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Shooting Challenge: Spring Part 2

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Canon 7D, Sigma 120-400mm 4.5-5.6

352mm, f / 6.3, 1/640 s, ISO 500

Back again in my hometown, went for a walk, found that shrub with hundreds of bees on and around it, and thought I could stay there for a while, get my camera off the backpack and practise a little bit.

-Felix Vigl

My stepson Jason shot this when playing with my camera. Looks great, except for the High ISO noise. He shot it at 1600, but it came out nice nonetheless.

Camera Pentax k-x

Lens 18-55mm kit lens

f/7.1

shutter 1/1250

-Nick Giardina

This is my entry for the spring first breath

I took this photo with my sony ericsson phone

around 4 o’clock after it rained.

-Gorgie Wong

I took this with my Nikon D3000 with my 200mm lens at f5.6 and 1/80 with my iso at 400.

I wanted to take a sunny picture but Pittsburgh’s general atmosphere did not comply. However the rain made my pear tree’s flowers look quite nice.

-Arthur Cornell

Picture of Bluebells flowering, taken in May 2008 in the Royal Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire, England.

Taken with Sony a100, with stock 18-70 lens @50mm focal length

f/5.6, ISO Auto (250)

-Lee Taylor

This is a picture of some lovely blooming flowers on a redbud tree in my backyard. I used the macro setting on my camera to focus in closely and capture this shot in the midday sun.

Nikon Coolpix S570

Focal Length: 5

f/2.7

ISO 200

-Evan Luckow

Canon XS

18-55mm Kit Lens

f/4.5

1/80 sec.

ISO-400

I have to give my wife credit for this shot actually. It was taken a couple of days after potting this Anemone that we got from a local hardware and landscape retailer. Nothing fancy, but I thought detail in the center of the flower was striking. The saturation was bumped up about 5 percent, but no other editing was performed.

-Allen Yates

Camera: Canon Rebel T1i

Lens: Canon EF-S 18-55mm IS

ISO: 100

Aperture: f/14.0

Focal Length: 18 mm

I saw some blossoms starting to open on a tree in my backyard and thought they looks really cool, it was a cloudy but bright day so I laid on the ground, pointed up and started shooting.

-Anthony May

Camera: Lumix DMC-GH1

Mode: Aperture Priority Mode

Lens: Lumix G Vario 14-140mm f/4.0-5.8 (Micro 4/3)

Focal Length: 78mm (156mm 35mm equivalent)

Aperture: f/5.8

ISO: 320

Exposure Time: 1/800

Exposure Compensation: -0.33 Stops

Shooting Mode: RAW full quality.

In-Camera Film Mode: Standard: Contrast -2. Saturation +/- 0, Sharpness +1, Noise Reduction -2

Post-Production: In Aperture 3, contrast added, vignetting added, saturation and vibrance added.

I do the post work to make up for the decreased contrast on the in camera settings, which I do to gain dynamic range.

Some wildflowers in Santa Cruz, CA. I used a telephoto lens (78mm) to compress the space a bit and do strange things with the depth of field. This is on a slope and the image is compressed on the z-axis by lens distortion so flowers that appear on different focal planes but actually are on the same one are in focus, yet flowers that appear to be between them in z-space are out of focus…creating a weird effect.

-Benjamin Bunch

This is the first blossom on a tree in my front yard. That specific tree I’ve considered cutting down many a time as it’s precariously placed where it’s nearly blocking the gate to my fence, but I haven’t had the heart. I shot it with my Power Shot A1100IS on Auto, and did basic editing with Photoshop CS3.

-Tim Todd

magnolias are only around for a few days of spring so i caught one before it faded away

camera: nikon d5000

lens: 18-55mm

editied exposure and brightness

-James Maloney-Hawkins

Olympus 8.0 MP point-and-shoot, macro mode. These flowers were in a pot outside my hotel room, from a trip to Puebla, Mexico earlier this week.

-Gabriel Sotelo

This photo was taken on Tuesday at Shinjuku-gyoen in Tokyo using my old Nikon D50 and an 18-200mm lens. The clouds finally cleared after a snoggy weekend and I got to get out and do a little hanami and take some photos. Not much to say in the way of technique, just one of about 200 shots I grabbed during the course of the afternoon.

-John de Perczel

Camera: Nikon D70s

Lens: 35mm f/2.0 AF-D

Aperture: f/4.0

Shutter Speed: 1/5000 sec

ISO: 200

-Samuel To

I used a Kodak Zi8 with a cracked screen and a magnetic macro lens I bought from some place in China. The cracked screen forces me to use the rule of two thirds since I can’t see the middle of the screen. These were all shot after a spring rain.

-David Ancira

Taken with a Nikon D60 with a 50mm f/1.8D lens. iso @ 100. f/1.8. 1/800 shutter. shot on manual mode. Free lens technique used for this photo.

-Will Larney

Canon EOS 50D

Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L IS USM

Exposure: 0.001 sec (1/1600)

Aperture: f/2.8

Focal Length: 100 mm

ISO Speed: 320

No special technique was used. I was “shooting from the hip” while I walked around campus.

Only editing was an Auto White-balance adjustment in gimp and some softening trickery.

-Matthew Katzenberger

Camera – Nikon D60

Lens – 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6

ISO – 800

My 16 week old son reaches for the living room window, wanting to go outside into the glorious springtime.

White balance adjusted in PSP

-Tom Zapata

Camera used: Nikon D200

Lens used: MC KAAENHAP-5H F2.8 /100 , A non-metering manual focus soviet lens with crystal lensing.

Camera: Nikon D200

Exposure: 0.001 sec (1/1000)

Aperture: f/2.8

Focal Length: 180 mm

ISO Speed: 160

Exposure Bias: +1/3 EV

Flash:

No Flash

-Bill Lee

It was taken with a Nikon D200 with the 18-70 stock lens@18mm, ISO 100, 1/200s, f7.1.

Part of my job sometimes is to randomly go out and take photos, which is quite good, because it’s official and productive slack-off! 🙂

So I took the opportunity and I was shooting for the challenge too.

The shot is not straight out of the camera, I was fiddling around with it in photoshop. Blurred the edges a bit, and gave it a little HDR look. (it’s not a HDR)

I had to lie in the mud to get this shot, but it was fun.

Hope you like it,

Best,

-Tisza Shoes

Camera: Canon SX10 IS

f/ 5.7

ISO 80

Exposure 1/60

Shot in Landscape mode

The image was shot during a vacation in Torun, Poland. The wall you see in the background is actually the outer wall of the local castle.

Marie-Louise Overgaard

I stepped out of work in Charleston, SC and saw this flower window basket at a local coffee shop. It was a perfect reminder that spring has returned!

Shot with a Canon T2i – with a canon 50 mm f 1.8 lens. SS 1/80 ISO 400 Aperature 1.8

-Jay Motley

I used a Canon EOS 50D with a Lensbaby “The Muse” and a macro filter. These lens are manual focus, so I spent quite a while leaning over flowers in a public park trying to figure out the focus. This was taken in North Little Rock, Arkansas at the Old Mill.

-Windy Richardson

My son enjoying playing in the green grass in the front yard. I rested the camera (no tripod) on the walkway and shot up through the grass.

Canon Powershot SD900

Color Rep: sRGB

Shutter Speed: 1/403 sec.

Lens Aperture: F/4.9

No Flash

Focal Length: 23mm

Exposure Time: 1/400 sec.

I took the shot in manual mode and turned on vivid colors and changed to landscape mode. I changed the exposure

-Mark Rici

Our french bulldog Sammy seems to have a particular interest in our backyard’s first daffodils of the season. I caught the moment early Thursday morning with my S90 on manual focus, @ f2 with a 1/80″ exposure time.

-Jesse Oliveri

Taken with a Canon 500D & Kit Lens, 1/200, ISO100

One of the first Daisy’s on the Lawn.

-Charlie Davis

Date Taken: 04/08/2010

Camera: Canon 7D

Lens: Canon EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM

After a hash winter, I thought my herbs won’t be coming back but the mints decide to peak out from all the dead branch. I just grab the camera, get close and snap away.

-Serena Le

So here it is, a reminder of spring training on the high school road team years ago, and a promise of epic rides and winter-weight loss tomorrow (really, I swear).

Shot with my Sony a100, at f/4, 1/400sec, ISO 80, using a Phoenix macro lens and manual focus. No flash. No tripod.

-Noah Montena

Found this while leaving my house for one of my first bike rides of the season. First lady bug I saw this season as well.

Canon T2i w/ Sigma 17-70 2.8-4.5

ISO 100

F 2.8

1/160

Post was channel mixer in CS4, and then some sharpness from Lightroom.

-Stan Deeks

Camera: Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ28

F-stop: f/4

Exposure: 1/200 sec

Focal length 19 mm

Metering Mode: Pattern

Photo: Spring’s First Breath to me should be the moment when ice/snow melts and dews form on the greening first leaves of the season. But unfortunately, in Malaysia, there’s no changing of seasons so this is what I think spring should look like 🙂

-Angel Kho

Camera: Canone Eos 5d mk II

Lens: Canon EF 100mm 2.8 Macro

ISO: 160

Aperture: 6.3

Shutterspeed: 1/400

The Picture is taking in a park close to were I live in Denmark. i saw this on my way back from the park, where i had been shooting a lot of flowers and buds, but this was the best one of the day.

-Kasper Hemme

Nikon D60

AF-S DX VR 55-200 IF-ED Kit Lens

f/5.6

ISO 200

-Jeffrey Louie

Spring reminds me of new animals…this picture reminded me of new life blossoming as this puppy is only six weeks old and very confused on how to get up the stair (he finally got it). Nikon D700 via 80-200 2.8ED. Shot data = 200mm F2.8 1/8000 @ 1250ISO aging and sharpening added in lightroom

-Wesley Bramlett

Camera: Casio EX-FC100

Exposure: .003 sec 1/400

f/4.5

32.1mm

ISO 100

I am in no means a photographer (I just started with these challenges to get better), but I was walking down the street at my university on a lovely day and saw these beautiful flowers just blooming. I’ve been toying around with the macro and decided to take a shot of the flowers from where I was standing.

-Rajiv Khattar

California Poppies. Nikon D5000 with Tamron 70-300mm lens, shot in Manual mode, f5.6 @ 1/800 & ISO 100.

-Angel Olavarria

I took this real quick in my front yard in San Diego with my Canon Powershot SD1200. It was just a quick shot for the day. I’m doing a daily photo blog for 365 days, this was my shot for Wednesday.

-Levon Monte

Camera: Canon EOS 40D

F-stop: f/13

Exposure Time: 1/750 sec.

Focal Length: 135 mm

Small contrast adjustments made in CS4 RAW File Editor, and then a black border added to enhance that contrast. Beyond that, nothing on the photo was touched except for resizing.

Walking around one of the local parks, I noticed a small grouping of tulips amongst what was otherwise a massive pile of dead brush. The bottom half of the photo portrays the new life of Spring, while the top half portrays the old dead life of Winter.

-Brenton Pahl

I took this picture on my deck where bees and wasps have invaded. They were looking for a place to setup shop and I took the time to setup some shots! I was out there for quite sometime trying to get them in focus using the Macro lock of my Sigma telephoto lens. Had to use the fastest shutter speed of my camera to get the wings to stop, and manual focus because AF was too slow! Additionally tracking them can be a challenge.

Equipment: Nikon D80 with Sigma 70-300 lens

Mode: Shutter Priority

Shutter speed: 1/4000

Aperture: f/5.6

Focal length: 300mm in Macro mode

ISO: ISO Auto @ 800

EV: -0.7

Focus: Manual

White balance: manual

-Angelo Arceo

My Daughter has always love dandelions, and never fails to find one. On this our first walk of the spring with the K10D in hand, She finds her first one of the season and delightfully shoves it into her little nose. Classic for any parent. My Camera is a Pentax K10D , F-Stop f/11, Speed 1/750sec,ISO-400 ,Lens At 300mm.

-Jennie Hess

I shot this picture in the beautiful Smoky Mountains of North Carolina.

Olympus E-420

Stock lens

f/8

1/50 sec. exposure

ISO-100

Manual Focus

-Aaron Bowers

Camera: Sony HX5V

Focal Length: 12.29

Exposure time: 1/400

F number: 10

-HN Chang

Model: Canon EOS 1000D

Shutter Speed: 62/100000 second

Aperture: F/4.5

Focal Length: 29 mm

ISO Speed: 200

This was taken at the Brooklyn Botanical Garden. The first cherry tree of the season to bloom. As you can see all other trees have yet to bloom and i thought i made great contrast.

At first i was annoyed at the couple because they were in my shot since i really liked this angle, but in the end i think it worked fine.

-Adam Sleem

Taken with a Nikon D80,

18-135 lens

ISO 200

To take the picture I put the camera into macro mode, jumped on top of the wall next to the tree, zoomed right into the bud just to the point were the it was almost too close to focus with my lens and hit the shutter button. I then cropped and slightly adjusted in Apature.

-Jonathan Watson

Make: Canon

Model: SX1 IS

Shutter Speed: 1/164 sec

F-Stop: f/4

Aperture: f/4.0

ISO Speed: 125

Focal Length: 17.476

Location:

9:04am

Shooting upwards into the northern sky.

Truro, Cornwalll, UK

-Lee Ryda

Equipment: Canon 500D with Canon EF-S 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS Lens, Exposure: 1/250 sec, Aperture: f/5.6, ISO Speed: ISO-400, Focal length: 250mm

While I was taking an afternoon walk I notice a bee and decided to take a photo. However there was something lurking.

-Mitja Gomboc

Shot with my Sigma 18-50 2.8 lens on a Canon 450D, Av priority

ISO 100, f/2.8 TV:1/800

I’m looking at this tree every morning since i’ve moved into this new apartment. I had to shoot it as it is the perfect incarnation of the warm and sunny weather coming back.

-Nicolas Poullot

Nikon D5000

Nikkor 18-55mm f3.5-5.5g

ISO 200

Shutter Speed 1/320

F number 10

-Thomas Butterwith

Shot of a bud in my wife’s garden. Seemed like a chilly, classic New England morning – a little cloudy and overcast. I thought that this represented the coming of spring despite the muted feel of the morning.

Taken with Nikon D40 with 35mm f1/8 lens at ISO 200 and f5.8. Performed post processing with Apple Aperture – just a little tweaking of the color and a crop.

-Jason Sargent

Spring came a week early here in Virginia. That means that the Crazy Squirrel showed up in our backyard. He jumps and flips and runs

around in ways that keeps us constantly amused. He’ll spend the whole summer playing around our bird feeder.

Nikon D700 taken with 70-300 G ED VR

Taken at F5.6, 1/200, 300mm with an ISO of 400 through a semi-clean window

-Louis Wise

Water turtles sunning at Mass Audubon’s Broadmoor Wildlife Sanctuary. Canon Digital Rebel XT; Canon 70-200 zoom at 200; ISO 200; f11; 1/80th sec.

-Costas Kitsos

In Texas, Spring is marked by the arrival of bluebonnets. The highways are lined with long fields of the official state flower. At 70 to 80 miles per hour, they take on a colorful blur, but up close the real beauty of the petals is amazing. I stopped and took this shot on the way home on Friday, lying on my belly in the grass. The late afternoon sunlight was just right for a close-up. During post-processing, I applied the “Orton Effect” to get the look I wanted. The Orton Effect is the merging of a super sharp image and a blurry image of the same subject.

Shot summary:

—Nikon D40X

—18-55mm kit lens (46mm actual focal length)

— macro setting

—F/8

—1/80 sec

—ISO 100

—post processing software: PSP-7

-Dudi Lynn

I used a Nikon D60 with a normal 18-55mm lens. Basically it was waiting for nice sunny day and playing with the focus. My main goal was to get as close as I can without going out of focus.I used the outdoor settings with the camera. This was one of the better ones that turned out. Enjoy =^.^=

-Ian Kriss

Aloe Vera plant blooming in my back yard

Canon 30D

Sigma 17-70 Macro

ISO 250

1/160 sec at f6.3

no flash

-Wade Courtney

Snapped this shot last Sunday. Typically, Dogwoods are the one of the first trees to bloom for spring. I saw the sun catch me as I walked under the branches and turned my camera up for the quick shot.

Equipment:

Canon 7D

Stock 28-135 lens

1/250 fps, f/20, iso 3200

Location: New Brunswick, NJ

-Josh Pearson

Eos 500D / 18-55mm lens @ 30mm / Iso 100 / 1/60 sec.

-Roland Renne

Taken in Prague this week.

Nikon D60 / 18-55 mm

F5.6

1/30 s

ISO 200

-Karol Danko

Shot using a Canon EOS Rebel T2i, 55-250mm Zoom lens and hand held

Picture shot at 200 ISO, F11 at 1/350 sec using aperture priority

-John McNamara

Spring to me means really appreciating the experience of getting outside again.

I shot this on a Nikon D5000 with a 50mm lens at f/3.5, ISO 200 and 1/2000 sec.

-Sharon Hardy

This picture was shot using my Canon Rebel XTI with 55-250mm IS lens @ 250mm focal length. ISO 100 with f/5.6 and 1/250s shutter speed. Saw this outside my window and figured it was a good indicator of spring

-Frank Olszewski

This is a photo of the flowers on one of the many dogwoods at Valley Forge National Park. I used a Sony Alpha 350. Settings: F/22, 1/125, 75mm. Not much technique involved with this. The only real issue was the amount of sunlight coming in from kind of in front of my right shoulder, meaning I needed a pretty small F-stop to keep it from getting washed out. I probably could have gone a bit faster with the shutter, but then the branches would have been black.

-Tolsun Waddle

I shot this photo during my trip to botanical garden in Europe (Prague city) during the Easter. There were only few people around because most of them prefered going to a zoo near by. I found this small flowers behind tree and bush and I was in love with it.

Camera: NIKON D3000

ISO: 100

Exposure: 1/80 s

Aperture: 5.0

Focal Length: 52mm

Flash Used: No

-Sarka Sevciková

There’s a landscape arboretum south of Minneapolis, and I’ve taken

some of my favorite photos there. When I saw this flowering apricot

tree, I thought the blossoms were the best I’d get, but as I

approached, I realized the tree was swarming with bees. It took a

little patience to get one who sat still long enough to snap the shot,

but they were more interested in the pollen than me and my camera.

I used an Olympus Stylus 1010, f/4.3, 1/800 sec, ISO-80, exposure bias -0.3

-Beth Knutson

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