photoartflightLake Mc_Cormack Multi-Image iphone Panoramas
Posted on October 19, 2022
We went to the Plainsboro Preserve to get in a good walk so I did not take a camera with me. The Preserve had a lot of Fall Color, so I used my iP11 Pro to take a variety of multi-image panorama views during our walk. The Images here were mainly taken with the views going to the path to the Lake & the Lake itself. The Featured Image is a 21 Image panorama using the iP11’s 6mm lens and is 100.5 inches x 13.2 inches and is 340 megs. The iP11’s 6mm lens is equivalent to a ~52mm lens on a Full Frame Digital Camera.
Panoramas 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.
Plainsboro Preserve White Trail Panoramas
Posted on March 27, 2022
A few more larger panoramas from our walk at the Audubon Plainsboro Preserve White Trail. The Featured Vertical Pano Image is 10 horizontal images taken with a 14-140 mm lens @ 32mm with an Olympus OM-D 1.
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.
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.)
Raindrops At Plainsboro Preserve
Posted on April 23, 2021
The other day we went to take a walk at the Audobon Plainsbore Preserve. It was a gray day but it is a nice location to walk, never knowing what you might see to photograph. It started to rain so we started heading back to the car. Along the way I noticed the raindrops looked interesting in the water along the path. I was using my iPhone iP11 Pro with the 6mm lens (Full Frame Equivalent Field of View ~ 52mm) since it was more weatherproof than my Olympus camera I had under my jacket. I quickly took 9 images thinking at least one might have interesting raindrop patterns in the water. As I was working on the images I thought why not use all 9 images to get even more raindrops & maybe a more interesting & colorful image. The Featured Image is 9 images, auto-blended in Photoshop. Blending the image allowed an assortment of colors from the sky in the water as the clouds were moving overhead. This gave an interesting blend of colors. The image below is just 1 of the images that make up the blended image. Which do you like?
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.
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