Landscape - Coldest landscape outing I ever have

for weeks. and here is still cold for me while waiting for the spring coming .. (range from 38F - 62F or 3C - 17C)

for the very first few days , while I still having my jet lag and I woke up 3-4 am to go out and find sunrise spot with google earth assistant ... I got 2 spots locate not far from my hotel and managed to capture some pictures (but not really able to process those pictures as my notebook screen is not calibrate correctly.. so have to wait till I back to MALAYSIA)

but I do shoot RAW + JPEG and let's share 2 coldest sunrise shot (for me) to you all

1. a sunrise that really cold ... it is so tough to press the shutter .... but great experience for me


2. the next day ... where the weather was better (not so cold) but not really shoot a lot as I park my car road side and got warning form Police where I shouldn't park my car at the road side ... (hmmmm and had looking for near by parking after this but can't find one so this will be my last chance here :( )

*** a reflection ... picture non crop, non rotate, non edit .. so any one can guess how I get this ?

Other - a new Word for me "torpor"

a new word to me .. animal sleep or rest sometime do not refer as sleep but hibernation or due the short period it also call short hibernation. and this normally happen at night while lower temperature and this is not call SLEEP but torpor ... for more details can refer http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torpor.


so these call torpor .. not sleep :D

Colorful world ...

I didn't realize that I shoot so beautiful series recently ... but I am happy that while I try to view back my MACRO collection from my web site http://www.liewwkphoto.com/gallery2.htm

sometimes I feel macro photography not just details, sharpness & magnification which can easy achieve after lighting is correct setup .... with little practice .

But the opportunity to get the better composition is a challenge to MACRO (bug) shooter as we can't control the bug like other ... we can control the how, where they stand .... and how;s the dews fall on their body and we just hope for more luck ...(even I know some situation some photographer will make fake dew .. by spread the water on bug body , make BG but put some leaf behind... but these are not easy too who can make sure after water spread the bug won't flew off ???? So I always respect those shoot with good composition with good details and magnification ....)

here are some colorful pictures (last few object that I post...)

light Yellow

Pink

Yellow

Blue

Green

News - CS5

look amazing the content-aware ...

http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop/photoshop/

How I shoot MACRO - Add on Dews ....

I always admire LordV or Brian to shoot dews ... or look at his dews work @http://www.flickr.com/photos/lordv/sets/72057594101162264/

but I don;t have patient just do dews on un-move plant.. flowers ... so I always want to do it on bug/insect ....

last year, with help of my gang Kurt/Orionmystery (another great macro shooter I know...) I managed to shoot 1st bug with dews diffraction with Kurt help (he hold the flowers behind the bug for me and I shoot it with high magnification (~2-3:1) so I got


and I am waiting for raining season after the shot to make more dews shot ... after months wait, finally bugs are back to my in law garden and rain is almost drop down every evening ... so I managed to have many chance to shoot what I wish to do ....

and below are some pictures I shoot for last 2 weeks

1. a bore one without bug ...


2. found a ladybird in the morning and a large dew on it's body and I make shot with right hand press shutter (camera mount on tripod) and the other hand hold the flower behind the ladybird


3. and the ladybird moving around so I still able to shoot few more shots before it flew off


4. one week later ... heavy rain while I go back to my in law house . before the rain stop , I went out to try my luck and luck is with me ...found few bee and one with dewsssssss, I use one hand wto press shutter while the camera mount on tripod .. then the other hand hold the flower


*** all pictures focus stacked with few pictures .. no add on , with max ~10% crop ...

New Found - tiny Ant-Mimic Crab spider

this is not 1st time I saw this spider but consider 1st time I manage to capture it's picture (last few round actually not so good)

a very tiny spider (~2-3mm in length) and it move non stop. found it while we looking for bee in dark with torch light. but it look cute and here are 2 pictures to share

1.


2. a green BG



Canon EOS 5D Mark II 21.1MP Full Frame CMOS Digital SLR Camera (Body Only)


Canon MT-24EX Macro Twin Lite Flash for Canon Digital SLR Cameras

Review - Canon 5dm2 vs 7d MACRO

I got an unit of Canon 7d for testing last 2 weeks ago but the results were unbelievable so I send back to Canon service center for checking and yesterday they call for collect after do some "minor" calibration .....and today I went out for quick test (my testing only based on on personal standard/interest and may not a good comparative among 2 Canon bodies)

how I do the test
i. ISO100 & F13
ii. max flash sync speed (5dm2 - 1/200 and 7d - 1/250)
iii. I try to shoot very close magnification (but can't get 100% same ....)
- 5dm2 ~3:1
- 7d 2:1
iv. same lighting (full flash) - as share here
v. all pictures stacked with 3 picture which focus on eye, nose and mouth of the dragonfly
v. AWB
vi. no noise reduction
vii. no sharpening


1. after resize to 1200 @ longer size, we can;t tell much different
Canon 5dm2 - 1200


7D - 1200


2. and if you wish to have a look at full size
Canon 5dm2 - full size
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2688/4496329257_1b112e0eec_o.jpg

Canon 7d - full size
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2672/4496958894_8f1640c86b_o.jpg

3. a 100% crop
Canon 5dm2


or larger size http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4044/4496967212_babd6190bb_o.jpg

Canon 7d


or larger size
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4068/4496322417_2f774ce63a_o.jpg

personal view,
i. after calibration, IQ have improve and noise have reduce
ii. overall Canon 7d doing ok and not sure can it be fine tune any further or not
iii. Canon 7d noise still look bad @100% crop even at ISO100
iv. AWB, how could same brand camera have such different at same environment and using same lighting (flash)

I will do another test on landscape soon....

News - the Long Tongued Blue Banded Bee is back ...

after missing for few months.. they are back can easily find them (5-6 of them) just outside my in -law garden ... and they sleep late this time (730pm still awake :D )
and I have no choice to go back later to shoot picture of this fast moving bee

and I have few different BG , may share in my flickr later but I prefer the black BG and another head shot ...

1.


or larger view @ http://www.liewwkphoto.com/image-viewer.htm?Fgallery2-15

2. a head shot

How I Shoot MACRO - Panorama ...

these are some old pictures ... (I am doing full archiving and re-PP some "good" pictures to share @ www.liewwkphoto.com

while I shoot this , my gang ask why you need to do panorama for macro ??? I thought MACRO should shoot as big as possible ???and if not then just zoom out to smaller magnification .. then put the bug in full frame ... y ??? those want to know why .. may be email me :D or I will share later :D

I found a Huntsman Spider catch a Hoverfly (ohhh my lovely hover) and I could just shoot close to see how it eat as I only bring my MP-E65... so the smallest magnification I had is 1:1 .....so how I put this moment into a full frame ??? very quick, I lay on wet river ground, and with very fast speed I shoot 4 pictures with different focus point (right side, left side and 2 x center [in case I miss the focus] )...and here are origins picture I shooted

left


right


center


then I use Photoshop "merge" function to merge 3 into 1 .. :D .. so I got a large resolution picture in final a 7979 x 3387 :D

and a final image


or a large view click http://www.liewwkphoto.com/image-viewer.htm?Fgallery2-32