Tag Archives: color

CAG Growler is Clean

A trip to Coupeville is always going to be a bit hit or miss.  Will the weather play ball, will the jets show up, how much will they bounce, how many of them will there be, will they be RAG jets or operational squadrons?  All sorts of options.  I was really happy that the weather suited a pattern direction that was better for photography, but it was mainly cloudy so not quite as good-looking light.  It was the Rooks of VAQ137 that were bouncing so that was cool, and they brought their CAG jet.  Getting this in its nice colors was cool.  The jet was operating clean which was slightly disappointing but, fortunately, the other jets that came in were carrying pods.

This Valley is Pretty Green!

I may have lived in the Pacific Northwest for a number of years, now, but I am still amazed at times by the moss that grows on so many surfaces here.  The shaded and damp conditions are ideal for moss growth, and it surely shows.  The special thing is how the light will pick up the surface of the moss in the gloomy areas of shade and make it seem like it is glowing.  It really is something special and something that I find hard to show effectively with photos.

Still, I continue to try.  These shots are all taken in the valley at Granite Falls.  No lack of moisture down there, I can confirm!  Looking at the branches of almost all the trees (and plenty of exposed rock surfaces for that matter), you will see moss everywhere.  Looking up towards the light, it really does seem to get highlighted.  I shall continue my quest to get the right photo of moss indefinitely!

Wet Leaves Are So Vibrant

Fall means leaves and, at least in the Northwest, it can also mean rain.  The rain helps accelerate the dropping of the leaves, but it also does a nice job of making the colors look at their best.  I was out at lunchtime and saw these leaves on the ground in the parking lot.  I couldn’t walk by without taking a few shots.

Red Bark

The arboretum in Seattle is unsurprisingly home to many interesting varieties of trees and plants.  One tree that caught my eye was (perhaps) a type of willow that had bark that peeled to reveal an intense red coloration beneath.  Sometimes these colors don’t seem to show up as well in an image but I fortunately had a polarizer with me and that took out some of the reflection and glare and allowed the color to show up well.  Cropping in tighter seemed to make more sense, too.

How Green Is Diablo Lake?

The water running out of the mountains along the North Cascade Highway brings a lot of sediment with it.  The result of this is that the rivers and lakes that form along the route of the pass have a distinct green color to them.  The Skagit River in Newhalem has a clear green color to it.  However, the more dramatic demonstration of this coloration is visible at Diablo Lake.  This lake that is formed behind Diablo Dam has a very green appearance.  It looks like it must have been created artificially but it is just the result of carrying the minerals down from the mountains above.  Of course, a polarizer does a good job of highlighting the color when the reflections are removed.

Trouble Printing Due to Color Management

The number of emails I get each day telling me about amazing offers is substantial and they almost never survive more than a cursory glance.  However, Walgreens were doing 60% off poster prints and I had been reworking an image I had done a while back of the Bembridge lifeboat.  I had changed the titling, added a logo and repositioned the images slightly and wanted to reprint it.  The original print was done by MPix but I figured the Walgreens print was so cheap, why not give it a go.

I tried to upload the jpeg that I had exported from Lightroom but they said its dimensions were too large.  I went in to Photoshop, resized it, changed the color space to sRGB and saved as a jpeg.  This I uploaded to Walgreens without any trouble.  I should have been worried at the time that the screen thumbnail looked a little muddy but I ordered the print.  Later that day I went and got it.  Sure enough, it was dull.  (Another print I got at the same time was fine so I figured it wasn’t just their printing being poor.)

I went back to the image in Photoshop and it was set to sRGB as I expected.  Poor colors are most likely to be a color management issue.  I then went to the properties of the files in Windows Explorer and, for some reason, the color space of the Photoshop created file was not defined.  It was on me and not Walgreens.  I took the original image and exported it from Lightroom with a limit on the long edge and uploaded that one.  It looked fine this time and the resulting print – another offer came up fortunately – was exactly as I wanted.  In these comparisons, while taken with my phone, hopefully you can see how different the colors are.  The oranges are particularly harmed on the boats and even the rust dust thrown up from the slipway.  I thought I had done it right but still had an error creep in.  Lesson learned.

Rufous Versus Anna’s Hummingbirds

We have plenty of hummingbirds visiting our back yard.  They may look different depending on the angle the light hits their feathers but up until recently I had thought that they were all the same species – the Anna’s hummingbird.  Then we got a visitor that seemed different.  First, instead of having a grey look to the feathers, it was a lot more brown.  The other difference was the sound of the wingbeats.  Instead of the whirring noise we were used to, this one had a higher pitched sound almost like a click as the wings were hitting each other.  It sounded quite distinctive.  I trip to my big book of birds suggests that these may be Rufous hummingbirds.  For the birders amongst you, I hope you will advise if I am mistaken.

New Hummer Feeder Improves the Light

We have been having some issues with our hummingbirds.  One of them has decided the feeder is his and no other birds can use it.  He sits around and feeds to his heart’s content.  Even when he is in a local tree, anyone coming close gets chased off quickly.  We have named him “Cartman”.  One of the recommendations in such a situation is to have a second feeder so we have added one to the fence nearby.  One of the benefits I have found with this is that it puts the birds at a different angle between me and the light and it brings out the colors more vibrantly.  Here you can see Cartman – he is still trying to dominate the place.

More Luck With Hummers/Iridescence at the Right Angle

My obsession/interest in photographing the hummingbirds in our back garden has continued.  I mentioned my poor early attempts in this post but things have gradually been improving.  I have decided to compromise on quality a bit by shooting from indoors.  The birds are clearly not enthusiastic about me being there with the camera so I decided that shooting through the window was an alternative.  Obviously double glazed windows are not optically ideal but they are surprisingly good it seems.  This has allowed me to get a number of shots I am a lot happier with.

One thing that I have seen much more of when shooting from this location is the way in which the color of the feathers varies so dramatically depending on the angle to the light.  The birds normally look very gray.  The backs can start to be green when the light strikes at the right angle but the most dramatic changes are for the head and throat.  Here a gray feather can suddenly transition to a pink of bright red.  It only takes a very small change in angle for this to become apparent.

Back How it Was Delivered

The BOAC retro jet that BA has painted up was a nice treat to get.  There are two other retro jets in other colors but, based on their interior configuration, they should not normally be used on the Seattle route.  Therefore, I wasn’t expecting a chance to get them any time soon.  Then, I saw that the Landor scheme aircraft was coming to SeaTac.  It must have been a substitution.  Now I was interested.  However, it pushed off the gate at Heathrow and then went back on with some engine start issue.  Was it going to scrub?

Apparently not.  The issue was resolved and they pushed again.  While the passengers were, no doubt, unimpressed by this, I was delighted.  It now meant the arrival was at nearly 7pm.  No problem to get to SeaTac after work and the light might be really nice.  The weather was better than forecast although the chance of Mt Rainier making a second appearance was low.  Again, plenty were out for the arrival.  She showed up on the approach and the light played ball.  This jet would have been delivered to BA with these colors so it was a case of reverting to how she had appeared many years before.