Yes, we’re still here!

As you may have noticed, there have not been updates for a while.  Life has been a little hectic, so changes were few and far in between.  Hopefully that will change soon.

The above photo was taken on nearby Prescott Park (above Medford) about a week ago.  The fog had been sitting in the valley for a few days, and it seemed like a good idea to get to higher elevation and get a little sunshine.  It turned out to be the right thing to do.

December Sunset…

Every once in a while we get treated to a sunset that’s otherworldly… this was definitely one.  Several people have commented that it looks like a volcano… and it does!  Fortunately no volcanos were used in this photograph!  It was a spectacular sunset, and one that certainly is exceptional by every means.

A Tale of Two Cameras…

Yes, we’re still here… Sorry for the lack of posts in the last few months… it’s been a hectic time.

This last week I received the new iPhone 12 Pro Max, and I must say it takes amazing photos.  Hard to believe that “computational photography” has come such a long ways since my now two-year-old iPhone XS Max.  I had a chance to try it out at Crater Lake National Park yesterday – alongside with my Sony AR7III (with a 24-105mm zoom), and was floored by the quality of the wide angle lens in the iPhone 12 Pro Max.  Below is an example of the difference (if you can determine) between the two cameras.

First the iPhone 12 Pro Max (below)… using the wide angle lens… edited on the iPhone 12 Pro Max to taste….

Now (below) the Sony A7RIII… edited in Lightroom to taste…

I invite you to tell which one is better.  If anything the iPhone image is at a disadvantage as I had to convert the “.heic” file to “.jpeg”… so it had to go through a lossy conversion twice!  The original image is just incredible.  In fact I had to do a lot less editing to make it look good than I did with the Sony camera (I would have had to do the same with my Canon 5DII camera too).

It’s absolutely AMAZING how far technology has come in smartphones!  I realize that low-light photos will present difficulties for the smartphones due to smaller image sensor size (less ability to detect light)… but for daytime photography… WOW… this really blew me away!

A Beautiful Visitor…

Stayed up late to take a photo of Comet Neowise last night.  The image below is a “stacked” photo comprised of 30 images taken sequentially (5 second exposure each taken about 1 second apart).  The 30 images are stacked together to help bring out the stars (and comet in this case), and to correct for the earth’s rotation during the time it takes for all the photos.  The comet is barely visible to the naked eye (as of last night).  The comet will be closest to Earth on July 22… so perhaps it will be brighter then!

Lightning Strike…

We had several thunderstorms roll through yesterday, which produced over 200 lightning strikes in our county and nearby areas.  Needless to say, it was quite a show!  I captured one nearby strike on video and noticed something unusual.. As you may know, lightning has two paths (from sky to earth and then back up to the sky), but this strike had a third path.  I have never heard of this.  To show what happened, I slowed the video down to 1/10 original speed… everything you see here happened in less than a second.  See what you think…

A Beautiful Spring Evening…

A very Happy Easter to everyone!  We’re enjoying pleasant Spring weather here in Southern Oregon.  The Orchards are in bloom and the grass is an incredible green color… all makes for excellent opportunity to take photographs.  The evening light on this Easter Sunday was particularly beautiful, so I got the drone out for some photos of the nearby orchards.

Orchards just south of Marigold Lane (taken above Fern Valley Road)

Orchards in Bloom…

Pear Orchard off of Payne Rd.

One of my favorite sights locally is when the Orchards bloom… Typically it’s the first or second week in April as it is now.  The photo above was taken this morning at sunrise.  The orchards in bloom are an incredible sight to behold, but it doesn’t last long… a week at most before the green leafs start to fill in, and the blossoms disappear.