Tag: photography

Black hole

On By CarynIn photography
Photo description: trail cam photo with a black sun

Yes, it is April 1st, but this is a real photo from my digital trail camera. No, it is not the end of the world, the sun isn’t collapsing into a black hole, but there are quite a few things going on in this shot.

The sun looks black because it is so bright that it overloaded the sensors in the digital camera, which, when overwhelmed, sets the value to black instead of white. The white halo around the black dot is not bright enough to overload the sensor, but does washout the surrounding tree branches.

The rainbow rays shooting from the sun are a form of lens flare, and are an artificial artifact in photography, sometimes used deliberately for effect.

The amorphous white blob in the middle of the photo is most likely a sensor flare, where the bright sunlight reflects off the sensor then the lens, and then back to the sensor.

I don’t usually use my trail cam for avant-garde photography, so the fix for this was to make sure the camera wasn’t facing directly east or west so it wasn’t framing the rising or setting sun.

6 years

On By CarynIn art, Craft, photography
Photo caption: rusted iron spiral in the shape of a number 6

Today is the sixth anniversary of my blog! I did have a name change over that time from “of chickens and craft” to “critters and craft”. I do still have four chickens, and Wing Ding the Black Star hen is still laying eggs, even when there is snow on the ground, but things aren’t quite so chicken centric over here anymore. Now critters, we’re all about the critters, and making things.

The sixth year anniversary token is iron. I found a photo I took of old rusted farm equipment and did a little Photoshop magic. I like using AI generation to change the ratio of photos and fill backgrounds on my own photographs and work. No fleecing other artist’s work in a dodgy way, and it is hard to anticipate all the potential uses of a photo when the shutter snaps. The original photo is below.

Photo description: rusted iron spiral from old farm equipment sitting in the grass

I also appreciate the search function in photo apps. It is still improving, but it only took a minute to find this photo in my gallery with the search terms “rusty iron”.

Here’s to more posts on critters and craft!