Passion Flower

Photographed lovingly with the OLympus E-PL3, a Konica Hexanon 50m f1.7 lens attached to the camera with a Konica AR to Micro Four Thirds Adaptor, tripod. cotton cloth for background and available light.

Passion Flower – 1 : www.suprada.com/photoblog/archives/2117

At my parents place, they have this amazing looking flower with an intensely sweet scent – very attractive to humans and bees and butterflies alike. They call it the “clock flower” (translated). Now with an hour on hand I had to absolutely try to photograph this.

And, what fun I had photographing this flower. My setup was my Olympus E-PL3 with the Konica Hexanon 50m f1.7 (which is a 100mm equivalent on my micro four thirds sensor). To get a dark backround, I found a black cotton cloth, tied it to a door handle and let it drape on a stand, the fabric draping down at at an angle. And then I rested the flower on it.

What do I like about this photograph? That it is one my very first macros. That I really like this particular flower. I looove the shallow DOF, the thin focus plane of this lens. And that the bokeh – the out of focus bits look so good. That I was manually focusing the lens, on a tripod, and this is quite good for a novice manual focusser.

Mission Peak, Bench at the Flagpole, Fremont, California.

This was an attempt at HDR. I was hiking up Mission Peak via the Ohlone trail with a friend, after work. We walked up to the bench next to the flagpole. And I set up there to photograph the glorious sunset over the bay area. It was awesome…until I strated getting bitten by mosquitoes. And thats when we headed down.

I used FDR Tools Advanced – Compressor algorithm to blend into HDR. It is an amazing piece of software… and I seem to like it much better than Photomatix.

Umbreallas, Great Mall, Milpitas

Bored of landscapes. Here’s something different…nohing more to it than what you see…

Going to a mall, we were sitting out eating lunch. I happened to look up at the umbrellas, and I had to get my new E-PL3 out and shoot this. I loved the lines, the abstractedness and the RED color.

Sunset on White Mountain, View from above Barcroft Station, California

In August (2011), I attended a workshop – “Dark of the Night Star Photography”. This was organized by the Pt. Reyes National Seashore Association and the instructors were the really good Harold Davis, Steven Christenson and Eric Harness. (Side Note: Check this interview I did with Harold Davis a while back – its an awesome read.)

On Day 2 of the workshop, we drove up to the Barcroft Research Station at 12500ft, and got a tour of the facility. After that we hiked up about 3/4th of a mile to a view point to see sunset on white mountain. I made it up there with difficult due to a bad case of altitude sickness.

Sunset on White Mountain, View from above Barcroft Station, California

View
In August (2011), I attended a workshop – “Dark of the Night Star Photography”. This was organized by the Pt. Reyes National Seashore Association and the instructors were the really good Harold Davis, Steven Christenson and Eric Harness. (Side Note: Check this interview I did with Harold Davis a while back – its an awesome read.)

On Day 2 of the workshop, we drove up to the Barcroft Research Station at 12500ft, and got a tour of the facility. After that we hiked up about 3/4th of a mile to a view point to see sunset on white mountain. I made it up there with difficult due to a bad case of altitude sickness. However once up there, I recovered pretty fast. It was a spectacular sunset.

Bristlecone Pine and Blue Skies, Patriarch Grove, Ancient Bristlecone pines.

In August (2011), I attended a workshop – “Dark of the Night Star Photography”. This was organized by the Pt. Reyes National Seashore Association and the instructors were the really good Harold Davis, Steven Christenson and Eric Harness. (Side Note: Check this interview I did with Harold Davis a while back – its an awesome read.)

On this workshop, we stayed at the Crooked Creek Research Station at 10,200 feet altitude. The accomodation was good – clean, warm. Not your luxury accommodation you would find at a five star hotel, but dorm style with very clean bathrooms, and beds, and a heater and with a very nice view – just perfect for people on a photography workshop.

Star Trail midst the Bristlecone pines, Patriarch Grove, Ancient Bristlecone pines.

Here is the star trail at the Bristlecone Pine – White Mountains in California.

In August (2011), I attended a workshop – “Dark of the Night Star Photography”. This was organized by the Pt. Reyes National Seashore Association and the instructors were the really good Harold Davis, Steven Christenson and Eric Harness. (Side Note: Check this interview I did with Harold Davis a while back – its an awesome read.)

On this workshop, we stayed at the Crooked Creek Research Station at 10,200 feet altitude. The accomodation was good – clean, warm. Not your luxury accommodation you would find at a five star hotel, but dorm style with very clean bathrooms, and beds, and a heater and with a very nice view – just perfect for people on a photography workshop.

The classroom area was pretty nice and comfortable as well. We did have intermittent cell phone service (AT&T and Verizon) in some areas. We also had satellite Internet and wifi – though only from 2.00am till 9.30am – which really sucked. I do wish we had 24 hr internet access.

Milky Way, Patriarch Grove, Ancient Bristlecone pines.

Here is another photograph of the Milky way at the Bristlecone Pine – White Mountains in California.

This August (2011), I attended a workshop – “Dark of the Night Star Photography”. This was organized by the Pt. Reyes National Seashore Association and the instructors were the really good Harold Davis, Steven Christenson and Eric Harness. (Side Note: Check this interview I did with Harold Davis a while back – its an awesome read.)

On this workshop, we stayed at the Crooked Creek Research Station at 10,200 feet altitude. The accomodation was good – clean, warm. Not your luxury accommodation you would find at a five star hotel, but dorm style with very clean bathrooms, and beds, and a heater and with a very nice view – just perfect for people on a photography workshop.

Milky Way, Patriarch Grove, Ancient Bristlecone pines.

This August (2011), I attended a workshop – “Dark of the Night Star Photography”. This was organized by the Pt. Reyes National Seashore Association and the instructors were the really good Harold Davis, Steven Christenson and Eric Harness. (Side Note: Check this interview I did with Harold Davis a while back – its an awesome read.)

On this workshop, we stayed at the Crooked Creek Research Station at 10,200 feet altitude. The accomodation was good – clean, warm. Not your luxury accommodation you would find at a five star hotel, but dorm style with very clean bathrooms, and beds, and a heater and with a very nice view – just perfect for people on a photography workshop.

The classroom area was pretty nice and comfortable as well. We did have intermittent cell phone service (AT&T and Verizon) in some areas. We also had satellite Internet and wifi – though only from 2.00am till 9.30am – which really sucked. I do wish we had 24 hr internet access.