Flying Dragons

Forgive the post title, I just couldn't come up with interesting names to call this post. There was a state-wide blackout yesterday that lasted for around six hours and even more in other places as the power was restored in stages. As chaos had surely ensued within the city, I was left completely bored and without anything to do. I set out once again with my camera into the garden. Just as I wondered if there was anything interesting to take photos of, a dragonfly caught my attention as it flew around and perched itself on the branches of a dead plant which had more dragonflies.

Its times like these that make me wish I had a macro lens. The few dragonflies that were sitting on those branches didn't scare too easily and they just sat there the whole time I was taking photos, even when I got really close with the lens. These photos were all shot at f/8 to try and get more of them in focus. 

An interesting thing I found was that auto focus in situations like these where there are plenty of other objects such as branches or leaves in the frame which are high in contrast can be a challenge for the 6D. Whether using the center AF point or selecting all of them was really difficult to pinpoint towards any of the dragonflies as it tends to back focus instead towards the bush in the background.

The only solution I came up with was to get really close and select the center AF point as well as filling most of the center frame with the subject, making it easier for the AF system with just a slight adjustment with the FTM focus ring as I switched angles.

Omens & Visions

End of May

I'm back again. I had been busy the entire month preparing for my final semester exams. Now that its all over, all I have to do is just wait for my results before graduation. I cant believe how three years have gone by so quickly. I mean I'm glad that its over, but I guess the feeling hasn't really sunk in yet. It feels strange to think that there wont be any more lectures to attend.

Anyway, These are some photos of caterpillars from the garden, I hadn't used my camera for so long that I was actually worried I forgot how to use it. These caterpillars were on the same plant. They seemed to like it so much that there were several more around. Sadly they all looked the same so there wasn't much to shoot.

In Technicolor Light

The next semester is about to begin and I'm just so happy about my exam results :)

Black & Yellow

Exams are over and I'm just glad it's the holidays. It's been a tough semester and somehow I know the next is only going to be worse.

Anyway, these are some photos I got when I chased a Golden Birdwing butterfly (I'm not really sure though but they do look similar) around the garden for several minutes. I was using the 17-55 at the time so I couldn't really get close up shots of it because it kept flying away every time I stood too close.

Walking Around The Garden

This is where I usually go to for some inspiration. It always provides something different to shoot and it never takes too long to find something interesting. Although it is good to have diverse garden with many different species of plants, insects and bugs, having it right next to a sort of jungle presents problems because it attracts many wild and dangerous creatures like cobras, monitor lizards, scorpions and on occasion, a chicken from one of the houses above the hill.

I would love to write more but I am still extremely busy. There is so much left to do and I really need all the rest I can get. 

Canon EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 IS USM

This is the Canon EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 IS USM lens. I had my eye on this lens for a very long time and now it's mine. I needed a better performing lens than the basic kit lens I have which is the Canon EF-S 18-55mm 3.5-5.6 IS. It now serves as a backup lens.

The Canon EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 IS USM lens has a fantastic review and to be honest after only a few hours of testing, I could see the amazing quality that this lens produces and it completely performs up to the expectation.

The second image with the lady bug is actually a 56% crop from the original. This was shot at 55mm f/2.8 and clearly shows that this lens is sharp wide open.

This lens features FTM full time manual focusing and is capable of very fast and very quiet focusing thanks to the USM ultrasonic motor.

I cant say more actually since I haven't found anything wrong with it. This is a brilliant lens and I'm hoping to shoot great photos with it in the future.

Click Here for the review at the Digital Picture. 

Step By Step

I just set up a new blog for the Unirazak Photography Club. It's not really done but you can check it out :)

In Plain Sight

It took me a couple of minutes to realize this grasshopper when I was going around taking pictures of the flowers :S

I will be uploading a couple of my favorite pictures from Kuala Penyu soon. Right now I'm just checking if there are any more that I might have overlooked.

After The Rain

These are a couple of photos I shot at the Sutera Harbour Marina.

Caterpillar

Just a couple of close up shots of a caterpillar.

Lost!

These are some of the other photos that I took in Ikhwan's house last week. It's Monday and I don't have any classes at Uni today so im sitting here at home trying to put together photos that I'm supposed to send to develop.

Oh and Google Adsense rejected my application due to - Unacceptable site content - lol? whatever lah...

Btw If you haven't already heard the song Lost! by Coldplay, you should try and give it a listen. :)

A Beautiful December

The great outdoors, or rather the garden is where I head to every time I run out of inspiration. The place remains the same but the photos are endless.

I didn't do anything today, which was probably a good thing since I have been going out almost everyday and I'm very tired.

Kit Lens to Macro

These shots of an Ant moving around a Mulberry Plant were taken with the Canon 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 Kit Lens. Some of you may or may not know that when you hold any SLR lens back-to-front against the camera mount, It shortens the minimum focus distance between your subject and lens. This means you can go much closer to the subject that you are trying to photograph. Unless you already have a macro lens then you really don't need to do this.

But for those who are on a tight budget and want to experiment with macro, then try this out [at your own risk]. Make sure you get the hang of using Manual control on your camera so that you don't underexpose or overexpose.

The problem with doing this is that you're going to risk dust flying into your lens and camera body [so be careful]. You also can't auto focus because obviously you're just holding it in front of the camera mount. The only way to focus onto your subject is to move the lens closer or further.

Which also brings about the need to shoot under bright light to be able to increase shutter speed to avoid blurring from your hand movements. That is why the second shot has a slight blur to it.

Another problem is aperture control. Unless you are using a lens with manual aperture control, you are stuck with the wide aperture of the lens. This means that your area of focus is incredibly thin and you have to be quick to press the shutter when the subject goes into focus.

Having said all that, the shots that you get will really be worth the try :D

Shoot that Garden

This week has just been one of those totally random and long weeks... It seems like last monday was ages away and exams here to stay. hahaha random rhyming with bad timing. Anyways tomorrow I have midterm exam for two subjects, I have to pass up my group assignment for history class, and I have yet to properly memorise for the exams tommorow.

Church today was entertaining, I fell asleep during the Homily, the priest was oddly skipping past syllables which made the sentences sound completely broken; I think that he was in a rush for something, I sang some parts of the hymns off key, which made my mum laugh.

When I got home, I was chatting with steffers about today when the subject about cracks had suddenly emerged. She's so excited about the avatar movie, [The Last Airbender] and im pretty sure jedi knights came into the conversation at one point (not literally).

Anyways,

The pictures above were taken yesterday around my house garden (except for the last one which was taken a week ago). I shoot photos of random stuff when I run out of inspiration. :)

Just another Dragonfly

This photo was taken on my opposite neighbor's driveway. I was actually in the car about to leave for an SPCA booth in Gaya Street [Which I will post soon]. Anyways, as I was saying, I was looking out the car window and saw this dragonfly land on the driveway.

I got out of the car and took some pictures of it, surprisingly it didn't fly away even when I moved the camera closer to it. :) It really loves cameras I guess hahaha...

Oh, and the Annual Dinner/Prom on saturday night was awesome. [I will also post those pictures soon]

:)

Butterfly

This butterfly here landed on a white tile in front of my house and looking at it, I expected it to fly away but then it stayed there for quite a while so then, after a few moments of hesitation, I took a picture of it.

It immediately flew away after I took this picture.

Crawling Ants

I took this photo nearby a restaurant close to my uni. If you look closely you could make out the ants in the center of the photo :D

I think im starting to run out of photos to update my blog at the moment :( but no worries :D because this sunday im going to Kuala Penyu with MSJ Photography and im really hoping to get some great pics there.