Birding with my EF 70-200mm f4L

Been to Australia at 2010 to visit my bro who was staying there for good. Well... it was a quiet little place called Thornlie in Perth (Western Australia). Went to a pond and had quite a time shooting photos of some ducks and water fowls.

ISO: 400, S: 1/500, A: f/5.6

ISO: 400, S: 1/250, A: f/6.7

ISO: 400, S: 1/750, A: f/5.6

It is a pretty nice photoshooting session... I feel that I could have done better if I was to be at eye level with the ducks and fowls... maybe lying on the ground would have helped.

ISO: 400, S: 1/500, A: f/5.6

This photo would have been better if the Aperture is much smaller... then all of the ducks will be in focus, rather than the two infront.

ISO: 400, S: 1/400, A: f/6.7

Big fat black chicken (crow)... she was perched safely on the branch way above me... I just had to take some photos of her. Pretty cool... I mean the weather... it was near winter when we visited Australia.

Then we go Fremantle for some seafood and managed to shoot some photos of the seagulls.

ISO: 400, S: 1/8000, A: f/6.7

ISO: 400, S: 1/2000, A: f/5.6

I kind of like this pic alot... the composition works for me. I do not put that seagull right in the middle of the frame and instead threw it to the side... and also exposing some of the shadow. It is a pretty nice photo.

All other pic can be found here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/tiew_cy/sets/72157626085792650/

It is a pretty nice experience in Australia and I will be going there again... this time round I will try landscaping shots. I think it can be very nice too.

Birding with my 300mm + 1.4x teleconverter

I was out there in the morning waiting... I wanted to catch some birds... but none seemed to be in the precinity. And I thought it was a wasted wait... then it all happen...

One of them landed right in front of me... and so I being shooting like mad.

ISO: 400, S: 1/80, A: f/6.3

Well... I keep the aperture relatively small so that the entire bird will be in focus while the background was a nice blur. Also it is important to shoot at the eyes... to capture the liveliness of the eyes of the bird.

ISO: 400, S: 1/80, A: f/6.3

ISO: 3200, S: 1/800, A: f/5.6

Well... one thing led to the other, after this bird had flew off... and I was back to the house... that afternoon, I went out to try my luck again... and it is holding up.

ISO: 400, S: 1/320, A: f/5.6

ISO: 400, S: 1/320, A: f/5.6

ISO: 500, S: 1/250, A: f/5.6

This humming bird also landed near me... somewhere on the roof of my neighbour and is facing me. Well... like the other one, I focus mainly on her eyes, and position myself in such a way that I could capture the eyes of the humming bird with some of the sunlight falling off its eyes, so that it glittered.

The next day, I was shooting at some birds again... when one of them flew near me for the third time... I must be very very lucky that few days. And the bird perched at a branch in my garden, and I was able to shoot at it for all I was worth.

ISO: 3200, S: 1/125, A: f/13

ISO: 3200, S: 1/125, A: f/13

ISO: 3200, S: 1/125, A: f/13

Well... it only goes to show... you must be patient when shooting birds... and also to a certain extend, lucks also plays a part. If the birds are too far away, my lens will not be able to get a clear clean shot. If they are too near, I would have to move back and the movement (myself, tripod with camera and lens) will alert the bird and it will flew off.

Anyway, shooting bird, a tripod is necessary because we are using telephoto lenses...and unless you have a very very good shooting technique coupled with high speed and good IS, it is very very difficult to achieve a blur free shot.

From some of my attached exif, it is not difficult to see that some of my photos are taken at very high ISO. Of course ideally, your ISO was not to exit 400 to 800 to keep noise at a bare minimal... however, when an opportunity came up. Please be sure to take that opportunity, even if it means pushing your ISO to 3200 and above.

It is better to have a noisy photos then not to have a photo at all. Plus noise can be corrected during PP, and in a smaller print, you would not even notice them. Plus nowadays, digital sensor had already reach a very manageable noise range, so it is pretty alright to have a high ISO.
So in conclusion, get a lens that could shoot far (a 300mm is a minimum that could get you close enough, but not too close to your nervous subject. if you can afford... get a teleconverter to extend the range). And don't forget... use a tripod whenever possible.

Vacation Photos - Shantou China (Dec 2010) - Part 5

Well... this is almost the end of the trip. We went to visit some other places which was pretty interesting,

ISO: 200, S: 1/60, A: f/5.6

Like I said... I never like take photos straight on... it make the entire frame pretty boring as if straight out of a postcard.

ISO: 200, S: 1/250, A: f/14

Well... this is a pretty nice and old looking place, it is actually not that old, but the builder had intended it to look old. They succeeded.

ISO: 200, S: 1/100, A: f/6.3

ISO: 200, S: 1/200, A: f/8

And that conclude our outdoor trips in Shantou. The next day is suppose to be quite relaxing because there is not other location we are going and was waiting to go home in Singapore.

Okay... did some PP on some of the photos when I am back in Singapore... basically making them B&W... it made these photos look older.

As you can see sometime black and white photos are also very interesting. So do not be afraid to experiment.

Vacation Photos - Shantou China (Dec 2010) - Part 4

I remember pretty well that it is going to be a very tiring day... there are a couple of places that we are going to visit. But it is a very interesting day.

Well... this is another visit to the temple. This one is also a very old temple, but I doubt it is as old as the one that was built in Song Dynasty.

ISO: 200, S: 1/60, A: f/4

For the above shot, I used the flash to capture the picture. Using a low ISO to reduce noise and so have to use the flash to rise my speed up further. If I got the choice to shoot again, I will not hesitate to use a much higher ISO - maybe at ISO 1600 to ISO 3200 to give the pic an old grainy look.

ISO: 200, S: 1/250, A: f/22

I am playing with shadow when I took this photo, purposely shooting at the structure with the sun directly hidden behind the shaft.... giving the shaft a halo.

ISO: 200, S: 1/60, A: f:3.5

ISO: 200, S: 1/250, A: f/18

ISO: 200, S: 1/250, A: f/3.5

Well... that conclude my trip to that temple... of course I had much more photos, but these few are a few that I liked most (the rest to be find here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/tiew_cy/sets/72157625961004231/)

After the temple visit and lunch, we made off to other location,

ISO: 200, S: 1/250, A: f/10

Well... that is a typical Chinese fortress... and I find it much better looking than old European fortress...

ISO: 200, S: 1/250, A: f/11

ISO: 200, S: 1/250, A: f/11

Mum and my cousin posing for the shot well... the sun is behind and so the faces look like being covered in shadow. As I am getting more experience with photography, I realise that, I should have use the flash for a fill shot... well... live and learn.

We stopped at that area for a short while, before making way to the next place of interest.

ISO: 200, S: 1/320, A: f/11

This is a very man-made area... and it is not that old... it looked more like a theme park... something that I really don't appreciate much. But... well... since we are there, I decided to make the full of my visit. Afterall I am not getting there very often.

ISO: 200, S: 1/200, A: f/9

Shooting a road is boring, but shooting a road with people on it, and old artefacts at the side is pretty interesting. That is how I frame my shots. I do not have a UWA lens, so this is the best I can do on that occasion.

And if you go to a place that you really don't feel too excited about, what do you do? For me... do some candid until you find something interesting.

ISO: 200, S: 1/80, A: f/6.3

ISO: 200, S: 1/60, A: f/5.6

ISO: 200, S: 1/200, A: f/10

ISO: 200, S: 1/160, A: f/9

Okay... then I notice something interesting... ducks! They made good food and they are pretty cute.

ISO: 200, S: 1/200, A: f/10

The ducks look very tranquil and stressless as they swim in the pond.

We after that we will be moving off to the next destination. And I am pretty ready for that...

Vacation Photos - Shantou China (Dec 2010) - Part 3

The day before was pretty fun... we visited two places... before heading back to my uncle's home. It was not really tiring... I am still year, despite being thirty plus already.

Well... we are not always going to very far places... even nearby locations can be pretty interesting.

ISO: 200, S: 1/100, A: f/11



Lighting is terrible, it was dark... and I didn't bring my 430EX II flash, so I am using my on camera flash and it was a direct shot, so the lighting became very harsh (note: don't ever do that again).

ISO: 200, S: 1/400, A: f/14

Well, it really is up to you to find interesting subject to shoot... like this duck who was seemingly very interested at something on the branches... and,

ISO: 200, S: 1/250, A: f/11

There he goes jumping up to investigate. Well... for this shot, it happened pretty fast, so I set my speed to be relatively fast, you got to predict the speed of your subject. In actual fact 1/250 sec is good enough for the duck. To prevent getting off focus shots especially at this type of shot, I set a low aperture so that it would have a deeper DOF, which will ensure that more of my scene will be in focus.

Well... I have always peached... get the expression of the animal... all of them have very good expression... well... in this case, it was a dog that is afraid of me. She had been hiding when I went there...

ISO: 200, S: 1/100, A: f/7.1



Well... to note, we have never abuse any animal... I would have wanted to stroke the dog... but she is a dog and she had fangs... I don't appreciate having a piece of me being biten off my body. So... yeah. One thing about photography... it is to take care of yourself.

ISO: 200, S: 1/100, A: f/10

Animals are interesting subject to shoot... they always was... however for most of my shots this time round, I was standing up and shooting down. It was not a good way to do things, you need to be at eye level most of the time. So... in future, I will try to be on the ground, and as low as possible.

Well... animal is great subjects. So was structures...

ISO: 200, S: 1/250, A: f/16



Taking photo of a bridge and the bridge alone, is boring. So I shoot with my mum in my frame. It give a perspective of the height of the bridge and she mustn't be too near me, to give a reference to the distance... making the bridge look longer.

ISO: 200, S: 1/250, A: f/10

ISO: 200, S: 1/400, A: f/10

Well we didn't go alot of places this time round, and so I only have a few photos to share. All these are taken with careful thoughts in them.

Vacation Photos - Shantou China (Dec 2010) - Part 2

It was early in the morning... I had woken up at around 0500hrs to shoot some sunrise. This is something that I loved to do.

ISO: 200, S: 1/125, A: f/8

Well... taking sunrise pic is boring without other subjects to bring up the sun. So I position myself to take the sunrise from an angle and using some of the house as 'side dish' for this sunrise shot. Everywhere was still dark but exposure is spot on.

It was pretty exciting this day as one of my cousins will be bringing us for sightseeing. We are going to a temple (well, China had lots of temples, thousands of years of history... and each dynasty new temples are build in different province). Being a history nuts too... I would like to see all these magnificent structures... and many of them had withstand thousands of years... many of these years are of turmoils.

ISO: 200, S: 1/60, A: f/4.5

ISO: 200, S: 1/60, A: f/4.5



Flash are being use, as the place are very dark... Well... I have never been one who are too shy to use the flash, unless it is forbidded.

ISO: 200, S: 1/60, A: f/4.5

ISO: 200, S: 1/60, A: f/5

ISO: 200, S: 1/60, A: f/5.6



Well... the temple that I have shown was build in Song Dynasty that is around 800 years from now. Well... it is not a thousand years old temple, but it is still a very very old temple. And the structure is grand in its own way, not like the cathedrals in Europe, but it is as beautiful.

ISO: 200, S: 1/250, A: f/14


As it was a sunny morning, everywhere was very brightly lit by the sun, it is very difficult to get the correct exposure. I ended up having to manually compensate the exposure (-1/3 Ev) to achieve a correct exposure that is needed. For these type of photography, actually I would prefer to make them B&W... especially when our architect is old. But right here... I am not doing it. I like to show the colours of the Chinese temple. If it was a European cathedral or fortress, I would have no problem making the photo B&W.

ISO: 200, S: 1/250, A: f/16

ISO: 200, S: 1/200, A: f/9



Well... one thing that I don't like to take, is people standing in a straight line... like all those group photos... it is so predictable and so boring. I would like to have more interesting pose... but... well... this is what you get when you have no idea how to pose your subjects.

ISO: 200, S: 1/200, A: f/10




Well... and that conclude the temple tour...

And on to our next stop...

ISO: 200, S: 1/500, A: f/14


Herewith I have taken into shooting the gate or door that are far away, using a very small aperture to ensure that my entire frame are in relative sharpness.

My first car photography... Well, like all other photography genre that I am doing, I love to isolate the objects.

ISO: 200, S: 1/25, A: f/5.6

ISO: 200, S: 1/30, A: f/5

ISO: 200, S: 1/30, A: f/5.6



I seldom took the entire car in view... although there is... but I am not going to showcase here.

ISO: 200, S: 1/100, A: f/5.6



A playful show whereby I and my mum are each trying to capture each other in our frame. I would say, I won. Hahahaha.

This place was actually donated and built by a very very rich person. He dedicate this place to his mother... Well... the place was massive... I think it is bigger than Singapore's Istana... I was amaze... and the amount of money put in... must be enormous. I was impress.

(Beautiful wall carving and decoration)


ISO: 200, S: 1/50, A: f/5.6

ISO: 200, S: 1/70, A: f/4



Actually the place is kind of a boring place. It had not much items that could really interest me... except that the person staying here is very very rich and I am not that rich :) Anyway, as an aspiring photographer... one of the thing that I needed to do is to make my photo interesting... even if that place is not.

ISO: 200, S: 1/125, A: f/5.6

ISO: 200, S: 1/60, A: f:5.6

ISO: 200, S: 1/400, A: f/16



Yes... always on a lookup for different weather, cloud formation and lighting when taking photos. And the above had applied just that. I found that the cloud and lighting are just nice and so immediately I took a shot... the result is good.

ISO: 200, S: 1/400, A: f/14




Well... sometime a flag can be pretty amazing when you have capture it right. I would have purposely cropped it to the side to make this look better... well... I didn't. And it kinds of bother me now and then... live and learn.

Anyway... that is about it for the 3rd day...