Posts Tagged ‘HP’

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Aug
16
2010

Coyote Crops

Blame it on the HP.  ‘The pictures on your blog are too small’, says the HP.  This in reference to the May 20, 2010 entry.  I respond that they are the standard size (which is about 520px by 347 px, in a frame template).  ‘But, you can’t see what the coyote is eating’, adds the HP.  I explain that I don’t usually publish cropped images, since it’s kind of poor form (a mild understatement in some quarters).  The look.  The look that says, ‘What, another silly rule from your geek-photographer cronies?’  Cronies?  I don’t even have any cronies…  Hmm.

So I sort of forget about the discussion.  Not for long though.  Two days later the HP says, ‘So, did you make up some close-ups of the coyote?’ Not yet sweets.  ‘You should do that so people can see what the coyote is eating’, the HP responds.  There are choices.  I make the correct one.  The results are shown above and below.

So what does the HP think of the cropped images?  ‘Ewww! Cool!’  Yep, blame it all on the HP.

The cropped images of the coyote and some partially consumed rodents were recorded at around noon on May 20, 2010, in the Hayden Valley of Yellowstone National Park using the Nikon D3s and the AF-S NIKKOR 200-400mm f/4G ED VR lens at 400mm.  Exposures were all at f/8 with a shutter speed of around 1/2000s, ISO at 1600.  All shots were made handheld.  I’m not aware of any lens that is better suited to general wildlife photography than the 200-400mm VR.  It is not light by any means (~7 lbs), nor is it the sharpest lens at long distance, but the ability to shoot handheld is indispensable.

The official map of Yellowstone National Park may be found here.

A Google Earth image of the Hayden Valley appears below:

Copyright 2010 Peter F. Flynn. No usage permitted without prior written consent. All rights reserved.

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Posted in National Parks and Monuments, Wildlife Photography | 2 Comments »

Jul
01
2010

Yellowstone Diary: May 17, 2010

The third day of our trip to Yellowstone National Park started with a visit to the West Thumb of Yellowstone Lake.  This area includes West Thumb Geyser Basin, Grant Village, and of course the eponymous extent of Yellowstone Lake.  Although smaller in total area than either the Upper Geyser Basin or the Midway Geyser Basin, West Thumb Geyser Basin boasts a number of excellent thermal features including Abyss Pool and Black Pool on the northern edge of the central basin; Fishing Cone on the Yellow Lake side of the central basin; Seismograph and Bluebell Pools on the southern edge of the basin; and the springs along the center line of the basin including Surging Spring, Percolating Spring, Ephedra Spring and Blue Funnel Spring.  All of these features may be easily visited over short distances along two concentric boardwalk loops.

The image above of Abyss Pool, was recorded at 10:00 MDT on May 17, 2010, using the Nikon D3s and the AF-S NIKKOR 24-70mm f/2.8G ED lens at 24mm.  Exposure was f/16 and 1/30s (+1 EV), ISO 200.  Polarizer used to cut the reflection from the hot spring.  Abyss Pool is a very deep and remarkably beautiful spring, unique even amongst superlative thermal features.

The image above of Fishing Cone Geyser was recorded at 10:26 MDT using the D3s and the 24-70mm standard zoom at  60mm.  Exposure was f/16 and 1/50s (+0.67 EV), ISO 200.  Polarizer.  The origins of the name of this famous thermal feature derive from tales told by mountain men who boasted of a lake in which one could catch a fish, and then immediately dunk it into hot spring, cooking it right on the hook.   As you can plainly see in the image above, Yellowstone Lake was still capped with several inches of slushy ice, and there was only about 20-50 feet of water between shore and the ice.  In spite of the shortage of clear water, what was available was enough to entice otters out for a swim.

In high season the West Thumb area is extremely popular, however this early in the year you will find only minimal services, e.g.,  just gasoline and a small convenience store.

After visiting the West Thumb area, we backtracked northwest along the highway to visit the Midway and Lower Geyser Basin areas.  Although these areas have fewer geysers, the ones that are found here are relatively active.  The springs are the best in the park, and include the singly most beautiful thermal feature found anywhere on the planet, the Grand Prismatic Spring.  Finally, the paint pots found here round out the roster of amazing thermal attributes that exist in this part of the caldera (I’ll try to patch in pics of both the spring and mud pots in future entries)

The image above of Spasm Geyser was recorded at 15:35 MDT using the Nikon D3s and the (new) AF-S NIKKOR 70-200mm f/2.8G ED VR II at 120mm.  Exposure was f/13 and 1/1600s (+0.67 EV), ISO 1600. Polarizer.

We spent the late afternoon along the Madison River, where we were most privileged to observe bison crossing the Madison River in search of the very finest YNP graze.  The image below of the HP confirms that she’s enjoying the awesome opportunity to photograph these grand animals in their natural environment.  Note that the HP is sporting the D300 – shot a bunch of excellent images  too- stay tuned for a guest entry.

Not only do the adult animals wander back and forth across the river at will, but calves also make the excursion.  The crossing of a calf is attended by no fewer than 3-4 cows, who first nose the calf into the water, and then wade across the river on the downstream side, harboring the calf and preventing it from descending too rapidly in the current.  I was completely unprepared for the sophistication with which the bison herds carry out their daily business.  The composite image shown below was recorded at about 18:15 MDT using the D3s and the AF-S VR Zoom- NIKKOR 200-400mm f/4G IF-ED at 400mm.  Exposures were in the neighborhood of f/11 and 1/640s, ISO 3200.  No noise reduction employed in these images.

Copyright 2010 Peter F. Flynn. No usage permitted without prior written consent. All rights reserved.

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Mar
27
2010

A Desert Unicorn

Desert Bighorn Sheep are a common sight along the Zion-Mount Carmel Highway in the eastern side of Zion National  Park.  I believe it is because most of the better browse lies more or less near to the road – not that I eat much of it myself – but the Sheep do seem to favor the green bits emerging from the Gambel Oak that is abundant along the roadside.

Desert Bighorn are approximately half the size of their Rocky Mountain cousins, but they are nevertheless a noble breed, and quite fascinating to watch.  An excellent document summarizing the management history of Utah Desert Bighorns, compiled by the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, is available here.

The image above was recorded on March 27, 2010, at 14:00 MDT using the Nikon D300, the AF-S VR Zoom-NIKKOR 200-400mm f/4G IF-ED lens at 400mm, *and* the new AF-S Teleconverter TC-20E III.  Add that all up, Dear Friends, and you have 1200mm effective.  Exposure was f/8 and 1/1600s, ISO at 800.  This is not a stable setup focusing-wise, and even in the bright early afternoon light the yield of usable images is not great.  Still, until Nikon puts a few more 600mm f/4 lenses on the market, it’s a reasonable workaround for big game photography.  If you are cruising in the early morning you will have to keep a keen eye out to spot them, but by 10 am or so the cars stopped in front of you will alert you to their presence.

The HP thinks that the young Desert Bighorn shown above has a fanciful, kinda Unicorn-like appearance, a Desert Unicorn!  BTW, the HP is an awesome sheep-spotter…unicorn-spotter…whatever…

Copyright 2010 Peter F. Flynn. No usage permitted without prior written consent. All rights reserved.

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Mar
20
2010

Lunch Guests

I’m working downstairs framing-up some images when I hear the HP upstairs yelling something…  The house rule is that if you cannot see the other guy, they cannot hear you, so this must be a special.  I wander upstairs, ‘What?  What?’  ‘There’s deer in the backyard’, says the HP.   Cool, another chance to try out the tack-sharp 200-400 zoom.

Mule deer frequently visit the backyard of Don Pedro and the HP to munch on the HP’s plants.  A bit odd though, for a pair to visit on the day before the vernal equinox in the early afternoon – must still be snowed over up high.

The image above was recorded at 15:30 MST using the Nikon D3s and the AF-S VR Zoom-NIKKOR 200-400mm f/4G IF-ED lens at either 400mm (above) or at 200mm (below) .  Exposure was f/8 at 1/2000s, ISO at 800 – Hey I didn’t know what the light would be like outside.  And the lens does not disappoint, super sharp, excellent bokeh, great color depth, awesome all around.

Copyright 2010 Peter F. Flynn. No usage permitted without prior written consent. All rights reserved.

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Feb
17
2010

A Moment in Time Recovered

Whether it’s a box of photos, or pages in an album, to a keen archivist it’s the challenge of the undiscovered country, a set of visions created by dear friends or relatives, to be rendered in modern digital terms.

The image above represents three generations.  On the left is Meredith, her mother Helen in the middle, and her mother-in-law, Margaret, on the right.  Standing behind her mother and grandmothers is the HP as a young lady.  This is just an awesome composition, but what attracts me most to this image is the HP’s classic Mona Lisa smile, and those eyes.

My father in law, Carl J. (Joe), was an inspired shooter,  who has left his family with a great wealth of images.  Joe shot using a number of formats, including Kodak 126 format and and 35mm, with output rendered at the local photo mill standards of the time.  The image above was recorded using a Praktica 35mm camera.  The source image for the restoration, shown below, was a scan of the printed image generated using an HP ScanJet at 1200 dpi – yes, there are better scanners, but honestly, I’m not certain that they help much.

The image was scanned into RGB colorspace.  Contrast was enhanced by adding a curves adjustment to the individual red and green channels.  The image was then converted to BW,  and the contrast then further enhanced using Nik Silver Efex Pro.  Noise and dust were removed a combination of the Clone Stamp and Healing Brush tools in Photoshop CS4.  In practice I find that regions that have a constant tone are most efficiently repaired using the Clone Stamp tool, whereas the Healing Brush tool generally works better on regions that contain complex patterns.  In all cases, keeping the brush size as small as possible generally produces the most favorable results.

The heavy lifting in this image was the removal of an outdoor service outlet along the wall just above and to the right of the head of little HP.  I cloned in a replacement seam from the set of shakes that lies to the right of where that service outlet exists using the Clone Stamp tool.  Reasonably convincing if I do say so myself.

If you are serious about image recovery, there are a number of excellent published texts on the subject.  My current working texts are Scott Kelby’s ‘The Adobe Photoshop CS4 Book for Digital Photographers’,  Katrin Eismann’s (with Wayne Palmer) ‘Photoshop Restoration and Retouching’, and Ctein’s ‘Digital Restoration from Start to Finish, Second Edition: How to repair old and damaged photographs’.

Copyright 2010 Peter F. Flynn. No usage permitted without prior written consent. All rights reserved.

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Feb
13
2010

The Wave Experience

If you follow photoblogs like this one at all, you will certainly have heard of ‘The Wave’.  I’ll argue that it’s not just a place, but more of an experience sort of thing.  Among other things, it is an adventure….

For many, the adventure begins with the quest for a permit.  The Wave is part of a specially designated section of Vermillion Cliffs National Monument known as Coyote Buttes North, and legal access requires you to obtain a permit.  Permits are available through an online application , however the competition for these is fierce.  The only option for many folks is to show up at the BLM Paria Contact Station by 9 AM (that’s Utah time) to participate in the permit lottery.  The ranger station opens at 8:30 AM and the rangers accept applications from the hopefuls, of which there typically 30+.  At 9 AM a bingo cage is set up and loaded with tokens for each application.  Note that permits corresponding to 10 persons total will be awarded – the actual number of permits released depends on the number of people in each of the successful groups.

The image above, of the HP in The Wave, was recorded at 09:53 MST on August 27, 2009, using the Nikon D700 and the AF-S NIKKOR 14-24mm f/2.8G ED lens at 17mm.  Exposure was f/16 at 1/200s, ISO 200.  One of the most surprising features of The Wave is just how small it is – maybe 100 meters square or so.  For this reason, although I am usually solidly against any sort of restrictions on access, I gotta go along with the permit system.

The date was August 26, 2009.  The room of literally full of people, a good fraction of whom are returnees from the previous day.  The HP and I were number 6.  The cage rolls, and a number chosen.  Is that 6 or 9?!!!  You gotta be kidding…6…we win on the first draw!  All those years of practicing good karma have finally paid off.  Now we can relax and see how the rest plays out.  Quite a lot of tension I must admit – resolved in the end into a mixture of joy and disappointment.  The odds are against you, and it’s a bit of a stunned feeling to be among the lucky few with winning numbers.  You have the rest of the day to contemplate your good fortune, since the permit is actually valid for the following day.

If it’s summer, and the weather is seasonal, you had better get an early start.  You will be in the open on sand or sandstone the entire day, and there is no shade anywhere.  Yeah, I suppose you could lay on the ground under a juniper bush, but that is just plain undignified.  No matter how prepared you think you are, I can assure you that you are inadequately prepared.  The rangers advise one gallon of water per person or the day.  Seems like a lot you are thinking… If you bring that much you will return to your car feeling like you are dying of thirst – if you bring less, you may actually be.  No joke, this place is as potentially deadly as it is beautiful.  Depending on your pace, it will take you between an hour and two hours to reach The Wave.  The final stretch takes you up a steep sandstone face that is covered with sand, and the tough going guarantees that you will need a short rest before you enter The Wave proper.

The image above, of the main body of The Wave, was recorded at 10:17 MST on August 27, 2007, using the Nikon D700 and the AF-S NIKKOR 14-24mm f/2.8G ED lens at 15mm.  Exposure was f/16 at 1/200s, ISO 200 (-0.67 EV).  This shot was made from a position a bit deeper into the main body than the previous shot that includes the HP (or maybe it should now be The HP).

I will divide The Wave into six areas; the antechamber, the main body, the grandstand, the cheapseats, the Wave2, and the backrooms.  As suggested by its name, the antechamber is the entrance to The Wave, and is among the most exciting parts of  The Wave experience.  It’s not just that it comes first, although that is clearly a big part of it, but the antechamber is beautiful in its own right, and the view looking north from its southern end is as good as it gets.  The main body of The Wave is just that.  Please do not linger in the main body.  There are no very good angles to shoot there, and you will totally mess up everyone else’s shot.  On the day we visited The Wave, a kooky little  French clown in red converse high-tops danced around in there for about 30 mins shooting freehand until a chorus of photographers chased him out.

The grandstand is where most of the photographers will be setup, and for reference is the point from which most published images of The Wave are/were shot.  It can get a bit crowded here, but most shooters are polite, and rotate positions often enough so that everyone gets a chance to make a memorable image.  The Wave2 is well worth a visit too, and although it lacks the intense color variations found in the The Wave, has deeper striations that are best complemented by the morning light – I said to get an early start, right?  The backrooms are all of the areas which lie south of The Wave and the grandstand and a bit east of The Wave2.

The image above, of the grandstand area shot from the cheapseats, was recorded at about 13:15 MST on August 27, 2009, using the Nikon D700 and the AF-S NIKKOR 24-70mm f/2.8G ED lens at 26mm.  Exposure was f/16 at 1/125s, ISO 200 (-0.67 EV).

I hope that you find these notes useful on your experience in The Wave.

An image of the Coyote Buttes North area appear below courtesy of Google Earth.  The entire route is shown, starting with entrance to the Buckskin Gulch near the top, to The Wave, towards the bottom  middle of the image.  The North Teepees; which are outside of the special permit zone, are to the right of The Wave.

Copyright 2010 Peter F. Flynn. No usage permitted without prior written consent. All rights reserved.

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Jan
10
2010

A Rainbow Turned to Stone

A visit to Rainbow Bridge National Monument is one of those trips that proves the adage about the  journey being as important as the goal.  To be sure, it does take a bit of commitment to get to the Bridge, e.g., a five-hour, 50 mile, boat trip over Lake Powell, but it is a day that will fill your skull with most excellent memories.

The bridge is 294 feet high, measured from the base to the top of the span, and 275 feet wide.  The top of the span is 45 feet thick and 33 feet wide.  One of world’s largest natural spans is thus curiously massive.  Recall that bridges are distinct from arches in that bridges are formed by the action of flowing water, in this case carving out Navajo Sandstone.  The bed of the ancient river that formed the bridge is still very apparent, but in recent history the only significant water that you might find in it comes from the (sometimes) rising waters of Lake Powell.

The composite, highly processed, HDR image above was recorded at approximately 16:45 MST on August 28, 2009, using the Nikon D700 and the AF-S NIKKOR 14-24mm f/2.8G ED lens at 19mm (FX).  Exposure was f/16, and shutter speeds to cover 4 EV.  Two source images were generated using Photomatix Pro 3.2.7: one was created using the Tone Mapping method, and the other generated using on Detail Enhancer method.  The two images were blended together using Photoshop CS4.  My goal was to generate a final image that captured the sense of magic about the place, and for this reason I allowed the fanciful, illustrative feel of the Detail Enhanced HDR image to show through a bit.  GPS coordinates at the position where the images were recorded were 37,4.7403N, 110,59.9628W.  GPS positions in this entry were all made using the Nikon GP1, which pretty much lives on the D700.

The image above, of Wahweap Marina at Lake Powell, was recorded at 10:43 MST, using the Nikon D700 and the AF-S NIKKOR 24-70mm lens at 44mm.  Exposure was f/16 at 1/125s, ISO 200.  Coordinates were 36,58.485N, 111,29.3835W.

We began our trip to Rainbow Bridge out of Wahweap Marina aboard the Desert Shadow.  There are both all-day and half-day cruises to the Bridge, and we opted for the half-day afternoon adventure that left at 12:30 and returned at ~18:00 (MST).  It’s not inexpensive at over $120 per person, but it is a good value.  You can also hike to the Bridge, but it is a long trip (+10 miles), and you are required to obtain a permit from the Navajo Nation.

The image above was recorded at 13:40 MST, using the Nikon D700 and the AF-S NIKKOR 24-70mm f/2.8G ED lens at 24mm.  Exposure was f/16 and 1/250s, ISO 400.  Coordinates were 37,0.4536N, 111,27.4542W.

The boat trip itself is terrific.  The weather is reliably beautifully warm and dry, and the speed of the boat generates a lovely breeze on board.  The rock formations along the former course of the Colorado River are stunning, and constantly changing.  I could recommend the cruise alone.

At buoy 49 the boat ducks into the narrow and winding Forbidding Canyon, that leads in about 2 miles to a large floating courtesy dock that is maintained by the NPS.  The dock connects to dry land about 2 miles from the Bridge.

The image above of the HP about to traverse between the Rainbow Bridge trail and the boat dock, was recorded at 17:00 MST, using the Nikon D700 and the AF-S 14-24mm f2.8G ED lens at 22mm.  Exposure was f/16 at 1/50s, ISO 800.  Coordinates were 37,4.7644N, 110,58.0831W.

The image above, of Dominguez Butte and the Crossing of the Fathers, was recorded on August 28, 2009, at 18:20 MST, using the Nikon D700 and the AF-S NIKKOR 24-70mm f/2.8G ED at 24mm.  Exposure was f/11 at 1/500 and ISO 400.  Coordinates were 37,2.3442N, 111,17.2227W.  This image was recorded late in the afternoon on the return trip to Wahweap Marina – beautiful light.  It would be nearly impossible to tell at the scale at which the image is rendered, but the moon lies just a bit above dead-center.

And finally, here’s an image of the HP and the Dude, near a rainbow turned to stone.

An NASA image of Rainbow Bridge National Monument taken by the Iknonos satellite appears below:

Copyright 2010 Peter F. Flynn. No usage permitted without prior written consent. All rights reserved.

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Aug
11
2009

Our Backyard, Our Zoo

A Buck in the Backyard!

Right, so mostly I’m perfectly happy to cede ‘nature photography’ to the experts… To clarify, my definition of ‘nature photography’ is capturing all of the messy bio-stuff that lives in the places where I like to shoot pics. Rocks, landscape, and such are perfectly natural, and yet not ‘nature’.  Nature is alive.  Nature has an attitude…

So the young buck wanders into the Flynn territory looking  for a free leaf-lunch.  The HP is lounging out the back, and spying the critter, decides that the best way to alert the ‘artist’ (otherwise hard at work creating the next masterpiece) is to ring through on the phone system intercom.  Beep!  Beep!  Beeeep!!!  ‘What in the name of Jesus is that  awful noise’, I’m thinking.  Dude, this is totally interrupting my creative amazingness!  I wander upstairs, ‘Yes sweety, you rang?’.  ‘Shhhh!!!, look!’, whispers the HP.  Scan…  ‘Oh, yeah, hey, that’s a big one alright!’, sez ma.  ‘Get your camera!!!”, sez the HP.  I’m thinking, ‘Man…it’s another one of those crappy uncooperative wild animals’, but decide to stow the whine and carry on with the shooting of a few pics.

The image above was made at around noon(!!!) on August 9, 2009 using the Nikon D300 and the AF-S VR Zoom-NIKKOR 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6G IF-ED at 155mm, about 230mm effective in the DX.  The exposure was f/8 at 1/1000s, and ISO 400.  Minimal processing.

And of course it’s bloody-awful.  Damnable creature has no sense of style at all, and wanders back and forth along a margin between deadly dark shadow and brilliant sunlight, very cunningly keeping me from getting a proper shot in even light.  Well done animal, you win…this time!

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Aug
01
2009

All Along the Transept

The Transept Trail runs westward from the North Rim Lodge into Transept Canyon – all at the north rim of the Grand Canyon.  So, what’s a transept?  Right, properly-speaking it’s the part of classical cruciform Christian church architecture that crosses between the nave and sanctuary, but in this case the term must be used in a generical form to indicate a minor corridor that crosses or emanates from a more significant space.  Anyway, it’s a lovely walk in the trees, with strategical view points dotting the path.  Note the smoke from a fire on the south rim – look along the horizon about 1/3 from the right edge.  Near sunset, the shadows creep into Transept Canyon well before the sun actually dives below the horizon – a perfect test of HDR techniques.

View from the Transept Trail

The image above was recorded on July 17 at about 18:00 MST, using the Nikon D700 and the AF-S NIKKOR 24-70mm f/2.8G ED at 31mm.  The seven images used to generate the HDR image were recorded f/16 at 1/80s (0 EV), 1/640s (-3 EV), 1/320s (-2 EV), 1/160s (-1 EV), 1/40s (+1 EV), 1/20s (+2 EV), and 1/10s (+3 EV).  The HDR image was generated using Photomatix Pro 3.1, with tone mapping conducted using the detail enhancer mode with the following settings:

Luminosity: 0

Strength 95

ColorSaturation: 46

WhiteClip: 0.249450

BlackClip: 0.000000

Smoothing: Very High

Microcontrast: 6

Microsmoothing: 2

Gamma: 1.000000

HighlightsSmoothing: 0

ShadowsSmoothing: 0

ShadowsClipping: 0

ColorTemperature: 0

SaturationHighlights: 0

SaturationShadows: 0

Additional processing was conducted using ACR 5.4 to adjust Recovery, Blacks, Clarity and Vibrance – and eliminate a few dust spots; and Photoshop to increase contrast and to enhance detail in the clouds using the ‘Overlay move’.

Oh, I nearly forgot.  Below, I include a shot of the HP enjoying the view over Transept Canyon:

The HP at Transept Canyon

This is the first use of the Nikon GP1 GPS encoder:  The coordinates of the site were recorded as follows:

Latitude: 36,12.1678N

Longitude: 112,3.561W

Altitude: 2493.00 m (8179 ft)

Time Stamp: 7/18/2009, 12:45 AM

Click on the thumbnail below for a Google Earth view of the location:

Transept Trail Google Earth Image

The GP1 works very well – if you start it up before you begin composing and checking exposure, etc., it locates satellites just about the time the first exposure is recorded.

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Mar
23
2009

Liberated!

As a break from the recent, relatively intense, technical discussions, I thought I’d liberate a few images from the photon-dungeon.  The shot below, of Mt. Hood in Oregon (obviously, obviously) was recorded on July 23, 2008 at 12:00 PST, using the D300 and AF-S DX Zoom-NIKKOR 12-24mm f/4G IF-ED at 24mm. The exposure was f/16 at 1/250s, ISO 200.

Mt. Hood and Some Boulders

The shot was made hand-held while crossing this snowfield on the trail from Timberline Lodge westward towards Paradise Park.  And yeah, some of those boulders are large – the one at right front was about 5 ft in diameter.  These boulders get dislodged during the melt and can get deposited in an unstable resting place – notice that the rocks are resting on *top* of  the snow.  One is advised to keep 0.5 of an eye on the them whilst passing their downhill side.

There was an unusual amount of snow at Mt. Hood – a lot more than normal.  The High Priestess and I had to travel first on snow, and then, when that became impractical, we had to ascend above the timberline and travel cross-country on the sandy soil above the timberline.

yellow_flowers_weather_wood1The image above, of a bed of arnica and a weathered old branch, was recorded at about 13:30 PST using the Nikon D300 and the AF-S DX NIKKOR 16-85mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR at 45mm. The exposure was f/16 at 1/200s, ISO 200.  Hand-held.

Mt. Hood and a Small MeadowThe image above, of a small meadow, was recorded at 14:00 PST using the Nikon D300 and the AF-S DX NIKKOR 16-85mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR at 26mm. The exposure was f/16 at 1/160s, ISO 200.  The shot was made hand-held, ’cause I didn’t think I would be able to do much with the image given the time of day.

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