Category: Puget Sound

Cheap Lens Vignetting

Historic Buildings at Fort Casey

This is an example of the vignetting you get from a cheap lens. The same cheap 400mm reflex lens that I discussed on my last post (and from the same trip to Whidbey Island and Fort Casey). You tend to get some vignetting with any reflex lens due to design issues, but I was a little surprised at the amount I got in some of my images. I haven’t figured out why some images are more ‘severe’ than others, but there is some in most images. Vignetting can be intentionally added to some images to focus the viewers attention on the main subject. The image below shows how this might work … and is an example of cropping away a lot of the corner areas of the image to minimize the vignette.

Jefferson County Building Clock Tower

Finally, another couple shots from that trip that were cropped to eliminate most of the vignetting.

Point Wilson Lighthouse at Fort Worden
Fort Worden Historic Buildings

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New Lens: Depth of Field

Wild Rose and Cow Parsnip at Fort Casey

I recently bought a new lens: a Tokina f/8 400mm reflex. It is a wonderful lens for its small form and cost (less than 10% what a Nikon 400mm ‘normal’ telephoto lens lists for). There are some trade offs for any reflex style lens: you get a fixed aperture and some artifacts from the front reflex mirror. I took it on the Port Townsend – Coupville ferry run and while on Whidbey Island, I walked around Fort Casey.

One of the characteristics of long telephoto lenses is relatively shallow depth of field. You can use it to your advantage, but it can be a challenge getting your image to work out. In the image below, I was focused on getting the kite in the image … which I did successfully. But the kite is just about all that’s in focus.

Kite at Fort Casey
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Whale Bones

Whale Skeleton Skull

This is a rather new exhibit in downtown Port Townsend, on one of the public docks: an entire gray whale skeleton. It was washed up south of town near Port Ludlow and the people at that location contacted NOAA and local authorities and got permission to leave it for the critters to pick clean. They then worked with experts to prepare the skeleton for display. It’s amazing. No way to get a good show of the whole thing, since the space is narrow and the skeleton is long. So, here are pieces of it.

Whale Skeleton Flipper
Whale Skeleton Tail
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Mt Baker from Pt Townsend Waterfront

Mt Baker from Port Townsend Waterfront

Sometimes I take the ferry from Port Townsend across to Coupeville on Whidbey Island just for the ride. And the photo op. This photo of the waterfront with Mt Baker in the distance was taken from the ferry while waiting for the cars/trucks to finish boarding in PT.

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Nisqually Delta — Mountains in the Sky

Nisqually Delta — Mountains in the Sky

The Nisqually Delta is outside of Olympia, WA and is home of the Nisqually – Billy Frank, Jr. National Wildlife Reserve. It had been diked, drained and converted to farmland back 100 years ago or so, but the dike was intentionally breached and the interior is now salt marsh and provides home to young salmon. They built a wonderful walkway that runs most of a mile out for viewing birds and other critters. I took this image across to Luhr Beach (the buildings on the water) and the boat ramp. I didn’t notice the mountains visible in the cloud gaps until recently. They are the southeast corner of the Olympic Mountains from about Mount Ellinor to The Brothers.

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