head full of sky

fallen tree

2011-11-10T17:02:00.001+01:00

the stitch

2011-11-09T12:00:00.001+01:00

This is my first attempt at stitching photos in Photoshop. I went out last night with my camera, but forgot to take the kit lens. So when I came to this spot I realized there is no way I can use the 50mm lens to capture a whole scene like this, as this lens is, of course, not nearly wide enough. So instead I took several shots, and decided I will try to find out how to stitch them together in Photoshop. When I came home, it turned out this would actually be no big deal, as you only have to select an option from the menu, and Photoshop in fact does all the work for you! Awesome. I might do more of these. :D

just some leaves

2011-11-08T11:32:00.001+01:00

A rather boring autumn photo, I know. But I couldn't help myself, I'm really enjoying the stuff I can do with this lens DOF-wise, which I couldn't do with my kit lens...

spelt flour muffins with sour cherries

2011-11-07T07:32:00.001+01:00

This is one of my attempts at food photography. It's not particularly impressive, but then again, I didn't invest much effort in it either, so it wouldn't be. The thing is, I really don't have an inclination towards indoors photography that requires particular lighting set-ups (although, I actually went to the trouble of placing a white carboard to the side here as an improvised reflector, not that it did that much good...), well thought out background and composition, and stuff like that. And specifically for food photography, you need stuff like nice plates, and props: like, a jug of milk and a couple of glasses might have gone well with these muffins, just slightly visible in the background but enough to be seen that they're there. And some cherries in a bowl, and stuff like that. But I don't have the patience for it. I bought this pink kitchen towel to serves as a much nicer background than the boring white or brown that I might have used, and that's the most effort I'm willing to invest. I just find it infinitely more fun to be outside and take photos, than do this, so I don't bother too much with it. Although, as winter and bad weather approaches, I might end up doing more stuff like this as I'll probably be spending much more time at home, keeping warm...

Anyway, this was a snapshot taken to go with my recipe for spelt flour muffins with sour cherries, it's not going to feature in a cookbook, but for an amateur food blog I suppose it's good enough. :)

a couple

2011-11-06T13:04:00.001+01:00

Today is the only day of this week that I am free for the whole day (I was working yesterday, too), so I got up before dawn because I wanted to try to take some photos of the sunrise, and generaly catch the morning sun, and what did I find? Cloudy sky. Completely miserable light. And the scent of rain in the air. Yup, on the one day of the week when I'm free and I can spend the whole day outside, it decides to rain. Just my luck.

a lonely pomegranate

2011-11-05T19:58:00.000+01:00

twilight

2011-11-04T07:50:00.002+01:00

This is a 25 seconds exposure taken just after sunset, two days ago. I don't have an ND filter or anything of the sort so I waited until it got sufficiently dark to do a long exposure shot. This is the first time I've done this, I quite like how it turned out. I darkened the sky just a little bit in Photoshop to make the clouds a bit more dramatic and to increase the contrast between the sky and the sea.

another macro

2011-11-03T07:20:00.003+01:00

This is the same plant as in yesterday's photo, also shot with the aid of the Kenko extension tube. Like I wrote yesterday, the tube is a rather limiting tool so it's not really a replacement for a proper macro lens. But it can still produce quite nice results in some settings.

teeny tiny snail

2011-11-02T12:27:00.002+01:00

This was taken with my new Ef 50mm f/1.8 II lens and a Kenko 25mm extension tube, which I bought used. What I didn't know before the purchase is that a 25mm extension tube, combined with a 50mm lens, produces such a tiny depth of field that it can be quite challenging to get something into focus and capture it if you're not, for example, leaning against something, or if there's a bit of wind, as even the slightest movement results in an out of focus shot. (Also, the thing you're photographing has to be really small and really close.) I'm not sorry I bought it, though, it will be useful until I can afford a proper macro lens...

This snail, btw, is perhaps 4 milimetres across – it's really tiny. In fact, it's so tiny, and so well blended with the surroundings, that I didn't even notice it until I attached the extension tube to take a close up photo of this plant. :)

colours of autumn #3

2011-11-01T13:39:00.002+01:00

I'm loving the autumn colours.

there is a light

2011-10-31T21:01:00.004+01:00

I would like to replace my kit lens with a more quality zoom, but I can't decide whether to buy something like Tamron 17-50mm, Sigma 17-70mm or Canon 28-135mm (which are in my price range) or save up for something like the EF 24-105mm f/4 L lens. I want a lens that I will never have to replace, so the weather sealed, robustly built and high quality L lens makes sense... except, even the used ones are pretty pricey... Also, I'm very much an amateur photographer, so to invest that much money into an expensive lens does not seem entirely justified...

I don't know, I will see. In the mean time, I bought the cheap, fast and sharp EF 50mm f/1.8 II (it's really cheap!), it arrived today. I took it out for a walk, but as you can see from the above photo, it got dark and I haven't managed to take many photos. Tomorrow, however, I have a day off, so hopefully I'll manage to take some interesting shots.

underwater #3

2011-10-30T07:42:00.005+01:00

Still no new photos, so here are some more from the archives. These underwater shots were taken with the Fuji Finepix XP30, an inexpensive compact camera that I had tons of fun with (I spent hours shooting with it underwater, it's seriously fun). Straight from the camera, the photos are rather flat and not very expressive; I suppose because light underwater is so diffused it does not create a lot of contrast and the camera does not compensate for that (also, the fact that I was photographing boring, brown seaweed instead of colourful corals and other interesting stuff like that, may have something to do with it). So I used Photoshop to bring out the colours and contrast. A few more photos below.

This photo is completely wrong. It was supposed to be a photo of a sea cucumber, but AF on the Fuji Finepix XP30 is a bit slow, which is a problem underwater as it's hard to keep the camera steady. Basically, I dove down to take a photo of a sea cucumber and some algae in the background and by the time I managed to get the shot into focus, I began drifting upwards, so my hand moved, I disturbed the sand on the sea floor, and I ended up with a photo that completely missed the thing I was trying to photograph. For some reason I still like it, though.

Apart from the fact AF is slow, the camera's light metering is also a bit... wonky. Sometimes you can take two or three shots one after another of the same setting, and they'll all be exposed differently, so it's necessary to take repeated shots of the same subject. On the other hand, when you manage to get the shot into focus and properly exposed, the underwater macros can turn out really great. Like this one here – I love that I managed to capture these little "hairs" on the seaweed. The photos may be showing only the boring seaweed, but I never see it like this underwater, which is why I like it and find it interesting.

This is another version of this photo posted earlier here. Needless to say, it was heavily edited in Photoshop to get these colours, as this is just some boring, yellowish-grey seaweed... But I do love the light underwater.

bumblebee

2011-10-18T11:59:00.002+02:00

I haven't had time lately to go out with a camera, so I don't have any new photos to post. Instead, here's something from the archives, that I didn't post at the time. This is the shallowest depth of field my kit lens is able to produce, and the sharpness is not the greatest, but all things considered, a kit lens is not all that bad. Of course, it's not terribly good either, but it has served me well. Still, I do hope I'll be able to buy a new lens soon... We shall see.

colours of autumn #2

2011-10-15T14:22:00.002+02:00

colours of autumn

2011-10-09T23:51:00.000+02:00

preparing for winter

2011-10-02T17:05:00.001+02:00

stern looking kitteh

2011-10-01T17:09:00.001+02:00

It's Caturday, so here's a photo of a stern looking kitteh.

canadair CL-415

2011-09-28T23:50:00.003+02:00

Today there was a fire near the town where I live – quite close to the town; they had to call in five water bombers to help fight the fire before the wind steered it towards the town. This is a photo of one of the Canadair CL-415 water bombers that were called in (there were altogether four CL-415s and one Air Tractor AT-802A). The were flying really low, sometimes directly above me, so I was able to snap some photos.

budding

2011-09-26T12:32:00.003+02:00

butternut squash curry

2011-09-25T23:41:00.005+02:00

Made this for lunch today. 'T was very tasty.

kitteh

2011-09-17T18:55:00.004+02:00

underwater #2

2011-09-16T03:23:00.003+02:00

Another underwater shot. The photos are nothing terribly impressive, but I love using the camera underwater, it's so much fun.

underwater

2011-09-11T09:07:00.009+02:00

An underwater shot, taken with the Fuji Finepix XP30 waterproof camera, a cheap and not terribly impressive compact camera but incredibly fun nevertheless. :)

naked tree

2011-01-26T12:17:00.001+01:00

swans!

2011-01-23T16:50:00.002+01:00

This was taken last year, actually, in April or May, I can't remember...