Ottawa Hibiscus

Last year when I was staying in Ottawa for work I noticed the hotel I was staying at had some great hibiscus plants in bloom.  Hibiscus flowers are often shot, but rarely done well.  This shot is nice, but pretty boring.

I decided I was going to incorporate the flower into the surroundings for something different.

To get the biggest impact, I looked around for street life.  The bus and bus shelter on a damp day worked in well, and I set the aperture to f5.6 so the viewer could see what it was, but not dominate the subject (the hibiscus).  Being right at minimum focus distance also meant I needed to stop down significantly to include any sort of background.  Certainly much more interesting than the first shot.

Acoustic Gig

Last night my wife and I went to a pub at Yonge and Eglinton to hear two instrumental acoustic guitarists.  One was the boyfriend of my wife’s work colleague, so it was good to go and support them.

Dallas Sutherland

They both turned out to be very good, and luckily I had the NEX along to capture some of the action.

I ended up taking the Voigtlander 35mm f1.4, and this worked fine, though something slightly wider would have been nice.  I needed f1.4 as it was pretty dark, and most of the shots used ISO 1600, about the limit for the NEX before pictures gets too noisy.  I first started shooting in colour and nothing really great came out, but as soon as I switched to black and white, all the photos just popped!  Shooting at f1.4 and manually focusing is quite a challenge, so I ended up pre-focusing photos and shooting when the musician became sharp.  Nothing came out perfectly in focus, but I don’t think it needs to be with this genre of photography.

Dallas Sutherland and Andrew Valentine

Andrew Valentine

Interestingly I met a lady there (an ex-photojournalist) who was also shooting and she had brought along her Canon Rebel and an iPhone.  She saw my NEX and was fascinated by its size and quality of the photos, so we chatted for a bit shared photos and enjoyed the music.  It’s fun meeting people with a similar interest and always great to share a passion for photography.

Dallas Sutherland and Andrew Valentine

You can check out Dallas and Andrew on their My Space pages:

http://www.myspace.com/dallassutherland

http://www.myspace.com/andrewvalentine

Dallas Sutherland

Chasing Bees

Like every photographer who enjoys shooting macro, I am forever chasing bees from flower to flower to get a great shot.  Mostly they don’t work out – you only get the bee’s butt, or it is out of focus from the narrow depth of field; and of course the bee always takes off just as you are ready for that winning shot.  And then there’s wind; the bane of every outdoor macro photographer.  Frustrating.  Never work with bees and kids.

Chase enough bees and get enough practice, and eventually you’ll get something right.  Here’s one shot with my Nikon D700 and Tamron 180mm f3.5 Macro.

Beach contrast

 

This is one of the early photos I took with my D100, and I believe it was on our honeymoon.  At that time I’d just got Photoshop and was fascinated with changes in contrast.  This was one of those shots.  The patterning in the sand actually works well, and it does lead the eye nicely to the top of the hill.  Unfortunately the sky is totally blown out and the nearby island totally black, which does distract from the photo, and makes it look kinda fake.  Otherwise, an interesting result – the strongest point being the leading lines within the photo.

Apartment Sunrise

One of the things I missed about our apartment in Toronto was the beautiful sunrises.  Just as daylight saving started and ended, the south east facing apartment revealed the most magical colours and clouds.  My morning routine usually involved firing off a few shots.  I love our house, but I sure do miss waking up to this.

Banksia focus – Which is better?

I have no idea which of these shots is better.  Does focusing on the tips of the flower or the centre of the flower work best?  No idea, but I like both of them.

The banksia is indigenous to Australia and this very healthy plant is growing in my parent’s large garden in Mt Gambier, South Australia.  

I shot this with a Nikon D2X and a Micro-Nikkor 55mm f2.8 manual focus lens at f2.8.  Even at f2.8 this lens is excellent for sharpness colour rendition.  If you find one, buy it - they are a bargain given their level of performance.