Green, Brown and Properly Boring

Tonight I went to the Phyllis Rawlinson Park out on Leslie St. north of 19th. It is an old farm that was donated to the city as conservation park land by its last owner - and I challenge you to guess her name.

Anyway, it was overcast but not close to raining, and my goal was architecture photos. I don't really like architecture photos but I figured if there was an old building or two, I would probably enjoy their aged character.

And what luck! The original farmhouse and barn, said the brochure, are there waiting to be photographed.



This is what I saw as I approached. It looked very promising from afar. Stone and log walls, and some other kind of material.



And this was pretty much the only photo I took of it. Why? because it'd been redone, and while some of the features were preserved, they were polluted by modern accents: buried cable warning flags in the lawn; a pole-mounted garbage can; a bag of sidewalk salt outside the back door. It was too slick. Character had fled the building.



I had to move on to flora and fauna. Almost everything was green and brown, and hunting for color was a challenge. Here, a twisted vine...



There, a corn flower.



And in the occasional landscaped flower bed, more impressive specimens. But not *really* impressive.



There were grape vines.



And unripened grapes.



And a long path back to the parking lot.



I tried for a couple of bird shots, but I had no luck and didn't get close enough to take anything decent. Bird photography is a whole other ball game, and without a longer lens, I think I'm going to avoid it.

© Jeremy Buehler and Bug Noir (www.bugnoir.com), 2010.

Wait, That's Not a Seal...

Tonight, a friend invited me to the dog park with her sister and their dogs. I jumped at the chance because I want to practice whenever I can.

It was late evening, and the sun was pretty harsh, but I caught a couple of breaks because the dog park was in a little valley sheltered from the direct sun. There were three dogs total; a pair of female pugs named Maria and Carmella, and a Jack Russel named Benny.



The ladies have character.



This was lucky.



It's like you can see what she's thinking.



Noble...



Classy...



Downright cute.



And then there's Benny. He's also cute. He is also what I'd consider 'high energy'.



Very high energy.



I saw him make friends with many dogs. In fact, the only time he'd stand still long enough for a photo was when he pinned one down.



He's pretty good at it too, for a little guy.



He wouldn't back down. The pics make him out to be a terror but it was all in fun. At the end of the night he was dominated by an angry chihuahua.



And a vanity shot of some geese that flew over. Normally I'd be angry about the vignetting, but this time it looks nice.

© Jeremy Buehler and Bug Noir (www.bugnoir.com), 2010.

It's the Details that Get You

One of my favorite sayings has two versions:

"God is in the details;" and "The Devil is in the details."

I view it in the same light as the "glass is half empty/half full". For the most part, I live my life in the Devil camp. Work is usually focused on solving problems or building something to circumvent problems before they happen. I look for the negative side of things and imagine how bad things could get.

I'm trying to make photography the opposite of work. I look for the positive, and for what delights me about what I'm looking at, and try to photograph it. I am an atheist, but as far as the saying goes, photography is my way of leaving the devil behind and finding God.

The Devil, however, is awfully persistent.

Most of the images I post are unedited, un-cropped and straight from the camera with the exception of some basic manipulation of exposure in Lightroom. And sometimes, like in my moon shot post, I take post production a bit further by knocking the color out of an image or playing with the levels in Photoshop.

I think relying on post-production is a hindrance to developing my photography skills and therefore I want to avoid it. But sometimes, like today, it's helpful to look back and examine what I've done for signs of the Devil in the details. Taking a photo to 1:1 at 12 MP shows instantly whether I achieved the basic goals of 'focus' and subject state.

Here are some photos from my Metro Toronto Zoo trip, and some self-critique:



The Skink is an animal I usually find repulsive, and this one, shot through glass and caught mid-molt, was particularly disturbing for me. The shiny thing on its upper lip is old skin, barely hanging on. As I mentioned in the initial zoo post, I was lucky with the through-glass shots.



My baby, in a 'I'd leap the fence and give you a great big hug, knowing you'd tear me to pieces' kind of way. This was the only time I saw her in front of a fairly neutral background, as she soaked in her pool. I am not happy about the shadows but considering I couldn't get post-dawn or late evening light, I think it turned out OK.



I like his expression but the light isn't quite right - you can see shadows on his face. They might give him more character, but it's tough to say without putting it beside a shot without shadows.



I couldn't quite catch this guy looking straight out; he/she always kept its eyes pointed towards the ground. I think more patience would have paid off. Also, I should have been standing another two-three feet to my left for a better background.



Majestic, yet, the light is coming from behind and not the front. Plus, the light background threw me for a bit of a loop. I could have exposed the front better, but the background would have blown out. I tried to keep the sky blue, and the result is an evenly lit yet dull photo.



I am not partial to grain in my photos. I wonder, sometimes, if I'm pushing the 18-200mm to its limits or if I'm just doing something wrong. It's an F/3.5 lens, and there are significantly better zooms out there. I went for the convenience of the focal range and sacrificed some quality - now I'm not sure that was the best way to go.



So much pink, so much light! This is another shot that would have benefited from softer light. There's just too much burn, and I think a lot of the richness of the color is lost. I do like its beady little eye.



I am really curious about how this guy lost his scale. It was not a small snake, which helped the detail. For a through-glass shot, I have no complaints. But I think if I stood a little to my left, I might have been able to give his eye more play, instead of the scales.



Nikon makes a 300mm prime that I would really like to try one day. The background in this shot isn't quite blurred enough to make the rhino pop the way I wanted. If anyone wants to give me $7.5k or so (I'd have to get a teleconverter, too!), email me for my mailing address. ;)



Maybe not the best photo (again, with the direct light), but man, those hungry, hungry hippos look happy.


© Jeremy Buehler and Bug Noir (www.bugnoir.com), 2010.

To the Moon, Alice

Tonight's post is short, partially to make up for yesterday's gargantuan post. I thought it might also be nice to break up zoo posts with something different. The moon is almost full, and apparently the full moon is not the best time to shoot it - something I learned tonight.

It makes sense if you think about it. Light hitting the moon on an angle would create darker shadows and create better depth on the surface. Learn something new every day! Perhaps next time I shoot the moon, I'll be out of the city's light pollution umbrella.

And... Ta da!



Here it is, the best I could muster in the big city, on my balcony, in my jammies. It's ok for my 18-200mm, which grabs 300mm with the 1.5x crop sensor conversion, but I would definitely be better off with a longer lens.



Something a little artsie - the moon passed behind a maple tree on its way up to where I meant to shoot it; this creepy photo is the result.

Tomorrow, or maybe the next day, it's back to the zoo for some cropped shots and some hidden treasures I missed the first time around. Enjoy!

© Jeremy Buehler and Bug Noir (www.bugnoir.com), 2010.

Zoo, Zoo, Zoooooodles

What a day. I left for the Metro Toronto Zoo at about 8:00 a.m. That put me in line waiting for the gates to open at nine. I left as they were kicking people out of the park just after 7 p.m.

Six hundred and sixteen photos later (that's 15GB for those keeping track), I was left with one favorite shot and several neat ones. Today's post is large, if only to satisfy the part of my brain that thinks I should have had more winners. ;)

All shots below were taken with the 18-200mm, most on full manual. I'm finding I have a love-hate relationship with all modes other than manual. I know the camera is smarter than me at getting focus, etc. right, but then there are times where we just don't agree. On the bright side, I'm getting much faster on the controls.

Tomorrow is going to be a rough day.

Without further ado, the shots:



This is a 14-year-old Siberian Tiger, that has a fancy Russian name I can't spell. She was on the top of my list of targets for the day, and I was the first visitor to her enclosure. I woke her up with my camera (by accident, it's a freakin' TIGER), and got a few shots off.



She eventually went back to sleep, and I planned to return an hour or so later to Meet the Keeper.



This is her eating a quail in one bite during the Meet the Keeper session. She got a two quail snack, both in a paper bag she had to open herself. The last I saw, she saved the second one for later.



I tried to follow the Meet the Keeper schedule because I figured they were good value. The sun was already high in the sky and the day was getting hotter by the minute, sure to make the animals sleepy. Since Meet the Keeper sessions involve food for the animals, they perk up.



Of course, when you arrive early for the session, the animals are far from 'perked'.



Except for this guy, who felt it necessary to roll down a hill on the way to the session.



I got to the Grizzly enclosure early, too. It was pretty hot out.



The giraffes didn't seem to mind the heat so much. They have these tall, fake tree shade providers in their paddock.



The lion show wasn't as exciting as the last time I saw it. This one was a cub the last time I was at the zoo, although I didn't make a connection when I was taking the photo.



This one (same as last photo) is a male, although it looks like a female because he lacks a mane. Apparently the males not destined for a breeding program are fixed early on, and when that happens to a lion they don't generate enough testosterone to grow a proper mane.



One of my experimental photos from the day. While I was very tempted to jump in the water to cool off, the possibility of being eaten kept me from actually doing it. This was shot through the glass aquarium wall.



This shot reminded me of a lot of the people I saw struggling to get around the paths. Hippo butts!



And a Hippo tear. Do not ask for whom the Hippo cries, for he cries for us all.



Had to keep this one, despite all the reflection, because it reminded me of doing blowfishes on a window. Only this looks like a fish doing it. See? Irony.



Some hot action for those of you getting bored with this.



A fantastic through-glass shot. For some reason, I think the green helped cancel the effect of the glass because it made for very vivid images.



By the time I took this shot I was ready to push the lion aside so I could have a nap myself.



I couldn't for the life of me get a good angle on the ostrich. This was the best I could do.



This is the zoo's recently born baby zebra. They're born with brown stripes, apparently, that darken as they mature.



This guy's face was chewed up; he obviously got into something recently. The other rhino in the paddock had no marks on it, so maybe it was an inanimate object. It's probably not looking too good either.



Obligatory dreamy waterfall shot, because someone (me) is still infatuated with the technique.



Beautiful birds - incredibly ugly noisemakers. They sound like drunk, aggressive sailor geese or something.



Having more great luck with the green through glass.



This was a pleasant surprise. Handheld, low shutter speed, high ISO, aperture as wide open as it would go and through glass.



And finally, an end of the day pass by the Siberian tiger compound yielded my favorite photo of the day. I consider this a win, and the day mine.



In case you missed it the first time.... ;)



© Jeremy Buehler and Bug Noir (www.bugnoir.com), 2010.