A Flash of Hummingbird

Hummer, with flash and cropping

Hummingbirds are turning out to be the bane of my photographic existence. I don't know how many times I've encountered one of these tiny little beauties and completely failed to get even a remotely decent picture.

First off, they're small. Very small. Tiny even.

Second, they're quick. Even though one of their most remarkable characteristics is they're ability to hover in the air, hummingbirds don't hover very often, usually flitting from place to place in rapid movements.

Third, hummingbirds rarely land and rest. At least when I'm around.

And fourth, hummingbirds are skittish little things so that any attempt to get even a little bit closer with your camera makes them fly off into the distance.

So I end up trying to take them from at least twenty feet away so as to avoid scaring them. That forces me to use a long zoom (they're about two inches tall, remember) which makes simply getting them in the view finder difficult.

I try to keep the shutter speed as high as possible, in order to try to freeze their speedy wings, but also need to keep the aperture small so that the depth of focus remains good in case they move.

The hummingbird in context

And then, of course, there's that ruddy autofocus which, at twenty feet, is more likely to find the pole to the left of the bird or the leaves down below than the hummer itself. Ugh.

So last night, we're out in our backyard having dinner with some visiting friends and a little hummingbird shows up at our honey suckle bush. We get our cameras and try, try, try to get some decent shots.

The fact that daylight was fading proved both a curse and a blessing. A curse because it meant there was little light to work with, forcing shutter speeds down and apertures wide. A blessing because, well, it actually convinced me to try shooting on the Olympus' automatic settings, using the built-in flash.


I'd never thought of doing that before but, surprise surprise, it worked pretty well. These are the best hummingbird photos I've ever taken. Not that I'm saying much with that but still...

Day 363 - In search of Willie O'Ree

An interesting, though not entirely successful, experiment in sports photography. I was at Willie O'Ree Place (see lower photo) in Fredericton's north side today for the public free skate and I took the opportunity to try to get some shots of skaters and hockey players.

The challenge I faced was that the lighting was too dim to take traditional photographs yet too light to make slow-shutter shots worthwhile. Even with the aperture as tight as it could go (f8), I still could only slow the shutter to about two seconds, which is nowhere near slow enough to create interesting movement images.

So I was surprised and pleased to find the top photograph: the unmoving elements (net, ice, boards and stands) in perfect focus; the goaltender fairly crisp as well; and the two other hockey players reduced to red and green ghosts in front of the goalie. It could be a lot better, I know, with less space between the goalie and the net, a little more definition on the two other skaters, a little more contrast overall. But still it's not bad. An interesting attempt with decent results.

Day 362 - Another happy photographic accident

Add this one to the list of photographs that, at first glance, seem not to have turned out but then, when you look at them more closely, you find that they are better than you could ever have imagined (or planned).

This is Emily. She's skating at the Lady Beaverbrook Rink during one of its daily free skates. There's not much light. Emily is moving pretty quick. And the Olympus is having a mess of trouble adjusting for it all. I set it at the slowest shutter speed that wouldn't show the shake in my hand (1/60th of a second) and opened the aperture up as far as it would go.

It's a recipe for disaster and that's what, at first glance, I thought I had gotten, even after I worked on the picture in iPhoto. Emily is not in focus (the guy in the coat behind her is, however), the contrast is terrible, and there still isn't enough light. I was ready to discard it.

Then I looked at her face. The concentration on it. The peaceful concentration on the act of skating. And I realised that the fuzziness of the image, the low contrast and the darkness all add rather than detract from the effect of the shot. So I kept it. I showed it to Emily and asked her permission to post it here.

"As long as you don't mind me copying it onto my Facebook page," she said. No problem, Emily. Enjoy. And thanks for being a part of another happy photographic accident.

Day 354 - Needs no embellishment

This is a very simple photograph of the Fredericton walking bridge at night. With the Olympus on its trusty tripod, I set the aperture at f8 to get the best depth of focus possible, the shutter speed at (I think) 10 seconds to let in just enough light, and then pressed the release.

I could have slowed the shutter even further (to 15 seconds) but that would have allowed so much light into the lens that the photo would have looked almost like a day-time shot. I wanted darkness. I wanted the lamps on the bridge, and their reflections in the river, to stand out. And I wanted to be able to show only so much of the bridge's structure as would be allowed by the available light.

In other words, I wanted the photograph to show what my eyes could see while I stood there looking. I had never really thought about it before but, as amazing as our eyes are, we can't slow down their shutter speed the same way we can with a camera. And sometimes it's fun to use the camera's abilities to make a brighter photo. But other times, what our eyes see needs no such embellishment.

Day 349 - Morning glorious

This photograph has NOT been tampered with. It came directly from the Olympus, with no enhancements, cropping or touch-ups of any kind. This is what the eastern sky looked like at 7:45 this morning.

Absolutely stunning. I can't think of any other words to describe it. What an amazing sky. Right outside our door. I stepped out on my way to work, looked up and saw this.

The challenge, as always, was to find the right camera settings. More light or less light? I placed the camera on the post of our porch railing, and then started fiddling with the aperture and shutter speed settings. I think this one is mid-range for both: probably an f5.6 with a shutter speed at 1/8th of a second or so. I didn't want to slow the shutter too far down for fear that the branches in the foreground would blur out, causing a distraction.

I took about 10 shots at different settings (and almost missed my bus). I have a couple that are lighter but that tends to bleed some of the drama from the colours. So I chose this one. And it's glorious.

Day 344 - Golden doodle or baby seal?

I warned you early on that there might be a few photographs of our beloved dog Marlee, didn't I? Well, here's another one. Those of us who know her recognise this as the classic "I'm ready to play" pose, right down to splayed legs ready to jump, the eyes intent on her dad, and the orange rubber ball hiding beneath her ear to the left of her head. Those of you who don't know Marlee and don't have a dog of your own probably thought this was a photo of a large baby seal, caught on the ice floe.

Taken early in the morning, just after Marlee's first walk, this photo posed a real lighting challenge. In fact, it was only the technical wizardry of iPhoto's Edit functions that really saved it. I took the shot in very low light at f3.4 at 1/60th. Even then, the Olympus' light meter was blinking away at me. But the camera doesn't offer any larger aperture settings and I couldn't move the shutter speed any lower without having the natural shake in my hand affect the shot. So I just clicked anyway and left it to iPhoto to save the day.

What impresses me about the shot now is that iPhoto's exposure control allowed me to recapture Marlee's original colours and detail but, in doing so, it seems to have converted the snow and grass into a black-and-white background. Happily, I quite like the overall effect.

Day 336 - Street lamp and decapitated sculpture

This burst of morning sun on the windows of a building made photograph difficult but interesting.

In order to reduce the amount of light coming in through the lens to a reasonable level, I had first to stop the aperture down to its smallest: in the case of my little Olympus, that's f8. But that was just the first, easiest step.

Even at f8, there was still too much light coming in if I set the shutter speed at anything slower than 1/100th of a second. At that setting, the sun on the building still looked like a burst of fire but at least the other elements in the photo were starting to show.

At a slightly faster shutter speed, you could actually see the faces of the pedestrians. But the sunburst was still really strong. So I kept pushing the shutter speed higher, interested to see when the sunburst building itself would start to be recognisable. That happened at 1/400th of a second but this shot, the only I liked best, had a shutter speed of 1/500th.

I like the shape of the light on the windows as well as the dark shapes of the pedestrians, vehicles and signs in the foreground. I'm pleased with the balanced composition, especially with the street lamp left and the decapitated sculpture of the saxophonist on the top right of the picture.

Day 333 - The blurred brick wall

One theme I seem to be exploring of late in my photographs is the idea of different levels in the image, especially the simplest two: the foreground and the background.

There are a lot of decisions to be made when taking a photograph like this. You have to decided how to frame the shot, how close to get to the objects in the foreground and how much space to leave around them (on the sides and top and bottom). You have to choose the angle from which you take the photo (again, both from side to side and up and down) which will have an impact on what forms the background to the shot.

Once you've made those decisions, you have to choose whether you wish to have all elements in sharp focus (by prioritising a narrow aperture setting on the camera) or different levels of focus at different levels of the shot (by opening the aperture up and then compensating by speeding up the shutter). I had the aperture setting at its smallest (f8) with the shutter at 1/60th for the first picture I took of these lamps and the shot was boring: everything was in focus.

So then changed the aperture to f3.4, increased the shutter speed to 1/125th of a second and suddenly you've got this much more interesting image, where the finely focused lamps stand out against the interestingly textured but blurred brick wall.

Day 329 - It's all about the brilliant red

Today's photograph is all about colours. And shapes. And textures. But mostly about colours.

I just love the red of the wall in the background. And I love the contrast between that fantastic red and the black of the lamp in front of it. You've seen that red before. Some time ago, I posted a photo of a driveway with this red on either side of the laneway. This time, I've positioned the camera so that the black lamp from one building is highlighted against the red wall of the building next door.

I also made a conscious effort to open the aperture up a bit and push the shutter speed to create the slightest amount of blur to the background wall. I wanted the background to be all about the colour with the texture blurred away. Looking at the photo now, I wish I had opened the aperture up even further; there's still maybe too much detail in the wall.

Then again, maybe I'd lose those nice vertical lines if it were any less focused. And I like those lines.

Day 328 - Deep evening colours

The days are short in Fredericton and the night comes early. This is what it's like now as I wait for my bus home from work outside King's Place downtown. By taking advantage of a post box that is under the cover of the mall's overhang, I am able to place the Olympus on a stable surface and slow the shutter right down, in this case to four full seconds. This allows me to keep the depth of focus strong with an aperture setting of f8, while still getting enough light to make a clear photo.

I really like this photo, especially the composition of the structures at the top and bottom of the frame, as well as the full, deep colour the long exposure gives me. The picture shows up, however, the limitations of my camera: I'd have preferred to shut the aperture even further, to f16 or smaller, which would allowed an even longer shutter and made the lights of passing cars interesting streaks across the frame. I like those types of photos but my little Olympus isn't really capable of them, at least not under normal evening conditions.

Day 326 - Light falling on oak leaves

I have been fascinated with oak leaves for some time now, ever since I noticed that they cling to their branches well into the winter. In fact, I'm not even sure that they ever drop off. Maybe they just renew themselves each spring.

Fredericton is home to some pretty amazing oak trees, including this one that stands in front of the public library downtown. There are several more in my neighbourhood and, although their leaves don't seem to colour as vividly as do the maples, they still provide some interesting shapes and shades every fall.

Of particular interest to me in these photographs, however, is not so much the colour and shapes of the oak leaves but the difference the amount of light allowed into the camera makes in how vividly those colours come across. Simply by speeding up the shutter by a small amount, you really bring the leaves to life.

The upper photo was taken with the aperture at f8 and the shutter speed at 1/60th of a second. It is a bright shot and, on first glance, seems like the better of the two. But there is, in fact, too much light and the colour and detail of the leaves gets bleached out. The lower shot, taken at f8 and 1/100th of a second, is much darker. You lose the brick in the background but you gain vivid colour in the leaves themselves, especially the oranges and reds that are all but lost in the first picture. I think they're both nice pictures but I prefer the lower one, with its brilliant colours and darkened down background, over the upper one, which seems over-bright and bland by comparison.

Day 307 - Taking liberties with Her Majesty

New Brunswick's Legislative Assembly building dates from 1882 (even though its front wall features a prominent "1880" carving) and, according to the descriptive plaque in the foyer, is made of sandstone with a mansard roof and matching towers (see bottom photo). It is currently in the process of being refurbished, with the exterior work being done first.

I trust that, as part of that refurbishment, the tradespeople won't display the same lack of respect that the workers who installed security cameras and pigeon-proofing showed when they defaced this poor carving of the Queen that keeps watch on the building's front doors (see upper photo). Yes, that is actually pigeon wire sticking out of Her Majesty's crown!

This photograph was not as easy to take as it might at first appear. The carving is located inside the arch of the doorway, meaning there wasn't much light to work with. Since the Olympus' flash washed out the details on the face and crown, I had to figure out a way to get a decent exposure while not losing too much depth of focus nor adding too much shake. I have to admit, I cheated a bit. I kept the shutter speed at 1/60th while allowing enough of an aperture to keep focus throughout the shot.

In other words, I underexposed the image on site and then fixed the exposure on my trusty old iMac.

I was also forced, because of the harsh angle at which I took the picture, to rotate the image slightly so that the carving appears straight in the photo. Neat what you can do, isn't it?

The lower photo is of the building itself. You can't get far enough back from the front wall to take a photograph of the entire building with a nomral lens so I had to zoom way out and accept the distortion caused by the use of the shorter lens (somewhere close to 28mm). Unfortunately, you can't fix that on the iMac.

Day 305 - Jack says "Hi"

Happy belated Hallowe'en everybody. Believe it or not, this is the FIRST Jack'o'Lantern I have ever carved. He adorned our brand new front porch last night for the Hallowe'en festivities and we even got a compliment about him.

In order to get some shots of Jack lit from within by a candle, I got out my mini tripod and started taking shots at various aperture and shutter speed settings to see what would work best. Needless to say, as I fiddled with the camera, the evening darkness also grew denser so it turned into quite a challenge.

The top photograph is the first one I took. It's got an aperture of about f4.5 with a shutter speed around four seconds. It's a good, crisp picture but I wanted to see if the flickering flame of the candle could be more visually interesting with a smaller aperture and a longer exposure.

The lower shot was taken under much darker conditions and with a 15 second exposure. This resulted in a dark photo (no matter how long you made the exposure, there just wasn't much light) so that Jack's face stands out better but the slower shutter didn't seem to do much with the flickering flame. My guess is that the light from the candle was already diffused as it passed through the carved features of Jack's face, so that, even if the flame itself moved while the shutter was open, it made no difference to what the camera saw and captured. The question of course is: which photo do you like better?

Day 296 - A riverview collage

An interesting collage of elements in a single shot: the water of the St. John River, the walking bridge, the north-side condominium building and the fisherfolks in their boat.

I'm amazed that people still fish for food in the river so near to the city. Although I haven't read any scary reports on the health of the river water, I do know that our dog comes home with extremely itchy skin any time she swims in this area.

The photograph isn't bad however: a bright day allowed for a narrow aperture with a relatively fast shutter speed, giving us both depth of focus and a crispness to that focus.

Day 294 - Playing with fire

f8 at 4 seconds. That's what it took to get this photograph of the first fire of the fall season at our house. I tried the shot at 15 seconds, to see what the difference would be, but all the extended shutter speed did was make the flames more fluid, less crisp. And it lightened up the other details a little too much, in my opinion.

Low light photography interests me greatly but I'm not sure the Olympus has what it takes to explore the subject as far as I want. Its aperture range is too narrow (f3.4 to f8) to provide the flexibility I would want. Oh well. I'll push it to its limits and see how it does.

Day 264 - The curved lines of chairs

I love the browns in this photograph. Just like yesterday's image, this picture was taken using a narrow aperture and a slow shutter speed to create depth of focus in a dimly lit dining room.

The browns just feel so deep and soft and I think the composition is quite lovely too. The slightly curved lines of the chairs work well with the straighter lines of the door frame to create a nice perspective to the shot while the gold in the table coverings adds just a hint of colour to an otherwise monochromatic photo. I'm surprised at how happy I am with this one.

Day 263 - Still life with a tea pot

Can you see the airbrushing I did on this photograph? Top right corner? I've never used this feature on iPhoto before. It's quite cool.

I took this photo at a restaurant in downtown Fredericton because I liked the way the tea pot looked on the reflective plastic cover of the table, with the the pattern on the table cloth adding interest, the water glass nearby and the medley of browns in the background. What I didn't expect was for my friend's chin to show up in the photo. So, I airbrushed it out.

This picture is another example of one of my favourite techniques wherein I set the camera on the table in a dimly-lit room and then adjust the shutter speed to a very slow level to ensure proper exposure. I keep the aperture as small as possible (f8) to ensure depth of focus but keep the shutter open for two seconds or more.

I like the warmth and depth of the colours that this technique creates. In this case, the tea pot glistens and the blue in its floral patterns comes through strongly.

Day 229 - Black and white on green

Something of an abstract today, with this photograph of the rubber runners on a boat trailer in storage.

I took another shot of this same scene with the camera's aperture at its smallest (F8) in order to get all of the runners in focus but it just doesn't look right. I like this version better, with the focus uneven and the runners taking on an almost musical feel, like so many base-drum mallets or some other percussive instruments.

The green background puts the black-and-white colour scheme of the trailer into interesting relief and the runners themselves almost seem to move against this background.

Day 215 - Nose to Nose to Nose

A joyous gathering of golden doodles this afternoon in our back yard.

Today, long-time friends Marlee and Riley (centre and left) made a new pal in Maple (right), a two year-old doodle who has just moved into the neighbourhood with her family. Apparently, Maple has a body and hair like Riley but a temperament like Marlee (shy and fearful of new people).

It took the new pup only a short time to find her role among the two older dogs: she's the playful youngster who gets away with things. To a point. Then Marlee has to put her in her place!

The photograph itself is evidence of the challenges you face when you have the low-light conditions of a deeply cloudy day and the non-stop movement of dogs as your subject. In order to get enough light into the camera, you have to sacrifice both shutter speed (with the result that moving objects can become blurred) and aperture (which means that your depth of focus is very narrow). Hence, Marlee and Riley are both a little bit out of focus: Marlee because she's beyond the depth of focus and Riley because, well, Riley never stops moving.

Day 191 - Cookie cutter shadows on a bright day

With beautiful weather in Fredericton, interesting photographs just seem to pop out at you.

Here, the bright sun creates a cookie-cutter shadow on the base of this concrete and iron fence that runs along the road to the river. I took a number of shots of this effect, trying to figure out the proper brightness and depth of focus.

I eventually chose one of the darker shots, where the aperture on the camera was at its narrowest, in hopes that the shadow would stand out strongly.