
This is such an epic waterfall that it really feels like it should require a monstrously difficult hike to get to it. But in reality it's just a pit stop along Interstate 84 from Portland and a few short stairs up to the viewing platform. I was really hoping to throw in a longer hike to some of the lesser photographed falls further east along the gorge route, but they're pretty much all closed. I sure hope they start to open some of them up again by next autumn.
Pentax 6x7 MLU
SMC Pentax 4/55
f13
1/2 second
Rollei IR400 (effective EI 25)
Hoya R72
Gitzo GT3532LS
Arca-Swiss Z1
Self developed in DD-X 1:4 at 19 °C for 8.75 minutes
Digitised using 16-shot pixel-shift capture
Toned
Note: my images are processed to appear correct on a calibrated, professional grade colour-accurate monitor set to Adobe RGB output / 6500 K temperature / gamma 2.2. Many consumer grade screens (particularly mobile phone screens) at default settings will display these images with too much saturation and contrast, so please bear this in mind when viewing on such devices.
(best viewed fullscreen in the lightbox)
Fine details: abstract lines in the snow (from wind-swept drifts to fences to animal tracks). Winter, Strathtummel.
A triumph of super-resolution techniques: with a combination of pixel-shift and HDR, one can resolve an individual wire in the deer-fence approximately 2km away.
Prints and things are available from the website: www.shinyphoto.co.uk/photo/Pure-Geometry-f8d748c7d6f12b0a...