Bee Balm
Bee Balm

Flowering Raspberry Flowering Raspberry

Lamb's Ear and Bumble Bee
Bumble Bee on Lambs-Ear Plant

Lamb's Ear and Bumble Bee
Bumble Bee in Flight

Soapweed
Wild Sweet William a.k.a. Soapwort

Round-headed garlic
Round-Headed Garlis

Lathyrusalso known as peavines or vetchlings.
Lathyrus

Flowering Raspberry
Flowering Raspberry and Buds

I am especially pleased with the two bumble bee photos that start off the series below. The shot with the bee in mid-flight was hard to get with my "older" Olympus gear.  I use a single auto focus point with a manual override option (S-AF/MF).  The four-way controller allows me to move the point around, though sometimes I just do things the lazy way; that is, focus using the center focus point and then recompose. My guess is that if I had better continuous autofocus with tracking (like the newest Olympus, the OM-1), I'd have a better chance of tracking and focusing on a moving bee. In this case I was actually focusing on the plant and when the bee arrived it was (lucky for me) in the same focal plane as the plant.

Lamb's Ear and Bumble Bee

Lamb's Ear and Bumble Bee

Buttercups are quite shiny.  You can see on the left side of the flower a few specular highlights. I'd prefer not to have the highlights, but you get what you get.

Normally I would try to focus on the eyes of an insect, but this honey bee never gave me the chance, and flew off while still revealing only its backside to me.  Nevertheless, I really like this composition.  The body of the bee is rather symetrical, as is the flower. And the bright yellow stripes match nicely the yellow color of the blossom.

Beyond that, I like the simplicity of the photo. Rather delicate and minimalistic.

I've added this image to my 2022 collection of photos taken at Acton Arboretum: 
https://www.peterfraileyphoto.com/actonarboretum2022

Honey Bee on Long Stem ButtercupOLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

I picked out this one iris to photograph.  Flowers are so much fun to process now that Lightroom has tools that will automatically select and mask the subject (or the sky if you are processing landscapes).

In this case I asked it to select the subject, and it accurately selected and masked the blossom. I then chose to invert the selection so I could darken the background to make it less distracting, as well as make the background a bit more blurry by reducing clarity, texture, and sharpening.  I then selected the subject a second time and played a bit with the exposure sliders to adjust the iris blossom to taste. 

Before:

After

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

It seems most serious flower photographers use a tripod.  I do not.  A tripod just takes the fun away for me.  But I do carry with me a small fold-up stool that resides in the back of my van.  This helps me get low and to hold the camera steady. When I put my elbows on my knees I become a human tripod.  

Red TrilliumOLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA Red Trillium

White TrilliumOLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA White Trillium

Also helpful is that the Olympus camera I use gives me over 6 stops of image stabilization. In addition, I usually shoot at 1/250 second to reduce the liklihood of subject blur due to the small amount of flower movement I believe exists even on "calm" days. I typically shoot with an aperture of F4 and F8 and then choose the ones I like best when I am home and on the computer.  F8 of course gives more depth of field.  F4 gives better background blur. Less frequently I will use the in-camera photostacking feature with F4 ... this gives me the blurred background of F4 and the greater depth of field after stacking that I could otherwise only get with F8 or higher (i.e. narrower) F stops. I am happy with auto ISO; though if it gets too high (ISO 1600?) I will try dropping the shutter speed to 1/125.

My 2022 gallery of flowers photographed at Acton Arboretum is here:

https://www.peterfraileyphoto.com/actonarboretum2022
 

It's amazing to me that a town of 3,732 (2010 census) was once the busiest seaport north of Boston (before 1807), and was a center for shipbuilding, fishing, and lumber. The name Wiscasset comes from the Abenaki word that means "coming out from the harbor but you don't see where."

Heading north, on the left just before crossing the bridge over the Sheepscot River is the famous Red’s Eats, where a long line starts early for its famous lobster rolls. One can expect a wait of over an hour on many days.  I’m not sure when they open, but I have seen the line starting at 10am.

We’ve been to Red’s, but only once, just to say we did.  Now, we drive past Red’s, and turn almost immediately right into a small parking lot next to a picturesque wharf on which is located Sprague’s Lobsters. The lobster rolls here are as good as any, in our opinion.  And the view is spectacular. 

Sprague's

Like Red’s, Sprague's advertises that each lobster roll holds more than one lobster. The line is shorter and you can finish off with an ice cream cone if you wish. The menu is extensive (you can view it on their Facebook page), but we’ve never done anything but order lobster rolls and fries.

All dining is outdoors on picnic tables.  Like most lobster shacks, you order at the window and are given a number.  When your number is called you go get your tray. After you finish eating, you bus your own tray. Simple.

Sprague's
No line at 11:30.  Perhaps a bit early for most for lunch,
but this was the time we rolled through Wiscasset.
ATM is framed as a bit of humor... the cost of a lobster roll has skyrocketed ($28!)

Sprague's
Line at 12:30. Lunch time!

Sprague's
Orders are taken at a window in the building barely seen in the middle of this pano photo.
Lobster dinners are boiled and prepared in the building on the right (see below too)
where also the ice cream is served. 

Sprague's Sprague's
Two lobster rolls, fries, and melted butter.
 

Sprague's
Old Pilings

Sprague's
This photo is all about the clouds.

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McLoon's Lobster Shack

The view from the picnic tables

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McLoon's Wharf

McLoon’s Wharf is next door to the Lobster Shack. You can see a few of the buildings in the photo below. There are a few more buildings behind these. 

It’s a thriving wholesale lobster buying station. Lobstermen from all over the area bring their catch here. Lobsters are then delivered to McLoon's wholesale processing plant in Portland. From the Portland facility, lobsters and other fish are sold all over the country. 

The editors at Yankee Magazine declared McLoon’s “Best of New England” in 2015. The magazine touts the lobster, crab cakes, burgers, hot dogs, and homemade desserts. (Although unfortunately I did not see any desserts on the menu... I'll have to ask next summer.)

seal harbor

Summer passengers depart and return three times a day on the Elizabeth Ann and supplies and cargo travel on the Laura B. Both ships are operated by the Monhegan Boat Line, which has provided ferry service since 1914. There are no car ferries to the island.

Port Clyde Maine
"Elizabeth Ann" 
Sony A6500 plus 18-135mm zoom @ 74mm
F5.6 - 1/350sec - ISO100

Port Clyde Maine
"Monhegan Boat Line"
Note: Laura B on the left
Sony A6500 plus 18-135mm zoom @39mm
F8 - 1/500sec - ISO100

Another attraction at Port Clyde is the Marshall Point Lighthouse. The first light station here was build in 1832.  It was 20 feet tall tower, and was lit by seven lard oil lamps with 14” reflectors.  The present lighthouse was built in 1857 and is a 31 foot tower made of white brick on a granite foundation. It was originally lit with a fifth-order Fresnel lens. This lens was replaced with a modern 12” optic in 1980 when the lighthouse was automated. The lighthouse was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1988.

Port Clyde Maine "Marshall Point Light"
Note: Elizabeth Ann on the right heading to Monhegan Island
Sony A6500 plus 18-135mm zoom @73mm
F8 - 1/350sec - ISO100

Port Clyde Maine
Sony A6500 + 18-135mm zoom @ 33mm
F8 - 1/350sec - ISO100

Incidentally, this lighthouse appeared in a scene in the movie Forrest Gump, when Tom Hanks’ character reaches the Atlantic Ocean to conclude his cross-country “for no particular reason” run.

If I had not already been over-caffeinated, a final attraction (for me) might have been “Squid Ink Coffee”, right next to the Port Clyde General Store. With a name like squid ink, it has to be good coffee! Plus it has 5 stars on TripAdvisor.

Port Clyde Maine
Sony A6500 + 18-135mm zoom @129mm
F8 - 1/250sec - ISO100

Port Clyde Maine
iPhone 12 @ 26mm-equiv
F1.6 - 1/2200sec - ISO32

sony A6500 _ 18-135mm zoom @ 135mm
F5.6 - 1/350sec - ISO100
Squid Ink Coffee is located to the right of the general store

Below are a few images taken from the fishing village side of Port Clyde:

Port Clyde Maine
A6500 + 18-135mm zoom @ 135mm
F8 - 1/250sec - ISO100

Port Clyde Maine
A6500 + 18-135mm zoom @ 18mm
F8 - 1/250sec - ISO100

Port Clyde Maine
A6500 + 18-135mm zoom @ 18mm
F8 - 1/200sec - ISO100
Port Clyde Maine
A6500 + 18-135mm zoom @ 116mm
F8 - 1/500sec - ISO100 

A6500 + 18-135mm @ 29mm
F8 - 1/500sec - ISO100

I was shocked at how good the iPhone 12 is in the dark. ... I was also shocked at how long I had to work on the Sony raw file to get it to look decent. It was at least a half-hour.

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The pictures below of a lobstering operation were taken at about 4:30am on June 20th, just as the sun was peaking over the horizon. I tried to frame the photos identically. One difference I didn’t notice at the time, is that the iPhone image (immediately below) was captured after the lights on the second floor of the boat house were turned on.  That really adds something to the feel of the image, and is why this is the photo I chose to post on Instagram and Facebook.  I thought it would have greater appeal.

iPhone Image:

iPhone 12 - 26mm(equiv) - F1.6 - 1/50sec - ISO500
This is an OOC jpg cropped to 3:2 aspect ratio.
An 8 x 12" print was spectacular IMO.  Surprised, I will experiment with larger.
I'd like to see at what size this image starts to fall apart.
 

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The Sony A6500 had the 18-135mm F4-F5.6 zoom attached set at 20mm (30mm-equiv). Settings were: F4, 1/60th, ISO2500. I am not thrilled with the settings.  Looking now I think I should have turned the control dial out of aperture priority and into manual mode, and adjusted the shutter speed to 1/30th second so as to drop ISO to 1250, or maybe even put my elbows on the railing around the deck where I was positioned and give 1/15th a try with the ISO at 625. This would have increased dynamic range (though perhaps not enough to really notice) and reduced noise (which I ultimately reduced in Topaz).

I'd like to point out that I had focusing problems with this Sony set up.  The lens wouldn’t focus, even in the bright areas of the composition! (That made me chuckle because the lowly iPhone locked focus and exposure immediately).  I am happy that the 18-135 lens at least has a MF/AF switch on the lens barrel, as switching to MF then made it easy to focus accurately.

A6500 Image:

Sony A6500
Lightroom default "Adobe Color" profile was applied to A6500 raw filec
These colors are terrible.

Sony A6500
Here I applied adjustments using the Basic panel in Lightroom.
At this point there was more I could do in Lightroom, but instead I exported the image to Luminar.
 

In Luminar, I used their basic filter for landscapes and played with the sliders. After all that, I didn’t like the noise, so I subsequently exported the file to Topaz DeNoise AI.
I am not sure the difference is noticable with the file compression on this blog,
but I preferred this rendition. The sky looks better to me.
 

Sony A6500
Once I brought the image back into Lightroom from Topaz I experimented
(first time!) with the new Color Grading sliders for midtones, highlights, and shadows.
I just played around with them and watched how the sliders effected the colors.
It's unlikely I could duplicate what I did.
 

I liked this final result.  It took about 30 minutes to get there and it was fun because it was a learning experience.  I printed this one and the iPhone image on 8 x 12" paper.  I  really can't tell the difference in the results, certainly not at a normal viewing distance, other than I already knew that there were slight color differences... and also the scene difference of the boat house lights in the iPhone image.  To me that visual difference makes all the difference in terms of which I like better. 

Thomaston Grocery has 4.7 stars in Yelp

Thomaston Grocery is the grocery store closest (about 20 minutes) to where we were staying in Spruce Head, Maine for a week.  It would not have been too much further to drive to Rockland to shop in one of at least two large chain markets, but it was much more fun to simplify our lives by shopping at this little local corner store. By the way it has 4.7 stars in Yelp.

Really, it had everything we needed, with of course a few compromises here and there like not having our favorite chips, or when we stopped once and they were sold out of Amy's blueberry pies. Or when they ran out of New York and Boston daily newspapers, but heck, what's wrong with reading the Bangor Daily News?

Sometimes (all the time?) life can be much more enjoyable when things are kept simple and the choices are fewer.

Keeping things simple, all five of the images in this posting were taken with the iPhone 12 mini (i.e. pocketable model).

Amy Upham makes wonderful pies.

Thomaston Grocery seems to do a nice lunch business.
In the back of the store is a deli with a large sandwich menu.

Mostly these photos were taken with the Sony A6500 and "kit" 18-135mm zoom. This lens does a very nice job with closeup compositions, and can even get close enough for a 1:2 macro equivalent when needed. 

"Cleat"

"Old Hinge"

Old plywood kitchen countertop and classic enamel camp mug holding by breakfast.

"Maine Blueberry Pie" 
iPhone 12 image.

"Oar Lock"

This lamp, with its repurposed electric meter, had me smiling. 

I think this rusted tool lying on a stone wall is for making adjustments on a chainsaw. 

Recharging a couple of devices and a few camera batteries. 

This June was (I am writing this in August) different.  The numbers looked terrific (in June, that is) and we knew we were welcome, as there were no restrictions on non-resident travel.  Plus we'd both been fully vaccinated so we ourselves weren't worried.

We chose to rent for a week an apartment above a boathouse in the Spruce Head area, south of Thomaston.  Over the prior 10 years we'd done this twice before.  It is owned by a camp that I went to as a youngster. The interesting thing about this spot is that it is on a wharf that is shared with working lobstermen. Fortunately, we too like to get up early, as there was often very-early morning activity on the wharf.  On those days, it usually meant sitting on our deck with our morning coffee watching the sunrise and the lobstermen beginning their day.

Boat house on the first floor. Apartment with viewing deck on the second floor.
Obviously low tide.

5:22am as viewed from our deck.

For this post I selected some of the images taken from the apartment (usually the deck, though a favorite one is from inside the kitchen as viewed through a screen window) that have lobstering as a theme. Unfortunately, we had been asked to give the fisherman their privacy, so we stayed off their premises.  We waved back and forth occasionally, but sadly we never had a chance to meet any of them.

4:23am.  This is an iPhone 12 image! OOC jpeg. 
F1.6 - 1/30sec - ISO500

From the kitchen window. iPhone 12.
F1.6 - 1/2000sec - ISO32

 
iPhone 12 image with ultra wide lens (13mm-equiv)
F2.4 - 1/220sec - ISO25 

I was not optimistic about finding nice photos, let alone anything that would be "portfolio" quality.  I have done almost no traveling during the last 18 months, and last summer/fall we even cancelled a total of 3 separate weeks of vacation in Maine. That was sad for many reasons, but those trips to Maine have been a major source of images to feed into the monthly club salons.

I did nevertheless use Lightroom filtering today to pick out four photos that I like.  Not the best photos in the world, but the best I have from last summer... one from June, one from July, and two from August. I used the same camera for each one, but a different lens each time.

After picking these four images, I smiled when I realized all four were taken while standing in our front yard. I guess that isn't surprising to me when I think about it, because we were at home most of the time. But like all my photographer friends, I have the urge to "press the shutter" now and again. [Robin Wong calls it "Shutter Therapy" and I think he's right.... off topic, but I think that is one reason it's gratifying to have a camera with a sweet shutter sound.]

IrisOLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

"Iris"
June 2, 2020
Olympus E-M1
90mm all-manual legacy Tamron F2.8 Macro
F? - 1/2000sec - ISO200
Stacked Images (4) in Photoshop

Storm Cloud Blocks SunOLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

"Storm Cloud Blocking Sun"
August 24, 2020
Olympus E-M1
Olympus 12-100mm F4 @ 40mm-equiv
F5/6 - 1/2000sec - ISO200

 

FawnOLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

"Fawn"
August 8, 2020
Olympus E-M1
Panasonic 100-300mm F4-F5.6 zoom @ 437mm-equiv
F5.1 - 1/125sec - ISO2500

Daytime Quarter MoonOLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

"Daytime Quarter Moon"
July 12, 2020
Olympus E-M1
Olympus 40-150mm F2.8 + 1.4x teleconverter @ 421mm-equiv
F4 - 1/320sec - ISO320
 

I thought the original .jpg image was great.  (At the time I was just learning about .raw files.) It is one of my favorite photos, perhaps because of the great memories I have of that camp. But in addition to the memories, I think the soft colors are very appealing.  They remind me of sherbet. And I love the minimalist composition.

I thought that with some of the post processing knowledge I have slowly acquired over the years, plus a couple of handy Lightroom plug-ins, that I could "help" to colors a little.  For this I used Viveza 2.  But I have also acquired Topaz DeNoise AI and this was wonderful in reducing the noise of this 1600 ISO image. It is amazing how bad ISO 1600 was on this old camera.

***

Here is what I came  up with using Nik Viveza 2 and three control points, and Topaz DeNoise AI at standard auto setting, both set up as plugins to Lightroom Classic:

"Cat Boat"
August 16, 2009
Olympus E-520
14-42mm zoom lens @ 42mm
F5.6 - 1/60sec - ISO1600
Edited in Lightroom, Viveza 2, and Topaz AI DeNoise

***

Below is the .jpg file I started with. Even with these low resolution images, I think the noise difference is noticeable.

This file was processed in 2009 with the original version of Lightroom.

I made things real simple last week at the Arboretum.  I took an extra battery and one camera with lens.  It was the Olympus E-M1 and the 40-150mm F2.8 zoom.  It gets pretty close to a 1:2 (35mm equivalent) macro capability from a descent enough distance that I could stay on the trails and avoid brushing up against bushes and ticks.

These eight images were all processed in Lightroom and boosted a bit with Luminar. Two were the result of photo stacking 8 and 9 images, respectively.  I've indicated this in the description.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
"Peony"
May 14, 2021
Olympus E-M1
Olympus 45-150mm F2.8 @67mm (134mm equiv)
F5.6 - 1/160sec - ISO200


OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
"Trillium"
May 14, 2021
Olympus E-M1
Olympus 45-150mm F2.8 @ 130mm (260mm equiv)
F5.6 - 1/250sec - ISO500

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
"Narcissus" (a.k.a. daffodil)
May 14, 2021
Olympus E-M1
Olympus 45-150mm F2.8 @ 150mm (300mm equiv)
F2.8 - 1/2,500sec - ISO200

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
"Opening Cone Flower"
May 14, 2021
Olympus E-M1
Olympus 45-150mm F2.8 @ 150mm (300mm equiv)
F5.6 - 1/400sec - ISO200

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
"Tulip"
May 14, 2021
Olympus E-M1
Olympus 45-150mm F2.8 @ 150mm (300mm equiv)
F2.8 - 1/4,000sec - ISO200

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

"Iris"
May 14, 2021
Olympus E-M1
Olympus 45-150mm F2.8 @ 106mm (212mm equiv)
F2.8 - 1/500sec - ISO200
Focus stack of 9 images in Photoshop

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

"Azalea"
May 14, 2021
Olympus E-M1
Olympus 45-150mm F2.8 @ 106mm (212mm equiv)
F2.8 - 1/500sec - ISO200
Focus stack of 8 images in Photoshop

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

"Columbine"
May 14, 2021
Olympus E-M1
Olympus 45-150mm F2.8 @ 100mm (200mm equiv)
F5.6 - 1/200sec - ISO200
 

During the rain I took the camera out and walked around the yard looking for any new growth that might be popping out because of the rain. It seems that we have a bumper crop this year of maple seed helicopters.  I hope that is a good thing, but was told by an arborist once that it may be a sign of stress.

Before and after, below: There was a lot of editing going on here.  I started and ended with Lightroom, but also boosted colors in Luminar using one of the filters, and reduced the noise of ISO 1000 with DeNoise AI from Topaz Labs:

After

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA "Maple Seed Helicopters"
April 29, 2021
Olympus E-M1
Olympus 12-100mm zoom @ 100mm (200mm equiv.)
F5.6 - 1/200sec - ISO1000
Edited in Lightroom, Topaz Denoise, and Luminar

Before:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Landscapes are just to opposite.  You can have three mountain peaks (I'm thinking Grand Teton National Park) in one image, but I can view them no bigger than on my 24" computer screen or perhaps a 30" print.

Because macro images are seen bigger than life on the computer screen, you often see things you did not see with the naked eye or through the camera's viewfinder. The image below of a coneflower is such an example.

Do you see the partially hidden inch worm?  That made me smile. I had no idea it was there until I viewed the image, larger than real life, on my computer screen.

Coneflower with Inch WormOLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA "Coneflower and Inchworm"
August 3, 2019
Olympus E-M1
Olympus 12-100mm F4 @ 100mm (200mm equivalent)
F4 - 1/400sec - ISO200
 

These were taken over a year ago, with the Olympus E-M1 and either the Panasonic 40-140mm zoom F3.5-5.6 or the Olympus 60m F2.8 macro lens. About half of the photos with each.  I see that those taken with the 14-140 (which has good close up capabilities as you can see) were taken wide open at the range of 40mm (F4.7) to 125mm (F5.5) depending on the size of the ornament. Those taken with the 60mm were at F2.8 or F4.

The ornaments were placed on our wooden coffee table, sometimes covered with fabric. Our Christmas tree, with lights turned on, is in the background, sufficiently distanced to provide some blur. 

I set the camera on a tripod and attached a flash to the hot shoe.  The flash was bounced off the ceiling and wall to the left of the ornaments. I don't remember exact exposure settings, but usually I will reduce camera exposure by one stop. One stop reduction results in reducing the light by half.  This of course would darken the photo if the flash were turned off. I then set the flash on manual mode, and use whatever fraction of full power (1/1, 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, ... 1/250) is needed to bring up the exposure and get it right. In this way I am balancing ambient light and flash light by about 50/50.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA Holiday Vikings

So these two "seascapes" were from the summer before last. The body of water is Penobscot Bay, Maine. Both are sunrise photos.

I'm posting them here today because they came to mind this week as I searched my Lightroom catalog for several digital images to submit to my photoclub for the monthly "salon" (a fancy word for competition, though I think it's healthier to think of it as an opportunity to get feedback from a skilled and experienced (usually) judge).

These were submitted to the club for the category of "scapes".

Schooner at DawnOLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA "Schooner at Dawn"
July 13, 2019
Olympus E-M1
Olympus 12-100mm F4 PRO zoom @17mm (35mm equivalent)
F4 - 1/30sec - ISO400
Edited in Lightroom CC and Photoshop
______________________________________ 

Waiting for the SunriseOLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA "Waiting for the Sunrise"
October 3, 2019
Olympus E-M1
Olympus 12-100mm PRO zoom @ 14mm (28mm equivalent)
F4 - 1/40sec - ISO800
Edited in Lightroom CC and Photoshop

I wasn't too excited about any of the photos I took. The oak leaves and even the maple leaves were all brown, and I was hoping for something more colorful.  (Weeks earlier the red maples had dropped their leaves and they had already been gathered and dismissed to the woods, so there were no more colorful leaves on the ground.)

But a little with the Lightroom brush tool had me smiling.  Basically I used the brush to reduce the exposure on everything surrounding the hero oak leaf that is the main subject.  Because of the white outline of frost on the edges, by darkening the surrounding leaves I was able to make the subject leaf "pop".  This also kept the background from being (too) distracting.

After cropping and processing in Lightroom:

"Frost around the Edges"
November 15, 2020
Panasonic GX80/85
Olympus 60mm F2.8 macro
F5.6 - 1/125sec - ISO320
Processed in Lightroom Classic
_______________________________

Before Cropping and Editing:

As I mentioned in the prior post, we actually never see daylily blossoms, though we have plenty of planted bulbs.  Our problem comes from the deer, all of them having created a worn highway through our yard.  And it's as if our property serves as a rest area where they can stop to snack on our bushes and planting, during their daily travels along this highway. With the daylilies, they eat the bud just before it is about to blossom, and they leave everything else; as if they know that by leaving the greenery they will have a supply of blossoms available to them next season.

The photo below is a fairly typical photo.  

Dragonflies are very compliant, so you can usually get quite close.  They will often rest like this for many minutes before flying off.

In this case I did not get too close, perhaps 3' away. That is because I was experimenting with a newly acquired (but used) 2x teleconverter for the 40-150mm F2.8. I was all the way zoomed in at 300mm (600mm equivalent).  Image stabilization worked great because I shot this hand-held with 10 stacked images, each image at 1/100 sec. shutter speed. 

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
"Dragonfly"
August 1, 2020
Olympus E-M1
Olympus 40-150 F2.8 plus MC-20 (2x teleconverter) @ 300mm (600mm equivalent)
F8 - 1/100sec - ISO800
10 images focus stacked

Daylilies are pretty too, but unfortunately all they have been able to collect in recent years are deer, and all the buds are eaten before they blossom.

"Droplets"
Panasonic GX80/85
Olympus 60mm F2.8 Macro
F5.6 - 1/125sec - ISO500
21 images focus stacked 
________________________

"Butterfly"
Olympus E-M1
Tamron 90mm F2.8 Macro with adapter
F? - 1/1250sec - ISO500 

This may look like a moth, but note the proboscis for sucking nectar.
Moths do not have proboscuses.
________________________________

"Butterfly"
Sony A6500
Tamron manual focus 90mm F2.8 Macro 
F? - 1/300sec - ISO250
Note the slightly redder color cast coming from the Sony A6500,
compared with the prior image of the same butterfly,
photographed with the Olympus E-M1
_____________________________________

"Cranefly"
Panasonic GX80/85
Olympus 60mm F2.8 Macro
F5.6 - 1/125sec - ISO250
21 images focus stacked
________________________

According to our local meteorologist Gary Fischer (CBS Local affiliate), records show that in years when a measurable October snowfall was received, the winter snowfall that followed was "lackluster". Not good news for we skiers.

Another interesting fact is that in 2020 we had the fewest days between snowfalls, with .7" on April 18 and 3.5" on October 30.  Because both those days had below freezing temperatures this also means we had the shortest growing season on record, at 193 days.

When I got close to this maple while walking in the yard yesterday, I imagined it asking me, "Hey Peter. What season is it?" That tree must be very confused: green summer leaves, yellow fall leaves, white winter snow.

"What season is it?
October 30, 2020
Sony A6500 
Sony 18-135mm F3.5-5.6 @ 27mm (40mm equivalent)
F4 - 1/60sec - ISO100
Lightroom Classic

I liked the contrast between this fern and the brown oak and maple leaves that are covering the ground. The fern was bent over and about one foot above the leaf-covered background, though it does look like it is actually lying on the ground. Perhaps that is because so much of the scene is in focus.

I took this photo from directly above.  Because of the bend in the fern I focus stacked four images to get the entire fern in focus, the middle being closest to the lens and the bottom and top being farthest. Unfortunately, the stacking did bring the brown leaves into sharper focus than I wanted. But all-in-all I was pleased.

"October Fern"
October 27, 2020
Panasonic GX80/85
Olympus 60mm F2.8 macro
F5.6 - 1/30sec - ISO200
4 images focus stacked in Photoshop
Processed in Lightroom Classic

What I have posted here today is another wabi-sabi composition. It's a single oak leaf resting on two split oak billets. One doesn't ordinarily think of a fall oak leaf as gorgeous.  Perhaps that's because they lack color compared with maples, and are usually all brown.  And, to be honest, our lawn all covered (as we speak) with brown oak leaves is not pretty at all.

But having said that, there is one small oak sapling on our property that has this year put out these (relatively?) colorful leaves.  The reds and oranges and browns are subtle, but when viewed closely I just found it all so beautiful.  

*wabi-sabi is a world view centered on the acceptance of transcience and imperfection.  The aesthetic is sometimes described as one of appreciating beauty in nature that is imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete.

"Wabi-Sabi Oak Leaf"
October 24, 2020
Panasonic GX80/85
Olympus 60mm F2.8 macro
F8 - 1/125sec - ISO1000
Edited in Lightroom, Nik Viveza, and Skylum Luminar

I further darkened and softened the background by surrounding the ferns with an oval, using the radial tool in Lightroom.  Then I darkened and softened (decreased sharpening and texture, and increased noise reduction) the area outside of the oval, to draw attention to the main subject.

Today, a week after I took this photo, the ferns are brown and shriveled up, having been beaten down by the season and the rain. I'm glad I didn't wait any longer to grab my camera and take a shot.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA "Fall Ferns"
October 3, 2020
Olympus E-M1
Olympus 12-100mm @ 100mm (200mm equivalent)
F5.6 - 1/200sec - ISO1000

Given another chance, I think I'd use F4 and 1/100sec.  This would
allow me to decrease the ISO to about 250. 
On the other hand ISO 1000 is not particularly objectionable to me.

I was hoping it would turn out to be a rare and sought-after plant, only to find with a bit of research that it is considered a “weed pest” and a “parasite plant”!

It has no chlorophyll-producing leaves. It seems this means that it is getting its energy from a host plant. This is apparently done through the root system, with the broomrape’s modified roots penetrating the host plant. (FWIW, the host plant was not obvious or discernible, but these were growing at the edge of our bed of day lilies that abuts our gravel driveway.)

Like many of the flowers I have been posting I used in-camera focus stacking and photoshop to combine (into one) a series of identically composed images focused at different points (front to back) on the flowers. In this case I used 20 images to get everything sharp from front to back. Photoshop combined them all in one .tiff image which I then further processed in Lightroom Classic.

"Broomrape"
May 28, 2020
Panasonic GX80/85
Olympus 60mm F2.8 Macro (120mm equivalent)
F4 - 1/400sec - ISO200
20 focus bracketed images stacked in Photoshop
and further processed in Lightroom Classic

Laurie bought some seedlings in the spring to create a small garden of herbs on our deck.  She grew a few flowers on the deck too, and the Cosmos I featured in my prior post created some beautiful pink blossoms.  

What you see here are the flowers of a “garlic chive” plant. We are not sure what parts of the plant we will eat, but we understand that the entire plant is edible.  For example, both the stalk and leaves of this mild garlic flavored vegetable can be used as one would use onions, chives, or green onions. Regardless of what we will include in recipes, the flowers are pretty and I thought nice enough to photograph.

Here I stood on a stool because the stalk is about 3’ high, and I stacked 10 images to get (most) everything in focus. The background is blurred significantly but you can still make out the clay pot that holds this plant.

"Garlic Chive Flowers"
September 1, 2020
Panasonic GX80/85
Panasonic 30mm F2.8 Macro (60mm equivalent)
F2.8 - 1/100sec - ISO200
10 focus bracketed images aligned and combined in Photoshop
Additional processing in Lightroom Classic

For size and perspective 

Further down is a "before and after" comparison to show the result of applying a vignette surrounding the flower. I think it really makes the blossom pop. But as always, YMMV.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA "Cosmos"
August 29, 2020
Olympus E-M1
Olympus 12-100mm F4 @ 100mm (200mm equivalent)
F4 - 1/200sec - ISO640
Processed in Lightroom Classic

Before and After Processing

Applying a vignette is part of my workflow for flowers.  I will usually use the radial tool in Lightroom to darken the area around the flower, all the way to the edges and corners.  I will also back off on the sliders for sharpness, texture, and noise control, in an effort to soften the background.

If the vignette bleeds over onto the flower (it usually does), I will use the brush tool and the "erase" mode for the brush to erase the vignette effect from the outer edges of the flower, where the bleeding takes place.  This allows me to bring the vignette right up to the flower without actually affecting the flower itself.

As a final touch, I incorporated the brush tool again.  This time I set it at something like -.5 on the exposure slider to provide darkening by one-half stop wherever I applied the brush. I used this to brush over the lighter areas in the background so they are not distracting, but I didn't darken them fully as I wanted the flower to be viewed in the context of its environment.  In this case it meant darkening the brightest green areas.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

The image above is an example from yesterday. This is the final version, after processing in Photoshop and Lightroom Classic. It's a hydrangea that has begun turning pink. This is not a technically good picture. It is not worth keeping, except for illustration purposes. I used focus stacking to combine 10 images. But there was some breeze, which moved the flower a bit in each subsequent frame. This created a nightmare for photoshop to align the images. If you look closely you will see some ghosting of edges (no you do not have double vision) where photoshop couldn't align the edges of some of the petals. Aside from that, to get to this final image I used the workflow suggestions outlined above.

Some of the processing steps

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA The original image
There's plenty of room to crop to taste
I find the leaves distracting. YMMV

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA Vignette applied to darken and soften the areas outside of the flower

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA Final cropping. Tighter and with a 5:4 aspect ratio.
Applied a brush to the brighter green areas to darken and further soften those areas.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA Same as the image above this one, except that Content Aware in
Photoshop was used to eliminate a couple of blown out (white, no detail) areas.

Because I wanted to emphasize the tables full of peaches, I used the Lightroom "brush" tool to darken the corners and edges of the photo and I brought this in toward the table. You can especially see the result in the gravel surface on the left, and the road and cardboard boxes on the right. I did not use the "auto mask" feature. I think of it as vignetting because I am darkening the outer areas of the photo... but this process certainly also fits the definition of dodging and burning.

Before/After
 

I most often use the "radial" tool for making a circular or oval or oblong vignette, but in this case the brush tool let me darken a more defined (and not circular) area.  I darkened the areas outside the table by about .5 stops. 

That was all I had planned to do with the image before posting it on our cooking blog.  But then I thought: why not brighten the peaches a bit.  So I used the brush tool again to brush over the peaches, and I added about .5 stops of exposure. I did use the "auto mask" feature so that the brush would only apply a mask to the color of the peaches.

Vignettes are a great way to focus attention to the main subject of the photo. By darkening areas outside the main subject, it prevents (reduces) those areas from being a distraction.

"Springdell Farm Peaches"
August 25, 2020
iPhone 5S
4.15mm F2.2 lens (about 28-30mm equivalent)
F2.2 - 1/120sec - ISO32

We dodged a bullet yesterday as I watched this cloud from our yard.  It stayed to the south of us, and I heard from a friend in the neighboring town that she'd had a torrential downpour... while we had barely a drop.  

The cloud itself was beautiful, especially framed by a bright blue sky.  But I thought the shafts of light seen here were especially awesome... enough for me to run into the house and grab my camera.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

"Edge of the Storm"
August 24, 2020
Olympus E-M1
Olympus 12-100mm F4 zoom
F5.6 - 1/2000sec - ISO200
Raw file ​​​processed in Lightroom and Luminar

The two blossoms in this photo are at different maturities, though I doubt I appreciated this until I viewed the image closer on my computer monitor:

On the right, the five-fingered stigma (this is the female part of the flower and it is in the very center of the blossom) is closed with the tips of the fingers touching each other, and the stamens (the male part of the plant) that surround the stigma have not yet opened to release pollen.

Compare this with the blossom on the left, where the five fingers have opened and look like a starfish. At this time the stigma is said to be "receptive" (to pollination). You will also notice that the pollen has begun to be released from the stamens... it's the powdery yellow substance which is likely to be carried from blossom to blossom by bees.

For this image I (likely) set the Panasonic GX80/85 for 10 focus bracket shots, though I see that I only used six. I'm guessing that the others were out of focus. I combined the six raw images in Photoshop which automatically aligned and stacked the images into 1 tiff file. I then brought the tiff file into Lightroom where I made some adjustments using the basic panel, in particular pulling back the highlights and opening the shadows. I also used the radial tool to create a vignette to darken the edges and corners of the image.

After stacking and processing

garden geranium

"Garden Geranium"
June 6, 2020
Panasonic GX80/85
Olympus 60mm F2.8 Macro (120mm equivalent)
F3.2 - 1/400sec - ISO800
(1/200sec at ISO400 would have been a better choice)
Stacked in Photoshop and further edited in Lightroom Classic

For this image I set the Panasonic GX80/85 for 10 focus bracket shots.  My intention is usually to use the largest aperture which is F2.8 on this 60mm Olympus macro lens.  But I see somehow I nudged it to F3.2.  I combined the raw images in Photoshop which automatically aligned and stacked the 10 images into 1 tiff file.

Not much was done to tweak the resulting single tiff file.  I did increase the exposure slider in Lightroom by about one stop, and I further brightened the whites by moving the highlights slider to +30. The texture slider was moved to +20. I left sharpening at default

I used the radial tool to provide a darkened vignette of the areas (the green background mostly) outside the blossoms. 

After stacking and processing

spirea

"Spirea"
May 23, 2020
Panasonic GX80/85
Olympus 60mm F2.8 Macro (120mm equivalent)
F3.2 - 1/640sec - AutoISO400
Stacked in Photoshop and further edited in Lightroom Classic

With this one, I went for maximum sharpness.  I set the aperture wide open at F2.8 to get a blurred background, and focus bracketed 10 raw images.  I combined the images in Photoshop which automatically aligned and stacked the 10 images into 1 tiff file.

All the images as well as the tiff file (see the "before" image at the bottom of this post) were washed out giving what appeared to be a nearly sold yellow flower with no depth nor any nooks and crannies. The histogram showed that the yellow channel was nearly blown out.

After stacking in Photoshop, and with a little work in Lightroom, I was able to bring out details. The sliders that received major use were those of contrast, texture, and dehaze. Not so obvious was the use of vignetting to darken the areas around the blossom. I used the radial tool for that.

After stacking and processing

"Perfect Dandelion"
May 17, 2020
Panasonic GX80/85
Olympus 60mm F2.8 Macro (120mm equivalent)
F2.8 - 1/400sec - AutoISO200
Stacked in Photoshop and further edited in Lightroom Classic

After stacking but before cropping and processing in Lightroom

"Little Oak Leaf"
May 17, 2020
Panasonic GX80/85
Olympus 60mm F2.8 Macro (120mm equivalent)
F2.8 - 1/400sec - AutoISO200
Edited in Lightroom

What was interesting to me is that I found a dozen or so of these leaves in about a 10 foot area, but was unable to spot the tree (bush?) from which they came.  All the leaves I could see in the bushes and trees surrounding our property were green.  And none of them were shaped like these.  Hmm.

Below are the before and after shots. Obviously I took some liberties, and all adjustments were completed in Lightroom Classic. I used the clone brush to eliminate some of the brown spots and other "imperfections" in the green leaf blades. And I used a vignette to darken the areas around the orange leaf. I think it improved the composition by eliminating a distraction, but your mileage may vary.

Before

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

After

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

"Orange and Green"
August 15, 2020
Olympus E-M1
Olympus 12-100mm @ 100mm (200mm equivalent)
F4 - 1/200sec - AutoISO200

"Blueberry Blossoms"
May 17, 2020
Panasonic GX80/85
Olympus 60mm F2.8 Macro
F4 - 1/500sec - AutoISO400
23 stacked images taken hand held using in-camera focus bracketing.
Aligned and combined in Photoshop.  Further processing in Lightroom.

So anyway, for both of these images I was already outside enjoying the day when a fawn and doe emerged from the woods and began foraging along the edge of the lawn. I am not happy to say that deer seem to love eating anything that we have planted.

The first image below was taken July 13 and the second one was taken less than one month later, on August 8. Marks on the doe tell me that it is the same doe on both dates, so I believe this is the same fawn. The fawn is almost the size of the doe. 

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA "Fawn"
July 13, 2020
Olympus E-M1
Olympus 40-150mm F2.8 + MC14 teleconverter
210mm - F5.6 - 1/15sec - AutoISO 400
I clearly got luck with this photo. At 1/15 sec this is photographer error.
1/125 or faster would have been more appropriate
though ISO would have been very high (3200).

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

"Fawn"
August 8, 2020 (almost four weeks later)
Olympus E-M1
Panasonic 100-300mm F4-F5.6
218mm - F5.1 - 1/125sec - AutoISO 2500

I especially like the color combination of the pink/red/orange winged seeds against the blurred green of the forest in the background.

"Maple 'Helicopters"
May 10, 2020
Panasonic GX80/85
Olympus 60mm F2.8 macro
F2.8 - 1/125sec - AutoISO 500
Lightroom Processed. Note purposeful vignetting.

But the morning after the storm was beautiful. I took my morning walk a bit earlier than usual. 45 minutes on the track of the local high school is my usual walking route.  This is a safe place to use earpods and listen to podcasts on my old iPhone 5s, which is also the camera I had with me at 6:45am when I was given this beautiful light.  

I have always enjoyed the blue color reproduced by my iPhone, and this image is no exception.  

 "The Morning After"
August 5, 2020 at 6:45am
iPhone 5S @ 4.15mm (about 28mm equivalent)
F2.2 - 1/2300sec - ISO32
__________________________
I used the pano mode so I could caputure the light on the stadium as well
as to match the track with the clouds in the sky.

"Backlit Maple Leaf"
May 17, 2020
Olympus E-M1
Olympus 40-150mm F2.8 @ 142mm

"New Growth Maple Leaves"
May 8, 2020
Panasonic GX80/85
Olympus 60mm macro
F5.6 - 1/125sec -  ISO1600

"New Maple Leaf Cluster"
May 25, 2020
Panasonic GX80/85
Olympus 60mm macro
F4 - 1/320 -  ISO400

[It is my experience that this is usually done from the underside where the bug is protected from view.  I think I remember from high school biology that there is more moisture on the underside of leaves (transporation?) so maybe the same is true of the blossom.... But don't quote me on that.]

"Phlox on the Rocks"
May 7, 2020
Panasonic GX80/85
Olympus 60mm F2.8 Macro
F4 - 1/1250sec - ISO200
9:30am light was a bit harsh, but I wanted to capture this fresh blossom before the insects found it.

My favorite is the first one, which I did feature on Instagram.  I like to composition and the detail.

"Unfolding Fern"
Olympus 40-150mm zoom at 150mm (300mm equivalent)
F2.8 - 1/800sec - ISO200
17 images stacked

I'm not sure why this one particular fern is brown while all the rest
are green.  But no question that it is healthy.

"Family Sticking Together" 
Is it just me? Or do you see it too?
Olympus 12-100 @ 92mm (184mm equivalent)
F4 - 1/250sec - ISO200
Single image, no stacking

I am able to work from home, though I do miss the people at the office.  My wife and I feel so fortunate to have a home with privacy, surrounded by wetlands and woods, and we feel grateful to have an income and food on the table.

Our children are adults and each continue to have their jobs, though there can be the expected frustration for them of teaching their children (our grandchildren) at home.  All are healthy at this time, though I do especially worry about my younger son who is a firefighter and paramedic in Cambridge, MA. Bless his heart, he has been doing the grocery shopping for us; though recently we have added Whole Foods delivery via Amazon Prime and curb-side pickup at a local grocery chain store. I also found Amazon Pantry. Seems to me that packages from Amazon are being delivered nearly daily!

Being at home, I found myself after the snow was gone in late April, grabbing my camera and walking around the yard looking for things to photograph. Eventually (April 26) I found my first subject: a rhododendron with a few early buds.

12-100 Olympus zoom at 100mm (200mm equiv)
F4-1/500sec-ISO200
I wish I'd used F8 get the two buds in the lower left (perhaps) in focus.
A lot of what I will post for flowers will be the result of focus stacking.
Keeping at F4, stacking of perhaps 5 images might have done the trick here,
while keeping the background out of focus

Nature is amazing.  Spring of course is a great time to see new life "springing" up all around.  We lack cultivated flowering plants at home, except some irises and rhodondrons. The deer have made sure that everything else has disappeared. But I have been able to find a number of wild plants growing and blooming, and even find weeds of interest and beauty. I have photographed a few little creatures as well.

I have posted a number of backyard photos on Instagram and Facebook. Nevertheless, I thought I would go back through them and place a number of them (and some others) on this blog, perhaps with a bit of explanation. Anyway, it is a project I now have time for.