Morning in the Garden

Let me preface this post with a few details about using a Nikon D80. “Why?” You ask.  The D80 shares the same CCD sensor as the Nikon D200, a 10 MP DSLR.  Unlike the D200, it does not meter with non-AF lenses, because that’s Nikon. Always dumbing down their “consumer-level” cameras.  I have a Nikon D200 (and D300, D7200 and Df), but the D80 is smaller, lighter, and it cost me $60.  Shooting it with manual lenses is almost like shooting a film camera, but with the instant satisfaction of seeing if your exposure is right.  While the camera does not know the aperture, you can easily change the shutter speed via the thumb wheel on the body, or change the aperture on the lens, or adjust the ISO to get what you feel is a good exposure.  Also, here’s where knowing the exposure triangle and estimating the light comes in handy.  The fact is, I also like the color rendering of those CCD sensors, and even shooting in B&W mode I get pretty good approximations of b&w film.

You can take excellent photographs with an old DSLR.  When the D80/D200 came out, they were considered to be excellent cameras, and they still are. Don't fall for the fallacy that you need the absolute latest digital to get great photos.  

I have used the Lensbaby Velvet 56 since 2018, and on a film body, it’s quite incredibly versatile. Wide-open at f/1.6 gives you some serious out of focus blur and a glow that’s really something. Stop down more than f/4, it is quite good, and since it close-focuses to the macro level, it’s great for flowers, etc.  I’ve shot with it on my full frame Nikon Df, and of course, everything works in A mode.  But on the D80, it’s going to be equivalent to about an 85mm lens in coverage, and I have to expose in manual mode.  Not a big deal for an experienced photographer. I’m not looking for perfection, I’m looking to make art.

Some of the images from this morning in Lightroom

So, this morning I took the D80 out into our garden. It had rained a bit overnight, the sky was cloudy, and very little wind. Perfect for what I wanted to do.  I set the ISO at 250 and upped it to 400 when I wanted to shoot at smaller apertures.  Most of the time I shot at f/4 to f/8, but in a few instances, I shot at f/2.8 and f/1.6.  

At f/5.6

At f/1.6 - wide open.   That's some glow.

I have been photographing flower closeups with DSLRs since 2006, and it’s great using odd lenses and experimenting with instant feedback and then making some adjustments.  That’s the beauty of an SLR, whether it’s film or digital.  And while I have also done similar photographs with mirrorless, I like using an SLR better, since I am seeing directly through the viewfinder, not an electronic rendering.  Plus, the battery lasts so much longer in a DSLR.  That’s my preference, and it doesn’t mean that you have to do it my way.  

I'd call this painterly.  Wide-open.

One of the things about the Lensbaby Velvet 56 that I like is that it can be a sharp lens when stopped down, but it can also give a dreamy velvety glow to images at wider apertures, and today, I really had some fun with it.  I did about 100 exposures in 30 minutes, just walking through out wildflower meadow and our more traditional garden.  The rain drops and soft light were perfect for what I wanted, and I got the shots.  

Senna leaves with drops

Virginia Spider-Wort

Purple Cone Flower is always a great subject

Hosta flowers

These Crocosmia flowers look like glass

Hydrangeas 

Hydrangea leaf

Hydrangea leaf

I sometimes feel that I am chasing down some unattainable level of perfection.  Maybe you do too.  In the end, if you like your results, that is what counts. If an image conveys an emotion, captures a feeling, a suspended moment that is beautiful, you got something that’s worthwhile.  Maybe it won’t happen again that day, but unless you are out shooting, you’ll never know.  That is one of the great aspects of photography.  Sometimes it comes easily, and sometimes it requires a lot of work.  I like being able to walk outside and have that opportunity to explore nature’s beauty right in my yard.

Ladie's Mantle leaves

Coreopsis flower

More Coneflower at f/2.8 or so

Coneflower at f/5.6

Earth Day, 2025

 

The infamous Earthrise photo from Apollo 8 (1968). We all live on that blue marble.

It used to be that Earth Day was a big thing.  The very first one, in 1970, was successful enough that I, as a 13-yr old 8th grader, made an 8mm movie on Kodachrome for a school project, in the relative backwater of upstate NY. My memory of making it was of contrasts - a glass beer bottle rolling down the roadside, a Cooper’s Hawk flying from its nest. I don’t recall much else.  It was taken with a Kodak Brownie 8mm movie camera, and as I have told Mike Raso of the Film Photography Project - it was the beginning and end of my celluloid movie-making.  I am confident that there was nothing remarkable in that 3.5 minute movie. I had to have obtained the camera, etc., from a teacher at my school, because the only camera in my house at the time was a Kodak Instamatic.  Anyhow, I have no idea where the movie ended up, and 55 years later, we are in a global environmental crisis.  You would think that we could have, as a society, kept at the job to have a better planet, but here we are.

Bowling Green, OH April 5, 2025

The original Earth Day led to the passage of the Endangered Species Act, The Clean Air Act, The Clean Water Act, and most importantly, the Environmental Protection Agency. That was under the Nixon Administration, brought down later by the petty crimes at the Watergate Hotel. When I say petty, they were, compared to the current criminal assault on our country’s resources by the Trump regime. The mere fact that a rapist felon is in charge is bad enough. All of our country’s resources - both natural, human, and constitutional, are being pillaged by a mediocre person of wealth and privilege to benefit the ultra-wealthy.  The battles of the 1970s were thought to be over.  We made the country better because it was the right thing to do - not as an altruistic act, but because we realized that our own survival was threatened by decades of pollution and unwise use of our resources.  Photography undoubtedly played a role in that. If you haven’t seen photos of smog in New York, the burning Cuyahoga River, and windrows of dead fish on Great Lakes shores, you should.  The public outcry and subsequent action by the government made real change possible. Today, they are all under assault by Trumpism.  Climate Change? Ignore it. Polluted water? Big deal. Endangered species? Who cares? Healthy people? Only if you are rich.  This is the slippery slope we are on with Trump. How we escape it and make our country (and the world) a better place is going to take some doing. We need more empathy, not less. We need more people to stand up to authoritarian decrees, not less. It’s no longer a left vs right issue, it’s a right vs wrong issue. It’s an issue of people with wealth and means who think the world is theirs alone.

Lower Yellowstone Falls, by William Henry Jackson.

Photographs by William Henry Jackson brought attention to Yellowstone, and it became our first National Park.  Later, Ansel Adam’s photos and connections with the Sierra Club brought attention to conserving our natural resources, the saving of redwoods, and more.  Photography is one way of showing the state of things, and also of showing change over time.  It can help bring attention to issues that concern us.  It’s also a way for us to connect and share our relationship with the natural world.  Whether it’s wildlife photography, landscape photography, or something on the micro scale of nature, the images can shape our perception of the world we live in.  

Sept. 2023, Arcadia Marsh in NW Michigan.

So, if you do anything this Earth Day, use the day to engage with nature, photograph things that connect you with it, and share them.  Tomorrow, get up and call or write your Congress person or whoever you feel deserves to know that "We are mad as hell and ain’t gonna take it anymore."  That spirit of the 1970s of shared responsibility for our planet needs to take over.

Lake Michigan sunset, Ludington, MI. Sept. 2023.