My Photography Evolution: March 2013

Sunday, March 31, 2013

Tamron 90mm f2.8 macro vc usd and sp 70-200mm f2.8 di vc usd

My stock photography site on Alamy.com

Yesterday I went to see Tamron lens presentation. They showed the "90mm f2.8 macro VC USD" and "SP 70-200mm f2.8 DI VC USD" lenses.
Both of the lenses make great quality images. They are very sharp in the middle and go softer around the edges. The build quality of both seemed very good and both have the vibration compensation(which is very nice).

I took few shots with both of them and I have to say that I really liked the 70-200mm lens. The 90mm wasn't for me. Don't know why, but it just didn't feel right in my hands. They both have really great quality, but the 70-200mm is heavy and fits nicely into my hand. I think that the weight gives better balance when shooting, although I have small Nikon D3100. It just felt so much better than the 90mm. I really recommend you try out these lenses if you have a chance.

The prices for these lenses are pretty crispy(for ordinary user like me), but what other to expect from lenses of that quality. The 90mm starts from about $750 and 70-200mm $1500 in amazon. Here in Estonia I can get the lenses for about 800€ for 90mm and 1650€ for the 70-200mm...

Again, if you have a chance, try out these lenses. You'll love them!

Here are few photos I took(these are straight from camera):

SP 70-200mm f2.8 DI VC USD

70mm
F2.8
1/50
800 ISO

SP 70-200mm f2.8 DI VC USD

160mm
F2.8
1/50
800 ISO

90mm f2.8 macro VC USD

90mm
F3.5
1/60
800 ISO

If you are interested in stock photos, visit my stock photography site on Alamy.com

Saturday, March 23, 2013

Making a studio

For some time I've been interested in studio photography, but I never wanted to spend too much to buy all the equipment. So I've looked around the web to find the cheapest equipment possible and also that has OK quality.

1) What I already had:
1. Nikon D3100
2. Couple of lenses
3. Speedlight SB-700 flash
4. Few table lights

2) What I needed to get:
1. A background
2. Softbox

3) Also ordered:
1. Lightstand
2. Umbrella
3. Radio flash remote

I decided to buy the background because I really didn't have a place where I could make a permanent studio, I can move the background anywhere anytime. It was 50% off and cost me 55 EUR in total. I also bought a reflector(~19 EUR)

2,75 x 11m white seamless paper

56cm reflector with silver and golden side.

To soften the light I decided to make a softbox. I looked at some DIY sites and decided to make my own design. I used some wires and aluminum paper(one side aluminum, other side brown paper). The front is just some old bed sheet.
I wanted it to be fairly light so it would be easy to move around and use. Building this cost me 0 EUR since I already had everything at home.

This is my first try on making one so it doesn't look all too great, but it works just fine.

This is the back side. I decided to leave the back open so I can easily manipulate the settings of my flash.
Need to find a better solution for future projects on how to make it stand straight. On this one I just put some wires around the Flash.
Since the softbox is pretty light, it stays in place OK, but always could do better.

I also ordered one lightstand, a white umbrella and Radio flash trigger from Amazon UK. They should arrive sometime in start of April. So I can give an update on how they work.
I paid about 70 EUR for all. So I saved about 50% with ordering from amazon. It would have cost me atleast 150 EUR if I would have bought these things here in Estonia.

In total I have spent around 150 EUR to create my home studio(aside from my camera gear). It's not perfect, but it gets the job done.

I will show you how it all looks when I get everything that I ordered.

Until then, Happy shooting!

And please visit and share my Stock photography site with your friends!

Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Some old Photos

Just thought of showing some older photos from 2011 when I was working in Norway.

If you want to see more pictures, go to my stock photography site

This one is taken while we were waiting for the ferry to travel through the fjords. As you can see the ferry just left a little bit before we got there :)

This I took in the morning while driving. It's taken somewhere in the mountains in South Norway. Not really sure where, because we had been driving for about 12 hours or more straight from Stockholm Sweden and I was really tired.

This one again I have no idea where exactly is, but it's somewhere in Norway and Sweden border I think ;) We did a small rest stop there.

This is the foundation we built in Skaidi in northern Norway. The view was just awesome!

This is the same site as last picture. We got the walls in place and started building the roof to get the house waterproof.

If you are interested in Stock photos or have a friend who is please visit my stock photography site

Friday, March 15, 2013

Tried some HDR for the first time yesterday. Came out with pretty decent image I think.
For now I use Lightroom and Photoshop trial versions, but I think I will have to buy atleast lightroom when I have the money, because this is the best program I've used for Editing so far.

Anyway here's the image, Enjoy :)

And if you want to see more images or have friends who are interested in Stock photos visit my stock photography site

Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Snowboarding

Went out today for some Snowboarding. It was really nice weather, maybe -5C, but sun was really warm.
I filmed myself with my GoPro to see where I can improve myself. Found that I was doing it all wrong when trying 180 :P Really want to perfect my 180 and learn 360, but so far I keep doing the same mistakes.

Anyway, took few snapshots from vids: