Here is my new printer, I am in the process of setting it up now! I am very very excited about it!
I will post with more info later on!!
C
Thursday, November 26, 2009
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Here are some shots from my creepy day in Gatineau
Hi folks!
Finally got around to processing some of the shots from Gatineau a few weeks back.
So as I mentioned in my last post, it was a lonely and foggy morning. I tried my best to capture a sense of atmosphere and eerieness! The first 2 pics should show that, then the last one is a waterfall that I followed all the way up to the top of the trail!
So I plan to do a write up about the adventure at some point, when I get all the good shots processed, I will either do it here, or on my gallery!
Oh and I bought a new car last week! I picked it up on friday, its awesome!
Here are some pics :)
See ya!
C
Finally got around to processing some of the shots from Gatineau a few weeks back.
So as I mentioned in my last post, it was a lonely and foggy morning. I tried my best to capture a sense of atmosphere and eerieness! The first 2 pics should show that, then the last one is a waterfall that I followed all the way up to the top of the trail!
So I plan to do a write up about the adventure at some point, when I get all the good shots processed, I will either do it here, or on my gallery!
Oh and I bought a new car last week! I picked it up on friday, its awesome!
Here are some pics :)
See ya!
C
Friday, October 30, 2009
Had an eerie adventure today!
Hey everyone!
So I finally got out to Gatineau Park this morning! It was a perfect morning and day! Not too cold, very atmospheric. There was a thick fog for the majority of the morning and it was just the kind of atmosphere I wanted to capture. My mood lately would not have been suited to bright sunny pictures :)
Anyways, here is a shot I took from my phone, not the best quality, but I will post more later on!
Thanks and stop by soon to see more!
C
So I finally got out to Gatineau Park this morning! It was a perfect morning and day! Not too cold, very atmospheric. There was a thick fog for the majority of the morning and it was just the kind of atmosphere I wanted to capture. My mood lately would not have been suited to bright sunny pictures :)
Anyways, here is a shot I took from my phone, not the best quality, but I will post more later on!
Thanks and stop by soon to see more!
C
Monday, October 19, 2009
Lost Forest
Hey everyone, just a quick little post to let you know I am still alive :)
I was driving to a clients to shoot some pictures and I passed this little pathway. I didn't have time to stop on the way, so I made it on the way back and hoped the light was still good. Although not as good as before, the sunlight was still ok! There was a lot of falling leaves and I tried to capture some of them, but in the shade it was a little more difficult to increase the shutter speed and keep my ISO as low as possible.
I plan on going out on a day trip to Gatineau Park to shoot some more landscapes. It seems like awhile since I have taken any shots for myself!
See you around!
C
Friday, October 2, 2009
It's October!!
Hey everyone!
Been awhile since I have blogged :) Let's see, what has been going on with me lately? Well, I have been working 2 jobs! My normal job making ethanol, and I got job taking photos for a local company for their website and some printed adverts! It is very exciting, and it's really nice to get a taste of the business side of things! More on that later on, when the job is done :)
I also was the photographer for my good friends Jess & Chester's wedding at the end of the September. It was a lot of fun! I was a little leery about it first, I am used to shooting nature and candid shots of my family and stuff, so this was definitely a new experience for me.
Luckily, they were on the same page as me when it came down to what style they wanted their wedding shot in. I am not one for too much posing and neither were they. They let me work in the background and pretended as if I wasn't there. They also want the majority of shots in black and white!! We all know how that made me feel :D :D :D!!
I ended up renting a lens for the wedding shoot, because the reception venue was pretty dark. I rented a Nikon 24-70 f2.8! It was amazing! Really heavy and built like a tank as well. The pictures it takes are spectacular, I would recommend this lens to anyone! It's a bit pricey though. I didn't think it was going to be wide enough on my cropped frame sensor, but it was perfect! I don't think it left my camera the whole day, asides from a few shots here and there! It was a little sad when I had to bring it back to the store the next day, that's for sure. Again, I am going to put up some shots from that lens soon as well, once I have processed the wedding album for the couple. I will also give a report on the flash brackets I used for the day and the excellent 'Demb Flash Diffuser Pro' that I bought and love!
hmmm, I knew I was missing something! My lovely wife bought me a christmas present! I ruined the surprise though :) The mailman delivered it, I happened to be home that day and answered the door. The package happened to be ripped right where the product name was on the box!! So I ruined christmas this year. She was a little upset to say the least. But, I am even more so the luckiest guy in the world! She had bought me a "Canon PixmaPro 9500" printer!! It is amazing!! It's not hooked up yet, it is huge and I need to clear out some room before I install it.
Well, that's all for now! I must go to bed because I have to work all weekend! But definitely stay tuned for some more updates and pictures, and some product write ups!!
Thanks for reading!
C
Been awhile since I have blogged :) Let's see, what has been going on with me lately? Well, I have been working 2 jobs! My normal job making ethanol, and I got job taking photos for a local company for their website and some printed adverts! It is very exciting, and it's really nice to get a taste of the business side of things! More on that later on, when the job is done :)
I also was the photographer for my good friends Jess & Chester's wedding at the end of the September. It was a lot of fun! I was a little leery about it first, I am used to shooting nature and candid shots of my family and stuff, so this was definitely a new experience for me.
Luckily, they were on the same page as me when it came down to what style they wanted their wedding shot in. I am not one for too much posing and neither were they. They let me work in the background and pretended as if I wasn't there. They also want the majority of shots in black and white!! We all know how that made me feel :D :D :D!!
I ended up renting a lens for the wedding shoot, because the reception venue was pretty dark. I rented a Nikon 24-70 f2.8! It was amazing! Really heavy and built like a tank as well. The pictures it takes are spectacular, I would recommend this lens to anyone! It's a bit pricey though. I didn't think it was going to be wide enough on my cropped frame sensor, but it was perfect! I don't think it left my camera the whole day, asides from a few shots here and there! It was a little sad when I had to bring it back to the store the next day, that's for sure. Again, I am going to put up some shots from that lens soon as well, once I have processed the wedding album for the couple. I will also give a report on the flash brackets I used for the day and the excellent 'Demb Flash Diffuser Pro' that I bought and love!
hmmm, I knew I was missing something! My lovely wife bought me a christmas present! I ruined the surprise though :) The mailman delivered it, I happened to be home that day and answered the door. The package happened to be ripped right where the product name was on the box!! So I ruined christmas this year. She was a little upset to say the least. But, I am even more so the luckiest guy in the world! She had bought me a "Canon PixmaPro 9500" printer!! It is amazing!! It's not hooked up yet, it is huge and I need to clear out some room before I install it.
Well, that's all for now! I must go to bed because I have to work all weekend! But definitely stay tuned for some more updates and pictures, and some product write ups!!
Thanks for reading!
C
Thursday, August 13, 2009
under construction again!
Hey everyone!
So (story of my life) I have been super busy this summer! With lots of work, lots of trips to Toronto to see the family, a trip to a cottage etc etc!
I have been taking pictures, but i have not uploaded that many! Finding the time to spend post processing is increasingly hard this summer. I have about 100 images to get through and upload to the gallery!!!
If you have tried to visit the gallery in the last couple of days, you will notice its not there. Rather, it is there, but it is password protected. It will be back, I have just locked it out for the time being so that I can make changes to it without people seeing it until its complete.
So asides from that, there is not too much going on :P
I am shooting a good friends wedding in September, and I have a gig doing some shots for a local companies website and advertisements. More on that later! So things are looking good right now.
Stay tuned for more updates, and follow me on twitter for up to the minute (when I remember) stuff. I also will be sending the occasional picture from my cellphone to 'TwitPic'. Usually of clouds or a sunset or something that catches my eye when I don't have my dslr.
here is few i have posted to twitpic so far
My new cell phone is pretty nice! Maybe I will do a short write up on it in the near future! It's a Sony Ericsson C905A from Rogers. With an 8 megapixel camera on it! Its no D80, but in a pinch its pretty good, and I can make phone calls with it too :)
See ya later!
So (story of my life) I have been super busy this summer! With lots of work, lots of trips to Toronto to see the family, a trip to a cottage etc etc!
I have been taking pictures, but i have not uploaded that many! Finding the time to spend post processing is increasingly hard this summer. I have about 100 images to get through and upload to the gallery!!!
If you have tried to visit the gallery in the last couple of days, you will notice its not there. Rather, it is there, but it is password protected. It will be back, I have just locked it out for the time being so that I can make changes to it without people seeing it until its complete.
So asides from that, there is not too much going on :P
I am shooting a good friends wedding in September, and I have a gig doing some shots for a local companies website and advertisements. More on that later! So things are looking good right now.
Stay tuned for more updates, and follow me on twitter for up to the minute (when I remember) stuff. I also will be sending the occasional picture from my cellphone to 'TwitPic'. Usually of clouds or a sunset or something that catches my eye when I don't have my dslr.
here is few i have posted to twitpic so far
My new cell phone is pretty nice! Maybe I will do a short write up on it in the near future! It's a Sony Ericsson C905A from Rogers. With an 8 megapixel camera on it! Its no D80, but in a pinch its pretty good, and I can make phone calls with it too :)
See ya later!
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Need more magnification!
hi everyone,
so since i have been using my macro lens (which i am stil in love with!) i have been dabbling with greater than 1:1 magnification. i have done a lot of research into the various ways to this. close up diopters, extension tubes, reversed lenses, bellows, teleconverters, etc.
it can be pretty overwhelming and confusing sometimes! As you may remember, before i got the macro lens, i was using a reversed 50mm 1.8d on my camera to achieve 1:1 magnification. albeit at the sacrifice of all the automatic functions of the camera, and working distance! but it worked and was a lot cheaper than a macro lens!
well, now that i can go to 1:1 with all the auto functions and a little over a foot of working distance, i wanted to experiment with more than life size! i spend awhile researching methods to do this and decided on using a combination of a reversed lens and extension tubes. well, i don't actually have the extension tubes, but i am able to reverse my 50mm on the end of my 105mm macro for roughly 3x life size (as far as i am concerned)
I went this route because it seemed to be the cheapest (teleconverters are pricey), have the best image quality (diopters can have a degrading effect on IQ, extension tubes have no optical elements, the nikkor 50mm f1.8 is a quality lens), and have the most potential for portability (try handholding your camera with a bellows attached to it!)
what i wanted for this to work:
-a 52mm to 62mm male-male coupling ring to thread onto the front of the 105mm (62mm filter thread) and the front of the 50mm (52mm filter thread) so i can attach them together.
-this leaves the rear element of the 50mm exposed at the front of your rig, so i was trying to think of ways to DIY a cover for the end of the 50mm involving a rear lens cap that i was going to cut the center out of and MacGyver a UV filter on the end. but i wanted instant (relatively) gratification, so i did some poking around online and found that nikon of all people make something specifically for this!! the Nikon BR-3 has a fitting to attach to the rear part of your lens, and then it has a 52mm filter threading on the other end so you can attach a filter over it, thus protecting the sensitive bits of your reversed lens! i found one on ebay pretty cheap and it works great, although it does cut down your working distance a smidge (more on that later)
-then i just used my flash bracket i made up a while ago (see older posts) and made a soda can diffuser thanks to lordV at dgrin (directions here)
so i was setup. here is a shot of this monstrosity i have created (it will be bigger when the extension tubes come around :) )
if you click and go to the flickr page, look at the full size and you can see the BR-3 on the front with the filter on it protecting the rear element!
well, now its time to take some shots to test it out!
first of, a shot of the millimeter markings on a ruler.
so there is about 8mm shown across the whole frame. so according to the internet ;) to determine magnification by photographing the millimeter markings on a ruler, you; divide the width of the sensor of your camera by the amount of millimeters in your test photo!
so sensor width of a nikon DX dslr is 23.6mm, divide that by 8mm and you get 2.95! so just shy of 3x lifesize :D cool! lets find a bug or something
off i go to the backyard to go crawl around in the grass! here is a little sampling of what i found:
this is one of those dandelion puffballs. the brown stalks are the stems of the actual white wispy parts that fly through the air, and the holes are empty spots where the wispy things used to be (very scientific i know)
Here is the same dandelion, from a different angle, really showing off the detail of the wispy parts stems (i need to figure out what they call those things)
there seems to be a theme here! this is a different dandelion, this one with all its wispy's intact. and covered in water droplets!
Sorry about all the dandelions, we dont really have much of a garden, so all we have is an abundance of dandelions :)
Finally a little creature to capture. i found this fellow enjoying a meal on the bricks of our house.
see a 100% crop here to see the details of the eyes, its amazing!
So, a little on depth of field (how much of the image is sharp). the above images were shot with an aperture of f/16. for landscapes and such, that would usually suffice to render a large part of the image sharp. but at this magnification, its not good enough most of the time, especially when shooting bugs. for the most part, you should attempt to get the insects eyes in focus, unless you are accentuating a particular portion of the body. i managed to do this in the spider image, but you lose the rest of the detail because of the lack of depth of field.
so, to combat this, i am trying to perfect my skills of 'focus stacking'. this is taking multiple exposures of the same shot, but each shot focusing a little farther into the image. you then take all these exposures and you combine them in a program like helicon focus, combine zm, or zerene stacker. the dandelion wispy water droplets picture above is a focus stack of about 3 or 4 frames. i only have a trial version of helicon focus, but it seems to give the best results. combine zm is good and free, but the final stacked image is only 96dpi, which is unfortunate because free stuff is always better :). zerene stacker i just heard of, downloaded it (its still in beta), but i wasnt too pleased with the results, i was probably using it wrong, i am going to try again in the next little while.
**edit** i forgot to talk a bit about working distance! with the normal macro lens, it will focus at about 12 inches in front of the lens at life size magnification. with the reversed lens on the front, i have about 1-2 inches give or take (have not taken an official measurement yet!), and with just the reversed 50mm directly on the camera body, its pretty similar, a few inches. so, for shooting bugs with the macro lens and reversed lens combo, you have to be reeeeeeeeaaaal slow in your approach. i suggest practicing with a non living object, moving in and out of focus so that you get a feel for where that sweet spot is! and as always, although it takes a bit of practice, i suggest manual focus the majority of the time! then you can focus the shot by moving swaying your body back and forth slowly and hitting the shutter at the precise moment you are in focus (of course :) ). i am going to use some electrical tape and tape my cable release to the flash bracket next time i go out and that will probably help out too. also i am going to experiment with mirror lockup, any tiny movement can throw your focus off by a lot!
and, don't get frustrated!! i have a ton of images i have deleted because the focus was off by a hair (literally). it takes a lot of practice, i am still perfecting my technique and am nowhere near as good as i want to be :)
alright, so i didnt intend to type so much, but i guess i get excited when talking about this kind of stuff because its so fun and i still get blown away when i look at a shot of a tiny bug that takes up my whole computer monitor and seeing all the insane details :)
well, thats it for now! i hope this was informative and helpful to anyone wondering about increasing magnification beyond life size! if you have any questions or comments, feel free to drop me a line!
i will leave you with a cool shot i took a few days ago, called 'i heart you'
so since i have been using my macro lens (which i am stil in love with!) i have been dabbling with greater than 1:1 magnification. i have done a lot of research into the various ways to this. close up diopters, extension tubes, reversed lenses, bellows, teleconverters, etc.
it can be pretty overwhelming and confusing sometimes! As you may remember, before i got the macro lens, i was using a reversed 50mm 1.8d on my camera to achieve 1:1 magnification. albeit at the sacrifice of all the automatic functions of the camera, and working distance! but it worked and was a lot cheaper than a macro lens!
well, now that i can go to 1:1 with all the auto functions and a little over a foot of working distance, i wanted to experiment with more than life size! i spend awhile researching methods to do this and decided on using a combination of a reversed lens and extension tubes. well, i don't actually have the extension tubes, but i am able to reverse my 50mm on the end of my 105mm macro for roughly 3x life size (as far as i am concerned)
I went this route because it seemed to be the cheapest (teleconverters are pricey), have the best image quality (diopters can have a degrading effect on IQ, extension tubes have no optical elements, the nikkor 50mm f1.8 is a quality lens), and have the most potential for portability (try handholding your camera with a bellows attached to it!)
what i wanted for this to work:
-a 52mm to 62mm male-male coupling ring to thread onto the front of the 105mm (62mm filter thread) and the front of the 50mm (52mm filter thread) so i can attach them together.
-this leaves the rear element of the 50mm exposed at the front of your rig, so i was trying to think of ways to DIY a cover for the end of the 50mm involving a rear lens cap that i was going to cut the center out of and MacGyver a UV filter on the end. but i wanted instant (relatively) gratification, so i did some poking around online and found that nikon of all people make something specifically for this!! the Nikon BR-3 has a fitting to attach to the rear part of your lens, and then it has a 52mm filter threading on the other end so you can attach a filter over it, thus protecting the sensitive bits of your reversed lens! i found one on ebay pretty cheap and it works great, although it does cut down your working distance a smidge (more on that later)
-then i just used my flash bracket i made up a while ago (see older posts) and made a soda can diffuser thanks to lordV at dgrin (directions here)
so i was setup. here is a shot of this monstrosity i have created (it will be bigger when the extension tubes come around :) )
if you click and go to the flickr page, look at the full size and you can see the BR-3 on the front with the filter on it protecting the rear element!
well, now its time to take some shots to test it out!
first of, a shot of the millimeter markings on a ruler.
so there is about 8mm shown across the whole frame. so according to the internet ;) to determine magnification by photographing the millimeter markings on a ruler, you; divide the width of the sensor of your camera by the amount of millimeters in your test photo!
so sensor width of a nikon DX dslr is 23.6mm, divide that by 8mm and you get 2.95! so just shy of 3x lifesize :D cool! lets find a bug or something
off i go to the backyard to go crawl around in the grass! here is a little sampling of what i found:
this is one of those dandelion puffballs. the brown stalks are the stems of the actual white wispy parts that fly through the air, and the holes are empty spots where the wispy things used to be (very scientific i know)
Here is the same dandelion, from a different angle, really showing off the detail of the wispy parts stems (i need to figure out what they call those things)
there seems to be a theme here! this is a different dandelion, this one with all its wispy's intact. and covered in water droplets!
Sorry about all the dandelions, we dont really have much of a garden, so all we have is an abundance of dandelions :)
Finally a little creature to capture. i found this fellow enjoying a meal on the bricks of our house.
see a 100% crop here to see the details of the eyes, its amazing!
So, a little on depth of field (how much of the image is sharp). the above images were shot with an aperture of f/16. for landscapes and such, that would usually suffice to render a large part of the image sharp. but at this magnification, its not good enough most of the time, especially when shooting bugs. for the most part, you should attempt to get the insects eyes in focus, unless you are accentuating a particular portion of the body. i managed to do this in the spider image, but you lose the rest of the detail because of the lack of depth of field.
so, to combat this, i am trying to perfect my skills of 'focus stacking'. this is taking multiple exposures of the same shot, but each shot focusing a little farther into the image. you then take all these exposures and you combine them in a program like helicon focus, combine zm, or zerene stacker. the dandelion wispy water droplets picture above is a focus stack of about 3 or 4 frames. i only have a trial version of helicon focus, but it seems to give the best results. combine zm is good and free, but the final stacked image is only 96dpi, which is unfortunate because free stuff is always better :). zerene stacker i just heard of, downloaded it (its still in beta), but i wasnt too pleased with the results, i was probably using it wrong, i am going to try again in the next little while.
**edit** i forgot to talk a bit about working distance! with the normal macro lens, it will focus at about 12 inches in front of the lens at life size magnification. with the reversed lens on the front, i have about 1-2 inches give or take (have not taken an official measurement yet!), and with just the reversed 50mm directly on the camera body, its pretty similar, a few inches. so, for shooting bugs with the macro lens and reversed lens combo, you have to be reeeeeeeeaaaal slow in your approach. i suggest practicing with a non living object, moving in and out of focus so that you get a feel for where that sweet spot is! and as always, although it takes a bit of practice, i suggest manual focus the majority of the time! then you can focus the shot by moving swaying your body back and forth slowly and hitting the shutter at the precise moment you are in focus (of course :) ). i am going to use some electrical tape and tape my cable release to the flash bracket next time i go out and that will probably help out too. also i am going to experiment with mirror lockup, any tiny movement can throw your focus off by a lot!
and, don't get frustrated!! i have a ton of images i have deleted because the focus was off by a hair (literally). it takes a lot of practice, i am still perfecting my technique and am nowhere near as good as i want to be :)
alright, so i didnt intend to type so much, but i guess i get excited when talking about this kind of stuff because its so fun and i still get blown away when i look at a shot of a tiny bug that takes up my whole computer monitor and seeing all the insane details :)
well, thats it for now! i hope this was informative and helpful to anyone wondering about increasing magnification beyond life size! if you have any questions or comments, feel free to drop me a line!
i will leave you with a cool shot i took a few days ago, called 'i heart you'
Saturday, June 13, 2009
spider eating some lunch
here is a 100% crop of a spider :) this was with my macro lens, with a 50mm reversed on the front! i will be making a post soon with more pics!
thanks
C
thanks
C
Sunday, May 31, 2009
a couple of shots from the new lens!
Hey everyone,
so i am totally in love with my new lens :)
i will give you a little rundown on my initial impressions;
1. the lens is built like a tank! its hefty (but not too much), seems to be made of metal, has a rubber seal at the end. the manual focus ring is very smooth and damped
2. focusing is fast and very quiet and spot on
3. images are super sharp and the color is perfect
4. lens hood is very high quality
i would like to write a full blown review at some point, maybe in the next few weeks!
i just ordered a 52mm to 62mm coupler, so i can reverse the 50mm on the front of this lens for greater magnification. that should arrive soon (i hope)
so in a few words, if you can spare the extra money, this lens is by far worth every penny! i have always believed you get what you pay for, and this glass is proof of that! 5 out 5 stars :D
here are a few shots i have taken, there is many more, but we are in the final stages of planning the reception and we have to get everything ready! once its all over, i should have some more time to make more posts :) thanks for reading, till next time!
C
'Network'
'Nothing Else Matters'
'Sol'
so i am totally in love with my new lens :)
i will give you a little rundown on my initial impressions;
1. the lens is built like a tank! its hefty (but not too much), seems to be made of metal, has a rubber seal at the end. the manual focus ring is very smooth and damped
2. focusing is fast and very quiet and spot on
3. images are super sharp and the color is perfect
4. lens hood is very high quality
i would like to write a full blown review at some point, maybe in the next few weeks!
i just ordered a 52mm to 62mm coupler, so i can reverse the 50mm on the front of this lens for greater magnification. that should arrive soon (i hope)
so in a few words, if you can spare the extra money, this lens is by far worth every penny! i have always believed you get what you pay for, and this glass is proof of that! 5 out 5 stars :D
here are a few shots i have taken, there is many more, but we are in the final stages of planning the reception and we have to get everything ready! once its all over, i should have some more time to make more posts :) thanks for reading, till next time!
C
'Network'
'Nothing Else Matters'
'Sol'
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
I am lucky, oh so lucky
Okay, just a quick note :)
sooo, got my birthday present today. My amazing, beautiful wife set up a fundraiser and pooled the money together and got me a.........
Nikon 105mm f2.8 Macro Lens!!
holy crap
this is my holy grail, i have wanted this lens forever now, and i actually own one, i cannot believe it! i will post some pics up real soon! i took about a million today just trying it out.
i want to thank all those who contributed! especially Dayna! Love you xoxox
thats all for now! i think i will get some sleep, seeing as i have to work all day tomorrow. although i would love to be out shooting with this new amazing glass...ah well, another day!!
take it easy!
C
sooo, got my birthday present today. My amazing, beautiful wife set up a fundraiser and pooled the money together and got me a.........
Nikon 105mm f2.8 Macro Lens!!
holy crap
this is my holy grail, i have wanted this lens forever now, and i actually own one, i cannot believe it! i will post some pics up real soon! i took about a million today just trying it out.
i want to thank all those who contributed! especially Dayna! Love you xoxox
thats all for now! i think i will get some sleep, seeing as i have to work all day tomorrow. although i would love to be out shooting with this new amazing glass...ah well, another day!!
take it easy!
C
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