COMBINING BOTH PASSIONS

VINYL RECORD SHELF THROUGH THE GLASS

Beside photography I enjoy listening to music from my collection of vinyl records, especially after return from a business trip or a long drive by car. Last night I just combined both passions. While the music of Fela Ransome Kuti’s LP ”Open & Close” from 1970 filled the room, I lined up my glass with the edge of the rug and the table and looked for a nice magnification effect of the vinyl records in the glass. Some new LED light bulbs in the lamps above the record shelf create a different light intensity than before and it gave me the idea for this photo.

ICE STORM (THE UPSIDE)

We are still dealing with the outcome of a big ice storm with freezing rain that hit us last night and today. I probably could host a bob sled race here in our drive way…😉  With all the negative impacts it brings for the people it also comes with a certain beauty. Nobody likes icy roads, electrical power lines down, or falling trees, but the glass-like look of tree branches bares some photo opportunities. A small adjustable LED light, set to 5000 Kelvin, was used to bring out some colors in the yew bushes that grow in front of the house.

The second photo was made on the balcony already last night when the ice cover was still growing. The power of two LED lights, that we use to illuminate the deck if necessary, comes from behind the camera. All the boards overhead that support a climbing vine plant  had this gallery of icicles. I shot this with ISO 10000, something I have never done before. The Nikon Z6II does a very good job for noise reduction in general, but of course at ISO 10000 there was noticeable noise in the picture. Since a few months I use Topaz DeNoise AI in my post-processing workflow whenever necessary for an image. The noise in this photo was most visible on the illuminated boards in the background. I’m amazed about the results, even at such a high ISO level, with no noise left and the icicles remained sharp and unaffected.