And then it started to rain…

Pretty hot, lazy day, lounged around on the verandah and alternately read a book, chatted with passersby, and fiddled around with pictures and the internet.

Then the wet season downpour came. I was idly looking down at the flowers being beaten by the rain, admiring the colors with the sun shining through.

After a while, my somnolent brain started to wake up and I gallumphed inside for the camera. By the time I got it, sorted out a bored kids disagreement, and got out to he verandah again, the rain was tapering off.

Oh well, the rain might not be as spectacular as I would like, but I do like the pix:

The lines are the rain. The three vertical, heavier lines to the right of the flower above and the vertical line just above and to the right of the flower below, must be big drops falling down from the guttering. They are nearer the camera than the flowers and the other rain drops that are showing. Notice the drop hitting the flower above. Excellent!!!

GX7 + 100-300. I closed down the lens a bit for two reasons:

1. To get more rain into focus.
2. To give me a shutter speed that was slow enough for the rain drops to be visible as streaks but not so slow that they would be continuous lines.

The OIS probably would have allowed me to freehand at the speeds used, but I supported my arms on the verandah rail anyway.

Focusing was a bit problematical. The 100-300 didn't want to focus on the flowers. It would readily focus on a green leaf in much the same plane, and then focus on the flowers when I switched to them.

I had the camera set to Vivid mode and I actually had saturation in Vivid ramped up a bit as an experiment. In this situation with this red, it was too much; in PP, I had to lower the saturation. Along with tweaking the exposure just a touch, and cropping the top pic, that was all the PP I did.

The vivid colors are very pleasing.  I identify with the idea of looking at a photo opportunity and not recognizing it quickly enough.

I like threads that have pictures and are about taking pictures.

Really like these Geoff. Now I'm inspired to go and try something similar.

Hen3ry wrote:

Pretty hot, lazy day, lounged around on the verandah and alternately read a book, chatted with passersby, and fiddled around with pictures and the internet.

Then the wet season downpour came. I was idly looking down at the flowers being beaten by the rain, admiring the colors with the sun shining through.

After a while, my somnolent brain started to wake up and I gallumphed inside for the camera. By the time I got it, sorted out a bored kids disagreement, and got out to he verandah again, the rain was tapering off.

Oh well, the rain might not be as spectacular as I would like, but I do like the pix:

The lines are the rain. The three vertical, heavier lines to the right of the flower above and the vertical line just above and to the right of the flower below, must be big drops falling down from the guttering. They are nearer the camera than the flowers and the other rain drops that are showing. Notice the drop hitting the flower above. Excellent!!!

GX7 + 100-300. I closed down the lens a bit for two reasons:

1. To get more rain into focus.
2. To give me a shutter speed that was slow enough for the rain drops to be visible as streaks but not so slow that they would be continuous lines.

The OIS probably would have allowed me to freehand at the speeds used, but I supported my arms on the verandah rail anyway.

Focusing was a bit problematical. The 100-300 didn't want to focus on the flowers. It would readily focus on a green leaf in much the same plane, and then focus on the flowers when I switched to them.

I had the camera set to Vivid mode and I actually had saturation in Vivid ramped up a bit as an experiment. In this situation with this red, it was too much; in PP, I had to lower the saturation. Along with tweaking the exposure just a touch, and cropping the top pic, that was all the PP I did.

The two times I tried to capture stationary flowers using the 100-300mm (GM5 and G7), I found the single central box AF struggled with the limited contrast across the blooms (using spot light metering as well) and othen selected the stalks/branches.

Pinpoint AF works fine in good light if everything's still, but it can hunt a little.

I found this to be one of those situations where AF+MF with the magnified window worked a treat.

.... that Geoff has too much time on his hands!  

Just kidding, my friend. I enjoy your essays and photos.

Geoffrey:

I have little experience and even less with m4/3 so maybe my question is not applicable. I thought that diffraction in m4/3 started around f/8 and these images are at f/14, and I don’t see apparent loss in sharpness. Can you explain this for me?

Really like these, especially the color.

Thanks,
Earl

Very nice Geoffrey and excellent bokeh ........at F14. So much for that.

Nice pictures and the color Red comes really good and sharp.

Cheers

horsth wrote:

Nice pictures and the color Red comes really good and sharp.

Thanks, horst. I'm starting to think that oversaturating at exposure then pulling back saturation in PP does a better job for me than trying to boost saturation in PP. I'll keep experimenting.

vallecano wrote:

Geoffrey:

I have little experience and even less with m4/3 so maybe my question is not applicable. I thought that diffraction in m4/3 started around f/8 and these images are at f/14, and I don’t see apparent loss in sharpness. Can you explain this for me?

Really like these, especially the color.

Thanks, Earl. I would suggest there are three things here:

1. Lots of people worry way too much about diffraction.
2. Diffraction has to do with the size of the hole through which light is reaching the sensor. Since f-stops are a ratio of the focal length, f14 on a long telephoto lens is a much bigger hole than f14 on (say) a 9mm lens. Diffraction is not an absolute, it is relative.
3. These pix are reduced in size significantly and viewed quite small, so the effects of diffraction can be lost. And thattakes us back to 1. above!

Terminal Boy wrote:

Hen3ry wrote:

Pretty hot, lazy day, lounged around on the verandah and alternately read a book, chatted with passersby, and fiddled around with pictures and the internet.

Then the wet season downpour came. I was idly looking down at the flowers being beaten by the rain, admiring the colors with the sun shining through.

After a while, my somnolent brain started to wake up and I gallumphed inside for the camera. By the time I got it, sorted out a bored kids disagreement, and got out to he verandah again, the rain was tapering off.

Oh well, the rain might not be as spectacular as I would like, but I do like the pix:

The lines are the rain. The three vertical, heavier lines to the right of the flower above and the vertical line just above and to the right of the flower below, must be big drops falling down from the guttering. They are nearer the camera than the flowers and the other rain drops that are showing. Notice the drop hitting the flower above. Excellent!!!

GX7 + 100-300. I closed down the lens a bit for two reasons:

1. To get more rain into focus.
2. To give me a shutter speed that was slow enough for the rain drops to be visible as streaks but not so slow that they would be continuous lines.

The OIS probably would have allowed me to freehand at the speeds used, but I supported my arms on the verandah rail anyway.

Focusing was a bit problematical. The 100-300 didn't want to focus on the flowers. It would readily focus on a green leaf in much the same plane, and then focus on the flowers when I switched to them.

I had the camera set to Vivid mode and I actually had saturation in Vivid ramped up a bit as an experiment. In this situation with this red, it was too much; in PP, I had to lower the saturation. Along with tweaking the exposure just a touch, and cropping the top pic, that was all the PP I did.

The two times I tried to capture stationary flowers using the 100-300mm (GM5 and G7), I found the single central box AF struggled with the limited contrast across the blooms (using spot light metering as well) and othen selected the stalks/branches.

Pinpoint AF works fine in good light if everything's still, but it can hunt a little.

I found this to be one of those situations where AF+MF with the magnified window worked a treat.

I must admit that I have tried AF/MF and not mastered it, Terminal. I really should give it more of a go because it has obvious advantages over my work around of focusing on something else then shifting to focus on the actual subject. I have a notion the system prefers green over red.

Very nice Geoff! I like your pictures and the stories behind them.

And my 100-300 also sometimes struggles to lock focus when I would expect it to do so without a problem. I haven't looked into the reason why though, just one those things that just happens. And my solution is the same: just find something at about thesame distance to focus on and then try again. Hmm, there was something about great minds ... 

Excellent, Geoffrey, both photos and story.  Very enjoyable.   Also and interesting approach to post processing.  Experiment.  Good idea.

Joe

Really beautiful, the second one is stunning.

I can't believe you are talking about the heat, when we are struggling with cold and ice in Montreal.