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April 28, 2008

Wisteria in Bloom – backroads of Montgomery County, MD

Posted by ajoy muralidhar under 35mm SLR, Autofocus, Color, Composition, Digital, Driveby, Flowers, Hand Held, Landscape, Lenses, Lighting, Nature, Photo Opportunism, Photo Technique, Photography, Places, Seasons, SLR, Sony A700, Sony Alpha 700, Sony Alpha DSLR, Sony Lens, Sony SAL18200, Spring, Super Telephoto, Zoom | Tags: Gaithersburg, Maryland, Montgomery County, SAL18200, Seasons, Sony Alpha 700, Spring Flowers, Wisteria |
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The sheer prodigality and variety of blooms in this part of the country amazes me – Spring in Maryland and Virginia is a cornucopia of beautiful blooms in succession and just when the dogwoods were peaking and the redbuds leafing out, I suddenly started seeing cascades of lavender-purple flowers tumbling over fences, drooping over country roadways – most of these are hard to photograph, since it’s hard to pull over in the heavy traffic conditions.

Even when one is able to find a good spot close enough to park and walk over, the lighting may be just plain bad. The subtle colors of the wisteria require just a bit of warming sun to bring out the purple, otherwise the flowers come out looking overly blue. The best time is morning or late afternoon light, when there is a tinge of red present…

The best way to ensure that the lighting is okay is to mark your spots, preferably where one can park safely for a few minutes and return at a later time when the sun is just right. However, one can get lucky, as I did a couple of days ago on my way back from work. I spotted these magnificent specimens on Glenview Road and on Travilah road in Gaithersburg, MD. I had the Sony Alpha with the Sony 18-200 and a polarizer, and the zoom range of the Sony lens allowed me take these without leaving the car.

Wisteria in April	Wisteria in April
Wisteria in April	Wisteria in April

Wisteria in April

Photographed with a Sony Alpha 700; Sony 18-200mm f/2.5-f/6.3 lens; Polarizer.

olympus/zuiko by Ajoy Muralidhar is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
text and images © 2008 ajoy muralidhar. all names, websites, brands and technical data referenced are the copyright or trademark of their respective owners. thank you for visiting olympus/zuiko.

April 23, 2008

Flowering Dogwoods and Wild Mustard – Carroll County

Posted by ajoy muralidhar under 3rd Party Lens, 50mm, Autofocus, Color, Driveby, Filters, Flowers, Hand Held, Landscape, Lenses, Lighting, Macro, Macro Lens, Macrophotography, Nature, Photo Opportunism, Photography, Places, Seasons, Sigma, SLR, Sony A700, Sony Alpha 700, Sony Alpha DSLR, Sony Lens, Sony SAL18200, Spring, Trees, Zoom | Tags: Barn, Carroll County, Dogwoods, Farmland, Flowering Dogwood, Gaithersburg, Maryland, Mustard Blossoms, Mustard Fields, Redbud, Sony Alpha, Sony SAL18200, Spring in Maryland, Spring scenes, Westminster |
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Mid-April is the time for flowering dogwoods and vast expanses of wild mustard growing in the fields all over Carroll County… later in the year, these fields will be planted with Soya beans or Corn, but for now, they are just a golden mass of flowers, gently swaying in the slightest breeze. The dogwoods are something to look forward to, as they appear just as the Cherry Blossoms and Magnolias are fading, and they are much more durable blossoms. April is also the time of heavy rainfall here in Maryland, and delicate blossoms like the cherry don’t hold up well. Here are some of the pictures I took in Gaithersburg, and along Rte 27 north of Mount Airy, on the road to Westminster, MD. Mostly flowering dogwoods and fields of mustard blossoms – and a few redbuds.

Dogwood and Mustard	Dogwood and Mustard
Dogwood and Mustard	Dogwood and Mustard
Dogwood and Mustard	Dogwood and Mustard
Redbud	Redbud
Redbud	Dogwood and Mustard
Dogwood and Mustard	Dogwood and Mustard
Pin Oak flower	Birch flower

Dogwood and Mustard

Redbud

Dogwood and Mustard

Thistle

Dogwood and Mustard

Photographed with a Sony Alpha 700 and Sony 18-200mm f/3.5-6.3 Zoom lens. I used a Polarizer. Close-up of Pink dogwood photographed with a Sigma 50mm f/2.8 Macro 1:1 lens with Tiffen 812 warming filter

April 21, 2008

Virginia Beaches: Historic Colonial Beach, VA

Posted by ajoy muralidhar under Autofocus, Color, Composition, Digital, Filters, Hand Held, Lenses, Lighting, Nature, Photo Opportunism, Photography, Rivers & Streams, Seascape, Sony A700, Sony Alpha 700, Sony Alpha DSLR, Sony Lens, Sony SAL18200, Spring, Waterscape, Zoom | Tags: Beaches, Colonial Beach, Historic Places, Potomac, Virginia |
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Colonial Beach is a little town on the Virginia side of the Potomac River, about 60 miles south of DC… it’s the second longest beach in Virginia (Virginia Beach is the longest). The town was founded in 1892, and served as get away for the residents of DC in the early years of the 20th century, especially in the years before the Great Depression. It was a favorite holiday spot, and it grew and thrived until the coming of automobiles and other transportation – vistors preferred to come on day trips, rather than leisurely vacations as before, and this led to the waterfront hotels closing down.

The town limped along, losing population and businesses until the 2000’s. Then, as if that wasn’t enough, Hurricane Isabel pretty much destroyed the little waterfront town in 2003. The residents are a resilient bunch – they picked up the pieces and rebuilt again. The housing boom brought some prosperity, with developers taking interest in the town. However with the current bust in housing, the city may see some hard times again, but I hope it will recover easily.

The beach is a great place for a family visit.. it’s clean, and with good amenities – parking, restrooms, restaurants, beach shops etc are all located very conveniently, and there is even a Days Inn located right on the beach for overnight and weekend stays. Nancy’s Ice Cream is closeby, and I recommend the Chocolate Ice Cream soft cones.

This past Saturday 4/19 was beautiful, bright and warm in the 80’s so we drove down to Fredericksburg on I-95 and then east on Rte 3 until we got to Rte 205. We followed Rte 205 all the way to Colonial Beach, it’s easy to follow the signs. My daughter Sunayana had been asking to go to the beach since it started turning warmer, and we could not have asked for a better day to be at the waterfront.

I took the Sony Alpha 700, and after some deliberation, I took the Sony 18-200mm lens as it’s the perfect all-occasion lens, and fitted with a Tiffen Polarizer, perfect for beach and water photography. I took along some other AF and manual lenses, and never got around to using them. We got there in the late afternoon, and found parking under a large Willow oak just a hundred feet from the water.

The Sony 18-200mm SAL18200 is a pretty versatile lens, especially when you want to travel light and are reasonably sure of good light levels. It’s equivalent to 27-300mm in the 35mm format, and the huge zoom ration it affords pretty much covers any situation. The lens is a bit slow at the fully extended part of its zoom range (It ranges from f/3.5 at the wide end and f6.3 at the 200mm focal length), but on a bright day, it doesnt matter at all, since we’re generally shooting at much smaller apertures (f11 to f13) with polarizer.

Colonial Beach, VA	Colonial Beach, VA
Colonial Beach, VA	Colonial Beach, VA
Colonial Beach, VA	Colonial Beach, VA
Colonial Beach, VA	Colonial Beach, VA
Colonial Beach, VA	Colonial Beach, VA
Colonial Beach, VA	Colonial Beach, VA
Colonial Beach, VA	Colonial Beach, VA

Colonial Beach, VA

Photographed with a Sony Alpha 700 DSLR and a Sony 18-200mm f/3.5-6.3 lens and Circular Polarizer. I used the landscape setting and Auto ISO, with Sunny White Balance.

March 31, 2008

2008 Cherry Blossom Festival, Washington DC

Posted by ajoy muralidhar under 35mm SLR, Autofocus, Color, Digital, Events, Exposure, Filters, Flowers, Hand Held, Landscape, Lenses, Long Focus, Nature, Photo Opportunism, Photo Technique, Photography, Seasons, Sony A700, Sony Alpha 700, Sony Lens, Sony SAL18200, Spring, Telephoto, Trees, Zoom | Tags: Alpha 700, Cherry Blossom Festival, Jefferson Memorial, Potomac River, Roosevelt Memorial, SAL18200, Sony, Spring Flowers, Tidal Basin, Washington |
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Ever since the first signs of Spring, I’ve been out with my cameras, not wishing to lose any of the magic of the Great Annual Awakening of Nature. Maryland’s topography is so varied that even though it is such a small state, Spring arrives early in the southern part of the State, especially around Chesapeake Bay and the lower Potomac – almost a full month before it arrives at the Northern regions – near the Pennsylvania border. The rolling hills and valleys of Carroll county are decidedly cooler than DC and the annual cherry flowering takes place almost a week after the Tidal basin flowering

This year (2008) the the Cherry Blossom Festival kicked off on Saturday, March 29 – the flowers began blooming a couple of days before that, and on the 29th, it was close to approaching the peak – and it was 50 degree weather the next few days are likely to be cold and rainy, and we’ll lose a lot of the blossoms. I’m hoping that the flowers last until next weekend. The Festival itself runs until April 13th – but I’m afraid the flowers may be all gone by then. Here are the flowers.. as usual, it was a family trip, but we got separated looking for parking, and never caught up with the other car (which, incidentally, had our picnic lunch). My group ended up snacking at the refreshment stall behind the Jefferson Monument. I was able to walk around a bit under the trees, and here are the pictures. The crowd was very heavy on Saturday.

2008 Cherry Blossom Festival	2008 Cherry Blossom Festival
2008 Cherry Blossom Festival	2008 Cherry Blossom Festival
2008 Cherry Blossom Festival	2008 Cherry Blossom Festival
2008 Cherry Blossom Festival	2008 Cherry Blossom Festival
2008 Cherry Blossom Festival	2008 Cherry Blossom Festival
2008 Cherry Blossom Festival	2008 Cherry Blossom Festival
2008 Cherry Blossom Festival	2008 Cherry Blossom Festival
2008 Cherry Blossom Festival	2008 Cherry Blossom Festival
2008 Cherry Blossom Festival	2008 Cherry Blossom Festival
2008 Cherry Blossom Festival	2008 Cherry Blossom Festival
2008 Cherry Blossom Festival	2008 Cherry Blossom Festival
2008 Cherry Blossom Festival	2008 Cherry Blossom Festival
2008 Cherry Blossom Festival	2008 Cherry Blossom Festival

2008 Cherry Blossom Festival

Photographed with a Sony Alpha 700, Sony 18-200mm f/3.5-6.3 SAL18200 lens at Landscape setting and Auto ISO. I used a polarizer. The Shutter speeds ranged from 1/320 second in the Sun down to 1/50 second in the shade Here are the rest of the pictures.

February 9, 2008

Potomac River in February: Wild water at Great Falls, MD

Posted by ajoy muralidhar under 3rd Party Lens, Autofocus, Cheap Awesome Lens, Composition, Digital, Hand Held, Hikes, Landscape, Lens Compatibility, Lenses, Macro Lens, medium telephoto, Nature, Photo Opportunism, Photo Technique, Photography, Places, Rivers & Streams, Seasons, Sigma, Sony A700, Sony Alpha 700, Sony Alpha DSLR, Sony Lens, Sony SAL18200, Waterscape, Wide Angle, Winter, Woodland, Zoom | Tags: Digital, Great Falls, Great Falls Tavern, Macro, Potomac, River, Sigma, Sony Alpha 700, Tamron, Winter, Zoom lens |
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I headed off to the Great Falls park last Saturday (02/02/08) to hike along the river and photograph the falls. It was beautiful out there… about 50 degrees – perfect hiking weather, although the trails and towpath were still muddy. I was carrying my Sony Alpha 700 and 2 lenses – a Sigma AF 28-80mm and the Tamron 70-300mm. The Tamron was for closeup views of the raging waters. The Sigma is a recent acquisition, and I was trying it out.

It’s still early in February, and we’ve already had a lot of rain in Montgomery county – the average rainfall for February is about 2.85 inches here, and by the 2nd, we already had about 3 inches… which means, every stream in the county is overflowing and that the Potomac is running full already. Normally, we’d have to wait until the Spring thaws.

Since my intent was to photograph the falls, I did not mind lugging along the heavy Tamron, but on my way over there, I was thinking about the most desirable characteristics for a hiking lens – good zoom range, rugged, light, cheap, close up capability etc. At the same time, the optical characteristics of the lens should be good enough that you don’t regret the quality of the pictures when you get back.

The more I thought about it, the Sigma I was carrying seemed to be the perfect fit. After all, it had a zoom range of 28-80mm, which is a 42-120mm on the Sony A700. Besides, it has a plastic body, which makes it lightweight. Great optical quality with multicoated aspherical lenses, very cheap so it would not matter if it was damaged or lost – and it has a 1:2 Macro capability, for those occasional very close-up shots of interesting grass or moss or little critters that I might come across.

I would have liked at least 35mm at the wide-angle, but I’ve found that in the open woodlands and hilly areas of Maryland , even a 50mm is sufficiently wide, since one can always step back a few paces to include more of the scene. The Sigma 28-80mm definitely qualified as a Cheap Awesome Lens. Some may complain about the “cheap” build quality – it’s plasticky – but one can’t fault it optically for the price.

The 1:2 macro capability is only at 80mm f/5.6 (120mm f/5.6 on the Sony Alpha 700) and is is a matter of moving a switch on the lens from Normal to Macro position to lock it. Now, f/5.8 is pretty slow, I was able to get decent images even at 100 ISO. I’m not complaining, since I can always increase the ISO to compensate. However, in Winter, with no overhead tree canopy and bright sunlight, it beats carrying an extra lens for the rare occasion one might want to take a real close up.
Here are some of the pictures at the Falls and along the Towpath. The river is very impressive this week.

The Tamron is a beast on the Sony Alpha 700 – it’s equivalent to 105mm-450mm and fairly fast for such a large focal length f/3.5 at the shorter end, and f/5.6 at the 450mm end. Fast enough to handhold at 100 ISO on a bright day. It’s a macro lens as well, and goes to 1:4 along the entire focal length range, which is pretty impressive. This is another Cheap Awesome Lens.Tamron 70-300mm– Potomac River and Towpath.

Potomac River

Potomac River	Potomac River
Potomac River	Potomac River
Potomac River	Potomac River
Potomac River	Potomac River
Potomac River	Potomac River
Potomac River	Potomac River
Potomac River	Potomac River

Potomac River 1/5 sec exposure

Potomac River

Sigma 28-80mm – Potomac River

Potomac River

Potomac River 1/5 second

Potomac River

Sigma 28-80mm Canal and Towpath

Canal and Towpath	Canal and Towpath
Canal and Towpath	Canal and Towpath
Canal and Towpath	Canal and Towpath – macro
Canal and Towpath	Canal and Towpath

Sigma 28-80mm Great Falls Tavern

Tavern	Tavern
Tavern	Tavern
Tavern	Tavern
Gate at Widewater	Great Falls

Sigma 28-80mm – Great Falls Tavern

Great Falls Tavern

Sigma 28-80mm – Canal and Towpath

Canal and Towpath

Sigma 28-80mm Macro Photos (approx 8-10 inches)

Sigma 28-80mm macro

Tamron 70-300mm

Great Falls	Great Falls
Great Falls	Great Falls
Great Falls	Great Falls
Great Falls	Great Falls
Great Falls	Great Falls
Great Falls	Great Falls

Tamron – Wildlife

Wildlife

Tamron

Lichens on Rock

Lichens

Wildlife

Photographed with a Sony Alpha 700, Sigma 28-80mm f/3.5-f/5.6 Aspherical Macro 1:2 and Tamron 70-300mm f/3.9-f5.6, ISO 100, Circular Polarizer.

January 18, 2008

Strawbridge Shrine revisited…

Posted by ajoy muralidhar under 3rd Party Lens, Autofocus, Cheap Awesome Lens, Color, Digital, Exposure, Landscape, Lenses, Maxxum, Minolta lens on Sony, Nature, Photography, Places, Sigma, Sony A700, Sony Alpha 700, Sony Alpha DSLR, Wide Angle, Zoom | Tags: Carroll County, Church History, Elizabeth Strawbridge, Francis Asbury, Methodism, New Windsor, Robert Strawbridge, Sigma 24mm Super-wide, Sony Alpha 700. Minolta lens, Strawbridge shrine, Wakefield Road |
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I was up in Westminster again a couple of days ago, and on the way back, I drove out towards New Windsor. I took the old winding Wakefield road to the Strawbridge Shrine – it’s been a while since I stopped there, there have been some changes – first, they finally erected a second life size granite statue – of Elizabeth Strawbridge, the good pastor’s wife and companion.

I wish they had placed the statues lower – more eye-level, so to speak. The pedestals somehow seem too much. These were simple farming folk who were called to spread the word of God. Robert Strawbridge was never ordained, and thus faced a lot of criticism and censure for daring to preach. When called upon to defend himself and his actions, he is said to have replied “No right but that of the Divine. The Need creates the Grant”. The good Bishop Francis Asbury of Baltimore wasn’t having any of that, though. Apparently, he gave him a really tough time.

In spite of all that, Robert Strawbridge’s ministry thrived, and grew. That whole part of Carroll County – New Windsor to Sam’s Creek is called ‘Strawbridge Country’. It’s bounded by Rte 27 to the East, Rte 140 to the North, Rte 407 to the South and Rte 31 to the West. The area is very rural and picturesque. Archaeological opinion is that the site may not be authentic, and that Strawbridge may never have lived there.

Be that as it may.. .it does not matter in the least. There is a sense of peace and serenity at the Strawbridge shrine that whether or not the good man actually lived and preached in that spot, you understand the spirit that drove him. It’s a shame that he never made it into the Heroes of Methodism book (published in the mid-1800’s) along with other primitive preachers like Bishop Asbury and others. Guess you had to be an ordained minister, or a Bishop. The irony of it all is that the museum at the Shrine is named after Francis Asbury, the very man who tried to put poor Robert and Elizabeth out of business.Correction: David Bearr wrote to let me know that the Visitor center is actually named after a Asbury Smith, a Methodist minister who helped develop the site. I apologize for the error.

It was almost sunset when I got there, and very cold. The light was fading fast, and I just managed to get some photographs. Unlike my previous visits, where I was using film, this time I had the Sony Alpha 700, so I could switch ISO’s quickly to accommodate the fading light.

I switched between a couple of lenses as well. Most of the pictures were made with the Minolta 35-105mm (52-157.5mm eq. 35mm format) and the rest with the Sigma 24mm wide angle (36 mm eq).

I even had a chance to chat with the site curator for a few minutes. Rev. Laura Apostol lives right next door and offers guided tours from April onwards.

Robert Strawbridge Shrine	Robert Strawbridge Shrine
Robert Strawbridge Shrine	Robert Strawbridge Shrine
Robert Strawbridge Shrine	Robert Strawbridge Shrine
Robert Strawbridge Shrine	Robert Strawbridge Shrine

Robert Strawbridge Shrine

Photographed with a Sony Alpha 700, Minolta AF 35-105mm and Sigma AF Super-wide II 24mm f/2.8 lens. I’ve posted some additional photos here.
Here’s my previous post on the Strawbridge Shrine.

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Fading Tulips, Westminster MD. I used the Sony DSLR A-700 and Sony 18-200mm f/3.5 -6.3 lens, 200mm at f/6.3, 1/250 second at ISO 800.
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Nature

Wisteria in Bloom – backroads of Montgomery County, MD

Flowering Dogwoods and Wild Mustard – Carroll County

Virginia Beaches: Historic Colonial Beach, VA

2008 Cherry Blossom Festival, Washington DC

Potomac River in February: Wild water at Great Falls, MD

Strawbridge Shrine revisited…

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