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I got a new camera bag yesterday (thanks, Mom and Dad!), and in celebration, decided to go down to a little pond not far from my house. I brought my own 18-55 mm kit lens, and my dad's 100-300 mm L telephoto.
There were some people feeding the ducks that live at that pond, and they said it was fine if I came close enough to get pictures. I think I got a lot of good ones. Ducks are pretty friendly, not exactly camera shy; especially when there's someone with bread in the vicinity.
click to enlarge, or see it on Flickr
Aperture: f/6.3
Shutter Speed: 1/500
ISO: 400
Focal Length: 112 mm
Monopod
The white duck in the center was particularly fierce when it came to defending what he considered "his" bread. This photo looks like he's telling off that mallard for intruding on his space.
Yesterday, I took my camera down to a ravine near my house. Though I only really got one good shot from the trip, I was pretty happy with it. There are some features on my camera that I didn't think I would ever use, but have proven invaluable. This is the first color photo I've ever shot in RAW.
click to enlarge, or see it on Flickr
Aperture: f/5.6
Shutter Speed: 1/200
ISO: 100
Focal Length: 55 mm
Tripod
I think the difference is much more noticeable in monochrome, although, granted, this photo has a pretty limited color palette. This photo is one that is better viewed in full-res, but 1024 pixels wide will certainly be an improvement over 400.
The real cool parts about this photo are Mirror Lockup and Live View. Live View was something I was trying to get away from by upgrading to a DSLR. I thought manual focus could never be as good on a screen with a limited amount of pixels as it is through a real optical viewfinder. Well it turns out in Live View mode, I'm able to zoom into the photo all the way to 100% view, at any area in the frame I want. Because of this, I learned that auto focus does a great job, and manual focus does a better job when the subject isn't moving.
Also, Mirror Lockup has really impressed me. I never thought it would make that much of a difference with camera shake to get the mirror out of the way first. But when you're in really close, or going for maximum sharpness, it makes a world of difference. I was very surprised. Whenever I'm on a tripod and my subject isn't moving (at all... like an inanimate object, not just a person who is holding still), I use both Mirror Lockup and Live View MF now. Together, they work wonders.
While shooting a redux still life a couple of days ago, I found out something that has rocked my photography world. It may sound obvious to you more seasoned photographers out there, but it has completely changed the way I think of this kind of photography:
When you're the guy setting up objects for the shot, you get to be the guy controlling the light, too. All of it.
When I put it to words, it sounds like something that should be followed up with a quick "uh... yeah. Duh." But seriously. I was re-trying the chess piece shot from this post in an attempt to make it better, and it kind of hit me that I wanted to control where the shadows from the chess pieces went. I went and grabbed a portable light that I use in the woodshop and tried a whole bunch of different configurations. It was really fun. Eventually, I decided that this one was the keeper:
click to enlarge, or see it on Flickr
Aperture: f/7.1
Shutter Speed: 1/5
ISO: 100
Focal Length: 33 mm
Tripod
An interesting story about this photo: I tried editing it in the style of my series, Motionless. I absolutely hated what it did to my photo. Something in me strongly objected the to vignette and the tint, to the point that I just couldn't leave it that way. I deleted that version and started over until I got it how I liked it.
So a good day for photography. I learned that controlling the light = win, and that in post-processing, the photo really is the boss.
