There is something I love about photographing ladybugs. With the recent bloom in aphids locally, the ladybugs are plentiful in the garden. I spent some time stalking these swift little ladies and used my macro extension tubes to get up close to them.
Macro Experiment
Goat’s-Beard Seed Pods photographed with a Canon 24-105 and macro extension tubes on a Canon 5D Mark III.
Elbow Falls before the thaw
Secret confession time… today was the first time in my 17 years of living in Alberta that I took the quick trip out of Calgary to Elbow Falls in Kananaskis. When we got there, we found that many of the trails and viewing points were still closed for the winter so I ended up sticking to the main area to take a couple of photos. A few months ago I bought my first ever neutral density filter (a ND16 from Photo Repbulik) and I have been wanting to give it a try. What better day to do it that a nice pre-spring day when the kids were off school.
So what is a neutral density filter? It’s a photo filter which you put onto your lens which has a degree of tinting to it. The numbers on the filters start out giving a full stop of underexposure and as the number increases, the darkness increases meaning the image and exposure requires a longer time to achieve a good exposure.
The purpose of an ND filter is to allow you to take photographs on slower shutter speeds in bright light conditions. Often when we set our cameras, if it is bright and sunny, we max out our settings – you are on the lowest ISO, the highest aperture and the slowest shutter speed you can get for the amount of light. If you are wanting to blur motion (like in the case of moving water) and your shutter speed is not slow enough, you will not get blur. Adding an ND filter allows you to slow down your shutter speed, thus giving you the blur.
By adding the ND16 filter at Elbow Falls, I was able to get good exposures of ISO 50, shutter speed of a 1/2 second and aperture of f:22 on my Canon 5D Mark III with the 24-105mm f:4 lens on a tripod. For a few photos I did push my exposures a bit by dropping it to about a full 1 second exposure, but the downside was the snow became too blown out and over exposed. Now that I have tried the filter, I actually want a darker one to allow for an even longer exposure in the future.
I did convert and lightly work the image to a black and white image using the programs Aurora HDR and Photoshop CC2017.
I can’t wait to go back to photograph the falls more in the future when I can access more viewing points when they open from their winter closures and when the water flow will be a little higher. By then I might look at adding another ND filter and stacking them together or maybe a darker one by itself.
National Music Centre
This past weekend, I took my Mount Royal Photography class to the National Music Centre. After studying light in the classroom earlier in the week, our goal was to capture it. Once of the challenges I gave my students was to capture an image which was compelling or interesting because of the light. I also took the challenge myself.
Since visiting for the first time in the fall, I have fallen in love with the architecture of the newly opened music museum in Calgary, Alberta. In particular, light plays a huge part in how the building looks and is ultimately photographed. The curved walls, the angled lines of staircases and the natural window light creates a visually stunning setting.
Each time I have visited the museum, I have looked for that certain angle and this time around, I was able to capture what I had wanted. The day was slightly overcast but that helped to make the light more even and made the stairwell visually more appealing. Even though there are lots of shadows and ample highlights, there is enough difference in the dynamic range between the two to see details in the setting.
Light plays a huge impact in the images we take. We always have to be conscious of the direction of light? The amount of light? And is it hard or soft light? When we stop and think about these things, it can help create more compelling images.
This image was photographed in Sepia on a Canon 5D Mark III, with a 105 mm lens, Shutter: 1/160th, Aperture: f:4. The image was worked in Photoshop and final edit was done with Aurora HDR.
The Guitar
Today I taught a Continuing Education Photography class for Mount Royal University. During the on location class at the new National Music Centre at Calgary’s Studio Bell, I tasked my students to find interesting examples of light. I often will take my own photos while the students practice their various skills.
I decided to use a guitar as my muse. I wanted to encourage my students to look at light and how it can help create an interesting image. Using a very shallow depth of field (my 50mm @ f:1.8) I focused on the strings, midway up the neck. I tried to draw the eye into the image with the string and neck detail.
The image was also shot with the built-in Sepia monocrome filter on my Canon 5D MarkIII.
Ephram
Playing in the colourful fall leaves, Ephram enjoyed the mild autumn afternoon at Confederation Park.