Category: Macro

Christmas Tableau

Cozy Snowmen dance round the candle

MichaelStephenWills22 Comments

My dear wife Pam is the heart of Christmas in our home. Over the years we have collected a treasure of ornaments and knick-knacks she crafts into displays around our one. Pam completed the project well in advance of our grandchild holiday visits, before card writing and gift wrapping.

My contribution is a photographic time capsule. Here is some of my artistic output from this work.

This grouping of five cozy snowmen (three males, two females) are warmly dressed in knit sweaters and stocking caps; the women with long skirts. The five hold hands in a ring, rising from a common platform. We place a cup and devotional candle in the center.

The tiny group evokes community, harmony, amity. I captured them with a Canon EOS 1Ds Mark III dslr, a fixed Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L macro lens mounted on a Manfrotto studio tripod and hydrostatic ball head. Fixed lenses provide the sharpest macros. The mounting allowed precise framing and use of the widest aperture and a low ISO. The light sources were sunlight from a large north facing bay window, a Canon Speedlite 600Ex-Rt and the candle. When used, the flash was angled in various ways toward the ceiling.

I start with a tight shot, maximum aperture. A single figure is in clear focus, the remaining gradually lost in the bokeh. The flash was used. I can almost see then circling around the candle in a winter wind.

Cosy Christmas Snowmen

Here the candle is lighted, aperture narrow to f8 using only the candle and ambient light (no flash). The group is visible within surrounding figures. I backed away and the viewpoint is higher.

The candle light enhances the perception of community.

Cosy Christmas Snowmen

Viewpoint is closer, still only the candle and ambient light. Aperture widened to 3.5. I must remove the hair in lightroom.

Cosy Christmas Snowmen

I backed off, aperture at the max with only the candle and ambient light. The figures are placed in a tableau with other snowmen and a structure, a birdhouse.

Cosy Christmas Snowmen

For this overview I swapped in a Canon 24mm f/1.4L II USM with a flash, aperture f2.2.

Christmas Snowman Display
Christmas 2017 snowman display laid out in our den on top of the entertainment cabinet.

Abstracts: graceful shadows

Shadow and Rock

MichaelStephenWills5 Comments

Two Nature Abstracts, macros of Reavis Creek below the falls

The light of a early spring desert afternoon on a broad rock shelves along the creek.

I spent a day hiking in, two days hiking out and a day of canyoneering to the foot of Reavis Falls. The featured (i.e. “header”) photograph is a view of the inner canyon, the raw material for these abstracts.

Click this Link for a Superstition Wilderness Adventure

Waterfall Textures

Unrestrained chaos at the foot of Arizona’s highest waterfall

MichaelStephenWills25 Comments

I received notice of IStock acceptance of select photographs from my last posting, “Wilderness Textures”, was accepted.  Click to view my IStock Portfolio, including  photographs from today’s posting included in the acceptance notice.

In this post I move up the Reavis Creek canyon from where the last posting, “Wilderness Textures”, was sited to the foot of Reavis Falls.  With the first photograph you look up at the falls from the head of the canyon carved by the creek over eons.  The rock wall, the canyon “head”, is thick with microorganisms, fungi, mosses.

Reavis Creek Water and Light – CLICK ME for more abstract photography.

In the foreground is a jumble of boulders, some washed down at flood time, spread wide at the bottom of the falls, piled to a jumbled height of 15 feet. 

Talus is the geological term for this formation.  Derived from the Latin word for slope (talutum) the definition, from the Oxford English Dictionary, is “A sloping mass of detritus lying at the base of a cliff or the like consisting of material fallen from its face.” 

 

The ankle bone is also called talus, from the French word for heel, I bring it up because climbing this chaotic, unstable jumble is a way to break your ankle.  The route to Reavis Falls, a climb up one side of Lime Mountain then down the other on a non-existent (lightly marked) trail, is rated difficult and impossible with a broken leg or ankle.  I was alone and very careful to check each rock for stability before putting my weight on it.

A climb of the talus pile was necessary to view the pool at the waterfall base, for this photograph.

A more artistic vertical format version, below, captured with the Canon EF 100mm “macro” lens.  All shots are using the Kodak DCS pro SLR-c (the “c” designated Canon lens compatibility) and a Manfrotto studio tripod with a hydrostatic ball head.  The horizontal format shot was captured with a Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 USM lens.   I prefer the vertical version, artistically, because the talus jumble is all but cropped out while the upper corner of the angular basalt boulder is left as an interesting focal point.  The boulder, not being in the spray, is in focus to contrast with the basalt wall behind the water.

I captured a series of shots from this precarious vantage point, working up from the pool to the brim of the waterfall.

My goals was a composite photo of the falls.  I have yet to succeed with this project.  Maybe I will give it one more shot in spite of having learned the hard lesson the best photographs are a single moment captured in a single frame.

I find in this series the vertical aspect is more artistic.  The water volume, of the falls, at this time of year offers only the finest of sprays with most of the basalt rock wall only moist.  The 100mm “macro” lens allowed me to include only the falling water with a bit of the moist wall for contrast.

In the following version I experimented with color, moving from the narrow range of hues, to more contrast.

Please browse my reasonably priced stock photography. License a photograph, download and use it for your website or blog. Click this link to browse all my Getty IStock Photography offerings.

Or click this link or any photograph or this link to select a print with custom framing from my “Textures” Fine Art Gallery.

Here’s another of my Arizona wilderness adventures, “Racing the Sun.”

Wilderness Textures

Abstract Beauty of the Superstition Wilderness of Arizona

MichaelStephenWills22 Comments

These abstracts are some of my photographic output from four days and nights spent alone in the remote eastern Superstition Wilderness.  For the first three days I met not a soul, all these images were captured on a single afternoon spent in the canyon below Reavis Falls, a jumble of landslides, flood debris and boulders.  There is no trail.  The few people who enter the canyon must negotiate around boulders, crossing Reavis Creek many times.

Reavis Creek Water and Light – CLICK ME for more abstract photography.

My backpack kit included a full sized Manfrotto studio tripod with hydrostatic ball head.  The benefits more than outweighed the effort (I was a lot younger in 2008) when the Canon EF 100mm (macro) lens is mounted on a  Kodak dSLR body, allowing me to take crisp shots.  The tripod legs can be adjusted to precise positions for stability.

Reavis Creek Water and Light – CLICK ME for more abstract photography.

I can feel the bright afternoon desert spring sunshine in this photos.  It was after the spring floods, the flow of Reavis Creek and ample still but slow.  Gathering in pools over the rough stones of the creek bed, the water absolutely clear.

Reavis Creek Water and Light – CLICK ME for more abstract photography.

I held the shot over many minutes, capturing ever changing diffraction patterns.

We see in all these photos, not a homogenous blend of stones from a shared geology.  Reavis Creek washes over diverse geologies: volcanic, ancient igneous extrusions, sedimentary and metamorphic are jumbled together.

Reavis Creek Water and Light – CLICK ME for more abstract photography.

This is a series of photographs of smooth, white igneous boulders with shadows of  still leafless sycamore and cottonwood trees.

Reavis Creek Water and Light – CLICK ME for more abstract photography.

Graceful shadows

Reavis Creek Water and Light – CLICK ME for more abstract photography.

Strong, demonstrative shadows.

Reavis Creek Water and Light – CLICK ME for more abstract photography.

A leaning cairn, not a trail marker….

Reavis Creek Water and Light – CLICK ME for more abstract photography.

A 15 foot high jumble of stones piled at the bottom of Reavis Falls, carried over by the floods.

Reavis Creek Water and Light – CLICK ME for more abstract photography.

A metamorphic conglomerate stone….

Reavis Creek Water and Light – CLICK ME for more abstract photography.

Another metamorphic conglomerate.

Reavis Creek Water and Light – CLICK ME for more abstract photography.

Please browse my reasonably priced stock photography. License a photograph, download and use it for your website or blog. Click this link to browse all my Getty IStock Photography offerings.

Or click this link or any photograph or this link to select a print with custom framing from my “Textures” Fine Art Gallery.

Here’s another of my Arizona wilderness adventures, “Racing the Sun.”

Cayuga Lake Bench View

Last Hike

A sllideshow

MichaelStephenWills26 Comments

Thank You for exploring the South Rim trail of Taughannock Falls State Park on the last perfectly sunny autumn day of 2019.

A sunny November Walk

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  • Autumn Oak Leaves, detail
  • Acorn Still Life
  • Chipmunk eating acorn
  • The Brink
  • The Why for the Bench
  • Welcome Summertime Shade
  • Left Behind or an Offering?
  • Leaf Carpet on South Rim Trail
    Leaf Carpet on South Rim Trail
  • Oak Leaves, forest floor
    Oak Leaves, forest floor
  • Understory Autumn
  • Hemlock Shadows
    Hemlock Shadows
  • Rock Elm, autumn
    Rock Elm, autumn
  • Glimpse of Cayuga Lake
    Glimpse of Cayuga Lake
  • Gorge View with Oak Leaves
    Gorge View with Oak Leaves
  • Glory on Gorge Road
    Glory on Gorge Road
  • Cayuga Lake Bench View
    Cayuga Lake Bench View
  • Taughannock Gorge, November
    Taughannock Gorge, November
  • Three Sisters, Taughannock Falls gorge wall.
    Three Sisters, Taughannock Falls gorge wall.
  • Into the Gorge
    Into the Gorge
  • Distant View with Hemlock
    Distant View with Hemlock
  • Oak and Hemlock
    Oak and Hemlock
  • Gorge Road, early November
    Gorge Road, early November
  • Upper Falls
    Upper Falls
  • South Rim Trail, early November
    South Rim Trail, early November
  • Last Flower with Moss, early November
    Last Flower with Moss, early November

Click me for the first post of this series, “Cuteness Break.”

Rock Elm, autumn

Rock Elm Autumn

MichaelStephenWills1 Comment

Taughannock Gorge south rim trail passes close to Gorge Road at one point. Rock Elm is an understory tree that comes into its own late autumn.

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  • Glory on Gorge Road
    Glory on Gorge Road

Rock Elm, autumn

November Star

MichaelStephenWills4 Comments

Elms thrive in the understory, turning late to catch autumn sunlight.

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  • Rock Elm, autumn
    Rock Elm, autumn

Copyright 2021 All Rights Reserved Michael Stephen Wills

Oak Leaves, forest floor

Leaf Carpet

A Natural Wonder

MichaelStephenWills16 Comments

Wednesday last I enjoyed shuffling along a forest carpet along the South Rim Trail of Taughannock Falls Park. It is a lost pleasure now the first snow is with us.

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  • Leaf Carpet on South Rim Trail
    Leaf Carpet on South Rim Trail
  • Oak Leaves, forest floor
    Oak Leaves, forest floor
  • Understory Autumn

Photographs in Gallery

  • Leaf Carpet on South Rim Trail
    Leaf Carpet on South Rim Trail
  • Oak Leaves, forest floor
    Oak Leaves, forest floor
  • Understory Autumn

Copyright 2021 All Rights Reserved Michael Stephen Wills

Ironweed, late November

Views from the Bench I

No Pun Intended

MichaelStephenWills2 Comments

Some sights from last post.

Moss on the edge of upper Taughannock Gorge cliff, with the falls in background far below.

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  • Moss on Cliff Edge
    Moss on Cliff Edge

The last flower of autumn, a single bloom of Ironweed.

  • Ironweed, late November
    Ironweed, late November

Copyright 2021 All Rights Reserved Michael Stephen Wills

On the Edge

An Autumn Revalation

MichaelStephenWills8 Comments

After leaf fall abrupt emptiness of Taughannock Falls is visible from the south rim. Beyond, you can just make out the enormous carved limestone slabs that protect visitors from the constant infall from the gorge walls allowing them to approach the falls.

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  • The Brink

Copyright 2019 All Rights Reserved Michael Stephen Wills