Trawling for macros - David vs Goliath

After having some fun with the Ladybug, I thought to see if I had any other macros worth posting. This one was taken two years ago with just a single corded SB-800 bounced off a white brolly (thanks girls - still using it!).

This Rhinoceros beetle was most likely the cause of death for the poor papaya tree behind the Hash house in Indooroopilly. Everyday, for a long while, it would continuously gouge holes in the major roots of the tree. I gingerly handled this monster who wasn't particularly pleased at being displaced from his tree molestation. The shot was to make the beetle's eye the focal point, but an ant wandered by to have a look.

Getting the ant in the right focal plane was just dumb luck as it was already hard to best use the limit DoF on the 90mm macro at close working ranges. Even at f9.0 it's "wafer thin"! (@ mark 4:06)

Idle lunch - Ladybug

I had some Ph.D downtime as the power to our apartment was disconnected for about an hour, good thing the flash batteries were charged! Bright daylight, but still required 2 flashes. Corded 900 from above right and slave 800 from directly below. Went for f8.0-10 with 1/160 - 1/200 shutter. Spent 1/2 hour coaxing and waiting for the little dood to be ready for it's "close up", even so, only came up with two frames worth posting.

No ladybugs were injured in these photos, last I saw was the ladybug stalking some aphids on our balcony garden.

Trawling for landscapes #5 - Girrawheen Redux

Can't remember if I have already posted this one.

Taken a while back in Girrawheen National Park. 14mm f8, no polariser. Wish I put the tree on the left and worked the crazy shadow it cast into the frame. That would have been a more even composition rather than the empty space to the left.

Having a play with it in post to see if my new found tricks can add to it.

Trawling for landscapes #4 - North Stradbroke Island

My motivation to kick out some landscapes is for my new Windows 7 rotating backgrounds, some have been successful, others a nightmare for finding icons. Plus it's a relaxing disconnect at the end of the night after bashing my head against my paper all day.

This one was taken mid this year during our "get-the-hell-out-of-Canberra" winter holiday on North Stradbroke Island. It was a fairly flat day so some licence was taken with regards to PP. I'm happier with this one as it's @ 45mm with the 24-70mm, I think it's my preferred working range rather than the 10-20mm.

Composition wise, for me I feel there is more lead-in for the eye (compared to the other 3) with a pronounced bottom to top in both colours and subject focus. Improvement suggestions? I'm wondering if I can ditch the 3:2 ratio and crop to a composition that's tall and thin?



Edit: I think both Selina and Billo are right in saying there isn't something distinctive in the foreground for inital impact (too many sticks going everywhich way). Does the new crop with the skinny aspect ratio emphasise the bottom to top flow? I'm hoping it also highlights that bottom left to middle tree branch as the key foreground content. The crop also ditches a lot of the sky which was always an understated blurgh. I also tried an almost 1:1 crop but I don't like cropping more than I have to, and need to make more of an effort to get it right in the camera 1st.



The last 4 entries have honed for me that I simply cannot run and gun with landscapes. They require far more thought to a proper composition not to mention patience as to best timing. This appears to be common knowledge on various other blogs and sites I've been reading, but I guess hubris makes me think I know better ;-) (Damn that tasty hubris!)

Thanks to all for their constructive comments, they are exactly what I wanted.

Trawling for landscapes #3 - Lake George

Eight image stitched panorama, handheld, 24-70mm in fast fading light. If I remember, I exposure locked for the middle of the frame, so there might have been some light fall off on the edge frames. Stitched in CS4 which does a pretty damn good job at auto stitching. Lightened the foreground in post and added a little punch to the colours as I have the camera set in neutral for greater flexibility in post. Given I do so much pp for colours I'm wondering if I don't use standard saturation by default rather than neutral sat. Will have to think about this. In hindsight, I should have used a 50mm and I wouldn't have that nasty distortion in the foreground... Unless I just crop most of the foreground out. Any thoughts?

My issues with this photo are lack of distinct foreground object to initially draw your eye, in fact no subject really worth mentioning save for the colour in the horizon and horizon too much in the middle. More a post processing exercise, works well for my computer desktop as it's not too busy that I lose icons in it. And the pastels are calming when I have a model crash.

For those of you who know the Lake George rest stop I took this from, it's interesting that the sun was at an angle such that the ridge of hills behind me cast a sharp shadow on the hills in the background of the frame. A few minutes earlier and the tips of those hills were a golden orange. Next time gadget!



Edit: I'll go with Ged's v. good call, the asymmetry was bothering me but in the uncropped photo, there was a pile of McDonald's wrappers (bloody bogans) defiling a memorial rest stop of a V.C. recipient during WWI so I had no choice. Good point about the downward dip in foreground being distracting. Thanks Ged, I do like it better now. Does anyone know if it's possible to get rid of stitching distortions in CS4?

Trawling for landscapes #2 - Tidbinbilla

Dunno if this really counts as a landscape, but I took it with that intention so it is! Again around midday (ARGH!), again 10-20mm, again same old composition,albeit with a slight macro twist. Fiddled with it in post. Focus ain't spot on and I'm workin' off a jpg. I dunno how people make money from landscape photography. Honestly I have less than 10 landscape photos that I'm happy with in the last 3 odd years of owning this camera.

Trawling for landscapes - earlier this year

Taken out near Broken Hill on our drive back to Adelaide for Xmas. This is the best of 12, still needs composition work as it looks boring. Has anyone done a landscape course and is it worth it? Or am I just using the 10-20mm all wrong? Also could someone tell me if my blues are verging too much on purple? They look fine on my big monitor but a little to purple on my el-cheapo secondary. I get the feeling the spyder2express doesn't work too well on wide gamut monitors.

A Wedding

The practice day before

An opportunity arose to do a wedding for friends in Brisbane. Luckily I got the day before to check out the venue and do all the "details" photos as the day itself was hectic, comprising of

1) the "engagement party"
2) the surprise wedding
3) the reception

yes, a surprise wedding! Most guests were blown away, stoked, looking for the candid camera etc. The practice day had the most gorgeous sunset and wispy clouds, it was near perfect. I was hoping for the same on the day itself, but it was overcast, good for no blown highlights, but took a bit of effort in post to add colour and punch, plus it meant running the D200 up to 400 ISO, which ain't the best setting for it. I really think its time for a new body something that's smooth and creamy up to 1200-1600 ISO plus I'm well over 1/2 way on the D200 shutter anyway.



Gotta love that graduated filter in Lightroom, lets you bring a little more contrast in clouds etc



I thought I was crazy to have 3 flashes at the reception, two off camera remotes via wireless radio triggers as well as slaving off an on-camera commander with ttl slaves. but it was great. I could fill a space with light and just wander around.



80-200mm f2.8 worked a treat but really could have done with something that focused faster. SAVE SAVE SAVE.

Thanks to Claire, and the OCAU boys for loan of their gear.

And thanks to Tiff and Michael for trusting me with their special day.

National War Memorial - what not to do

Had a chance to go to the War Memorial on a sunny day (a change from the last 3 weeks in Canberra). Took this photo which was a learning/remembering exercise in what not to do.

1) Don't photomograph at midday - why do you forget these things?
2) Don't hesitate when photomographing unless it contravenes 3).
3) Don't photomograph people if you don't feel you should - especially children, as you will contravene 2) whilst trying to decide if you should/shouldn't have them in focus.
4) Don't photomograph from your boring eyelevel of 5'10", it's only really interesting for the wee people

So conceptually 5/10 for me, but perhaps a 3/10 for resulting excution.

Foriade 2009

Clearing a back log of photos, here are some from the nice days at Floriade 2009... should have gone in with a specific photo in mind rather than "I'd like some floral stuff for the walls"

Umbrella Jo - a new recruit.

It feels like I've been doing wedding photos forever, so I needed a quick assignment to keep me thinking creatively. Inspiration came from this, though it was very clear very quickly that I needed a big ass shade to diffuse the light as they have.

I got a moment with Umbrella Jo to try a bit of outdoor portraiture. I think I need to switch to shoot-thru brollies as I'm losing way too many light stops using bounce flash. Plus I think I need a bigger brollie to spread out the light and be able to get it further from the subject without it acting like a point light source. Also a reflector/shade wouldn't go astray in the midday conditions as was when we shot. In post, I opted for as different as possible rather than theme. I've been feeling and as Jo so rightly pointed out, I've been using post as a crutch for bad photography, so I'm on a mission to tighten my shot discipline.

I can see a limitation of the 80-200mm f2.8. At longer focal lengths and f-stops below 3.5, it's soft soft soft. But between 80-160mm at f3.5+ you could cut glass. Not too shabby for 20 year old tech.

A postscript to this entry is 3 days later Jo broke her nose at a game of full contact netball. In a conversation soon after the incident, she said what I was thinking "Thank god we got those photos before I broke my doze". Hey she said it! I was just thinking it!

One for the ladies... Poppies

Taking a break from wedding photo PP, thought I'd crack one out. Two flashes, one main, direct on the top flower with a tight beam focus on the SB900 and another secondary gridded snoot behind left of the two lower yellow flowers. Exposure care of Nikon CLS iTTL, 0.0 FEV on main and -0.3 FEV on secondary. would like a 3rd flash (maybe a ring) on front with -3.0 FEV for some slight fill, but didn't want to use onboard camera flash as working distance was too close and lens would cast a shadow.

FYI: 90mm macro, stop f32, note diffraction softening in exchange for DOF, brought back in post with sharpening to a limited degree. Black point raised to make sure background was black black and to add to contrast.

Claire and Richard - Shine Dome - ANU

Practise Practise Practise - 20 minute multiple flash setup and tear down coz it was sooo bloody cold. Thanks to Claire and Richard for being so game... hope it doesn't wear the big man down such that he succumbs to Claire hooping cough!








Look how cold the poor chickins are when they weren't posing

Kelly and Greg

Oh the nerves... important events coming up and having to shoot! Thanks guys for letting me practise.