This week’s theme for the 52 Week Project was flare. The goal was to create a flare with a series of different lenses, so as to know how each lens would create flare and how to work around it. The lenses chosen were the 10-24mm, the 85mm & 28mm freelens all mounted on my Nikon D750.

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First up, the 10-24mm – aka the creakasaurus.

Not nearly as much flare as I would have expected! This lens is made by Tamron and a bit of a middle of the road lens (it is designed for crop sensors – but works on a full frame!). The lack of flare means Tamron has a solid handle on their lens coatings which helps to negate flares (I also had a circular polarizer on, not sure if that would make a difference….). At least I got a cute little sunburst from shooting stopped down at f9!  The lens is called creakasaurus because it is MEGA noisy when it autofocuses – it fell to the floor of a Jeep, and ever since it makes an awful racket. Really fun when you’re in a quiet area…. haha!

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Next up was the new to me 85mm f1.8 D. Snagged it used on Ebay, its original owner purchased it new in 1999! This means the coatings on the glass are older (at least 17 years old!) and more prone to create a flare. And boy did it!

Giant rainbow flares! Wide open and stopped down! What a treat (though if I didn’t want the flares, what a mess!). This lens also trends towards a very heavy blue tone, all correctable in lightroom.

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The 28mm freelens was up next. Freelensing is holding the unmounted lens in front of your camera. This allows you to manipulate the in focus areas similar to a tilt shift lens. Plus there’s the chance of light leaks and flares happening! This particular freelens is a Tamron Adaptall 2 with the adapting mount removed (in most cases you need to remove the rear mount of the lens so you are able to get it closer to the sensor so your camera can “see” through it).

Freelensing is very challenging with dogs (or anything that moves) because you are manually focusing a very narrow area that can be changed with the tiniest tilt or shift from you or the dog. There are some very tiny minor flares on the right side of the image (I was kinda thinking there may be more…) – not sure if this was due to the lens being used as a freelens or if it was due to the lens (this is a vintage lens, possibly from the 70s or older).

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Since the 85mm was throwing some very solid flares, it was remounted and I continued to see how I could force them and manipulate the flares. Plus the bokeh on the lens is very pretty 🙂

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The following morning, the 85mm &  I adventured outside in our pjs and Bender to see how the flare was in the morning. Oofda! That’s a lot of light! But the flare was kind of neat as it framed Bender.

Next up visit Pet Love Photography, serving Greater Cincinnati and the San Francisco Bay Area and see how she managed to capture flares!

This week’s 52 Week Project theme was silhouettes. Icey, my rottie, was this week’s model. She’s been aging gracefully in her 10 years, though her hearing has been departing her as of late. This means those head tilts she has been known for are replaced with direct stares of body language reading. Luckily, she has a plethora of hand signals under her belt and since she watches me its easy to direct her (unless she’s in the yard facing the fence, only then does the biggest bellowing get her attention, sometimes).

Loaded up for a car ride, our destination 5 minutes away and the light fading fast. The destination, a little used sand pit, loomed like faux mountains against the sky. We spooked up a whitetail who veered away from us into the brush lining some of the smaller sand “mountains”. In rounding one particularly “hairy” mountain (it was covered with tall stringy plants and grasses) when a snort was issued and 3 whitetail deer shot out of the brush! They gave me a solid start and Icey watched with interest as they bounded away. The light was continuing to die (clouds on the horizon, ugh!) so we made our way to a small rise that was less “hairy” than some of the others. Behind this little mound of dirt was a calm little pond that was playing host to a trio of sandhill cranes! They gave a couple of squawks and flew out of view.

The silhouette images started. Icey watched me most of the time, though I wasn’t able to use words to get her to look away from me for a profile shot. Luckily, there were lots of little rocks that I could toss past her to catch her attention.  The end results.

Visit Northeast PA Pet Photographer, I Got The Shot Photography to see how she captured silhouettes!

This week’s theme was shadows. The evening approached and I snagged the slightly tuckered out Axle for a short walk to the elementary school in search of shadows. Without proper motivation (the biscuit just wasn’t enticing enough) I managed a handful of images before Axle decided that actually going on a walk was more fun. We popped over to the playground to see if we could get some interesting shadows out of vibrant pieces of equipment, then meandered around until the mosquitos threatened to carry us off.

Next up, stop over to I Got the Shot Photography, Elaine Tweedy, Northeast PA Pet Photographer and see how she interpreted shadows.

This week’s 52 Week Project theme was reflections. In my mind, I had Axle chilling in the lake, his reflection crisp against the little ripples. So we loaded into my car and headed out on the hottest day we’ve had for a while. Axle was notably happy to be going swimming in the lake….

We arrived to beach on the far side of the lake. Not a single other person was in sight, which meant we had the beach all to ourselves! There’s a tennis ball that lives in my car, which for the dog who doesn’t stop retrieving even in his sleeping hours, is a great way to engage him. Unfortunately the tennis ball had had a better life and on a misdirected throw managed to sink happily below the surface. Buggers. Axle swam around convinced that I had merely faked him out with the throw. I tried to direct him to where the ball was, but he swam the opposite direction and I gave up trying to point him where to go. This did allow me the chance to snag some reflection shots even though the water was rippled by the wind so that the reflections were more abstract than crisp.

The ball was abandoned to the lake, and a driftwood branch was commissioned into retrieving mode. I wasn’t getting much in the realm of reflections I had wanted, so I transitioned into some super low angle shots that captured the waves on the beach and the water dripping off the underside of Axle. As long as the stick was thrown, Axle didn’t care which angle I was photographing him at. Poor boy pouted majorly when I told him we had to go home.

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Later…

In the evenings the window by my desk lets in a ton of light and the cats like to sit and bask. Snuggles found the sunspot and had an interesting reflection in the window. I believe she was starting to fall asleep sitting up… I love the texture of her fur!

 

Next up visit Northeast PA Pet Photographer, Elaine Tweedy to see her interpretation of reflections!