My Gear - Mac Book Air

 

finally I am also a Apple user ... I am totally new, not use to the OS for the 1st tough ....

but the screen great ... the weight of the MBA just amazing ....

- it even thinner than my Lumix Len cap ...








but too bad it is smaller by 50% of my workstation

not much thing attract me now ... have to test myself and will update how fast I adopt MAC OS after ~15years of Windows and UNIX users ...... 1st question is how I maximise my browser ??? :D

News - Colorless

I do prefer colorful especially the beauty of Nature... I love the green, orange, golden color of the sky... leaf ..............

But I have to admit at certain view and weather.. it is always good to capture it as mono ... but I still not agree those unwanted picture to be convert to Mono instead .... we should always plan what we want to PP while we plan our shooting (but this do not mean we have to shoot in Black and White) but we can plan it, shoot it and convert it ..........

still long for me to learn ... it is totally new to me ...................................time to look around for expert and books .............


this was beautiful morning with golden Sun ray


mono make the mystery feel



weather was real bad ... no color at all on the sky .... I play with 10 stops filter to create the line .


I had create new set @flick

http://www.flickr.com/photos/liewwk/sets/72157625640480407/

and had started a new category in my web site


http://www.liewwkphoto.com/gallery7.htm

(still empty as busy schedule , will try to get some update here)

News - Publish @WWF-MALAYSIA 2011 Calendar ...

For 2010, I had few work published at few commercial photography magazines either from local or oversea... but this is my 1st time have my work publish in Calendar and it is for WWF-Malaysia. As part of the nature lover, I feel sad that feel of my usual MACRO ground had been destroy for development ......
e.g.
http://liewwk-macro.blogspot.com/2010/06/news-another-sad-news.html

Wild life need our help to protect them, WWF-Malaysia is one of the most active society that running conservation projects such as saving endangered species, protect forests, river, sea and etc .....

WWF-Malaysia 2011 Calendar

 












  The Frog

this picture show while my last trip @BELUM Rainforest
http://liewwk-macro.blogspot.com/2009/10/2009-oct-23-25-belum-rainforest-outing.html

and the day before I went this outing, I got new that my work had published into an education book @Netherlands (previous post @
http://liewwk-macro.blogspot.com/2009/10/my-macro-pictures-are-published.html )

New Found - "Long Horn" Tree Hopper

 

thanks my Gang shunfa to find this interesting Treehopper ... a beautiful one but too bad it's body got attack by mites just like my previous posts

a long-horned beetle full with mites





not only beetle, wasp, damselfly ....







even a tiny jumping spider




too bad, can't help much on the mites .. as it loo real small to remove ... and for the tiny jumping spider I tried to help but the mites jumping around me feel unconformable...

2010 MACRO Favorites | liewwk

not really give a lot of effort on MACRO this year .... (>50% had use for travel and landscape)

but then think I still got few favorite shots myself

1. ... there is something on my body...Apple , egg ??? ..., 2. ... I want to fly ..., 3. ... a Killer !!! -1 ..., 4. it's always good to look close 33 - Ant-Mimic Crab spider, 5. ... ... it's always good to look close 46 - bee face ..., 6. Hello, this way please ..., 7. long-horned beetle in love - 1, 8. ... mama love ..., 9. ... hello , my name is lacewing ...

New Found - Owl Fly Family Ascalaphidae

a new discover near my In-law garden ... I thought I lost them after the incident
http://liewwk-macro.blogspot.com/2010/06/news-another-sad-news.html


http://liewwk-macro.blogspot.com/2010/12/they-are-back.html
but then I found most of the bugs back with new discover Owl Flyand this real rare to me .. 1st time saw it and not much ppl saw it wild in MALAYSIA too

My Gear - New Family Speedlite 270EX

http://www.leephoto.com.my/http://www.fotopro.cn/products/accessories/468.htmlPlan to own this flash long ago not only plan for my Old MACRO setup

Bracket





Due to the light source is bigger and the softer effect is my preference so far but the weight and the MP-E65 long extend ... I had decided to change to Canon Mt-24 twin flash
 


With the 65mm, light is easier to control and much better than long focal length lenses but it make failure rate approach certain bugs higher ... so I never stop try and error for my SIGMA150 Macro len. [discussed @ http://liewwk-macro.blogspot.com/2010/08/how-i-shoot-macro-new-lighting-test-for.html ]

so I had below item to start off new lighting for both short and long macro lenses

1. Speedlite 270
2. Fotopro twin flashes arm 
   - Malaysia Distributor is Lee Photo
3. Pixel TTL wireless trigger
4. Vellum Paper as diffuser
5. paper cup






so let's look close on my new member

- a small flash
- easy to use paper bowl to make diffuser

- not much control
- no manual setting
- just on off button

- my 5dm2 need a flash ... and it is small and fit nicely

- not only direct but can have bounce to ceiling too ...










result of the flash
- indoor 24mm, F8, ISO100, 1/60

#################################################
what surprise, it fit my Lumix Lx5 too

but then think TTL never work ....
- indoor 24mm, F8, ISO100, 1/60 - direct

but with bounce

  look ok ... to use :D

















I will build this cheaper/lighter new lighting ASAP and share to u all with another share.....

Panasonic DMC LX5 MACRO picture

managed to try out 1cm MACRO today



it is fun to use PnS to do MACRO .... Liveview focus so easy ... AF ...... no need flash :D
non edit, non crop(shoot in Square), non curve, no change saturation .... noise reduce and resize only .....

this was shooting with my new gear family
http://liewwk-macro.blogspot.com/2010/12/my-gear-pns-camera-panasonic-lx5.html

My Gear - PnS Camera Panasonic LX5

Mr 1st LEICA !!!!

finally I had make decision for my spare body .... a Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX5....

think too many people give review to this camera, and I am not going to share one now but my 1st hand experience

1. a solid point and shot
2. 1cm macro is fun (I am back with so much of DOF now)
3. image quality , from the screen is great
4. size much smaller than my 5d but slightly bigger than my Ixus700
5. for a new user (1st time using Panasonic camera), I understand and know where to set most of the basic requirement setting in ~10 minutes .. so this is consider a very user friendly PnS

will shoot more pictures using this camera to share more actual IQ concern :D

Full Specification can easily get from google or http://www.dpreview.com/news/1007/10072110panasonicdmclx5.asp

the main specifications that make me choose this
1. 24mm wide angle
2. aperture f2.0
3. proven IQ LX3
4. shutter speed 30-60s (24mm F2 @60s ... good for star :D)
5. 1cm MACRO

.....

New Found - a Mayfly in Hotel room !!!

was surprise last trip to Terengganu, where we found 3 types of mayflies, soldierfly, beetle, ... in the hotel room itself ..........................



this is like other mayfly, not really move a lot and quite small ~5-7mm long .....

more flies pictures

How I shoot MACRO - Patient to wait

love to do night macro but some of the insect may not active or sleeping in the night and it is good to shoot them while sleeping as in daylight you may not possible to shoot it .. e.g. bee, the bee use to flying around non-stop and not easy to have a capture of it in the day light but at night it will sleeping as


- it seldom move, or we can move it any location/direction to capture a beautiful sleeping style

but I getting bore after a while looking at this beautiful bee sleeping .. so I decide to mark the location and go back in the early morning (just before the bee wake up) , what I going todo
- wake up early (~6-630am)
- go back to the mark location
- use tripod to aiming or pre-focus to the bee
- wait ................................. it may wake up 1-1.5hr later :D so patient is important here
- the moment it wake up, it will stay still for ~5-30s depend on luck
- do not touch it to make it wake up this will make it flew off within 2-5s after we touch it

then with all the efforts above ...





or recently

News - Basic MACRO Workshop (Jan 2011)

As special requested for Jan 2011, I have additional workshop happen on 16- 17 Jan near Genting, Pahang area.





it going to be 2days 1 night sharing, which include

1. travel from/return PJ/KL to Genting area
2. max 5 participants but 3 are fill so 2 left
3. accommodation include
4. 1 breakfast, 2 lunch, 1 dinner included
5. theory sharing for basic requirements for Nature - MACRO photography
    - gears basic
    - setting basic
    - lighting advices and DIY diffuser base on participant current setup 
6. Basic Post Processing with Photoshop
    - WB correction
    - color cast remove
    - sensor dusts handling
    - basic curve and saturation
    - cloning
    - noise reduction
7. practical shooting with recommended method
    - basic MACRO shooting skill
    - flash shooting and natural light

Who should attend
- those have basic knowledge of photography and would like to know more on MACRO

What should bring
- Camera (DSLR will be recommended)
- MACRO len, if no MACRO len let me know more what do you have and we will arrange loan equipments
- flash (external prefer)
- tripod and monopod
- clothes for change
- notebook is recommended




for more details, contact me here

They are back !!!

Cuckoo Bee  - Thyreus sp

found back those bee use to stay near my In-law garden ... and most of them back !!! for what happen previously for this "small jungle" pls refer
http://liewwk-macro.blogspot.com/2010/06/news-another-sad-news.html


but too bad for Wee & Tan who missed this as we only found them 2nd day ....

I also found Owl-fly which is 1st time for me to see it in wild and it is so near to me ....

New Gallery for www.liewwkphoto.com - Slow Shutter

http://www.liewwkphoto.com/gallery6.htmWe need to give good respect to people doing a lot of slow shutter photography... their patient to have better work need to respect ......

every shots could toke easily from 15s up to minutes... or even hours ... but it may not come out good due to composition, light change affect final output, wind shake, wave shake ....

every one extra stop we are talking in slow shutter could be in minutes ...

e.g. while we have correct exposure @30s but as for the light change (getting dark) due to sunset, we may need to have extra 1-2 stop where we are talking
30s extra exposure for 1 stop and 90s extra exposure for 2 stops .... as long as the calculation is wrong .... then everything have to reshoot, re-calculate again .......


I am shooting slow shutter witheither
1. night scape
2. B+W ND1000x
3. Lee Filter - Big Stopper

where discuss before @
http://liewwk-macro.blogspot.com/2010/11/my-gear-10-stops-nd-filters-b-w-nd100.html


after few shooting, I start love the slow shutter photography and promise to shoot more and share more .... and a New Gallery create for www.liewwkphoto.com

Slow Shutter - Gallery 6

thanks all ....

New Found - A Ant ? Katydid ? Hopper ? Cricket ?

I found a Ant head but hopper/hopper look alike leg .... still need to verify it's ID ...

anyone can help ?








about ~10-12mm in size

New Found - A cute weevil

An old picture or capture while I was at Kota Kinabalu Park (KK) , this beetle is ~5-8mm in size and look real cute ...

not really move alot may be due to cool weather ... but still floew off after ~3 shots, may be my diffuser is too close to it



more beetle/weevil collection
http://www.flickr.com/photos/liewwk/sets/72157605373755899/with/5245543500/

Landscape Spot - Sunrise @Pantai Cermin, Port Dickson

last weekend, have few good discover.. few good spots for sunset... and another wonderful sunrise spots found beach @Port Dickson (west coast of Malaysia) think many people will ask why can shoot the sun rise from the horizon ... :D

so the simple answer is as for now, the sun rise from east south so as the beach location it face east south and a river on east if we move ourselves along the beach ........

not only the sunrise surprise me but the reflection of the beach ..... I wonder why it call Mirror Lake (Pantai Cermin) while I was there few times .. but now I may know why it call such name ... the beach itself is nature mirror of the beautiful sky/sunrise, while I look for better foreground (sorry not much foreground can be found here especially high tide), I found the beach itself will become reflective after ~2-3 s after the wave hit the beach and it will disappear in few seconds too (after the water dissolve/penetrate into the ground).... the sunrise not really beautiful but I still share few pictures of this outing due to the nature beauty of this beach ....




and a series of pictures show how's the reflection come and go




I will definite will re-visit this place ...and share more soon....

 
location
- from Kuala Lumpur, South (Melaka, Johor, Singapore) from North south Highway
- look for Port Dickson out
- then look for Port Dickson (highway will be much easier/faster to access this beach) so follow Port Dickson (green board)
- follow the highway, you should reach to a roundabout ... don't worry look for Tanjung Tuan lighthouse direction
- before reach Tanjung Tuan
it is a right turn to famous Tanjung Biru (Blue Lagoon) and Pantai Cermin is on yours' left instead

My Gear - GND and 10 Stops ND filters

just a quick share why I use GND or 10 stops ND filters in some case

1. the sky and foreground always have different of exposures and I do not want to use exposures blending, HDR and black card method to correct the exposure ...

e.g. original shot , no PP no filter, the sky look lost some highlight details especially the clouds

2. to get the correct exposure of the sky then foreground will look under

3. to correct the exposures, I normally use
i. Lee Filter GND filter
ii. Exposures masking (shoot multiple pictures to merge it)
iii. HDR
iv. black card, only apply while long exposure


but for this I only want to disucss 3i (Lee Filter GND)

4. to correct it normally I use Graduate Nature Density filter (GND) to correct the exposure of the sky or get more details of the sky without changing the foreground exposure

- with the help of the GND I have both sky and sea at right exposure with minimum effort











5. but for this type of weather, the sky may look dull and not so attractive.. so I make use of the bid stop ND to make the water look silky and the cloud movement ......

the exp from 1/5s to 140++s which allow us to see the movement line of the clouds to create more attractive sky and silky sea

















and with proper planning here is my result



I will share how to use exposures masking, Photoshop GND ... in future ....