Macro Lettuce Plant

This type of plant is always the most interesting to take pictures of. Whether it is a macro picture of the top of the plant or one of the raindrops that collect on the leaves this plant always have something new to take pictures of. I like this picture because of the background and the 'branches' that form off of the leaves. I like how they span out from around the center and create a pattern.

Lunch

Towards the end of my picture session with the ducks, they all started to eat flies and the other insects in the air. I tried to take motion pictures of them eating, but they moved their heads when they ate making it very hard to capture it. I caught this duck in between flies and by the look on its face, I think it just snagged a fly.

Stare Down

What I like about the black ducks is they noticed that I was taking pictures of them because they turned and looked at me, but they didn't seem to care. I was able to walk all around them and take pictures from many different angles without them moving. In this picture, I was able to get really close. But in some of the other pictures with some of the other ducks, I wasn't able to get as close which resulted in poorer quality pictures of the ducks.

Swan and the Pack

The next type of duck I took pictures of was this swan and its pack behind it. While I don't like the background the viewer can see the tree, grass, then concrete, I like the ducks in the picture. Unlike the black ducks, the swans and its pack did not want to have their picture taken. I was able to come within 15 feet of them, but under 15 feet they started to run away from me.

Portrait

I found this duck sitting on the side of the pond staring at me while I took pictures of it. I was able to come within five feet of the duck without it moving. I wanted to capture the entirety of the duck's head in the center of the picture with the most possible focus. I was successfully able to accomplish that and I ended up with a picture centered around the duck's head and all of the details on it.

Blurry Waves

This is my favorite picture of this theme. I really enjoy how the background is the swirly grey-green. I do not understand how the background was this color and shape. I had a quick shutter speed which should have froze all of the objects in the picture. It is possible that the waves were too fast for my camera to pick up, but I think that is unlikely. I believe that the background was swirly because of the shallow depth of field. I believe that because the focus was on something close to the camera, the rest of the picture was completely out of focus making the waves appear blurry.

Cleaning

This duck was cleaning itself when I found it. This duck was harder to take pictures of because it is all black. The black automatically creates a darker exposure in the picture. I had to adjust my shutter speed to a longer exposure to capture the duck and the details on it. I really like the feathers on the duck. While the overall color from the duck is black, there are also parts of green and white that help the duck look better and stand out.

Duck

After biking a few more miles from the macro plant, I found a pond. In the pond were this duck and several other types of ducks. These ducks fascinated me and I ended up taking several hundred pictures of them. There were at least four different types of ducks. This duck, a similar duck to this one but brown, white swans, a small black and white duck, and a larger black duck. Each was different to the other and luckily I was able to go close enough to take some really close pictures.

Looking Down

Taking a break from the birds up in the sky, I looked toward the ground and found this plant. I believe it is supposed to be a flower but because it is winter it isn't blooming. I switched my telephoto lens for a macro lens to take this picture. I started off taking the picture from the side like any other person. I realized that I had to create something more interesting and something that not everyone sees. So I moved my tripod to point the camera directly down at the plant.

Group Flight

A few minutes later, all of the birds near me took flight and started flying in a group. It was very interesting to see them fly. They had a formation that was similar to an oval shape and they stayed in that formation even if they turned directions. It was very hard to take this picture because the birds were flying away from me. I had to continuously change the focus to adjust for the distance they flew while keeping the camera pointed at the birds.

Rest or Fly

During the time while I was taking pictures of the birds, many were resting on the branches for a moment then flying away. This picture is very similar to the last two pictures that there is a bird flying which is out of focus and a bird resting. In this picture there are two birds not one. One is resting and the other is flying, it's like a combination of the previous two pictures.

Takeoff

A few seconds after I took the 'Perched' picture, the bird took flight and flew away. I enjoy how the bird is out of focus and the branches are in focus. It makes the bird seem very quick and too fast for the camera to capture it. Luckily, the bird isn't so far out of focus that the viewer can't see the individual feathers and the shape of the bird.

Perched

This bird was the only bird perched in this section of the tree when I took this picture. I like the picture because the branches and most of the bird is black. If you look closely enough you can see some details on the bird, but other than that the branches and bird are black. This contrasts it with the grey background which I think is very nice. It is a simple black and grey picture.

High in the Sky

Away from macro shots of flowers, I turned to the skies. It was a very nice day when I took these pictures. Temperatures around 70 degrees Fahrenheit and cloudy. It might have been the weather or some other reason but when I took these pictures all of the birds seemed to be awake and moving. Maybe they were just happy it wasn't cold and rainy. I was able to take pictures of at least two different types of birds and at least four different types of ducks.

Blues and Reds

In this picture of the sunset, I adjusted the settings so that my camera would capture all of the parts to the sunset. All of the blues, reds, and every color in between. Luckily it wasn't windy that night. When I was taking the long exposure pictures of the sunset, the trees didn't move too much making the picture better in quality and focus.

Wide Angle

For this picture, I had similar settings for the exposure but I changed how narrow the picture was. I put on my wide angle lens to take this picture. I wanted to get the entirety of the sunset. From the night sky to the still bright sunset. The hardest part about taking pictures of sunsets or anything at night is making sure there isn't too much grain/noise in the picture. Grain is caused by a high ISO to make the picture appear lighter. For this picture, I kept my ISO at 100 and lengthened the exposure. This resulted in a crisp and ungrainy picture.

Night Sky

I took this picture, late into the sunset when the dark blue sky began to take over the red sunset. I set my camera so that the sunset looked very full and bright. I didn't want to have the sky take over too much of the sunset, but I also didn't just want a sunset as the picture. I settled with this picture and two others. I also like how crisp the rest of the silhoutetted objects are.

Light in the Night Sky

This is my last picture of the lunar eclipse. The Earth had just begun to move up from between the Sun and moon. As more and more light was able to reach the moon, it became harder to take pictures of it. The contrast between the light and dark parts was so vast that either one part of overexposed or one was underexposed. I chose to make the dark part of the moon the star (haha, star and the moon is a star) of the picture and have it be exposed correctly. 

Flower

Happy Sunday! Because I wanted to post this picture but also wanted to make space for the Lunar Eclipse pictures, you get a special Sunday post. On this flower, I was able to get a multitude of information from the focus. The viewer can see the inside, petals, and the dark spots on the petals. This is what a macro lens is made to do. It is built to get close to the object being photographed while retaining a sharp and crisp focus. It helps to show the world small objects that might not be able to be seen by the naked human eye.

Stars at Night

When I was taking pictures of the moon, my camera also captured some tiny stars. In the top left of this picture, there is a little bright spot which is a star. There is also another one on the bottom right. To capture all of the stars, you would want to set your camera to the darkest possible settings. Have the highest aperture, lowest ISO, and slowest shutter speed. This would allow the most amount of light to enter your camera and allowing you to see the stars.

Blood Moon

I used to not be able to take pictures of the moon but now I am, how, might you ask. Here's how, to take pictures of the moon, you must have a camera that has a detachable lens. Any point and shoot camera (lens doesn't detach) won't be able to capture a very quality picture of the moon. If you have a camera with a detachable lens, you want to use the light meter but instead of having it in the center, you want it to be completely over-exposed. This will allow you to get definition on the moon instead of taking a picture of a bright white light.

Aligned

This lunar eclipse won't occur again in the United States until 2021. A lunar eclipse is when the sun, Earth, and moon are aligned in a straight line and in that order. On all other days, the sun shines on the moon and the moon reflects the light onto the Earth. In a lunar eclipse, the Earth blocks the moon from getting any of the sun's light and makes it appear red. A solar eclipse is opposite. The order of the three planets goes sun, moon, Earth. The moon blocks the sun from reaching the Earth.

Tree Branches

Just after the sunset, when the moon had just risen, it became blocked by tree branches. I found it annoying at first but the utilized them to help manipulate an interesting picture. I positioned my tripod and camera to capture the branches in front of the moon. This worsened the definition of the craters on the moon but instead made an interesting design on the moon.

Lunar Eclipse

The night of January 20th into the early morning of January 21st there was a lunar eclipse. It began at around 9:30pm and continued into the early morning hours but I went to sleep at 12:30am, just as the white started to return to the moon. I took this picture at 11:48 pm, as the sun merely started to cast its light back on the moon. I believe it is my best but I still have many others from the first time the moon was blocked from sunlight by the Earth to the sun returning to the moon.

Miniture

I've taken macro pictures of flowers before but these flowers are different because of how small they are. I was able to get multiple bunches of flowers in the frame and have them fill the entire picture. I set the focus on the front of the flowers to capture the flowers and water in focus. I think this might be one of my best macro pictures yet.

Pattern

On this leaf, it had a very intricate pattern on it. The veins appeared to look almost like a stained glass window. The glass pieces making up the window crooked but arranged to make a rectangular window. For the leaf, the pieces are the veins and they are arranged so that they create a leaf. Maybe this is where the idea of stained glass came from.

Up Close 

Moving away from raindrops, I focussed on other objects I can photography with my macro lens. One of the orange leaves from yesterday's picture was this redder than orange-colored leaf. With a macro lens, I am able to get extremely close to objects. I set the leaf behind another leaf and photographed the design on the leaf. There are the sharp edges, veins on the leaf, the tip, and the dark spots on the colored leaf.

Orange

The next raindrops I took pictures of with my macro lens were these two. I angled my camera so that they were in front of a tree still full of orange leaves. I admire how the background of leaves is deeply blurred but if you look in the raindrop you can see a vague outline of the leaves. I also admire the crisp distinction between the left raindrop and branch. You can easily tell where the raindrop ends and the branch begins.

Mirror 

This picture is of the same raindrops as the last picture. In this picture, I changed the focus and exposure. I set the focus to the trees mirrored from inside the rain and I darkened the exposure. I like how the viewer can see inside the raindrop. It is something that I didn't see with my bare eyes until I adjusted the focus.

Morning Glare

I took this macro picture of hanging raindrops soon after the sun rose. I wanted to showcase the water and how it reflects light. The water that is on the branch casts a very harsh shadow toward the camera. Almost making the picture overexposed. To know when a picture is overexposed, the photographer has to see their picture on a bigger screen than the camera. When I took this picture I thought it was exposed correctly, but on my computer, I can see the blue, red, and green that make up the display. This is one of the biggest indicators of an overexposed picture.

Dew

I came back to this plant for a second time to showcase the dew. It always seems to have dew on it because I went but after this picture for a third time, and there was still dew on it. I like how the focus is on the hairs and there are objects blocking the main focus of the plant.

Magnify

With my macro lens, the closest I am able to get to an object is 0.98 feet. Since my camera has a focal length of 90mm, I can get extremely close to an object. With this picture, I got as close as possible to the raindrop. I then set the focus to the bottom of the raindrop to make the entire raindrop in focus. The raindrop also magnified the part of the leaf underneath it. The brown and pink colors in the raindrop is part of the leaf.

Circle of Water

In the center of this plant, was a circle of water. Only in that circle was water, everywhere else on the plant was dry. I don't understand why the water made a circle like that. It could be water likes to stick to itself or that the sun 'burned' a hole in the water and left the other part still wet.

Star

Near the rainbow leaf, was this leaf. This leaf was partially above water and had a deep wedge in the middle of it. I took the picture with the sun behind the leaf. The made some of the water glisten and reflect the light. I put my camera very close to the water to get the best reflection. I made sure to capture the entirety of reflection to percieve the complete star.

Rainbow Leaf

One of the leaves that fell into the water underneath the sweet gum tree, looks almost like a rainbow. The leaf is red, orange, and yellow, and where the water touches the leaf is blue. Under the rainbow leaf are a dead leaf and some mud. The dead leaf almost seems to have scales on it. There are spots of a darker brown and spots of light brown.

Sweet Gum

Looking up from the flowers, I found this sweet gum tree. Even though I took this in late December, there are still leaves on this tree. I noticed the lighting from the left side of the ball. It lit up the left side while the right side remained very dark. The ball also appears to still be wet from the rain storm as well. Some of the light reflects while the parts where the light doesn't reach that part of the ball seem dry.

Wall of Water

On another similar flower, instead of focussing on the center of the flower, I focused on the pedals. On one of them, it was covered with raindrops. From this picture, it is clear to see the extreme depth perception of a macro lens. The raindrops and petal that are in focus are all the same distance to the lens. Anything else, even if it is a few millimeters farther from the lens, is out of focus.

Icicles

This flower has the same 'hairs' that the first flower when I took pictures with my macro lens has. After the rain, the 'hairs' must have become filled with water. This makes them almost look like icicles. The light reflecting off of them, they are white like ice and straight. When I was taking the picture, I didn't notice the brown object on the 'hairs.' It isn't too big so it doesn't completely ruin the picture, but it is still bothersome.

Hanging

On the flower next to the last one, the raindrops were hanging off of it. I purposely had the focus on the raindrop instead of the flower. I also like how the viewer can see the complete circle of the raindrop. Since the raindrop is hanging, it becomes a sphere. Unfortunately, the raindrop reflects light. This made finding the right exposure extremely hard, causing the picture to be slightly brighter than I would have liked. Luckily, a quick fixing of the exposure in Photoshop fixed it.

Rain

After a heavy nighttime downpour, I took these macro rain pictures. This first one is of a single raindrop on a flower. The hardest part of taking a picture like this is making sure the focus is correct. The water magnified the air bubbles on the leaf. On the bottom of the droplet are tiny white dots which are the air bubbles. I tried to have the focus directly on the air bubbles which would also help to have the entire droplet in focus.

Filament

In the center of all flowers are filaments. It's the object that sticks up out of the middle of the flower. I like this picture because of the natural contrast in colors. The bright pink is the main part of the picture, but it doesn't overpower the light green. The focus on macro lens' is very sharp and small. There is a tiny line where the object is in focus and everything else is out of focus. The farther the object is from the focus line, the more out of focus it gets.

Dew

The second to last and my favorite picture in the first trial with the new lens is this picture. It is of a flower that hadn't grown its flowers yet. When I was taking this picture, I didn't notice the dew. Looking over it later, I found the 'hairs' sticking off the flower and dew on the hairs. It is my favorite because of the precious focus on the forefront flowers and the drastic decrease in focus as the viewer looks farther back in the picture.

Fuzzy Leaf

The next flower I took pictures of wasn't a flower but a fuzzy leaf. I have taken pictures of this type of leaf and different types of leaves before, but never this close. With the picture this close, I think the white fuzzy part caught an ant. The viewer of the picture can also see the very tiny water droplets on the white parts.

Pink with a hint of Green

The next flower I took pictures of resembled a lettuce head. Except for being green, the flower was pink with small parts green. I enjoy taking pictures of this flower without the macro lens because of the waves in the petals and interesting color, but now the flower looks even better. The leaves look sharp and rough around the edges but smooth in the center.

Macro

While trying out my new macro lens, I photographed several of the same objects as before just much closer. I have taken many pictures of this purple and white flower. With the new lens, I am able to get extremely close. It allows the photographer and viewer to see things that the human eye can't see clearly. For instance, who knew this flower had small 'hairs' in the center. A human eye and regular lens can't see them, but a macro lens can.

Blurred Motion

Similar to the picture of the bridge and lights going around the pond, is how I took this picture. I had a long shutter speed which captured several seconds of the water moving, this made the water blurred. Since it was a long exposure, I had to use a tripod to keep the rest of the picture still. When taking a long exposure picture, the photographer has to not touch or move the camera during the exposure as it might cause the entire picture to become blurred. 

Night Reflection

While looking at Christmas lights, I found these at a pond. To reduce the grain/noise in the picture, I kept the ISO low. I changed the aperture and shutter speed to complement each other and make a great picture. I settled with a larger aperture and longer shutter speed. This picture was exposed (shutter speed) for 4 seconds. This made the clouds in the sky blurred but the white in focus. 

Full Moon

One day after the winter solstice, I took this picture of the moon. It took me multiple pictures before I was able to find the right shutter speed to take a picture of the moon. I wanted to have then moon be bright, but not too bright that it would be overexposed. There were some clouds that night which made it hard to take a full picture of the moon.

Blurred

The other picture I took with a slow shutter speed was this one. I set my camera on a tripod and angled it straight down. I like this picture better than the last one because of the leaves are more in focus and the camera is closer to the water. I also like how you can see the waves in the water that was caused by the rocks. 

Flowing Water

At a creek, I was taking pictures of the water with a fast shutter speed (nothing blurry) and I wanted to change things up. I increased the aperture and slowed the shutter speed, for a more blurry picture of the water with the objects sticking out of the water in focus. Overall, I think the picture is really interesting and something, not every person takes a picture of.