Day 301 - Butterflies Go Free!

At the butterfly exhibition -

Day 289 - Squirrel in the Tree

One lone squirrel hiding under its tail as the rain poured down!  I have posted something similar last summer, but this sight never fails to amuse.



And this one was from a couple of days ago - this squirrel was running around hoarding food for himself from the pile of loaves someone had thrown out for the birds and these little guys.

Day 288 - Odd Numbers in Photography

I had quite a photography disaster this evening!

After not having the energy to leave home to do my shot of the day, I decided that I should keep up the snow theme for the rest of the week.  So, I could take a few shots from the balcony in an effort to keep that up.  The skies looked pink, with the snow clouds and the impending snow showers, and I thought an evening sky on a long exposure would make a great shot.

I was proved wrong, when I couldn't get a single shot to look the way I wanted because of the high winds that kept moving the trees causing a lot of blurred motion.  I thought I could use the blur as the subject, since I couldn't control the elements, but it just didn't work, and the wind kept shaking the camera, besides chilling me to my bones, of course.  So, I gave up and came back indoors.

This leads me to post one of a few images I took a couple of days ago, and to explain what I mean by odd numbers in photography, which you might already know about, but which doesn't stop me from revisiting - the rule of including odd numbers in our images.

We often inadvertently incorporate this rule into our photography.  An odd number always creates a better image than an even number of objects that lead the brain to look for symmetry, which in most cases looks boring.  Additionally, it is said that the more time it takes the brain to process something, the better it is appreciated.

Sometimes three or five don't make a crowd.  However, we need to be careful of not introducing too many numbers as this will ultimately lead to clutter.  Keep it simple and clutter-free, but it's nice to create a little bit of interest and help the eyes travel all over an asymmetrical image, especially if you create a group/cluster of three or five, instead of putting them in a straight line.  Although, mind you, straight lines work better in cases where you want to create leading lines or patterns.  The artistic choice finally lies with you!

When I shot these images, I hadn't realized that I took only a couple of images with the two starlings in the tree, but most of my images had three of them in it.  There was a large flock of these feathered guys, but I was somehow able to isolate and shoot the three close together.  Maybe this was totally accidental, or maybe it was subconsciously executed.  Who's to tell!

To illustrate the case in point, here are three shots.  Do let me know which one(s) you find most interesting.

And while this is a rule in composition to use odd numbers, there are always exceptions to this rule and it's always nice to be able to break them creatively.

Day 286 - Flocks of Birds

I started my day with the song of an Oriole - it was most probably a Baltimore Oriole, but I could be wrong and it could be the Brown Creeper I saw a couple of days ago.

I spent most of the morning running between my bedroom and balcony and being on the balcony trying to get as many bird shots as I could.  The weather was unpredictably crazy - what started off as sunny and gorgeous, turned grey and snowy within minutes, and for a few minutes we had near white-out conditions. That cleared to give way to sunshine and then some more cloudiness.  As soon as the sun came out, the birds did too.  At one point, the little park at the back was full of woodpeckers, nuthatches, brown creepers, starlings and sparrows.

I also stood and watched a squirrel running around hoarding food and eating part of it.  That was really cute!

This one is a Male Hairy Woodpecker.  The difference between this one and the Male Downy Woodpecker is that the Hairy Woodpecker's bill is longer than the size of its head, whereas the Male Downy's bill is about the same length as its head.  The females of either species don't have the red patch on the crown.

This one is a Male Downy Woodpecker.  Notice the length of the bill is shorter than that of the Hairy guy!

White-Breasted Nuthatch.  I love these guys - they look really cute!

And since I had proclaimed this week's theme to be snow, here then is a shot with snow in it!

Day 283 - Out in the Snow Again

I think this week's theme will be snow!  That will also force me to go out and get some fresh air everyday.

Patterns in the snow

This brave girl walked all the way on the frozen river, kicking up the snow and ice!  What courage!  I was tempted to go down there and do the same, but I remembered in good time that I would be tempting Fate, since I don't even know how to swim! 

Reaching up and reaching out?  

Day 266 - Portraits

A friend of mine had entrusted me with the job of getting her some head shots that she wanted to use as her profile picture.  I was quite happy to oblige till the moment I walked into the room we had found to do this in.  

My original plan had been to use the natural ambient light from the window and add a little fill flash to do the rest.  Walking into that room I knew I would have a challenge because the day was especially gloomy and the walls of the room were a pale yellow on one side and grayish-green on the other.  And we had only about 10 mins. to complete this in, so I just had to finally resort to a studio-type shot after a few test shots failed to yield the results.  So, we closed the blinds on the window, and I used the blind as the background for this.  There were too many door and window frames that had to be avoided as well as some very curious eyes watching us from behind the glass panels! :-S

Ceiling-bounced flash, and not much else went into this.  Shallow DoF at f/5.6 because the room wasn't very large and I couldn't get too much distance between background and subject.  

Day 265 - 100 Days to Go! Yay!

After much deliberation, I decided I needed the rest more than I needed shots of the sunset.  And I'm really happy I didn't go out to get them because what started off as a beautiful day ended in being overcast just around the time of sunset.  So, I secretly lauded myself for prioritizing on my rest.

I coaxed my son into sitting for me again this evening, because I wanted to try cross-lighting with my flashes.  I set up one flash at 45 deg behind the subject to camera left as the rim light, and used my diffuser on the other flash that I had on camera.

Most disappointingly, my on-camera flash gave out after I'd just taken the first 3 or 4 shots.  I am not sure whether it was the batteries that caused the problem, or if it was the flash itself.  I am keeping my fingers crossed that it isn't my flash - I've been having trouble with the mechanics from day 1.  The locks on the shoe-mount are really hard to turn, and the flash just doesn't sit properly on my camera's shoe-mount either, giving me enough cause to freak out at every sudden movement of the camera.

This first image was done with the cross-lighting set up as I've mentioned earlier.  I had set it to 1/8 power and 85 mm zoom, to get a narrower beam of light.  My on-camera flash was set at 1/2 power, as this was my key light, and I had the diffuser on it as well.  Further, I bounced the flash off the ceiling.   I kept the shutter down to 1/60s to be able to get the ambient overhead light as well.  This created a hint of shoulder light on the left shoulder of the subject, but I would have like it to be more pronounced, so the separation would be clearer.

The image below was taken with only a single light set-up after one of my flashes malfunctioned.  I side-bounced the flash on the wall to the right of camera and used a white foam core board to the right of the subject (left of camera) as reflector to fill in the shadows a little bit.  It didn't do a fabulous job as the reflector was at least 6 ft away from the wall, but it was better than when I used no reflector at all.

Day 256 - Relearning the Alphabet: The Letter "V"

"V" for "V" in the Corner of the Serving Dish

The thought of "V" only kept bringing "vase" in my mind.  My friend suggested "Va-va-vrroomm" and that would mean a bike.  Where would I find a bike in this freezing cold?  My "vocabulary" seemed limited, so I decided to focus on the concept of vocabulary.  However, I was doing the image for my beef curry recipe when I decided to use one stone to kill two birds.

I don't think I will be able to put much effort into my photography in the next few weeks, because I'm now bracing myself for my cooking classes starting this weekend and continuing over the next few.  I'm wishing myself luck - they tend to be very, very intense.

I can't say I'm pleased with this shot at all, but unfortunately I have too many things to focus on right now - the cooking class being the top priority over the next few weeks.

Day 221 - Busy Busy

I should say busy and tired.  I spent quite a bit of time doing stuff outdoors, and by the time I returned, I was so bushed, I decided to snooze for a bit.  Then woke up even more tired.

I had to get all the editing done for the shots I took at the office party from two days ago, so I spent a chunk of time on that.  Now that it's all done, I am surprised that I was able to fix some of them, but most of them are still very, very disappointing.  It's really time for a new flash!  Maybe I should go out and buy myself a lottery ticket!

I am posting this shot taken last summer.  I just stumbled upon it, as it was waiting to be processed.  I had stored it in a folder that I was planning to get to at some point in time, so I thought that time was today!

Day 215 - Christmas Theme (Pt. 4)

Just a continuation of the Christmas theme I'd started way back in October.  The first one was a quick shot while I was playing with the flash and got bored from not getting what I wanted.  

I also took the opportunity to get a little bit more comfortable using the monopod.  Although I found a couple more ways to be more effective and efficient with the tool, I'm absolutely convinced that you can't use it for anything slower than 1/8s shutter speeds if you want to get any sharpness out of your shots.   In fact, I think I'm steadier when hand holding my shots at 0.5 secs, than I am with the monopod at 1/8s!  Now, that's something!

154 mm, 1/10s, f/5.6, ISO 400, Shutter Priority, AWB

I had to use Shutter Priority because I wanted to fix the minimum shutter speed to avoid camera shake.

154 mm, 1/100s, f/6.3, ISO 400, WB set to Flash, but later adjusted in Lightroom, Manual Mode, Flash fired at -2 stops, external flash fired powered down to 1/8, placed 6 inches to right of subject and bounced off ceiling.  Phewww!  That was a long description! 

I'm not very happy with the second image.  The background is quite cluttered in this one, and could definitely have been better composed.  But as far as light is concerned, I think it's a slight improvement over previous tries.  I'm yet to figure out the power levels on my external flash - maybe I'm reading the levels all wrong as there are no markings on the bars to show the different levels and the one page user guide that came with it was mostly written in Chinese (at the expense of sounding ignorant, I wouldn't know if it was Mandarin or Cantonese).  Maybe the mystery will one day be solved?  Maybe I'll break down and Google it one day!

But meanwhile I'm definitely considering a light kit.  But the dilemma is always which one to get first - camera body, lens or light?  

Any suggestions?

Day 147 - Picnic bench

Day 141 - Sheaves of leaves

Ok, so I'm cheating.  I didn't have time after my project submission to go out shooting this evening and I had these photos from yesterday that I wanted to try my hand at Photoshopping.

So, I learned a new thing today - selective colouring.  Pretty simple, but takes a lot of patience.  I picked a random shot to try it, but on second thoughts, I could have used a better image.  Nevertheless, the results were encouraging.

The rest of the frames are just regular stuff.. nothing to write home about, because I'm not looking forward to seeing these leaves lying on the forest floor. Why, oh why, can't summer last forever?  :(

 

I tried a little B&W with this not because I didn't like the colours, but I wanted to check out the tonality and I have to admit I like what I saw. 

Day 140 - WWW (wow, what a web!)

I loved the setting sun reflecting off the gossamer threads of this spider web and then I also loved the bokeh of fall colours (yes, the leaves have started changing colour already! nooooo!) behind the second web shot.

Day 139 - Fighter planes

I had no intention of going out with the headache I had all day, but when I heard these aircrafts zipping by a few times, I knew it was time for me to get my camera out.

I took a few shots, but it was at around 2:30 pm and the hazy heat was a bit too much.  My 250 mm didn't perform all that badly, but I definitely could have done with some more telephoto power.  I could have definitely used the C-PL, but in my hurry to get the shots, I forgot to pick it up.  :(

I recomposed the shot a little in Photoshop Elements, because the aircrafts were too far apart and that's the reason there is the lighter section in the middle of the image.  Someday I have to learn how to use post-processing for better results.

Day 138 - The day of the squirrel

I heard rustling overhead and found this guy foraging for nuts, or whatever else that it was after.  I didn't know who was more surprised to see the other - out of the blue (or should I say green!).

Day 134 - Wildflower

Found this little gem by the roadside.

Day 133 - Black-capped Chickadee

Photographing these guys aren't a mean thing, I tell ya!  The little birds always pick the darkest or the tallest part of the tree to perch themselves, and you'd be darned if you can reach them with inadequate telephoto or ISO capabilities.

Anyway, these birds are teaching me a virtue I can't admit to having - patience!  I waited around for this guy for at least 45 mins. - once squatting on the ground, once climbing on the rock, then almost slipping down the side of an embankment to finally get a shot that's at least passable.

It's really tricky with these guys, but I have to say that once I got these near decent shots after about 10 totally useless ones, I am certain I had a smug grin on my face that the passers by wondered at.  I tasted victory and boy, did it taste sweet! :)

Both images were flashed at -1stop, at ISO 1600, the highest my camera could take.  I had to remove some noise in post, as they had turned out really grainy!

Day 132 - Black and White Day

I had organized a B&W photo workshop for my photo club at work.  So, we had to go out and shoot after an hour of instruction and I have to admit I don't visualize B&W well at all.  Here are a few of the shots from then.  I'd love to know what you think.

This last one turned out blurry because my arms were tired and I had to use a slower shutter speed as the sky was completely overcast and the light had gone down quite a bit. I also just saw the merger in this shot that's distracting.  Too bad, but I think this might have turned out better.

Day 131- Another gorgeous sunset

I love the banded sky in the one below, but I wish I had something else in the frame - it's a little bit too stark.  I was in a thickly wooded area and I was trying to move around to find a better angle, but almost fell into a ditch and twisted my ankle.  I gave up trying!  :-(

Day 128 - Great day for biking