After the Rains and a Micro Lens

I have a Nikkor 40mm Micro/Macro lens. I had put it aside for a while and decided to just shoot with the nifty 50 and the 85mm prime lenses. Now I don't have the pro lenses, but these nice primes are my go to lenses.
I tried shooting again with the 18-55mm lens but I just wasn't happy with the clarity compared to the primes.

With these fixed lenses, you can't just zoom in or out to 'get that shot'. You have to move your feet. I've found that I enjoy the challenge and now have a hard time going back to any other type of lens. I do however lust after a nice zoom.  I bought the Tamron 18-200mm last year thinking I had the bomb. Nope cheap lens, ... it does the trick in bright light but should only be used in mid range. And it is heavy. --- Edit on 10 17 17...eeks gads I took it out today and was able to make the Tamron work very well! ... Samples later!]

All right, with all of that garbeldy gook out of the way. What did I do? I put the 40mm on my Nikon and packed up my little old backpack and decided to go enjoy the fall colors. I planned on just hiking the 'bowl' up to the pine trees. This means a bit of brush busting through some deer trails.

Now as the name of the lens implies, it is great for close up work. And yes, you have to get 'close' up. Not so great when or if you are trying to shoot a bee for example.
However, it is great for the following.

Water droplets, leaves, and fungi. All such tiny things. I did have to kneel on the ground for the maidenhair fern. I had to get down close to the maple leaf and I got close and personal for the coral fungi. [That was a pure bonus!]

I kept walking down the trail wondering if I was going to regret this self challenge.

The woods were so incredibly beautiful. The colors were popping in the subtle light. The skies were overcast and letting in just enough diffused light to make the yellow leaves appear to glow.

I decided to explore this stump on the trail. Wow, I am glad I did.

I got a few of these droplets. All shots were hand held. I did get damp from kneeling and scrunching down in the leaves or leaning against the stump itself.

The light kept changing as there were breaks in the clouds once in a while.
I kept walking.

I cursed myself for not having a 'landscape' lens and then thought. Well, here is the challenge.
Go for it.

And I did.

Did I do okay? I think so. Did I satisfy my challenge? Yes I believe so.

It was a beautiful day to challenge myself. No tripod, nothing extra. Just a backpack with extra water and a pair of gloves.

I ended the hike at the soybean field at the top of the 'bowl'. I thought I'd try a hand held panoramic shot of the trees below me. The lone red tree was blazing away.

Yes, this worked! I can say with confidence that I can get landscape and micro/macro out of the same lens with nothing fancy.
Color me happy.
Color me satisfied.

Oh. And for the rest of the week the sun will shine brightly so I look forward to some fall adventures with Morris on some well groomed trails as well as a visit to the winter ice cave.
Fall is glorious.

Hopefully you can go out and enjoy it.

Am I camera Crazy?

Mid February isn't supposed to be quite this cold.  Wow! This morning it was -12 F.
Yesterday it did warm up to about 10 degrees and if you could get out of the wind, it actually was pleasant.

I had put off my errands in town most of the week so yesterday I grabbed my list and went.

I really don't like going to town.  I especially dislike going on Saturdays.
But there you go, I really just ended up putting it off until I had no other choice.

However, I put my Olympus E 420 in a camera bag and brought it along.  Sometimes an opportunity will present itself and ... well, you never know.

Olympus E 420 kit lens

And it did!  I love this curve in the gravel road.  I wanted to explore some more, but there were chores to do when I got home.

Point and Shoot Fujifilm

And the road conditions on the ridge were getting a bit nasty.

Regarding my Olympus camera.  I do love it and it is generally my go to camera for hiking because it is a lightweight DSLR.  It isn't the tanks that the Nikons are.
Don't get me wrong, I love my Nikon and the Nikkor lenses.  But the Nikon D5200 is sort of a primadonna.

Apparently it doesn't like cold or damp ... or humid weather.

However it really loves doing Still Life photography!

Nikon D5200 with Nikkor 40mm micro lens

And I love doing this work with it.

So.
Naughty me.  I began to look into mirrorless cameras.

A few years ago I saw an ad for an Olympus OMD-D E-M5 Mirrorless camera.  A man sets the camera on a tripod and watches as a storm approaches.  Rain slashes the window he is standing by.  The camera is shown, water droplets are covering it.
Zoom into the back of the camera and live view. Lightening flashes and the man in the house uses his smart phone to remotely take a photo.

In 2012 this camera was $1,499.  Ouch, way beyond my reach.
Now the camera is being discontinued.  A new and improved model will take its place. The price was affordable even to me.

Kudos for Olympus.  Their mirrorless line will take all lenses from the previous DSLR's.  Nikon and other companies have all gone with special lenses.

The nice thing about the Oly lenses is that they are lightweight enough to work with a mirrorless camera.

Olympus E 420 kit lens

My Nikon weighs approximately 44 oz with a 'kit' lens. Generally I carry an extra lens with me while hiking.

The Olympus OMD-D E-M5 weighs 22 oz. with the M. Zuiko ED 12-50mm lens I ordered. 

Well there, the cat is out of the bag.

I am looking forward to hiking with the Oly.  I won't have to drag around a heavy weight tripod with it either, I can go for a lightweight one! 

I won't have to worry about snowfall getting the camera damp as it is weather sealed as is the lens.

Just color me happy.

My Nikon D40 is being retired.  I sent out an email to a friend who has kids who are interested in photography.

Nikon D40 free to good home.  It will get a good home and lots of use also.

Olympus E 420 kit zoom lens

I am looking forward to all sorts of great adventures and hiking with a lighter camera.

Now to figure out how to make these cameras earn their keep.

That is the hard one!

Oh and for those of you reading?  Happy Valentines Day...one day early!

Nikon D5200 50mm lens

Enjoy your Saturday.  It looks like mostly indoor work for me today.  

Little things in the woods...

I had to have some fun in the woods.  I found these Star Wars Figurines in box of things that my youngest son left at our place when he moved out after a brief stay.

The figures are metal and actually quite heavy and very small.  I thought it would be fun to place them among the new growth in the woods.

While doing that I found some beautiful ferns that were just beginning to come up.

And I found groups of Blood Roots!

After my walk in the woods, I went home and did some work in the flower beds, moving some iris plants and hostas, along with some chives.

I noticed the Creeping Charlie was beginning to blossom.

I know that many people try to rid their yards of these plants as they are considered a nuisance to some.  I don't mind them at all, the tiny flowers are pretty and we simply mow over them.
They are pretty drought tolerant too.

Then lastly, one of my favorite yellow flowers!

The Happy Dandelion.

Bones. Still Life on a Budget.

I have to admit it.  I like to collect skulls and antlers when I walk in the woods.  I find them pretty fascinating and over the years I've gotten quite a collection.

I have bovine skulls, coyote skulls, 'possum, raccoon, and many deer skulls.
All of these bones and skulls have been discovered while hiking.

For my group on Fine Art Black and White photography, our assignment this week was on point of view or Depth of Focus.
I'd submitted a deer trail photo, then decided after seeing some 'still life' shots from other photographers that I'd try something inside.

[Good idea because it has been terribly cold here with wind chills in the -20's and below during the day.  Not fun for a photographer and pretty rough on the equipment too.]

I'd seen some beautiful perfume bottles, flowers, and other macro work.  But I am not a person who collects or has those things.

So I went out to my 'skull pile' and picked out some intact pieces to work with.

In the above shot, the left skull is raccoon, the middle is canine of some sort, and I am not sure what the right one is.  Possibly a 'possum.

This was a great experiment with my Nikkor 40mm Micro/Macro lens and the Dolica TX570 tripod.

I used a piece of black velvet and my old wooden chair to set the items on.

See?  You don't need an expensive set up to do some creative still life.  There is the brick wall, the beat up chair, the wrinkled black velvet and Morris's crate all in the way.

Yet I was able to work around this set up and create these shots.

I used natural lighting that came in from the window.

I plan on trying to do some shots like this tonight and use another skull or two from my collection, but use an LED flashlight and a desktop lamp to see what I can do with 'creative' household lighting.

So being a 'bone collector' finally had some benefits.
 

Review of my first experiences with Nikon D5200

A year ago I purchased the Nikon D3100 to upgrade from the D40.  Nikon really nailed some great things with the D3100.  
I also felt that they failed me in one area, but I was able to work around that aspect.  I didn't like the remote set up they had for the D3100.

I work around it by using the self timer which is set to 10 seconds.  My Olympus camera has some better choices at self timing.  12, 10, and 2 seconds.

I kept eyeing the new D5200 with the tilt swivel screen. 

 
I think Canon was the first to come out with this.
After spending many years of twisting myself into a pretzel to get some ground shots, or low level shots, I decided that I would like to add the tilt screen plus the new features that where offered by Nikon's D5200.

dpreview did a nice in depth review of this camera.  So why did I stay with the dark side?  Simple.  I have the kit lenses, I have a 50mm prime lens, and now the 40mm Nikkor lens.
I've become loyal to Nikon.

Out of the box, this Nikon did well.  The first shot I tried was on Auto.  One of the things I like to do is work my way through all the menus on the camera one at a time.

Today I put the camera on the 'child' symbol and basically pointed it at the dog.  The flash popped up and the AF found the dogs eyes and nose.  Did I say that I had the Micro 40mm lens on also?  Not the right choice for the shot, but hey ... I like doing things my way.

I've used it on Manual also for some low light shots of Christmas presents.  I haven't used 'Vivid' for color~~the colors do not seem to need enhancement with this camera.

Example from the previous post:

I love the choices in the ISO menus!  I like that I can now auto bracket shots too.  There is an HDR choice but I haven't used that yet.
There is a scene menu which I'd have to try out.  The only one I see that is really could be quite useful would be the sunset and dusk/dawn menu for quickly getting sunrise shots instead of fumbling around as I sometimes do to get a proper exposure.

I'm used to the Nikon D40 menu buttons and the D3100 buttons.  With those I was fairly fast at being able to change items like the ISO, Aperature, and Shutter speeds.  
The design on the back of the D5200 will take some real getting used to.

Just more hands on in different situations.  I probably won't do much with the video portion of the camera.  Video is not that important to me.

However there is an option to do interval time lapse photography.  
In fact every time I look in the basic 'start up' book it seems I find something else that this camera does.

The potential for this camera is fantastic.  
I can't wait to get out and put it through some real tests.

I will probably make use of the Live View when doing those shots that require me to lay on the ground upside down.

Like I had to for this shot...

Naughty or Nice?

Christmas is right around the corner.
It is an interesting time of year.
Have you been Naughty or Nice?  

The weather can make it very delightful to stay home and not battle the iced or snowy and hazardous roads.

What are you doing for Christmas?  Traveling?  Staying at home?  Do you have family arriving?

Christmas Day at our place is generally for quiet celebration.  One of the things I love to do is take a Christmas Day Ride on my favorite mule.

This was taken many years ago.  Badger's first Christmas with us.  The weather was so cold that my husband snapped this through the window.

I am certainly not qualified to discuss the religious aspects of Christmas so I'm not even going there in any post.

However I do like getting together with my family near Christmas.  I've seen my oldest son and his wife, my mom, and then my youngest son, his wife, and the girls just last week when I traveled to Wausau.

This week we are traveling to another daughter's house if the weather holds on Christmas Eve.

I love the Holidays also for all the beautiful decorations.
By the way the first photo is of packages under my Christmas Chair.  The mittens were made years ago by my Grandmother.  I love to use them as decorations or hang them on my tree.

Packages make for great photographic opportunities.  This is my first shot with the Nikkor 40mm prime lens.  

So, where ever you are and what ever you do for the upcoming Holiday, stay safe and enjoy.