photoartflightiPhone Cloudscapes
Posted on August 26, 2020
While taking a walk in our community, we noticed very low huge cloud formations. They were quite impressive, so I shot a series of images with my iPhone 11 Pro. Most were panoramas shot with multiple images to be assembled in Photoshop for the final image. I do not usually use the pano feature in the iPhone because it distorts the left & right ends of the image giving a “bowing distortion” in the middle. Most images were shot with the 6mm lens with digital zoom added in the iPhone. I never really used the digital zoom feature much before, but it actually worked out quite well, especially for clouds.
The featured image is a single shot with the 6mm lens with 318% Digital Zoom added on the phone. I was photographing from a distance because if I got closer the trees blocked more of the bottom of the clouds and I only could photograph the small top cloud section.
Cloud Panorama, iPhone 11 Pro, 4.3mm lens, 195% Digital Zoom Added, 3 Image Blend in Photoshop
Cloud Panorama, iPhone 11 Pro, 6mm lens, 168% Digital Zoom Added, 4 image Panorama, Blended in Photoshop
Cloud Panorama, iPhone 11 Pro, 6mm lens with 260% Digital Zoom added, 3 image Panorama, Blended in Photoshop
Cloud Panorama, iPhone 11 Pro, 6mm lens with 318% Digital Zoom added, 3 image Panorama, Blended in Photoshop
Cloud Panorama, iPhone 11 Pro, 6mm lens with 213% Digital Zoom added, 5 image Panorama, Blended in Photoshop
Cloud Panorama, iPhone 11 Pro, 6mm lens with 214% Digital Zoom added, 5 image Panorama, Blended in Photoshop
Vermont Cloudscape Panorama
Posted on June 19, 2020
This is a 4 image Cloudscape Panorama from a previous trip to Vermont. Images were shot @ 47mm with a Canon 24-105mm lens. I did not want to shoot wider because of buildings below & blank sky above which distracted from the main cloud formations.
Cloud Reflections In Wet Sidewalk – iPhone 11
Posted on May 6, 2020
It stopped raining so I was walking on the sidewalk outside my home and noticed some interesting reflections of the clouds above in the wet sidewalk below. The clouds also looked a little like ice on the sidewalk. They finally opened some of the parks here in NJ, but are limiting the amount of people they let in. So I was looking for something to post here and thought these might be interesting. The featured image was the first image I photographed in this series with the 6mm lens (Full Frame equivalent 52mm) & using the 4:3 format. The rest of the images are panoramas shot with the same lens but with the 16×9 format and different numbers of images shot for each panorama. I do not like the distortion you get using the iPhone pano feature because of the extremely small lenses, so I shoot a series of multiple single images for each panorama and assemble them in Photoshop. Using the 16×9 format instead of the standard 4:3 format on the iPhone 11 Pro, gave me a longer image to start with so I did not need as many images to work with. But because of the extremely small 6mm lens I tend to shoot more images for the series to help minimize distortion. Overall they aligned nicely and only needed a few tweaks after Photoshop aligned and blended them.
5 image panorama, 6mm lens, 16 x 9 format, iPhone 11 Pro
4 image panorama- 16 x 9 format, 6mm lens, iPhone 11 Pro
7 image panorama- 16 x 9 format, 6mm lens, iPhone 11 Pro
4 image panorama- 16 x 9 format, 6mm lens, iPhone 11 Pro
Bailey Tract – J.N. Ding Darling NWR
Posted on August 2, 2019
Most people that go to J.N. Ding Darling NWR do not know of, or go to the Bailey Tract in Sanibels’ Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge. The tract is on Tarpon Bay Rd., not in the main Refuge and Wildlife Drive. The major feature of the Bailey Tract is a series of impoundments and dikes built years ago to attract waterfowl, including ducks, grebes, coots and moorhens. It still does, but as part of the J.N. “Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge it also creates a perfect place for hikers and bikers to see them. It’s a great place to take a peaceful walk or hike on its 100 acre grounds. We just took a leisurely walk though one afternoon when we were in Sanibel. We did not see a lot of Wildlife, but that was probably because it was in the afternoon when things quiet down. It seems like it is not visited much like the main Refuge. So you can feel quite alone here. It was rare to see another person walking the trails as you walk through. Also there are no staff here. I was traveling light with just an Olympus OM1 with a 14 – 140mm lens. We were just enjoying the beautiful day and a nice walk.
Information Signs along the way to help visitors ID or give information for what they might see.
2 image panorama @ 14mm, m43 format
2 image panorama @ 14mm, m43 format (very slight overlapping of images)
3 horizontal images stacked @14mm – m43 Olympus
Single Image @ 41mm
Bailey Landscape – 2 image panorama @14mm
2 image Panorama @ 14mm
Single Image @ 28mm
Lizard @ 140mm
Small Pond with Alligator Submerged @ 48mm
Same as above 14mm view
Landscape w/ hidden Alligator @ 32mm (2 img pano) – above this plant in the water on left
Another Lizard @ 140mm
Brigantine Cloud Panoramas
Posted on July 26, 2019
I finally had a chance to work on some panoramas I shot last month at the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge, Brigantine Division in Oceanville NJ. The cloud formations on this day were amazing. So I had a lot of choices for working with series panoramas while we were there. Lately I have been using an Olympus m43 Camera with a 14mm – 140mm zoom for landscapes or general info shots and the Canon R with a 400mm DO lens or the Tamron 150-600mm for Wildlife. It is a lot easier to carry a smaller m43 camera with a wide zoom range along with the heavier full frame camera with longer lenses, instead of 2 large camera bodies. The m43 format with a 14-140mm zoom seems a little harder to do multi-image panoramas @14mm but after working with it for quite a while I am getting more usable & predictable panoramas. Sort of a learning curve I guess. Basically I overlap the images more. At 14mm with m43 format it is sort of the equivalent (field of view) of 28mm on a full frame DSLR. All the images here are shot at 14mm but go from 2 to 8 images for each photo panorama. Some were vertical images and some were horizontal images for each image.
2 – 14mm Horizontal images panorama
Panorama- 4 Vertical Images @14mm
Panorama – 3 vertical images stacked @ 14mm
3 horizontal images stacked @14mm
Panorama – 4 horizontal images @14mm
2 horizontal images stacked @ 14mm
2 Horizontal images @14mm Stacked
2 Horizontal images – Atlantic City on left @14mm
2 Horizontal Images Stacked @ 14mm
2 Horizontal Images Stacked – Osprey Platform @ 14mm
2 Horizontal images Stacked @14mm
2 -Horizontal Images @14mm
3 – Horizontal Images Stacked @14mm
2 – 14mm Horizontal Images Stacked
7 – 14mm Images stacked
Two Trees – 3 Images Vertical Stacked
Brigantine Landscape- 3 Horizontal Images Stacked @14mm
Brigantine Landscape w/ Clouds – 2 Horizontal Images @14mm
Brigantine 3 Vertical Images @14mm
Brigantine – 2 Horizontal Images @ 14mm
Brigantine NWR 2 Image panorama
Brigantine NWR – 3 Image panorama @14mm
7 image panorama – 7 – 12mm vertical images combined in Photoshop
2 Vertical Images @14mm
High Flight Of Snow Geese At Blackwater NWR
Posted on January 2, 2019
We went for 2 days to photograph at the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge in Cambridge, Maryland. Early in the morning, along the Wildlife Drive on the second day we saw a huge flock of Snow Geese flying out under a heavy cloud cover. They were quite high and took a few minutes for the waves of them to pass by. Probably 500 to 700 (or more) passed by in multiple waves.
14-140mm lens @ 14mm with Olympus OMD Mk1
CloudBurst At Blackwater
Posted on August 20, 2018
I liked these clouds by the lookout platform at Blackwater NWR. It reminded me of a starburst, but with clouds. I decided to leave the top of a small tree as a center point for a visual center to draw your eye. Three images @24mm, combined in Photoshop with layered masks for blending the three images.
Cloud Panoramas From Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge
Posted on July 31, 2018
We went to the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge outside of Cambridge, Maryland to see what subjects we could find to photograph. These images were taken along the Wildlife Drive. The Eagles were scarce, only saw a few in the distance, but we kind of expected that. But in the Winter months Blackwater has one of the highest numbers of Eagles in the Northeast. So we were concentrating on Dragonflies, other birds, panoramas and sunrises & sunsets. The featured image was 4 Horizontal shots @24mm, assembled in Photoshop. With wide angle lenses for panoramas, I tend to overlap more than when using long telephoto lenses. The wider the focal length the more overlapping shots I do. These images were shot on or near the long Observation Platform along the 4 mile Wildlife Drive. The above featured image was 4 horizontal shots @ 24mm. On the right side of the featured image you can see part of the Observation Platform. These images were taken with the Canon 24-105mm lens or the Sigma 12-24mm lens. The Blackwater NWR includes more than 28,000 acres of tidal marsh, mixed hardwood and loblolly pine forests, managed freshwater wetlands and croplands. The Blackwater & Little Blackwater Rivers flow through the refuge so I guess that is where they got the name Blackwater NWR.
3 Horizontal Images @ 24mm
3 Vertical Images Combined For Horizontal Image @ 24mm
4 Vertical Images Combined For Horizontal Final Image @24mm
3 Vertical Images Combined for Horizontal Final Image @ 24mm
4 Vertical Images Combined For Vertical Image @ 12mm
Bird Shaped Clouds
Posted on June 12, 2018
This series of cloud images reminded me of birds in flight. They sort of looked like a bird’s body and outstretched wings floating by in the sky. I tried a few cropping and focused on a few different cloud formations.
Sunbeam Through Opening In Clouds
Posted on April 2, 2018
While I was working on files from a previous visit to the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge in Cambridge, Maryland, I came across this image of a sunbeam shining through an opening in the cloud cover. I used a 400mm lens to isolate the beam so it was more prominent in the image. With a wider view, the sunbeam did not seem to stand out as much. I think the beam as is, is prominent enough against the clouds and I did not want to enhance the beam to make it stand out more, opting for a more natural look.
Double Sunbeams, 400mm f/4 with 1.4x Teleconverter
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