A talented photographer

This is a self portrait of a photographer who frequents a forum I also frequent, found here.
I personally think he is incredibly talented. He has this eye for good stuff, stuff I like. And he apparently does it all with a Nikon D70s and 'just' a kitlens 18-70mm DX Nikkor. Goes to show how you do not need heavy and expensive equipment to make truly great shots.

I really suggest you check out his photo portfolio; called Edwin Bol Photography.

It is a shame he doesn't allow for his pictures to be downloaded. Understandable, but I personally wouldn't see any harm in letting people download pictures with the longest side 800px orso. Anyway, if he would allow it, half his portfolio would be downloaded into my Photo-Favorites folder on my computer.

Kudos to him!

I'm adding him to my links list to the right. Check it out!

Nice composition on my cat

MyCat
Originally uploaded by Praetorianator.

Isn't this a wonderful picture of my cat?

Sure, I know what you are thinking; 'why the hell would his cat be of any interest to me?'
Well, most likely, she's not of any interest to you.

But I do wanted to share this pic because I generally find it quite difficult to make a photograph of something so 'moving'. Moving targets aren't my strong points, with photography that is.

I do like this picture though, nice composition, quite sharp and nice lighting.
Yes, I know, the cats back is overblown. That's like the most terrible sin in photography. But I still like the damn picture. Overblown or not, the shadowy face makes up for it.
I especially like the blurry background.
And the fact, and I probably shouldn't say this for the people who haven't noticed yet, that the background is terribly slanted, doesn't even really bother me in this photograph.

All in all, this is one of the only pictures of my cat that came out well.

Orange Shell

Orange Shell
Originally uploaded by Praetorianator.

Can somebody explain the appeal of this picture over any of my other pictures? Somehow this one is more popular than others.

I know my first few photo's weren't exactly 'ground-breaking' stuff [/sarcasm], and my later photo's still aren't, but I'd like to think I've improved a bit.

However, sometimes the best photo's are made 'in the heat of the moment'.

This picture was taken just after I finished eating my orange, and I noticed I had some really regular orange shell left overs. Maybe some of you always have really regular orange shell leftovers, but with me it usually turns messy.
It usually involves madly chopping and pounding away at the orange, because the damn thing (after I made several surgical incisions in the shell) just breaks apart. Pieces of actual orange 'stick' to the shell, so orange juice squirts out, right into your eye. After which you declare war on the fruit, and try to turn it into orange soup, with the help of a blender. So after I got my final revenge on the orange, I get another one and try again.

Aaaanyway. These shells came out relatively untouched, which was in and by itself quite a feat, and I was so ecstatic by it, I decided to photograph it. Luckely for me, right at that moment, there was an intense beam of sunlight directed into my room. I'm telling you, it was God's work, those untouched shells. This was evidenced by the intense sunlight that suddenly was.
So I planted the shells on a white surface and shot my photograph.

Personally, I think it came out 'nice'. Nothing in particular though, and especially compared with some pictures which can be found on Flickr, I am almost ashamed I didn't take more time to make it a better shot.

Preperation or not. It is still a relatively popular shot, and even received a 9 out of 10!

Well, that's all there is about this photograph.

I do still have something to say about a possible lightbox I am going to construct. A lightbox will especially come in handy to make shots as the one above better, more professional. I'd like to construct something much like the one featured on DIYphotography.net, only better.
I was thinking about conditions it needs to meet. The conditions I could think of were the following;

- It has to have an interchangable backdrop (blue,white,red etc)
- It can be taken apart, as to take as little space as possible
- It has to be sturdy. Probably constructed of wood or metal.
- It has to be about 50x50x50cm in dimensions.

I think I can come up with a solution to satisfy those demands. I've looked around on the internet for other people who constructed a light box. While I liked some ideas, I want to adapt it to my own situation, and to what I want, so I'll propbably design something myself.

Now I am finished.

Greetz!

Chrono

Chrono
Originally uploaded by Praetorianator.

This was really the first photograph I took with my new 60mm Micro-Nikkor I wrote about in my previous post.
It is a picture of my brothers Festina watch. I like the overall colour it has, and I also noticed that the macro-lens shows just about everything.
Also, the Depth-Of-Field of my macro-lens is amazing! Depending on your f-number, it can be very small, really just a DOF of 1mm or less, to about a few centimeters to very large.

Since in the macrofunction, the lens' Autofocus function does not work properly, it ghosts alot, you have to focus manually. Now, this wouldn't pose a problem if it weren't for the incredible sharpness this lens produces. Even if you are just a tiny tiny bit off with focusing it's going to show on the photo. Very difficult. It can be your enemy, but it also can be your greatest friend.
I have discovered that, combined with a very small DOF, you can really pick a subject out of everything inside the frame. Really useful.

Oh, did I already mention the Bokeh the lens produced is superb? Well, it is. Really silky. Even moreso compared with my 18-70mm lens.

Cheers!

My new 60mm Micro-Nikkor

I have just bought a new lens for my Nikon D80, so I now have two lenses;

- 18-70mm DX Nikkor (kit-lens which came with my D80)
- 60mm Micro-Nikkor

I bought it for a hefty sum of 450 euro's, but I can tell you; it was well worth it!

It is a Micro-Nikkor, which is Nikons way of saying it is a Macro lens. It has a focal distance of 60mm, and on my Nikon D80 (DSLR) counting in the magnification factor of 1,5x that would become equal to a 90mm on a 35mm body.
So by nature, this lens is perfect for portraits. I haven't tried that yet though.

What I have tried already is it's 1:1 reproduction capabilities (macro function). And I must say, macro photography is every bit as much fun as everyone says it is!
It just opens up a whole new world of possible things to photograph.

And so, after I had just bought it, I went berserk, photographing just about everything. But soon I realised that, although photographing everything small is quite fun, you can't just walk up to something and take a picture. Macro photography needs just as much preperation as any other photograph, or maybe even more. This is evident in much of my early pictures on Flickr. Looking back at them, I should've paid more attention to composition, background and the technical part of photography.

So now I have learned that essential lesson, it is my intention to take my photography of small things a little slower next time :D. Not the hasty "Ow this is cool! *click*....ow, but look at this! *click*..and that! *click*". That method does not produce the best photographs.

One of the things I think I need to make my macro-photography more succesfull is a so-called 'light-box'. Think of it as a box of 50x50x50cm, covered in white paper or cloth on the inside, and a white paper backdrop on the inner back of the box. Then putting some light bulbs over the box and voila; you have yourself a completely white enviroment.

I think I will construct one later on.

Anyway, I am really happy with my new 60mm Micro-Nikkor lens, and hopefully continu to use it for a long long time.

Cheers,

Coen