A Little Bokeh, If You Please....

 

The top bloom has been by our back porch for a couple of days. This morning I grabbed the D600 and my old Nikkor 300f4 along with a couple of lenses, deciding it was time for a photo.  The 300mmf4 is a great old lens, really sharp and quite hand hold able..... even for an old guy like me.  

I saw the cool leaves in a window box after shooting the first flower and had to try it.  It was shot with the 300 as well.  The minimum focus distance and the fact that it was shot at f8 gave great detail while dumping the background.

 The background colors made for good contrast with the color of the plant.

I found this house, or should I say I rediscovered it several months ago while shooting an assignment in the Fort Hill area of Macon.  I remember passing it on several different occasions over the years. Its current color scheme and the lions on the fence yanked me in like a fish on a hook.  I had to shoot it. 

I have been back to Macon a few times since I saw it lasy, but for one reason or another, just didn't work to shoot it, light was wrong, too busy to go by, whatever.  Well, I had to buy a new camera, two of my oldies died.  My new pick is a Nikon D600.  Its a full frame digital SLR.  Just what this photo needed.
Once again my 15mm is really a 15, not a 21, but that will save for another post....

Getting Close

 I photographed some crepe myrtle flowers last week. If you have never gotten up close to crepe myrtle blooms before, they are quite tiny.  Today I decided to try with my close-up lenses.

 

   

The white ones are so soft looking, almost surreal. These were done with a +2, +4 and +10 stacked

and shot with a 70mm lens.

 

This last shot is not a crepe myrtle, but a pull tab from a can. We gets lots of beer cans dumped in our yard each weekend, but not too often just the tab. If you are wondering about the odd background, that is the palm of my hand.

Using Light

 

I photographed this plate of pears this afternoon. Saw them in the kitchen and thought I should 

shoot. The light caught my eye, the way it played across them. Light was from above and behind them, but not very nice light, and in a bad spot to shoot. 

I moved them into the dining room and set up a light. The top was my second light setup.  I put a light above and slightly behind them.  The subtle light touching the left side of the pears really makes a big difference in the photo. 

 

The second photo is dark on the left side.  To ad that bit of light, I placed a white card up close so it would reflect back onto the side of the pears. Really makes a difference.

Meet brothers Moe, on the left, and Milo. Two of our outside cats. They were enjoying breakfast yesterday morning, and I grabbed the D90 and a 24mm lens for an early portrait session.  Milo is the larger of the two, but Moe is the fighter. Both can give you the look.

When shooting pets and kids, get down to eye level, makes a better image.

The photo was enhanced a bit using Topaz Adjust 5. Used the detail enhancement and beefed up the highlights a bit.