Bird Series 7 - Streaked Spiderhunter

Streaked Spiderhunter
is a bird very cute and keep fly and back to same place

The Streaked Spiderhunter (Arachnothera magna) is a species of bird in the Nectariniidae family. It is found in Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, India, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Thailand, and Vietnam. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests and subtropical or tropical moist montanes.

source from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streaked_Spiderhunter







more Streaked Spiderhunter click here

Bird Series 6 - Chestnut Crowned Laughingthrush

this guy sensitive with human, it jump here & there and will be hiding while see human :(

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The Chestnut-crowned Laughingthrush (Garrulax erythrocephalus) is a species of bird in the Timaliidae family. It is found in Bhutan, China, India, Laos, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Thailand, and Vietnam.

This species is sometimes[1] placed in the genus Trochalopteron.


source from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chestnut-crowned_Laughingthrush

Bird Series 5 - Stork-Billed Kingfisher

Stork-Billed Kingfisher
The Stork-billed Kingfisher, Pelargopsis capensis (formerly Halcyon capensis), is a tree kingfisher which is widely but sparsely distributed in tropical south Asia from India and Sri Lanka to Indonesia. This kingfisher is essentially resident throughout its range.

This is a very large kingfisher, 35 cm in length. The adult has a green back, blue wings and tail, and grey head. Its underparts and neck are buff. The very large bill and legs are bright red. The flight of the Stork-billed Kingfisher is laboured and flapping, but direct. Sexes are similar. There are 15 races, mostly differing in plumage detail, but P. c. gigantea of the Sulu Islands has a white head, neck and underparts. The call of this noisy kingfisher is a low and far reaching peer-por-por repeated every 5 seconds or so as well cackling ke-ke-ke-ke-ke-ke.

Stork-billed Kingfisher is a species of a variety of well-wooded habitats near lakes, rivers or coasts. It perches quietly whilst seeking food, and is often inconspicuous despite its size. It is territorial and will chase away eagles and other large predators. This species hunts fish, frogs, crabs, rodents and young birds.

Stork-billed Kingfisher digs its nest in a river bank, decaying tree, or a tree termite nest. A clutch of two to five round white eggs is typical.

[source from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stork-billed_Kingfisher]

Difficulty to shot... Tough, very sensitive to human movement from far




more kingfishers click here

Bird Series 4 - Blue-winged Minla

Blue-winged Minla
The Blue-winged Siva (Siva cyanouroptera), also known as the Blue-winged Minla, is a species of bird in the Timaliidae family. It has traditionally been placed in the genus Minla instead of the monotypic Siva. It is found in Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, Hong Kong, India, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Thailand, and Vietnam. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical moist montanes.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue-winged_Minla

Small little and very active keep moving

MACRO PP 4 - plugin or not

This is simple simple , should I use plugin ???

Some plugin provide effect make the picture look ...

original picture with crop


PP with flood plugin



how ?

MACRO PP - 3 ? [animation]

Without PP how we see this type of animation without video camcorder ???



then Original or here

(please let it load, as this is an animation)

Bird Series 3 - Collared Kingfishers

The Collared Kingfisher (Todiramphus chloris) is a medium-sized kingfisher belonging to the family Halcyonidae, the tree kingfishers. It is also known as the White-collared Kingfisher or Mangrove Kingfisher. It has a wide range extending from the Red Sea across southern Asia and Australasia to Polynesia. It is a very variable species with about 50 subspecies.

The Collared Kingfisher is 22 to 29 cm long and weighs 51 to 90 grams. It varies from blue to green above while the underparts can be white or buff. There is a white collar around the neck, giving the birds its name. Some races have a white or buff stripe over the eye while others have a white spot between the eye and bill. There may be a black stripe through the eye. The large bill is black with a pale yellow base to the lower mandible.

Females tend to be greener than the males. Immature birds are duller than the adults with dark scaly markings on the neck and breast.

It has a variety of calls which vary geographically. The most typical call is loud, harsh and metallic and is repeated several times.

(from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collared_Kingfisher)

Difficulty - tough .. very sensitive bird to shot can't get close only can get it either far with longer len or hide :D

News - I Won 1st Prize from Forest Research Institute Malaysia (FRIM) Photo Competition 2009

I am so happy that one of my macro shot won Forest Research Institute Malaysia (FRIM) Photo Competition 2009 for open category and this is my photo of the week :D



I am happy to get this and this give me motivation continue macro :D and hope more & more people will join macro shooting :D

winning picture

MACRO PP - 2 ? [background]

As mentioned, I am doing this assignment to show/share how I PP and learn some new PP style (which may include some new plugin)

Today, I will try to get blurring Background (BG) and trying to new plugin name Alien - Bokeh wow it have some many bokeh choice there :D

Original picture is not a good picture due to OOF, complex BG, artificial on leg & etc as below


so I decide to try out something new (blurring the BG ...which I never do this before on all my work before this picture). I decide to do below

1. blurring the whole picture
2. reveal the layer
3. brush out the bird & leaf (whatever part I want it to be focus or clear)
4. minor crop for non center
5. resize
6. USM 120 - 0.6 (doing USM after resize will give more contrast and sharpness)

*** hmmmmm forgot to do something on it eye to look less OOF :( but I will try it out next one

here is the result


so what do you think ? I pretty like this result :D so ... I don't need bigger aperture len ? :D

Bird Series 2 - Chestnut-capped Laughingthrush

Went an bird outing with my guide from EndemicGuides and this is fun as birds are so close and light is so good so manage to get few type of birds with good picture (for me) ...

some information for this bird

The Chestnut-capped Laughingthrush (Garrulax mitratus) is a species of bird in the Timaliidae family. It is found in Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests and subtropical or tropical moist montanes.


1. wow it on the ground :D so close


2. nice pose


3. best compo I have for this bird


4. like this most

Bird Series 1 - Little Heron

I am recently addict to birding photography after few guide by bird guide of EndemicGuides and wanted to start collect bird found (if I have time will do same to other too) ....

I will not post the old pictures but only start post bird found begin March 2009

Little Heron will be my first post
- Little Herons eat mainly small fish and crustacea (especially crabs). They also take amphibians and insects and any other edible titbits, including small mammals.

I love this picture as it reflection

MACRO PP - 1 ?

So this is my 1st share on this assignment ....normally why I do PP

1. while in RAW, use ACR to reduce all highlight blown by recover, vibrant, set correct WB & exposure
2. Image Stack - increase DOF has discuss in How I Increase my Macro Picture DOF
3. curve to increase/reduce contrast
4. Clone to remove Sensor dust and some spot that have highlight or any unwanted/dirty spots
5. minor crop to avoid center object (I am actually fine with object in center but many people just complaint this... look like a rule :D ). Sometime will be adding canvas size as well
6. Clone/Brush to make better Background
7. remove Saturation (since with Canon)
8. Noise reduction which will add in sharpening (USM) as I am using Ninja Noise where it will minimum give 0 0.4 USM
9. resize
10. frame

And below is one of the sample

Original picture (which only frame, resize, nj, non-crop)


PP picture [1, 5 (with add canvas), 6, 9 & 10 applied]


what do you think ? Please leave your view :D

New Assignment - "Should I PP"

I am trying to force myself to trying to make a series of sample how Post Processing (PP) impact my pictures especially on Natural shooting .....


to be coming ...................................

Colorful Macro

I was able to catch a bee keep moving around the water lily and from these few pictures, I start love COLORFUL picture :D

shot with ~2:1


shot with 1:1





what do you think ??? :D BW or color :D

Bee cheating death ....

I thought it only happen to weevil or some beetle, but this small little bee flew into my house last week and it just pertain death while I trying to move it to a better BG lOl

1. flew on my sofa


2. trying to move it using a paper on a blue BG but it seem like become weak... am I hurt it ?


3. ohh it is death !!! so I just ignore it while need to check mail


4. after few minutes


5. and wow .. it get ready to fly off lol .. i just amaze by thie little bee ... t :D

Found an Alien ...1 [ID Needed]

let start share some new life bug, bird, animal, reptile .....

not sure is this assassing, weevil or other ... but it look like weevil and place that I got these have plenty of weevil ... so will 1st check on weevil ... if anyone know the ID please share with me, thanks

Chuah Mangrove (Spot7)

INTRO
Was outing with a guide from endemicguides to this mangrove where full with birds, wild life, dragonfly, damselfly, bee and etc ....

this place locate near Lukut, Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia and it is not easy to access without guidance this just like a fishermen village ....

Rate of this Spot -- A-
- good place for birding as the bird just ~10-15meters and few times of ~5-10meters
- can just wait at those "rumah attap" where fisherman collect their catch
- far from KL
- not easy to access
- far walk if really want to go into the mangrove

Some catch of the day
1. blue mangrove flycatcher


2. Carpenter Bee


3. Collared Kingfishers ... eating a crab ...


4. Malkoha (saw this guy many time, but too high to shot it)


5. Crab...


more pictures from this outing @2009 Feb - Chuah

Liewwk New lighting - with 1st catch

I had decide to change to new lighting with Canon MT24 - Twin Flash... and received this toy 27th Feb 2009. I brought it to my Bukit Tinggi Outing

new lighting setup


with the new lighting, this is my 1st bug catch ...





I am impress with this flash and found it solve my lower object shadow issue .... :D but this is a really harsh and power full flash (where I use FEC -2 for most of the picture)

enjoy

MACRO PP II : How I Stitch/Pano for MACRO

Why I need to Stitch ?
I start stitch my macro due to I have my MPE where only do minimum 1:1 (1x life time) and any object that >22mm will not fit in single picture frame ... and how I get the whole object into a single picture ...... hmmm I am thinking a stitch it .... and I have my very 1st try while outing to Fraser Hill 21 Nov 2008, where I saw plenty of BIG moth and I cannot fit it into a single picture e.g.



[shot with 1:1] , and this is too big for me and I am thinking how I got the whole moth view .. and I finally did something for a smaller one



[stitch picture]



[picture 2:1]

How I do Stitch ???
1. for start, how we shoot
We need to shot picture at same level of view so I normally shot at standard angle where esily to shoot another e.g. face direct view, side view ........ e.g.

i. face focus on left eye

ii. focus on right eye

iii. focus on face


2. use Photoshop "Photomerge" option


3. i use "interactive layout"


4. select the file you wish to stitch




5. this will take some time depend how many pictures to stitch and your PC power :D
- if this is not auto merge then try to move around the picture to try manual to merge the pictures ....



6. click Ok after #5, then it will come out like standard JPEG with multiple layers


7. for the non-cover area, either crop it away or clone it :D

8. normally I will use multiple shots again to stack the focus area by using method discuss in
"How I Increase My Macro Picture DOF"

.....please comment and let me know if you need further question.

:D