Australian Botanical Gardens, Mount Annan 19/12/2015
Been a few warm days out this way high 30s to 40 Deg C. So a little on the warm side so this weekend I headed out early to the gardens, got there about 2 minutes before the gates opened so had to wait a short while. then drove in and stopped at the first lake, where this small Purple Swamphen (Porphyrio porphyria) was walking around the grassed bank with its parent. The feet on these little birds is way to of proportion till they grow up.
On the other side of the road is a large grass area with tall grass, that has a fair population of Australian reed-Warblers (Acocephalus australis) you can hear these well be fore you see them and this shot was the best tI managed and shot through the grass so not a clean shot, shall have to try again for these next time.
Walking towards the stolen generation memorial within the woodland area of the gardens there are numous rabbits about being a bit earlier than usual I caught this one on the main path. Not good for the gardens these.
The warmer weather has bought all the reptile out of hiding as well this smallish skink was on one of the small boardwalk areas along the path.
The Superb Fairy-wrens are always hopping about in the woodland area, so you can usually manage a shot or two of these most days though they don't like you getting to close so most are like this one a little to far away for a really nice shot.
Like wise the Eastern Yellow Robins (Eopsaltria australis) are also always scouting around for a feed on the forest floor.
By now the temperate was starting to warm up a bit so I headed off to the Wollemi pine walk of discovery area of the gardens where its well sheltered and usually well watered so cooler also a good place to find mushrooms and even with the higher temperates this week I managed to find these two. I set up to take a few shots only to find one of the speedlites had flat batteries, I changed them out with a spare set but again they were on on the flat side so had to make do with one light and the piece of foil I care as a small reflector. Still happy wiht both these shots. Some behind the scenes shots follow these two in anyone is interested in how I go about the set up for these. From these shots you get a good idea of the actual lighting conditions the shots are taken in. Most of these I under expose the shot and then use the flash to add in the light where I want it and at the power I want, either by adjusting the flash power up or down or by moving the flash closer or further back from the little mushrooms.
The last shot here shows the flash setting sI used for this shot as you can see the flash power is dialled right down to a little over 1/16th power. The soft box also cuts down some of the power as well so not that much flash is required to light these up. I suavely have a shutter speed of around 1/200 of a second and then adjust the aperture to get the required exposure, I'll then take multiple shots with slight change in focus each time to get a series of shots to enable focus stacking of the shots in photoshop when I get back home. This is the case with the two shots about both were photo stacked in photoshop.
Well thats it for this weeks shots hope its helpful going behind the scenes of some of these shots. lots of rain here this week now so hopefully there little mushrooms will be popping up all over the gardens over the christmas break here so hopefully plenty to practice with here.
Till next week, thanks for dropping by.
Glenn.
Australian Botanical Gardens, Mount Annan 12/12/2015
Back again after a week missing on this blog. Busy week the previous week, its of photography but not my normal sort, Started off mid week with the company soccer match where I'm the un-offical, official photographer. Also had to take a few macro shots of some screw threads after some testing checking for thread damage. So that was 2068 shots on one day, so the next few nights processing loads of shots. Surprisingly there was not that many through away shots form the soccer, most were correctly exposed and in focus so plenty of happy campers there when I bought the shots in for them over the next two days. Then on the weekend Saturday was a photoshoot with some Friends of mine who just had a baby boy about 5 weeks ago so again something totally different to what I normally do s0 1262 shots of of that still working on these ones, lots of back and forth to get these how they like them. Mainly because I've never done anything like that before. But some nice shots and they appear happy with them so thats really all that matters. Then on the Sunday was the Annual Works Childrens Christmas party so another full day of shooting 1035 shoot then the processing. Again happy people when I bought them in, so busy week the week before last. the family shots I'm still working though as theres a lot of work in getting these right processing wise. Good thing I shoot birds and mushrooms and not so much people shoots at this rate though after a While I'm sure I'd be faster at this as well. As the shots were of people and I don't have any permission to show the shots these won;t be shown here.
So finally last saturday I managed to get out and take my normal shots in the Australian Botanical Garden's Mount Annan. Nothing to exciting this week in the way of shots.
The First shot is of an Olive-Backed Oriole (Oriolus sagittatus) sitting high up in its nest. I noticed this pair building its nest two weeks ago so good to see it now sitting. Not really a clear shot. Interesting to see the way the nest is hung from the forked branch woven onto the branches.
Nest I walked up to the small water hole opposite the seed bank where the night Heeron seamed to have been the previous weeks no sign of it this week but I did see this Australian White Ibis (Threskiornis molucca) the lighting was pretty harsh so not the best shot there with the strong contract due to a black and white Bird in direct sunlight.
This Purple Swamphen (Porphphyrio) was not that far from the Ibis so same light so again not a great shot here.
Not far form the water hole was this Black-faced Cuckoo-Shrike (Coracina novaehollandiae) doing a bit of maintenance in a Sheoak this one was pretty high up and not really a clean shot but the best angle I could get so had to make do with these two shots here.
The Superb Fairy-wrens (Malurus cyaneus) were about as usual and I managed to get this shot. I didn't manage to get a decent shot with the wren facing me this time.
The local airship came over head while I was there and I managed this shot as it was coming over. Only a small one this one with room for the pilot so mainly used for advertising.
Not to much in the way of Mushrooms about but I did manger to find this one, again focus stacked as described previously.
Over the last few months I've been noticing this Fungi on the side of an old log and this week decided to give them a go, Need to revisit these again in the coming weeks and see if I can improve on this shot. not overly happy with this one as yet, so more work to come in the coming weeks. Full depth of field is not right there towards the right rear.
Final shot for the week is one of the paper daisys growing in the connections gardens again not that happy with the detail shown in the centre so again more practice needed here I think. Gives me an excuse to head out next weekend, though will have to go early as they are predicting high thirties this weekend so going to get hot out here now.
As I said nothing to exciting this weekend, But still practice and things to learn from here for me so we'll see if I can do better next weekend.
Thanks for dropping by my weekly blog missed two now in the last few months, but should be back on track now.
Glenn.
Australian Botanical Gardens, Mount Annan 28/11/2015
This weeks blog is a walk though of some of the shots I took in Saturday in the Australian Botanical Gardens, Mount Annan. As usual I started along the Stolen generation walk in the gardens. This ones a Varigated Fairy-wren (Malurus lamberti) the main difference between this one and the superb is the brown patch on the wing sea these have more black on their fronts. This one was hopping around with a small fly in its beak looking for more.
The Last few weeks there has been a Nankeen Night-heron (Nycticorax caledonicus) in the trees opposite the plant bank this week was no exception these ones even though punched up high within the trees sit takes off if yo get to close, this was the best I managed this week. Getting closer each week but still not a 100% clean shot.
From there I drove up to the Wollemi walk of Discovery to see if there are any Mushrooms about and managed to find this one, This is a tough little mushroom not soft like some but like string cardboard.
From there I went off to the connections gardens and had a walk around there to see if anything of interest was about, there was a few flowering gum trees out, this is one of the.
I then walked down tot eh lakes and near the lakes there was a camp of Yellow Kangaroo paws out in flower and this Noisy Miner (Manuring melanocephala) was having its evening meal before dusk.
As I was making my way back to the car with only about 15 minutes before the gardens close I found this little mushroom so quickly set up both flashes and took a series of shoots at varying focal plains, this one is focus stacked to giveth increased depth of field.
The last corner of the lake had a small family of Australian wood duck (Chenonetta jubata). So here are the las two shots from the day here.
Thats it for this weeks shots from the gardens. Hope you liked them.
Be back next week with more shots. Thanks for dropping by my Blog.
Glenn.
Australian Botanical Gardens, Mount Annan 21/11/2015
This weeks blog covers the shots taken last weekend at the Australian Botanical gardens, Mount Annan. As usual I headed out the gardens in the morning hopping to catch a few of the birds before the days heat set in, the last two days were both over 40 Deg C out this part of Sydney. Turns out this day wasn't so hot, But still not so many birds about. The weather was quite overcast so not the best light for faster shutter speeds which helps when trying to freeze the action of the birds.
The First one was of a Grey fantail (Rhipidura albiscapa) These little birds birch on small branches briefly then dart off trying to catch small insects while in flight. They will stay still for a minute or two if your lucky then dart off. This shot was taken at 1/60 of a second and ISO 1000 plus heavily cropped in so not the cleanest of shots. in fact there wasn't that many good clean shots taken Saturday.
The next one I came across was of a red Wattlebird (Anthochaera carunculata) This one was hunting around a gum tree.
Around the same area was quite a few Olive-backed Orioles (Oriolus sagittatus), again not a clean shot with a stick across its face, Didn't notice this will I got hoe and viewed it on the iMac. So not a great shot
Turns out the Orioles were building a nest just above the main walk here so will have to keep an eye on this one in the coming weeks to see if there can be any decent shots here.
As usual the Eastern Yellow Robins (Eopsaltria australis) were about as they are most days here. They always pose for their shot each week.
As the lighting was quite dark most of these shots were shoot at to slow of a shutter speed to get great shots as the birds are constantly moving even if its only head movements etc so I decided to try some close up macro shots of things that don't move. At the start of the water canal (Sydney's water supply) Theres a small fence to keep every out away form the water supply the Wooden fence posts are covered in lichens and various stains form the weather so make for interesting textured subjects so I managed to get this shot here of the barbed wire and the post. This one was focus stacked, but doesn't stand up to closer inspection so looks like I need bit more work in this area. Had a few goes at focus stacking this weekend and wasn't really happy with any of them if yu start to pixel peep. Heres the two best ones of the post I came up with.
Last week I spotted a Nankeen Night Heron (Nycticorax caledonicus) So this week I had a look to see if it was still around. It was but these ones don;t let you come to close before they take off so this was the best shot I got of this one, again not great, but hopefully this one will stick around long enough for me to get a decent shot.
As I was walking back tot he car and came up to the small dam beside the road a small family of White-faced Herons (Egretta novaehollandiae) were hunting around the dam before I saw them they took off to the safety of a near by gum tree, this is one of the juvenal birds.
With the previous two days being well over 40 Deg C here I really didn't expect to find any mushrooms about this week but I actually managed to find this small group one of the dirt stairs on the main track. The shot below shows the set up for this shot, so one speedlite above one to he side and a small piece of aluminium foil to add in some fill reflection.
That was it for the shots for the gardens. By Saturday afternoon I had started to come down with a bit of a cold here so Sunday was going to be a quite one so I sat in the back yard and took these two shots of the birds from the back yard. A Crested Pigeon (Ocyphaps loopholes) these are often seen in the back yard under the pine trees as this one was.
Lastly a Rainbow Lorikeet (Trichoglossus haematodus) in one off the small trees in the back yard having a look to see what I was up to.
Well thats it fro this weeks blog, nothing to exciting this week some more lessons learn on how to get better shots, for focus stacking I'll need to ensure I get better range of shots seams like a missed a few focus planes and for the birds really need to get eh shutter speed higher so will need to boost the ISO up to ensure the shutter speeds are at more acceptable levels 1/500 of a second or greater. But still learning so all good.
Thanks for dropping by, be back next week with what ever I get up to.
Glenn.
Australian Botanical Gardens, Mount Annan 14/11/2015
This week for something different Canon came to the Australian Botanical Gardens Combined with Camera house Macarthur. A little Dangerous as they bought all the expensive toys you dream of having to play with for a few hours. During the mornings fun I got to play wiht a Canon 6D with the 24 to 70 f2.8 lens and a 5DS with the new 11 to 24 F4L lens More on that later.
The day was suppose to start at 9:30 So I got there a little easier to start off. so started with my own gear of the Canon 60D and took the first to shots so I had a bench mark to start with.
After I got these two shots the group had started to gather so we were introduced to the Canon Rep and all his toys and we got to select what we wanted to test. I started out wiht a Canon 6D and the 24 to 70mm f2.8 lens. I was interested to see how the Camera's WiFi worked wiht the iPhone and the ability to focus via the phone from the Canon App.
This first shot was a test shot of the group, nothing to flash but just seeing how the 24 to 70 goes on a full frame body, my first time shooting with one, so getting an idea of the focal length and actual shot coverage. This one was at 65mm so nearly the max zoom of this one at the time.
Next I tried some close up work with my Speedlites, For this shot I switched out lenses and tried my 100mm f2.8
Macro lens to see how that goes on a full frame body. This shot was taken at f4 so it was always going to be a shallow depth of focus on this one. But happy with the results.
This one was also with the 6D 100mm Macro and at f4 again, again wiht a speedlite.
This one was again taken with the 6D and the 24 to 70 f2,8 at f4 at 70mm hand held. Again not a stunning shot but really we didn't have that long to play with the toys so had to make the most of it.
I tried several shots wiht playing with the iPhone for focus and wasn;t that excited with the results, the screen allows you to tap anywhere for the focus point but didn't seam to let you zoom in for finer location and the screen didn't show the refocusing when you selected the position only after you took the shoot so not really what I was expecting, could be I wasn't getting it right again short time and all but where I thought that may be a great option for the mushroom shots and focus stacking, not so convinced now. so could be the day was worth the while, could have saved me some dollars here. Think Canon needs to spend a few more R & D dollars on there App for this to be a real success.
After that I changed over to the Canon 5Dsr and the Canon 11 to 24 f4 lens. OK this is the kit to dream of, well it is in dollar terms. With the Body alone going for Just over $5000 and the lens at $3900 thats a rather expensive kit. The Lens was really nice and the amount of View you got at 11mm on the full frame body was really amazing, I did like that. This shot was taken with the 5DSR and the 11 to 24 mm at 24mm. The amount of detail you get out of the 5DSR was pretty impressive as well and I took a few shots at the wider end and then zoomed in on the screen and the detail was exciting. I shot both these bodies hand held so no doubt would have been better still if I fitted the tripod plate. But still happy as a test round. This one was using the speedlites again and in both cases used my Youngnuo Wireless flash triggers with no issues at all.
This shot was using my 7DmkII and the Sigma 150 to 600, so back to my old gear for this shot, would;t have had time to change lenses to the 5DSR at the time.
For this shot I again tried out the 100mm Macro lens on the 5DSR This time at f9 still a daily shallow depth of field at this distance so if I was set up not the tripod I would have had a go at focus stacking these shots.
That was the end of the Canon event shots, I managed to take around 182 shots from the morning, but to be honest I think the better shots of the morning were the Kangaroo paw and the Noisy Minor both taken with my existing gear. So Maybe best not rush out and put down some dollars on the 5DSR just yet. I'm sure given time I'd get use to them as I didn't get to set them up the way I have my ones, so part of it comes down to familiarity of the gear but for now the 11 to 24 mm lens was very nice and the resolution of the 5DSR was also good, but think i'll hold off for a while yet and see whats around the corner with new 5D mk 4 and 6d mk2 predicted some tim next year. the 60D I use now is getting a bit old and the ISO performance is now where near wha the modern ones are at like my 7dmk2. but since its mainly used on mushrooms with sppedlites and has the articulated screen which the 2 bodies I tried didn't have I'll be sticking with that for a while yet. So the morning was good got to try some new gear and walked away thinking what I have is still good enough for what I do. Mind you a full frame body would be handy for the coming weekend.
In the afternoon I returned to the gardens to see if I could find any mushrooms as I didn't have a shot for the mushroom group on G plus. And After a week of rain I thought there was a pretty good chance of finding something. Turns out I could only find one and that was a tiny little one and a little chewed about. But still managed to get a mushroom shot for the day, this one was not plreccessed using selective colour thou it appears that way it was done using my two speedlites as normal the shot below this one shows the actual set up of rah shot and also gives you an idea of the actual lighting conditions. You will note a few drops of water on the lens hood so you can see there was still a few showers about when I took this shot.
So thats it for this week,a bit of fun testing some gear that is some what cost prohibitive but still worth while having a go with it. Helps put the grass is always greener myth to rest for now.
Thanks for dropping by this week hope it helped some out there. I recommend any one gets the chance to try gear like this in the field to take it up its a good opportunity to see just what your missing and if you really can take your photography to another level by changing gear. fro now looks like not. We'll see about that in a few months time if the new bodies start to come out form Canon.
Thanks for dropping by this week.
Glenn.