My Photography Evolution: May 2013

Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Cool macro II

My stock photos @ Alamy.com

Went out to forest/park today, to see if I could find any other cool bugs. Who said there were no mosquitoes this year... I was eaten alive lol.

Anyway I went to shoot some bugs, flies etc. So here are the best photos I made :)

My stock photos @ Alamy.com

Sunday, May 26, 2013

Cool Macro

My stock photos @ Alamy.com

Today I went out to take some Macro shots of bugs. The problem was that I couldn't find too many of them. Luckily I still saw some and managed to produce some nice images :)

Before going out, I thought I'd use my flash to light the set. I knew I'd be using my light pretty close to my subjects, so, I needed something to soften it. The softbox, I built before, was kinda too big for this. So, I decided to build a second, smaller one, that I could mount directly on my flash.

Doesn't look much, but works just fine

For this, I pretty much used the same materials as before. I only didn't use the wires, because this softbox is smaller, so it didn't need that much support. For the front of the softbox, I used some plastic to strengthen it a bit. Other parts are just aluminum paper and some tape.

As for the shoot. I used 2 tripods, one for my camera, the other for flash. I also used the radio flash triggering system. I played with my cameras settings a lot to get the best shots I could. And wow, did that make a difference. The photos I took today, compared to the shots I have taken before, were from another planet.
For some reason I always thought that my lens wasn't the best for the job(I used Tamron 18-200mm f3.5-5.6 DiII Macro). I always got my images unsharp and not looking that great. They always needed a lot of work in lightroom.With this setup, my images came to life. They are so much better I think. Live and learn :)

Anyway, judge my images yourself :)

My stock photos @ Alamy.com

Friday, May 24, 2013

Battery grip

My stock photos @ Alamy.com

Some time ago I ordered a Battery grip from China. It was very cheap compared to the prices here in Estonia. In fact it was about 5x cheaper. Also the shipping was free so no extra money used with delivery. Also an IR remote came with it.

The grip sits perfectly on my camera. It's made of plastic, but it seems to be pretty strong for now. Gives my camera the ability to use IR remote and it's pretty light, so, it doesn't add much weight. The connection cord is the right length, so it's not in the way. The grip takes 2x EN-EL14 batteries, so it doubles the shots I can take in one charge. Also makes my camera a little bit bigger(which I haven't gotten used to yet). It doesn't have a rubber grip on it, but that's ok, since it sits nicely in my hands.

Overall, I think it was money well spent for now. I have had it since yesterday, but as much as I've used it, it is great.

Edit: I found that sometimes when using the grips shutter button on close objects, it makes autofocus confused(I think it's in certain light conditions). It doesn't focus as quick and searches focus from closest to infinity. I tried many times with both my cameras shutter button and the one on the grip on same object at same distance. Pressing the grips shutter, it searched for focus, but cameras found it instantly. Don't know if it was one time thing or it happens in certain conditions.

And as always some images:

This is the battery grip and connection cord

Takes 2x EN-EL batteries

Shutter button and on/off switch

My stock photos @ Alamy.com

Thursday, May 16, 2013

AF-S NIKKOR 800mm f/5.6E FL ED VR presentation

My stock photos @ Alamy.com

So, today I went to see a presentation for the AF-S NIKKOR 800mm f/5.6E FL ED VR which was released some time ago. It was brought to Estonia from Sweden. This was the first one to be here.

The presentation took place on the top floor of Radisson Blu hotel in Tallinn and we could photograph pretty much the whole city. They talked a bit about the lens and then we could try it. I have to say, it was pretty fun using a lens like that, since I haven't used a super telephoto lens before.The images it gives are just amazing. Super sharp when the weather allows it.(you'll see on the images)

The major thumbs up for this lens are that it has very little chromatic abberation and it's really light weight(for the size), since it has fluorite elements. Compared to other lenses 600mm f4 and 400mm f2.8 it weights less. It's about 4.6kg while the 600mm is 5kg. You will still get a great workout with this lens :)

Very little, if at all, vignetting. Autofocus is spot on and quick. You can add an included 1.25x teleconverter on it and you will get to 1000mm.

Now, about the price, it costs "only" $17 900 US. Soo, yeah. If you are rich or just angry at your money, you should buy it :)

They also had the AF-S NIKKOR 400mm f/2.8G ED VR out. Not going to talk about it, but, it was also great fun using.

Anyway here's some photos made with my 18-105mm f3.5-5.6 VR just to show the lenses:

This is the 400mm f2.8

I don't have images made with this lens because it was on D4, and I have sdhc card, which D4 doesn't take.

800mm f5.6

And some images with the Nikkor 800mm f5.6 on Nikon D800 + teleconverter on last 2 images.

focal length : 800mm

Shutter : 1/640

iso : 200

f-stop : 5.6

focal length : 800mm

Shutter : 1/640

iso : 200

f-stop : 5.6

focal length : 800mm

Shutter : 1/640

iso : 200

f-stop : 9

focal length : 800mm

Shutter : 1/640

iso : 200

f-stop : 9

Some jittering due to cold and hot air mixing

focal length : 1000mm

Shutter : 1/400

iso : 200

f-stop : 11

focal length : 1000mm

Shutter : 1/500

iso : 200

f-stop : 13

My stock photos @ Alamy.com

Saturday, May 11, 2013

Photographing an event

My stock photos @ Alamy.com

So, yesterday 10.05.2013, I decided to try and photograph a students running event for the first time.

The weather looked like it was going to rain in the morning and I thought that I would have to pass this event because my gear can't take too much water. Luckily the weather cleared over the day and by the time of the start, it was really nice.

I decided to take my Nikkor 50mm 1.8G and just in case my Tamron 18-200mm lens. I pretty much only used my 50mm because, it has the fastest auto focus of my lenses and it gives a great DOF. I think that I made a great choice in using this lens because, with this lens, I didn't have to mess with the focal length and focusing. I could concentrate on all the other settings. And photographing people with this lens is just superb.

Half an hour before the event began, I headed out from my house. Since the place was near my home and I knew the area, I took a bike, so I could follow the runners through the course. It was pretty hard to keep up with the first place. I had only about 24 minutes to take pictures in different locations over the course and ride to the finish area to get the photos of the winner. The course was kinda sandy and muddy in some places and I also rode through the forest where there were no paths. I somehow managed to get to the finish just few seconds before the first place came in and I got some shots of him. It was really good workout for me and really good experience.

I recommend anyone to try and photograph some local events if allowed. It can give you a lot of confidence in your work and you can also compare your photos to some of the professional photographers covering the event.(the photos are more than likely uploaded to some news site or some other sites)

Here are some images I took of the event: