photoartflightPanoramas From Plainsboro Preserve
Posted on May 5, 2022
We went to the Plainsboro Preserve a few days ago to get a nice walk and to see if there were some interesting views of McCormack Lake or the Wooded Areas along the trail before the leaves come out and hide the views from the White Trail. I was traveling light with just my Olympus OM-D E-Mk1 with a Panasonic 14-140mm lens to photograph some handheld multi-image panoramas (assembled in Photoshop). Most of the panoramas were taken @ 14mm. The Featured Image is a 9 image panorama @ 14mm. This Post is mainly panorama views with Lake McCormack through the trees bordering Lake McCormack.
A Walk At Plainsboro Preserve
Posted on March 24, 2022
It was a nice sunny day yesterday so we ventured out to take a walk at the Audubon Plainsboro Preserve near us. It is 1,000 acres with with diverse habitats and wildlife & one of the largest lakes in the area, Lake McCormack. We concentrated walking on the White Trail straightaway because of the nest building of Canada Geese further down the path. We heard & saw the Canada Geese attacking walkers getting too close to their nesting areas. The Featured Image of Lake McCormack is a 12 image Panorama taken @ 14mm with an Olympus OMD & blended together in Photoshop.
Lake McCormack Panoramas @ Audubon Plainsboro Preserve
Posted on November 23, 2021
We went to the Audubon Plainsboro Preserve to photograph some more Fall landscapes and panoramas. This time I was using a 17-40mm lens on a Canon R. The six horizontal images for the Featured Image were taken @ 17mm. I loaded the six images into one Layered Photoshop file and let Photoshop automatically align & blend the layers for the final image. The vertical pano image below was also taken @ 17mm, but these were taken in a vertical format to have more height for the panorama. This pano is made from 3 images.
Plainsboro Preserve Lake McCormack Panoramas
Posted on November 11, 2021
It was a nice day yesterday so we went to the Audubon Plainsboro Preserve to take a walk and get some fresh air. I was traveling light and only took my Olympus OM-D mkI with a 7.5mm Fisheye lens. There was hardly anyone there so I was shooting some landscape images along our walk. There was still a few colorful Fall trees but most of the trees were bare along the path. As we were passing a short trail that lead down to a nice view of Lake McCormack I decided to shoot a couple of multi-image panoramas of the Lake. The Featured Image is made from 12 handheld horizontal images. Then I shot 10 vertical images for a higher panorama view of Lake McCormack. I have found that when using a m43 camera you need to overlap the images more than a Full Frame Camera. When I got home I started to work on my images for the panoramas. First I had to De-Fisheye the look of all of the images before I could use them to blend in the Final Panoramas. I just made an action to run & de-fisheye each image in the series. In Photoshop going to the Filter command at the top, then choosing Adaptive Wide Angle Filter that will usually correct the Fisheye look of your images. You also have to enter the Focal length of your fisheye lens before you use the filter. But this filter is set-up for Full Frame Cameras. So I entered 15mm which is the equivalent Field of View of my 7.5 mm lens on the m43 Olympus, basically 2x with the Olympus. Then I loaded the de-fished images into a Layered Photoshop file and selected all the layers. Then on the top commands go to Layer and choose Align, then merge Layers to complete the blending of the images.
Male Calico Pennant Dragonfly
Posted on June 22, 2021
Another Dragonfly image from our walk at the Audubon Plainsboro Preserve. The featured image is made from 2 images shot with a 300mm lens with a 1.4X Teleconverter @ f/8. I usually shoot my series of images starting at the head and work my way back down the body. I would have shot 1 more image for the tail but it flew off before I could get that shot.
Common Whitetail Dragonflies From Davidsons Mill Pond Park
Posted on June 11, 2021
We went to the Audubon Plainsboro Preserve looking for dragonflies and any other interesting subjects we could find to photograph. We found a male & female Common Whitetail Dragonfly in 2 different locations along our walk. The Featured Image is a Female Common Whitetail Dragonfly 2 shot focus stack @ f/8. I focused first on the head & then focused on the tail. Then blended the 2 images in Photoshop for the final image. By shooting 2 images @ f/8 and combining the 2 images I had the depth of field to get the head & tail in focus and still have a somewhat smoother background I wanted without getting a more cluttered looking background. Usually I would use f/5.6 instead of f/8 but I only wanted to use 2 images in case the dragonfly flew off. All images in this post were taken with a Canon 7D with a 300mm f/4 lens & 1.4X Teleconverter.
Female Common Whitetail Dragonfly, f/ 5.6. Showing smoother uncluttered background but the tail sharpness is softer than the 2 image stacked image.
Female Common Whitetail Dragonfly @ f/11, 300mm, 1.4x teleconverter. Showing even at f/11 the tail sharpness is softer than the 2 image focus stacked image.
Immature Male Common Whitetail Dragonfly, 300mm, 1.4x teleconverter, @ f/8, Canon 7D, showing smoother, uncluttered background.
Immature Male Common Whitetail Dragonfly, 300mm, 1.4x teleconverter, @ f/16, Canon 7D, showing a more cluttered distracting background.
Cedar Waxwings From The Audubon Plainsboro Preserve
Posted on June 10, 2021
We went for a walk at the Audubon Plainsboro Preserve near our home looking for dragonflies. As we were walking down the path that extends out into Lake McCormick we were surprised to see a pair of Cedar Waxwings. One flew off to a higher branch behind the leaves but the other posed for us giving me an opportunity to get a few fairly close images. I shot a few images than moved a little closer hoping to get some closer shots before it flew off. I was using an Olympus OM-D -Mk1 camera with a Panasonic 100-300mm lens @300mm (Full Frame Camera Equivalent ~ 600mm.)
Something Fishy & DeWarping Fisheye Images
Posted on April 2, 2021
I used to use 15mm fisheye lenses on film cameras for interesting images back in the film days before digital. I usually used them for an interesting & different look here & there in multi-projector slide shows I used to produce for our Corporate clients. When Microsoft Powerpoint presentations came out, multi-projector Corporate slide shows died a quick death. With digital imaging starting to be more affordable in the early days, Fisheye lenses were not as popular in my Commercial work. When we needed one we would just borrow one from where we bought our supplies & equipment. But being retired now it is an interesting way to get very wide views and then in post processing to De-Fish them. I was looking for a used Canon 15mm Fisheye lens for landscapes, but they seemed to be going for extremely high prices. Canon discontinued the 15mm Fisheye lens (FOV 180ยฐ) replacing it with the 8-15mm Fisheye zoom. I did not want a zoom fisheye but noticed that 7 Artisans had a 7.5mm Fisheye lens for m43 cameras with a FOV of 180ยฐ. Looking online at where I usually buy my equipment lately I noticed a version 2 was about to come out in 2 -3 weeks with a 190ยฐ Field of View and with better optics. So I was going to order one, but my wife looked on Amazon and it was available now. So I had it in a couple of days. The featured image is 6 m43 images shot @ 7.5mm with an Olympus OM-D 1 with the 4:3 format. This was assembled in Photoshop using the images as they were taken. I also overlapped the images more than usual because of the smaller camera sensor as I was taking the images. After blending the images I used the Edit “Warp” feature in Photoshop to remove most of the fisheye effect. Depending on the image you can also get good results using Photoshop’s Adaptive Wide Angle feature under the “Filter setting”. Then use the “Edit” Transform -“Warp” feature to adjust the corners to where it diminishes most of the “Curving” in the corners. It also helps when using a Fisheye lens to have the main horizon line somewhat centered in the image to avoid the “bowing arc” of the horizon, Makes it easier to just have to deal then with the “Corners”.
Audubon Plainsboro Preserve “Walking” Panorama
Posted on March 17, 2021
We went for a walk at the Audubon Plainsboro Preserve to get in a nice walk. As we were walking down one of the long straight paths across from Lake McCormack I thought I would do a panorama of the woods. With the sun’s position it was casting long interesting shadows in the foreground. Usually I shoot a series of images from the left to the right, but shooting from a somewhat center position of the image I want to capture. Here I was near the start of the panorama I wanted to capture. I was using my iP 11 Pro with the 4.3mm lens (Full Frame FOV ~ 26mm). So I decided to shoot a series of images as I was walking down the path. This way I would not get as much of the “distortion” of the very small iPhone lens. If I was positioned about in the center of the image I wanted to capture I would get a very smaller distant distorted “view”on each end of the pano because of the iPhone’s small lenses. So it would look distorted with much smaller ends. So I went to where I wanted to start my panorama and a took an image. Then counted fifteen or so steps and took anther image. I did this down the entire length of the view I wanted to capture. In the end I had 16 images for my main panorama which is my featured image. The total length is 110 inches x 10 inches @ 300ppi. All images aligned & assembled in Photoshop.
Lake Mc_Cormack Panorama
Posted on January 17, 2021
When we were photographing the trees with strong shadows at Plainsboro Preserve for the previous post, I also shot a series of 7 vertical images of Lake McCormack @17mm for a wide panorama. When shooting at wide @ 17mm, I overlap my series of images more than my usual overlapping if using a longer lens.
photoartflight 