More campers outside my house 31 Oct 2010

Was leaving the house when I saw this critter taking a rest on a large leaf of my potted plant aka "铁树".

It didn't take me long to set up my camera and flash with my DIY diffuser and started snapping.

The results of my DIY diffuser was very satisfactory!

This could arguably be one of the better macro shoots I had taken (with the lighting that I am happy with).

Click each picture to enlarge and scrutinize the shot!

This one was slightly out of focus as I was starting to warm up

Better focus in this shot

Another shot taken parallel to the focal plane of the insect's body

A failed top view shot with focusing off [ focus was on wings instead of eyes ]

A first satisfactory shot

This shot showed off the compound eye a little bit
as the compound eyes reflected the light from the flash

Another shot I was happy with

Last shot of the night

If you like the effect of my DIY diffuser, do send me an email to find out more!

Wanna know the list of current camera gear I am using?

Safe shutter speed for handheld photography

A good tip I read from another photography related blog.

Safe shutter speed for handheld photography..

To ensure that the picture is not affected by handshake, the photographer should set the shutter speed to 1/(2xN) where N is the focal length of the lens.

eg. Using a 55-250mm focal length zoom lens at its maximum 250mm, the maximum recommended shutter speed should be 1/(2x250) = 1/500 s.

This rule applies regardless of aperture of lens. Of course, there'd be cases where the metering will say that this picture will be underexposed if the environment is of low-lighting. That'd probably mean you'd not be able to use the camera in the handheld manner and it'd be time to bring out the tripod.

Image stabilization built into the lens mechanism may help a little. ( 1-2 stops above the tolerance shutter limit as advised above ) But please do not attempt to shoot anything with a shutter speed of more than 2 seconds using handheld DSLR. IS(Canon) or VR(Nikon) or OS(Sigma) or VC(Tamron) doesn't mean it's super duper no shake.

For subjects that are inanimate, tripod with long exposure may get the desired picture. But for subjects that can and will move, it'd be preferable to use a flash instead. However, using a flash have its limitation of distance.

Thus under low light conditions, if subject is not of near distance and constantly in motion, it might be better to return another time where there are more daylight to shoot the subject again.

Wanna know the list of current camera gear I am using?

Sunny 16 aperture, shutter, ISO guide

Good guide to sunny day aperture settings from Wikipedia.



The basic guide to photography exposure is very simple. If you have a bright, sunny day, then use f-stop 16 for your camera lens aperture. The shutter speed should then be set to the equivalent of your ISO film speed – or the next number over. For example, if you are using an ISO film speed of 100, your shutter speed should be set to 1/125. More than often, your shutter speed number will be higher than the ISO film speed, but it is much easier to remember that film speed equals shutter speed.

----- See the rest of the photos here -----

Wanna know the list of current camera gear I am using?