Day after Independence Day

1) Hmmm, still haven't watched the movie Independence Day this weekend;

2) This time of year I wake up with the sun, unless it's blessedly a rainy day or heavy clouds in the morning. So I was up early.

3) So after morning activities, I get ready to leave. I put on my right sock, I pull on my right boot, I lace it up, I tie it. I realize I'm not wearing pants. Long pause while I contemplate this fact.

4) Wasn't planning to be gone as long as I was, and still can't quite figure out where all the time went. Started towards Putnam, decided to try the coast, saw an awesome shot driving by Durfee Hill Management Area in Rhode Island and whipped in, bee bopped down to Matunuck (while handling a call from work that required I pull over and log on through my computer a couple times) only to find it pretty fogged in and nothing interesting going on (was hoping for wind surfers maybe), decided to try Weekapaug on the way home and was shocked to find it mostly empty (!) although by the time I finished taking some photos with the new-to-me Tamron 150-600 zoom lens all the parking spots had filled up in like ten minutes. That was a pretty good run-on sentence, eh?

Canon EOS 50D,0.000125 1/8000, f/2, focal length 50, ISO 100


So this is the original:

Canon EOS 50D,0.000125 1/8000, f/2, focal length 50, ISO 100


Now cropped -- but notice a little bit of yellow petals sneaking in upper left and lower right sides.

Canon EOS 50D,0.000125 1/8000, f/2, focal length 50, ISO 100


Little bit of Lightroom cleanup. I'm no expert, but think I did OK. That's a print for my wall.

Canon EOS 50D,0.000125 1/8000, f/2, focal length 50, ISO 100


Cormorants I think? This is the original:

Canon EOS 50D,0.0004 1/2500, f/6.3, focal length 483, ISO 400


And after de-hazing and other work in Lightroom, but didn't look like it would make a good print for the wall so I didn't print it despite cropping it to 8x10:

Canon EOS 50D,0.0004 1/2500, f/6.3, focal length 483, ISO 400


This might just be an immature common sea gull, I'm not sure :/ Even looking at https://www.ct.gov/deep/lib/deep/wildlife/pdf_files/nongame/CTShorebirds.pdf I can't tell.

Canon EOS 50D,0.00025 1/4000, f/5.6, focal length 273, ISO 400


I guess because there were no surfers, there were a lot more birds hanging out at Weekapaug than I am used to seeing!

Canon EOS 50D,0.000125 1/8000, f/2, focal length 50, ISO 100

Flowers

Out and about by 6:30 or so this morning -- bright and sunny with thunderstorms expected by late morning.

First set was taken at Byrnes Insurance in Dayville. I had noticed they had quite extensive landscaping a week or two ago and put them on my "list."

Canon EOS 50D,0.0004 1/2500, f/11, focal length 50, ISO 1250


Canon EOS 50D,0.00125 1/800, f/5.6, focal length 50, ISO 100


Canon EOS 50D,0.00125 1/800, f/5.6, focal length 50, ISO 100


Canon EOS 50D,0.00125 1/800, f/5.6, focal length 50, ISO 100


Then some roses on Woodstock commons.

The sun was so bright, I couldn't use my lowest stops -- I'm at maximum speed (1/8000th of a second) with ISO 100. I would need a camera with a faster shutter speed or an even lower ISO (and 100 is the "standard" lowest!)

Hah! Didn't even notice the tiny wasp (bee? bug?) until now:

Canon EOS 50D,0.000125 1/8000, f/2.2, focal length 50, ISO 100


Canon EOS 50D,0.00025 1/4000, f/1.8, focal length 50, ISO 100


And then blue hydrangea's at Dr. Baik's office at the old Woodstock Post Office:

Canon EOS 50D,0.0004 1/2500, f/1.8, focal length 50, ISO 100


Canon EOS 50D,0.000125 1/8000, f/2.8, focal length 50, ISO 100


Canon EOS 50D,0.000125 1/8000, f/2.2, focal length 50, ISO 100


Canon EOS 50D,0.000125 1/8000, f/2.2, focal length 50, ISO 100

Summer Sunsets

Ekonk Hill, Thursday June 27th:

Canon EOS 50D,0.00625 1/160, f/8, focal length 50, ISO 100


Canon EOS 50D,0.01 1/100, f/8, focal length 18, ISO 100


And additional crops from that photo:

Canon EOS 50D,0.01 1/100, f/8, focal length 18, ISO 100


Canon EOS 50D,0.01 1/100, f/8, focal length 18, ISO 100



East Woodstock, Saturday June 29th:
(Actually went to see if there would be any good shots at Woodstock Academy which I decided is a no go. Also decided I probably won't get a good photo of the East Woodstock Congregational Church at sunset. But this field...wow.)
Canon EOS 50D,0.0125 1/80, f/11, focal length 31, ISO 1250

Clouds, New Sweden Road, Woodstock

Nice day, left work at 6pm -- windows down, sunroof wide open. Taking a meandering, scenic route home...and came across this.

Canon EOS 50D,0.002 1/500, f/8, focal length 38, ISO 100



Some HDR with toning done in Lightroom:

Canon EOS 50D,0.001 1/1000, f/8, focal length 31, ISO 100



Canon EOS 50D,0.0005 1/2000, f/8, focal length 31, ISO 100

Veterans Section, Westfield Cemetery, Danielson

Played a bit near sunset. I thought 2.8 would have blown out the trees a bit more, so I may try this again another evening and play with 1.4-2.0 more.

Couple crops of one of the shots. The shot I really wanted would've, with my gear, required I sit in the middle of North Street :D...either a full frame with my 50mm lens would've worked, or a nice 35mm with my crop sensor would've gotten the shot I really wanted -- but my zoom that can do 35mm can't go down low enough in aperture size.
Canon EOS 50D,0.003125 1/320, f/2.8, focal length 50, ISO 400


Canon EOS 50D,0.003125 1/320, f/2.8, focal length 50, ISO 400


There are Civil War to Vietnam veterans in this plot.
Canon EOS 50D,0.004 1/250, f/2.8, focal length 50, ISO 200

Playing with Macro Photography

With flowers coming into bloom, I've been curious about "close ups" on them.

Macro photography has a couple (maybe more) qualities -- at best able to produce 1:1 or greater magnification on the image sensor (traditionally 35mm x 24mm); and able to focus from a very short distance.

My EF 50mm 1.4 USM lens has a minimum focusing distance of 1-1/2' (45cm).

That is a minimum of 240cm wide x 130mm high. Here's the PhotoPills application used to calculate that:



I was poking around on Craigslist, and a very well regarded Macro lens like the Canon EF 100mm L were going for around $500 used. Hmmm. As I was continuing to research whether to spring for it and came across the alternative of using "tubes" for the same purpose.

This Kenko stacking set of tubes was $130:
Canon EOS 50D,0.05 1/20, f/1.4, focal length 50, ISO 3200


Some test shotsI took pretty quickly without worrying too much about exposure or getting focus perfect. Focus and lighting are two of the challenges with macro -- you're so close you often need high aperture numbers to get a sufficient depth-of-field to have a whole subject like a flower in focus. But high apertures restrict the light so often you need flash to supplement available light. (The tubes also further reduce amount of light.)

If you're really observant, you'll note I've already pushed my ISO to 3200 (the highest the camera can go) to get a shot I could handhold and not use flash to begin with. I'm actually impressed I got these shots at 1/20th!
From the 50mm lens as-is:
Canon EOS 50D,0.05 1/20, f/1.4, focal length 50, ISO 3200


With 12mm tube:
Canon EOS 50D,0.05 1/20, f/1.4, focal length 50, ISO 3200


With 20mm tube:
Canon EOS 50D,0.05 1/20, f/1.4, focal length 50, ISO 3200


With 36mm tube:
Canon EOS 50D,0.05 1/20, f/1.4, focal length 50, ISO 3200


If (and it's a bit of an if) my math is right the 36mm tube provides 0.87x magnification. The tubes can be stacked as well.

12 0.39x
20 0.55x
36 0.87x
48 1.11x
56 1.27x
68 1.51x

Union to Exeter

8:30 appointment to have my tires rotated, so no time to get dirty early to work on the mower. Then it was such a glorious day, why waste it getting hot and dirty putting the new parts on the mower???

The Mountain Laurel Sanctuary in Union wasn't quite in full bloom, but then I found a really nice one along Kinney Hollow Road:
Canon EOS 50D,0.004 1/250, f/2.8, focal length 50, ISO 200


A 4:5 Crop of the above:






Then I found this cool dead tree further down Kinney Hollow (or whatever it becomes down near Boston Hollow):


Canon EOS 50D,0.00125 1/800, f/1.8, focal length 50, ISO 200


4:5 crop of above:


Then along Trail II in Pachaug was a cool Moutain Laurel with a Gypsy-moth killed oak in the background. This area the state had cut just before the moth outbreak, and they killed the "mother" trees that had been left at a rate of about 1 per acre while clear cutting the rest.
Canon EOS 50D,0.005 1/200, f/8, focal length 50, ISO 200


...and cropped (so I can make 8x10 prints):

File under stuff that may mostly interest me...

Europe v. U.S. Facts & Figures:

>4 weeks of paid holiday is the legal minimum in most European countries.

2017 Average annual wage, PPP followed by average tax burden of single worker at average wage:

US: $60,558 31.7%

Germany: $47,585 49.7%

France: $43,755 47.6%

UK: $43,732 30.9%

In the 90s I worked for a French owned company (Fortune Global 50 size). One of senior managers on my site was on rotation from France, and while we were both working late one evening he commented while the salaried staff had a lot more vacation days in France, they also worked much longer days on average than their American counterparts in the company and in the end the number of hours were similar.

2017 Average family insurance plan, unsubsidized, in the U.S.: $18,764

I can't say either the numbers or my anecdotal story paint a full picture of the nuances, but when folks state "In Europe they start at four weeks of vacation!" or decry "how expensive insurance is while the NHS is free" it's important to understand there are some really fundamental differences that need to be considered to make comparisons.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_average_wage

https://taxfoundation.org/comparison-tax-burden-labor-oecd-2018

https://www.kff.org/report-section/ehbs-2017-section-1-cost-of-health-insurance/

Scotland, Atwood Hose, and Brown Road

Few Sunday sunset photos --

Scotland cemetery:


Wauregan:


Brown Road, Brooklyn:

Nothing good can come of this...

It is an hour before midnight on a Friday.

I'm in my office cube.

I have Mountain and Cheetos.

And scripts to run.

Nothing good can come of this :D

Palmer Arboretum

So thought about Old Sturbridge Village...but my knees actually feel OK today and I didn't want to over-do them, plus it was supposed to get downright hot (upper 80s) so the thought of a decent length walk wasn't appealing.

Then drove towards Tower Hill Botanic Gardens -- and from what I read the toughest stuff for photographing flowers is bright sun and wind, and I noticed there was a steady strong breeze to outright gusty winds :/ Not sure I wanted to drop $16 for admission in that case.

But on the way home decided to finally go behind the old Woodstock Town Hall to visit the Palmer Arboretum for free!

Canon EOS 50D,0.0015625 1/640, f/5.6, focal length 50, ISO 800


Canon EOS 50D,0.0015625 1/640, f/2.8, focal length 50, ISO 200


Canon EOS 50D,0.0015625 1/640, f/2.8, focal length 50, ISO 200


Canon EOS 50D,0.002 1/500, f/2.8, focal length 50, ISO 200


Canon EOS 50D,0.0008 1/1250, f/2.8, focal length 50, ISO 200


Sunny and windy? Challenge accepted :D Actually I'm really pleased how these photos did turn out for the most part.
Canon EOS 50D,0.00015625 1/6400, f/2.8, focal length 50, ISO 200


But you can see how it really is blowing stuff out when there is areas of sunshine between the shaded areas.
Canon EOS 50D,0.008 1/125, f/5.6, focal length 15, ISO 400


Canon EOS 50D,0.0025 1/400, f/2.8, focal length 50, ISO 400


A crop from the above photo.