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Dolphins of Cape May

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The dolphin is one of my favorite animals, though I’m not exactly going out on a limb by saying that. I mean, who doesn’t love dolphins? I’ve been on a few whale/dolphin watching cruises, which are a great way to see them in their natural habitat, but in Cape May I don’t even need to leave the beach because it is quite common to see dolphins swimming offshore.

During my most recent visit a couple of weeks ago, I managed to capture some of them with my camera. The photos are bit grainy and soft because of how far away the dolphins were and how much of the images I had to crop, but they still turned out pretty well considering. You can click on any image to view a larger version.

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Birds of Cape May

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Anyone who has spent much time in Cape May, NJ knows that it is a great spot for bird watching, particularly along the various nature trails. I’ve hiked the trails in the past, but not with a camera like my Nikon D5100, which is capable of capturing in-motion shots I had never before dreamed possible. I love this camera.

Here are a few of my favorite bird photos from our trip to Cape May a couple of weeks ago. You can click on any image to see a bigger version.

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100 Followers . . . and a Facebook Page

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My blog just passed the 100-follower milestone this week, which is pretty amazing to me. I never expected anyone outside of a few family members to read any of my posts–and I even have trouble getting them to follow me. 🙂

This blog has come a long way from the single follower it had back in December, and I am grateful to everyone who has visited. My previous efforts at writing blogs usually began with a burst of output that slowly trickled down to the occasional post before finally becoming the internet version of a ghost town. This time, however, your readership has motivated me to continue producing content. It really does make a difference when you know that your writing is finding an audience, and I have all of you to thank for that.

But more than getting my own writing out there, I’ve also discovered some awesome blogs that I now follow and I have enjoyed interacting with bloggers in the community who share my interests. It has been a great experience.

To celebrate my milestone, I’ve decided to heed the advice of some of my fellow bloggers on how to build my audience by creating a Facebook page as a supplement to this blog. I resisted having a Facebook page for the longest time, but I figure the time has come to give it a go. In addition to showcasing my own posts, this page will enable me to spotlight posts of interest from my fellow bloggers, and I also plan to share other relevant items that may not be right for the main blog, as well as additional photos related to my travel posts.

If you’d like to follow me on Facebook, you can do so by clicking the ‘like’ button in the right column, or you can check out the page at https://www.facebook.com/michaelanthonyrappa.

Thank you once again for your readership!

Hiking the D&R Canal

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An HDR photo of the D&R Canal

Last weekend my wife and I went for a late afternoon hike along the Delaware & Raritan Canal in Princeton. Despite living in this area for almost 15 years, this was our first ever visit–we didn’t know what we had been missing. The canal trail is filled with beautiful scenery along the water, interesting animal and plant life, and pretty nature trails off the main path. It is a very popular canoeing destination, with rentals available near the entrance where we parked. I think we’ll try one of those on our next visit.

For photography, going near the end of the day was a perfect time. There are fewer people on the trails and fewer canoes in the water, making for some gorgeous reflections on the canal and great photo opportunities in general.

Here are a few of my favorite shots, all taken with my Nikon D5100 using a Sigma 18-250mm F3.5-6.3 DC Macro OS HSM zoom lens, which has proven to be incredibly versatile for everything from macros to wide angles and telephoto shots. I have been very pleased with the performance of this lens, and since I am not a professional photographer concerned with optimum quality, I may never need to change my lens again.

For these photos I decided to abandon the safety of the automatic modes and shoot almost exclusively in Aperture Priority, which is still a learning process for me (though a few of the macro photos were shot in the auto macro mode). Click on any image to view a larger version.

And one final shot, a panorama. I really miss the “panorama assist” function of my old camera, but this one didn’t come out too badly for shooting it manually.

z_canal_panorama

Playing With My Nikon (sounds dirty)

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My very first SLR camera, the Nikon D5100, arrived last week and I took it out for a spin. I still have a lot to learn about the camera so I’m mostly shooting in auto and scene modes with jpeg quality. I’d eventually like to shoot exclusively in RAW to take advantage of the extra detail (my old camera took too long to write RAW photos to the card so I used it sparingly), but I’m still experimenting with the best approach for post-processing, so for now jpeg will suffice.

This first set of photos were shot in Allentown, NJ with the kit lens.

I’m digging the low-light performance.
I’m not positive but this one may have been taken with the in-camera HDR setting.

The photo below takes advantage of the camera’s selective color effect. I know I could probably achieve the same thing in photoshop, but I think it’s pretty cool that I can do it in-camera.

The next two photos were taken after my new Sigma 18-250mm zoom lens arrived. I wanted something versatile for traveling so that I can avoid having to change lenses and I think this will meet my needs (I love how fast it focuses). It even has a short minimum focusing distance, which allows me to take macro-type photos like the ones below:

Tiny green bug on a flower petal looking back at the camera.

Now that I have a good SLR camera it might be time to take this hobby to the next level and enroll in a photography class…

Comet Pan-STARRS

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On March 23rd there was finally a clear enough sky in Central Jersey to try and get a good view of Comet Pan-STARRS.  I had managed to view it with my binoculars a week-and-a-half ago through some trees near my house but it would have been impossible to photograph, so I had to bide my time and wait for the weather to cooperate.

There are not many good viewing locations in my area so I took a ten-minute ride to Mercer County Park and walked down to the pier on the lake waterfront.  The comet was too faint to see with the naked eye (I had to use binoculars), but my camera was able to pick it up. It would have been nice if I could have photographed it two weeks ago when it was brighter, but these shots are better than nothing.

All photos were taken with my Panasonic FZ40, which has fairly decent night shooting capability for a point-and-shoot, but still produces more noise than an SLR would.

First view of the comet (center of the photo).

It’s a shame about the power lines, but I still like the views of the comet over the water.

This was only a couple of minutes after the first shot and
it had already descended to almost touch the power line.

The temperature was supposedly in the low 40’s (Fahrenheit) but the wind made it feel more like the low 30’s. By the time I got to the next few photos I could barely feel my right hand (I had to keep removing my glove to work the camera). It was also a little creepy out there in an empty park in the dark, but I persevered. 🙂

This shot shows the comet as a big streak because
the camera was zoomed in with a 60-second exposure.
That’s how much it moved in a minute.
Not a great shot of the comet, but I liked the effect of the airplane streaking across the sky.

I’ll leave you with a couple of shots that don’t have much to do with the comet but they were taken on the same night.

An accidental wide shot, but I liked it so I kept it.
The comet is actually visible as a tiny dot above and to the right of the center power line tower.
This is an 8-second exposure sunset shot I took while I was waiting for the comet.

Supermoon

Michael RappaLeave a comment

I decided to add a Photography section to this blog for showcasing some of my favorite photos.  I’m not a professional by any stretch of the imagination, but I love to take pictures, and some of them actually come out not terrible. 🙂

In honor of the arrival of Comet Pan-STARRS, which I hope to have the opportunity to photograph over the next week, I thought I’d kick things off with an astronomy-themed photo: the supermoon from March of 2011, photographed in my front yard with my Panasonic FZ-40.  It does a pretty good job for a non-DSLR camera.

Netx up: Pan-STARRS [fingers crossed], and in November: ISON!

Looking Back…

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I wrote this four years ago.  You may think it naive but, for many reasons, my belief in its spirit was renewed last night.  Or, to quote another Beatle, “You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one.”

Beautiful Day

I wake up on November 5th, 2008
And look out the window.
Dark clouds loom overhead
But my eyes see a bright blue sky.

I open my front door
And walk into the morning.
A chilly rain beats down
But my skin basks in the glow of a blazing sun.

In the words of Harrison:
It’s been a long cold lonely winter
But here comes the sun
And I say it’s all right.

Is this possible?
Can we as a people change
A bitter frost
Into a warm summer breeze?

Yes we can.