Alpha Photography Blog

When you’re on holidays and there’s no one around to take a photo of you to prove you were actually there, then the only choice is to take a self portrait. I’ve been doing these for years as I often seem to be travelling on my own.

It can be a bit hit and miss, but in the current days of digital it’s so much easier.  If you don’t have the background that you want, or you are out of focus, then you can just re-adjust and take the photo again.

The key is, the wider the angle of the lens, the more background you’ll get.   For example, in this first photo, I’m using the GoPro Hero 3, which is super-wide angle:

In this next photo, I’m using my Canon 5d, with a 24-105mm lens.  Needless to say, this photo was taken at the 24mm end of the spectrum:

There’s also less distortion the less wide the focal length.  However, you wouldn’t be able to get a photo like this otherwise:

It adds a whole different dimension to your happy snaps!  Who said perfect composition was the only way to go?

With a camera like the GoPro, there is no depth of field - everything is in focus, which suits its purposes:

Whereas, with a ‘fancier’ camera, like the 5d, unless you set all the aperture settings up front, instead you’ll get what the auto function on the camera sets for you, which you wouldn’t have done if you were actually behind the camera, instead of in front of it:

Still, it’s better to get some photos of you while travelling, rather than just pretty landscape photos with no people in it!

Recently my Canon 100-400mm f4.5-5.6L lens arrived, and I’ve very much been looking forward to having a play with it!  Before I chose this lens I did some research and was eager to check out the performance of this lens for myself, compared to the reviews I had read.

The camera I’m using with it is the Canon 5d Mark 2, which I’ve been using now for just over 2 years, and I’m very happy with.

The main upside of this lens is that it’s very sharp when fully extended, and the auto focus is fast.  The reviews I’d read said that the lens wasn’t all that sharp, which with the naked eye, I couldn’t see (you can check out some photos below for yourself).  One of the things I did find odd though was that the zoom doesn’t extend by turning, like other telephoto zoom lenses.  This lens you push/pull, and there’s a ’smooth’ and ‘tight’ ring which helps keep the lens from moving on its own.  Once I’m more used to this it will be fine.

Also, do some arm weight bearing exercises before taking this lens on an extended trip - it’s pretty heavy and will definitely give your biceps a work out!

Here are some comparative photos of the same subject, with all the settings at ISO1600, f4.5, and me standing in exactly the same position:

At 100mm:

at 200mm:

At 300mm:

And at 400mm:

This was natural side lighting, and I had to manually over expose by 1 point, which I have to say I tend to do a lot with Canon lenses anyway, but doing this isn’t a big issue, and it gets you the right exposure.

Overall I’m happy with my initial testing of this lens, and look forward to taking with me on my next trip in a few weeks and giving it a real workout!

Having quite a bit of travel on this year I’ve decided it’s finally time to buy a telephoto zoom lens.  I love getting people and places photos without having to get too close, and I also will be doing some wildlife travelling, so I want to get “up close and personal” with the animals, without having to make friends with a lion…

I am a Canon girl, so as far as I’m concerned there are only three choices:

1. EF - 28-200 F2.8L USM

2. EF 28-300mm f3.5 -5.6L IS USM

3. EF 100-400mm F4.5-5.6L IS USM

Having spent hours researching the performance and technical aspects of each lens, and looking at photos taken with each lens, the decision ended up coming down to what lenses I currently have (that is, what focal length gaps I need to fill), and what ultimate zoom length I really need for the type of subjects I want to photograph.

Considering I’m travelling to Africa and will most likely be going to see the gorillas in Rwanda/Uganda, I need a lens that will get me really close, without having to actually sit next to the gorillas.

So, while I’d have loved to get the 28-200mm lens, with it’s f2.8, I have decided to go for the 100-400mm.

Once it arrives and I’ve had a play, I’ll post some photos of the results!

Photography and travel are a match made in heaven.  So, when travelling, it’s important to make sure you take the right back with you, to carry that important piece of equipment!

I’m planning a trip to Phuket and keeping in mind that I’ll be hiring a scooter to see the island, I had two choices in terms of style - a sling bag and a backpack. No being the most experienced on a scooter, I wanted a bag that I could strap on and not worry about whether or not it would move around, so I decided on a backpack.

The main issue I have with a backpack however, is that it’s relatively easy to get into and for “sticky fingers” to take things out of, without my noticing.  This is where Lowepro have come up with a winner - the Flipside backpack.

I already have a Flipside 500, which is a very large backpack, that also has a pocket for other non-photographic things.  That was going to be too big and cumbersome for this trip, so I opted for the Flipside 200:

This is a much slimmer bag and can still hold my Canon 5D, 1 to 2 other lenses, and a small flash.

I now have quite a collection of camera bags, as I’ve needed different kinds of bags, for different kids of travel, and over the years the styles and “technology” in bags has vastly improved.

For another trip to Africa at the end of the year I now have to choose a telephoto lens.  More on that in my next post!

Recently my Dad asked me to add his sister into a photograph of him with his three brothers.  There were no adult photographs of all five of them, and now two of his brothers have since passed away, so there never will be a photo that can capture them altogether.

Here is the original photo I had to work with:

The first problem I encountered was finding a suitable photograph of my aunt to actually include with this photo.  My family is not big on taking photos, and even so, prior to the age of digital photography, it’s difficult to get hold of a decent hard copy that can be scanned in.

So, the only photo I had of my aunt was one that I had taken at a family event a few years ago.  Now, the above photo was taken about 20 years ago, so my aunt is not of the right age to match her brothers, and as you will see, she is smiling.  The photo above was taken  at hospital when my oldest uncle was dying of prostate cancer, so not exactly a happy occasion…

The other issue I encountered was taking a clear, digital photo, and extracting a person from it and inserting that person into an old hard copy photo that was highly pixelated and blurry.  Here is the result:

Granted, it isn’t completely seamless and you can pretty much tell straight away that my aunt wasn’t part of the original photograph.  However, it’s much closer than it looked when I first copied her in there.

To start with, I  used Photoshop’s Polygonal Lasso Tool to capture the outline of my aunt, and then use the Move Tool to place her onto the original photograph.  I then resized her to make sure she was the right size for the photograph (I basically made sure her head was about the same size as my father’s head - the man I placed her next to, which was the only real available space in the photo for her).

I then had to make her look less “new” - so I added some  Fragment Pixelation and desaturated her.

I couldn’t do much about the age and the smile, but at least now my Dad has a photo of himself with all of his siblings.

I just had to share something really cute - and that’s a story of how my 10 year old miniature poodle went on her first sailing adventure recently.  Up until now, she has had her four legs planted very firmly on the ground, and every time I take her to the beach she spends most of her time sitting as close to the top of my shoulder as possible.  I think it’s the moving tide that has her baffled and anxious.

On this particular trip it was for 3 days and the ride on the way to our destination was a little bumpy, so she went into the hull and stayed there until we anchored.

This is one pampered pooch - if she wasn’t on deck snuggling up to me:

She was luxuriating on the bean bag - having it all to herself:

It really is a tough life for a dog, you have to put up with love, affection, being given all your meals, being taken on sailing adventures, and then having to put up with beautiful beaches to explore…

Pets are always great subjects - especially when they’re used to you photographing them.  It almost seems as though they pose for you!

The most difficult photographic subjects are, generally, children and animals.  It is definitely all about timing, and having a very fast “trigger finger” on that shutter button.  My usual animal photographic subject is my dog, and she is so used to being photographed by now that she often just lies there and lets me take the photo, so it isn’t too much of a challenge.

An animal in the wild - that’s another story.  On a recent sailing trip, we managed to “befriend” a bird that kept following us, and landing right next to the boat.  He (or she) kept diving under the boat, and would then fly to where we’d moved on to and then do the diving routine again.  This went on for about 6 or 7 times, which gave me enough time to get my camera out (I was being very careful not to get my Canon 5d wet, so often kept it ‘under wraps’), so I could take some photos.  Below is the progressive result.

Photo of the bird on the inbound approach, from a distance:

Now, as the bird ‘navigates’ its way closer to get to the side of the boat, without the wind blowing it right onto the boat’s deck (which it nearly did on a couple of occasions!):

Now for touch down!

It was a great experience, having a real wild photographic encounter with nature!  Also on this trip I saw dolphins and turtles, but they were too fast, so no photos :-(  Just goes to show photography is often about being in the right place, at the right time, with the right equipment, and the trigger finger at the ready!

Well, Christmas is over again for another year, and as usual I went out to photograph the neighbourhood house lights.  It’s a tradition now that I do every year and it amazes me how much effort (and expense) families go to!

This year nearly an entire street was lit up - quite a spectacle!

Still, my favourite is this place - they sychronise lights to music every 15 minutes, and the show is great - people come from all over to see it:

This next place was a sea of fairy lights.  I hand held my Canon 5d at 6400 ISO, with a 16-35mm F2.8 L series lens (I’m seriously in love with this lens):

This place was nearly next door, and I lowered the shutter speed, so the lights are a little more blown out.  Gives it a different perspective:

It was so much fun.  It’s not really possible to use a tripod anymore, as there are too many people, and I really didn’t want to trip over someone’s child or grandmother…

In keeping with the theme of the last blog post (about breaking photography rules of composition) - here is another example, where I’ve broken another rule.  This time about keeping the horizon level:

In this photo I wanted to show the jellyfish, the movement of the boat, and the view of land, which in this case was a port.  It just wouldn’t be as interesting or eye catching a photograph if the horizon was completely level.  The reason I ended up with such a crocked angle was because I wanted to show as much of the iridescent blue jellyfish as possible, as there were so many in the water!

Here is another view:

In the above case it shows what would ordinarily be quite an uninteresting subject and adds a different dimension to it.  There aren’t as many jellyfish, but it’s still has an interesting element to it, which the photograph wouldn’t have if the horizon were straight.

So, try breaking this rule also - it will make for some interesting effects.  I do warn you though - it’s not for every subject.  It can end up making some subjects look very odd - and not in a good way.  Still, have fun with it!

Basic photography composition rules will tell you to never photograph INTO the sun - it’s a big no no!  However, look what happens when you do:

In this particular instance, I wanted to lead the eye up the mast of the sailing boat and into the sun, as it was around the middle of the day and the sky was a perfect blue, and the wind was blowing perfectly too.  So much perfection to balance the “imperfection” of photographing straight into the sun.

Now, one thing I did do was make sure the lens (Canon EF-S F4L 24-105mm) had a circular polarising filter on it, which helped balance the image.

You can also combine being compliant with a rule of Composition - the Rule of Thirds.  In this image I’m still photographing into the sun, but the sun is off to the side, to help balance the shot, and to show the real power of the filter - see how the sky is a deeper blue in this photo?

This even works with people.  During a wedding once I photographed the bride and groom with the sun right behind them as they kissed, and I used fill flash to make sure they weren’t in silhouette - it was a brilliant effect!

So, have a try and breaking this rule…