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.