We’ve had a wet winter, so the seasonal marsh has actually filled up a lot …

We’ve had a wet winter, so the seasonal marsh has actually filled up a lot more than it has for the last few years. In addition to the full ponds (including two on either side of a road that was still muddy) I saw a lot of birds, including a crane that was swaying back and forth until it took flight, lots of ducks and geese.

A few more photos on Flickr if you’re interested

#marsh #nature #birds #photography

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🌸 Cherry blossoms!

🌸 Cherry blossoms!

I had a hard time narrowing down which of these to post, and finally settled on two from the a6000, one from my phone in portrait mode, and one from my phone in regular mode.

The simulated depth of field on the Pixel 2 still looks a *little* off in most pictures, but it’s always better than I expect it to be!

#photography #cherryBlossoms #sakura #spring #photos #flowers

More photos from this botanical garden

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This shot looks OK at small sizes, but at larger sizes it just looks wrong …

This shot looks OK at small sizes, but at larger sizes it just looks wrong to me. I was going for a view with the daffodils in focus and the coral tree behind them blurry, but unfortunately it’s not blurry enough to look intentional.

I took a shot with my film camera too, but I haven’t finished the roll yet, so I won’t know for a while whether that one came out better.

#fotofails #photography #garden

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A windmill in suburbia. Apparently it was built by one of Hermosa Beach’s city founders …

A windmill in suburbia. Apparently it was built by one of Hermosa Beach’s city founders around 1900 and later moved to its present location, a small triangle of grass and trees in the corner of a grocery store lot next to Pacific Coast Highway. It’s no longer functional as far as I know, except as a historical landmark.

#photography #windmill

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Tonight’s waxing crescent moon. It’s passing in front of the Hyades star cluster right now, …

Tonight’s waxing crescent moon. It’s passing in front of the Hyades star cluster right now, which I’d love to get a photo of, but the moon’s just waaay too bright to capture the background stars!

#photography #moon #night #stargazing

Photo on Flickr

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In the time it took me to get a light meter reading and swap lenses …

In the time it took me to get a light meter reading and swap lenses on the old film camera, the light went from perfectly highlighting the flowers to leaving some of them in shadow.

Fortunately I took a shot with my phone before I started fumbling with equipment and the shadows moved, but the fake depth of field just isn’t the same.

#photography

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Lemons after the rain (digital). And the same lemons ~2 months earlier (film).

Lemons after the rain (digital). And the same lemons ~2 months earlier (film).

The potted lemon tree is still small, but it’s mature enough to produce lemons. Of course, at two feet tall, it’s only producing a crop of maybe five lemons a year.

One of the photos I took when we dragged out the old film camera was of this tree, so I keep coming back to it. It’s joined the moon and the distant LA skyline as a standard test subject!

#photography #lemons #tree

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Here’s a shot of a coral tree flower, from my first photo-walk with it.

Thanks to everyone who gave advice on mirrorless/DSLR cameras! I decided to go with the Sony a6000.

Here’s a shot of a coral tree flower, from my first photo-walk with it, at a local botanical garden. (It’s winter, but here that means we actually got rain recently.)

#photography #flower #CoralTree

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Some recent sun halo displays I’ve seen in the last 2 weeks

Some recent sun #halo displays I’ve seen in the last 2 weeks: An upper tangent arc (my first!), the top edges of a circumscribed and 22° circular halo, and most of a 22° circular halo (with bonus contrail shadow on the cloud layer!)

All shot on my Pixel 2 with levels adjusted.

These are all formed by reflection and refraction of light in ice crystals. (A great reference: https://www.atoptics.co.uk/halo/common.htm )

Also, all seen from Los Angeles, which isn’t freezing…at ground level.

#Photography #sky

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I went back out about an hour later to check out the view as the moon left the earth’s shadow

I went back out about an hour later to check out the view as the moon left the earth’s shadow, and caught these two photos, taken about the same time with different exposures so that you can see either the lit portion of the moon, or the part that’s still in the earth’s shadow.

#LunarEclipse #BloodMoon #Photography #moon #eclipse

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On Instagram (square crops)

The evening was hectic, and I almost forgot about the lunar eclipse.

The evening was hectic, and I almost forgot about the #LunarEclipse. I had literally just put my son to bed when I remembered, “The #eclipse!” We went out to see if the sky was clear.

Clouds were rushing across the sky, but for the most part, it was clear, and we had a perfect view of the #moon looking like a dark brown chunk of rock in the sky.

(Then I spent 10 minutes fighting with camera settings while he went back to bed.)

#Photography #BloodMoon

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On Tumblr (square crop)

The evening was hectic and I almost forgot the #LunarEclipse. I remembered in the middle of totality, and ran out to check. Clouds were racing across the sky, but we still had a clear view of the deep red moon.

Lunar Eclipse, January 2019

#moon #eclipse #bloodmoon

I caught a glimpse of the trail from today’s Delta 4 launch out of Vandenberg …

I caught a glimpse of the trail from today’s Delta 4 launch out of Vandenberg while driving, and made a beeline for the coast for a better look. I did manage to catch a clear view of the trail, though winds had already started blowing it out of shape, and stayed briefly to look at the boats on the ocean and the scenery.

#Photography #ocean #RocketTrail #cliff

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Raindrops on sage, spotted while walking around in the rain today.There were two major …

Raindrops on sage, spotted while walking around in the rain today.

There were two major cloudbursts, one overnight and one mid-morning. At this point the second one had faded to a little more than a drizzle, something a bit more comfortable to walk in.

#Photography #leaves #rain

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Asking for advice on entry-level DSLR/mirrorless

I’m a hobbyist, not a pro, &shoot with compact cameras & my phone. Digging out the old film SLR has got me thinking about a DSLR or mirrorless.

I’m looking for something a step up from entry-level, maybe like the Nikon D5600 or Fujifilm X-T20. Has anyone had experience with these, or recommendations for something else?

Looking for decent quality & auto, plus ability to do manual settings when I want to.

Thanks!

#photography #cameras #advice

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I went back to the same marsh I’d visited in early December, after a few …

I went back to the same marsh I’d visited in early December, after a few more rainstorms. The ponds had spread, covering trails I’d walked along just a few weeks earlier. Ducks and geese had arrived in force.

I could also swear I heard a frog, but I couldn’t see it, and even with the weird southern California seasons, I don’t think it’s the right time for frogs to be out. I should’ve asked at the visitor center.

#photography, #nature #geese #marsh #pond

More photos

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I swear none of these turtles moved at all the entire time I was there….

I swear none of these turtles moved at all the entire time I was there.

Another one nearby pulled its head into its shell, but this is a stabilized animation using several photos of these three, and the pond ripples change, the turtles don’t move a pixel as far as I can tell!

#turtles #photography

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Color version on Flickr
On iNaturalist

I suggest that a deep orange moon right before Christmas be called a #PumpkinPieMoon.

I suggest that a deep orange moon right before Christmas be called a #PumpkinPieMoon.

I was coming home shortly after sunset, got to the top of a hill and saw this deep orange moon, flattened near the horizon. By the time I found a place to stop, it had risen high enough that it was mostly round.

Composite of a background shot (the moon was waay too bright!) and a close-up of the #moon. I apparently moved a little bit, so the wire passing in front of it doesn’t line up exactly. #photography

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Obviously I should’ve said “zoom” and not “close-up” of the moon… 🤦‍♂️

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Last weekend I went for a hike at a local marsh. The lower areas are …

Last weekend I went for a hike at a local marsh. The lower areas are filling with water again now that we’ve had a few rainstorms.

I made a point of going late in the afternoon to catch some golden hour light, which didn’t work out quite as well as I was hoping, but I think this shot came out reasonably interesting.

Not sure, but I think I walked through this pond last time I was here and it was all dry ground.

#photography #marsh #woods #pond

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