Images of the night

When the dark unfolds its wings
Do you sense the strangest things?
Things no one would ever guess
Things mere words cannot express
~Beauty underneath, from the musical Love Never Dies


Love Never Dies
Location: London, UK
Date & time: 2 November,2010. 23:24
Exposure 0.017 sec (1/60)
Aperture f/3.2
Focal Length 8.3 mm
ISO Speed 400
Modifications : Adjusted contrast, cropping, noise reduction

No one can beat the course of nature, that's a fact. At the moment, the temperature here in Kerimäki is -4 degrees Celsius. That simply means that whether I like it or not, I won't see my favorite subjects for at least 4 months. So what's a shutterbug to do? Two things: leave, or live with it. I left gloomy Finland last week for the bright lights and lively atmosphere of London. Although I didn't manage to take nature photos on account of the weather, I'm still happy with the shots I brought home.

For the past few days, my Flickr uploads were mostly photos of London buildings. I reckon that most of my Flickr contacts thought they were visiting someone else's photostream. One even said that he misses my macro shots, lol! I miss them too, more than you will ever know, but I had to make do with the buildings. Why? Because they were the only available subjects after shopping or watching musicals.

I regret that you won't learn much from this blog entry --surprise, surprise-- as I don't have much experience in night photography. I only get to give it a shot whenever I am in other countries (excuses, excuses!). Anyhow, I just created this blog entry to relieve me of boredom and to show you that the darkness can transform something nice into something majestic. Take a look at the photos of Royal Albert Hall below.

1 September 2010, 16:33



2 November 18:11


The second photo looks better by a mile, don't you agree? I rest my case :-)

I think anyone can take good photos of buildings at dusk or night time, but selecting settings could be a bit tricky for beginners. Since I can't be of help with tips, check out this site for some useful info.

If you're wondering how I managed to take some decent night photos, well.. I won't keep you in the dark. I'm known for keeping things simple, perhaps I owe it to my innate laziness. When taking photos at night, I choose the well-lit buildings as subjects. With my camera's scene capture type set to 'night' or 'fireworks', I find a good angle to shoot from, and then I take one or two photos. They don't always turn out great, but then again, that's quite normal. To minimize noise, I use Neat Image. My 'method' may not be the proper way to do it, but it works for me and my camera. I'm happy as long as the shots don't look too mediocre.

Below are some of my after 8 shots taken in London and Kuala Lumpur.



1. Her Majesty's Theatre, 2. National Gallery, 3. Dusk, 4. Just to break the monotony

I don't when I would have the chance to do night photography again. Actually, I don't know if I'd get to do any kind of photography for the next 4 months. If I will travel in December, for sure you would see new photos from me again, if not, then that means I'll be on hibernation mode 'til spring. *sobs*

Summer report

“Review your goals twice every day in order to be focused on achieving them.”
~Les Brown

I had a lovely summer, it buzzed with activities and I enjoyed every minute of it. In three months' time, I worked in different health care facilities, took care of our garden, traveled outside Finland twice, and of course I took pictures of nature and some man-made structures. Looking back, I couldn't believe how I managed to juggle all of those. It was a fun and productive season, and boy it sucks how fast time flies.. sigh. Anyhow, in my previous blog entry I was brave enough to mention that I was getting bored with my photography style. I bet some of the people who has been viewing my work since I started showing them off on web galleries do feel the same. Because of that, I thought I should try my very best to make my macro photos look like art pieces, not just mere insect and flower photos that would look good on textbooks where kids could label every part. So... was it a success or a flop? You're about to find out..

A for effort
I tried my best, but I'm giving myself an F because I am simply not satisfied with how the flower macros came out. Yeah, my standards are way too high for an amateur, nothing can change that. However, I should get an A for effort and for always believing that my camera can do wonders. Actually, I deserve more than an A, I think I should get a medal for my false beliefs. I took at least a hundred photos of flowers, I set the aperture to f2.8, and voila! Only 10% turned up to be decent enough. Backed with my years of practice shooting on macro mode, I know quite well which part of the subject to focus on. The difficult part is adding drama to the image, allowing it to tell a story and making it look visually appealing at the same time. Since I do not excel in the creativity department, I ended up deleting so many shots because they looked so dull. Oh, I've still got a lot to learn. Below is one of the few photos that passed my standards, the aperture was f/3.5 though.


Passion for detail

I took that flower photo in a park when I was in a photowalk with my best friend. I was telling her about depth-of-field and its impact on the photograph.
For the record, I owe her big because she was the one who told me that I have to press that tulip button on my camera if I want to take close-up photos. If not for that tip, I probably wouldn't discover the wonderful world of macro photography. It's just but fitting that I share with her some photography tips, just the basic stuff because that's all I know :-)


A for confidence
Some hobbyists have inferiority complex secondary to the use of less expensive gadgets. Oh am I ever so glad I didn't develop that condition.
In fact my 'student's camera is way better than mine, but that didn't bother me at all. I gave her macro tutorials in the lovely parks of London. I enjoyed it so much because it made me realize that I actually know some photography stuff. I owe it to the people who take time to comment on my photos. My lack on insecurity as far as cameras and gears are concerned, also plays a significant part. I don't mind rubbing elbows with DSLR users, in fact the best part of my vacation in the Philippines has always been the photowalks of Pinoy Macro, my favorite Flickr group. I bet not all point and shoot users would feel comfortable being surrounded with guys using heavy cameras and powerful lenses, but I've got confidence in me :-) Most of my favorite shots were taken when I was with those macro masters. Perhaps it's due to the positive energy that I get when I hang out with them. Check out the photos below, you non-believers.


Bonding session


1. in the spotlight, 2. I'm a lady!, 3. Steady, 4. exotic little thing

A for going beyond macro
Whenever I travel, I see to it that butterfly sanctuaries are part of the itinerary. Sometimes I take the beautiful man-made structures for granted. Last summer, however, was different. I finally gave in to the long overdue request of my sister who wanted to see the more photos of the places I visit. So I revisited the buildings of the Finnish capital, took photos of the London street scenes, castles, and other lovely sights. It went well, me thinks. After all, buildings and bridges do not move. It was just a matter of choosing the best angle to shoot from.

Parliament House, Helsinki


1. Buckingham Palace, 2. London bridge, 3. Hampton Court Palace, 4. View from London Eye



Straight A's? That's too good to be true, so to balance things kindly allow me to bash myself as well. I already mentioned one F because I failed to deliver impressive flower macro shots, but it doesn't stop there.

F for post-processing skills
The functions of most stuff in the photoshop tool box remain a mystery to me. I can't even upgrade to newer versions because of my fear that it would again be a struggle to learn the basics. I barely exert effort on learning photoshop because it's time consuming. I would rather take new pictures than sit down and try to make an old one look better.

F for technical knowledge
I've been shooting for 4 years and I’m still confused about ISO. My attention span is exceptionally short for articles that mention numbers. I asked my husband about that many times, but I can't remember much about what he said because I always get lost in his beautiful blue eyes. I just end up saying: to hell with ISO settings, the world will not end if I don't know how to adjust it :-) Moral of the story: don't get tutorials from handsome guys, you won't learn much. Don't say I didn't warn you.

So there you have it. Now you know how this shutterbug spent summer. I tried, I failed, and I've still got more room for improvement. Oh, and I have always been a lady, haha! I had to point that out because one forum member once called me 'sir'.

Bug stalking 101

“The policy of being too cautious is the greatest risk of all.”
~ Jawaharlal Nehru

Stalked!
Camera: Canon Powershot A710IS
Location:Punkaharju, Finland
Date & time: 5.36pm EEST
Exposure: 0.017 sec
Aperture: f/2.8
Focal length: 5.8mm
Modifications: cropping, adjusted brightness & contrast levels

I am keen on learning more about insect photography. I always read tips from some forums and blogs of professional photographers. Sometimes reading about some so-called tips make me wince. I was shocked to find out that some photographers resort to freezing bugs so that they could get 'better' photos of them. I think that is very wrong to sacrifice a bug's precious life for the sake of art. Talk about some human's selfish needs. No wonder so many species are now extinct. In my opinion such form short cutting defeats the real purpose of nature photography. There's nothing like capturing nature's priceless moments.

In case you find nature macrophotography very interesting, then by all means give it a shot. It's not exclusive to people with high-end cameras, if it was then I would not have the thousands of bugs and flower close-ups that are in my hard disk right now. I already have an entry about flower macros. For now I want to share with you how to find and stalk bugs in their natural environment.

One thing that you should do as you walk close to the subject is to adjust your camera settings. Lower the exposure if the light is too harsh. Do you think you need to change the white balance? Do all the necessary adjustments prior to getting up close to the bug.

Spiders
It's quite easy to find spiders. If not in their web, they are usually on leaves or crawling on the ground. These 8-legged creatures are not insects. They don't have wings, but once they sense your presence they will disappear in flash. Why? Because most of them have 8 eyes that's why they can easily detect human presence. Getting good photos of them is a bit difficult, but not impossible. Just don't do anything that will startle them, move very slow but press that shutter like a maniac. If you are very close, make sure that your camera won't accidentally hit the leaf or whatever the spider is on because it's going to blow your chance to take more photos. In a blink of an eye spidey will be somewhere else. Here are two spiders who didn't mind me taking photos of them:

1. Greenie
2. Spider on a stinging nettle

Bumble bees
These ever buzzing winged insects are very restless especially if they are surrounded by plenty of tiny flowers. A bumble bee will just stay on a flower for a few seconds. They are normally too busy to get intimidated by the camera, but you have to press on the shutter as fast as you can. I haven't had the luxury of time to use manual focus on bumble bees. My camera is always on full auto mode whenever I take photos of them. My best shots bumble bees:

1. Coming out of the shell
2. Another day in the office

Honey bees
If bumble bees are always in a hurry to get things done, honey bees are different. They are quite methodical. Hence, easier to photograph. You can follow it's movement from one flower to another and you can take many shots of it because it stays on a spot for a minute or more.

1. And yet another hard worker
2. Behind bars

Hover flies
I have plenty of hover fly photos in my gallery. Based on my experience, they are the easiest winged creatures to take photos of. You can find them on flowers and sometimes they rest on leaves or blades of grass. You can be just inches away from them but they would not care, except if you will shake the leaf or flower. Once you are used to taking photos of bumble bees & honey bees, then you can effortlessly photograph hover flies. You an experiment on many different angles. Hover flies are twice smaller than bumble bees, to capture more of its detail you have to be really close to them.

1. A praying hoverfly?
2. in the middle of something

Butterflies
These lovely creatures are probably everyone's favorite insect. Photographing them is quite challenging. Once you see one on a flower, approach it slowly. Your mere shadow will ruin your chance to take photos of these winged insects. So try your best not to cast your shadow over it. If you startled accidentally, it will fly away. But don't fret, because it will come back to the same spot where you saw it. I've seen it happen several times. Like when I took these photos:

1. A summer remembrance
2. Monday blues

The first time I saw a huge moth was when I was 5 years old. It was orange with beautiful patterns on its wings. The wing span of that moth as about 18-20 centimeters. It was my mom who saw it first. Until now I remember how that moth looked like. Sadly, it was the first and last time that I saw such a beautiful live moth. I saw something that looked almost like it but it was in a butterfly museum in Asia, pinned on a wall. I probably would never see anything like that in this lifetime. So while some species are still alive, let's not waste the opportunity. Photograph them while you can. A few decades from today they may no longer be around, but if you took the risk of getting up close to those critters then you will have beautiful pictures to show to your grandchildren someday.