Spring time in Sweden

I just love using my Canon Macro 100mm f. 2.8 lens for photographing flowers and vegetables. It is a bit of a challenge doing it outdoors since any wind gust will change your focus and make your target out of focus. Which is why its easier to do great macro photography inside a studio where you control all the elements the light and the positioning of the flower etc. But its always nice with a challenge right? I have taken all these photographs outdoors in Sweden on my recent trip there. I arrived just when the flowers were starting to bloom so I captured several in their different blooming stages which I thought was great fun.

Enjoy!

Herb Garden at a Hotel.

Hi there,

Hope you are all well. I have this week busied myself with lots of different things such as editing images that I took in Sweden on my last trip, I still have loads to do before I am finished, as well as editing images that I have taken this week. I have had several different motifs that I have taken photographs of.  Peaches, Champagne bottle for a magazine as well as an Herb Garden at a hotel. It is really nice because what they do is they have this lovely looking herb garden where guests can sit and relax in the shade of the dens trees, it looks splendid together with their overall hotel landscaping as well as they use these organic growing herbs in the hotel cocking! I was walking around between the rows of lovely growing basil, rosemary, dill, lemon trees and olive trees it is mesmerising to feel and breath in all the different scents. Very relaxing you really envy the guests and want to be one of them, to be able to just sit and relax for a bit. I might come back and do just that if I ever get the time. 
I think it is a splendid idea for a hotel to have access to their own herb garden, no need to stress over deliveries that are not arriving on time since you have it all outside in your own garden. They even play nice soft music in the garden for the plants not for you as a guest even though I am sure that you can sit and take part of the tunes whilst reading your book. They play the music for the plants to make them grow better they have the speakers positioned so that they are towards the herbs they play twice a day different kinds of tunes to make sure that the herbs get exactly what they want. 
I have photographed other hotels in Sharm el Sheikh that have taken the same idea of having their own fresh grown herbs at their doorstep but they have taken it one step further they also have vegetables such as tomatoes, corn, pumpkin etc. that they can easily grow here in Egypt in their gardens solemnly for use in their cocking. I don't think I saw any speakers in their garden though...

Swedish Wedding!

Back from a few weeks break.

Well it wasn’t only a break I was of course busy using my camera as well! You can’t really go far without it if you are an avid photographer as I am.

I have now started to blog for a Swedish newspaper in Swedish so for all my fans that can read Swedish please take a look at this link. I am posting almost everyday. If you don’t know how to read Swedish maybe you can try Google’s free language translator will probably be a bit hilarious at times ;-) the translation that is maybe not my writing… ha ha. Hopefully my writing will be  a bit more witty as well. It’s a different kind of blog from this one so don’t be shy take a peek.

http://bblat.se/bloggar/fotobloggen

Whilst in Sweden I was assisting at a Swedish Wedding in Västerås, which was great fun. I was helping out Photographer Henrik Sunvisson that does loads of weddings in the Västerås area of Sweden. You can see his work through this link he does some remarkable portraits. http://www.henkasfoto.blogg.se/ andhttp://www.uppdragmedia.se/

I recommend that even if you are an established photographer to go out and help/assist or be the second shooter with another photographer once in a while you will have great fun for one thing and you always learn something, you will both act differently for the same shot for sure.

Birdies everywhere on the Golf Course!

If you feel that you are being watched whilst teeing off that might very well be the case and by no other than the Residence Merlin Falcon. He is silently watching over their first tee box and their chipping practice area. He blends in very well with the palm trees natural colours so it can be hard to get a glimpse of him at times. But once you know where to look then you will be able to see him every day. I usually go to see him with my camera in the afternoons around four pm. The temperature is nicer so I can sit and watch him or if he is away wait for him to come back because he always does. The thing with being a twitcher which I am by no means you need to be patient, and that is not really me but since he is so predictable its easy.

Merlin Falcon also known as Pigeon Hawk

If you are golfing you will first run into the Merlin Falcon then at hole 3 you will be greeted by an array of different kinds of birds. Such as the very bright coloured Shining Blue Kingfisher, Gray Heron, Snowy Egret, White Heron and Yellow Wagtail among many other kinds of birds that feed around the lake.

This bird i am not totally sure which kind it is but a kind of sand piper is my guess. But please tell me if you know.

It was a couple that was by the lake, they did not like it when I got to close. They never flew far only across the lake. So I kept on going after them ;-) So there we were going back and forth it was great practice for taking images of a flying bird which is not as easy as it might look. It definitively takes practice. I admire the photographers that takes wild life images for a living both their patience and their skill.

Yellow Wagtail.

Grey Heron.

Snowy Egret.

Shining Blue Kingfisher. 

You will also be able to see some of them again whilst playing the back nine. The Majestic Eagle is very well camouflaged by the Sinai Mountains. The Eagle is just like the Merlin Falcon very predictable once you have spotted him you know where to look the next time you pass by the same location. When I am out to photograph the birds on the golf course I usually start with the Eagle and end my photography session with the Falcon but that is just me. These are just to mention a few of all the birds that you will be able to see while enjoying your golf game in the sun in Egypt.

Cattle Egret.

The other day I got a phone call saying that there was a 1.5meter tall Great White pelican on the golf course. I rushed down with my photography gear in the hope that the bird would stay till I arrived so that I would be able to take a few snaps of it. S Murphy’s Law has it of course it was nowhere in sight when I arrived. I did speak to a few guests that had seen it and taken some images of it. They said it was just magnificent when if came flying in over them and I can imagine that since it was so big in size. Unfortunately I have still not seen it myself so therefore have no pictures to show you of it yet. Hopefully one day…

Eagle.

 Eagle.

One thing that I discovered while taking photographs of wild birds is that my 70-200mm IS 2.8f is not enough I wish I had a 300mm or a 400mm lens. At least when trying to get a good photograph of the Eagle when he is sitting up on the mountain. With the birds on hole 3 and the Falcon you can get quite close to them before they fly off. You should have seen me one day when I literally followed the poor falcon all the way around the clubhouse with my camera. But he still comes back for more! Both the Falcon and the Eagle was here last year as well around July I believe it was if I remember correctly and they hung around the same places/trees so I guess they are very territorial. 

Dust Aid Wand!

One of my pet hates is dust on my sensor! I started this morning with looking at my images from yesterday afternoon and realised very quickly that I had a few dust specs on the sensor. Not a good start to the morning. But then again better to see it sooner rather than later. So I started to get my gear ready for a sensor cleaning. When you are shooting in digital cleaning your sensor is something that unfortunately becomes part of what you have to do. No matter how careful you are to not get dust on your sensor you will. Especially if you at all change between lenses while shooting. I always try not to change my lens outdoors if possible. When I am out on excursions I always try to trek back to the car to change my lens if possible.

It took me about an hour to clean the sensor today. Once I got rid of the original dust I found new dust in other places. Just great!

When I clean my sensor I use the Dust Aid Cleaning Wand together with their Platinum Strips and I swear by it. It is the one thing that I have tried that works very well for me. I have tried other sensor cleaning products as well but this one is what I like the best and it gets the job done for me. I am by no means sponsored by them…. I wish so if anyone that works for Dust Aid reads this please feel free to contact me I do not mind at all. ;-)

The way I do it is I have an image where I see the dust I look at that image to know where on the sensor the dust is so I know where to focus my attention when cleaning it. I then use the Dust Aid Wand on the sensor I feel its very easy to use and I am not afraid that I will hurt my sensor. But if you are nervous about cleaning your own camera sensor by No means do it yourself go to a professional since it can be very nerve wrecking and of course very expensive if anything goes wrong!

As I mentioned it took me just over an hour today to get mine clean this is mostly due to that I do not have a loupe. Using one of them I believe would have quickened the process a lot.

I was looking at one last time I was in London but thought they were a bit too expensive…. Since you don’t use it so often but I have today realised that it is worth the investment in the long run. I could have done a lot of other work in this hour that it took me to clean my sensor. So a loupe is up on my purchase list again!

Since I did not have a loupe I had to take a test shot with the camera every time I had cleaned the sensor and then download it to the computer to check the results. I did this several times in all I took 78 test images.  So you can understand how tedious this process can be without a loupe.

Something that helps me along with my process to make it more enjoyable is listening to some great tunes while you are doing the tedious work.
A good link I found:

http://www.cleaningdigitalcameras.com/inspecting.html

But before you start you might want to rule out that it is not your lens that is dirty.

I just want to say I take no responsibility at all for anyone trying to clean his or her own camera sensor. I just wanted to share with you how I do it.

Happy shooting everyone!

Helen

It's all about timing!

It's all about timing!

It is Street Festival time! It is great fun both for taking photographs and of course just to enjoy the entertainment in the nice outdoor temperatures.

I went last Friday at 21.00 and stayed for a few different dance shows. It starts however at 20.00 so you can go earlier than I did and if you want to take photographs that might be a good idea so that you can scout out a good vantage point for you and maybe also get up close. I had my 70-200mm L IS f2.8 on my camera so I could stand a bit further away and still get good close up shots…. I had chosen that lens for the evening because of the f2.8. Now in hindsight and already while I was there I realised that my 24-105mm IS f4 might have been a better choice due to me not being able to get a good vantage point from far enough away so I ended up feeling that I was too close to the dancers. Hence the poor belly dancer below looks like she had both her arms chopped off. I was shooting through two very tall men so its their shoulders and heads that are blocking. Those of you that know me know that I am quite tall myself so you can imagine how tall these guys were. You can however get some quite unique shots using other people as props. So don't disregard that. It is always easier using natural props in a shoot than bringing your own along. Less for you to carry as well.

I was shooting only using the stage lighting, which at times did not work so well here because the dancers were not at all times in the spot light making them very dark. The stage light did not seam to move at all with any of the dancers, which was a shame. I had brought my flashes with me but did not want to use them since using a flash on evening events like these often takes away the ambient light that the stage light are creating as well as washing away the colures and that is not very flattering for the dancers.

How to get that amazing shot!

A few steps that you can follow to help you along the way, but as always practice makes perfect!

When taking images of someone that are moving its all about timing! After you have watched the dancers a little bit you might be able to predict a little bit where they are going next and that pre planning helps you with taking a great photograph. Because its all about being in the right place at the right time. 

If you for instance start pressing the shutter when the dancer is looking at you, you will most likely every time get the back of her head. Since by the time that you have pressed the shutter she has already moved. So try to see where she is going before she does so that you can pan with her. 

Here I changed the colour of her scarf above her head to match her dress. It was a boring yellow to start with.

Make sure that your camera is set to taking images in burst mode. (several images after each-other). I also always have only one focus point which at most times is aimed at the head of the dancer. A high ISO helps you when you take images in the dark. I was using an ISO of 500 and 640 while shooting these images (I changed during the night, started with 500 then went to 640). Depending on which camera body you are using you will get different quality results. Some cameras can take very good photographs at very high ISO while the cheaper cameras can not. So check your cameras limit. This is where practice makes perfect comes in try a few different ISO settings and see how good the images are on the computer screen afterwards. Always try to learn from what setting you were using so that you know for next time. My Aperture was between 4.5 and 5f and my Shutter Speed were between 80 to 200 during this event.

If you have any further photography questions please don’t hesitate to contact me and I will try to sort it out for you.

Happy Shooting everyone.

Cheers,

Helen