Day 302 - Sunday Morning Birds

Quick post today, but not without mentioning that the nuthatch images have very minimal post-processing, besides cropping (my 250 mm lens just isn't enough to help me fill my frame with these tiny birds), and a wee bit of sharpening.

However, the Chickadee shot was a different story - I shot the image through a double-glass window, and I had to clean up the image quite a bit in post.

Day 191 - By the Old Port again

I was scoping out the Old Port area to see if I could find any interesting spots for tomorrow's photo shoot.  I know that most of the club members won't show up as they'll be away on a team outing.  But there will be a few who will.  And we're having good weather after a very, very long time and I thought that we should definitely make the most of it.

It was extremely windy and my fingers were frozen.  I didn't have a very thick coat, and neither did I have a hat or a scarf.  However, I still spent a good 45 mins. outside and got a few shots I liked.  the only problem I had was that I wasn't carrying my 18 - 55 mm lens and therefore missed a few more I thought could be interesting.  These shots were handheld and were taken using a C-PL around 3:00 pm; the sun was already pretty low in the sky by then.

They Port Authorities have already moved these piers into storage, I think.  I am certain I saw them out in the canal during the summer.  

55 mm, f/9.0, 1/6s, ISO 100, Manual Mode

I was fascinated by those black.. umm.. thingies.  So, I used my lens as binoculars, but I still can't tell what they are.  However, I got beautifully saturated colours because of the C-PL and I liked the windswept white reed-like flowers in the foreground. 

131 mm, f/10, 1/20s, ISO 100, Manual Mode

55 mm, f/18, 1/100s, ISO 100, Manual Mode

Incidentally, I love these blue tiles and I had been wanting to do this shot for a long time now, but the light or the time I checked it out earlier were never right.  Today it just seemed perfect!  The dappled light really makes the blue pop!  

55 mm, f/4.0, 1/30s, ISO 100, Manual Mode

This image was taken through a glass window.  The C-PL wasn't good enough to cut out all the reflections, so I put the lens right up against the glass and took the shot.

55 mm, f/4.0, 1/13, ISO 400, Manual Mode

I was really pleased with this one as this was handheld on a really slow-shutter and I only added a little bit of sharpening in post.  The colours and exposure are as they were in the original.  I'm pretty proud of this one. 

55 mm, f/4/0, 1/2s, ISO 800, Manual Mode

Day 183 - Portrait session with a friend

I was looking for some practise with portraiture, and a friend offered to sit for me as he needed some photos done as well.

I am completely green at this and besides a couple of lessons on lighting a subject for portraiture, I have not done any serious portraiture at all.  And those sessions were really on how to use reflectors as a supplemental light source.  My dilemma this morning was how I could actually use a reflector, as I had no second person to help.  I had to rely on my pop-up flash for fill-light, as my YN460 is extremely unreliable.  And since we went out around 10:00 am, we didn't have a lot of time to waste experimenting with an unreliable flash.

My challenges today were mainly two - composing a shot properly with a human being as a subject, and of course the light.  I was happy with the locations I chose.  But at times the bitter cold winds made it difficult for my subject to keep his eyes open.  However, out of the 200 plus shots I took, I found that I could easily keep at least 30, if not a few more.

My next challenge, post-photoshoot, is the processing.  I hope that once I'm done with the processing, I can get some nice shots ready for delivery to my friend.

I would love to hear your comments on these shots on how I could have composed or lit them better, or if I can process them differently to improve the image.

Day 166 - Ferry dock at sunset

I was determined to go out and do some photography today as it was sunny, bright and beautiful after a long, long time.  I thought I'd almost forgotten what the sun looked like!  I had wanted to do some bird photography, but after doing the shopping for the month and with the exhaustion I have been feeling, I pretty much didn't feel like getting out early enough to find birds.

So, I checked on the sunset times and went out with about 45 minutes in hand to get to the place where this hidden ferry dock is.  I have posted some pictures of that earlier in my blog, and honestly, I didn't really experiment with a new perspective this time, as I wanted to try out HDR, as it has been my latest fun thing to do ( I actually try to learn something new and practise a few times so I don't forget it in a hurry).

However, I didn't bring my tripod with me because this place is a very long walk from home, and I would be slowed down with the added weight.  But I knew I could rest my camera on the railings there.  But believe it or not, it was so windy, it was actually moving the camera around when I rested it on the railing.  Fortunately, I was able to do some quick shooting when the winds went down a little bit.

The shot was created from the 5 bracketed shots below:

 

Here's the final HDR image that I created using CS5.  I added a little bit of saturation, and sharpness as I found that it looked a little washed out.  Also, the original HDR image was too grainy, so I removed some noise in it and added back a little shadow to make it look more realistic.  Afterwards, I added a border and voilà!

Day 92 - There will be sunshine after rain

I believe what Dire Straits said in their song "Why Worry":

"There will be laughter after pain,
There will be sunshine after rain,
These things have always been the same -
So, why worry now!"

And so there was - one entirely gloomy, rainy day and look at how the sun burst forth during the early evening!

This 1-banded snail was suddenly lit up by a single shaft of sunshine that somehow penetrated the deepest part of the forest.  I would have stepped on the poor guy, otherwise!  One lucky day for this little soul!  Hope he got out and away of the forest path.

I couldn't get the exact effect I was after.  But the wind was bouncing this in and out of my frame and I was afraid the droplets would roll off if I didn't get a quick shot.

Backlit wildflower with a gossamer web almost setting it's boundaries for it to stay within.

This flower was a little bit in the distance, but most importantly deep in the marsh preventing me from getting close to it.  But my attention was caught by this single flower with another single stalk a few inches away from it.  They seemed to have sprung from nowhere.

Day 73 - Playing tourist

Most noteworthy event for the day was that I finally managed lens flare and used it to create a star (photo #5)!