I had an opportunity to visit the Cooper Gristmill in Chester, New Jersey on Memorial Day. The mill wasn't open, it was raining lightly and there was no one there but my wife and me. We were in the area on a mini-vacation and I put the mill on our list of destinations. We took a couple shots of us standing in front of the building before my wife went back to the car. I decided I couldn't leave without getting some shots of the wheel and water.
It wasn't raining hard but enough so that I put the camera in a "raincoat" that I had purchased a couple years ago and put it on a tripod. The camera was set to bracket -2/0/+2 for some HDR and I also set the timer to 10 second delay, 6 shots. While the camera was working I moved to take a different angle with my smartphone.
The image shown at the top is the finished smartphone shot - shot and edited entirely in Lightroom for mobile on my Galaxy J3v smartphone. The image below is a different angle showing my camera set-up with the raincoat. Unfortunately these are the only usable images from this outing. I failed to notice that the lens was set to manual focus and so everything is out-of-focus. I was using "live view" and didn't realize until I got home a couple days later and uploaded the card to my PC. It is am embarrassing mistake but a lesson learned. I will certainly never repeat that mistake!
For more information on the mill - check out their website at
Cooper Gristmill at Black River County Park
Note: for more information about Lightroom for Mobile you can read my post - Improve Your (mobile) Photography: Using Lightroom for Mobile.
If you are interested in purchasing a rain cover for your camera, here is the one that I used - Op/Tech 18" SLR Rainsleeve for Digital & Film Cameras with Lenses up to 7" Diameter, 18" Long. For a complete line of covers carried by Adorama, click here.
All photos are copyright Joseph S. Valencia All Rights Reserved They may not be used in any way without express written permission of the photographer. If you wish to use any of the photos you may contact the photographer at valencia32photo@gmail.com
I had an opportunity to visit the Cooper Gristmill in Chester, New Jersey on Memorial Day. The mill wasn't open, it was raining lightly and there was no one there but my wife and me. We were in the area on a mini-vacation and I put the mill on our list of destinations. We took a couple shots of us standing in front of the building before my wife went back to the car. I decided I couldn't leave without getting some shots of the wheel and water.
It wasn't raining hard but enough so that I put the camera in a "raincoat" that I had purchased a couple years ago and put it on a tripod. The camera was set to bracket -2/0/+2 for some HDR and I also set the timer to 10 second delay, 6 shots. While the camera was working I moved to take a different angle with my smartphone.
The image shown at the top is the finished smartphone shot - shot and edited entirely in Lightroom for mobile on my Galaxy J3v smartphone. The image below is a different angle showing my camera set-up with the raincoat. Unfortunately these are the only usable images from this outing. I failed to notice that the lens was set to manual focus and so everything is out-of-focus. I was using "live view" and didn't realize until I got home a couple days later and uploaded the card to my PC. It is am embarrassing mistake but a lesson learned. I will certainly never repeat that mistake!
For more information on the mill - check out their website at Cooper Gristmill at Black River County Park
I always figure when an additional factor is in play we make some errors. The rain and additional precautions I'm sure played into the manual focus setting not getting changed. Cool looking mill! I'm a fan of stone buildings.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Patricia! I like your reasoning - let's go with that! ;-)
DeleteI think part of the problem is that I was using my daughter's camera (a Canon) and I have been shooting the Nikon for so long I just wasn't paying close enough attention. I was also using the "LiveView" instead of the viewfinder - had I had the camera to my eye I would have noticed. Oh well, luckily the mill is only about 75 minutes from home and easy to go back to.