365/52 Photo Challenge
Previous Weeks
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Week 1 - Jan 3-9, 2021:
Ellen Martin
Still Life
These pottery vegetables got moved to a new location due to putting up the Christmas tree. On January 4, 2021, I glanced over at the table and said to myself, oh the light looks so nice. I picked up my iPhone and snapped the image.
Sara Coffey
Self Portrait
Every year I try to start w/ a self-portrait. There were numerous trips in & out of the van hitting my head on the door frame each time.
F1.8 1/5 iso 400 @ 50mm Used a remote & converted to B&W, edited in Topaz.
Bob Kovach
Focus Stacking
My attempt at close up focus stacking, 12 shots at f/4, 1/50 sec, ISO 200
Chuck Almarez
Roaring Run
Details: iPhone 11Pro, Photo Mode, 1/120 sec, f/2.4, overcast lighting.
Eben Ostby
Waterfall
Taken on slow film with a Zeiss Ikon Tenax 1, which shoots square (24x24mm) photos on 35mm film. I didn’t bring a tripod so I braced the camera on a rock.
Judy Robichaux
Circle of Life
Focal Points plus Aperture; f/8,ISO 2500, 1/80 second handheld indoors
Week 2 - Jan 10-16, 2021:
Breanna Butkoff
Sand to Surf
Cape May, NJ. Taken with 35mm lens on my Canon T7i. Focused on landscape shots today and wanted some depth.
Ellen Martin
Wires
Afternoon light on wires so often brings to mind, will they all be put underground in my lifetime? That is why I photograph them, for the next generation to see and smile, laugh?, about. Taken with a Panasonic GX-8, 12-60 lens.
Bob Kovach
Snow!!
A closeup photo taken Saturday morning before the sparse snowfall melted. Taken handheld with an Olympus mirrorless camera at f/3.5, 1/800 sec, at ISO 200.
Michael Smith
Orchids
Photo of mini orchid blooms taken in morning light with an iPhone with a macro lens attachment.
Chuck Almarez
The Sentinal
This little guy sits on my bathroom window sill, seldom noticed and under-appreciated. It’s a bit kind of like a friend that you just take for granted until they’re no longer there . . . or their light goes out. The big scenes, the vistas that yell “Take my picture!,” the ones we travel miles to capture and sometimes wait for the other photographers to move their tripods and get out of the way, those are the ones that make you crow. But it’s the little things, the insignificant but important little things, that you’ve got to search out, recognize, and appreciate. They're not necessarily things you have to travel long distances to capture — not in miles or hours anyway. But they are the little things that are around your house, maybe in your garden, or even on a shelf or window sill where they’ve been for years. You still have to “travel” to get to them, but that distance is not measured in miles or hours. The trick is to not just look, but to see, and sometimes not just as they are but rather what they could be.
Taken at 1/50 sec, f/5.6, ISO 200, 138mm, darkened the area around the candle about 2 stops, and added a Lens Flare filter to the bulb.
Eben Ostby
Barack Buff Brahma
This is Barack Buff Brahma, a handsome rooster, and he knows it. Taken with an Olympus OM-1 film camera, Zuiko 50mm f1.4 opened pretty wide so I could keep him in focus and blur out the background.
Judy Robichaux
Jets
iPhone XR, ISO 25, f/1.8, 1/8000 seconds. Totally unexpected test of phone's capabilities when given a split second to photograph 4 jets together. Taken from a car going 70 mph on Interstate 64 near Lexington.
Sara Coffey
Maternity
Shot at f/8, 1/80 sec, ISO 400 @ 18mm A maternity session for a friend that involved a couple and their dog. The challenge was picking a warmish day for winter, which meant the sunny time of day was not the best time for photos. This was entering into the golden hour & the sun was very low. This is a composite of two photos so I could remove the two people throwing the flowery material into the air. Used Topaz Glow & also darkened the sky & mountains.
Week 3 - Jan 17-23, 2021
Andrea Popick
Trumpeter Swan
Photographing birds can be a challenge as they can be quick to move away, or you see them during poor light conditions. I was practicing taking photos of a rare sighting of this white bird in our area, and trying to not have the white blown out. Every original image I took of the whole bird had a part of the wings blown out due to some strong light at 11:00 when I saw this bird. Therefore this image is a crop of the head/neck that has some detail. 1/500 sec, f /5.6, ISO 250.
Judy Robichaux
Market Display
Job well done in Covington Food Lion. Again this week, I've chosen a completely unplanned photo taken with my iPhoneXR. At first, I thought this display was simply a poster, but snapped the shot when I realized these were actual soft drink cartons meticulously stacked for this effect. I would have never brought my bigger camera shopping with me, but always have my phone.
1/60 second, f/1.8, ISO 50
Sara Coffey
Outdoor Dining
My offering this week is this Red-Bellied Woodpecker. I know his belly only has a tinge of red on it, if that, and his head is bright red, but I did not get to name him. I took this image inside through the window where my computer is. I have a suction cup bird feeder on the window so I get a close-up view all day. Settings were: f/5, 1/400 sec, ISO 3200 @ 35mm manual. I am trying to trust a higher ISO as I generally stay under 800, more likely 400. I have too many missed or blurry shots as a result of keeping the ISO lower. So this is a big step for me. I'm also learning to manage noise better and still get a good result.
Ellen Martin
Late Afternoon in Our Woods
Always looking, I seem to be always looking. Each season our woods appear to change and become something new. But they don’t change, it is the light that makes things appear so different. While walking on the edge of the woods I realized, how many times have I walked by this tree, yet never looked at it? The cold winter light drew me to it. I looked for a long time. Panasonic GX8, 23mm, ISO 1600.
Eben Ostby
Star Chapel
Starr (or Star) Chapel is in Bath County. This was taken with a Hasselblad with a wide-angle lens and the perspective corrected in Lightroom. I liked the star and the name all centered on the symmetrical building - it reminded me of something from a Wes Anderson film.
Bob Kovach
Waterwheel
I was intrigued with the texture of the weathered wood on this waterwheel at McCormick's Mill. Converted to black & white and used the filters in Lightroom to accentuate the texture. Taken at f/8, 1/250 sec, ISO 200.
Chuck Almarez Mandala
Extreme angles/perspective are a good way to get a new “look” at a subject. This small cactus sits on a window alcove in our kitchen. Afternoon light in that area can be very dramatic. On this afternoon the light was just OK, but as I looked down at the subject I was attracted to the blossom at the very top of the stalk. Interesting but the background was too distracting. So I cropped to isolate the subject, then did a bit of editing to enhance, then just went off the deep end to create the mandala, replace the Background, and used the Lighting Effects filter (Filter>Render>Lighting Effects) to get the spotlight effect. On the left is the original image.
Claudette Benavitch Mountain Nourishment
Michael Smith
Tree
A shot taken at the McCormick Mill area. I have been looking at photos by Ansel Adams, I felt this was my homage to his legacy. Taken with a Canon 80D with a Sigma 28 to 70 zoom. The conversion to B&W was done in Adobe Lightroom.
Brianna Butkoff
Bay Scene
Taken with Canon EOS Rebel T7i with a 35mm lens. Saw this beautiful pattern on the bay side at Sandy Hook Beach in NJ and took the opportunity for a photo.
Ted Burrowes
Rust-ic Still Life #1
This one came from my iPhone 8.
It began life as a facetious “nature shot" for a friend when I found the larger can along a Brushy Hills trail. Then I got to thinking of possibilities and went back to get the can and found the smaller one too. I have just begun to play with the pair. I expect you’ll see these again in some different settings over the next few weeks. The underlying effort is “composition”.
Week 4 - Jan 24-30, 2021
Chuck Almarez
Jackson River
What a beautiful week for shooting in color. Overcast skies, atmospheric fog, a little snow, and generally soft light where ever you looked helped to emphasize the saturation of nature’s palette. So what better time to boldly go into the world of black and white photography. This is the Jackson River coursing thru the Dabney S. Lancaster CC campus in Clifton Forge, VA . The water level was exceptionally high because of heavy rains the previous night. I wanted to capture the water flow and also the detail in the cliff face across the river. Camera settings were 13 sec, f/22, ISO 100 with a focal length of 34mm. I used a 10 stop ND filter to control the light. Conversion to B&W was in LR as was dodging & burning using LR filters.
Brianna Butkoff
Moon
Taken in Manasquan NJ an hour after moon rise - beautiful moon before the first full wolf moon of 2021. 700mm lens taken on Canon Rebel T7i.
1/60 second, f/1.8, ISO 50
Claudette Benavitch
Along the Appalachian Trail at the Lynchburg Reservoir.
Andrea Popick
Beauty After a Freezing Rain
I like the look of ice on vegetation after a freezing rain. Since The freezing rain was light and did not damage any of the vegetation in my yard, I went outside and took images experimenting with aperture, composition and different PRO and non PRO lenses. I chose this images because I like seeing the color of the berries and wanted to see some detail in the frozen ice on the Nandina shrub. Cropped for composition, ISO 400, 1/80 sec, f /9.0, focal length 150 mm, lens 40-150mm PRO; Olympus E-M1 Mark ll camera.
Ellen Martin
Bus in the Woods
This bus may look a little lonely on this cold overcast winter day, but there were several other vehicles scattered around to keep it company.
(Panasonic GX8, 40mm, 1/320, f/5, ISO 1600)
Eben Ostby
This was out on a drive through Big Valley, which is fairly remote and northeast of Warm Springs. Taken with a short telephoto on a Hasselblad.
Judy Robichaux
Tree Hugger
When I saw something unusual about 25 feet up in a tree, I ran to get my camera with a long lens because the object was too far away for an iPhone. I still wasn't sure what the animal was until photographing it from a different angle and viewing on the computer screen. I kept experimenting with different shutter speeds and found that I got the clearest shot at shutter speed 1/320 second. This little fella wasn't moving, but I had left the monopod inside and saw motion blur while handholding the heavy lens at speeds any slower.
Canon EOS R6 Mirrorless with EF adapter, ISO 1600, 200mm, f/20 1/320 second.
Bob Kovach
Mill Race
We were at Mabry Mill on the Blue Ridge Parkway this week, and the mill race caught my attention. It provides a nice leading line to the mill. Converted to black & white. Taken with an Olympus mirrorless camera at f/5.6, 1/250 sec, ISO 200.
Sara Coffey
Spring Water
I was trying to think of a different way to photograph water. For my experiment I used an ink pen spring sitting on a purplish CD and a background of a silver CD w/ rainbow looking colors. I used a light on each side of the setup and dropped water w/ a dropper onto the spring. This was one of the few shots where water drops held throughout the spring. I even added some glycerine to the water to see if that made a difference. I like the colors but couldn't get the spring to stand up w/o tacky putty. Next time I will try a few other backgrounds and methods to hold the spring upright in a less visible way. f/5.6, 1/400 sec, ISO 6400 @ 100mm. Edited w/ Topaz detail & glow @18% & lots of noise reduction.
Ted Burrowes
Taken with my iPhone 8 along a Brushy Hills trail, I was attracted to the somewhat abstract shapes and and dark-light contrast. I am still pondering if the snow adds or subtracts from the overall visual experience.
Peggy Fleming
On Tuesday, I waited in the car while my husband received his first covid vaccine shot. Wintry mix falling kept me occupied. Washington DC. iPhone.
Week 5 - Jan 31-Feb 6, 2021
Ellen Martin
Dawn
I woke way too early on this cold winter morning so sat quietly by the window watching the day slowly arrive. I didn’t have my camera handy, so relied on my wonderful iPhone 10s to capture the scene.
Claudette Benavitch
My husband took this photo to send our grandchildren. iPhone
Peggy Fleming
Clogs
The morning after the first snow. iPhone.
Michael Smith
View From Front Porch
A view facing Afton from my front porch. The picture was taken about 3:30 in the afternoon on the day after our big snowfall. Taken with a Canon 80D and canon 75 to 300 EF lens.
Andrea Popick
Female Northern Cardinal
I am dealing with the Covid virus restrictions, but if I feel stuck in the house, birding offers me an exciting change of pace. I spent the day of the snow storm taking photos of the birds in my yard. At first most would fly away as they saw me put the camera lens next to the window and could also hear the click of the shutter. So I set my camera on silent which helped. I was patient and was able to get some nice shots. The Cardinals were the hardest to get. The bright red male cardinal is striking on the white snow, but I decided to show the beauty of the muted colors of the female. Camera: Olympus E-M1 Mark ll, ISO 500, 1/200 sec, f/5.6, focal length 420 mm, Lens 300mm PRO + 1.4 extender.
Sara Coffey
Snowflakes
I have been trying to get some good snowflake images for several years. Aside from it just being really difficult to photograph something you can't really see w/ the naked eye, you need the right kind of snow and colder temperatures than just freezing. The time I was the most successful, the temperature was about 18 degrees. This cluster of flakes was taken using a 100mm macro lens with a ring flash at 1/64 power at 1:07am. It was shot on a blue mohair sweater which works very well b/c the fibers can gently hold the snowflakes at various angles. I generally use a metal cookie sheet to hold the sweater. The frustration is it's very cold and its hard to get it focused when you are so bundled up. I could also give
you a long list of what doesn't work. Settings: f/5, 1/160 sec, ISO 100 @
100mm. I do not have a focus stacking program, so this is a single
frame. It's not great, but it's still pretty cool to see some details. So, yes, I am the one who says 'Bring on the snow!' It's so beautiful :)
Ted Burrowes
Pole
In week 2, Chuck Almarez advocated looking more closely at the ‘little things’. For several years, I have had my eyes open, when traveling, for utility poles that have been heavily used as sign boards. The patterns of staples and nails and tacks and all sort of things can be amusing and strangely engaging. There is one such pole, though ‘heavily used’ is a bit of a stretch, at the corner of Lime Kiln and Enfield. I went this morning in hopes of an interesting morning light scene, but the clouds were too dense, so here is a ‘better’ one from 2 weeks ago for your consideration.
Chuck Almarez
Locust Bottom Cemetery
Another cold and overcast day seemed like a natural for B&W. This cemetery is located in an area known as Locust Bottom and is part of Locust Bottom Church located off camera to the right of the image. It’s a quiet little valley just past the village of Glen Wilton in Alleghany County. The exposure was 30 sec @ f/22, ISO 100 at a focal length of 18mm. The focal length is a bit deceptive since the lens is rated 18-400mm for a crop frame sensor. Since I was shooting a full frame camera the equivalent focal length was 24mm. All post processing was done in LR Classic.
Judy Robichaux
Determined Wren
This fellow remembered that there were mealworms on the deck railing and didn't let a little snow get in his way. Canon EOS-R6 Mirrorless camera with Canon EF 70-200 2.8L lens at 200mm, 1/500 second, f/5.6, ISO 1000.
Brinna Butkof
Sandy Hook Beach Sunrise
Taken on my Canon EOS Rebel T7i 18mm lens
Bob Kovach
Grass Ice
Interesting ice formation I saw, where water dripped on the grass and froze. Taken with an Olympus mirrorless camera at 1/320 sec, f/8, ISO 200.
Eben Ostby
Bonfire
Two successive frames taken on film (handheld!) yielding a panorama. This was taken a few weeks ago but I developed it this week. Kentmere 400 film pushed 1 stop; camera was an Olympus OM-1 with a 50mm f1.4.