Your R System Images - September 2023

[BirdBrainPhil]

Green Sandpiper and Common Sandpiper, Minsmere RSPB.

 

[dgphoto8]

Some photos I took during the "blue super moon" that we had at the end of August in Boston. I consulted the Photographer's Ephemeris and saw that the moon would be rising over the Boston skyline. Nancy and I positioned ourselves on the opposite bank of the Charles River and I spent the next hour or so running like a madman up and down the river to get the moon at various positions over the skyline.

We were treated to a colorful sunset backdrop to the Charles River and the Boston University Law building. The clouds capturing the wonderful color foreboded a tricky photography session for a full moon.

The moon starting to rise over the skyline. You can see that clouds were significantly occluding the moon. This was exposed for the moon and I used Lightroom Classic masking to brighten the lights of the buildings.

The moon popped out clearer for awhile as it rose near the John Hancock Tower.

The John Hancock Building radio towers silhouetted in the moon. This was the photo I used for 52Frames that week.

Two minutes later, the moon was significantly covered by a passing cloud, showing how lucky I was to get the previous shot.

After that the moon was always partially shrouded in cloud. I exposed for the skyline and let the moonlight spread through the clouds. You can also see the planet Saturn in this photo to the upper right of the moon. It was a very nice night for photography, although I'm left with some "what if" questions if it was a truly cloudless night

 

[Kerro]

Don, nice set of photos. I like the silhouetted radio towers best.
I must try this with my RF 800 F11 as I have a clear view to the rising moon at the horizon level for most of the year.

 

[ACEkin]

Shamrock, or Oxalis produces very delicate flowers. I photographed these a couple of days ago and added a touch of softening and glowing effect, almost like the well-known Orton effect in Lightroom. The photograph is a focus stack of three images in Photoshop.

 

[MikeZ]

There is a dream-like quality to this image that I really like. Nicely done!

 

[ACEkin]

There is a dream-like quality to this image that I really like. Nicely done!

Thank you, Mike. I tried to achieve that dream-like look. Good to hear it may have worked.

 

[TonyB]

A different view of Exploration Tower at Port Canaveral, FL

 

[David Berry]

Common honey bees… ​

and not-so-common flowers.​

Grass Tree Flower Spike (Xanthorrhoea glauca)
Common Honey Bee​

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The info provided by DxO indicates that the distance from subject to camera (actually, my R5's sensor) was 3.3 metres.

There's a first time for everything; and that includes shooting insects with an RF 100–500 zoom!

 

[dgphoto8]

Images from our recent visit to Warkworth Castle, Morpeth, Northumberland, England.

(Shot raw and processed using: DxO PhotoLab Elite/ ViewPoint and Adobe Lightroom Classic/ Photoshop with TK-9 Panel).

You can find out more about Warkworth Castle by clicking Here.

*** We are away now until mid-September, so will be unable to provide any feedback/ comments until after our return. ***

We'll be back...

Phil and Karen


1. Warkworth Castle sits above a loop in the River Coquet and dates to around 1200.

View attachment 19501

2. It was the favoured residence of the Percy family - the powerful Dukes of Northumberland - from the 14th to the 17th centuries.

View attachment 19502

3. The Great Hall in the Bailey, with the Lion Tower (right), was built around 1480 by Henry Percy the 4th Earl of Northumberland.

View attachment 19503

4. The Great Tower (‘a castle within a castle’) was commissioned by (another) Henry Percy, 1st Earl of Northumberland in 1377.

View attachment 19504

5. The Grey Mare’s Tail Tower may have been used for accommodation and was built around 1290. [Inset right - ancient window art/ graffiti].

View attachment 19505

6. The Castle was used by William Shakespeare as the setting for several scenes in his Henry IV plays, written in 1597. It is now managed by English Heritage.

View attachment 19506

(Source: English Heritage).

I missed this from earlier in the month. Very nice photos of the castle from different angles; the sky came out nice too. I actually traveled to Morpeth for work over 20 years ago. I was not aware of this castle and did not have a car anyway. Although, one day a co-worker who had rented a car drove us to Bamburgh Castle, which was nice too. But I think I might have enjoyed Warkworth better

 

[ACEkin]

Another Oxalis, or Shamrock flower set. Treated to a slight soft focus effect in Lightroom.

 

[Hali]

Images from our recent visit to Warkworth Castle, Morpeth, Northumberland, England.

(Shot raw and processed using: DxO PhotoLab Elite/ ViewPoint and Adobe Lightroom Classic/ Photoshop with TK-9 Panel).

You can find out more about Warkworth Castle by clicking Here.

*** We are away now until mid-September, so will be unable to provide any feedback/ comments until after our return. ***

We'll be back...

Phil and Karen


1. Warkworth Castle sits above a loop in the River Coquet and dates to around 1200.

View attachment 19501

2. It was the favoured residence of the Percy family - the powerful Dukes of Northumberland - from the 14th to the 17th centuries.

View attachment 19502

3. The Great Hall in the Bailey, with the Lion Tower (right), was built around 1480 by Henry Percy the 4th Earl of Northumberland.

View attachment 19503

4. The Great Tower (‘a castle within a castle’) was commissioned by (another) Henry Percy, 1st Earl of Northumberland in 1377.

View attachment 19504

5. The Grey Mare’s Tail Tower may have been used for accommodation and was built around 1290. [Inset right - ancient window art/ graffiti].

View attachment 19505

6. The Castle was used by William Shakespeare as the setting for several scenes in his Henry IV plays, written in 1597. It is now managed by English Heritage.

View attachment 19506

(Source: English Heritage).

These are super! I am compiling a list of places to visit based on your images! Thank you for the tour book

 

[Hali]

Another Oxalis, or Shamrock flower set. Treated to a slight soft focus effect in Lightroom.

View attachment 19737

Nice! I like that soft effect!

 

[Hali]

A couple of shots taken of local critters in my neck of the woods. Green Tree Frogs are hanging out on Cattail leaves while Ruby-throated hummingbirds are in the process of fattening up for the trip South. Most of the mature males have already left the area.


View attachment 19593

View attachment 19596

great shots. I love that frog!

 

[Hali]

Some photos I took during the "blue super moon" that we had at the end of August in Boston. I consulted the Photographer's Ephemeris and saw that the moon would be rising over the Boston skyline. Nancy and I positioned ourselves on the opposite bank of the Charles River and I spent the next hour or so running like a madman up and down the river to get the moon at various positions over the skyline.

View attachment 19675
We were treated to a colorful sunset backdrop to the Charles River and the Boston University Law building. The clouds capturing the wonderful color foreboded a tricky photography session for a full moon.

View attachment 19676
The moon starting to rise over the skyline. You can see that clouds were significantly occluding the moon. This was exposed for the moon and I used Lightroom Classic masking to brighten the lights of the buildings.


View attachment 19677
The moon popped out clearer for awhile as it rose near the John Hancock Tower.

View attachment 19678
The John Hancock Building radio towers silhouetted in the moon. This was the photo I used for 52Frames that week.

View attachment 19679
Two minutes later, the moon was significantly covered by a passing cloud, showing how lucky I was to get the previous shot.

View attachment 19680
After that the moon was always partially shrouded in cloud. I exposed for the skyline and let the moonlight spread through the clouds. You can also see the planet Saturn in this photo to the upper right of the moon. It was a very nice night for photography, although I'm left with some "what if" questions if it was a truly cloudless night

This is a great series! One of my favorite places is shooting Boston from that side of the river, it's been ages since I've come up to do that, I wish I had thought about it for the super moon. Yet another reason to take a drive up.

 

[Hali]

It was a gorgeous day for surf here in RI with the swell from Hurricane Lee hitting the shore with a stiff off shore breeze to help. The sets were often overhead high and there were some exciting moments out there. (I will admit that yesterday would have been better, but alas I had to work all day)

 

[Chris Summers]

Tonight at my granddaughters volleyball game the theme was "parents embarrassing their kids" night with a lot of parents in silly costumes up in the bleachers. Fun watching the girls laughing and being a bit embarrassed. They beat their opponents quite soundly which was good for morale as the lost both games earlier this week.

 

[JustUs7]

I think I have a years worth of material to work through from our summer travels. I didn’t think this would work, but when 16mm isn’t wide enough, take two and try to make a panorama out of them. JPEG’s processed in DPP4 then stitched in Affinity Photo. I also found a LUT for Affinity called Neutral Pump that I like. I hope you like it too.

Peyto Lake along the Icefield Parkway.

Same. Played with the warping tool to cut down on ultra-wide distortion.


This is a more traditional panorama of Bow Lake. I liked the way the trees framed it. This is a smaller version of a much larger file that exceeds the 20MB limit.

Bow Lake along the Icefield Parkway.

 

[JohnFr]

This is an focus stacked image shot with Canon R5, Canon 300mm lens at f/11, 1/125th sec. exposure, ISO 400. It is made up of 4566 images with the majority of the the images being Focus Bracketed images processed to yield 372 individual Focus Stacked images, 12 rows x 31 columns 30% overlap in portrait orientation. Focus stacking was done using Helicon Focus 8 and stitching was done using PTGui. Final processing was done in Photoshop.

The original image is: 6.26 Giga-pixels, 59,349 x 105,509 pixels, 197" x 351" 300 PPI (16 ft. 5 in. 29 ft. 4 in.) un- cropped image size.
You can view a high resolution virtual tour of the image by clicking on the image in this page: https://abbascreationsphotography.com/Dream_sunrise.htm​

 

[esheato]

This is an focus stacked image shot with Canon R5, Canon 300mm lens at f/11, 1/125th sec. exposure, ISO 400. It is made up of 4566 images with the majority of the the images being Focus Bracketed images processed to yield 372 individual Focus Stacked images, 12 rows x 31 columns 30% overlap in portrait orientation. Focus stacking was done using Helicon Focus 8 and stitching was done using PTGui. Final processing was done in Photoshop.

The original image is: 6.26 Giga-pixels, 59,349 x 105,509 pixels, 197" x 351" 300 PPI (16 ft. 5 in. 29 ft. 4 in.) un- cropped image size.
You can view a high resolution virtual tour of the image by clicking on the image in this page: https://abbascreationsphotography.com/Dream_sunrise.htm​

Holy smokes.

EDIT: Not to diminish the talent involved in this project in the least, but I don't think a poor photo of Colorado landscapes is possible. It's by far the most stunning state.

 

[Hali]

This is an focus stacked image shot with Canon R5, Canon 300mm lens at f/11, 1/125th sec. exposure, ISO 400. It is made up of 4566 images with the majority of the the images being Focus Bracketed images processed to yield 372 individual Focus Stacked images, 12 rows x 31 columns 30% overlap in portrait orientation. Focus stacking was done using Helicon Focus 8 and stitching was done using PTGui. Final processing was done in Photoshop.

The original image is: 6.26 Giga-pixels, 59,349 x 105,509 pixels, 197" x 351" 300 PPI (16 ft. 5 in. 29 ft. 4 in.) un- cropped image size.
You can view a high resolution virtual tour of the image by clicking on the image in this page: https://abbascreationsphotography.com/Dream_sunrise.htm​

That is incredible

 

[ACEkin]

I will bore you with a couple of more Oxalis photographs. They have a little soft-focus effect added in Lightroom that gives them a glow.

 

[dgphoto8]

I think I have a years worth of material to work through from our summer travels. I didn’t think this would work, but when 16mm isn’t wide enough, take two and try to make a panorama out of them. JPEG’s processed in DPP4 then stitched in Affinity Photo. I also found a LUT for Affinity called Neutral Pump that I like. I hope you like it too.

View attachment 19771
Peyto Lake along the Icefield Parkway.

View attachment 19777
Same. Played with the warping tool to cut down on ultra-wide distortion.


This is a more traditional panorama of Bow Lake. I liked the way the trees framed it. This is a smaller version of a much larger file that exceeds the 20MB limit. View attachment 19772
Bow Lake along the Icefield Parkway.

Great shots of Banff NP. Haven't been there for 20 years and I'm dying to go back. Nice panoramas of both Bow Lake and the view from the Peyto Lake overlook. I don't think I have seen a panorama like that of Peyto that covers the lake and the glacier. Great job on the Bow Lake panorama

 

[dgphoto8]

This is a great series! One of my favorite places is shooting Boston from that side of the river, it's been ages since I've come up to do that, I wish I had thought about it for the super moon. Yet another reason to take a drive up.

Thanks. One of my favorite places to photograph is the Longfellow Bridge and Charles River basin area. There are so many subjects to photograph, day or night

 

[dgphoto8]

Don, nice set of photos. I like the silhouetted radio towers best.
I must try this with my RF 800 F11 as I have a clear view to the rising moon at the horizon level for most of the year.

Thanks. I had my RF800 too and took some photos with it. They came out nice but when I used it more when the moon was well above the skyline so I got primarily moon only shots

 

[Kerro]

WOW. Dream Lake. That photo is awesome. I can't say I've ever seen anything like it. The detail at full max is amazing.

 

[David Berry]

Return of the wanderer…​

Bar-tailed Godwit
Moreton Bay, Queensland
2023–09–18​

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Given the date (immediately before southern spring equinox), I'll surmise that this bird has just flown around 10,000 km from the far north of the Pacific, and been tagged almost immediately upon arrival (tag looks new).

The migratory route is known as the East Asian–Australasian Flyway (EAAF).

The single green flag indicates Queensland and the code identifies the tagger. Below are some of the colour codes for the EAAF.

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[dmanthree]

A few from Westminster Abbey. All shot with the R5 and 14-35 f4 L zoom.

 

[ACEkin]

A few from Westminster Abbey. All shot with the R5 and 14-35 f4 L zoom.

An impressive structure for sure. I doubt that they allowed tripods, so I am also impressed with your steady hands!

 

[dmanthree]

An impressive structure for sure. I doubt that they allowed tripods, so I am also impressed with your steady hands!

Yeah, the IS in the R5 is amazing. That camera has totally spoiled me.

 

[sosh]

Checking R10 + EF-S 10-18