I'm DONE !

Daffodil Barn, Keene, NH

Enough with the Glorious Winter Already

Cold Franconia Sunrise

I had nearly completed my blog article for this week about the restoration of antique photographs and then it hit me.  I’M DONE.

I have always loved winter, especially the unique photographic opportunities that the pristine white blanket provides in the sparse angular light of the season.  We had a good share of snow this winter, but it is this year’s persistent body and soul numbing cold that has finally wrecked my spirit.  Perhaps it is my aging circulation that makes the cold more difficult to tolerate, but all would agree that this winter has been unusually frigid and without the occasional thaws that normally serve to trigger at least a breath of hope for nature’s resurrection.   I am hoping that by this weekend when I publish this article the temperatures may have moderated a bit,

Perkins Pond Spring, Troy, NH

 but at this moment I REALLY need spring and I suspect that there are many out there that share my desperate longing.   So I have decided to drop everything and spend some time strolling through my spring images, selecting a few of my favorites to share with my frozen neighbors.  These may not be my most artistic images, but rather ones that speak strongly to me of the warmth and burgeoning new  life that is the essence of spring.

I hope that these few images provide a brief respite from the chill, but if not, that's ok, this one is for me.  Feel free to prolong your vernal escape by browsing the Spring Archive on my web site.

St Matthew's Lupine, Sugar Hill, NH

The Annual Lupine Festival in Sugar Hill New Hampshire, just north of Franconia Ridge, is a blast of spring color is a spectacular setting, but for me, the real attraction of spring is the endless variety and richness of the newly erupted greens. 

Fresh Green, Brattleboro, Vermont

Too soon the soft colors become fixed in their deeper shade of summer green.

Huntington Cascade, Dixville Notch, NH

Early spring is waterfall season, with the vigorous winter run-off being the main attraction until the leaves start popping out. The season comes late to New Hampshire's North Country and it is possible to follow the early spring north much like the fall colors can be tract as they move from north to south.

Table Rock, Balsams, NH

The Balsams Grand Hotel seen from Table Rock in Dixville North, New Hampshire.  Sadly the resort is now closed, but there is hope that this classic might open again with plans for an expanded ski resort.

Curious Goat, Dummerston, Vt

Spring also is reflected in the excitement of the animals as they escape from the barn into fresh pastures with the sweatiest grass of the season.  

Dawn Pasture, Dummerston, VT

This exuberance is no better seen than in Stonewall Farm's annual "Dancing of the Ladies" when the cows go wild,  running jumping and head bumping, as they are released to pasture for the first time.

 

Dancing Lady, Keene, NH

Central Square Blossoms, Keene, NH

Every spring for just a few days Keene's Central Square becomes a festival flowers.  The trick is to fine the day when the sun is full.  I can look back on the dates of old images from the event to gauge when the vigil should begin.

Orchard Maple, Walpole, NH

 Sadly, I can't anticipate that all these favorite icons of spring will return.  Tragically, the great Oak on the Hilltop at Alyson's Orchard in Walpole, New Hampshire is now only a memory It was devastated by a  lightning strike and had to be removed last fall. 

Wildflower Barn, Westmoreland, NH

Openings, Marlborough, NH

I found one of my favorite Birch groves by accident in Reading Vermont, while looking for the famous Weathersfield Birches.  I eventually discovered that fable grove is now overgrown and no longer the treasure about which I had read.  This spot was a worthy conciliation.

Spring Birches, Reading, Vt



As I complete this prayer to spring, I'm thrilled to report that yesterday the temperature climbed tentatively into the 40's.  Anything above freezing brings hope, but next week promises colder temperatures and a chance for another storm.  That's New England.  All we can do is make the best of what nature gives us and occasionally escape into our photographs to be assured that spring will come.

Slide Show of My Full Spring Archive


 

Oh, and one more sign of spring arrived yesterday.  I discovered that the eagles have  returned to their nest on the Connecticut River, and they appear to be faithfully on guard.  Hopefully chicks will be emerging soon.

Bald Eagles on the nest, one guarding, the other bringing supper.

Spring in New England (Photo Archive)


Jeffrey Newcomer
Partridgebrookreflections.com

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Freezing the Foliage : ISO Stacking

Getting ISO Right in the Digital Camera II

I know that I’m in trouble when I insist at the beginning of a blog that “This will be a short one”. It usually means that it will go on for pages, but this time, I am committed. I have a talk to prepare for the Worcester Camera Club and I have much more to do. I could always dust off one of my old talks, but my plan has been to do a new presentation covering a lot of the “Getting It Right in the Digital Camera” articles that I have been publishing of late. So, HONESTLY, this will be a brief extension of my recent “ISO Control” article. 

ISO 100 Moving Foliage

Two week ago I discussed the use of the expanded ISO range in many of our newer digital cameras and the benefits of being able to control ISO with the turn of a dial. The capability to adjust ISO as shooting situations change has provided an important new control over exposure. I have talked previously about the benefits of bracketing photos including both exposure and focus. ISO can also be bracketed in some challenging situations.

 ISO Stacking

In my landscape photography, I am often faced with trying to get broad depth of field in situations where the wind is moving the foliage.When I stop down to expand the depth of field the resulting long exposure usually leaves the foliage a blurry mess, especially in the foreground.

ISO 100, 1.3 Seconds
Detail



ISO 1600. 1/8 Seconds
Detail

One approach, which I have discussed before, is to focus bracket or stack, using

Stacked Image with Foliage Motion
"Painted out"

multiple images with a wider aperture to allow faster shutter speeds, but sometimes this isn’t enough to freeze the gyrating greenery and the shallow depth of field of each image may not fully overlap leaving gaps of soft focus. Another strategy is to capture an image with the aperture and shutter adjusted to freeze the motion with acceptable depth of field and then adjust the ISO to balance the exposure. This may only be required in the foreground image(s) where the motion is most noticeable. Greater noise reduction may be required for these slices, but they can then be stacked with the images taken at lower ISO to construct a complete picture with full DOF and sharp leaves, horses or whatever else was moving.  

 

 

Example:

For my example I am using the same image that illustrated my first ISO Control article.  The picture taken at ISO 100 and 1.3 seconds had the best image quality, but with blurred foliage, both on the foreground tree and in the background.  ISO 1600 gave me a shutter speed of 1/8 second which was sufficiently fast to freeze the movement and had good DOF at f20.   I simply stacked the ISO 1600 above the ISO 100, aligned the two with Auto-Align and then painted a mask to reveal the sharp foliage over the areas of blur.  With the use of noise reduction and the application of the high ISO image only where needed the final picture retained high image quality.

That’s IT. I told you this would be short. In this case the "best image from the camera" was actually two images at different ISOs.  Give it a try and let me know how it comes out.

OK, I can’t resist. Just one more point while we are talking about moving foliage. Another technique I use occasionally to freeze motion is based on the fact moving foliage does not all move at the same time. If you take a number of images at the same focal length you can often combine parts of each to isolate times when each region is relatively still. This is inevitably a tedious process of selective masking, but the results can be quite effective.

That’s it, I promise. Now off to Powerpoint.

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