Non-Av Pic Thread Q4 2014

vikkyvik · Tue Sep 30, 2014 6:50 am

Wow....I just typed up a lengthy post, then accidentally closed the window.

Let me try this again....

I know I'm a day-and-a-half early, but oh well.

Photos from the past few weeks (which I'll split up over a few posts, so I don't lose too much if I stupidly close the window again):

Rain photos from Boston:

Hadn't taken a nighttime port shot in awhile:

Went to a wedding in Marina Del Rey. The hotel does weddings on the helipad, up on the roof. Quite a setting (unfortunately I only had my phone):

My parents were in town last week. This was the view of Cabrillo Marina from their hotel room (another phone shot):

We went to the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach:

Gallery: http://www.vksphoto.com/Animals/Wild...f-the-Pacific-Long/44597064_RXcfWd

Not part of the exhibits, but posing on top of one of the cages:

These jellyfish were awesome photo subjects, even in the very low light:

More to follow in a future post....

Braybuddy · Tue Sep 30, 2014 11:49 am

Great pics up there Vikkyvik . . . the jellyfish ones are superb.

Nice to see a new thread up and running. As for me, I've been out and about sampling the "season of mists and mellow fruitfulness":

ANITIX87 · Tue Sep 30, 2014 2:09 pm

Yay, this thread is back!! I have a ton to share!

New York City's annual 9/11 tribute in lights, seen from Jersey City, NJ.

My friend's dog, Pixel. This is taken with my new Sigma 120-300 f/2.8. What a lens!

Paterson Great Falls in New Jersey.

The Statue of Liberty with the new WTC1 tower behind.

I spent three weeks in Switzerland earlier this year:

The view from my late grandmother's chalet:

Luzern:

Lake Luzern:

Then I went to Monaco for the Formula 1 Grand Prix, one of the best experiences of my life!
I stayed in Cannes for the weekend:

Race day!

(The hairpin)

TIS

Braybuddy · Thu Oct 09, 2014 7:40 am

Some pics from a trip along the northern coast of Crete:

More to follow

Braybuddy · Sat Oct 11, 2014 8:54 am

More Crete pics:

oly720man · Sun Oct 12, 2014 8:36 pm

From a walk in the woods

Rather than decorate the local walls, cling film/saran wrap between trees was the vehicle for artistic expression

Life at the end of a tree branch

Dragonfly getting some rays

Some bracket fungi

A stream with a 2s exposure.

Braybuddy · Thu Oct 16, 2014 9:48 pm

There was an autumnal theme in this week's camera club competition. My shortlist:

.

vikkyvik · Fri Oct 24, 2014 5:08 am

Quoting oly720man (Reply 5):
Life at the end of a tree branch

Very nice. Looks like the whole branch is an animal of some sort.

Quoting Braybuddy (Reply 6):
There was an autumnal theme in this week's camera club competition. My shortlist:

Great colors. Did you do anything selective with the red leaves in the first photo?

We had a nice partial solar eclipse in North America today. These photos were taken with my 300mm lens, with 3x ND8 and 1x ND400 filters (about 17.65 stops total light blockage):

Braybuddy · Fri Oct 24, 2014 6:57 am

Quoting vikkyvik (Reply 7):
Did you do anything selective with the red leaves in the first photo?

Not just the red! To emphasise the leaves I de-saturated the green, then moved the hue slightly to red, which changed the rust-coloured leaves to a vivid red. The rust was nice, but I wanted the colour to pop more.

Quoting vikkyvik (Reply 7):
We had a nice partial solar eclipse in North America today

Cool pics. Now why am I thinking of Pac-man?

Getting away from nature, I'm going for a completely urban theme this week, centred mainly around the docklands area of the city, which also fits in neatly with the "Derelict Buildings" thread:

airkas1 · Fri Oct 24, 2014 8:23 am

Great photos as usual!!

I'll add a few from my recent trip to London:

"Save Kobane" Demonstration by Kas van Zonneveld, on Flickr

Connaught Hotel by Kas van Zonneveld, on Flickr

London Cycle Rickshaw by Kas van Zonneveld, on Flickr

London National Gallery by Kas van Zonneveld, on Flickr

London Double-Decker by Kas van Zonneveld, on Flickr

Plus a panorama that I never edited before, found on my external drive. How I wish I was there right now...

Kas van Zonneveld, on Flickr

Braybuddy · Fri Oct 31, 2014 8:10 am

Nice pics there Airkas! The sepia-toned Connaught Hotel works very well (as does the Routemaster bus - I presume that's a static display, as I thought they were all retired?).

This week's pics come from a short trip to the baroque towns of southern Sicily:

.

More to follow . . .

oly720man · Sat Nov 01, 2014 9:27 pm

Quoting Braybuddy (Reply 10):
This week's pics come from a short trip to the baroque towns of southern Sicily:

Did you get to Inspector Montalbano's patch?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inspector_Montalbano_(TV_series)

Some from an autumn walk in the woods

I like the ghostly water in comparison to the geometry of the leaves and other background.

Autumn brings out the fungi. I'm not enough of an expert to know whether these are edible or not.

Mount fungus

airkas1 · Sun Nov 02, 2014 5:25 am

Quoting Braybuddy (Reply 10):
Nice pics there Airkas! The sepia-toned Connaught Hotel works very well (as does the Routemaster bus - I presume that's a static display, as I thought they were all retired?).

Thanks! The bus was moving, so not on a pure static display. I'm not sure however that it was active either, as I dont remember seeing any passengers on it.

Sicily looks very nice!

@oly720man, those longer exposures with the water really worked out well!

Also a new one from me. Something that makes planespotters/photographers suddenly forget that they were shooting aircraft:

Doggles by Kas van Zonneveld, on Flickr

Braybuddy · Sun Nov 02, 2014 10:11 am

Quoting oly720man (Reply 11):
Did you get to Inspector Montalbano's patch?

LOL! You know I've never seen the series, but I must try catch it sometime. Sicily is one of my favourite places. Most of the Mediterranean islands are massive tourist resorts, but Sicily isn't. It's very real, and the people aren't tourist-weary. I could keep going back there forever.

Some more pics from the isola bella. Funny, while we associate Sicily with eternal sunshine, it's even more beautiful in bad weather . . .

oly720man · Sun Nov 02, 2014 4:44 pm

Quoting airkas1 (Reply 12):
@oly720man, those longer exposures with the water really worked out well!

Thanks. Those were with an ND fader and the exposure was around 15 secs. My tripod's used to getting wet now.

Quoting Braybuddy (Reply 13):
LOL! You know I've never seen the series, but I must try catch it sometime.

It doesn't appeal to everyone, but it's better than some and makes a change from the usual crop of transatlantic series.

Braybuddy · Fri Nov 07, 2014 8:10 am

This week's pics (my last on here for a while): Hallowe'en statues, a mechanical bridge . . . and a somewhat-famous person comes to town:

#

David_itl · Sat Nov 08, 2014 10:40 pm

some photos from the Manchester Christmas lights switch-on from 7th November

Manchester Town Hall and the statue of Prince Albert

Warwick Davies was part of the pre-light entertaiment. Photo is of a large viewing screen as I was too far away from the stage so I'm a bit suprised at how it's not pixelated!

Santa before the lights were switched on

Fireworks

Some of the lights on Santa's hat failed

Full set of photos here

[Edited 2014-11-08 15:02:55]

vikkyvik · Sat Nov 22, 2014 12:21 am

Couple of recent ones from me.

This spider was hanging out by the front door to my building last night. Not sure what it is:

I'm really happy with this last one, because I screwed up the exposure big time. I had been shooting them in the sun, but they were in the shade when I took this one:

I had to brighten it by just over 4 stops. This is what it originally looked like:

Thank goodness for shadow detail and ACR's noise reduction!

Braybuddy · Sat Dec 06, 2014 8:13 am

I'm in the middle of editing pics from the annual holidays, which will take a while, so I'll dip into them in chronological order. We spent three weeks travelling around Nepal and northern India, both of them a photographer's dream. I'll start with some images of Nepal:

Durbar Square, Kathmandu

Lunch in Durbar Square

You won't get fresher than this

Colourful Kathmandu

Man wearing traditional topi

Growing old gracefully

Pigeons at Durbar Square

Checking out a temple

Landscape near Pokkhara

Making tea 1

Tandoori chicken, mmmmmmmmmmm!

Making tea 2

Chaotic Kathmandu

Prayer wheels, Swayambhunath

Praying at Swayambhunath

Making naan

Swayambhunath

A Sadhu, or holy man

Smoking a traditional pipe

Klaus · Sat Dec 06, 2014 4:41 pm

Quoting Braybuddy (Reply 18):
I'm in the middle of editing pics from the annual holidays, which will take a while, so I'll dip into them in chronological order. We spent three weeks travelling around Nepal and northern India, both of them a photographer's dream. I'll start with some images of Nepal:

Great and interesting pictures!

Braybuddy · Sat Dec 06, 2014 8:42 pm

Quoting Klaus (Reply 19):
Great and interesting pictures!

Thanks Klaus, though in fairness you don't have to look far to find an interesting picture in that part of the world. There really is a photograph on every street corner.

Klaus · Sat Dec 06, 2014 10:34 pm

Quoting Braybuddy (Reply 20):
Thanks Klaus, though in fairness you don't have to look far to find an interesting picture in that part of the world. There really is a photograph on every street corner.

I believe you, but it's still another matter to actually make good photos at those opportunities!

David_itl · Sun Dec 07, 2014 9:07 pm

I had 6 days in Malta (27th November to 3rd December) and somehow took almost 1500 photos!

Popeye village

The Red Tower

Horse cab in Valetta

Mellieha Bay

Mgarr Harbour, Gozo

vikkyvik · Mon Dec 08, 2014 7:52 pm

Quoting Klaus (Reply 21):
I believe you, but it's still another matter to actually make good photos at those opportunities!

Quoting david_itl (Reply 22):
6 days

Quoting david_itl (Reply 22):
1500 photos!

250 photos per day? You need to take more photos!

Anyway. I got a new (used) camera last week - a 5D Mark II - my first full-frame. Took this HDR of our Christmas tree with it:

vikkyvik · Tue Dec 09, 2014 7:16 pm

HDR of moon + halo:

Lunar eclipse:

Klaus · Tue Dec 09, 2014 7:41 pm

Quoting vikkyvik (Reply 24):
HDR of moon + halo:

Wow!

Braybuddy · Fri Dec 12, 2014 10:56 am

Continuing on to Varanasi, one of the oldest inhabited cities on the planet. And one of the most fascinating as it's India's holiest city. The public cremations on the "burning ghats" along the banks of the Ganges make it all the more interesting:

Buddhist monks go for an early morning boat trip on the Ganges

A purifiying dip in the river

A lone bull finds a home in an empty building along the riverbank

Water tanks at dusk

Dawn breaks over the Ganges

Boats moored along the ghats

Early morning shiva puja

Raju, one of the so-called "untouchables" who live and work on the burning ghats

One of the buildings used for preparing the dead. The figure on the right is just someone sleeping.

Wood stacked along the burning ghats, with a couple of cremations in progress

Wood arriving for the funeral pyes

Diyas, or butter candles, used as offerings on the Ganges

A boat trip on the river

A bull investigates one of the quieter ghats

Grooming on the ghats

Another Sadhu

The milk has arrived

Daydreaming. My favourite image of the trip: I really love this picture

Standing room only

Whoever said ironing isn't glamorous?

David_itl · Sat Dec 13, 2014 1:29 pm

Quoting vikkyvik (Reply 23):
You need to take more photos!

Had my old camera for 7 years and took 30,000 photos. I've had my current one 14 months and already gone past 15,000 photos. Got to keep practising to match everyone else's standards! The horsecab photo upthread was taken from a moving sightseeing bus so I'm pretty happy with that result.

Some more from Malta. Did the 2 harbour cruise on 28th November.

..

vikkyvik · Sun Dec 14, 2014 8:35 am

Took this panorama of LA from Griffith Park:

Here's a 6000-pixel version of it (the original is just under 28000 pixels). Field of view is about 280 degrees:

http://www.vksphoto.com/photos/i-PWFjL5p/0/O/i-PWFjL5p.jpg

Silver1SWA · Mon Dec 15, 2014 6:16 pm

Finally completely my switch from Canon to Nikon last week and I have been having a blast adapting to the new system. We had some excellent photo opportunities after the large storm that hit California late last week.

Blue Hour by Silver1SWA (Ryan Pastorino), on Flickr

Calm After the Storm by Silver1SWA (Ryan Pastorino), on Flickr

Distant Shower by Silver1SWA (Ryan Pastorino), on Flickr

Quoting vikkyvik (Reply 24):
HDR of moon + halo:

Nice!!

vikkyvik · Tue Dec 16, 2014 2:21 am

For some reason I never posted this photo. Back in August, I was out of work to go to lunch, and this praying mantis was just sitting on the front windows by the lobby. Unfortunately didn't have my camera, so had to settle for an iPhone shot (the mantis seemed more than happy to pose while I stuck my phone a foot away from it):

Braybuddy · Fri Dec 19, 2014 9:43 am

Quoting vikkyvik (Reply 30):
Unfortunately didn't have my camera, so had to settle for an iPhone shot (the mantis seemed more than happy to pose while I stuck my phone a foot away from it):

Interesting effect! It looks like the mantis is standing on a photograph.

Continuing the holiday pics, this week's are from Agra to Jaipur:

Around the Taj

Taj at dawn

Guarding Agra Fort

Cleaning the fort

Road frieght, Indian style

Colourful café

At the markets

Chilli heaven

Amber Fort, Jaipur

View from Jaigarh Fort, Jaipur

Jaigarh Fort

Ramparts at Jaigarh Fort

Guarding Nahargarh Fort, Jaipur

Exploring Nahargarh Fort

Old tank, Nahargarh Fort

Hawa Mahal, Jaipur

vikkyvik · Fri Dec 19, 2014 3:07 pm

Earth Babies were out again recently. This guy was close to 2 inches long:

Braybuddy · Sun Dec 21, 2014 12:59 pm

Finally got all 2,000 pics edited, so I'll finish with some from the final days of the trip, from Jaipur to Amritsar:

Guard at the City Palace, Jaipur

Tuk-tuks are a great way to get around

Indians love being photographed, which is fantastic. This Sikh was snacking and waiting on a train when he saw my camera and asked me to take his pic

No junk food here!

Making scissors

A Sikh taking a dip at the Harmandir Sahib, or Golden Temple, Amritsar

Don't mess with the guards at the Golden Temple

The long and slow queue for the shrine

Over 100,000 Sikhs visit the Temple each day

Canteen at the Golden Temple

Kitchen at the Golden Temple

Young Sikhs at the Temple

The Golden Temple at night

Cycling is popular, which isn't surprising, given that city traffic can be chaotic

Typesetting by hand is alive and well and living in parts of India

Indian English can be archaic and quite charming. This gentleman told me his mother was "a German lady, who has expired". Some Indian men use henna to dye their hair rather than go grey.

School's out!

And so am I . . .

Klaus · Sat Dec 27, 2014 5:49 pm

Quoting Braybuddy (Reply 33):
School's out!

And so am I . . .

Great pictures, first to last!

Braybuddy · Sun Dec 28, 2014 9:04 am

Quoting Klaus (Reply 34):
Great pictures, first to last!

Thanks Klaus, though I'm afraid it's back to boring reality for my last post on this thread!

Seeing that we're wrapping-up yet another year, this week's pics have a seasonal flavour: Chrismas markets; marking the winter solstice, party time and some other random pics appropriate for the time of year:

.

Looking forward too seeing a new thread up and running next week, and a very happy 2015 to everyone on this site!

Klaus · Sun Dec 28, 2014 1:55 pm

Quoting Braybuddy (Reply 35):
Thanks Klaus, though I'm afraid it's back to boring reality for my last post on this thread! Seeing that we're wrapping-up yet another year, this week's pics have a seasonal flavour: Chrismas markets; marking the winter solstice, party time and some other random pics appropriate for the time of year:

Some of them still look kind of unreal...!

What was that illuminated blue ring, by the way?

Quoting Braybuddy (Reply 35):
Looking forward too seeing a new thread up and running next week, and a very happy 2015 to everyone on this site!

Thanks; The same to you and to everybody else from me as well!

oly720man · Sun Dec 28, 2014 6:57 pm

Quoting Braybuddy (Reply 33):

Interesting photos of India and Nepal.

Some pics from a winter walk today to try out some grad ND filters (& get some blue sky before the rain comes back again). A bit misty in places to show the shadows.

From a couple of weeks ago.

Braybuddy · Sun Dec 28, 2014 9:29 pm

Quoting Klaus (Reply 36):
What was that illuminated blue ring, by the way?

That is an overhead light on the dancefloor of a nightclub, taken from above. It was just one of those random pics which I liked. Kind of quirky, but I think it works.

Quoting oly720man (Reply 37):
Interesting photos of India and Nepal.

Thanks, but as I said before, you don't have to look too hard for an interesting pic in that part of the world!

Quoting oly720man (Reply 37):
Some pics from a winter walk today to try out some grad ND filters (& get some blue sky before the rain comes back again). A bit misty in places to show the shadows

Oh gosh, really beautiful pics there, oly. Winter can be a difficult time for photography, but ice and snow can really make for some atmospheric pics, and you have definitely nailed it there. Unfortunately we haven't had any of that weather here (yet), but hopefully we'll get some soon.

Klaus · Mon Dec 29, 2014 12:40 am

Quoting Braybuddy (Reply 38):
That is an overhead light on the dancefloor of a nightclub, taken from above. It was just one of those random pics which I liked. Kind of quirky, but I think it works.

Yes, it does; And without knowing the context it's looking quite mysterious.

vikkyvik · Mon Dec 29, 2014 5:51 am

Quoting Braybuddy (Reply 38):
Oh gosh, really beautiful pics there, oly.

Here's what was the hardest HDR for me to process in quite some time. Four-exposure HDR of the conjunction of the Moon and Uranus tonight:

EDIT: My god, I just realized how funny that is. Uranus + Moon.

rotfl

[Edited 2014-12-28 21:53:41]

oly720man · Tue Dec 30, 2014 2:11 pm

Quoting Braybuddy (Reply 38):
Oh gosh, really beautiful pics there, oly.

Quoting vikkyvik (Reply 40):
Oh gosh, really beautiful pics there, oly.

Thanks folks. I liked how the first one turned out especially.

A couple more from last night, having been stuck inside with a banging sinus head. After the sunshine of the day before we had a misty day so I tried to capture the atmosphere. Not quite the 1950's movie.

Our local orange sodium streetlights have been replaced by white LED lights and the lighting seems to be more localised

A few cars passing by.

airkas1 · Tue Dec 30, 2014 8:18 pm

For the last few years, Amsterdam has hosted the Amsterdam Light Festival; a ~2 month exhibition in the streets of Amsterdam. It features sculptures/art combined with all sorts of elements of light. You can do both a walking tour and a tour by boat and there is a lot to see.

I went on foot yesterday evening (with tripod of course) and these 2 are my favorites of the evening:

House of Cards by Kas van Zonneveld, on Flickr

Camp-Fire by Kas van Zonneveld, on Flickr

VapourTrails · Wed Dec 31, 2014 11:17 pm

Flowering gum

Braybuddy · Sat Jan 03, 2015 11:30 am

Time to start a new thread, so I'll start the ball rolling with a new one, so anyone thinking of posting on here should look for the Q1 2015 thread instead.

Happy snapping in 2015 folks!

iowaman · Sun Jan 04, 2015 12:31 am

Here's a link to the new Q1 2015 thread: Non-Av Pic Thread Q1 2015 (by Braybuddy Jan 3 2015 in Non Aviation)

This one will be archived with the new one up.

[Edited 2015-01-03 16:32:40]

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