Macro Hydrangeas

Blue Hydrangeas

I'm pretty new to macro photography and I've got a fair bit to learn. The Hydrangeas are in bloom and  since they make good macro subjects, I took the opportunity to practice a little. The hardest part of taking these photographs was the lighting.

More photographs inside.

 Pink Hydrangeas

In order to achieve a greater depth of field, relatively small apertures are used in macro photography. The photographs on this post were shot at around the f14 mark. Because of the small apertures, artificial lighting and a tripod are pretty much essential.

Blue Hydrangeas

I used a Canon 430 EX II to light these images. The flash was handheld and triggered via the 7D's flash trigger system. I think I fired the flash at around 1/8th power. I'm still not too happy with the dark areas on the image and I will probably look at using a second flash to light up those spaces. However, I do think the shadows give the photograph a bit more depth and I'd have to figure out how preserve them.

Pink Hydrangeas

I used the Canon 100mm macro lens and the 7D for these photographs.

Tickell's Blue Flycatcher - Kandy, Sri Lanka

Tickell's Blue Flycatcher - Kandy, Sri Lanka

One of the best sightings that I have had of the Tickell's Blue Flycatcher was in Kandy in July. The bird made several appearances and spent quite a bit of time around the house, allowing me to photograph it. I would have liked to get a lot closer to it but unfortunately this was not possible.

More photographs inside.

 Tickell's Blue Flycatcher - Kandy, Sri Lanka

The Tickell's Blue Flycatcher is a relatively common resident and is often seen from the wet lowlands to the mid hills of Sri Lanka. It may also be found in suitable forests in the dry zone. The female is duller in colour and has a lighter throat and breast. Based on this, I believe the bird pictured in this post is a male.

Tickell's Blue Flycatcher - Kandy, Sri Lanka

This species breeds in tropical south Asia and its range extends east from India and Sri Lanka to Indonesia. It shows regional variations in plumage and size with several of these variations being designated as subspecies. The Sri Lankan population is a separate subspecies named jerdoni.   

Tickell's Blue Flycatcher - Kandy, Sri Lanka

All photographs on this post were taken with the Canon 7D and the 100-400mm combo.

45/52 - Ace

Ace

I was quite sure that the strings on a Tennis racquet could be used to produce bokeh if lit from the correct angle. I decided to test this out yesterday and produced a couple of photographs which doubled up as this week's entry for my project. The main problem which I had to contend with was working out an angle which produced bokeh as well as a half decent composition for the photograph itself.

Lighting setup shots inside.

Lighting Setup - Ace

This again was a two light setup.

The main light was a bare Canon 430 EX II fired at 1/64th from camera left. This light was used to light the closer edge of the racquet. I placed a white foam-core board at a slight angle under the racquet to bounce the light from the 430 EX II back onto the under side of the racquet and create some separation on the black bottom edge. The effect is subtle and can be seen on the bottom edge of the racquet on the right hand side of the "Wilson" sticker. If I hadn't placed the white foam-core board under the racquet, this section would have been black and would have merged into the background.

The bokeh was created by a Canon 580 EX II fired at 1/128th from in front of the camera and slightly to the left. This flash had a CTB gel on it. The light from this flash also created the highlights on the further edge of the racquet.

I used a black foam-core board as the background.

The Portuguese Man o' War

A Portuguese Man o' War

I went up to Turimetta beach to do some photography a few months ago and found a number of Blue Bottles, also known as the Portuguese Man o' War, washed up on shore. This is not unusual for a Sydney summer but I thought I'd take advantage of the light and the fact that the beach was deserted and decided to grab a few quick shots.

More Inside.

A Portuguese Man o' War

The Portuguese Man o' War is not a Jellyfish, it is a siphonophore. It's not actually a single creature, it is a colonial orgasm consisting of multiple small animals called zooids. Zooids are specialised and are attached to each other and are physiologically integrated to such an extent that they simply can't survive on their own. Large numbers of these animals get washed on to shore over the Australian summer and are responsible for a large number of human stings. The stings cause a lot of pain and leave red whip like marks on exposed skin. The sting can also trigger an allergic reaction but rarely cause deaths.

A Portugese Man o' War

I only had the 24 - 105mm lens with me at the time as I had set out to shoot some landscape shots. I shot at f/4 to get as shallow a depth of field as possible. The morning light was good at the time and I was able to shoot at 1/400th. I have not warmed up these images in post production, these shots are virtually straight out of the camera.

Oakland Falls - Hazelbrook, Australia

Oakland Falls - Hazelbrook, Australia 

Oakland falls was the second waterfall we visited on our walk last week (the first was Burgess Falls).  It was about fifteen minutes away from the first waterfall. Although the walk was not long, the path was in very bad condition as it is not used on a regular basis. Surprisingly we didn't see anyone else walking in the area on the day we visited. This is very unusual for a walk in the Blue Mountains as the area is constantly full of people.

More images after the jump.

The creek below Oakland Falls - Hazelbrook, Australia

Although we are in the middle of summer, it has been raining a bit and I was expecting more water in the creek and a bigger waterfall. Unfortunately I was out of luck and there wasn't too much water.  I'll probably visit the area in winter and photograph the falls when they are at their best.

Oakland Falls - Hazelbrook, Australia

The rocks along the creek bed were covered in moss and I used them in the foreground in a lot of my compositions. The dappled sunlight which was filtering through the canopy really enhanced the green and gave the images a "fresh" look.

Oakland Falls - Hazelbrook, Australia

I included a number of trees in my compositions to frame the waterfall and to convey a sense of depth. If I do visit the area again, I think I would try and add a bit more flowing water from the creek to my compositions with the aim of creating another level of interest to the image.

The creek below Oakland Falls - Hazelbrook, Australia

All images on this post were captured with a Canon 7d and a Canon 24 - 105mm lens. A tripod and circular polariser were used for all these shots. Exposure times were around the 1 second mark and a tripod was used.

Burgess Falls - Hazelbrook, Australia

Burgess Falls - Hazelbrook, Australia

Last Wednesday was Australia day and a public holiday in Sydney. We decided to make the most of it and head up to the blue mountains for a walk. It was supposed to be 40 degrees in Sydney and the beaches would have been packed so we were looking forward to some cooler weather and fewer people. I had found a couple of waterfalls, which were away from the usual tourist route, some time ago and we thought we'd visit them.

More images and info inside.

Burgess Falls - Hazelbrook, Australia

The walk itself was not the easiest to find as it is not very popular and not marked too well. The only indication as to where the path started was a small board on the side of the road. The path itself was overgrown and would have been quite hard to make out as the path descended from the road. Most of the walk ran along a creek which fed the two waterfalls we visited.

Burgess Falls - Hazelbrook, Australia

The first photograph on this post was actually produced by stitching 21 separate images together. I had the 24-105mm lens with me but I wasn't able to get back far enough from the falls to compose an image with the entire waterfall in the frame. As it is summer there isn't too much water in the creek and the falls themselves don't look as impressive as they would in winter or spring. Another visit seems inevitable.

Burgess Falls - Hazelbrook, Australia

I had the 7D with me and used a tripod and a circular polariser for these images.

Leura Cascades - Blue Mountains, Australia

Leura Cascades - Blue Mountains, Australia 

I went up to the Blue Mountains with Dean Toh last weekend to shoot the Leura Cascades. It was a 4.00AM start for us, as we wanted to make it up there while the light was good. The waterfall, as the name implies, is a series of small drops along a rocky slope. The largest of the drops is a couple of meters in height.

More images after the jump.

Leura Cascades - Blue Mountains, Australia

I've got hooked on taking panoramas and I managed to capture a couple of decent ones during this outing. The shot above is one of the bigger drops of the cascades. It's about a meter and a half in height.  I decided to compose this as a panorama because I felt that the ferns on either side of the stream and the moss covered rocks along the creek bed added interest and framed the actual waterfall itself. I created this panorama by stitching 16 images.

Leura Cascades - Blue Mountains, Australia

This is the last and the largest drop along the Leura Cascades. It is the same section of the falls as the first image on this post. I wanted to go for a portrait format on this one to capture the lush vegetation above the waterfall. I feel the vegetation balances out the composition while the waterfall remains the primary focus of the image.

Leura Cascades - Blue Mountains, Australia

This photograph was taken at the top of the waterfall and shows a few of the smaller drops that I spoke about earlier. I captured it as a panorama to emphasise the flowing water. If I used a standard 3 x 2 composition for this one, I would have not been able to capture the entire waterfall and the vegetation in the one frame. This panorama was created by stitching 8 images.

Leura Cascades - Blue Mountains, Australia

This is a close up of the drop which I captured in the first panorama on this post. I managed to get to an exposed rock in the middle of the stream to set up for this one. All these images were captured with a Canon 7D and the 24-105mm lens. I also used a circular polariser and a tripod as these were long exposures (most of them were 4 seconds).

Leura Cascades - Blue Mountains, Australia

Blue-tailed Bee-eater

A Blue-tailed Bee-eater photographed in Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka

The Blue-tailed Bee-eater is a common migrant which dispersers throughout the country. Small groups of these birds have been spotted taking up residence in tall trees around Colombo. These images were captured in Anuradhapura near Tissa Wewa (lake). The birds were flying out over the water to catch insects and kept returning to the fence to consume their prey or to take a small break. Returning to the same perch while hunting is common behaviour among Fly-catchers. It's very difficult to photograph these birds in flight as they are quick. More images and info inside.

A Blue-tailed Bee-eater photographed in Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka

Differentiating the Blue-tailed Bee-eater from other Bee eaters is not difficult. It doesn't have a black line across it's throat like the other Bee-eaters found in Sri Lanka and it has a lot of brown and very little yellow around the throat area (reverse of the  Chestnut-headed Bee-eater). It's long central tail feathers are also prominent. The tail is obviously blue in colour. It can reach a length of around 23-26 cm and both sexes are similar.

A Blue-tailed Bee-eater photographed in Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka

These birds nest in colonies on sandy banks or open flat areas. They build a relatively long tunnel in which they lay 5 - 7 spherical white eggs.  The eggs are taken care of by both males and females.  These birds feed and roost in groups.

A Blue-tailed Bee-eater photographed in Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka

The images on this post were captured with a Canon 7D and the 100-400mm lens.

A Blue-tailed Bee-eater photographed in Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka

The New Toy - An iMac

The iMac

I've been a PC user for as long as I can remember but when I needed to upgrade my home machine, I decided to take a serious look at what Apple had to offer.  One of the main reasons for looking at a Mac was the fact that I was into photography and Macs seem to be the best platforms for post processing. Also, I had never owned or used a Mac extensively.  Read on for more info on the Mac and how I lit the shot above.

It's a completely new operating system and a whole new way of thinking. As a result it does take a bit of getting used to but it shouldn't take too long. From a post processing point of view it is fantastic to work on. The 27 inch screen makes it a lot easier to work on images and the richness of the colours on the Mac are hard to beat.

I've had a couple of problems with the machine in the three months that I've owned it. Fortunately I purchased Apple Care and was able to resolve the issues pretty quickly. The first problem I came across was using flash player. I had no problems installing it but when I visited a web site which contained a flash component, I was unable to view that section of the site. I found that the problem was caused because a user profile file had not been updated correctly. 

The second issue was a bit harder to resolve. While working on the machine the entire machine froze and a message informing me that I had to "restart the machine" appeared. This happened a couple of times and I was able to find out how to reproduce it. The issue seemed to be caused by my external hard drive which was plugged in at the time. The disk is formatted using NTFS and Macs can only read NTFS. They can't write to it.  Unplugging the external hard disk resolved this problem.

Lighting Info

I wanted to give this shot a bit of a "techy" feel.  In order to achieve this, I used a Canon 430 EX flash with a full CTB gel on it. I placed the flash behind the screen and fired it towards the camera. I used a reflector, placed camera left just out of frame, to light the front of the computer. 

White-throated Kingfisher

A White-throated Kingfisher photographed in Colombo

Amongst all the Kingfishers found in Sri Lanka, the White-throated Kingfisher is probably the most common. It frequents home gardens in urban areas and is often seen perched on telephone lines on the side of the road. More info and images after the jump.

A White-throated Kingfisher photographed in Anuradhapura

The White-throated Kingfisher is also known as the White-breasted Kingfisher or Smyrna Kingfisher. It is a widely distributed Tree Kingfisher which can be found from Bulgaria, east through South Asia up to the Philippines. It is a resident throughout this range but some populations are known to make short migrations. It is a large Kingfisher, measuring up to 28cm in length. It can be found in a variety of habitats, ranging from open country with trees, up to 7500 feet in the Himalayas. The White-throated Kingfisher is not considered to be threatened and its range is expanding.

A White-throated Kingfisher photographed in Colombo

It is often seen perched on wires or other exposed perches within its territory. It usually hunts reptiles, insects, rodents, snakes and fish. Predations of small birds have also been reported. The young are fed mostly on invertebrates.   

This species of Kingfisher begins breeding at the onset of monsoons. During the mating displays, males perch on high posts and call in the early hours of the morning. The wings are flicked open for a short period of time to expose the white wing mirrors. They also raise their bills high to expose their white throats and front. The nest is a tunnel in an earth bank and is usually around the 50cm mark in length. The nest building starts with both birds flying into the earth bank until they make an indentation which they can perch on. They then continue digging with their bills. A clutch consists of 4-7 white, round eggs which take 20 days to hatch. The chicks fledge in 19 days.

A White-throated Kingfisher photographed in Colombo

The images taken in Colombo were captured in our garden using a Canon 7D camera with a 100-400mm lens. I also sighted this bird in Trincomalee and Kandy during my last trip to Sri Lanka.

  

Indian Robin

A male Indian Robin

The Indian Robin is a common bird found in India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Nepal and Bangladesh. The males of the northern (Indian) population have a brown back which gradually reduces in extent southwards, with populations in the southern peninsular having a completely black back. More info and images after the jump.

A male Indian Robin

The Indian robin resembles a smaller version of the Oriental Magpie Robin (Copsychus saularis) in shape and habits. The males found in Sri Lanka have backs which are black in colour with rufous undertail coverts. It also shows a white patch on the wings when in flight. The female is dark brown in colour. It is a common resident garden bird in the dry lowlands of Sri Lanka and is also seen in the mid hills but it is rare and scattered in the wet zone.

A male Indian Robin

The Indian Robin feeds on insects but is known to take frogs, especially when feeding young at the nest.  The breeding season is generally from September to December but varies depending on region and usually begins with the rainy season. During this season, males sing and display by lowering and raising their tail feathers while strutting around the females. Males guard their territory and drive away other males and protect their territory by flying with slow wing beats from perch to perch. 

A male Indian Robin

Nests are built between rocks, in holes in walls or in a tree hollow. Nests are lined with animal hairs and it has been  noted that many nests have pieces of snake sloughs. The eggs are oval in shape and are fairly glossy. A clutch usually consist of 3 - 4 eggs. Only the females incubate the eggs which hatch in 10 - 12 days. Both the male and the female feed the the young. The same nest may be reused in subsequent years.

A male Indian Robin

These images were taken in Anuradhapura and Kandy. I used the 7D and the 100-400mm lens to capture them. The birds were not shy and allowed me to get quite close to them . 

  

The Blue Lotus

A Blue Lotus photographed in Arankelle

The Blue Lotus, also known as the Red and Blue water lily, Blue star water lily and Star Lotus is native  to the Indian subcontinent. It has now spread to many countries and is valued as a garden flower. More images and info after the jump.

 
A Blue Lotus photographed in Kandy

The Nymphea nouchali is a non-viviparous plant that has submerged roots and stems. Part of the leaves are also submerged while others rise slightly above the surface. The leaves themselves are round and green in colour. The leaves usually have a darker underside.

The flower of the water lily comes in a variety of colours, ranging from violet blue to white, purple, mauve and fuchsia. The flower has 4-5 sepals and and 13-15 petals which make the flower look like a star when you look at it from above.

A Bunch of Blue Lotuses photographed in Anuradhapura

The Blue Lotus is the national flower of Sri Lanka and is referred to as Nil Manel. The flower has been mentioned in Sanskrit, Pali and Sinhalese literary works since ancient times as a symbol of virtue, discipline and purity.    

Blue Lotuses photographed in Kandy

The lotus is considered a medicinal plant in Ayurvedic medicine and is used to treat indigestion. Recent experiments are supposed to have confirmed that the plant has medicinal properties as an anti-hepatotoxic and an anti-diabetic. It's tubers can be used as food items and they are usually boiled or roasted before consumption. 

A Blue Lotus photographed in Kandy

These shots were taken with the Canon 7D and the 400D. I think I used the 50mm f1.8 lens to capture these shots.

  

Indigo Dropwing

These shots of a male Indigo Dropwing were taken in Kandy. I found it flying around near the swimming pool and noticed that it kept settling in the same place at the edge of the water. It allowed me to get quite close to photograph it but I was limited by the 1.4 meter minimum focusing distance of the lens. More images and info inside. 

The Indigo Dropwing (Trithemis festiva) is an Asian species which is found near flowing water. They are frequently seen on rocks or on vegetation near water ways guarding their territory. Mature males are entirely dark overlaid with a fine whitish pruinescence. Young males look similar to females sporting extensive yellow patches on their abdomen. Females have dark patches at the wing tips and lack the amber spot at the base of their hind wings.

The Indigo Dropwing is often mistaken with the Restless Demon (Indothemis limbata) because both of them are dark blue in colour and they are both similar in size. The orange streaks on the abdomen distinguish it from the Restless Demon which also has dark wing tips.

 

All the images on this post were taken with a Canon 7D body and the 100-400mm lens. It's a good lens for macro work but the only drawback is the nearest focusing distance of 1.4 meters.