Santa Fe at Dorrance Station

This is the first of the photo stacks from the DMRRC 2019 shoot.  I like the Santa Fe 330 engine.  Actually, I like all the colors on the engines, and one that I'll look at later that looks very weathered.  But for now the reds, yellows and silver of the Santa Fe are on display.
This is an eleven shot stack.  Somewhere around shot five, the train was moved.  Fortunately, the train was moved in a backward direction.  And fortunately I have good images of the train before it was moved.
Fortunately.
In all the previous stacking projects I've done, I've pretty much let the software do its thing and that was good enough.  Here was a challenge.
The basic settings:

When I did the original eleven shot stack, this was the best I (the software) could do with respect to the train.

If the ultimate goal is a sharp image, that ain't it.
So I decided to blend a five shot stack to get the sharp train and blended it in the final eleven shot stack.

Tough to tell, but the images are different.
After I had the two together, and a little cleanup.  This is my finished effort.

There is a lot going on here, and I like it.  The blue background is what the walls in the club look like now.  To go much further with this, I'd have to think of something.  And with any luck, the club will have something on the wall next year.
And the painted version.

Both will make wonderful screen backgrounds.

Detroit Model Railroad Shoot - 2019

Yesterday was the Club's annual photo shoot at the Detroit Model Railroad Club's location.  I think this is the fourth year we've done this.
First, four of my images from 2018 were chosen for the 2019 calendar.  Very happy to see the work is appreciated by others.
That was the good part of the day, the rest seemingly went downhill from there.  But as the noted philosopher Yoda noted years in the future, "The greatest teacher failure is".  And so as it goes with most of my life's education, by the end of the day, I learned a lot.
First, my coordination with other people needs work.  People skills.  Also doing some camera work were some members of the DMRRC.  I should have explained what I was doing with stacking and the process.  While I was stacking, some trains were moved, some flash shots went, and well, challenges come in many forms.  I will have to overcome.  To be very clear, this was my issue, no one else's.
And then there was my choice of camera.
All week prior to the shoot, I told myself to use the D7200.  The connection to the tablet via Bluetooth works, the images are very good.  A proven performer for this event.  And then I said, well let's try the D500.  And as the noted philosopher Homer (Simpson) philosophed, "Doh!".
Well, I guess I had to try.  
I had put a quick release on the shoulder straps of the D7200.  Must have been a reason for that?  Ha, well that was an unexpected source of frustration.  That shoulder strap was a pain.
Then there was the tethering from the camera to the tablet.  The D7200 has a great simple WiFi set up.  The D500 was set up to use Snapbridge.  If I have one issue with the D500, it is the network is way too proprietary.  Snapbridge and I are not friends.  That is another post in itself, but I made the conscious decision to bypass WiFi for a cable.  I chuckle at my foolish thoughts.
For some reason, and I will find out, but my stacking didn't read the NEF files from the D500.  This is not an issue with the D7200.  That mistake could have been a real disaster, except I was also creating JPG files.  And in large format.  Luck comes in many flavors.  And for the failure/teacher part, I have to work with JPGs.  I worked on a stack this morning, and Yoda would be proud.  I overcame the file format issue, JPGs work just fine.  I also overcame the train moving and it turned out OK.  That post will follow with the story.
All in all, through my failures I have learned a lot.  I didn't leave with as many stacks as I usually walk away with so I'll have to work with single shot images.  
On a more positive note, I did get some shots with ISOs over 10k.  Will be interesting to see how they turned out.
More learning.  

Heron in the Green (?) - Paint

After looking at the Heron in the Green image for a while, I thought a paint take might look good.  I laughed a bit, as most of the green was gone.  But this would look good in a smaller print - and would certainly would beg the question if it was real - or painted.

What happened to all the green?

Jack Links Climbing

Reviewing some of the images from Reno, getting ready for the summer season.  I saw this one of the Jack Links bi-plane.  For more of the Jack Links story and my attachment to some of the parts used in this unique aircraft, read here.  
This image is severely cropped, maybe to less than 20%.  It won't win any prizes, but looks good on the monitor.
But what really gets me is the prop blur.  And the sky background.  This was at the far end of my reach, 450 mm.   And really cropped.  Like all images, if it stars as crap, nothing you can do will help.  But, if your image is in focus you can get away with a lot.  And I think I did.
The settings:

I need to remember f/8 and 1/500 sec for future shots.  The prop is just about perfect for me with this one.  I can live with f/8.  For planning purposes, I can go to f/11.  But this far out, F/8 is pretty sharp.

It looks good on the monitor.  And for now, good enough.

Heron in the Green

As the temperatures crawled into the mid-50s today, I started thinking of visiting my feathered friends in a few weeks.  It's been a few weeks since I've opened up some of these programs, tough to get in the picture mood when the wind chill is at 0 and the days are so short.
I've not been totally forgetting about photography over the last few weeks.  I've done some work with a variable neutral density filter at a near by man made waterfall before it froze over.  If I elect to use a ND filter for my airshow work, at this time it won't be a VND.  I found a lot of color shift.  It could be fixed, but why add to the post processing.
Last weekend the sun was out on a Saturday, that I didn't have to do the real job, so I hit the road.  I hit a few lighthouses.  My plan was to take a number of JPG images and see how they compared to my processing of a RAW image.  Long story short, Nikon's JPG just doesn't do it for me.  My processing for anything I'd want to show still includes ACR so I'm not really saving that much time.  The RAW file size hasn't been an issue in the D7200 so far.  So unless I get trapped into some 'vacation' photos, I'll be shooting RAW.
So back to the Heron.  I like this image because it is busy.  Busy to me anyway.  Some of the image is artfully out of focus.  And the bird is in focus.  You can really see the yellow eye.

Settings:

I'm still a few weeks away from going to the Refuge, but the season is on the way.

Gull on a Rail

Way back in August of 2009, I was the proud owner of a Nikon D80.  And as mentioned before, I had no idea how to use the thing.  And to prove that point....
*Road Trip*
I've downloaded Nikon's free photo editor.  I'll probably never use it to edit anything, but my real goal was to have an OEM tool to read XMP file information.  This helps when I'm going down memory lane.  And it is much easier to read than Adobe products RAW file viewer. 
*Road Tip Over*
So in August of 2009, I was in North Carolina.  Part of the day's trip was to take a ferry across a lot of water from somewhere to Fort Fisher.  Near the end of the  venture when we were back in the car ready to exit, right outside the car landed a sea gull.  I flipped the camera toward the bird and whoosh.  Moment captured in time.  Instant professional photographer.  Auto mode, kit lens and all.  
Back when life was much simpler, I thought this was a great shot.  OK, colors were a bit flat out of the camera.  (Had no idea why I was shooting RAW at that time.)  The bird's white shoulder is really close to being totally blown.  But other than that, the red piping, the black metal siding, the detail of the rope and the white lettering was in my opinion 'da bomb'.
Over the years, I've used this photograph in my printed portfolio as a beginning point in my artistic journey.
*Another Road Trip*
The photo club to which I am a member is trying a new activity.  Members offer up photos to the group, and everyone get a shot at how they'd post process the image.  I though this one would be interesting as there are many aspects one could choose based on interests.  And so I thought I'd publish my efforts. 
*Road Trip Over*

The settings:

See the Programmed Auto - yes we all have to start somewhere.

The RAW Image:

What I thought would be good years ago, from the original PSD file:

So I have some darker blue in the sky, but at the cost of a blue 'reflection' in the black metal.  And I see I have changed the colors of the bird, and not in a good way.  Blow it up just a little and my new nemesis, noise, is really in the metal.  I have areas to attack.
With old standby software, and some new software this is what I did.  
I'm trying to update my workflow with AI Clear.  Does it come early?, does it come late?  I'm on day 9 of the trial still trying to figure it out.  But in this case, AIC was more in the beginning. 
The workflow:
1. Single RAW image to Photomatix, Soft 4 preset.  This balanced the light levels for me.  With that much black and faded sky, with the white bird, Photomatix handle the independent levels much better that PS.  
2. AI Clear - hit it with the Max setting.
3. ACR Edits.  Usually some form of straightening, spot removal and in this case I used a graduated filter to darken the sky up a bit.
4. Topaz Detail.  So playing around with this product, I removed any remaining noise to really smooth out the metal and increased the black to remove the 'blue' haze that was introduced earlier.  Very neat little tool.
5.  A better crop.
And this is what I came up with, 8.5 years later.

I'm still not totally happy with the sky, but it is what it is.  If I remember right, it was a cloudless day with lots of vapor haze.  Maybe something I will fix in another 8 years.

Two Real Close

From the Reno Air Races, I found I focused on shots where there were more than one aircraft in the frame.  Helps with the whole picture tells a story thing.  
When photographing the Patriots demo team, I would often not get close enough to the subject to get a good shot.  And that is the case here.  This shot was taken at 277 mm.  There's a lot more lens I could have used.  Rookie mistake.
I've already worked most of the can't miss efforts from that trip , so now working with the reach projects.
And project is an understatement for this one.  I've been working for three days on this.  I tried On one, Gigapixel, DeNoise and PS.  And what wound up working in the end is AI Clear - just confirming what I've found before.
So here is the original RAW image.

ISO 800, f/6.3, 1/8000 sec, 227 mm

NIKON D7200 Ver.1.04/70.0-300.0 mm f/4.5-5.6

For me, this will require a super aggressive crop to be interesting.  Even if I wanted to get three subjects in the frame, it would still require a aggressive crop.  But I want the two to fill the frame.   At that tight a crop at ISO 800, from new experience gained, that nice sky will not be the same.  This is precisely why I started searching for a product to help smooth out the sky without destroying the rest of the image.
Here is the cropped product.

This won't win any sharpness awards and barely passes the monitor test, but it will make my screen saver rotation.  The good news is that AIC did exactly what I wanted it to do.  Sky looks great and a lot of the air craft graphics are sharp.  For some reason, the 3 on this side is off color.  What had me going for a few days was I could get the sky right, but the PATRIOTS graphic would never clear up.  Its natural silver reflective flak with red outline was no help at all.  Seriously, no help.  The missing piece turned out to be Topaz's Detail.  Just a little slider here, a little slider there and the image (graphics) improved greatly.  (Turns out I purchased Detail some number of years ago, who knew?)
So, note to self, get the frame right the first time and you won't have over software to get the shot you want.

Heron on Log - Part II

I had posted this image a few months ago.  Lots of brown stuff, green stuff and some yellow.  And I never pass up a log.  The bird is OK too.
When I posted this before, I wasn't sure of what type of bird it was - and now I know these are herons.
The original post is here.
This is the original posed image:

As I remember, at the time I really liked this image.  I was just getting into the 'bird' scene.
This one shows up well on the monitor.  It was taken at 1.3 image size with the 70-300 lens.  There a lot of math involved there, but it was relatively far away.  It is one of the few shots taken with the 1.3 image size that actually shows up well on the monitor.
So today I was looking for images to test the AI Clear filter and tried it on this one.  My purpose of the AIC filter is primarily noise reduction.  Not much visible noise in this image.  But on the image the sharpening/smoothing was fantastic.  I could crop in a bit more.  This is what I got today with AIC added to the workflow.

Outside of the AIC, I deepened the colors a bit more.  For focusing purposes, I keyed on the eye.  In this scenario, I hit the image with AIC first, then continued with ACR.  At the end though, I didn't need On One to finish up with sharpening.  I did try some dynamic contrast - but that didn't do much either.  So no On One with this one.
Maybe my eyes have adjusted a bit better over the last few months?

Topaz AI Clear

Continuing the search for help with noise removal, I've started looking at Topaz's AI Clear.  
Currently this is $60 ish.  And the 15% discount coupons can be found everywhere.
That's the bad news, because everything else is good.
I've been working with PS - the RAW filter and it's pretty good.  I worked with On One's noise reduction and really wasn't that impressed.  And then I stumbled on the AI Clear.
My quick test against PS.

AI Clear on the left, PS on the right.  In the flat background, much smoother.  Truth be told, I could get almost the same effect with PS, but unless I did some masking and layering I would have 'smoothed' the entire critter and lost some of the great detail.  What doesn't show and what is really great about the product, the detail on the critter 'sharpens'.  I guess that is the AI part, Artificial Intelligence.  For this test with AIC, I used only the default settings.
Easy decision on this.

Topaz AI Gigapixel

In the quest for cutting down noise, I came across Topaz's AI Gigapixel.  The advertising line is that this product will enlarge any image a bunch.  There are plenty of Youtube videos.
For my purposes, I'd like to be more aggressive in my cropping.  I haven't had any requests to blow up an image to wall size.  Yet.
Did I mention, I really like products with 30 full trials?
So my test image is part of one I took last fall, that of a grass hopper that hitched a ride on the hood of the truck while riding through Shiawassee Nature Refuge.
This original post/story is here.
This is the image:

So I took a small slice of this image and blew it up 400%.  I used PS, in one leap, and AIG.  I understand that PS will do a much better job of expanding an image if done in steps, but there is a time element in this.
My findings:

OK - to see the difference is noticeable at 400% magnification.  Is it at a normal size?  Not so much, but my use would be aggressive crop.  There's a pretty big difference.
Now, is it worth the cost?  The product is $100 - and there are plenty of 15% off coupons for Topaz products floating around.   I have plenty of time to decide, only on day 3 of the evaluation.

Broadwing Hawk - Eyes on Eyes

One of the best series of shot from last year's trips to the Nature Refuge was the Broadwing Hawk.  The story to get here.
I like this shot looking straight on.
This is as far as I can reach.  The effect mm is 600 on this shot and in the original the subject is very small.
One of the 'creative criticisms' I received this year from the photo club is my nature subjects were not large enough in the image.  Some of my framing issues were with, well framing.  Not in this case, because I was at the limit of the equipment.  (Planning to resolve this issue!)
The original:

ISO 640, f/5.6, 1/800 sec, 600 mm

NIKON D7200 Ver.1.04/70.0-300.0 mm f/4.5-5.6

I guess that's OK for a travel photo, but I want to see the bird.

That's better and it easily passes the monitor test.
I'm playing with a Topaz product, AI Clear.  In the past few weeks, I've been going after noise reduction.  I've been playing with Photoshop and On One.  I really like PS's ARE noise reduction.  I can see it.  I struggled with On One's version, which is usually not the case.  I've been reading about Topaz's suite of products from a number on UHH forum members so giving AI Clear a shot.  (I love full edition 30 day trials.)  So this image has so Topaz in it.  And it is good.

Two Too Close

I have more than a few shots that I didn't frame well, or didn't have enough reach with the lens.  The final test is can I crop enough to get a good image on a 23 inch monitor - and get a good image on a 23 inch monitor.
What follows is completely un-scientific.  The question is - is crop processing on the original image to a small section give a better image or increase the size of the image then crop to the size required for the monitor test?
For the D7200, a normal image size is 20 x 13.33 Inches.  So what if the image was enlarged say 400%?  To 80 x 53.33 inches?
I've tried what I would call aggressive cropping in some of the nature images and they didn't turn out very well on the monitor.  If you know what you were looking for you could see the pixels.  Damn gaming monitor.
Anyway, I thought maybe the algorithms to enlarge the image would be different than to shrink.  Worth a shot, eh?
This image followed that path.  It was enlarged to 400%, then cropped to 6.4 x 3.6 inches.
This is the original image.

This is the RAW image so a bit on the bland side.  But this is for the relative size of the subjects.
And this would be the final image, blow'd up and cropped close.

ISO 800, f/6.3, 1/8000 sec, 165 mm

NIKON D7200 Ver.1.04/70.0-300.0 mm f/4.5-5.6

Spare me the frozen prop stuff, already know it.  And a had a lot more lens to use, so framing could have been better.  It has occurred to me that because of the high speed, that this process was helped a bit.  So I'll look for a slower shot and see what happens.

Fort Mackinac from the Bay

This image of  Fort Mackinac was taken in late June, 2011.  We were on a day trip to Mackinac Island, and the day weather-wise was perfect.  This image was taken from the ferry on the way from the island returning to the mainland at the end of our stay.
On the hill is Fort Mackinac.  The white diagonal is the walkway.
The Fort has an interesting history.  The current fort was built in the early 1780s by the British.  The Fort remained under British control until 1796 when the Fort was turned over to the United States as part of the Treaty of Paris agreement.  As part of the War of 1812, the British regained control of the Fort without firing a shot in July of that year.  The British retained control through July of 1814, when the terms that concluded the War reverted control of the Fort back to America.  
From the end of the war to the mid 1800s, the Fort was basically used for exploration and trading.
Currently the museum is in great shape and is very interesting.  And the entire Island is interesting.  The Island is definitely worth a visit.  It helps if the weather is nice.
This image does include something you will never see again.  The docks are part of the Arnold Transit Company.  Unfortunately the ATC closed its doors in 2016 after 138 years of continuous service.
As to the image, while looking at some old vacation files I saw this one.  Lots of great colors and subjects.  I like the Fort on the hill and the vessels down below.  I really like the larger vessel on the right, takes up a lot of great space.  I like the color flow all around.

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

ISO 400, f/10, 1/400 sec, 75 mm

And I thought this would look good in a creative style.

Back in 2011, I was just shoot and pray.  This one did OK.

Hello 2019

Hello 2019.
Good-by to 2018.  What an enlightening year for me, photographically speaking.  And really it was the last six months.
My interests expanded, some of my techniques improved and I'd like to say my tastes evolved.  Butterfly.
In blog post numbers, from August to year end I had 92 posts.  Funny enough, that was not the most for a year.  In 2010 I had 94 posts.  What was I talking 'bout then?  But for this year, I had a grand total of 4 posts through the end of February.  Then August hit.
August started with a purchase of the 70-300 lens.  There was a lot of time spent in looking what lens to get with the stated purpose of taking to the Air Races in September.  I wanted to get a few shots of practice before going out west.  After the purchase, I went out to Port Huron for to my 'seagull' testing.  At some point during that time, I also decided to go to the Shiawassee Nature Refuge to do the auto tour.  I had hiked out there before, but not the auto tour.  Word of advice, take the auto tour.
On my first time on the auto route, I was overwhelmed.  There was so much going on in August.  Days are still long, kids are feeding and most of all, still great weather.  I didn't know where to look!  For as much as I saw, I bet I missed more.
Half way through the tour, this happened.  The Juvenile Bald Eagle.

What an experience.  I've never been a nature or bird enthusiast before.  And not that I'm fully invested now, but I can see where others find the enjoyment.  This was an awesome moment for me.  Side story here, but one of the more defining moments of my life was seeing turtles coming out of the ocean on Ascension Island and laying eggs.  This event has been going on for centuries.  And I could see it - not on Nova.  And back to the present, to see a juvenile bald eagle, the one day symbol of our country.  Wow.
One other item I noticed, was the improvement of the quality of my images.  Was it because of ability?, Equipment?  Not sure, but this had a great impact on personal interest on perfecting the craft.  Three things happened simultaneously that could have contributed.  First, and what I believe the primary reason is was the new lens, and it being a FF lens.  I believe that there is better quality in a FF lens versus a DX lens.  One of the other reasons could be I changed the UV filter on this lens, I didn't skimp.  The third possibility was I had to upgrade the firmware on the D7200 to accept the new lens.  Any one of those fixes alone or combinations of those fixes could be the reason for what I think are higher quality images.  But I will add, that since changing the UV filter and the upgrade on the D7200, images with my other lenses have been improved as well.  I go with 75% FF lens plus the improved quality on UV filter.  I will not be adding any new DX lenses - FF now.
So a lot of August was spent going to the refuge once a weekend.  Saw lots of ducks, egrets, cranes and hawks.  The new lens got a workout.
Then in September was the Air Races.
What fun.  Even with all the research and talking with friends about what to do and how to do it, I still could have done much better.  Nothing like personal experience.  But what experience I did get, was great.  The most interesting challenge for me was the change in environment between Michigan skies and Nevada skies.  You just have to be there.  For my first time there, I did OK.  Very few technically 'bad' or unusable shots.  But aesthetically, I have a long way to go.  A reason to return in 2019.  The prop driven airplanes were the toughest to capture correctly.  I could have done much better, but I did learn and can move forward this year.  The jets were, not so much easy, but more friendly to capture.  However I went in with too much ISO all around.  The final images could be much better.
But sometimes you get lucky.

I know, not exactly perfect.  Room for improvement.
The week after returning from the Air Races, time for the annual Detroit Model Railroad Club shoot.
This is the third year for this event for me, and I have learned along the way.  This year I went prime lens all the way.  Huge difference.  The lens I used was a 50 mm (FF) which is equivalent to a 75 mm on the D7200.  That cause a few framing issues because of the cramped areas on the layout, but I just had to be smarter.  The shots came out crisp and clean.  Again, technically good.  For these shots I used a focus stacking technique and specialized software.  I also ditched the bean bag that was used in previous shoots, as I believe it was causing some havoc with the focus ring.  I found a small plastic tripod that did well.  One issue to fix this year is with this tripod and battery grip.  The point of reference is too high. The angle of the shots could be better.  The battery grip will be removed.  I'll be ready this year.

In October, I purchased the D500.  Up to this point I was using the D7200, which is a fine camera and I will continue to use it.  But the D500 is in another league.  Upgraded sensor.  Faster FPS.  Larger buffer.
First major trip out with the D500 was a quick weekend in Pittsburgh.  Of all the time I've spent in town, I really don't have any good shots, other than a few of Pitt's Cathedral of learning.  I now have a few.  Of the shots I like the most is one of Pittsburgh's iconic incline cable cars.

Right time of year and sunny.  Lucky.  (Knowing you have to make your own luck.)
In December, a few of the camera club wanted to take a few shots of some large steam train that was running in Michigan.  They invited me to go along.  Make your own luck sort of adventure.  Thus began a new 'interest' affair.
The train is the Pere Marquette #1225.  The history and extended stories around this vehicle was fun to research.  Fascinating story.  And chasing the #1225 was an incredible amount of fun.  Looking forward to next year's #1225 schedule.

On a technical note, this was probably the most correct image I've taken all year.  Everything was right.  Speed, Aperture, ISO, framing, focus, subject.  All there.
On the software side, I continue with Photoshop as my main processing program.  I upgraded my On One to 2019 edition for some post processing work, mostly sharpening and mask work.  I also continue to use Photomatix for HDR, although my tastes in HDR is not so much for effect anymore but to work light levels.  Less is more.  Still worth the price.  The Helicon programs, Remote and Focus, are still my go-to programs for focus stacking.  I picked up a new software program to help with altering photographs with an artistic twist.  I'm not happy with PS's sketching offerings, I was looking to do better.  I found a program that with do a 'paint' effect.  It's not for everything, but sometimes it is awesome.

The last six months have been a lot of fun.  Time to move forward.  Like most people, I'm my harshest critic.  I'm an amateur with professional expectations.  I have to learn from each outing.  My 'growth' expectations for 2019 are high.
On the schedule for 2019 is a return trip to Reno in September for the Air Races again.  In a few weeks, I'll be going to the DMRRC.  New on the schedule is a trip to SC for an Air Show.  (The air show will be fun, I'll be going with a veteran air show photographer who will not let any of my crappy thoughts or efforts slide.  Boot camp.)  Also looking forward to train chasing, in whatever form presents itself.
Hello 2019.  No pressure.  

Huckleberry Village #152

In Genesee county there are over 11,000 acres of woods, water, trails and beaches that are under the control of the Parks Department.  One of the areas of the park is named Crossroads Village.  Crossroads Village is a collection of 19th Century buildings - and a working railroad.   You can visit these buildings for a small fee.  And since I'm on the railroad kick, I had to at least try to get an image of another working steam engine.  And time is a' wasting away as this is the last weekend for 2018 that the train will be in action.  And the train only runs from 5:00 PM and the sun sets at 5:07.  You get the idea?
I was out a few days earlier, in the wind, rain and dark and didn't do so well.  But in that darkness, I did figure out a few things.   As the famed philosopher Yoda said, "the greatest teacher, failure is".
So, aside from gaining some knowledge I also gained 5 minutes of daylight by returning two days later.  And the weather was much better.
And back to the story:  During the holiday season between Thanksgiving and New Year, the Huckleberry Railroad departs Crossroads Village a few times a night in 50 minute intervals.
There are multiple trains operated by the Village, two to three according to their website.  The train I saw was #152.  The #152 is just out of being renovated.  The #152 was built in 1920 by the Baldwin Locomotive Works in Philadelphia as a 4-6-0 for the Alaska Engineering Commission.  The original job for #152 was to help build the Alaska Railroad.  After the completion of the Alaska Railroad and subsequent stops in California and Oregon, the Genesee County Parks and Recreation Commission purchased the engine in 1975.  After a year of restoration, the train began service in Crossroads Village.
This image was taken at the midpoint of the of the ride for the paying riders.

ISO 6400, f/5.6, 1/250 sec, 200 mm, Manual, Auto ISO

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

I used my recently discovered set up of using MANUAL mode with Auto ISO on.  I wanted to keep the speed at 1/250 and the aperture at 5.6.  I wanted to keep the trees relatively in focus.  I checked my ISO prior to the train entering view and I saw it would be 10k or lower and I was OK with that.  In this case for me, the method works.  This train chasing thing could become a habit.

Using Auto ISO - and the Aviation environment.

I've always stayed away from auto ISO settings on my DSLRs.  There are some things that still draw me back to the 35mm days.  Could be I also didn't totally understand what limits or controls I could set.
I'm getting better at exploring higher ISOs than the 100, 200 and 800 that I was used to back in the day.  At the air races, I started one day at ISO 800.  Who was that guy?
I've gone through the total priority cycle.  That is I started at AUTO, then went to PRIORITY, tried SPEED and did a lot of time in MANUAL.  I'm most comfortable in PRIORITY.
The great part about the modes is they really allow you to shoot in AUTO with restrictions.  We'd all like to shoot MANUAL, just to say we can.  I can.  But I've missed shots.  And I don't want to say I shoot AUTO.
But command of the camera, the ability to modify the camera settings, quickly if necessary, to suit our situation is what we're going after.
When I'm shooting the model trains, I use MANUAL.  Simple reason is I have plenty of time and the environment never changes.  It's indoors.  The subject doesn't make any unexpected moves.  I get to review the shots.  If I need to re-take any images, it is doable.
When I'm shooting landscape, I use APERTURE PRIORITY.  I've found that I'm getting my best results with aperture settings higher than f/11 and more in the range of f/5.  Again the environment isn't changing too much or too fast.  I generally have an idea of what the speed is going to be and as long as it is over 1/250 I'm OK.  (1/250 will cover my 18-200 lens at max reach for simple speed guidelines.)
At the start of 2018 that was good enough for me.  Ah, the simple life.
In 2018 I had an 'expanding' year.  I found the fun of wildlife (Birds and Birds in Flight) and air races/shows.  While I've flirted with both subjects in the past, this year was time to up the game.
For the wildlife and BIF I shot MANUAL and APERTURE.  I missed too many shots (1) with MANUAL.  APERTURE was fine, but I think think I over planned and may not have had the best combination of APERTURE and ISO to get the best colors I could.  Area for improvement.
For aircraft in motion, both flight and ground operations, I have to get better.  I got lucky this year, but could have been much better.  Aircraft to me is probably the most difficult to get right because the action happens so fast, and the environment could change quickly and dramatically.  The subject moves from a cloud background to blue sky, then fly low over the ground.  No time to change stops and speed.  Oh yea, and there's a prop blur limitation.  Not that this is a problem, but a challenge.  
I need to solve the aviation environment.  If I can do that, all other environments will be controllable as well.
For the Aviation issue, the Exposure Triangle:
I need to shoot with SPEED priority.  If the subject were only jets, than speed is not a limiting issue.  But with props on both on fixed wing and helicopters, speed is the primary consideration.  From what I've seen, prop aircraft in flight should be less than 1/1000 sec and on the ground start at 1/80 sec and slower.  That takes care of the shutter speed side.
Aperture control is a personal thing with me.  As mentioned earlier, I like a nice open lens.  I'm a firm believer in reducing as much diffraction as possible.  I'd like to keep some control.  Shooting an aircraft in flight doesn't require a lot of DOF, especially if shooting with a sky background.  Unless there are multiple subjects.  I found f/5 and f/6 to do real well.  I'd like to set it and forget it.  That takes care of the aperture side.
Remaining is the ISO side.  Most cameras come with SPEED and APERTURE priorities.  There isn't a ISO priority.  Or is there?  Apparently with my Nikons, you can set the ISO to float with the SPEED and APERTURE fixed.  Why didn't I think of that?
I've found out that if you sent the camera mode to MANUAL and the ISO to AUTO, the ISO will float.  It is about that simple.  I can maintain some control over the ISO with the ISO - AUTO settings.
I think this will be a very cool setup for the aviation situations.  With the use of the command dials, I can change SPEED and APERTURE as I normally would in MANUAL.  Quickly.  And that completes the triangle.
This will be an awesome tool.  Will be looking forward to trying this out.
Another tool I'm looking to use is a neutral Density Filter.  I have a variable NDF, not a real good one.  I'd like to keep the filter at one piece of glass, but buying multiple filters is $$$$s.  First thing I need to do is get comfortable with the filter I have.  I have all winter, and when the snow hit the ground there will be lots of light to work with.  I also need to read more reviews.  If I do go with single, fixed filters, I need to figure out which one or ones to get.
Fortunately have time to work some of this out.  But not as much time as I thought.  The air races are in September.  However, I've committed to an air show in South Carolina in late April - about the time I'll need to thaw out from the Michigan winter.

Point Iroquois Lighthouse at Dusk

In May of 2011, we took a short trip to the UP.  We were staying in SSM as usual.  One of our day trips was to head up to Whitefish Point.  On the way to Whitefish Point is the Point Iroquois Lighthouse.  Point Iroquois is where the western end of the St. Mary's River and Lake Superior intersect.  The light was to guide Great Lake freighters going downbound to the Soo locks.
The original lighthouse was completed and started operation in June of 1856.  In 1870, the original lighthouse was torn down and the current lighthouse was completed and in operation.  This was the time of the Great Lakes industry boom.  The Great Lakes was the place to be.
The tower height is 65 feet.  The original light was a fourth order Fresnal with a signal visible to 13 miles.  The current lighthouse was in operation for 93 years until it was deactivated in 1963.
In the early 1990's, the entire location was renovated.  When we visited, the grounds and house were in excellent shape.
Getting back to the day trip, because this was taken at dusk.  We stopped at the lighthouse early in the morning and enjoyed the clear view and fresh lake air.  After our stop here, we headed up to Whitefish Point for a few hours.  From WFP, we were off to Tahquamenon Falls for a few hours.  (The days are long at this time of year.)  From the Falls, we headed back to the Soo.  While we were passing Point Iroquois for the second time of the day, we saw there were no other visitors and the sun was setting behind the house.  Excellent photo opportunity.
This is a three shot HDR image.  I've played with this scene over the years and from what I can see I always tried to 'over' HDR it.  This shot on its own stands up well.

ISO 400, f/5, (1/15, 1/60, 1/250 HDR), 24 mm

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

HDR - Photomatix 6.1.1

No halos on the roof line.  There is a slight halo between the left chimney and tower, but not enough to really annoy me.  This is exactly what I want HDR to do for me these days, just balance the light.
But.
It is just another lighthouse photo.  There are lots of these on hundreds of post cards.
Dare to be different.

That's different.

Grand Trunk Western Logo - Restored

This railroad fascination has a hold on me.  Ha.
I'm having fun reading up on the locomotives I have pictures of, and getting a glimpse of the history.  We'll see where it goes.
In Grand Haven, the PM #1223 is on display.  I have a few shots posted here. 
At the display is a restored caboose with the Grand Trunk Western logo painted on the side.  It is really nice.  Too nice.  I mean a caboose needs to look used.  The restoration looks so good, looks like restoration was just completed.  An hour ago.  No bird evidence anywhere.
The logo to me is very interesting.  I'm guessing the leaf is Maple, therefore Canadian.  Which makes sense.  The GTW is and always has been part of the Canadian National Railway in some form.  The GTW was originally set up for rail access from Canada to Chicago, by way of Port Huron and Detroit and points in between throughout mid-Michigan.
This is the logo as it appears on the caboose as of a few weeks ago.

And while that may look OK, it doesn't do much for me.  I need some form of artistic license.

This would be a lottery project for me.  I would find a caboose somewhere, not in public use, and get the caboose art.  Much like barn art.  Just get the logo restored and have the wood moved to a large room.  Or maybe the lottery 'fun' project would be to start a museum with caboose art.