Wildlife is pretty quiet these days in the heat of summer, but my hollyhocks are happy! And I have a new lens to play with, a Rokinon 8mm f/3.5 fisheye. Wow, is this fun! My first impression: it's surprisingly sharp for a relatively cheap lens. I am impressed. Manual focus only, and I got the newer version, with the auto-aperture chip.
It's a DX lens, but my Nikon D810 can accommodate these; all I had to do was switch to DX mode in the menu. It produces a smaller file than I get from shooting full frame, of course, but that isn't a problem, as the D810 has pixels to spare. I am looking forward to seeing what it can do with a starry sky - the new moon, when the sky is darkest, will be on July 23rd, and several nights both before and after should be good.
Photographed in Val Marie, Saskatchewan. Don't use this image on websites, blogs, or other media without explicit permission © 2017 James R. Page - all rights reserved.
Tags: Hollyhocks flowers pink vertical house fisheye Rokinon 8mm fun beauty beautiful garden plants Val Marie Saskatchewan Canada copyrighted James R. Page
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This is my backyard garden - or rather, the garden and house as it looked three years ago. Since then I have replaced my roof and added proper eavestroughs, and some of the tiny trees that I planted - barely visible in this photo - have grown a few feet and I now have to look up at them. The house is a work in progress. It was built about 90 years ago and is small but solid.
That summer, 2017, was our first drought year of the current cycle. The grass was yellow by July, which did not happen this past summer - it stayed green well into September and required constant trimming and mowing, which I kept up with until my 5 week trip to BC. When I got home it was out of control. But nobody here cares. I live in a place where uniformity is not expected.
Most summers I grow garlic, onions, peas, beans, beets, carrots, potatoes, lettuce, spinach, cucumbers, squashes, tomatoes, sunflowers, basil, tarragon, oregano, and a smattering of other things. Some of this stuff freezes well, and I make my own marinara sauce and freeze that: it's like opening bottled sunshine in January.
But I also love to photograph the insects that are attracted to my garden. This shot is intended as a lead-in to my next set: insects. I try to plant flowers that will attract bees and hoverflies. Meanwhile... I've already begun looking through seed catalogues. I can usually start planting around late April. The garlic has to be planted in October, then heavily mulched with leaves and covered with plastic sheeting, to lie dormant beneath the winter snow. New shoots are visible when I uncover it in April. I usually find spinach, too, that has managed to overwinter, and thus will produce organic salad for me very early in the growing season.
Photographed in Val Marie, Saskatchewan (Canada). Don't use this image on websites, blogs, or other media without explicit permission © 2017 James R. Page - all rights reserved.
Tags: garden house my place home vegetable garden organic healthy tomatoes peas beans prairie village Rokinon 8 mm fisheye lens Val Marie Saskatchewan Canada copyrighted James R. Page
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Saskatchewan is known for wheat, but farmers here also grow a lot of mustard, canola, flax, and other crops - including chick peas and field peas. Most crops have been hit hard by the extremely dry summer we're having in the southwest part of the province. I thought these were chickpeas but I was in error - they are field peas.
It isn't the worst mistake I've ever made. Years ago, I misidentified a Swainson's Hawk, thinking it was a Prairie Falcon. That got into print and a magazine subscriber from Texas jumped right on it with some pointed comments that not only corrected me but called my integrity into question. But a mistake is just a mistake! Luckily, he overreached, and I was able to show him up as being unnecessarily aggressive. Lesson learned. Obviously not well enough :-)
At any rate, I stopped along a back road last week to test my new 8mm Rokinon lens. I positioned myself about a foot away from the closest plant, which I used to block the sun. After basic processing in CS6, I still wasn't happy with the colour, so I tried one of the analog filters in Nik Effects, "Kodachrome", and presto! - the green popped off the screen. I doubt that the real Kodachrome emulsions would have given me this rendition, but I'll take it.
Still learning how to use this lens.
Photographed along Hillandale Road, near Val Marie, Saskatchewan. Don't use this image on websites, blogs, or other media without explicit permission © 2017 James R. Page - all rights reserved.
Tags: legume pulse crop green growing field backlit prairie farming agriculture agricultural food production thriving dry summer bumper crop Rokinon 8mm fisheye Nic Effects Val Marie Saskatchewan Canada copyrighted James R. Page field peas
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Tove is a greyhound and when outside he runs like the wind. Indoors, this is what you get.
My friend Judith rescued him a number of years ago from a bad situation. He's a wonderful dog, very gentle. Photographed with the Rokinon 8mm fisheye and my one DX camera body, the Nikon D7100, in Val Marie, Saskatchewan.
Don't use this image on websites, blogs, or other media without explicit permission © 2017 James R. Page - all rights reserved.
Tags: dog greyhound resting couch potato cabin cozy Rokinon 8mm fisheye wide indoors inside house Val Marie Saskatchewan Canada copyrighted James R. Page
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I have a fondness for small town movie theatres, even though I stopped going to movies regularly a number of years ago. This one is in Shaunavon, Saskatchewan.
Am still learning how to use the Rokinon 8mm. If some of the lines appear bent, that's my learning curve.
Don't use this image on websites, blogs, or other media without explicit permission © 2017 James R. Page - all rights reserved.
Tags: movie theatre movie house cinema movies theatre brick building sidewalk street small town buildings prairie Rokinon 8mm fisheye lens learning curve Shaunavon Saskatchewan Canada copyrighted James R. Page Explored
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