House Finch Series

Its been a while since I did series, so here's a bunch of pictures I took today of House Finches in the backyard.

The full gallery is here.

Technical Specs: Canon 1Ds3, 800 f/5.6 IS (some with 1.4x TC), ISO 800.

Another Lily Closeup

Different lighting and increased magnification on this one. I was trying to capture the region of color transition. This was considerably more difficult than yesterday's shot; took about 40 minutes to set everything up.

Technical Specs: Canon 1Ds3, 65 MP-E @ 5:1 magnification, f/13, 1/200s, Tungsten monolight and flash fired. Stack of 3 images.

Couple more Bird Pics

I bet he's thinking, "oh man, what did I eat?"



Technical Specs: Canon 1Ds3, 500 f/4 IS, f/4, ISO 400, 1/200s, 1/250s.

Burst of Color

Closeup of an Asiatic Lily.

Technical Specs: Canon 1Ds3, 180 macro, f/8, 1/200s, flash fired. Stack of 11 images.

Bird

Ok I'm still bored, so I slapped on a different lens and photographed this bird. Now its dark outside, oh what will I do?

Technical Specs: Canon 1Ds3, 200 f/2, f/2, 1/50s, ISO 1600.

Squirrel

I'll admit I was a bit bored and I figured if I didn't get out there and find something to shoot my DO would see no action, hence the squirrel.

Technical Specs: Canon 1Ds3, 400 DO + 1.4x TC (560 equiv.), f/6.3, 1/160s, ISO 640.

San Jose Photo Walk

Yesterday was Scott Kelby's 2nd Annual World Wide Photo Walk. From what I heard, participation was much higher than expected. Adobe is one of the sponsors and several walks were held at the various Adobe offices, including one starting at the San Jose office.

A walk around downtown San Jose certainly doesn't seem like it would opportunities for interesting photography. However I think everyone had fun and I'm sure that some really talented folks out there managed to get some great images.

Before the start of the official walk, a co-worker and I walked down to this work on the corner of Santa Clara and Almaden. Its an interesting piece and figured the easiest thing to do was an abstract.

That's Bryan O'Neill Hughes, the leader of the walk and also Photoshop product manager. Bryan is playing with his Holga lens which has been adapted to fit on his 5D2.

There's something fascinating about the juxtaposition of buildings and planes.

D700 and 5D2 users getting along?

Self Portrait

Tried to take this myself today. The lighting was what I was looking for but getting the depth of field right is a major pain when you are trying to photograph yourself.

Technical Specs: Canon 1Ds3, 17 TS-E, f/9, 1/250s, ISO 100, T5D fired.

Yoda Fountain (and other goodies)

Today I went to visit one of the legendary companies in visual effects, Industrial Light & Magic (ILM). The are in the SF Presidio and the buildings are definitely low key, except for this Yoda Fountain.

Who wouldn't want to work somewhere with a full size Slimer hanging on the wall?

I so want that in my living room but I don't think Kim would approve.

Took these with my new Olympus E-P1 I received yesterday, I'll do a mini review of the camera here in the next few days.

Luxo

The Musician

Musicians are a lot of fun to photograph, actually any artist engrossed in their craft make great photographic subjects.

We had a party last night with several of Kim's friends from work. Bill (pictured in this series) delighted all the guests with his songs.




Technical Specs: Canon 1Ds3, 50 f/1.2, f/1.8, ISO 800.

To The Observatory!

Last night was one of the evenings of this summer's Lick Observatory Summer Visitor Program. This year I took Edward with me. Though we managed to get a look through the scopes the cloudy skies meant that rather than pointing the scopes at a deep sky object, it was pointed at some binary stars.

However we still managed to have fun. The history talk in the 36" refractor dome was good.

I also managed to take a couple of interesting images since I had brought along my tripod.

Black Phoebe

A Black Phoebe in our yard today.

Technical Specs: Canon 1Ds3, 800 IS, f/5.6, 1/100s, ISO 400.

A Welcome Visitor

Maya got me a beautiful wood bird feeder with stained glass windows for Father's Day. We set it up right away and left it hanging on a tree for the last couple of weeks. When we got back from Alberta on Sunday I noticed that several birds had discovered the feeder and were having a feast. Both yesterday and today, I've seen birds at the feeder when I came home from work. Hopefully, it continues and we can attract more songbirds.

Technical Specs: Nikon D700, 200-400 @ 400mm, f/4, 1/500s, ISO 400.

Drumheller Hoodoos

Another picture from yesterday's trip to Drumheller. Unfortunately the timing meant photographing them with somewhat harsh lighting. I'd really like to return here (or go to Dinosaur Provincial Park) during sunrise or sunset (in the summer you don't get afterglow until about 10-10:30pm here).

Technical Specs: Canon 1Ds3, 17 TS-E (shifted up), f/8, 1/200s, ISO 100.

Dinosaur Museum

We went to the Royal Tyrell Dinosaur Museum in Drumheller today. Its been nearly 15 years since I was last at this museum and it certainly didn't disappoint. Its out in the middle of nowhere but the museum seems well run and well maintained. If you are ever in Alberta, I'd recommend checking it out.

Technical Specs: Canon 1Ds3, 17 TS-E (shifted down), f/4, 1/30s, ISO 1600.