Photography by Naomi Drew
This morning the sky is mottled with clouds and the light is soft. Bright red flowers seem even brighter than ever.
I keep meaning to find out the name of these – never seem to find their label in the garden. Time to set about on a hunt, like I do annually for the daffodils and narcissus.
This is a panorama shot with a very narrow DOF. The focal point could have been better, but it is the row of daffs in front of the trees. The third clump in the very front from the left is best in focus, but I probably could have focused on the blooms in the second clump. Oh well.
I probably took 60 or so images here, and got a really well-covered area. The point is to see the different layers of in and out of focus areas. The foreground is sort of in focus, then the daffodils, and then moving back, the trees become increasingly more blurred. Sometimes doing these big panoramas can produce exciting pictures – other times, rather meh to downright worthless. If you enlarge the picture, you will be able to see the levels of focus more clearly.
The beauty of digital! So much can be thrown away, so much can be play, so much can be a learning experience that is cheap – film does not make this an economic adventure at all.
I did this one as a pano, focusing on the leaves in the center of the image. I wanted to make them the clearest part of the image, trying to catch their sparkle. I am always fascinated by the dappling of light through leaves.
A morning spent – well spent – in one of my favorite places in L.A.: The Huntington Gardens. Spring is in evidence everywhere, flowers and trees in bloom, and everyone out enjoying a cold, sunny day after days of rain.
Pano of 32 images, taken with the Nikon Df and 85mm f1.8G lens.
Last week, on a windswept and rainy morning, I ventured forth along the Moonrise Trail. My trusty Df and 50mm came along, and in the wind and rain, we took 1000 images (ah, how I love digital! so good for excess!), working to create panoramas. Success and failure always await. So, here is one of a tree . . . more to come!
Another photo from the misty, moisty morning I climbed out of bed . . . . While the Galaxy S5 takes OK panos, I like the stitching-together process better. Here is a view of Mount Clef across the grasses of the small valley in Wildwood Park nearby my home. Today we expect 86F, and tomorrow 91F. I think I live in hell sometimes, even though it is very pretty! I am tired of this heat – ongoing heat – and dream of water falling from the sky.
A panorama . . . the original images have been printed and now await my attempt at a Hockney-like montage. It’s harder than I thought!
The top of a mountain, surrounded by mountains; sunset comes quickly and the light gathers, flares, and fades away.
Another view of Mono Lake take while hiking back from Parker Lake in the Eastern Sierras. This is a pano of about 20 images . . . but if you compare the sky in the upper left and upper right corners of the photo, you will notice serious color differentiations. The dividing line is the pine tree in the center, and then moving left (dark) to right (lighter).
I had my polarizer on the lens, but shifted it during the taking without realizing it. Problem! I think I’ll shoot next time without it. Still, I liked this well enough to post.
Sunday morning we went out for a hike in the local open space. The coastal ranges are beautiful right now because of the rains, so long missing from our climate, and returning because of El Nino. Yesterday’s photo was facing west; this is what lay behind me. A green and misty land, with a deep gorge to the right, a ridge to the left which, should I climb it, will bring me down into another valley. Spring!
BTW, this is another panorama, taken with 17 images and merged in LR 6.5. Gotta love the digital darkroom!
The Glass Aerie 