The K at night

Nikon D3000, 10.5mm, 1/25, f/2.8, ISO 800

No sooner do I get the State Fair series going than I have to interrupt it for “breaking news.” With the end of baseball season fast upon us, I took advantage of our final Friday night at the ballpark to shoot some pictures.

I tried a few traditional shots of the game, but the longest lens I brought with me maxed at 200mm. From the back of the stands, it wasn’t exactly producing Sports Illustrated cover shots. Likewise my attempts at street photos of the crowd weren’t working. Perhaps I was in a moody mood, but I wasn’t feeling the people thing.

On the other hand, I found myself captivated by the light. I can’t remember the last time I strolled around the ballpark after dark. Usually by that point I’m in my seat watching the game. Thus the results I got tended to emphasize light and architecture.

The picture at the top of this post is my favorite of the set. I love what the 10mm lens did with the sunset. I also love what it did with the curving lines of the ramp. The shot has a range of elements from the industrial stuff at the bottom to the isolated people going about their business to the city in the distance and the sky above.

Funny how the ramp looks different depending on lens and perspective. Here’s another view:

Nikon D7000, 56mm (28-200), 1/60, f/5.6, ISO 800

From the back row of the upper deck, this is what the ballpark looks like:

Nikon D3000, 10.5mm, 1/60, f/2.8, ISO 800, adjusted

When I’ve shot this view in the past I’ve gotten closer to cut out some of the roof, but this time I thought it might be fun to include it. Besides, the large crowd prevented me from setting up much closer.

While I was up top, I noticed that the lights were catching smoke or steam or mist or something:

Nikon D7000, 100mm (28-200), 1/80, f/5.3, ISO 800, adjusted

This shot of the escalators gives you a nice sense of vertical space:

Nikon D3000, 10.5mm, 1/25, f/4, ISO 800

For perspective, note the size difference between the people on the closest escalator and the person next to the bottom.

I was a little disappointed by the Fan Zone (again, maybe I wasn’t in the mood for people shots). But I did manage to capture some fun motion blur from the carousel.

Nikon D3000, 10.5mm, 0.3 sec., f/8, ISO 800, cropped

Despite the absence of a tripod, I got the slow shutter speed to work by bracing my elbows on a rail. Note that the still parts of the shot (such as the picture of the bats in the center) are clear and the moving parts are streaks of light and color. That’s what you’re after in a shot like this.

State Fair – The Screamer

Nikon D7000, 28mm (28-200), 1/15, f/8, ISO 400, adjusted

For the next month or so, the blog will feature photos I took at the Missouri State Fair in Sedalia in August. Most of the photos will be examples of “street photography” of people. But a few, such as the ones we’ll start with, focus more on technical issues.

The picture at the top of this post is The Screamer, one of those rides that takes folks more adventurous than me for a long, upside down swinging ride. I took the shot just as the car full of riders was speeding past.

This provides a good example of motion blur. If the entire image is blurry, then the photo looks like a mistake. But if you can avoid camera shake and freeze the parts of the shot that aren’t moving, the parts that are on the go give your viewers a strong sense of motion.

For what it’s worth, this is what the ride looks like at rest:

Nikon D7000, 28mm (28-200), 1/80, f/3.8, ISO 400

I took several pictures in this series, because at shutter speeds this low I tend strongly to get a lot of camera shake into the shot. Of the pictures that came out with un-shaky foregrounds, this one is my favorite:

Nikon D7000, 28mm (28-200), 1/15, f/8, ISO 400, adjusted

The framing is slightly better than the one at the top of this post. I also like the ride attendants looking on.

Omaha Zoo – Miscellany

Nikon D3000, 10.5mm, 1/640, f/13, ISO 1600

This last Omaha-centered blog entry picks up a handful of miscellaneous photos I took during our visit. Though I had my wide angle lens with me, I ended up not using it for all that much. Every once in awhile I got a good result from it, however. I was pleased by the strangely-bending lines of the dome atop the desert building.

Nikon D7000, 125mm (28-200), 1/13, f/5.6, ISO 6400, adjusted

I honestly thought I’d walk away with pretty much nothing from the nocturnal exhibit, but a shot or two sorta worked. For this picture of an alligator I cranked the ISO way up and braced the camera on a railing to avoid as much shake as possible. Still, you can see some camera shake in the shot. Look at the small points of light such as the reflection in the gator’s eye, which should be single points but turn into tell-tale crescents because of camera motion.

I should also note that the gator shot was seriously level-adjusted in Photoshop. Straight out of the camera, the frame was mostly black.

Nikon D7000, 28mm (28-200), 1/800, f/9, ISO 400

I hoped for some good wide angle shots while we were up on the sky tram (the cables for which you can see in shadow running through the middle of the picture). However, the 10.5mm lens kept getting my feet or another part of the tram in the shot, so I had to settle for sorta-wide-angle 28mm pictures from my other lens.

At least this photo demonstrates the value of getting up above your subject for a “lay of the land” picture.

Nikon D7000, 200mm (28-200), 1/30, f/5.6, ISO 500, cropped

I had to optically zoom in as far as I could and then “digitally zoom” by cropping in order to capture these dour residents.

Nikon D7000, 112mm (28-200), 1/125, f/5.3, ISO 800, adjusted

A wider group shot was less technically demanding.

Nikon D7000, 200mm (28-200), 1/50, f/5.6, ISO 500, adjusted

Some of the most dramatic residents of the rainforest building were giant (like serious shark sized) carp with beautiful gold edges on their scales. The viewing angle and water surface reflections made any kind of documentary shot impossible, and I almost gave up on photographing them at all. But once I gave up the notion of trying to get a clear shot and just went with the beautiful, abstract forms of line, shape and color, I ended up with some pleasing pictures.

Omaha Zoo – Penguins

Nikon D7000, 32mm (28-200), 1/60, f/3.8, ISO 2500

If I had to pick one favorite part of the zoo experience, the penguins would be strong contenders. I could sit for hours and watch them swim gracefully back and forth.

As a photographer, however, they give me nightmares. The lighting is extremely tricky in Omaha’s penguin area. I was after a wider angle shot of the birds swimming, but even with the ISO cranked way up I was still at a 1/60 shutter speed. Any slower and camera shake would have been a problem, as would motion blur on the swimming subjects.

Also note the extreme hot spot in the background. Proper exposure of the main subjects underwater drastically over-exposed the brightly lit surface area at the top of the shot. And if I crop down (thus “enlarging”) the birds at the bottom, the ISO grain will become an issue.

Nikon D7000, 122mm (28-200), 1/250, f/5.3, ISO 2500

We were lucky to be there when the keepers came in to dish out the fish. This shot is actually part of a series in which the keeper gives the bigger penguin a gentle shove and scoots him back into the water so his smaller companions can get some fish. I love this frame the best because of the invisible leading line between woman and bird, giving the scene a strong sense of interaction.

Omaha Zoo – Lemurs

Nikon D7000, 200mm (28-200), 1/3200, f/7.1, ISO 400, cropped

The zoo featured a good-sized, outdoor lemur enclosure. This was the best of photographic conditions: outdoor light and no bars between the lens and the subject. As a result, none of the photos in this post have been retouched.

One of the first shots I got was the walking lemur above. However, for some reason the majority of the little guys seemed to be going the other way. That led to a lot of pictures like this:

Nikon D7000, 200mm (28-200), 1/2500, f/6.3, ISO 400, cropped

While Cute Overload goes crazy for this sort of thing every year during “Tocktober,” I’m not the world’s biggest fan of the critter butt shot.

Fortunately for me, the zoo train came by, made a lot of noise and spooked the lemurs. So I got some pictures of them headed the other way in a hurry.

Nikon D7000, 200mm (28-200), 1/2500, f/6.3, ISO 400, cropped

Some of the lemurs had the misfortune (or perhaps fortune on a hot day) of living indoors in the Madagascar building. A few of them – such as this pensive-looking subject – were in somewhat well lit areas.

Nikon D7000, 200mm (28-200), 1/50, f/5.6, ISO 4000

Quick technical note: the combination of a wide aperture and longer focal length leads to a narrow depth of field, which is why the lemur is the only thing in clear focus in the shot. In this case, that’s actually a good thing, as I don’t want the tree or the background to draw attention away from the subject.

Others were in a nocturnal area. I’d pretty much given up any hope of shooting in the dark when I noticed a handful of lemurs hanging out next to a light. They ended up being one of the best shots I got all day. I even made an I Can Has Cheezburger post out of this, though as of this writing it hasn’t gotten enough likes to make the main page.

Nikon D7000, 200mm (28-200), 1/250, f/5.6, ISO 4000

Omaha Zoo – Sea Lions

Nikon D7000, 200mm (28-200), 1/1000, f/5.6, ISO 400, cropped and retouched

The sea lions were a study in harsh lighting. They’re outdoors in an area with little shade. Further, their tank was being cleaned (to the considerable chagrin of the largest among them), and with most of the water gone the sun reflecting off the walls and bottom of the enclosure made good exposures a real challenge. All the pictures in this set have been treated to a level adjustment of one kind or another.

Still, the sea lions make great subjects. Proper exposure brings out their textures, slick if they’re wet and furry if they’re dry.

Nikon D7000, 135mm (28-200), 1/1250, f/9, ISO 400, cropped and retouched

As with people, look for shots of animals interacting. It brings out personality that you might not see in individuals by themselves.

Nikon D7000, 42mm (28-200), 1/500, f/11, ISO 400, cropped and retouched

This was a fun shot. The water wasn’t quite deep enough for the large sea lion to make it back up to the rocks. Though his attempt made a splash. Literally.

Nikon D7000, 135mm (28-200), 1/800, f/5.6, ISO 400, cropped and retouched

The last one is my favorite of the set. This sea lion looks so comfy and happy swimming around.

Omaha Zoo – Cats

Nikon D7000, 200mm (28-200), 1/200, f/5.6, ISO 1000, cropped and retouched

For the next few weeks The Photographer’s Sketchbook is going to consider the fine art of taking pictures of animals in zoos, using shots I took during a recent trip to the Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha. Let’s start with the big cats, such as the fine specimen above.

Here we have a tiger in close to ideal circumstances for indoor zoo photography. Reasonably good light. No bars. And the subject appears at ease. The photo required a bit of cropping to eliminate some foreground clutter. And the image had an odd blue tint that fortunately came right out with a minor color level adjustment.

Nikon D7000, 200mm (28-200), 1/20, f/5.6, ISO 1000, cropped

That isn’t to say that a bar-free indoor shot is always low hanging fruit. This puma was posing perfectly (she actually seemed to respond positively to being photographed), but the light in her enclosure was so shadowy that the low shutter speed required for the shot added some camera shake and marred the image.

At least it gave me an excuse to try the new shake reduction filter in Photoshop CC:

Nikon D7000, 200mm (28-200), 1/20, f/5.6, ISO 1000, retouched

Still, it’s better to get the shot to start with rather than rely on editing to fix mistakes. I’ve tried the shake filter on some other photos with less impressive results.

Nikon D7000, 35mm (28-200), 1/60, f/4, ISO 400, cropped

Speaking of bars, they’re one of the biggest problems you’ll face photographing in zoos. Outdoor light couldn’t have been any better when we were there. But if the subject is close to her bars, the bars are going to end up in the shot.

Nikon D7000, 72mm (28-200), 1/320, f/5, ISO 200

Even the best pose won’t help an image that says “jail” way more than “magnificent creature.”

Nikon D7000, 200mm (28-200), 1/160, f/5.6, ISO 400, cropped

On the other hand, if the subject is farther away from his bars, then you may be able to zoom in, focus tight on the subject and make the bars so blurry that they practically disappear. You can see a little fuzziness caused by the out-of-focus mesh of this jaguar’s cage, but for the most part they’re invisible.

Nikon D7000, 32mm (28-200), 1/200, f/7.1, ISO 1000, cropped

However big a pain those bars can be, they’re still a good idea. As I’m sure the kids in this photo would agree (especially the kid on the right).