Posts Made By: Fred Lusk

October 14, 2005 05:47 AM Forum: Landscape Photography

Hensley Lake Sunset

Posted By Fred Lusk

Our club (Central Valley Astronomers, Fresno, CA) uses Hensley Lake in Madera County as our default low elevation observing site. In my opinion, the lake is not very pretty until dark, but it is convenient. Actually, I think most of the lakes along the low foothills of the Sierra Nevada are not very pretty. The scrubby oak forest is not nearly as pretty as the higher pine forest.

Anyway, every once in a while Hensley surprises me. Here's an example, with the Moon and Venus.

Fred

March 4, 2006 08:55 PM Forum: Bad to the Bone Autos

Daytona the week before

Posted By Fred Lusk

I was in Florida at the end of January--my wife had a conference in Orlando and I tagged along for some vacation. I squeezed in a couple of hours at the Daytona International Speedway on the Thursday before the Rolex 24. Here's a couple of shots of the Corvette pace car.

Fred

PS - All these shots look a little grainy because they have been severely resized to come under the 500 KB limit on the forum. The originals are about 3.5 MB. All were shot with an Olympus E-1 and 14-54 mm lens.

March 4, 2006 09:06 PM Forum: Landscape Photography

Sunsets

Posted By Fred Lusk

I was in Florida at the end of January--my wife had a conference in Orlando and I tagged along for some vacation. I grabbed a couple of nice sunsets from the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge. Two of these are full-frame and two of these are crops to get rid of the power lines I couldn't get away from. All these were shot with an Olympus E-1 and my old Zuiko 135 mm f/3.5. With the 2:1 crop factor, this lens gives me the reach of 270 mm lens.

March 4, 2006 09:12 PM Forum: Wildlife Photography

Manatees

Posted By Fred Lusk

I was in Florida at the end of January--my wife had a conference in Orlando and I tagged along for some vacation. I visited Blue Spring State Park between Orlando and Daytona Beach. This is a great park with lots of wildlife: birds, manatees, aligators, turtles, even people. The spring flows into the St Johns River. The spring channel is much warmer than the river so the manatees like to hang out there in the winter.

Here's a couple of shots of a manatee swimming past an observing platform.

March 4, 2006 09:17 PM Forum: Insects - Flowers and Other Small Stuff - Photos

Flowers

Posted By Fred Lusk

Here's a flower from the garden of the Nixon Library in Yorba Linda, CA.

Fred

March 4, 2006 09:24 PM Forum: Wildlife Photography

Florida Birds

Posted By Fred Lusk

I don't have a long enough lens to shoot birds. At least under normal circumstances. Here's some sort of shore bird I found at St Pete Beach, purposely underexposed to create a silhouette. This was taken about 90 minutes before sunset.

March 4, 2006 09:33 PM Forum: Wildlife Photography

More Florida Birds

Posted By Fred Lusk

My wife's second cousin's mother-in-law has a beach house on Little Gasparilla Island on the gulf coast. Here are a few shots of a pelican as we were boating around the sound inland of the island. Olympus E-1 and 14-54 mm lens.

March 4, 2006 09:45 PM Forum: Wildlife Photography

Lake Okeechobee Seagull

Posted By Fred Lusk

During my trip to Florida in January I drove down to Lake O. I knew it wasn't going to be really scenic, but I like lakes and always wanted to see this big one. At the north end of the lake there is a T-head pier for viewing, and I suppose fishing. The wind was probably blowing 20+ mph. A seagull decided to show off for my by hovering in the wind about 10 to 20 feet from me.

Here's a few shots of the seagull. The first one is a full frame, the rest are crops of the bird. All were taken with an Olympus E-1 and 14-54 mm lens. This was my first attempt to use the continuous autofocus feature. As long as I tracked the bird (not easy) it worked pretty well.

March 4, 2006 10:07 PM Forum: Insects - Flowers and Other Small Stuff - Photos

Not Flowers

Posted By Fred Lusk

These aren't flowers, but they look a bit like flower.

Here's a chandelier taken from underneath. It's at the Nixon Library in Yorba Linda, CA, in the replica of the White House's East Room.

March 8, 2006 06:06 AM Forum: Birding Optics and Photos

Some birds in the Wildlife Forum

Posted By Fred Lusk

Greetingsā€¦

I've not ventured to the Birding Forum before. Several days ago I posted some bird photos in the Wildlife Forum from a recent trip to Florida. I'm more of a landscape photographer and this was my first attempt to photograph birds. Another Astromarter suggested posting the photos here, but rather than take up more server space, I thought I would just mention where they are. I would appreciate comments from the experts here. Tracking moving birds is challenging and worth more tries.

Thanks,
Fred