Slideshow of selected 2015 images

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SSSdave
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Slideshow of selected 2015 images

Post by SSSdave »

This year of 2015 has been an active one for this photographer despite the drought and my old age. In fact, I've been so busy from week to week that for the last 3 months have not been able to keep up with trip report features on my web site. Of course I have for the last 6 years held an 8-5 m-f hi tech job in Silicon Valley that takes up a demanding portion of my life. But this last weekend finally caught up and uploaded dozens of files to my site. Like the rest of my site, I've manually coded all the html besides having to do vast amounts of post processing on images. A visitor would need quite a lot of time to read through all the trip pages in the feature. At the top right on my homepage at:

http://www.davidsenesac.com

One may select the sub-page link at:

2015 Trip Chronicles

That brings one to a Contents page that links to 2015 trips in chronological order and includes 3 backpacking trips and numbers of day and multi-day road trips. At the top of the Contents page is a Notes link to a page that describes navigating within the feature and other information.

Easier and shorter is a slideshow linked to at the bottom of the Contents page that sequences through a selection of 90 images. Or select that link directly below. From the slideshow set up page that comes up first, the default is for an image change every 8 seconds but can be sped up by keying >
or slowed down with <

http://www.davidsenesac.com/2015_Trip_C ... eshow.html
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Re: Slideshow of selected 2015 images

Post by Wandering Daisy »

Wow! Some of those flowers look like aliens from outer space! Really beautiful.

You look like a packhorse carrying all that stuff! But I guess that is what it takes to get such stunning shots.

Do people buy the digital photo or do they usually want a print? If they want a print, what printer do you use?
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Re: Slideshow of selected 2015 images

Post by SSSdave »

Image

http://davidsenesac.com/2015_Trip_Chron ... 021-8v.jpg

WD >>>"...Wow! Some of those flowers look like aliens from outer space! Really beautiful. "

Now that was an original description haha. You have however keenly noticed a difference in those close-up images versus those of others or those of my own from earlier work just 3 years and more earlier which indeed is distinctive. Although it can be striking even in those downsized images, it is much more impressive at full sized display or fine printed. The Notes page I mentioned above explains that briefly. The close-ups are blended focus stacked post processed.

The result is even 3-dimensional subjects that vary significantly in camera to subject distance can be photographed with a resulting image optimally sharp at every point. Much more so than simply reducing a lens aperture size. Conversely a traditional lens can only focus optimally at a single distance from a lens with a decreasing level of focus away from that point both in front of and behind the focus point.

Thus if one takes a near frontal portrait of a person's head focused optimally on an eye, the person's nose will not be as well focused bcause it is closer and their ears less so because it is further. But with focus stacking, one can take multiple images with each focus at different distances and then in post processing software combines them. The software calculates by selecting highest luminance frequencies from which image among a set are best focused for each tiny area of a frame and then creates a composite image just using sharpest points. This is a revolutionary advancement in photography though only small numbers of serious photographers have yet to grasp that much less put it to use. It's value goes beyond close-ups and can be applied to landscapes. And no it doesn't require carrying any more gear.

David
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Re: Slideshow of selected 2015 images

Post by maverick »

This is a revolutionary advancement in photography though only small numbers of serious photographers have yet to grasp that much less put it to use. It's value goes beyond close-ups and can be applied to landscapes. And no it doesn't require carrying any more gear.
Yeap, been using focus stacking for a few years. Read these recent articles on Lula about it:
https://luminous-landscape.com/focus-st ... sic-guide/
https://luminous-landscape.com/hand-hel ... -stacking/
Professional Sierra Landscape Photographer

I don't give out specific route information, my belief is that it takes away from the whole adventure spirit of a trip, if you need every inch planned out, you'll have to get that from someone else.

Have a safer backcountry experience by using the HST ReConn Form 2.0, named after Larry Conn, a HST member: http://reconn.org
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Re: Slideshow of selected 2015 images

Post by Jimr »

It's especially useful when using a macro lens given the very narrow DoF.
If you don't know where you're going, then any path will get you there.
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Re: Slideshow of selected 2015 images

Post by Herm »

Thanks for sharing. I especially liked the photo of the lone Mariposa lily - fantastic.
I am not in a hurry, so don't be hasty.
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Re: Slideshow of selected 2015 images

Post by SSSdave »

Herm wrote:Thanks for sharing. I especially liked the photo of the lone Mariposa lily - fantastic.
Image

There are a couple calochortus aka mariposas in the slide show. The white globe lily with an image of two and a single close-up of a hairy star tulip. The below is an excerpt from Page 5 linked from my Contents page that was during a Point Reyes National Seashore day trip to Abbott Lagoon. Generally many of the mariposa species are difficult close-up subjects because they have considerable 3-D shapes that require much depth of field. In the past one would have to be content just backing a lens well away with a result a flower could only be printed small lest detail be soft. However now with focus stacking that is no longer a limitation. The above was shot with my very sharp Sigma 60mm F2.8 DN set to F11. Another difficult 3-D mariposa I hope to photography full frame this next spring of 2016 is the very beautiful Sierra Nevada digger pine elevations grasslands species calochortus venustus.

Another flower enthusiast favorite at image above, found this white pu$$y ears aka hairy star tulip, calochortus tolmiei, atop the knoll just south of the lagoon bridge and there were many others as well as some goldfields and yellow beak owl's clover. I used both my collapsible disks to block wind that was coming from the south and the diffuser to also block the sun. I was in a precarious location where if I lost my grip on one of the disks, it would go flying down the hill, over a steep slope, and into the lagoon where I would not be able to retrieve it. And to make matters worse well I mean embarrassing, a few dozen people were roaming about below across the lagoon and not a few must have been wondering what that guy was doing. About an hour's tedious work with Zerene Stacker was later necessary to create the now clean image.
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