MikeOxon

[Padfield]

That's a beautiful picture of the moon, Mike. There is a really magical quality to the light.

Guy

[MikeOxon]

Thank you Guy. The main image was taken by using the 'hand-held night scene' mode on my Lumix FZ200. This takes about 20 short-exposure images and then combines them. I also took another shot set to manual exposure of 1/200s:f/4.5 ISO160 to provide the detail in the moon's face. Both used manual focus and fl=32mm (~200mm 35mm equiv).

It was a remarkable sight, as the sky was still a deep indigo blue, soon after sunset.

Mike

[Pauline]

That ST shot would make a beautiful tapestry Mike for a cushion front or similar - and a great shot of the moon. You are putting me to shame experimenting with so many settings on your camera as I hardly ever change mine. I must start to make more of an effort.

[MikeOxon]

Hi Pauline. My late Mother-in-law used to make tapestry cushion covers,so it's a pity she is no longer with us. As you will have realised, I love playing with my toys That hand-held night mode on the FZ200 is rather amazing.
Mike

[Goldie M]

Lovely Shot of the Moon Mike, I've tried once or twice with Moon shots, hope less Goldie

[Wurzel]

I think that Small Tort photoshop painting came out really well Mike - something I might have to have a look into for my daughters - I could give them butterfly colouring-in sheets which would help them with their butterfly ID

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[MikeOxon]

An idea you might like to try, Wurzel, is the use of the 'Find Edges' filter in Photoshop Elements to create a line drawing from a photo. I often use it, in a different context, as an aid to producing engineering drawings from photos.

The following example shows how it can work (click image to enlarge):

Start from a photo with a plain or simple background (or just use the paintbrush to provide a uniform wash). From the 'Enhance' menu you can 'Remove Color' to produce a BW image. I find it best to adjust the brightness and contrast, to get well-defined boundaries, and then go to the 'Filter' menu, where 'Find Edges' is found under 'Stylize...'

The result is an outline image that you could print out, as a basis for the youngsters to paint

Mike

[MikeOxon]

On a dull, wet afternoon,I've been playing with my computer (again). Earlier in the year I took a whole series of photos of a pair of Brimstones in courtship. (see viewtopic.php?f=29&t=7459&start=40#p84266 for a selection of my images)

I was flicking through these on my laptop screen and realised they formed a sort of animation, like those old flicker books that some may remember. I knew that the .gif image format can produce animations and is sometimes used for 'smileys' and the like, so I decided to try making a gif animation from a selection of my images.

I downloaded a copy of 'Ulead Gif Animator' from the web and used it to open a selection of my photos. The software allows you to alter the order and to add or delete images, to optimise the sequence, and then a 'wizard' creates the animation. The result is show below:

Hartslock, Oxon - 13th May 2014
sequence of photos taken with Nikon D300s plus 300/f4 lens

Brimstones4.gif (350.59 KiB) Viewed 861 times

For the technically minded, the final 'image' is a stack of layers, which are displayed in sequence. There are various options in the Ulead software, to vary the rate of display or to add captions and so on. It can also be used to convert video clips into short animations.

I did not have this outcome in mind when I took these photos but may try it out in a planned way, next season.

Mike

[Jack Harrison]

I take it Mike that you used burst mode? How many frames/second?

Maybe no need to wait until next season to try as a planned technique. Birds perhaps during the off-season? I might give it a try here but it would be a difficult decision whether to test on Golden or White-tailed Eagle Saw one of each today near Aros (between Salen and Tobermory) within space of two minutes.

Jack

[MikeOxon]

Hi Jack. They were taken in bursts, though not all are one continuous sequence - you can see that the background moves about. I aligned the images on the butterflies before using them with the Ulead software. The Nikon D300s has a frame rate of about 7 fps. Some might say: "just shoot a video" but, this way, I also have hi-res images of the individual frames.

As the following exposure details show, the light was changing very rapidly, a day of sun and cloud, with a downpour soon after these shots were taken. Both the male and female look rather battered when seen statically.

Hartslock, Oxon - 13th May 2014
Nikon D300s with 300/4 lens - 1/6,000s@f/4 ISO400

Hartslock, Oxon - 13th May 2014
Nikon D300s with 300/4 lens - 1/1,500s@f/5.6 ISO400

I'll await your eagle animations with interest.

Mike

[Chris Jackson]

I like your Gif Animation presentation Mike, most original. I guess you need some good quality burst mode photos for the input. As you probably know I use an FZ150, do you think you could get the same result as above with your FZ200 ?
Cheers, Chris

[MikeOxon]

Hi Chris, I can't think of any reason why you couldn't do something similar with the FZ150. My animation was built from about 15 images. I reduced the size to 320x240, so that each individual image was only about 25kB and the whole stack is only 350kB - fine for e-mail.

Mike

[David M]

Nice effect, Mike, though I'm afraid it's beyond my sphere of capability.

[Wurzel]

An interesting technique Mike - but like David I'm not sure it's one that I'd be able to perform It would be a really good one for Green Hairstreaks as then you might be able to get some open wings views...

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[MikeOxon]

Thank you for the comments. The animations started as a 'rainy day' activity but produce an interesting result - a bit like the moving pictures on the walls of Hogwarts

I find it interesting the way that the brain seems to fill in the gaps. There are only 13 photos in the stack but they fit together surprisingly smoothly, even though they were never planned for this use!

[MikeOxon]

It was a beautifully sunny and surprisingly warm morning, so I decided to visit Dry Sandford Pit in Cothill, where I usually start my butterfly year in the early Spring.

Unfortunately, cloud was spreading from the West when I arrived and a dark finger of cloud perversely chose to cover the sun for almost the whole of my visit, although most of the sky remained blue! Under such conditions, I did not expect to see much butterfly life but then I spotted a lone Red Admiral catching what warmth it could on the West-facing sandstone cliffs, along the edge of the reserve.

Dry Sandford Pit, Oxon - 27th October 2014
Nikon D300s with 70-300VR lens - 1/180@f/6.7 ISO400

These cliffs are riddled with holes made by many creatures, ranging from rabbits down to various species of bees and wasps but, today, they were very quiet. Just a few flowers still bloomed but Autumn fungi were appearing amongst the fallen leaves:

Dry Sandford Pit, Oxon - 27th October 2014
Nikon D300s with 70-300VR lens - 1/60@f/11 ISO400

I continued my walk around the reserve but saw no more butterflies, and most of the birds were scattered by a low-flying helicopter from the adjoining military base. When I returned to the cliff, after about half a hour, the Red Admiral was still there but had now closed its wings, since the sun showed no signs of returning.

Dry Sandford Pit, Oxon - 27th October 2014
Nikon D300s with 70-300VR lens - 1/250@f/5.6 ISO400

I decided to drive home over Boars Hill, which provides a fine viewpoint of the city of Oxford. As I reached the crest, a shaft of sunlight provided a spotlight on the central Oxford buildings, creating a wonderful juxtaposition between cows grazing in the foreground and the urban landscape beyond. A remarkable view, which has not changed in its main features for several hundred years.

view of Oxford from Boars Hill - 27th October 2014
Nikon D300s with 70-300VR lens - 1/500s@f/8 ISO400

Mike

[Wurzel]

That is a cracking shot Mike I haven't photographed a butterfly in almost a month now, all my usual haunts have dried up

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[Jack Harrison]

That view of Oxford is a winner.

Jack

[Neil Hulme]

Hi Mike,
Agreed. Magnificent landscape shot. It must be worth revisiting that view under different skies.
BWs, Neil

[MikeOxon]

Thank you for the comments on the Oxford view. I was driving past and just had to stop! The most amazing thing is that there is a line of pylons and wires, which usually spoil the view, but because of the patchy cloud, they happened to be in deep shadow

Another brilliant sunny day, today, but I'm not free to get out - I expect there are still butterflies to be found!

Mike