Thank you MC2!

Last year was a fantastic year to be able to be involved in the MC2 building project promoting and documenting the migration into MC2 through photography. It is all finished now. What a wonderful project and really want to thank two people in particular (amongst many who were involved).

First and foremost, Emma! She is great to work with because she is totally organised, switched on, reasonable and even gave me money for lunch when I forgot to bring my wallet on day. I would work for you any day. Thank you Emma and congratulations!!

Another person to thank is definitely Lachlan the videographer. Getting behind his trusty Cannon 7D is not all he does, he does event / stage / FOH management and is an experienced, senior staff at Manningham's YMCA as well. He is the one that saved my life and my cameras' lives when he gave me the raincoat at Carols by Candlelight when it was bucketing down with rain. Thank you Lach, what would I do without you?

I so much wish I have a sound blimp for shoots like this and for many other shoots I do like dance and concerts as well. But they are so very expensive.. :'( I just have to improvise for the time being.

Nikon 16mm Fisheye Lens

I have been wanting to get a fisheye lens for ages, finally I got the Nikon 16mm fisheye. It is not particularly expansive and I didn't have a problem about not going to be able to get enough use of it. But why did it take so long before I committed my money?

Well, it is a screw driven AF lens, no beautifully fast (and quiet) SWM motor inside. Despite at this focal length fast focusing is not that important, I struggled to think why I would get a non-motorised one if such a technology long existed and very feasible for this lens. Anyway, then I found out even the DX copy of the lens 10.5mm is also AF. My jaw just dropped to the floor. This man is not going to wait no more!

The Nikon 16mm fisheye is the only Nikon fisheye lens in its FX product line. That made the decision simple. The only other contenders were the Sigma offerings in which there are circular fisheye as well as rectangular fisheye. I think the rectangular fisheye is much more useable than the circular one. And the price difference between the Sigma and Nikon rectangular fisheye wasn't so different that made me want to steer away from Nikon.

The result? Love it! In fact I love it so much that for a while I left the wide angle at home and took out only the fisheye for my shoots. The first pic is one I took at a function room. The sides of the shelve is not curved in reality as you see in the picture. Love the effect! :)

New Nikon Improvements on Caps

Did you know that Nikon has replaced the aged rear cap (LF-1) with a new cap design (LF-4). The new rear cap has much larger lens contact surface area thus provides much better seal than the one it replaces. It also has much bigger grooves for better grip. I should have thought of this since Nikon replaced the body cap since the introduction of D3s. It changed from BF-1A to BF-1B.

The new body cap and rear cap have matching grooves. Each also sporting a notch so you can feel where they should be coupled together even if you are working in complete darkness! More over, they (BF-1B + LF-4) form a snug fit unlike the old design (BF-1A + LF-1). Those who have the old ones would understand why I am so excited about this point. It keeps dust from entering the caps and then transferred to the lens. Of course, following Nikon's tradition, the new cap would fit on all Nikkor lens including those with or without rubber gasket. :)

However, there is a catch. I have posted here a long time ago about the front cap for Nikon teleconverters. It is called BF-3A. The old BF-1A didn't fit on the teleconverters. On the other hand, teleconverter's BF-3A does fit on the camera body. Guess what, the new BF-1B doesn't fit the teleconverters either; and teleconverter's BF-3A is a snug fit with the new LF-4 rear cap, which as said goes onto both camera body and teleconverters. So, In my humble opinion, BF-3A still wins!

Anyhow, the new rear cap LF-4 is a very nice improvement. Well done Nikon!

PS Today, (5th Oct, 2011) a remarkable man left us - Steve Jobs. What an amazing human being didn't go with the norm (as Arnold Schwarzenegger said, 'Steve Lived the California Dream') and cheated the lethal pancreatic cancer for 7 years before leaving us, without not taking his pride - Apple - back to the top of its game and revolutionalised the way we communicate and bring technology into our lives. A paper says Jobs lost his battle to cancer. There is nothing further from the truth. Consider his achievements, contributions, inspiration and influence and the prognosis for pancreatic cancer. He achieved much more in his field than what most just dream about. Thank you Steve Jobs and rest in peace.

Macro Photography

Went out with friends to explore the world of macro photography at the Botanical Gardens. A friend of mine (Sam) lent me his Sigma 105mm macro because I didn't have any real macro lens of my own and frankly never did macro photography. Thank you Sam, you are a generous man.

I had previously posted here result of a little macro (micro in Nikon's language) photography experiment where a 85mm prime is coupled with a 50mm prime back to front. The magnification power of that set up is approaching microscopic level (about 2.65cm diagonally in FX format). That is more than 50% more powerful than the 105mm macro lens.


Taking a macro photo of the face of a watch which is rather flat is one thing, taking a macro photo of a flower or insect is a different matter altogether, I very quickly realised.

Trying to shoot such as bees and ants, I found it extremely difficult to focus and maintain that focus handheld. Eventually, I gave up automatic focus and went manual. Using rocking motion of the body to bring the subject into focus. Boy, I felt like I was drunk! Because the depth of field was so narrow, I keep winding the aperture number up until it went all the way to f/22 (hence the dust spots) and background details.

Thanks to another friend, Bronson, a great photographer by the way, for the many tips, I think I will do better next time. Must try to catch a bee in flight!

Anyway, for the time being, this is what I have. Enjoy. :)




PS The first pic is not a macro photo, just one that is shot with a macro lens. I hear macro lens can be good for portrait, etc as well. So here you go. :)

PS Sorry, I didn't bother to remove dust spots from the pics. If you know the name of the insect on the leaf in the second pic, appreciate if you would leave a comment and let me know. Thanks a lot!

Melbourne Spring Fashion Week (MSFW) 2010 - Summary

This year's Melbourne Spring Fashion Week (MSFW 2010) was packed with challenges, new experiences, and favors.

Challenges and New Experiences

Already named the challenge of lighting in the previous post here. Here is another one:

I had an interesting challenge to prepare the slide-show / backdrop behind one of the fashion shows. They were slides for designer labels, labels of accessories and shoes and slides of performers, etc. It was a big challenge because I didn't even know the program before that - Keynote and my mac experience can only qualify at best as beginner level.

Here is one of the simplest slides, with only the design label, no labels for shoes and accessories.


This is the macbook I used to prepare the presentation. Note the run sheet next to it on the left with yellow highlights.


I was so worried about not being able to find the logos (jpegs), mis-spelling the label where I couldn't find the pic. Getting the slides in the wrong order and whether I was putting the right content in the slides.. not all were design labels, it was the backdrop for the whole show.

Anyway, with many prayers, I made it just in time. Five pages of run sheet converted to no less that 60 slides. I checked them and checked them again and again. After, no less that 4 complete check from the beginning to the end, my first Keynote slide-pack was complete! So relieved! :)



During the MSFW 2010 week, I had my laptop with me which meant I could work through the pics as the week went on. Despite being worried about losing the laptop or damaging it, it helped me to get several sets of photos ready just as the client wants them.

Sweet! :)

Favors


Nikon was a key sponsor of MSFW 2010 this year. It was fantastic! I got to know some of the cool people from Nikon professional services. In particular, Julie M. who let me work on my pics during the day in their service centre / media room.

They also lent me a Nikon D3s for the week as well as a copy of the new 70-200mm f/2.8 VR2 lens. I also had the D3x for a while, tried out the 200-400mm as well as... yep... wait... drum roll... the 600mm f/4 VR which is a really big beast! So heavy (over 5kg), so long, I played with it for a little while backstage in the make-up area where I couldn't actually focus on anything (with the minimum focus length of 5m) but boy did I feel powerful with it.. Talk about men with their toys.. :)

I didn't keep the 600mm or even the 200-400mm, just the D3s and the new 70-200mm, yeah, just the D3s and the 700-200mm... ;) Had to reconfigure the camera from scratch which wasn't a trivial task because the camera is really customisable, but I was more than happy to pay that price!

BTW, love the shorter minimum focusing distance of the new 70-200mm and lack of light fall-off at the corners!



Another big favor is from a top notch make-up artist of Napoleon Perdis, Shev Kelly. She kindly gave me two front row reserved seats at one of the shows. Thank you so very much Shev, I owe you one!

The tickets went to a photographer friend of mine, Brett and his brand new girl-friend and did well to impress. ;)

Macro Experiment

I don't have a macro lens... Mmm, not exactly true because I do have a budget Nikon 28-200mm f/3.5-5.6G ED lens, which is a micro lens, thanks to my mother in-law. Here is a little trick a friend taught me. Thank you very much Bronson! It is done by coupling a 85mm f/1.4 with a 50mm f/1.4 together back to front.

A word of caution: The 85mm has a much larger (77mm) filter thread compared with the 50mm, which is 52mm. So, don't just put them together because that will almost guarantee to scratch your quality optics. I got a cheap (52mm to 77mm) step-up ring which make them "click" together like a perfect match made in heaven. Thank God the ring only cost about $2, not bad at all for this interesting experiment.

I was amazed of the speed this was taken. Considering it was done indoors with no special light, just dim energy efficient ceiling fluors.. no natural light (because it was almost 2am in the morning as you can see..). At ISO 3200, the shutter speed was 1/125sec at f/1.4 (on both lens). Focusing distance was no more than 2cm. Handheld and half manual focus because the 50mm is not even attached... FYI, the word CASIO is almost exactly 4mm long. No crop, sharpening or any kind of enhancements.

Hope you like it. Here is another - the back of a phone card. As you can see, the vignetting is very pronounced, but that worked like a treat with the watch which is black!

Enjoy! :D


Update 2010/09/26
I enjoyed this experiment so much that I had to try it again today... Same subject but this time with more thought about light. This is taken at iso 200, 1/100s, f/1.4 (f/2.8). Click on the pic for hi-res version.


I should have cleaned the watch first.. :P

PMA Australia 2010 - Digital Life Expo

Must say I was originally a little skeptical given the name of this year's expo is Digital Life Expo, thought it might be show-casing more of TV, entertainment systems, laptops, media centres, mobiles, i-phone/pad/tune/something.. I hesitated to sign-up. However, prompted by a friend, I decided to go.

Very pleasantly, what I found was an excellent expo and felt (what I thought would be) a consumer focused expo has matured significantly. No doubt there were digital frames, computer equipment, memory card companies, bags like Lowepro, legs, but there were also lots of lighting/studio gear, photography companies, printing companies, educational institution, book publishers and lots of cameras.

Nikon was huge compared to last year. The first picture was taken on the Nikon balcony where free sensor cleaning was given to NPS members and people can try out ultra-long lenses like 600mm, 400mm and 200-400mm. Yummy!

Like other years, there were seminars and I listened to one from NIK software about their editing products. Very impressive. There were several studio set-ups complete with models also which was definitely a hit with the public. Especially with the cheeky Hasseblad stand... There was also a large collection of photos on display. The quality of the pictures were impressive. I was glued at quite a few of them, just admiring and studying their stunning qualities.

Samsung has certainly done well in the last couple of years with highly acclaimed TVs and the world first dual LCDs camera (TL225). Even more note worthy was the NX10 robot, also from Samsung, shown here. They were guarding the Samsung stand when this paparazzi tried to snap a few frames of Samsung's top company secrets.

Within 3ns, they spotted me, their eyes turned blood red and alarms went off via the huge speakers on the side of their heads - BEEEEP! BEEEEP! BEEEEP! They stared me in the eye, assumed battle positions ready to pulverise this enemy!


Lucky for me, with only 2 fingers and a thumb on each hand, my "rock" convincingly defeated their "scissors" in the rock-paper-scissors battle. :D They spent the rest of the afternoon doing tai-chi and dancing to entertain guests...

Very happy to see also ThinkTank making their way into the Australian market. Their products are designed by photographers for photographers. You have got to check them out! Met one of their owners (Kurt Rogers! Yep, Kurt, a photographer and one of the founders of ThinkTank!) who flew in from California for the expo, a very nice guy.

Thank you, thank you, thank you. :)

Multiple Exposures

Today is a very windy day.. even our little indoor flower is swaying in the wind.. Haha, not quite. It is a solar powered flower pot I got my wife from Malaysia originally intended for her office. You can just see the solar cell in the middle.

Taken using the built-in mutliple exposures feature of my camera. It is so much fun! Gain was set to auto.

Haven't played with custom time interval yet.. sure to be the next to explore.

Here is a single exposure. I was so lazy I didn't keep the flower from swaying before getting another frame. Thank God that the shutter speed was fast enough to freeze it. The center of the flower (stamen, pistil, etc) looks so much like the yolk of an egg. :)

It reads (on the base), "Flip Flap is a cute flower bud which moves by light. Please grow your Flip Flap in your mind and bloom your own special flower." LOL


Solar Powered Flip Flap Flower Flowerpot -Sourcingmap.com - Watch a funny movie here

Jewelry from Heaven

Yes, jewelry from heaven - the morning dew.

Just as I was getting out (alright, rushing out) of the house to attend church, I saw this beauty in the backyard.

Beauty? Mmm, it is merely a lonely leaf, less than 2cm in length, that has fulfilled its purpose (to collect and process energy, to shade and protect the plant and much more). It is now lying on the concrete drying up and returning to earth. Yeah, I actually thought it is really beautiful that even for a leaf spent that God would dress it so beautifully with dew. What about us - people, we are precious in God's eyes.

Matthew 6, "...do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?

...Your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well."

What about this second photograph? An unwanted plant thus called a weed (or valueless plant growing wild as the dictionary says) in a pot.

I actually thought the leaves look like wings of butterflies, many butterflies, dressed so beautifully with dew again. A truly beautiful moment captured forever! Hope you enjoy them as much as I do. :)

One more thing, they were taken by my 28-200mm G lens, a humble little lens, without AF-S, given by my mother-in-law. It is a lovely little lens.

My new monopod

Here is my newest toy! A Manfrotto 681B Monopod complete with 234RC head (with quick release plate) and 677SC spiked cup feet. Taken a few test shots with it and already loving it because I already can take about 2 stops faster than before. VR is still required or can be beneficial according to Nikon tech support. It will take some practice to learn to use it properly. http://www.outdooreyes.com/photo5.php3 has some good info about using monopod. Please let me know if you know of another good source. Thank you very much in advance.

I haven't decided if I would wrap the metal surface (top section of course) with (black) heat shrink yet. Yep, you read this correctly. I love heat shrink, it gives good protection for the monopod and it doesn't feel as cold also, esp on those really cold days.

Nikon body cap: BF-3A vs BF-1A

Did you know that the front Nikon teleconverter cap (BF-3A) is not the same as the Nikon body cap (BF-1A). It is deeper! It (BF-3A) can act as the body cap but not vice versa. That is, BF-1A doesn't fit Nikon teleconverter. It is because the front element of Nikon teleconverter (1.4x, 1.7x and 2.0x) protrudes out at the front. The good thing is that the front element is a concave lens hence if you try fitting a BF-1A on a Nikon teleconverter, it won't scratch it. To set the two front caps apart, BF-3A is grey colour while BF-1A is the usual black colour.

From now on, if I need a spare or replace a Nikon body cap, I will go straight to a BF-3A. Be careful, most ebayer only sells BF-1A, the normal black front cap.