New Year Resolution Failure

 

 

Moon & Xmas Lites

 

 

Eek!

 

Light At The End Of The Tunnel

 

 

Angel Angle

Making good use of my time while waiting to see my doctor.

Fuzzy Cups

 

Witch Tree

 

Flare

 

 

Operation Greenlight

 

 ©  2022 Luke T. Bush

Counties across the nation from November 7 - 13  are showing appreciation of US veterans by illuminating their buildings with green lights.  Greenlight, the word used by the military to move forward, symbolizes in this case advancement in the recognition of veterans.  Green also represents hope and renewal.

 

Moon Watcher

 

 Composite photo.  Two images combined.

Moon Gets Totaled

 

 Next total lunar eclipse: March 2025.  Maybe I'll be around for it.

 

Got It Covered

 

Tower Of Colors

 

 © 2022 Luke T. Bush

PLATTSBURGH CITY, NY -  11/7/22

For some time the bell tower at the old courthouse downtown has been shining forth with various colors at night.  Originally the colors were created by painting glass panes that covered the lights.  But thanks to technology changing colors is a lot easier with the use of programmable LEDs.  With a remote control a color can be selected -- in fact more than one can be picked, the colors in rotation, each one taking its turn in a couple of minutes.

 

November Pollinator

 

Take Pride, Plattsburgh City!

 When it comes to downtown beautification bag it!

https://dogtown12901.blogspot.com/2022/11/black-bag-jobs.html

 

Downtown Halloweening

(Click on each image to enlarge.)

 

PLATTSBURGH CITY, NY  October 30, 2022

© 2022 Luke T. Bush

A sunny Saturday afternoon downtown featured a milling profusion of costumed people of all ages.   Besides local shops and cafes there were a number of vendors set up in tents at Trinity Park giving out the free candy to be enjoyed by the younger trick-or-treaters.

 

 

 

 

 

Zombies Do The Downtown Shuffle

(C) 2022 Luke T. Bush

PLATTSBURGH CITY, NY   Oct. 29, 2022

Even COVID couldn't kill it.  The Downtown Zombie Walk was only on hiatus.

The weather was cooperating, sunny, not too cold.  Participants running a gamut of ages gathered at the Betty Little Arts Park to register and line up.  Each one was given a numbered tag to wear to help the three judge panel decide on awards including best makeup.

Considering the long interruption the event did well with numbers: 73 total zombies.

Directed with a bullhorn the gruesome group followed a mapped out route downtown before returning to the staging area.  The zombies groaned along the path but noticeably no one mentioned eating brains as with previous walks.

 

 

 

How It Stacked Up

 

© 2022 Luke T. Bush


As you can see from the above photo everything is in focus despite the great magnification.  When doing close-up/macro photography only a narrow area is in focus.  Photograph the front part of a small subject and everything behind that point is blurry.  There is only so much you can do with one shot.  The focus depth could only be 2 millimeters.

But what if you could focus at different points, creating in-focus layers and then combine those layers into one sharp image?  This can be done with a focus stacking program.  This program goes through the layers, selecting the sharpest parts to produce an image with good focus depth.

The set up I used was the camera and macro lens on a tripod mounted focusing rail.  By turning the rail knob you carefully move the camera and lens forward to image each layer.  When your depth of filed is measured only in millimeters it takes time to produce the needed images.  The series might be 30, 60, 100 or more images.

With great magnification the tiniest movement or position shift can cause misaligned shots that result in an unsharp result.  During processing all the images have to be closely the same for proper alignment.

The camera and the subject stayed still but the final image was a bit blurred.  Going through the series of images I noticed that after the fifth shot that some of petals lifted up on the right side (my POV).  See the comparison images below.  Maybe the petals raised because the flower was drying out.  Even though petals had repositioned themselves a tiny fraction of an inch it was enough to ruin the stack.

I was lucky I was able to get a good stack by starting at the point after the petals had popped up.

Sometimes photography is a lot more than taking a quick snap.

Illuminating Awareness Of Domestic Violence

 

  

© 2022 Luke T. Bush

PLATTSBURGH CITY, NY – 10/17/22

Colored light shining within the Old Courthouse bell tower symbolizes various themes, changing as needed.  Purple is for domestic violence awareness month.  People are encouraged to research the topic through such sites as the National Resource Center on Domestic Violence.  Also they can become involved with local community events and organizations.

Halloweening

Halloween High

Crochet Creations By Jen Stone

Marilyn Macabre

Who Ate The Lawn Gnome?

 

Rainbow On Ice

 

 High in the sky ice crystals refract sunlight into a partial rainbow  

called a sundog.

Aquatic Crochet Creatures

 

© 2022 Luke T. Bush

PLATTSBURGH CITY, NY - 10/5/22

Plattsburgh Public Library (PPL) kicked off during the summer a reading challenge for kids and teens called Oceans of Possibilities.  The program participants were divided into teams, each one with an aquatic mascot, for example, Team Sea Turtle.  They were supplied with a list of books to read.  Librarian Jen Stone created crochet representatives of each mascot that hang in the library’s children’s room.

NOTE: Corrected article posted 10/6/22 at 9:10 PM.

Captured At Last

 

© 2022 Luke T. Bush

For many years I’ve been trying to photograph a white cabbage butterfly.  Every time I approached one of these wary critters it would fly away.  Its circle of fear was like around six feet.

But finally I captured an image of one.  It acted skittish, flying away but not too far from the from the pollen-laden flowers.  As I’ve seen with bees and wasps it was focused on collecting pollen, in this case feeding on it.  It was still somewhat elusive.  My macro lens needed to be a few inches from my subject, easily spooking it.  But a few times it was too busy feasting to be bothered.

With such insects you can’t use a tripod, they move too quick from flower to flower.  So the above image was taken while hand-holding the camera, trying to keep it steady.  The slightest twitch can blur the image due to the great magnification.  The area that was in focus (depth of field) was only 3-4mm deep.  In most of the shots the butterfly’s eye was out of focus but I did nail it with the image above.

Patience and repeated shooting paid off.

Downside To Pollination

 

 © 2022 Luke T. Bush

Another tricky handheld close-up shot, this time on a windy day. The wasp whipped around on the goldenrod as if an earthquake was striking.  My left hand held on the plant in place while my right hand operated the camera.  This was taken with set manual focus, choosing a magnification ratio and then moving the camera back and forth to get the wasp sharp using the small optical viewfinder.  Not easy with my focus depth being only 3-4mm.  Great for eye strain.

 

Sun Splash

 

 

Lurking Eyes