photokimbo

Black & White Beach Challenge

Sun, 07 Nov 2010 04:14:00 -0800

This weekend I set myself a challenge to learn more about shooting digital Black & White, which meant learning to use the Nikon Picture Control System to employ Filter Effects in Monochrome and experimenting with White Balance.

I experimented with shooting higher ISO settings such as 800 and 1600, to try and get a bit of a grainy feel happening. I think this worked to a degree, but it's not quite the same as film grain.

See the full gallery on Posterous

The real challenge came later with trying to establish a workflow for post-processing. Lightroom ignores the cameras settings for RAW files, which means as soon as they are imported they lose any B&W processing that was done in-camera. Try as I might, I could not replicate quite the same look using Lightroom's B&W conversion.

See the full gallery on Posterous

After a fair bit of frustration I found a solution, which was to use Nikon ViewNX 2 to select images whilst they were still on the card, then output them from RAW to TIFF, which I then imported into Lightroom.

See the full gallery on Posterous

Still plenty to learn, but made good progress this weekend and am feeling happy to be coming closer to capturing the more authentic looking B&W images which I love so much.

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Bluedog Fraser Island Tour 2010

Wed, 20 Oct 2010 05:00:00 -0700

Fraser Island is an absolute smorgasbord for photographers. Where else in the world can you witness a rich rainforest, crystal clear fresh water lake, epic sand dunes, white sandy beach, and sparkling blue ocean with breaching humpback whales, all at the same time?

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Day 1: Sunset & Welcome Drinks

The Bluedog Photography tour was led by none other than company owner and director Danielle Lancaster, with professional photographer and long-time island resident Peter Meyer as our guide. Kingfisher Bay Resort provided us with what I like to call a bit of "5 Star Camping", which was greatly appreciated after each adventure-filled day.

This was my first trip with Bluedog, and there was a point of real significance for me in that it was the Bluedog TV segment on Chanel 7's Great South East back in February that inspired me to take the plunge and buy my first dSLR, as a birthday gift to myself the following month. Hard to believe that only 7 months ago my iPhone was my camera!

The challenges provided by this tour genuinely pushed me to become a better photographer. Each day we experienced a myriad of tone and lighting, high to low contrast, high to low key, morning sun to twilight afterglow, and everything in-between.

The mantra for the tour was 'Get it right in-camera!', which came with a mandate of Manual Exposure. Admittedly, I felt a little apprehensive about this at first. What if I come home with horrible shots, knowing I could have done better relying on what I already knew? Right, and what if my shots turn out great and I improve as a photographer? Doubt quickly took a back seat, and I was filled with enthusiasm for accepting the mission.

See the full gallery on Posterous

Day 2: Central Station, Lake McKenzie, McKenzie's Jetty

This was also my first experience having two cameras - the new D700 and the D90. I definitely struggled a bit with this, mostly due to wanting to try out various combinations of bodies and lenses for comparison. Next time I'll be prepared with a better understanding of which to use when. A special thank you to Danielle for loaning me her Nikon AF-S 17-35mm f/2.8 IF-ED lens so that I could shoot wide angle on the D700.

As it turns out, the experience of practising manual exposure over three full days of constantly changing conditions, observing the light and its effects in different contexts, allowed me to gain a far deeper and more integrated understanding than I had previously. I found that having to be conscious of how and why I was applying the law of reciprocity, as opposed to letting the camera take care of it, allowed me to take a giant step forward and evaluate exposure as a whole. In retrospect this seems obvious, but as is the case with many realisations, simplicity only becomes apparent after the hard work of distillation allows it to be revealed. The difference now is that instead of thinking about DOF or subject movement, I'm thinking about both - and it's starting to feel quite natural.

See the full gallery on Posterous

Day 3: Scribbly Gum Forest, 75 Mile Beach, Red Canyon, Indian Head, Waddy Point, Eli Creek, Sand Dunes, Maheno Shipwreck

You can't really think like a photographer unless you understand how your camera "thinks"; plain and simple. This is how I interpreted the subtext of the training throughout the tour, with the goal being to liberate us from the limitations our lack of understanding imposed, and open the door to the craftsmanship of photography.

Danielle covered an amazing array of subjects throughout the tour, giving us practical tuition on-location and in context. Shooting posture, camera modes and settings, exposure and the grey card, understanding histograms, white balance, aperture and DOF, shutter speed and subject movement, ISO, composition, approaching subjects and more. We were also fortunate to have access to Peter's wealth of knowledge and experience on the island, its ecosystem, locations and inhabitants. His ability to predict light and weather conditions allowed us to adapt and find the best photographic opportunities throughout each day.

See the full gallery on Posterous

Day 4: Whale Watching

The small group of 6 students was spot-on, allowing us to remain flexible and mobile, getting around easily in just two 4x4's, with SCUBA instructor Owen as our second wheel man. Everyone in the group had terrific attitudes which really elevated the experience. Genuine, down-to-earth, good-humoured people. My sincere thanks to everyone involved in making the tour a sensational one. Fantastic locations, excellent tutelage, terrific group and brilliantly organised - 11/10.

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International Tiger Day 2010

Sat, 25 Sep 2010 20:40:00 -0700

September 26th, 2010 is International Tiger Day in the Year of the Tiger. What makes today so significant is that by the next Year of the Tiger, in 12 years time, tigers in the wild may well be extinct. With an estimated population in the wild of under 4000, of which only a quarter are believed to be breeding females, and an attrition rate of between 1-5 animals per day, leaves us with only 10 years expectancy of tigers surviving in the wild.

Kaitlyn at Australia Zoo: 1/100s, f/3.2, ISO 560

The image above is of Kaitlyn, a 3 year old female and one of the five Sumatran Tigers at Australia Zoo. A couple of weeks ago I was lucky enough to have her wander over and sit down right in front of me, just 0.9m away behind the glass wall. I quickly switched to my Tamron 90mm f/2.8 Macro lens and with a bit of work was able to capture a great result.

Tigers are apex predators, meaning they are at the top of their food chain. The only thing directly threatening their existance is us. Human interference through habitat destruction caused by illegal logging for manufacture of cheap furniture, plantation growing of palm oil, as well as the illegal tiger trade in tiger body parts are the main activities which place these magnificant animals at risk of extinction.

The good news is we have the power to prevent such a tragedy. There are many people dedicated to this cause, and it's easy to get involved and support them. If you find yourself at Australia Zoo, be sure and have a chat with one of the friendly Tiger Handlers - they're more than willing to share their passion for these amazing animals. For more information check out the Australia Zoo Wildlife Warriors.

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Digital Processing & Workflow Experience with Mark Rayner Week 2

Thu, 09 Sep 2010 07:05:00 -0700

Just finished our second of four nights learning digital processing and workflow using Adobe Photoshop CS5. I've learnt so much already, and the best part is that the hands-on approach is really helping the knowledge to stick. Tonight I started to get a bit of a feel for the workflow coming together - getting more comfortable with the tools. Already there's an obvious improvement in the final quality of images I'm able to produce.

Point Cartwright: 1/2s, f/22, ISO 200

Each week we get to spend time at the end of the workshop putting what we've learned into practice using our own images. What better image to use this week than a shot I took on my first Trekabout workshop back in May - the Beach to Mountain Experience. The original RAW image seemed rather dull and flat, lacking any real detail or vibrance. Applying the techniques I've learned so far, I was able to bring the image to life. I was amazed how as soon as the image began to more accurately depict the actual scene, I could suddenly remember so many of the details of that moment - the weather, the smells, what kit I used, how I setup the tripod, and how wet my feet became just seconds afterwards.

It's only now that I'm really seeing why it's so important to shoot in RAW. Mark has shown us what an amazing amount of information and detail is stored in this format, and how inadequate the camera typically is at displaying it (or more precisely, interpreting it as the human eye would). I think from now on I'll be looking at the camera's image review with a more critical eye and a better understanding of what I should be looking for. As long as I've exposed for the highlights, I can be pretty confident that the camera has captured a much broader range of detail, colour and tone than it is able to render for review on its tiny LCD screen.

The past two weeks have changed my understanding and opinions of post-processing. Previously I had thought of the process more as something which was software-based, relying on a machine to make the magic happen. Now I'm realising it's very much about the human aspect, requiring our input to re-interpret the information captured by the camera, so as to infuse the image with the authenticity of how we experienced the moment. That's where the magic happens.

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F-111 Riverfire Practice Run

Fri, 03 Sep 2010 08:03:00 -0700

Thanks to a very cool boss, and the good fortune of having my camera gear with me today, I was lucky enough to get this shot from 126m away during the F-111's practice run for tomorrow night's Dump and Burn at Riverfire.

1/800s, f/6.3, ISO 200

This will most likely be the last time we get to see the Pigs in action, as they've now been replaced by the newer F/A-18F Super Hornets and are scheduled for retirement in December, after 37 years of service with the RAAF. I, for one, am going to miss hearing the words "Look up, Brisbane!" broadcast over public radio from the cockpit of an F-111, as it dumps its fuel and hits the afterburner to light up our evening sky. It simply will not be Riverfire without them.

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Sunset After Burbank Controlled Burn

Wed, 01 Sep 2010 23:16:00 -0700

Like the rest of Brisbane, I awoke this morning to the smell of smoke and a thick haze as a result of controlled bush burning down at Burbank. On the way to work I kept thinking that this should make for a very interesting sunset.

Lake Samsonvale: 1s, f/16, ISO 200

I legged it from work to try and get to Lake Samsonvale by sunset. With bumper-to-bumper traffic I missed the giant glowing tangerine orb by scarcely 5 minutes, but was happy enough to stick around for the afterglow.

Lake Samsonvale: 6s, f/16, ISO 200

Next time I see conditions like today, I'll be leaving work a bit earlier. If they ask why, I'll tell them it's because the sky is about to catch fire. Yep, that should do it.

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Trekabout Weekend Mountain Experience

Wed, 01 Sep 2010 07:25:00 -0700

When I was 2 years old, my parents took me up a long and winding road, through a rainforest, to a guest house on a mountain top where I met an old man named Bernard O'Reilly. Now, 35 years later, I find myself driving up the same long and winding road to O'Reilly's Rainforest Retreat for a weekend of photography with Michael Snedic and Mark Rainer at their Treakabout Weekend Mountain Experience.

View from O'Reilly's at 930 metres (3000 feet) above sea level: 1/50s, f/16, ISO 200, -0.7 Ev

After a hasty check-in, I made my way to the dinning room to meet up with my fellow workshop participants for dinner. Following a very satisfying meal, we re-grouped in one of the function rooms for an official meet 'n greet, an overview of what the weekend had in store, and a presentation on depth of field techniques.

Moran's Falls

The next morning the group met outside reception at 8:30am, where we piled into four wheel drives for the trip down the road to Moran's Falls. At first I felt frustrated at having other photographers and their tripods in every shot I wanted, until I figured it was probably better to try and find some less common angles anyway. The way I look at it, workshops are about learning and experimenting under the guidance of more experienced photographers. You can either spend your time trying to get some good shots, or let go of the outcome and spend your time learning to take even better ones. It's all about the learning experience - going home with a nice image or two, well that's a bonus.

Cascades: 1/2s, f/16, ISO 200, -1 Ev

I'd recently purchased an ND400 filter, which reduces your exposure by a whopping 8 and 2/3 stops - just the thing for daytime long exposures. Being on a workshop with moving water and people passing accross frame seemed the perfect time to experiment with it.

Cascades: 52s, f/8, ISO 200, -1Ev

I used a great little iPhone app called LongTime Exposure Calculator to figure out my exposure time. First I experimented without the filter until I found an exposure I was happy with, then I simply selected that exposure time and the corresponding filter and the app did the time calculation for me. Having the camera set to Manual, I carefully attached the ND400 and exposed for the amount of time calculated by the app.

Cascades: 1m 40s, f/8, ISO 200, -1 Ev

With my exposures taking up to 5 minutes each including noise reduction, I was left short for time to make my way out to the waterfall lookout. I quickly packed up the gear and ran along the track to the lookout in true Bear Grylls fashion (ok, so I have a good imagination, but it is a gnarly track).

Moran's Falls: 1/4s, f/16, ISO 200

No sooner had I grabbed a couple of shots of the falls than I was running back along the track to find almost everyone had already been driven back to base. At this point I realised I had forgotten to get a shot from the lookout where we arrived, so I quickly set up the tripod, put on a polarising filter and had litterally just pressed the shutter when I heard the sound of Michael's car horn telling me it was time to get a move on.

Moran's Falls Lookout: 1/13s, f/16, ISO 200

Rainforest Macro

After a quick bite of morning tea, it was back down the road and into the rainforest with macro lenses at the ready. Not too far up a gully I spotted a tiny pair of gill fungi on the side of a fallen log.

Gill Fungi: 1/4s, f/22, ISO 800, -1 Ev

This was a tricky shot. I could barely get the camera low enough without digging into the ground and could only just make out the frame using Live View by laying on my back and angling my head just right. The loose top soil of the steep gully kept falling away and taking me and the camera with it. A right-angle viewfinder would have been a huge help on this one. Another item to add to the shopping list! Still need to work on depth of field and remembering to review in-camera as I go.

Post-Processing Session

After lunch we were back in the function room for a session on post-processing with Mark. Developing skills in the "digital darkroom" (pardon the pun) is obviously paramount to getting the most out of your captures, and apart from the basics I'm still very much a beginner. I like the idea that post-processing is just another step in the workflow that makes a photograph - allowing the photographer to reproduce and communicate an image as they envisioned it at the time of capture. When I think about it that way, the debate over how much or how little post-processing becomes irrelevant. That said, I am certainly more in favour of investing in camera skills than software.

Sunset at Luke's Farm

With the sun starting to sink, we jumped in the four wheel drives and drove down to Luke's Farm, which provided us with an incredible view of the McPherson Range. There was a layer of cloud which we were hoping would light up brilliantly, but alas it was not to be. It was great to see folks getting the chance to try out one of Mark's graduated ND filters - seeing that kind of amazement that photography is all about.

Luke's Farm: 0.8s, f/16, ISO 200

Rainforest Birds

After another fantastic meal and a toasty warm night in my room, it was time to break out the brand new Bigma and get some experience with a telephoto lens. I was quietly super-excited about this, as it promised to open up a whole new world of possibilities, especially with regards to wildlife. Both Michael and Mark worked to get us some great opportunities by attracting an abundance of local birds. The night before, I had a good think about how I was going to approach this shoot. Zoomed in at 500mm, the Bigma's widest aperture is f6.3, and given there's not a lot of available light in the rainforest, getting a fast enough shutter speed was going to be a problem for the D90. I wasn't really keen to use off-camera flash - it just didn't seem right, so I decided to throw caution to the wind and go with high ISO settings instead.

Pied Currawong: 1/160s, f/6.5, ISO 640, -0.7 Ev

One of the important lessons the group learned was about careful background selection, and how to employ the depth of field techniques we'd been shown to help seperate our main subject out from the background. This proved to be a real challenge, having to slow the mind down enough to actually think about the background as well as getting the subject composed in the frame.

Regent Bower Bird: 1/200s, f/6.3, ISO 640

Another good tip I picked up was using AF/AE Lock (Auto Focus/Exposure Lock) to lock the auto focus and exposure on a point where I could anticipate the birds would be in flight, so it wouldn't keep "hunting" and end up with a big blur. I'll definitely try to practice using this technique more, as birds in flight seem a bit beyond me at the moment.

Eastern Yellow Robin: 1/30s, f/6.3, ISO 1000

I can't quite believe this little guy kept still for 1/30s, but boy am I glad he did. Quite impressed I managed to keep the camera steady, too. I took almost 400 shots during the morning - most of which were either out of focus, under-exposed, had camera movement or poor composition. I seemed to be doing well just to get a bird in the frame! I was so very happy to find that I actually had a couple of good captures, of which the tiny Eastern Yellow Robin is my favorite.

All-in-all it was a wonderfully jam-packed weekend. Learned a lot, met some really nice folks and got to reconnect with a part of my early childhood. Yep, quite a weekend experience indeed.

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Think Pink Week

Fri, 30 Jul 2010 21:57:00 -0700

If you've been around Brisbane City at night during the past couple of weeks, then you've probably noticed things looking a little pink. Well it's not by chance - Think Pink Week was held from 19-24th July, raising awareness for The Wesley Hospital Kim Walters Choices Program.

13s, f/22, ISO 200

Walking past the Treasury Casino each day on my way home from work, I eventually gave in to temptation and photographed this almost obscene riot of pink during blue hour.

According to their website, "The Kim Walters Choices Program was initially established in 1998, to support breast cancer patients and their families. However in 2006, Choices was officially expanded to accommodate the increasing number of patients with ‘other types’ of cancers, who regularly used the program, in the absence of any other support.

Today, the Choices program assists women and men of all ages. The program provides practical support, sharing, and information regardless of where the individual is undergoing treatment. Specifically, the program provides information, breast care nurse ward visits, exercise and relaxation programs designed to aid post-operative recovery and coping with adjuvant therapies, peer-support, complementary therapies, individual counselling and drop-in centres, free-of-charge to patients and their families. Groups are offered for partners, younger women, and women with secondary breast cancer."

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Brisbane Blanketed by Fog

Fri, 30 Jul 2010 16:25:00 -0700

It's not every day that you get to see sunny Brisbane under a thick blanket of fog - thick enough to shut down the airport and stop the CityCats from running. I'd been waiting a while for the opportunity to try some black and white shots in morning fog, and had a couple of locations in mind.

1/250s, f/8, ISO 200

Fortunatley, I'd already planned to take my gear with me yesterday, so as soon as I saw the fog I was ready to make the most of it before heading to work.

1/200s, f/8, ISO 200

My plan was to catch the CityCat, thinking that I would be able to get some really interesting shots along the river. It didn't take long to realise I'd be heading for the bus stop instead.

1/40s, f/8, ISO 200

Coming into the city, everything began to take on a dream-like glow - with the morning light just managing to push through and scatter throughout the buildings.

1/1600s, f/8, ISO 200, -0.7Ev

Looking down Charlotte Street, from the top intersection with George Street, was a shot I'd had in mind since the last time there was decent fog. I remember walking this route on my way to work one morning, turning the corner and just being blown away by the light. This time, I had my camera with me!

1/1600s, f/8, ISO 200, -0.7Ev

Black and white always resonsates very strongly with me. So many images from my childhood were in this timeless medium, and its ability today to evoke emotion seems amplified by the child-like wonder I experienced back then. As a photographer, it's another new and life-long challenge.

I really enjoyed this morning. I was prepared, knew my locations and had a few ideas. Generally feeling a lot more confident with camera settings and my ability to achieve a better exposure in tricky lighting conditions. Reading Jeff Wignal's Exposure Photo Workshop really helped me gain a better understanding of how dSLR sensors read exposures, and how to avoid getting caught by their limitations.

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Golden Hour to Blue Hour at Lake Samsonvale

Tue, 20 Jul 2010 02:10:00 -0700

This time last month, a cloudless afternoon at Lake Samsonvale afforded me the opporunity to study how light changes from Golden Hour through to Blue Hour. Shooting over a period of about an hour and a half, I was able to capture some nice exposures for comparison.

1/200s, f/18, ISO 200

This first shot was taken about forty minutes before sunset at 4:21pm, just nicely into Golden Hour. As an experiment, I tried using my 90mm f2.8 Tamron macro lens. Whilst unconventional for landscape, this is currently the fastest lense I own, and I've found it captures more light and colours far more accurately than any of my other lenses. I can't wait to try it out on a full frame sensor. The following two shots were taken using my Nikon Nikkor AF-S 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 G IF-ED VR II DX lens.

1/160s, f/16, ISO 200

This second shot was taken right on sunset, at 4:57pm. I used a Graduated Filter to bring the sky down a bit, and had to be careful not to blow the highlights of the sun reflecting on the water.

6s, f/16, ISO 200

The third and final shot was taken about 40 minutes after sunset at 5:41pm, well into Blue Hour. Personally, I really love the aftterglow, and am puzzled why more photographers don't stick around for it. It's important to remember that in low light, given an appropriate amount of time, the camera can capture more light and colour than our eyes can perceive under such conditions. In other words, just because you can't see it, doesn't mean it's not there.

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Lake Moogerah on a Winter Sunday

Mon, 19 Jul 2010 18:52:00 -0700

Last Sunday I headed out to Lake Moogerah, which is about 15km south-west of Boonah in Queensland's beautiful Fassifern Valley. The Scenic Rim is definitely one of my favorite places, and being only a 1-2hr drive from Brisbane means it's also fairly accessible.

1/400s, f/8, ISO 200, Focal: 10mm

I finally got to try out my new wide angle Nikon AF-S DX Nikkor 10-24mm f/3.5-4.5G ED lens on a really decent landscape. I wanted to see what sort of range I could get from it by trying horizontal, vertical and cropped panoramic compositions.

1/320s, f/8, ISO 200, -0.3Ev, Focal: 24mm

Zoomed in at 24mm I was back in my "comfort zone", which was nice, but I had to remind myself to keep trying super-wide angle at 10mm. I spent quite a while just looking through the viewfinder, getting up close, pulling back, tilting up and down - really trying to get a better feel for how different camera angles impact on composition, especially with regards to distortion along the horizontal plane. Bowing and stretching seem to be the two to watch out for. If your horizontal plane is too far above or below the center of the frame it will start to bow dramatically, but the closer to the center of the frame the more it will horizontally stretch, or "squash" the subject (e.g. mountains become mole hills). I remember Peter Eastway mentioning this at PSQ2010, when he was talking about his recent trip to Antarctica and how he used a touch of vertical stretch in post-processing to re-create the awe he felt looking up at Drygalski Fjord. I haven't tried that here, but it's something to remember.

1/200s, f/8, ISO 200, Focal: 10mm

It was really interesting, and challenging, to try framing with a strong foreground subject. The distortion and soft focus around the corners of the frame caused a bit of head scratching with regards to picking a focal point. I was going for hyperfocal distance, using manual focus, but then struggled a bit with composition due to the near distance limit. Seems filling the frame at 10mm comes at a price? More reading required on this one.

When the nights warm up a bit I plan to spend a weekend camping on the lake at the Lake Moogerah Caravan Park, which should give me plenty of opportunity to sample an array of great lighting conditions, both day and night.

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Star Trails Over Lake Samsonvale

Sun, 18 Jul 2010 11:15:00 -0700

Last night I was supposed to attend a workshop on star trails, but unfortunately it was cancelled. I'd really been looking forward to trying this technique, and figured why waste the perfect cloudless weather - just get out there and have a go! So I rugged up and headed out to Lake Samsonvale, about a half hour north of Brisbane.

30s, f/3.5, ISO 400 x 100 stacked exposures (50 minutes)

I did a bit of research to try and get a handle on an approach I felt comfortable with. It seems there are two main techniques for shooting star trails with a dSLR, as follows:

Make a single long exposure on BULB setting (typically 1-2hrs or more)
Use time-lapse technique called frame stacking to shoot continuous 30 second exposures over the equivelent time of a single long exposure

After thinking it over for a bit I decided to go with frame stacking, primarily due to the flexibility it affords in post-processing, such as the ability to remove light trails from airplanes, play with foreground or subject experiments such as painting with light, and last but no least - the ability to keep light polution under control. Thanks to a gentleman named Achim Schaller, the author of the excellent Startrails software, stacking the frames is simple, quick and easy (and free!). Processing 100 frames took about five minutes on my laptop, and I must admit I was pretty blown away with the results. The only caveat, and in this case I honestly don't see it as an issue at all, is that you can't use RAW files for stacking. I shot with JPG on Large/Fine quality settings instead, but you could shoot RAW and do a batch conversion if you really wanted to.

Getting yourself oriented with the stars is vital if you want reasonably predictable results, which will depend entirely on the direction you are shooting (note this is for the Southern Hemisphere):

South - stars will appear to revolve clockwise with the center of rotation above the horizon
North - stars will appear to revolve anti-clockwise with the center of rotation below the horizon
East/West - stars will appear to rain down, rising to the east and falling to the west

For my exposure, I wanted to capture the Milky Way as concentric circles, which appear from shooting the southerly aspect - but how on earth do you frame for this without simply pointing and praying? Well, if you imagine a line along the Earth's axis, extending out from each of the poles, these lines will intersect with a couple of stars - the North and South Pole stars. These stars do not appear to move as the Earth rotates, because they are effectively sitting on the Earth's rotational axis. The folks in the Northern Hemisphere have it easy, thanks to the high visibility of Polaris, the North Pole star. In the Southern Hemisphere, it's a bit tougher. The South Pole star, Octantis, is barely visible to the naked eye. We can, however, use the Southern Cross to help us find it. Use a compass to find South, then find the intersection between a vertical line extending up from South, and the southerly line of the Cross. You should find it roughly intersects with the faintest of stars above the horizon, which should be your rotational point.

It's a good idea to take a few test shots using a wide aperture and high ISO setting, as this will cut down the amount of time you need to expose in order to get an idea of your composition. The following is a test shot I took, which I find I like just as much as the star trails. It was pushing the D90's limits in terms of acceptable noise levels, but I think it worked out ok.

30s, f/3.5, ISO 1000

Once you're happy with your composition you can try an exposure of a few minutes, which should give you just enough star trail movement to be sure. Then you'll want to adjust for lighting in your 30 second exposure - I found f/3.5 with ISO 400 a good balance in this instance. I also turned off Image Review to save a bit more battery, and more importantly turned off Long Exposure Noise Reduction which would cause gaps in the star trails if left on due to the amount of time it takes to process. When you're ready to go, set your shutter release to continuous mode and lock your cable release to keep the shutter release depressed. Now it's time to sit back and relax for an hour or two. When you're ready to pack up, remember to take a dark frame first - a final exposure with the lens cap on. This can be used in Startrails or Photoshop to cancel out any noise or hot pixels which can occur when the sensor heats up after prolonged use.

My kit for this trip was:

Nikon D90 w/ MB-D80 Battery Grip (2 x EN-EL3e batteries) - full charge!
Nikon MC-DC2 Remote Cord (Cable Release) - essential!
Nikon 10-24mm Nikkor lens w/ Flower Hood
Manfrotto 055XPROB Tripod w/ 322RC2 Head
Torch
Warm clothing (it was freezing cold!)
Drinks and nibblies
Good reading material

Looking forward to trying this again soon - somewhere further out from the city next time.

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Trekabout Half-Day Macro Experience Workshop

Mon, 12 Jul 2010 03:03:00 -0700

Last Saturday I had the good fortune to attend my second Trekabout workshop, the half-day Macro Experience, held by professional photographers Michael Snedic and Mark Rayner at the Mt Cootha Botanical Gardens in Brisbane, Australia. I had a fantastic time with a really lovely group of people. The workshop kicked-off at 8am, with the usual herding of photographers in the car park. Once we were all assembled we proceeded into the gardens for formal introductions, a review of our kit, and some words of wisdom and encouragement from our tutors.

My first challenge was fungi, and I really do mean challenge. I'd never tried to photograph anything so small in a natural setting before, and I was quite suprised just how mentally and physically demanding it can be (these little guys were only about 2.5cm tall). Following some excellent tutelage from Mark on balancing exposure and controlling Depth of Field, I spent about an hour working to get the shot below. Mark's demonstration on how to use the zoom feature in Live View made a massive difference - it was one of those "well, of course! why didn't I think of that..?" moments. I ended up making good use of natural light with a bit of help from my handy 80cm 7-in-1 collapsable reflector. Quite happy with the result, though I would have liked the Depth of Field to extend back toward the camera just a little more, and probably could have achieved that without too much noise using f/36 or smaller at ISO 800.

Nikon D90, Tamron 90mm f/2.8 Macro Lens, 1/10s, f/32, ISO 400

Before I knew it we were being rounded up for a quick drive up to the summit of Mt Cootha and a spot of morning tea, but before we left I managed to grab a quick shot of the following, again making good use of the reflector and natural light (and using a faster shutter speed to combat a few troublesome gusts of wind).

Nikon D90, Tamron 90mm f/2.8 Macro Lens, 1/800s, f/5.6, ISO 200

Some great discussions started up over coffee, and of course the iPad had to come out for a bit of show and tell, too (just so happened I had a copy of Michael's Australian Photography article on Macro, which contained one of his photographs he was describing.. and you know what they say about pictures!). It was a great Q&A opportunity, with gear being passed around and everyone having the chance to see first-hand what kind of a difference lens focul length can make, and then again with a set of extension tubes. Worth noting that whilst extension tubes will allow you to get that bit closer to your subject, they will also cut down the amount of light reaching the sensor (same with teleconverters). Seems a fast lens is definitely in order here.

After morning tea it was back down the mountain for round two, and with the skies looking rather ominous, it was time to try out my brand new Orbis and Nikon SB-600 Speedlight. I'm very new to using off-camera flash, let alone a ring flash, so over the past couple of weeks I've been learning as much as I could about the Nikon Creative Lighting System (CLS). To be honest, my expectations were pretty high - both of myself and of the Orbis, but I was fairly confident my efforts would be rewared if I could keep it together in the moment. Trying to keep it simple this time around, I stuck primarily with flash settings of TTL BL at 85mm, using Aperture Priority Mode and just working the aperture to control the light. In retrospect, this wasn't the smartest approach. I would have been much better off sticking with a very small aperture, such as f/36, and using ISO, Exposure and Flash Compensation to achieve the same lighting but with a greater Depth of Field. Oh well, live and learn! I'm still really impressed with the results. The following were all taken using the Orbis with the SB-600.

Nikon D90, Tamron 90mm f/2.8 Macro Lens, 1/60s, f/32, ISO 200

Nikon D90, Tamron 90mm f/2.8 Macro Lens, 1/60s, f/16, ISO 200

Nikon D90, Tamron 90mm f/2.8 Macro Lens, 1/60s, f/32, ISO 200

Nikon D90, Tamron 90mm f/2.8 Macro Lense, 1/60s, f/16, ISO 200

Nikon D90, Tamron 90mm f/2.8 Macro Lens, 1/160s, f/10, ISO 200

Nikon D90, Tamron 90mm f/2.8 Macro Lens, 1/60s, f/22, ISO 200

So there we go, another fantastic Trekabout workshop. In two weeks time I'll be heading down to Lamington National Park for their weekend workshop at O'Reillys, which should be something quite special indeed. Can't wait!

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