The weather here is crazy..

I woke up around 8:30am and was greeted with a beautiful sunshine. I decided to take a random photo from my window view. I had my breakfast and watched some TV. I looked at the window again and spoof, it became dark, so i decided to shoot it again from the same perspective.. then it snowed later in the afternoon followed by another beautiful sunshine. Its really crazy weather around here. I tied all the four pictures that I got and came up with this:

Flashing lights...

Just got my SB-600 today and guess what, I'm hooked. I fired flashes for the whole day and the effect that I got was just awesome. Its very handy, not too big and not too small. It delivers a lot of power and runs on 4 AAs. I already got past 200 flashes fired for the day and thats a lot for 1 day. Will give it a rest for now. Hopefully, after work tomorrow, I will be back to practice again. Will be posting pictures soon.

High ISO Test on D90

    We were on our way home, and I just took random shots along the way. I did only had the 16-85 VR on my D90, and the rest of my fast lenses were at home. I decided to test the d90's ISO edge over other cameras, so i kicked in the ISO to about 1000 and got this image. Does it have that much noise? What do you think?

iPhone practice shots

Just got my iPhone 4 the other day. This gadget is handy for places where bringing a dslr just draws much attention. Although I use it more as a phone rather than a camera. I did some practice shots with it and here is what I got:

Sun, Sun and More Sun.

Photos that I took today while heading out.

Overload..

    The past few days has been really tiresome. I became really busy at work, that I don't even get to go out with my dslr anymore. The weather this past few days were nice between 2 to -6 degrees figuratively. Snow still covers most of the roads and houses. When my schedule loosens up a bit, I'll be going out for some shooting frenzy.


Edit: ..even my blog feels the snowy weather.

What makes a good photographer?

   There you go showing off your new Nikon D3x with a new $10,000 ultra-sharp lens, coupled with your $500 ultra-light tripod. You take a dozen pictures only to find out that your next door neighbor sold more of his photos than you while he only uses his $67 point and shoot camera that he got from a yard sale.

   You wonder how and why. Does he use black magic? Does he just copy them from some web source? Does he force people to buy them? To feed your curiosity, you go to his exhibit, which at this time, is his small garage which is nothing when compared to your living room size gallery. You go in and the first thing you see is his wooden tripod. You can see that it is made of smooth wood, with some duct tape at the points to prevent slip and a D-I-Y mount,way too uncomparable to your $500 tripod. You look to your right and you see his camera hanging on the wall, with its cheaply built strap. You look to the left, you see his bike, some small print pictures and a mini umbrella designed to mount on top of his camera to prevent it from getting wet.

  Suddenly, something caught your eye. Something that you have never seen before. It made you stare at it some time. You feel blood rush through your veins and your heart pumps faster than it usually does. You close your eyes for 5 seconds just to make sure that its real then "snap"., your neighbor just snapped you out of what seemed to be and endless void of staring. What did you see? It was his photographs. The composition, the exposure, the subjects all blended perfectly together to form an image which makes you want to be in it.

   This story of course, is an exaggeration. I hope I didn't drag you too deep. The main point of this story is that having the best gear in the world doesn't make you the best photographer. Having the right knowledge and technique is what counts more. To be a good photographer, to be even called one, you have to understand the some basic concepts in photography; understanding exposure perhaps, knowing the right use of light and creative compositions.

   The difference between the two characters here is that the other one has some of the best gear in the world and shoots with it without considering the composition of the shot, angle and exposure. The other character however, inspite of lacking the better gear, used his basic knowledge and creative composition to capture the image that would certainly please anyone's taste. Learning the techniques in photography isn't that hard. When you get a good understanding of the basics, you can further experiment more on the gear that you have before deciding to buy the better gear. One common mistake that most photographers make is that they start in a reverse order, that is; Gear - Experiment - Basic, which should be the other way around.

   So when you try think about it, are you the guy who has $20,000 worth of gear but getting not so much feedback for your images? Or are you the guy who has that technique, backed by the knowledge to capture that great shot? That is for you to find out.

Winter Sunset

Just because its snowing doesn't mean a beautiful sunset is nowhere to be seen. I was in a cafe during this time and looking outside, I just couldn't help but notice the beautiful sunset. Its blocked by a lot of houses and sadly I did not have my D90 with me so this one came from my trusty phone. Too bad the phone doesn't do CIR- PL's, thereby having some of the lights from inside reflected on the glass.

Flowerrry..

Browsing some of my old files, I stumbled upon these set of images which I find really nice to look at. I shot this during the early days of winter here in Edmonton and it is also my first try in using flowers as subjects;

The Gear

I've always believed that a photograph is composed of 70% photographer and 30% gear. I mean, its always us the one behind the camera that composes the image, sets the right exposure and correct focal length. However, a good gear really adds up to a great shot. So here's my set-up in plain and simple text:

Nikon D90

Undoubtedly one of the best "prosumer" level camera in the market today. It offers a lot of features that an amateur or professional photographer needs while staying at a decent price level. I was going to get the D300 or the newly released D7000 (which I would have if available that time), but seeing that the D90 has most of the features that both of these camera have I opted to go the D90 way. With the added MB-D80 Battery Grip, giving more juice, I never regretted. Although a weather sealed body and an AF in video would be good.

Nikon AF-S DX 16-85mm VR II

I won't lie to you, this lens has done wonders for me. Its a very good walk around lens. It performs superbly in terms of sharpness at most focal lengths. I traded my Nikon 18-200 VR to get this one. Now you might say, "best walk around 18-200 blah blah.." It just did not work for me, I did not get the results that I got with the 16-85 VR. So this lens is definitely a keeper. It stays on my camera most of the time.

Tokina ATX 11-16mm

If your'e looking for wide, you can never go wrong with this lens. Its sharp, solid and professionally built. I use it for most of the landscape shots and some close-ups. Its a very good lens and definitely something you'd want to add to your setup.

Nikon 50mm/AF-1.4 D

Tact Sharp -- this the best way I can describe the performance of this lens. Very useful for low light scenes and portraiture. It gives a lovely bokeh and very lightweight.

Nikon AF-S 70-300mm VR

I love this lens too. Great for shooting wildlife and other distant objects. With the added VR, shooting moving objects has never been easier. Not very good for lowlight with moving subjects though.

Nikon 105mm Micro AF-D

I did not get the VR version of this macro lens because normally, VR isn't really of much use in macro photography. Its sharp and the working distance is very good if you love to shoot with little critters. I will use this in spring though, when all things living are in bloom. I still love the 16-85 VR for everyday shooting with my dslr.

Manfrotto 190X ProB / 486Rc2 Ballhead

Now if you really wanna get those tact sharp images, this tripod will undoubtedly help you to attain that. Its not just a tripod, its THE tripod. It offers a lot of uses like close-up photography and getting those crazy angled shots that you don't get with an ordinary tripod. Solid, not that light though but considerable, and looks cool too. You definitely have to have one of these.

Filters / Storage

I have a 77mm HOYA Circular Polarizing filter, 77mm Graduated ND filter, 77mm UV filter. I get only one size for each kind to save money and just buy the step-up rings that sell for really less.

I use the SanDisk Extreme III Card for storage. 30mb/sec gets the job done really fast. I highly recommend using this card.

So thats it. A summary of whats in my setup. I know its not that good as compared to the high end setups that others have, but If you know how to maximize each of its potential, you'll really be happy with it.

..back from the snow

Ive managed to fiddle with the stuff I see down the basement and put them in the snow. I did not get too far from the house looking for things to shoot with my dslr because it was almost 2PM and I still have work at around 3PM. Anyway, here's what I've came up with.. just for the fun of it;

...good weather

The weather just keeps on getting better. Its 2 degrees outside, way warmer than the usual -20. It also gives me plenty of opportunities to go outside and shoot. I'm heading out later and I'm taking my dslr with me.

Beginning

I was never into blogging really, well not until recently. My interest came from the bottom of nowhere.

I am an amateur photographer. Just got my dslr last October and guess what, I'm running it at 4000+ actuations already. The other 3000+ were more of practice shots really and not some real good keepers.

I started this blog because I wanted to showcase my photos here and this site also offers numerous options for doing that without the having to worry how much has been charged on your credit card -- like maintaining a website for instance. Pictures surely are going to keep coming here and I hope that every bit of it is something you viewers would like.

Morning surprise...

I woke up today thinking that it was snowing outside. I tried to get up but was too lazy to do so.

Eventually, I got up and checked the weather outside. Surprisingly it did not turn out to be as bad as the weather man reported. In fact, I was greeted with the warm rays of the sun.

I immediately grabbed my camera and took a few shots from my window. This one is typically one of the best that I got. I set my camera at f8 and determined that 1/320 was the right shutter speed to get a correct exposure. I then set my tripod and timer to get a really steady shot and then fired away.