Immediate surroundings

On weekends when I’m chilling at the homestead I rarely feel the urge to get in the car to go out on a photo expedition. But, more often than not, I do get the urge to use the camera. That means I have to focus on what’s immediate in my surroundings.

Iron and blur

Palm and crow

Lens: Canon EF 70-300mm IS USM. Both shots were taken at the same settings–300mm, 1/500 second at f/5.6, ISO 200.

Canon T2i seeing what’s close by.

Spring forward

Other than changing the clocks for daylight savings time, one sure sign that Spring is coming to Northern California is blooming sourgrass. This afternoon I grabbed the G11 and walked the perimeter of the house looking for some nice patches for close ups. While on my hands and knees snapping shots of the yellow blooms, I happened on this fresia (the first one to open in the yard) and got up close and personal.

Fresia core

And for the sourgrass:

Sour grass flowers

Canon G11 getting close to Spring.

Low light venue

This past weekend we went to see Liz Carroll at The Plough and the Stars in San Francisco–the event was part of the three week long Irish-American Crossroads Festival currently taking place in the city. Liz is an absolutely amazing fiddle player! On this occasion she was accompanied by a fine young Canadian guitarist/pianist named Jake Charron. The show was GREAT! What a night of top notch music.

I brought the G11 along and discreetly took a bunch of photos. During their sets, the stage lighting was very low so I had to shoot at a high ISO with a very slow shutter speed–and because of the slow speed many of the shots of the very animated musicians came out blurry–in a distracting way. I do, however, like this shot of Jake taken just after he tuned his guitar and just before the start of the first set.

Jake Charron

I got several decent shots of Liz, but the mic placement turned out to be too much of a distraction in the frame. For some reason I kept coming back to this grainy, soft focus shot. It pleases me aesthetically.

Liz Carroll

Canon G11 being discreet.