FAVORITE PICTURES OF THE YEAR--

Part 1



Two hikers pause under the sparkling winter sun along the river in the Mohican State Forest.  The scene is where the trail bends south toward Big Lyons Falls--one of my favorite hiking venues in the area.

The muzzle blast of a Glock 9mm pistol was a lucky surprise of good timing in this picture of Roberta Karger qualifying for her Ohio concealed carry license under the watchful guidance of an NRA instructor.  Camera data:  1/13th sec, f/4, ISO 400.  Nice depth of focus largely due to 17 mm, wide angle lens.

Nancy and Mark Meinzer flank my lady Sue Brooks in Conkle's Hollow of the Hocking Hills State Park during a February hike.  Like our lead picture above, backlighting nearly always adds some visual drama to a photograph.

The east cellblock of the Ohio State Reformatory shivers in the blowing snow following a dinner theater event there last winter.  The exposure was done manually, 1/13th sec., f/4 at ISO 400 while bracing the camera against the roof of the truck to help the camera's image stabilization system minimize camera shake.

A pair of Wood Ducks frolic on the roof of one of my bird feeders.  Both were able to secure their footing sufficiently to lean down and snack on the grain in the lower tray.  The picture was done through a window at approximately 20 feet with a 200mm lens.

This nesting Bald Eagle was photographed using my 1,300mm focal length telescope as the camera's lens.  The telescope was supported on a very, heavy duty tripod and the shot was made at 1/250th of a second with a calculated aperature of f/10, ISO 400.  The camera was in the back of my pick-up truck to achieve a good viewing angle at a distance of about 100 yards.

This toad was photographed with the assistance of two, Mini Maglite flashlights laying to the sides as he enjoyed a warm spring evening beside my pond.  The exposure was 1/60th sec., f/4 at ISO 400.  The lens was at 40 mm and focused at mimimun distance.

A dogwood blossom presents interesting geometry under the sun's backlighting.  The shallow depth of focus was achieved by using a 200mm lens. 1/500th sec., f/5.6, ISO 250.  The gray background comes from the out-of-focus, pond's surface.

This small icicle was explored with a Canon, 100mm f/2.8 macro lens.  The exposure was 1/250th sec., f/4.5 at ISO 400.  A macro lens is a specialtiy lens designed to focus at very close distances with up to life size magnification of the image.  The blue coloring was added with Adobe Photoshop Elements v4 software.

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This series of photos will continue December 31st.