I'm not here.

Copying geo data from one image to another.

bzimmer — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 04:30:09 +0000

In my last post I created a panorama by stitching a number of photographs together with DoubleTake. One problem with creating synthetic images is they lack the geo data I embed in the rest of the photographs from my GPS’ track log. I figured the always excellent exiftool could accomplish copying the data so it would be visible in Lightroom but I wasn’t entirely sure how. After some trial-and-error this worked:

$ exiftool -tagsfromfile Z09023676.dng -@ geotags.txt marmotpass.tiff

where geotags.txt is a list of all the tags to copy from the source image Z09023676.dng to the destination image marmotpass.tiff:

-EXIF:DateTimeOriginal
-EXIF:CreateDate
-EXIF:ModifyDate
-EXIF:TimeZoneOffset
-XMP:DateTimeOriginal
-XMP:DateTimeDigitized
-XMP:ModifyDate
-EXIF:GPSSatellites
-EXIF:GPSLatitude
-EXIF:GPSLongitude
-EXIF:GPSLatitudeRef
-EXIF:GPSLongitudeRef
-EXIF:GPSMapDatum
-EXIF:GPSDateStamp
-EXIF:GPSTimeStamp
-EXIF:GPSAltitude
-EXIF:GPSAltitudeRef
-XMP:GPSLatitude
-XMP:GPSLongitude
-XMP:GPSDateTime
-XMP:GPSAltitude
-XMP:GPSAltitudeRef
-XMP:CountryCode
-XMP:Country
-XMP:State
-XMP:City
-XMP:Location
-IPTC:Country-PrimaryLocationCode
-IPTC:Country-PrimaryLocationName
-IPTC:Province-State
-IPTC:City

If you forgot to turn on the GPS for some portion of the shoot (hmmm) but happened to shoot from the same location at another time, remove the date and time related fields and apply the same approach.

Marmot Pass, sunrise, mountains.

bzimmer — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 04:08:30 +0000

With clear weather and field reports of wildflowers in bloom, a friend and I decided to backpack up to Marmot Pass in the Olympics and spend some time shooting photos.

The plan was to hike to Camp Mystery, setup camp and then hike a bit further up to Marmot Pass to catch the sunset over the Olympics. So, under bright skies and in very warm weather we started up the mountain. The first couple miles of the hike hug the Big Quilcene River as the trail winds through the deep green PNW forest.

As we left the forest it was clear the trail reports weren’t wrong, the wildflowers were indeed out but not quite yet in prime season.

It was hot on Saturday and about a mile short of camp we decided to rest a bit, get some water and eat. The parking lot was packed when we started out and not knowing how much room there was at the campsite I was a little anxious about getting up the mountain. We passed by a lot of hikers descending, which gave me some confidence we’d have room, but we had a lot of company going up too. My buddy is in the blue shirt, the rest of the crew we met on the trail. They were going slower than us for a couple reasons, first, I’m a naturally fast walker and love to race up a hill and secondly, they were carrying a lot of beer.

We got to camp with plenty of light, setup the tent alongside a little creek, fired up the stove and enjoyed lentil soup, almonds and cookies. The sound of rushing water was fortuitous because both Dave and I snore loudly and we’d rather listen to the water than the other.

While we were technically in a “Wilderness” it didn’t necessarily translate to isolated. All around were other campers and Lulu the Pug, who could not stop running around!

After dinner we hiked up to Marmot Pass to check on the sunset. The trail winds through a big bowl and has great views almost all around.

There wasn’t much in the way of a sunset but this really narrow cloud was moving quite fast over the mountains lit by the evening sun.

The plan for the next morning was to wake up early, 4 am, to hike back up to Marmot Pass for the sunrise. I set the alarm and we went to sleep.

When the alarm went off in the morning I was a little tired and for a moment thought about bagging it but when I poke my head out of the tent and saw the red sky I knew I wanted to go shoot. I departed from the tent as quietly as possible, grabbed my gear and headed off in the dark up the mountainside. Just outside of camp there’s a little stream crossing and in the dark I almost started walking up the stream rather than crossing it but fortunately made the right decision.

The morning light did not disappoint.

The clouds rolling in were really cool with the silhouetted trees. I shot for a while using my trusty Gorillapod about half-way to Marmot Pass and then decided to get to the top to see if I could capture the sun coming over Buckhorn Mountain — unfortunately I could not. Next time we go we’ll try to camp a bit further up, probably on top of Buckhorn which we were told was a pretty cool place to spend the night.

I knew from some previous camping trips to the Olympics about the alpenglow of the morning sun.

I’m really getting into trees and I love the cones of the noble fir and I’m still in love with wildflowers in early morning light.

After a morning of shooting I hiked back to camp, crawled in the tent and took a short nap. Dave was kind enough to get some water going so after some oatmeal we hiked back up to Marmot Pass to take in the views. If you look closely in the middle of the photo on the ridge you can see a yellow tent — that’s one of the places I’d like to camp next time.

On the last trip down from Marmot Pass the clouds starting rolling in. The day before we had hiked up sweating through everything, hiking down I wore a winter hat. I love being in the mountains.

I highly recommend the hike, it’s not as steep as the Mt Ellinor or Mt Townsend trails and the trail is in really fantastic condition. I think in another couple of weeks the meadows should be in full bloom — it will be spectacular I’m sure!

On a technical note, I finally figured out how to get a panorama to look decent. I’ve been playing with DoubleTake for a while and I’ve tried my hand a couple of times but I’ve never been able to get it to work just as I wanted — I’ve gotten a lot closer. One of the biggest differences is shooting in manual mode to make sure all the exposures are the same and then to post-process in Lightroom. I took about a dozen photos to make the panorama at the top of the post but ended up using only about seven or so. It still needs a little work, there’s one bit with ghosting, but I like it and scaled down you can’t tell at all. I finally bought the license I threatened to over a year ago.

Water, farming, dandelions.

bzimmer — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 02:54:56 +0000

Water access and rights inhabit more farming conversations than just about any other topic. This weekend and last the TWL installed a new irrigation system for the orchard, p-patches, horses and farms at Johnson Farm — the water is pumped from the pond and makes it way through underground pipes. Yesterday we finished laying the pipe and backfilled the majority of the trench.

My daughter added her manpower: picking up rocks, backfilling with her very own rake and sprucing up the scar while it heals.

Robin, ants, peony.

bzimmer — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 03:45:25 +0000

There’s nothing particularly interesting about a robin. It’s probably the species of animal most overlapping my childhood in the Midwest and fatherhood in the PNW — though the ones here are much fatter than their eastern counterparts with some positively huge.

There’s also nothing spectacular about this photo, in fact it’s not that great at all — but I spend a lot of time with this particular robin barking at me! It’s decided to nest in my rose arbor and is making it abundantly clear when I’m near the roses it is not happy.

I was near the rose arbor because I was shooting more photos of ant and peonies. While the research shows a peony doesn’t need an ant to open I doubt without serious intervention on my part I’ll ever be able to confirm the findings.

Barns, broom, sky.

bzimmer — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 02:54:18 +0000

There’s a farm not too far from my house where I do a lot of volunteering and we keep a small p-patch. Near the farm there are a couple of weathered structures nestled among the scotch broom. The broom is in color now, and though it’s an invasive, I can’t help but love its bright yellow against a clear blue sky.

I took the previous two photos on the morning deemed hot by local standards — the originals have deeply saturated yellows and blues.

Today was overcast with the feeling and smell of a coming storm though one has yet to materialize.

Flowers, bees, owl.

bzimmer — Sun, 31 May 2009 05:40:59 +0000

Lots of yard work today: ferns to prune, blackberries and weeds to pull, naps under the midday sun. I recall making blackberry pies in Illinois and paying $15 for the primary ingredient — here the blackberry is an invasive weed.

Our rhododendrons are in spectacular form with brilliant colors and buzzing with bees.

On the way to my yard waste pile I notice out of the corner of my eye a slight movement. At first I thought it was a plastic bottle somehow stuck in the tree — instead it was a barred owl. I was pretty excited about it because I thought I had been hearing one in the mornings but hadn’t seen one.

I went back to the house, grabbed my camera and in the fading day light managed to get a couple of shots.

I love living here.

Red, yard work, mushrooms.

bzimmer — Mon, 18 May 2009 05:07:30 +0000

I open the window shade, lean over to my daughter and ask if she can see the mountain, “I can Daddy!” It’s the first flight she might remember and it’s just fantastic to see her enthusiasm for “flying taller than Daddy.”

I don’t actually enjoy flying, I’d rather take a train, but since I need to fly on occasion I’m making the best of it. Virgin America’s engines are an awesome red — really striking against the blues and whites in the sky.

The Olympics, Space Needle, Bainbridge … almost home! Some day I might do a post on the post-processing required for shooting out of plane windows. This photo is in my top ten for what-it-looks-now-compared-to-where-we-started.

I couldn’t get the exposure on this photo to work out as well as I’d like but it’s pretty neat nonetheless with the cityscape, Elliott Bay and Rainier all framed by the wing.

Back home in more comfortable surroundings, photographing mushrooms. One of my favorite snag trees on our property fell in the wind storm a couple of weeks ago and landed right between two cedars. I borrowed a chain-saw to clear it and noticed these little mushrooms — after dropping the snag I went back for the camera.

Luke, Blaze, blossoms.

bzimmer — Fri, 08 May 2009 15:33:23 +0000

One of the special joys of living on Bainbridge is access to farms and animals. My daughter loves animals, though she saves a particular dislike for raccoons.

She’s really into a horse phase so after dinner we take her to visit some horses.

Luke and Blaze are two retired mountain horses currently spending quality time enjoying the sights, smells and sounds of Johnson Farm. On arrival, mud be damned, my daughter bursts forth from the car “Luke & Blaze, Luke & Blaze, we have carrots for you!”

While my wife, who loves horses (they make me nervous), and my daughter pet and feed them carrots saved from dinner, I check out the apple trees. I love apple trees.

The cherry trees on the island shower us with pink and white blossoms for weeks on end in the spring, a truly magical sight.

The apple trees match them blossom for blossom.

Color, rhododendron, spring.

bzimmer — Wed, 06 May 2009 05:10:02 +0000

We had some concerns about the health of some of the rhododendron in the yard after this winter’s heavy snows. Fear not, color have we!

I’m still here.

bzimmer — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 04:54:15 +0000

Today marks the one year anniversary of I’m not here! A year ago I was returning from a trip to Israel, a year later I’m returning from a trip to California.

I’ve been requesting the window seat recently to take photos out the window.

Mt St. Helens in the foreground and Mt Adams in the background. I love the light on the engine.

Mt Rainier peaking through the clouds in the setting sun.

Mt Shasta all alone. Check out the shadow created by the mountain as the sun sets.

The crook of the Hood Canal and the Olympic Mountains — I wish I hadn’t clipped the tip of the wing.

A unique shoreline in California, just north of San Francisco.