Wildflowers, Women and Aperture

My first dentist would say, "Open wide wide wide." Now they don't have to say that because they jam so much stuff in there that you have no choice.

But opening wide can work in photography.

Here are two similar shots, and you can see the difference in the background. The f2.8 background is very smooth and blurry and non-distracting. There is more background detail in the f16 photo that isn't as pleasing to most although it might be to some.

f16

f2.8

The f2.8 image is also focus stacked, which means that it is a combination of several images. I focused separately on each of the little blooms and one on the big centre bloom although that one could be better. At such a big aperture (opening) depth of field is very small, so I needed to combine images. At f16, however, all I needed was one shot.

And by the way, that big centre flower is smaller than my thumb. The flower is Erigeron (or fleabane).

Since I'm at it, here's another erigeron photo of just buds.

But here's where I made a mistake with aperture. I shot both Sue and her sister with a wide, f2.8 aperture. I focused on Sue and she is in pretty good focus, but Heather is blurry on this closeup.

Farther away with full body shots, the same wide aperture was good enough.

Live and learn.

Wildflowers Along the Trail

After unseasonable heat late last week, it has been unseasonably chilly this week. Yesterday morning I felt compelled to don the sweater-hoodie that keeps me warm in winter. It has also been cloudy and at times rainy. But the cloud can be good for flower photos, so I took my camera over to the trail yesterday and captured some tiny wildflowers.

It was windy, and since I am also lazy, I didn't bother with the tripod. Under the conditions, the resulting photos are not tack sharp, but since I actually like a soft focus effect sometimes, I don't mind.

Here are a few. I don't know what any of the plants are called. I think the second one is my favourite.

I Don't Understand

Sometimes, life is a head-scratcher.

In the 13 years that we have lived in this place, I can recall perhaps four times that our neighbours  have mowed our small, shared front lawn.

The first of the four pairs were physically challenged owners, but they did have their son mow it once.

The next group were boys who rented, or I guess I should say young men. They were nice enough but boys they were. They did it once or perhaps not, but I think so.

The next group was true riffraff, not that they were noisy or outwardly obnoxious, but they were awful people who left the property in such a deplorable state that the place was unrentable for three years as the landlord slowly worked to rehabilitate it. Certainly, lawn maintenance was not even remotely on their minds, nor on the landlord's mind during those three years.

The present renters are also nice and quiet, and they did mow once last year, and they also take reasonably good care of their back yard.

Meanwhile, I mowed the whole lawn many times last year. Most of my side is garden and mulch except for a small bit near the sidewalk, but I always cut the whole lawn anyway. Sue weeds a lot over on that side, especially in spring when the dandelions appear. But they did cut the grass once last year, and I will take what I can get.

So it was that I was quite heartened to see her out trimming the grass on the weekend. I had already mowed it once this season, but she got out there for the second cutting before I did.

Except ...

... when I went out to check later, I realized that she had stopped before my little patch (which because or perspective looks larger in the picture than it really is). Our half is to the right of the red line, which is approximately where she stopped with her trimming.

This is beyond my comprehension. I just don't understand.

But I will continue to mow the whole thing when it is needed, for to do half (or even less) of such a small lawn is silly. Really silly.

Cycling Clips

Surprise! Surprise!

It really was a surprise when Danica declared that she wanted to stay over a second night.

Naturally, we didn't decline.

So ... out we went on the bikes for a second time, but I took videos for a change.

This will show some of our trail and some of the sights such as behind townhall and upriver from the bridge.




She didn't want to go home yet, so we stopped at the hilly trail which you have seen before. We don't exactly have mountain bikes, but she can still manage the course. I wasn't motivated to try this time.




She really seemed to enjoy the rides as did we.

Day One with Danica

As you know, Danica commandeered my blog the other morning and posted of her day, our bike ride mainly. There was the part about seeing me in mu underwear, but we don't need to dwell on that.

The beginning of the trail near our place.

We stopped at the little plaza behind townhall.

From there we rode to the market where Sue got a slight adjustment for her bike.

We headed to the hackberry grove by the river and by the old railway bridge.  There are not many of these trees in Canada, but they think this grove has been there for maybe 5000 years, not that these trees are that old but that the grove is. They believe it was planted by the natives long ago. Danica is reading the informational plaque.

You can see the old railway bridge in the distance (above), and we climbed up the slope to the right of it (see the two shots, below). Somewhat surprisingly, I made it too.

After going home for awhile. we went back out for a light lunch later, where I took a selfie, which is not part of my usual repertoire.

GUESS WHO'S BACK AGAIN!

Heyyyyyy! It's....

DANI! 😝

It's SATURDAY! WOO-HOO!

I get a 3-day weekend because yesterday was a PA day. Let me tell you what I did today.

So I got up (at my grandparents), and watched YouTube in the den. My grandpa was there too.

My hair wasn't brushed and I had my PJs on, because I'm the laziest person you'll ever see!

I had some Cinnamon Sugar Toast. We got ready and before you know it, we were off on our bikes!

You will see some photos because my grandpa posts just about everything. 

We were at the park within 2 minutes as we rode along the gorgeous Nature Trail leading past the Hockey Arena. As we rode off, I looked back, remembering going there at least twice a week for Jonathan's Hockey.

I continued to ride. The trail had ended and we were on the side of the road behind Main Street. We rode under a bridge that me and my grandpa went on about 1 hr later.  

So, Hackberry Park was our Main Destination. We went past it heading towards Town Hall 😆. We stopped at a red square with benches and stuff. You can rent it for events. Anyways, we went there to take a rest, watch the water, and text my mom some pictures.

We headed off again to the Farmers Market. There was someone who fixed bikes. My grandma's bike wheel was acting up, but me and my grandpa headed inside the structure. It's only there for shade, I imagine. We visited most off the stands. I took a bookmark and 2 samples. There was a Bagel stand! We got "Bagel Chips". While my grandpa purchased, I went to another stand and tried a Fudge Sample! Let me tell you, it was PRETTY AMAZING! 😋! Of course, I convinced him to buy it.

We headed home. I was going to see if a friend down the street would play, but she wasn't there.

My grandpa was in the bathroom. I told him from outside the door I was going to do a Guest Blog. He walked out in his UNDERWEAR! 😨!

So that's where I am now... hoping to have lunch at Timmies. 😂.

Have a good day!

Dani 💖

PS: I am staying for another night, so you can ask me questions if you want.

Town Hall Variations

I went to St James Park the other night to try a few more photos of town hall. I was a little late to get the lowering sun hitting the building directly. But since I was there anyway, I took some shots. I guess the practice is good for me. I am going to show three results for what it's worth.

This one takes in the whole building and reflection and is also cropped relatively tightly on both sides although I have left some breathing room.

I then thought of using a tree as a partial frame in a tighter crop. I don't mind too much that I didn't get the flag. I am not ecstatic about the image, but I think it was worth a try.

Finally, in terms of processing although I think it was actually the first shot taken, is the image of the three that I like best even though I processed it last, kind of as an afterthought when I went back to look at the series again.

I like the third one best for a couple of reasons. One reason is that I was more zoomed out, which gives town hall more breathing space and puts it in context better in my opinion. Also, I seem to have processed it more naturally in terms of what the light was like that night. Finally, the 4x5 crop ratio seems to work better than the 2x3 ratio of the first one above.

My printer can print a 2x3 ratio quite well on 13x19 paper; I can go to 12x18 for the actual print and use almost all of the paper. This is why I always look for a 2x3 crop first. If I crop to a 4x5 ratio, the best I can print is a 12x15 image. While that isn't a bad size, I can more easily find frames to fit the former than the latter. Otherwise, I pretty well have to crop a little more to 11x14 for which there are plenty of frames. While 11x14 isn't too much of a different crop, it is still a smaller image.

Since I don't actually print too many images, it really shouldn't matter a lot if I crop it differently to non-standard dimensions, and I sometimes do for the web, but I still tend to look at the standard ratios first.

Addendum: I know I often do this: finish a post and then add something. But I saw one more in the series. It shows the whole bridge, which is certainly a viable option. It's not perfect with the reflection truncated, but it might be a good starting point for next time if I get back there when the light is more to my liking. As well as the one just above.