photographer – Page 7 – Slow Shutter Speed

Posted on March 25, 2015 by Anne Sandler · 4 Comments

Operating on slow shutter speed: Sunrise Mall, Citrus Heights and Old Roseville

Slow Shutter Speed, that’s the name of this blog. Why? When I began this passion, I was overwhelmed with all of it. I had a feeling that this was going to be a long journey and thought that name was fitting. Of course now, it has another meaning for me: using slow shutter speed to blur objects, create abstracts and to shoot at night.

I love shooting lights at night, playing with the zoom and blurring the motion of whatever I’m shooting. So, when I heard there was a small carnival at a local mall, I took my camera and tripod down there. I had a blast, especially when people stopped and asked me whether I was from a newspaper or magazine! I’m not ready for that, but it was nice to be asked that question.

Then, a couple of nights later, I went to Old Roseville to shoot the two theaters on Vernon Street. Again, I wanted to capture the marquee and play with the zoom effect.

I’m still learning on “slow shudder speed,” but I feel like I’m not taking snapshots any longer.

The carousel at slow shudder speed. You can still see the horses and the mechanism that runs the carousel.

Same carousel but an even slower shudder speed. Where did the horses go?

A zoom on a slow shudder speed creates an abstract.

This looks like a giant top when shot at slow shudder.

This ferris wheel had lights out in one section. You can see the effect.

Slow the shudder speed down more and you get this.

Even slower and the entire wheel is covered in lights.

Here the lights look even more uniform–slower shudder speed.

I needed to use slow shudder speed to get this night shot crisp.

Here’s what happened when I played with the zoom.

Posted on March 14, 2015March 14, 2015 by Anne Sandler

Discovering Northern California: Downieville, the town

Wow, I’ve been busy in the present time! I was testing and bought a used macro lens, and I’m looking forward to learning more about macro shooting. However, this post is about Downieville, a historic town. at the confluence of the Downie River and North Fork of the Yuba River. In my last post, I showed you images of the trip up and back, saving the town for today.

Downieville was founded in late 1849 and named after Major William Downie who founded the town. The town soon became a bustling gold rush town and is the county seat of Sierra County. Today it attracts summer tourists with fishing, mountain biking, back country off-road adventures, motorcycling, kayaking, and gold panning.

Of course, we were not there in the “season,” and no restaurant was open! But, the hardware, beauty shop and a few other stores were open. Enjoy the town. Maybe in the future I’ll have some macro images to show you!

The North Fork of the Yuba River is right behind this Inn.

This person sat on this bench the entire time we were in Downieville.

We were hoping to find food here, but it was closed.

This bell tower was outside the grocery store in a parking lot.

This old cash register was outside the steakhouse.

I can’t remember which building this was attached to, but it had cute signs.

Posted on March 11, 2015 by Anne Sandler

Discovering Northern California: Downievelle

It was an adventure back in time. With a population of 282 (the 2010 census) Downieville, the former gold rush town, now caters to summer visitors. However, photo buddies Marlene and Greg, and I were there last week. I can believe that they are a seasonal vacation spot because all the restaurants were closed and set to reopen for the season. I still don’t have any idea when the season starts!

Fortunately, the grocery store was open, had a microwave and allowed me to use it after I purchased a frozen rice dish. The small town hospitality came through. Sure I could have a glass of ice with my bottled diet coke–no extra charge for the cup! As we shot photos on the main drag, people passing knew each other. One of the residents explained that when they want to dine out, they go to the nearest town. It’s a simple life.

I’ll show you pictures of Downieville and give you more history in my next post. In this post, I’ll show you the sights on our way to the town and on the way back. You’ll be transported back in time along the North Fork of the Yuba River.

We stopped at this bridge along the North Fork of the Yuba River.

The Yuba River makes its way over rocks.

Even though the water is low, it is still beautiful.

This bridge is not used any longer and probably won’t be repaired.

On our way home we stopped at this Post Office. It was closed, but operational.

Does it have a portch where you can sit.

This truck probably hasn’t been moved in a long time.

Posted on March 1, 2015 by Anne Sandler · 10 Comments

A fun and learning experience: Yosemite, part 3

Two days is barely enough to take in the beauty of Yosemite, but that’s all we had. So we packed as much in as we could.

My last lesson here, was that I needed to get a neutral density filter to capture smooth water. I waited until we got to our final destination within the park–Happy Isles to try to get the water as smooth as I could. It was shady there, and there was enough water to work with.

We also went to the Lower Bridalveil Falls and the church. Tired, we left the park before sunset and ate dinner in Manteca. The Thai food was delicious especially since I was tired of eating meatloaf (for lunches and dinner)! Laura dropped me off at about 9:30 p.m., and I went directly to bed. I know she began editing her photos when she got home.

Here are the last images of Yosemite.

Some people go where they are warned not to go.

It is relaxing to sit and watch the water.

I think a neutral density filter would have made this even better.

I tried to smooth out the water going over these rocks.

Posted on February 25, 2015 by Anne Sandler · 2 Comments

A fun and learning experience: Yosemite National Park

California is a true wonderland when it comes to visiting National Parks. So many are within a 5-hour drive. Yosemite is one of them. I’m so glad that I saw Yosemite before the drought.

Photo buddy Laura and I went there for a couple of days to catch the “fire fall effect.” Once a year when the sun is in the right place and water is in abundance you can get the “fire fall” effect just like the old days when they used to drop fire over the falls. Even though it rained the week before, there was not a drop of water coming down the mountain. The drought was evident elsewhere too with the meadows dry and brown. I remember green meadows.

Our journey began with our first night outside the park. We light painted a gazebo across from the lodge. Then at 4 a.m. the next morning we went into Yosemite to catch the sunrise from the Swinging Bridge. This will be a three part post. Today’s post will take you though first evening and morning at Yosemite. We waited on Swinging Bridge for the sunrise. It was an experience!

Posted on February 5, 2015 by Anne Sandler

A photo a day: still at it!

Okay, I’m a type A wanna be type B. I took on this 365 challenge and I’m still at it. What do you mean it’s only been a little over a month! It sounds longer at 36 days. And, I’m still shooting on manual.

This is helping me understand the exposure triangle relationship and how to make the image come out the way I want it to. Of course some are shot with my point and shoot, some are of the dog and more will probably be, some are of the grandkids and some are taken on walks.

This challenge has also helped me develop a more keen eye as I look for things to shoot everywhere. I always have my point and shoot with me. Here are some of the less mundane images I’ve captured so far. A few have been on meetups, but most are from everyday life.

This was shot during a Meetup. I think I posted a different version on a blog.

I took this today while walking the dog. I processed it as a single photo in an HDR program and then in Lightroom.

I took this when the younger grandkids were playing with bubbles.

Later I thought I’d crop it in more to see whether the bee was in sharp focus.

During this walk, the bees were active. I posted this image.

This was a try at an abstract using water, oil and food coloring.

When you’re getting your tires worked on, what do you do? I took a photo!

This one was from a visit to the Sacramento Historical Cemetery. It was a subject of one of my blogs.

This was one of my first attempts to stage a shot.

You may remember this one that was from a photo outing.

I was practicing at a creek one afternoon.

I posted this one also from The Aerospace Museum.

My only other try at staging a photo. I was trying to emphasize the color green.

Posted on January 23, 2015January 23, 2015 by Anne Sandler

When Mother Nature makes shooting tough: Gray Lodge and Sacramento National Refuge Wildlife areas

Sometimes photography can be a challenge, especially in fog and overcast skies with only a 300 mm lens! That’s what we were shooting in when we went up north to the wildlife areas to catch the birds in action. Not only was the weather bad, but there wasn’t much water and the bird population was way down.

Usually at the Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge, you can see a few bald eagles. We didn’t see one! One photographer in the meetup did capture one and his image was great. I’m thinking that he was using a longer lens. It was very disappointing.

Further west, the Gray Lodge Wildlife area was not much better. There were enough birds for the hunters to shoot, but not the numbers we normally see. But we did have fun.

When you travel to these meetups with other photographers, they don’t mind stopping and shooting something ineresting that may have nothing to do with your original purpose. We made a couple of those side trips–three of us in the car. Plus we had the extra joy of having the GPS get us lost.

All in all, it was a fun 12-hour day. I hope you like these fogged and overcast images! This will be a two-part post.

Posted on January 21, 2015 by Anne Sandler

Learning through the fog: A Sacramento Photographers workshop at the Aerospace Museum, McClellan Park, California

Wow, that’s a heafty title! But, that’s what it was. We gathered at the Aerospace Museum for a workshop sponsored by the Sacramento Photographers Facebook group given by Pedro Marenco. We covered topics including HDR, DOF, Focus Stacking and more. (Did you like how I threw out those acronymns!)

Except for the dismal weather, it was fun. My big take away was how much I already know. I keep berating myself about the technical aspect of photography, but I have learned quite a bit. And when there’s math involved, I can get around it. I’m much more confident now.

Most of the images I’m going to show you are HDR. High Dynamic Range explained simply takes three or more shots taken at different exposures of the same image. These different exposures are then brought into a software program that compresses the shots into one image. This eliminates the washed out skies, dark areas, etc. Most HDR programs have presets that can create all sorts of looks. It’s really fun. These old planes are perfectly suited for this.

I also realized that I need to be inspired about what I’m photographing. Although this is an interesting museum, it’s not what I would abosultely go out of my way to shoot. Once we got outside photography got a litlle more interesting. Oh, Richard is totally into planes and docents at this very museum!

Posted on January 14, 2015January 14, 2015 by Anne Sandler · 1 Comment

There’s a lot of days until January 1, 2015: The 365 photo challenge and the park.

It’s only been two weeks, but taking a photo a day is becoming a habit. We’ve been posting them in the Sac Photograpers Facebook group. I can’t say that they’ve all been wonderful, but I continue to shoot on manual. Gem has been a great dog, allowing me to use him as a model. And, I learned how to get him totally in focus.

Week two was a little more tough since we had a theme. We needed to pick a color and shoot it for the week. I chose green because I though it would be a little easier. Gem was a big help here as I chose subjects during out daily walk. He knows that when I have the camera, it’s not just his walk, and he’s learning patience.

Today, my younger grandkids helped me shoot the last photo of week two. We went to the park. I was hoping to get that last shot, but what I got were two kids having a lot of fun.

Here are the park images and some from the 365 challenge.

Posted on January 4, 2015 by Anne Sandler

New year, new project: Marina Bay Trail, Richmond, California

I never wanted to get into portriat photography, but today Gem, my dog, was my subject and he did a great job of trying to sit still and look at me. I’m only on day 4 of the 365 challenge and was shooting Gem because I didn’t get out. But, I was learning. I’ve made a secondary challenge to shoot most of my daily photos on manual, and Gem had to be very patient while I was doing the learning curve! I was so excited that I finally managed to shoot him on manual, but he didn’t high five. That’s okay, he got his treat anyway. I’m sure there will be more shots of Gem throughout the year.

Yesterday, I went on an all day Exploring Photography Meetup to Richmond and had to process one of the images so I could post in the challenge group. I posted a sunset, which, as it turns out, wasn’t the best of the sunset shots. But, day 3 was covered. I’ll show you part of the day’s images in this post and finish it up in the next.

The Marina Bay Trail is somewhere between 3 – 4 miles along the Richmond shoreline. They have a yacht club, marina, condos, etc. It’s in stark contrast to the city of Richmond. I think I’ll show you the grounds in this post and the birds in the next.

I’m getting out to shoot tomorrow so Gem won’t have to model.