Westheight panorama

Nikon D7000, 29mm (18-55), various shutter speeds and f-stops, ISO 200

Here’s one you really need to click on for the full effect. I’ve been playing around with Photoshop’s ability to stitch a series of photos together into a panorama. Though this result isn’t perfect (you can see some exposure inconsistencies here and there), it’s still a fun effect.

St. Pat’s parade

Nikon D7000, 92mm (Tamron 28-200), 1/250, f/5.6, ISO 320

Last Sunday Ken and I shot pictures at the St. Patrick’s Day parade in Lawrence. Thanks in part to the inclement weather and in part to the lackluster parade participants, I found myself more visually interested in the crowd. In particular, some folks brought a three-legged dog who appeared to be having more fun than any of the humans in the vicinity.

Most of the parade itself was standard stuff:

Nikon D7000, 112mm (Tamron 28-200), 1/160, f/9, ISO 400

Nikon D7000, 116mm (Tamron 28-200), 1/250, f/5.3, ISO 400, cropped

Nikon D7000, 170mm (Tamron 28-200), 1/500, f/5.6, ISO 800, cropped

Bee and flower

Nikon D7000, 55mm (18-55), 1/250, f/8, ISO 110

This shot should probably have been one of the Unblogged Favorites of 2012. I took it on the college’s nature trail during a class exercise.

For this shot I zoomed in as far as the lens would let me in order to avoid disturbing the subject. At this focal length, the depth of field is fairly narrow. The background is a complete blur, which is good because it helps focus attention on the foreground.

The Plaza

iPhone, cropped and filtered

The technique in the photo above is called “tilt shift.” By manipulating the focus of the shot, you can take an ordinary scene and transform it into something that looks like a miniature model. Though I suppose it doesn’t have a ton of practical applications, it’s still fun to play around with.

And best of all, Photoshop has a blur filter that creates the effect automatically, saving the expense and effort required to set up a lens to get the effect straight out of the camera. Indeed, I took this shot with my phone, which of course I couldn’t have attached tilt shift equipment to even if I’d had any with me.

Here’s what the undoctored photo looks like:

iPhone, cropped