Monday in Nature, 8th May 2017

Basic Guidelines: In the strictest sense, nature photography should not include "hand of man elements". Please refrain from images with buildings or human made structures like roads, fences, walls. Pets are not permitted. Captive subjects in zoos, arboretums, or aquariums are permitted, but must be declared, and must focus on the subject, not the captivity. Images with obvious human made elements will likely be deleted from the thread, with an explanation to the photographer. Guidelines are based on PSA rules governing Nature photography which also cover the Nature Forum. Keep your image at/under 1000 pixels on the long axis for in-line viewing. Note that this includes photos hosted off-site at Flicker, Photobucket, your own site, etc Are you new to this thread? We post one image per week.

 

Black-cowled Oriole (Icterus prosthemelas), at the Caribbean lowlands in Costa Rica

 

Edited May 8, 2017 by ShunCheung

Red Skimmer found in central Texas.

 

Mani or pedi?

Thanks for starting the thread this week, Shun.

 

Vetch leaves and stems.

 

Fog condensation on a (very small) spider web

Fog condensation on a (very small) spider web

[ATTACH=full]1186432[/ATTACH]

 

Amazing. Leslie, how small was this spider web? Did you use a macro lens? Depth of field looks quite good. I would imagine focus stacking would be difficult since this subject could vibrate under a bit of breeze.

Tulips.

Hope you like the photo.

 

I'm still unable to access this site on a regular basis due to some ongoing glitch but I'm here in spirit.

 

This guy was curious about my canoe and I had my trusty Canon Elph swinging from my neck.

Sunset

 

 

Dutchskies

Lilac Breasted Rollers - East African.

 

On the Florida panhandle back at the end of March...

 

Willet with prey

 

http://gorga.org/blog/wp-content/gallery/6-apr-2017-1/dsc5237.jpg

Detail from a Franciscan paintbrush

Roseate Spoonbill Brings Home Nesting Material

 

Still Nest Building (Explored) by David Stephens, on Flickr

Common Grackles could this be love?

 

how small was this spider web? Did you use a macro lens?

Thanks, Shun! And thanks for starting the thread this week.

The droplet + spiderweb photo was the 20th try over a 5-day period. It was made at 1:1 on a Canon 80D with a 60mm macro lens, f/3.2 1/200s ISO 400, with the camera on a gorillapod about 15cm off the ground. The frame is cropped to about 75% of the original width, so the average droplet is about a mm in diameter. I needed a wide aperture to make the background disappear and to bring up the shutter speed (there was a slight breeze), so this is a focus stack of 5 images. As you suggested, focus stacking was problematic because of the slight motion—I had to edit each layer separately to remove the resulting ghosting. I wasn’t really expecting it to work, but none of my other attempts (based mostly on trying to find the right spiderweb in the right place so that I could stop down) had adequately solved the background problem, so I gave it a try and the method turned out to be a lot more adaptable than I'd thought.

Thanks, Shun! And thanks for starting the thread this week.

The droplet + spiderweb photo was the 20th try over a 5-day period. It was made at 1:1 on a Canon 80D with a 60mm macro lens, f/3.2 1/200s ISO 400, with the camera on a gorillapod about 15cm off the ground. The frame is cropped to about 75% of the original width, so the average droplet is about a mm in diameter. I needed a wide aperture to make the background disappear and to bring up the shutter speed (there was a slight breeze), so this is a focus stack of 5 images. As you suggested, focus stacking was problematic because of the slight motion—I had to edit each layer separately to remove the resulting ghosting. I wasn’t really expecting it to work, but none of my other attempts (based mostly on trying to find the right spiderweb in the right place so that I could stop down) had adequately solved the background problem, so I gave it a try and the method turned out to be a lot more adaptable than I'd thought.

 

Leslie, thanks for the info. There is clearly a lot of depth of field, so much that its cannot possibly be from just one capture, but unless you have that setup indoors in a controlled environment, focus stacking is hard to achieve due to subject motion and vibration.

Lilac Breasted Rollers - East African.

 

[ATTACH=full]1186490[/ATTACH]

Amazing birds. Saw one on a mini safari I did at Chobe in Botswana. I think it's the prettiest bird I've ever seen, although granted most of mine have been North American.

It is Saturday and another week is coming to a close. Somebody please start the thread for next Monday, May 15. (If nobody starts it on time, I probably can initiate it.) As far as I know Laura Weishaupt still would like to start the four-year anniversary thread on May 22. I'll verify with her and if so, I'll post a reminder about that next week.