Young Buck by Moonlight. While out shooting the moon, I noticed a dark shadow about 50 feet out from my deck. I pointed my LED headlamp a saw a couple of yellow eyes reflecting back — probably a deer. I put my 200 mm f/2 lens on the D3s to see if this camera really can “see in the dark”. The following images may look like they were taken during the day, it was actually after 10 PM. The only light source was moonlight. The images are shown without and then with noise reduction (Topaz DeNoise 5).
Young Buck Moonlighting. Summer Night in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3s and 200 mm f/2 lens (ISO 1600, 200 mm, f/2.8, 8 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6 and Photoshop CS5. No Noise ReductionYoung Buck Moonlighting. Summer Night in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3s and 200 mm f/2 lens (ISO 1600, 200 mm, f/2.8, 8 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6 and Photoshop CS5, Topaz DeNoise 5.Young Buck Moonlighting. Summer Night in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3s and 200 mm f/2 lens (ISO 3200, 200 mm, f/2.8, 2 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6 and Photoshop CS5. No Noise ReductionYoung Buck Moonlighting. Summer Night in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3s and 200 mm f/2 lens (ISO 3200, 200 mm, f/2.8, 2 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6 and Photoshop CS5. Topaz DeNoise 5Young Buck Moonlighting. Summer Night in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3s and 200 mm f/2 lens (ISO 25600, 200 mm, f/2, 1 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6 and Photoshop CS5. No Noise ReductionYoung Buck Moonlighting. Summer Night in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3s and 200 mm f/2 lens (ISO 25600, 200 mm, f/2, 1 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6 and Photoshop CS5, Topaz DeNoise 5.Young Buck Moonlighting. Summer Night in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3s and 200 mm f/2 lens (ISO 102400, 200 mm, f/4, 1 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6 and Photoshop CS5. No Noise ReductionYoung Buck Moonlighting. Summer Night in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3s and 200 mm f/2 lens (ISO 102400, 200 mm, f/4, 1 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6 and Photoshop CS5. Topaz DeNoise 5.
Summer Backyard Nighttime Sky in New Jersey. Star, Moon, Jet, and Firefly Trails.
A composite of 980 images looking south taken before midnight. I used the Startrails program for creating the composite.
I had actually gone out to see what type of video I could take of the moon using the D3s camera and a telephoto lens. The moon phase (according to the US Naval Observatory site) is waxing gibbous (76% illuminated). I started by shooting some single images and found that ISO 200, 500 mm, f/8, 1/50 second should be about right. Even though I had the camera set to shoot in manual mode, all of the images of the moon were way over exposed. It didn’t appear that I had manual control while taking the video. I made sure that the ISO setting was fixed (not Auto), that Active D-Lighting was off, and that the white balance was fixed (4000 K). I need to try this again!
Star, Moon, Jet, and Firefly Trails. Summer Night in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3x and 14 mm f/2.8D lens (ISO 200, 14 mm, f/4, 8 sec). Composite of 980 images combined using the Startrails program.
Stink Bug. Image taken with a Nikon D3x and 105 mm f/2.8 VR Macro + TC-E III 20 teleconverter (ISO 100, 210 mm, f/6.7, 1/60 sec) with SB-900 Flash. Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6, and Photoshop CS5.
Four years ago on a lark I drove from Boulder to Colorado Springs and then to Manitou Springs to take the Cog Wheeled Railroad to the summit of Pikes Peak. Little did I know that you needed reservations for the cog rail trip to Pikes Peak, and that all trips were sold out for the day. I was very lucky that someone in line before me was unhappy that their party was not all sitting together and turned in their tickets. Once I got on board the train, I realized that I won the lottery since my ticket was for the front seat. This allowed me to set up a tripod and camera to capture images for a time-lapse video for the train ride. So as not to annoy the other passengers on the train I used a small Gitzo travel tripod, my smallest camera body, and a small lens. Going up the mountain I used a 18-200 mm lens at 18 mm. Going down the mountain my seat was now in the rear of the train looking back. For this I used a 10.5 mm fisheye lens. This was a case of being in the right place at the right time!!!
Steam Engine at Pikes Peak Cog Railroad. Image taken with a Nikon D200 and 10.5 mm f/2.8 fisheye lens (ISO 100, 10.5 mm, f/5.6, 1/250 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro, Focus Magic, Topaz Define, and Photoshop CS5.
I got up early this morning to drive to the High Point monument in northern New Jersey. It was raining when I left, but I hoped that it would clear up by the time I got there. Just the opposite — heavy rain when I got there. Furthermore, the front gate was still locked. I gave up and drove back the long route along the Delaware River. Because of the rain there was very little traffic. I’ve used up most of my vacation this year between the Patagonia workshop with Thom Hogan and the Central America & Panama Canal Enrichment Voyage – Ultimate Travel Photography Workshop II with Michael Mariant. As such, I know that I am not going to be able to do a cross-country road trip this year so it was good to get a long drive in this holiday weekend.
When I got home there was a lull in the rain and I saw that the wild raspberries were starting to ripen. In order to get an image of a cluster of the berries in focus with everything else out of focus I took a series of images using a focus rail to adjust the camera to subject distance over a 3 cm distance with a macro lens. I then used Helicon Focus to make a composite image from the 20 images. The first image is the result. The next three images are the first (front focus), mid (middle focus), and last (back focus) images. Even though there was some (not much) movement due to wind, Helicon Focus did a great job adjusting the images so all of the composite images were correctly registered.
Wild Raspberry Cluster. Early Summer Backyard Nature in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3x and 105 mm f/2.8 VR macro lens + TC-E III 20 teleconverter (ISO 100, 210 mm, f/6, 1/60 sec) with SB900 flash. Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6 and Photoshop CS5. Helicon Focus composite of 20 images.Wild Raspberry Cluster. Early Summer Backyard Nature in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3x and 105 mm f/2.8 VR macro lens + TC-E III 20 teleconverter (ISO 100, 210 mm, f/6, 1/60 sec) with SB900 flash. Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6 and Photoshop CS5.Wild Raspberry Cluster. Early Summer Backyard Nature in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3x and 105 mm f/2.8 VR macro lens + TC-E III 20 teleconverter (ISO 100, 210 mm, f/6, 1/60 sec) with SB900 flash. Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6 and Photoshop CS5.Wild Raspberry Cluster. Early Summer Backyard Nature in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3x and 105 mm f/2.8 VR macro lens + TC-E III 20 teleconverter (ISO 100, 210 mm, f/6, 1/60 sec) with SB900 flash. Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6 and Photoshop CS5.
