Bokeh play: Wild Flowers

Bokeh: Wild Flowers
f/8, 1/320s, Tamron 1:1 90mm macro lens, Nikon D80

This must have been one of the longest hiatus I've taken. Not that I've been keeping away from taking photographs, but I'm just been not having time to update this photo blog. It's important to me, but it's not on the top of my list of a gazillion of things to do.

This photo is taken from a large collection of photos from the Sydney Royal Botanical Gardens. I'll try and put some of the nicer photos from that collection on this blog soon :)

This is currently my desktop background - I love the bokeh on this photo - the blurred flowers in the background. The colors were deliberately vivid - I wanted some bright spots of colors to contrast the usually drabby skies this time of the year.

You get best bokeh when you use a wider aperture - basically, you get very shallow Depth of Field. I used f/8, hardly the smallest aperture (this lens is capable of f/2.8), but that's because I wanted to get a balance of vivid colors and bokeh. The shallower your DOF, the less vivid your colors usually turn out to be.

Hope you all enjoy it ! Happy New Year !! Here's to a year of good photography !

Macro: To stalk a spider !

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Stalking a Spider

f/11, 1/60s, Off Camera i-TTL Fill Flash, Tamron 1:1 90mm macro lens, Nikon D80

I know I haven't been updating for a while - my bad. So, this week, here's a series of photo of me stalking a spider in my garden.

Spiders can be quite hard to photograph, requiring plenty of patience. Basically, you have to be prepared to wait, and be really patient. You can help it a little by either photographing them in the morning when they are less active, or by using a strong flash to stun them a little.

It's really important when photographing little insects to make sure the eyes are sharp and in focus. Other parts of the insect can be a little out of focus - the depth of field is hard to control at macro levels - but the eyes must always be sharp.

Place: Clouds over Java

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Clouds over Java - why I love window seats

f/5.3, 1/640s, Off Camera i-TTL Fill Flash, Tamron 1:1 90mm macro lens, Nikon D80

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I travel a lot on my job, and wherever I can, I always choose a window seat. Being a frequent flyer makes it possible for me to actually ask for the actual seat I want.

All this while, I would sit next to the window and gaze outside. While much of the time, there isn't all that much to see, once in a while, you do get some extremely interesting sights, like clouds. Clouds are a favorite of mine, thanks to the fact that they are never alike - no two clouds is the same.

They opportunity to photograph them only last for a few seconds, and with my previous Nikon point and shoot, it was just too hard to get good photos. Either I couldn't turn the camera on in time, or the camera's autofocus will think it is smarter than I am (and often focuses on its own reflection on the window).

Nowadays, I travel with my D80, and it is constantly in my hands, ready for a photograph at a moment's notice, except when it's mealtime, or when I'm sleeping.

Here, I share with you a few photos I took on my way home from Jakarta. Hope you'll enjoy it.

Addendum: After some research, it appears that the cloud formation best resembles a deformed Lenticular Altocumulus cloud. Here are some examples

Again, this being an experimental layout, I'd love for any comments not just on the photos itself, but also the layout. Do let me know how I can improve you experience while you're reading my humble photoblog. Thanks in advance !

How to: Water Droplets

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The making of: Water Droplets

First of all, I'd like to thank all the readers who have commented on the water droplet blog post. Your comments is a constant source of encouragement to me.

You've seen the water droplets photos, and suddenly feel like you want to give it a try. Besides a lot of time and patience, you also need to get the basic setup right.

Today, I'll show a bit on how it's done. Make sure you get some towels and tissues - it can get quite wet. And if you don't have a DSLR or prosumer click and shoot with decent manual control, this is not for you too. A macro lens will be good too.

Comments and more ideas on how this can be done is welcome. I'll also like to hear if you like (or dislike) my new photoblog layout and presentation.

Macro: Water Droplets

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Splash

f/8, 1/200s, Off Camera i-TTL Fill Flash, Tamron 1:1 90mm macro lens, Nikon D80

This time around, I've been toying with water droplets. It's one of the harder things to photograph, requiring a lot of luck and even more patience. Out of around 1000 attempts, I bring you a few that I like. Most are rejected outright, and many just aren't attractive enough.

Again, this being an experimental layout, I'd love for any comments not just on the photos itself, but also the layout. Do let me know how I can improve you experience while you're reading my humble photoblog. Thanks in advance !

Macro: My Crystal Collection

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Smoky Quartz with Rutile Inclusion

f/25, 1/60s, Off Camera i-TTL Fill Flash, Tamron 1:1 90mm macro lens, Nikon D80

Welcome to my small collection of photos depicting some of the crystals and minerals I have collected over the years. Due to some issues with Javascript coding between Firefox and MS IE browsers, Firefox readers will keep seeing this text over and over again. Click on '1' to start the gallery going, I've included explanations on each of the crystals depicted in the photographs you'll be seeing.

This being an experimental layout, I'd love for any comments not just on the photos or the crystal, but also the layout. Do let me know how I can improve you experience while you're reading my humble photoblog.

Macro: Stories from a fly

Orange is my world
f/16, 1/125 s, i-TTL Fill Flash, Tamron 1:1 90mm macro lens, Nikon D80




Top Fly
f/16, 1/125 s, i-TTL Fill Flash, Tamron 1:1 90mm macro lens, Nikon D80



Bug's Eye 1
f/16, 1/125 s, i-TTL Fill Flash, Tamron 1:1 90mm macro lens, Nikon D80



Bug's Eye 2
f/16, 1/125 s, Tamron 1:1 90mm macro lens, Nikon D80

It's been a while since I last posted any bug photos, so I thought this would be a good time to put one up. The truth is, I haven't been bug chasing as actively as I have previously, and I've been quite happy to do more landscapes.

However, I had the chance to photograph one of the harder insects to shoot, the housefly. Extremely sensitive to movements, and ultimately finicky, it doesn't take much for a fly to, well, fly off. And once they're gone, they're not like dragonflies which has a tendency to return to its original spot. They just move on !

One trick I've been told to keep them still is to spray a fine mist of water at them to fool them into thinking it's raining. I haven't tried it yet, but I'm not sure about it - if there's rain coming, I'm sheltering !

The first picture, Orange is my World, is a favorite. Taken against a new pot of daisy my dad just bought home, the fly appears to be from another planet with all the hot orange background against it. In a technical sense, this was a bit of a challenge as well for a couple of reasons. The amount of blurred background had to be just right - if I showed too much details from the flower, I think the effect wouldn't be the same. This meant I had to make sure my f/ stop wasn't too narrow. But that in turn created another problem - the fly's a very dark color, I had to meter correctly to ensure I didn't create blown highlights by metering solely on the fly itself.

The next photo, Top Fly demonstrates a common problem with macro. I'm actually using a macro lens, and I was photographing the fly at 1 time magnification. What that means is the why actually in actual size on my camera's sensors. High magnification problem creates what is known is a shallow depth of field (DOF), which really means only a small area of the photo is in focus. Notice how some part of the abdomen and the right wing is not in focus. Try as hard as I could, and I'm still left with some area out of focus. There are was to counter this, we'll get to that in another post.

The 3rd and 4th photos, Bug's Eye 1 and Bug's Eye 2, is to demonstrate the difference when photographing with and without flash. Bug's Eye 1 was photographed with an external flash, the Nikon SB-600. The flash was diffused with a flash cap to create better lighting conditions. Notice how much more details appear when external flash is used. Also, the photo with flash appears to have less noise. All other settings are the same. Goes to show how important external diffused flash is when doing macro photography.

Place: Penang

Rainbow

f/8, 1/100s, D80




New and Old ?

f/8, 1/60s, D80




Facade

f/8, 1/500s, D80




Lorong Madras

f/8, 1/80s, D80




Pay up !

f/8, 1/80s, D80




Thinking inside the box

f/8, 1/30s, D80

One of my favorite places in Malaysia is Penang. The historic Georgetown, with buildings in various stages on neglect and disrepair on one hand, and on the other, beautifully restored, and sometime garishly colored, is one of those places where time has stood still in some corner and got turbo-charged in some others.

I recently had the good fortune to visit Penang, and I set out to capture some of Georgetown in photos. As I always do, I had an objective for my little walkabout / photoshoot. I wanted to capture bits and pieces of the feeling of being in Georgetown.

I am not a street photography kind of person, and I'm not very keen on capturing people, so I knew I wanted to capture objects - street signs, buildings, and other things that embody Georgetown in my mind.

Photoshoots in urban settings means a lot of walking, so comfortable shoes and clothes are the first order of the day. Also, you may want to choose a time when the weather is more favorable, perhaps avoiding the hot afternoon sun, both because it'll be really hot, and also because the light is too harsh.

And of course, a telephoto lens with good wide angle and decent zoom is important. The 18-200 VR from Nikon is perfect for this. I'm still saving up for that, so I used the 18-135 kit lens instead. The lens gives me the ability to take good landscape or panorama photos when required, and the zoom allows me to pick up subjects from afar, without being too 'in-your-face'.

'Rainbow' is a favorite, although the photo itself is nothing to shout about. The horizon isn't even straight ! I like it because I don't see rainbows that often !

'New and Old ?' reflects Penang the way I see it - old temples, mosques and churches set in an urban environment with apartments and condos.

'Facade' captures the quintessential Penang imagery - that of old shop houses. Some of you might be asking about the deep blue sky. I didn't use a CPL filter to get that. I realised that if I use a slow shutter speed against a clear blue sky, the blue turns out in a very dark shade. To make this work for this photo, I had to find a facade facing the sunlight, else I would underexpose the facade since the shutter speed was set to 1/500s.

'Lorong Madras' was begging to be photographed. It stood out instantly when I saw it - a green sign against a bright red background.

'Pay Up !' sets two parking meters against a crumbling wall in the background. I really like the fact that I managed to capture the texture of the wall in the background.

'Thinking inside the box' is a scene I caught at the New World Park food court. While having lunch, I noticed this young girl being placed in a box while her mum busies herself preparing food. She was awfully adorable, and was the center of attention of a number of people around her.

Place: Wat Phra Keow, Bangkok

Details from Wat Phra Keow

f/8, 1/200s, D80

I love this photo from Wat Phra Keow, Bangkok, otherwise known as the Grand Palace to the tens of thousands of visitors who gawk and marvel at it each year.

The Grand Palace has been visited so many times, seen by so many people, and photographed times over, sometimes even I get bored looking back at my previous photos from there. I'm sure most of you have seen photographs from Wat Phra Keow, if you haven't been there yourself. Personally, I've been there at least half a dozen times, if not more (I basically stopped counting).

The challenge with visiting a place so many times is that you sometimes get the same angles, and end up taking photographs looking no different from your previous visits. This visit, I made a point to look for unusual angles, and to find different points of view through the lens.

Also, since I visited Wat Phra Keow with my girlfriend, the danger is that we could both end up with similar looking photos, a common occurance when you have a group of people photographing together. I was quite determined not to have that happen to me.

This, as well as the photo on Wat Arun, represents my seeking different angles to common places. After all, when you put a lens between your eyes and the subject, there is no limit to how differently you can perceive the subject.

Additional Note: I didn't really mention why I love this photo so much. Visiting the Grand Palace leaves most people awestruck by the scale and majesty of the place. However, it's the small parts that make it all up. The whole facade is constructed tile by tile, one piece at a time, and this photo captures so much of those tiles which collectively is the beautiful facade.

Series: Butterfly Park, KL

First, I'm A Caterpillar
f/11, 1/100s, ISO 800, TTL Fill Flash, Tamron 1:1 90mm Macro Lens, D80




Then, I Become Butterfly
f/11, 1/60s, ISO 160, TTL Fill Flash, Tamron 1:1 90mm Macro Lens, D80

I'm a pretty yellow Butterfly
f/11, 1/100s, ISO 100, TTL Fill Flash, Tamron 1:1 90mm Macro Lens, D80

Take my photo .. I'm posing !
f/18, 1/60s, ISO 140, TTL Fill Flash, Tamron 1:1 90mm Macro Lens, D80

Ready to pounce
f/18, 1/60s, ISO 720, TTL Fill Flash, Tamron 1:1 90mm Macro Lens, D80

Won't you come visit my web ?
f/16, 1/60s, ISO 320, TTL Fill Flash, Tamron 1:1 90mm Macro Lens, D80, cropped




You're getting really close ...
f/16, 1/100s, ISO 560, TTL Fill Flash, Tamron 1:1 90mm Macro Lens, D80

Let's be friends !
f/16, 1/100s, ISO 1600, TTL Fill Flash, Tamron 1:1 90mm Macro Lens, D80

This is my second KL Butterfly Park visit with Girlfriend. I've been feeling the effects of too much travel, and the perfect way to shake off travel fatigue is to have a bit of bug chase.

Bugs are not the easiest of subjects, they move about, they scuttle when you approach, and they're really small.

Serious bug shooters will need to invest in a good macro lens, external flash with diffuser, and a lot of time and patience to get good shots. There was lot of sweating, unnatural body positions, and plenty of wading around in the bushes while trying to get the photos I wanted.

While I selected 8 photos to share, I honestly believe only 2 of them would be considered 'good' if put through the discerning eyes of macro enthusiasts.

Still, for me, it was more the fun of the hunt than the end results, and it felt good to finally be chasing some bugs to photograph after all these while ...

Happy New Year to all you photography enthusiasts who might (or might not) be following this blog.

Series: While I wait for takeoff ...

S27R: Hong Kong International Airport
Nikon D80

Let's Get Some Shade: Kuala Lumpur International Airport
Nikon Coolpix 7900

Pin's off now: Tan Son Nhat International, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Nikon Coolpix 7900

Work's done: Hong Kong International Airport
Nikon D80

Cleared for takeoff ! Hanoi International Airport

Nikon D80

Goodbye ! Narita International Airport, Japan
Nikon D80

Traveling as much as I do, I do spend a lot of time gazing out of the window in ever shrinking economy class seats in airplanes.

All that tarmac time has resulted in a modest collection of photos capturing the work that goes on in ensuring all of us gets to take off. There is an amazing amount of support work that goes into preparing every flight for takeoff. Here, the lens captures some of the work that goes into making sure we're all good to go.

There's nothing technical at all to share in this series, just some notes on the photos themselves.

"Let's Get Some Shade" shows a refuelling personnel taking refuge from the hot midday sun in KLIA, while waiting for refuelling to complete. Airplanes take a lot more time than F1 cars to refuel !

Planes do not have reverse gears, so they are pushed out by little tow trucks. Once in position, the tow trucks will have to be released, and this is done by removing a certain pin. Once the pin's removed, the engineer will stand and show the pin to the pilot.

This is where you get the waving in the photo "Cleared for takeoff ! ".

In "Pin's off now", the engineer is seen walking away from the plane after removing the pin. I meant to take a photo of the engineer waving, but the point and shoot I had wasn't responsive enough to photograph the quick wave the engineer gave the pilot.

In "Goodbye !", the engineer is waving, while support staffs give the traditional bow. I love this photograph for what it reminds me of Japanese society.

My personal favorite in this series is "Work's Done". The composition just feels right to me !

Place: Wat Arun, Bangkok

Wat Arun

Bangkok holds a special place in my heart. It has plenty of subjects for photography, and is one of my early learning ground for photography.

I recently had the good fortune of visiting Bangkok again, this time, sharing my love for the city of Angels with a loved one.

This picture of Wat Arun from close up sums up Bangkok as I know it: looks great from afar, but is much more complicated once you get near it; and it's the small pieces that make up the great city of Bangkok - just like how the small colorful tiles all add up into becoming the glistening facade of Wat Arun glittering in the sun !

And no, no plans to close this blog. It'll be going slowly while I adjust to the additional workload, but it'll be around. =)

Great Wall of China

Great Wall 1: Mutianyu - the start
f/8, 1/160 s, D80



Great Wall 2: Mutianyu - the walk back
f/8, 1/80 s, D80



Great Wall 3: Mutianyu - the start
f/8, 1/125 s, D80

Autumn is clearly visible in these photos, and while the Great Wall was encountered on a good, sunny day (by Beijing standards, that is), it was still a little hazy, although I suspect it's more atmospheric haze than anything else. However, it did rob away most of the spectacular colors the drying leaves afforded me when I visited it earlier in the day. So, to boost the colors, what I did was use the Channel Mixer to create the Velvia effect. What I really did was for each of the 3 color channels (Red, Blue and Green), I boosted the color itself to 150, and reduced the other 2 colors by -25. The rule is that all 3 colors combined, would need to be 100. So, 150 + (-25) + (-25) = 100.

What the velvia effect does is it creates more saturated colors, which was made famous by the famous Fujifilm film.

Tokyo: More feasting !

Sushi ! Part 1

Sushi ! Part 2




Sushi ! Part 3

No techie talk today still. More food pictures to share with you all ! More Tokyo food feasting, and this time, it's Sushi !

This is from my hotel - the only place that would let me take pictures of my food, unfortunately. But they're good, aren't they? At least they look delicious.

This one is for the ocipala one - Chen. She takes some of the best food pictures, and I hope to do as well someday. Still learning this thingy called photography.

And yes, Pelf, it's all taken using bounce flash.

Tokyo: My room service

Hot Chicken Udon

Coca Cola

No technical data or talk. Just wanted to show you guys what bounce flash does to your photos.

Both pictures are taken with D80 with SB-600 flash bounced off the ceiling.

Flash is usually harsh because it comes from a small source, and is too bright, creating some really overblown highlights, and creating some harsh shadows.

Bouncing your flash means pointing it at another surface so that it will bounce off that surface. That will spread the light over a larger area, softening it and creates photos nicely lighted and with softer or even no shadows.

Actually, this is also for Winn and Angel. Here's your food photo.

Ipoh Old Town

Bus Terminal

f/3.8, 1/30 s, Nikon D80

Snapped this while on walkabout in Ipoh's Old Town. Ipoh is a city full of character - character here meaning it is full of crumbling and rotting bits. If we ever were to market this properly, this would make a really good tourist attraction, no kidding. Food's comparable to Penang in quality, although Penang still aces it in terms of quantity.

Macro: Yet another fly

Big Eyes

f/22, 1/60s, ISO 560, Diffused Flash, Tamron 90mm 1:1 Macro, D80

Not much to say here, expect that this is yet another fly I've managed to photograph. This is indeed becoming quite a good collection of insects.

I like how this turned out because it's quite rare to get a picture of the whole insect in focus. The Depth of Field (DOF) when taking macro shots is a matter of milimeters.

DOF refers to how much of the photo is in sharp focus. The rule is that the closer you are to a subject, the less of it is in focus. To get an entire insect in focus, you can do a few things.

The simple way is to use a narrower aperture (larger F-number). A narrower aperture puts more of the picture in focus, but increases the exposure time. Use at least f/8 - f/11 for your macro shots. In some cases, I've used f/64 !

Or you can get along the plane of the subject. What this really means is that you position your lens in such a way that it is at the same distance of the entire subject. That way, the whole subject is always within the same distance, thus its always in focus (or out of focus).

And from either my small garden of potted plants, or the few plants that grow along the fence in the backyard, this is turning out to be a pretty decent collection, I think.

Macro: Metallic Fly

Shiny Fly 1

f/32, 1/60s, Bounced Flash, Tamron SP 90mm 1:1 Macro, D80




Shiny Fly 2

f/32, 1/60s, Bounced Flash, Tamron SP 90mm 1:1 Macro, D80

One of the joy of macro photography is in learning about the miniature world we're surrounded by, but not aware of.

This metallic fly is one such instance ! I have never seen any insect THAT shiny before, at least not in my backyard !

My new best friend once commented that flies are really difficult to photograph because they fly away before you can get close enough to snap a picture of them.

Well, there are ways around that.

All insects are less active early in the morning, which is about the best time to have them photographed. As the day goes on, they get more active. So, if insect's your thing - then go after them early in the day.

They also have a tendency of returning to the same spot. If you have the patience to wait, they will usually return. Be ready to snap a picture when they do !

Make sure you take care not to have your shadow cast on the insect. That is always the best way to alert the insect to your presence ! So, besides no sudden movement, make sure you also don't approach in such a way that your shadow gets in the way.

Using flash is also a great way to freeze your insect picture. On DSLRs, because your macro lens is usually quite long, the built in flash will most likely not work - there will be ugly shadows cast on your picture if you get close enough. Make sure you get an external flash, and use a diffuser to make sure you don't get over exposed photos.

Macro: Ready to pounce !

Ready to pounce !
f/16, 1/60s, Nikon D80, Tamron 90mm 1:1 macro

Patience is really a virtue. Remember this post ? Honestly, that wasn't the best spider photo I have ... it was the best I had then, but seriously, perhaps I shouldn't have posted that photo. Not all the comments I got was flattering for that photo, but hey, you learn from constructive criticism.

After many more tries, a lot of frustration, and a few important lessons learnt, I finally caught a spider picture that I think is acceptable.

This spider had been a resident in one of the orchids my dad has kept immaculately. One of the lessons I've learnt is to be really patient with spiders. When I first position my camera gear around the plant, it'll always try to hide. At first, I always got frustrated and tried to hurry my shots - the resulting pictures show my frustration, and add to it.

Nowadays, I setup my gear, then stay still for around 5 minutes, after which, the spider usually returns to its original position. During that 5 minutes, I make all the necessary adjustments so that when spidey returns, I am ready to snap away !

While this photo is satisfying, I'm sure I can still improve ... I realise that the hind legs could be in better focus. In this case, it wasn't in focus because I didn't use a smaller aperture, and also because I wasn't on plane with the spider. I'm sure in time to come, I'll get a really good picture of the spider !

Macro: Er ... get a hotel room, guys !

I'm breaking away from convention ... instead of putting the photo first, I'll put it at the end of this posting. I've been patrolling my patch of long beans growing along my backyard fence, and there's been a variety of insects, of which you've already seen some on this blog. This one takes it to a whole different level, though.

All I can say is ... if you're under 18, and your guardian haven't had that talk about birds and bees and bettles with you yet, you ought to skip this entry. ;-)

I hereby give you .... the randy bettles ... scroll on to see it ...












(scroll on ...)

Mate ... !??!!
f/13 , 1/60s, Nikon D80, Tamron 90mm 1:1