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Thursday, May 28, 2009

Pink is In :)

Another slr macro photography tip. Something really simple yet it will change your macro photography significantly.

As most macrographers know, if you shoot a scene where there's no immediate background, it'll turn out dark or pitch black in the shot. I am talking about full flash photography here, not fill flash or natural lighting, of course.

All images were shot with a Canon 40D, MP-E65 1X-5X macro lens, and MT-24EX Twin Flash

The shot will look something like this:
Black Is In series :D IMG_0297 copy
a robber fly with prey, a hopper

Black background can be cool, and I do like how the shot turned out. But too much of it and it gets a little boring. So whenever I can, i try to set up the background or change my angle to get some colorful leaves in the near background. I discovered this after a couple of months of shooting with my newly acquired D80 and Tamron SP90 some time in August 2007.

DSC_1292
white flower with black background, Aug 2007

As mentioned, i do think black is cool but whenever possible, i try to add colors to my shots whenever circumstances allow and the bugs are cooperative:)

Pink Is In series 1/3: IMG_8385 copy
A longhorn beetle with bromeliad at the back to provide a pink bg


IMG_1856
A lime butterfly with a Carrefour CNY red/pink envelope as bg

What kind of fly??? (IMG_9714 copy)
a newly emerged fly (horse fly?) with green leaf as bg

Don't try this as soon as you see a bug though, as most bugs will just fly away as soon as you try to set up a bg. Just shoot it as it is first. Once you're sure you've got a few good shots, then you can try whatever you want. Good luck!

All macro images shot with a 40D, Canon MP-E65 1X-5X Macro Lens and Canon MT-24EX Twin Flash

Saturday, May 9, 2009

My first visit to Tioman!

A buddy of mine had to go to Tioman for a business proposal cum recce. Since there was still a free seat left in the car, i was glad to tag along! The drive from KL to Mersing took approximately 5 hrs. We got there well ahead of our ferry departure time of 8:30pm so we had a bit of time to check out the little town of Mersing as well. The ferry ride was a boring two hours though. It was almost midnight by the time we checked in to Impiana Inn.

The weather was gloomy the following day, not great for landscape/seascape photography. On the day after though, it was bright and sunny. Perfect. So here are some of the shots I managed to snap.

I used a circular polarizer (CPL) in all the day shots which helped to make the sky bluer and the trees greener. No filter for the sunset shots.

Location: Paya, Tioman
Tioman Island (IMG_0889 copy)

IMG_0878 copy

IMG_0885 copy

IMG_0891 copy

IMG_0895 copy

IMG_0993 copy

IMG_1034 hdr copy

IMG_1025 copy

All images shot with a 40D, Tamron 17-50mm and Hoya Pro CPL

Canon EOS 40D 10.1MP Digital SLR Camera (Body Only)
Tamron AF 17-50mm F/2.8 XR Di-II LD SP ZL Aspherical (IF) Zoom Lens for Canon Digital SLR Cameras