Ray

Technical: Canon G11, 1/100 sec, f4, focal length 13

The subtle blue color cast is easily fixed in Photoshop. That is just part of the consideration in this image. My friend Farid was prodding it along so I would have an action shot. So here I am sort of swimming and panning on the fly. Hey, it worked. Your subjects really don’t pose for you as much as you’d like. So I shot. The delay in shutter and exposure can be annoying. There’s no motor drive here. It does make you more deliberate in pressing the shutter.

Top Down View

Technical: Canon G11, 1/160 sec, f4.5, focal length 30.5

Hmm…. The settings are the same as the previous image. I don’t much bother with manual. It’s tough underwater to juggle the settings. Shooting fish is a challenge. I guess I like a side view to get the shape of the fish and one eye in focus. Traditional, catalog, fish book – plain vanilla image, and it’s kind of boring. I’m still just trying to get the hang of water, and the camera housing. So bear with me. Some fish are bottom swimming. Try to get a side view of this one, that’s tough. It’s better if they aren’t moving. Curiously my dive instructor doesn’t seem interested too much in shooting fish. And to me, shooting coral is like taking pictures of trees. It’s not too hard to shoot something that can’t move.

Red Coral

Technical: Canon G11, 1/160 sec, f4.5, focal length 30.5

The trick here is to recognize that this coral is red. I have images with flash in which the red is brilliant neon. The lighting here was custom white balance and natural, no flash. The color is definitely different than using flash. It’s a matter of taste. I tend to like the more brilliant color, not this image. But then it’s a matter of reality, poetry or prose.

Chipmunk

Technical: Nikon D90, 1/125 sec, f5.6, focal length 170

Kevin has a thing about chipmunks. He hates them. It’s good he doesn’t have a gun. But Susan shot this one. The upper leaves are overexposed. It’s because there is too much dynamic range in the light. To make it simpler, the upper background is too bright. You can compensate in the camera. Usually the meter will under expose the chipmunk. In order to get everything to look naturally unnatural, you would shoot two images exposing for the light and dark. Or, you could shoot raw and manipulate in Photoshop. I’m less inclined to overthink the image. If you’ll notice the chipmunk is pretty dead center in the image. It tends to get that way when you don’t take time to compose because the critter will only be there a split second.

Motion Freeze Hi Speed Sync

Technical: Canon EOS, 1/5000 sec, f2.8, focal length 60

I thought that David did a splendid job with the other bee (see August 22). I like this shot better. It it a harder shot to obtain because the focusing is critical. See the wings. The high shutter speed captures the wings in mid beat. Depth of field is narrow. Now for the hard part, get this shot head on with the compound eyes in focus. Hey, I’d be just tickled to have this shot or the other. Either way it was a great technical accomplishment. David got his desired effect in that he wanted the wings to be in focus and stopped by the flash.

London Time Lapse

Technical: Canon EOS 7D, 1.3 sec, f14, focal length 50mm

David will have to explain how he pulled off this image. The exposure is 1.3 seconds. It looks like a double exposure but the metadata says it was all done in one exposure in the camera. As an engineer, David has produced some very imaginative shots from a technical viewpoint. This is one shot that I admire and will wait till he explains the process. You really got me on this one. (see reply, David explains)

HDR & Normal

David shot this with a tripod and presents two exposures of the scene. I guess there is more detail in the normal image. I suppose that is better. There is more mood in the HDR. It’s a matter of taste. Shooting RAW also gives you options. It’s a problem to shoot indoors and aim at the outdoors. The window light will overwhelm the interior lights. And then there is the issue of mixed color balance in daylight and incandescent. You could use fill flash indoors to balance the light also. It’s nice to have options. Too many choices and I just go ahead and shoot. You can peek (chimp) at the LCD and then adjust. And, don’t miss the fact that a tripod was used to get these image exposures and registration.

Cannot Freeze Motion

Technical: Canon EOS 7D, 1/8000 sec, f2.8, focal length 60

David will tell you how he pulled off this shot. I’m just admiring it myself. It’s dammed hard to do this! So what we learn is that David has shown that you don’t stop the motion of bee’s wings at 1/8000 sec. I believe that flash is even shorter. Try that next time. Then there was Harold Edgerton at MIT who used high speed flash to show a bullet splitting a playing card on edge. For me without that kind of sophisticated set up, I am perfectly happy that you caught this shot. Really, good!

Jump

Technical: Canon G11, 1/800 sec, f4, focal length 6.1

Nice shot! And it’s even harder with the Canon because of the slight delay in the shutter. You’re just as apt to get the timing wrong as to get the mid-air jump. Great fun. If you recall Susan’s picture a few days back, she got her granddaughter turned away from the camera. It’s a look. I prefer face forward. Ha! It makes me smile just to see the happiness.

Timing

Technical: Nikon D90, 1/200 sec, f16, focal length 82

Susan was concerned about the background here as it pertains to distracting from the subjects. You really don’t have a choice. So the image is what it is. But if you are thinking about this as you shoot, you might wait another second for the kids to move to the left a bit more. And, no fill flash. You’re too far away. Zoom in more. It will take out the background. Or crop to a panoramic and eliminate the top and bottom distractions. A smaller f stop … f4 or so would decrease the depth of field and make the background an unfocused pattern. There are lots of tricks you can try. But keep in mind that you’re there to see the game and enjoy. Lisa always said that my kids would not recognize me without a camera to my eye. Come to think of it, you said it too.

Lastly, but most important, enjoy yourself. You are not shooting for Sports Illustrated. So have a good time and fire away and make mistakes. My comments are to help. But don’t get too cerebral and not have fun yourself.