Day 299 - Opening Ceremony

No.. I'm not referring to any big Sporting or Cultural Event!  I'm referring to something that's way more exciting!

I finally bought my new camera!!  I finally got the Canon EOS 7D (body only) and  I'm really ecstatic about it!

The opening ceremony, thus, refers to my opening the box to reveal my most prized possession!  :=D
I know I'm a day late in sharing this with you, but some of you have already heard about it, and the rest haven't.  So here's what I found in the box -

Canon EOS 7D

And after I'd taken my first look at the camera, I decided to do what I mainly bought this camera for - check how high the ISO could go before it started creating digital noise.  There are plenty of other reasons as well, but to cut long story short, this camera had too many good features that I couldn't pass up.  And why the decision to not get a full-frame camera?  It's because I want to keep doing bird photography and the cropped sensor will help me get greater zoom power, since I can't afford the $8,000 pieces of glass!  

Since I didn't have much ambient natural light due to the rainy and gloomy weather, I jacked up the ISO to 5000.  Show me the noise!  I was really surprised to see how little there was - visible only when you blow it up over 100%.  That is indeed one of the best features!  My ISO goes up to 6400, expandable upto 12800!  Sweet!  :) I haven't tested the highest settings yet, but I will do so soon.

This shot of my "Old Faithful" taken with the Canon EOS 7D is SOOC -

I'm going to keep my XSi for those times when I go out to shoot Nature.  I can use my 18 - 55 on this one for landscapes, while I keep my 55 - 250 primed for wildlife action (read mostly birds, since there isn't much other kind of wildlife close to where I live.  But I like to pretend I live in Costa Rica or Galapagos where I'll see some exotic species of the animal planet.)

I next tried the pop-up flash and was pretty impressed with that as well!  Doesn't look like the typical "deer in the headlight" kinda image at all!  :=P

This shot is also SOOC, taken with the pop-up flash -

I have only just started exploring the camera and it feels very different from the last one.   The controls that I was so used to manipulating with my right hand, have now mysteriously changed sides, and the camera feels heavier as well.  I think I will need to do some regular working out of my biceps to handle my new toy and especially prepare for when I buy my new long lens.  :)

Day 237 - Relearning the Alphabet: The Letter "O"

"O" as in the drop of body lotion


Ok, that's a little far-fetched, but I had no plans of doing the shot of the day, or catching up. I'm suddenly exhausted and I just can't seem to be able to remain in a vertical position.  However, after chatting with a friend on the phone and admitting to him that I hadn't even worked on my photos from the trip, I kinda felt guilty and just got up and got at it.  I had no clue what I was going to shoot when I started playing with the bottle of body lotion.  Et voilà!  The shot just popped into my head.

I know it isn't top quality (even by my standards, which aren't that high to begin with), and then, it was handheld at 1/4s at ISO 1600, f/2.8.  And of course I had to fire the flash to freeze the camera shake.  The blurriness is part handholding and part high ISO.

I know, I know - I'm being lazy, but that's how I truly feel at this moment.

Day 223 - Relearning the Alphabet: The Letter "J"

Starts with J - J for Jujubes

Please don't blame me, if in the next few days you forget your alphabet and relearn it slightly .. ahem.. differently (read backwards).

Well, as I'm running out of inspiration again, and the weather isn't helping, I thought I'd start something I have been wanting to do for a while, but had put on the back burner.  So, while I still had a small supply of jujubes, I decided to start my alphabet with J.

These images were made with the 90mm lens, with the lights off, external flash fired at 1/8 power level, light bounced off the ceiling.  The ISO was jacked up to 1600.

90 mm, f/20.0, 1/8s, WB set to Flash 

90 mm, f/14.0, 1/8s, WB set to Flash 

90 mm, f/9.0, 1/8s, WB set to Flash 

The colour cast is a little disappointing in the last one, and I'm not quite sure why that happened.  I kept the post-processing to a minimum - removing colour cast, increasing exposure, contrast and a bit of sharpening.

Please help me out with ideas for the other letters of the alphabet!

Day 206 - Week of Lights - Rushing

I was rushing to post before midnight, so I did a few quick shots.  But I was still too late.  Ah, well!

Taken in a dark kitchen, light source is my iPod Lights App held in front of subject, at camera top.  I tried a couple of shots using aperture priority, but I was getting a far slower shutter speed than I wanted, causing overexposure.

So, I switched to Manual mode and set the shutter speed and aperture and got this shot.  This shot has minimal processing - I stepped up the vibrancy a bit, and that's all I did.  I wanted the lines to be brighter, but overexposing it a bit didn't yield the desired results.  I guess I will need to find another way to do this.  This goes on my list to try again in the future.

90 mm, f/4.5, 3.2s, ISO 400, AWB, Manual Mode

Day 201 - Week of Lights - Floating Marble

Electric coloured floating marbles!  If you're interested in finding out how I got the marbles to float, check out my Tutorials page.  Also, do check back my tutorials from time to time as I add more photography adventures to it.

Have fun floating!