Saddle Stand

Today's field trip took me to the Thumb of Michigan.  There is an agricultural museum that goes by the Thumb Octagon Barn.  The organization that runs the place had a open day for people to come out and see what they are doing.  And I did leave a donation.  In a few weeks they are having a huge party and I think this was a way to gin up some interest.
The building itself is huge.  As with any museum, there are a lot of artifacts on display.  In this case, this is farming in the early 1900s.  As a student of the world, a lot of the stuff was interesting.  As a photographer, I found a few items that caught my interest.
The first item that caught my interest was a saddle stand.  I'm not much of a farm person, so there may be a technical name for this thing, but I'm going with the simple.  This stand was not on the main 'path' through the barn.  It seems that this area was still in use by real farm critters.  Large critters.  And the odor confirmed it.  It was great.  Hay and cow/horse crap.  And next to the hay store, was this saddle stand.  With a bit of window light on it.  The scene was generally dark, except for the ray of light.  In spit of that, I got most of what I wanted.

Saddle Stand

NIKON D7200 Ver.1.04/18.0-200.0 mm f/3.5-5.6

24 mm, 1/60 sec, f/5.0, ISO 800 (Auto)

EV 0, MANUAL, Size DX

For fun, I thought this might be interesting monochrome.  And it turned out OK.

I don't usually do a lot of this effect, but in this case it works for me.  That looks 1800s to me.

#1225 In Ashley

At the end of the Northern Express run is the village of Ashley, MI.  The Express will stop in a position to allow the passengers to disembark over a concrete, solid road.  When all the passengers have left the cars, the train will (very) move back to clear the intersection.
While this is in progress, all the photographers tried to get close to the engine, only to be held back by 'security'.  I overheard one photographer say that this was the first time this policy was enforced this year.  But was fun time and a chance to chat with fellow shutter bugs.
While moving in a reverse direction at a slow pace, there was steam everywhere.  Great visual.  Not so much for image file.
Talk about flat light.

ISO 1000, f/5, 1/1250 sec, 20 mm

NIKON D500 Ver.1.15/18.0-200.0 mm f/3.5-5.6

First, stuff on the right has to go.  The branches and the objects just in the clearing steam.  I'll take whatever I can to get some definition in the flat parts.
I have some options.  I could go B&W?  Single image HDR to get definition?  Paint?
If I go B&W, my go to set of filters are NIK - when it was free.  I use the Silver EFX Pro 2 and the one that caught me was based on the Film Noir presets.  I still like another preset used on a model train - but I don't want to get caught in a rut.  These steam trains remind me of days gone past and so B&W is a fit.

That looks good to me.  Looks like what I'd imagine Detroit or Saginaw looked like in the late 40's and early 50's.
I tried a single image HDR and what I liked most was a B&W take.  This image took it in that category.
But now that we have a painting option, how would that look?  Again, due to the whole rut thingie wanted to try other options/looks.
What wound up as the paint option started as a sketch search.  Although there are very elaborate paint options, I still think for my purposes less is more.  The Carland Elevator Paint is probably more that what I originally wanted to do, but in that shot it worked.  All of that subject was cold to me.  And that effect worked there.  This is different, it needs to be more 'real'.
So I wanted to go with more of a drawing look.

That pretty much nails what I was looking for as an option when nothing else works.  I like that  one all day long.  Looks like it belongs as a story board for a Spaghetti Western.  That's a far way from Michigan.
A few years ago, I introduced HDR to the photo club of which I am a dues paying member.  Caused a lot of ruckus.  I can laugh at it now.  I stress dues paying, so they couldn't kick me out.  It all worked out.
In January's club meeting, I'll show this and the Carland image.  That'll be fun!

Cold Passage in B&W

For the club meeting this week, this month's subject is winter.  I already had two entries ready, one of the Tahquamenon Falls with a lot of ice and one of St. Joseph North Pier Light with a fair amount of snow and ice.  I was looking for a couple of winter shots that could be converted to for the monochrome category.   I found an interesting angle for the often photographed St. Joe's light.  Lots of good ice on the rail, and a different side of the walk way that I usually don't show.  The B&W angle is very interesting.

ISO 400, f/16, 1/200 sec, 31 mm

NIKON D90/18.0-200.0 mm f/3.5-5.6

Looking for the second entry in the category, I found some shots of a laker taken from the Mackinac side of the straights.  This was taken on a short trip up north in January 2015.  It looks cold.  Both shots look cold.
When I saw this image, I knew where I wanted to go.  Make it look historic.  I wanted to keep it mostly B&W, and not add any off coloring like I've used in the past.  I think this image can carry the load without any distractions.

ISO 400, f/9, 1/1600, 200 mm

NIKON D90/18.0-200.0 mm f/3.5-5.6

That just screams Great Lakes in the winter!
Actually both shots do.

Across the Yard

As mentioned in previous posts, this year's photo shoot at the Detroit Model Railroad Club, for me, was successful.  Many of the shots turned out like this one, that is the photo is sharp and the likability of the subject is up to the viewer.
This year, I was trying for different areas on the layout.  I have some older shots of this area, but not with this setup of trains.  In the original shot, the background wall didn't do me any favors.  The focus stacking played some odd tricks with the flat blue color.  Lately I've been getting a bit more aggressive with cropping, and that allowed me to do the same here.
This is the shot coming out of the stack process.

ISO 100, f/6.3, 1.6 sec, 50 mm

16 Shot Photo Stack

All that stuff in the upper right looks bad.  That boys and girls is what a dirty sensor photo looks like.  In this case, it is not.
At first, I tried to clone it out to keep some originality.  And in the end, it looked worse.
Next I tried sky replacement.  I spent quite a bit of time erasing the background, more time than I like on any photograph.  I wound up erasing more and more of the background.  With what I think the format that the club likes, this is what I finished up with.

To me there's not enough to distract, but if I was to re-edit I'd lighten the blue a bit.  Other than that, the photo is OK.  Just OK.
But, since I've been cropping to a size that is more monitor friendly I might be able to get that mess totally out of there.

Actually, this looks so much better to me.  No background, all subject scenery.
I'm not sure why I'm not totally happy with this shot.  On my screen saver, it is sharp.  All the numbers are clearly readable.  All the tracks are in focus.  Still not happy.  I think, it is because it looks indoors?  The light ain't right.
I could play with the light levels, or......  I like what B&W or monochrome effects did for the F15 shot.  (Here)  After all, this is a railroad shot.  Looks way too clean.
This is what I finished with.

Now this looks a little more like a railroad yard shot to me, or what I think it would look like.  I need to expand my horizons more.

F15 - The Story

Like a lot of people, I like fast.  I should say, I like to watch fast.  If it's noisy, so much the better.  And if it's the Sound of Freedom, home run!
Of all the aircraft I've seen in action or close up, my favorite by far it is the F4 Phantom.  If you're not up on your USAF fighter life cycle, the Phantom was retired from the US inventory many years ago.  However, I did get to see them fly when I was stationed in Okinawa in the early 80's.  They were being phased out at the time by the F15s.   But to watch them fly, I really liked the lines.  Just plain bad ass.  No other description necessary.

This is a photo from 1981.  Film.  Rookie.  Anyway, I was on a flight from Okinawa to the Philippines on a KC-135, and this was one of our gas guzzling customers.  On the same flight:

As with many things in life, once you begin to like them they go away.  So long gone is the F4, unless one is flying around somewhere that I've lost track of.   It looks like some other countries may still employ the aircraft, but the last use in the US for the Phantom was for drone practice.
Anyway, segueing into a F15 story, the F4s in Okinawa were being replaced by the F15s.  Although I liked the lines of the Phantom more than the Eagle, the Eagle appeared to have the performance edge by a wide margin.  When the F15s required a functional flight test after major maintenance, free flight time was granted over the field.  What a show!  And it is that sound I remember.
So I'm at the Reno Air Races a few weeks ago.  I knew that there was a F16 Demo team that had time every day on the schedule of events, and I was looking forward to seeing them perform.  Fighters were going to be seen.
At the end of the first day, I was 'recovering' with friends at a campsite.  The campsite was really a parking lot for the airfield just off the runway.  
Then I heard it.  
There are many engine sounds I remember from over the years.  By far, the most enjoyable to me is the C5 whine.  Hours of touch and goes.  I have no idea on the number of take-offs, but there were lots.  And with each acceleration the dump of fuel into the TF39s to get them off the ground produced a sound I'll never forget.  Close seconds go to the F4, the F15 and the SR-71.  I always keep asking myself, how did I get this lucky to see all of these engineering marvels do their thing?  
So, back to the campsite, I hear a familiar noise.  There are two F15s doing a flyby of the field!  Awesome.
So two Eagles arrived.  I was hoping I'd see them as part of the performances between races, but it was not to be.  They sat next to the F16s on the military side of the spectator area for the remainer of the event.  But I paid them a visit every day.

Other than to me, not much of an interesting photograph.  For whatever reason, I missed centering it.  And one of the lessons I need to remind myself, don't get so close up that there's no room to maneuver.  I needed to leave more room off the right side wing.  I pretty much limited my options.  The other self criticism is I'm just off center enough to be irritating.  Not a side shot, not a nose shot, no-man's land.  PPPFFFTTT.
I don't want to lose this shot, I'd like to do anything with it to keep it alive, only for the subject.
Before we too deep into this, there are a lot of  small 'imperfections' that need to be removed.  Anything that is between the wing underside and above the taxiway above the grass needs to be 'gone'.  
Once those were removed, I really want to center the attention on the aircraft.  Sky is nice, the mountains are nice.  It is possible someone's eye could drift off the prize.
I was playing around with a number of filters, when I landed on doing a B&W theme.  I don't do many like that, but in this case it works.  Kind of artsy, eh?

ISO 200, f/9, 1/1250 sec, 70 mm

D90/18-200

In a perfect world, I'd leave more room off each wing.  It almost looks like the wings end with the flaps.  If I ever do a redux, I'd start with the wing tips.  But for now, I like the effect.  There was another effect, which I might work with which was very harsh.  Really brought out the clouds and mountains.  it's from one of my older filters that I started to shy away from, but again with this subject harsh works.  On another rainy, snowy day.

DMRRC - Hollywoods Station

Thank goodness it was and still is a crappy weekend, relating to the weather.  I had a lot to do with the photos from the DMRRC shoot on Thursday night.
First I had to go through all the photos, 180 of them.  I needed to separate the photos into groups for stacking.  In the end, I wound up with 23 groups - which means a total of 23 possible finished products.  I found two sets that were technically OK, but not as interesting as I thought they'd be.  I will have 21 good photos to play with and I think that's OK for first effort with stacking and miniature subjects.
My workflow is also changing.  I made the official move to using Photoshop, upgrading from Elements.  There's a bit of a learning curve there - but lots of YouTube videos.  (How did the caveman ever get along with out the 'net?)  Once I got that installed on the PC and laptop, I need to re-install On One and Photomatix to get all the plug-ins connected.  Did I mention it was crappy outside and that's a good thing today?
As to Hollywoods Station....
This photo is from the front of the railroad display.  In the background is a very cool mural, which is where the Hollywoods name comes from.  There are some very interesting colors here, so I'm wondering anyway why is this shot in B&W?  As i went through proofing these photos the monochrome really works for me with the railroads.  It is just me.

For this and most of my other shots, I put the camera right on the ground, with a bean bag supporting the lens.  I set the camera at F8 for the entire shoot.  I also set the ISO at 100.  I was going to be using some form of support all shoot, so a high speed wasn't necessary.

B-17 Nose Section which housed the Bombardier and Navigator

This past weekend, three WWII aircraft as part of a tour stopped at the local airport.  One of the aircraft was a B-17G.  I have always been fascinated by this aircraft and the role it played in both theaters of WWII.

At this event, the B-17 and the B-24J were open to the public for touring.  I went through multiple times to get some really good shots - without little gremlins trying to photo bomb me.

Most of my shots were point and shoot - that is with no view finder.  Just hoping for the best.

This is one of the first I have played with.  The is the Nose Section of the B-17, where the Bombardier and Navigator did their thing.

For me, already a classic.

1/640   f/9
Aperture Priority
ISO 400
Focal Length 18mm
Focal Length (35mm) 27 mm

Lake Reflection

As I look at Black and White variations of some photos, I am beginning to see many possibilities.  The colorized version of this photo is good, but this one is - well - really good.  and the print is even better!  This is sunset behind a small dammed lake on Drummond Island.  I took a number of 'real' HDR photos - and this is one of them.  Depending on the map used, this is either at the end of DAM or DAMIT road.  (I've noticed that most maps differ on the road naming conventions on the island.) 

1/30, 1/125, 1/8   f/8
Aperture Priority
ISO 400
Focal length 20 mm (30 mm for 35mm film)

Algoma (Essar) Steel

This is a photo from last - well now two - year.  The Soo Lock Boat tour includes a pass through the Algoma (Now Essar) Steel property,  Depending on what time of day you get through there - a lot can be going on.  Anything from freighters to large equipment to gas blow offs can happen.  So what happened here?  Not much going on - but great backlighting!  So I was cruising through some old photos and thought this might be good in B&W.  Exceeded my expectations.

1/640 f/13
Auto
ISO 400
Focal length 32 mm (48 mm for 35mm film)