Category: Photography

by David Burgess on April 26, 2018 0

The Apple Girl, My Photography Challenge

Combining Cuteness and Mystery

Another assignment for my photography class. This assignment is to take a set of pictures involving a model with a particular object. There should be only one kind of object in the photo, and there should be a feeling of connection between the subject and the object that she has.

In this article, I want to upload some of my works that I created in order to complete this assignmet. I was given pretty tight deadline, only less than a week to submit my work. At that time, I was completely overwhelmed with my other works. Thankfully, I was able to find a free time just three day before the deadline of the submission. I contacted the model, rented a room for photoshoot, and spent one full day to complete this assignment. Hope you would enjoy them. Any comments and feedback are welcomed.

The idea of the photoshoot

As I said before, I was overwhelmed with my other works and I thought that I wouldn’t be able to meet the deadline of this assignment. I was pretty happy when I managed to finish all of my other works so that I had one free day to do this photo shoot. As for the idea, I found it in my little sister story book, about a girl who spends her whole day playing with a red apple. Based on that idea, I created some photos in this article.

One thing that came up in my mind before the photo shoot. It has to be simple, yet meaningful. I thought apple would be the most suitable object, as it symbolizes a lot of things, such as happiness, love, and hope. In my country, a red apple is even considered as a lucky charm that will bring you fortune and joy.

For this project, I would like to imply the feeling of innocence. The photos should be able to radiate cuteness and innocence, both from the model and the object. However, I didn’t want to make it merely as a showcase of cuteness. I want to add some mysterious feelings and enigma in each of the picture.

I spent much time in planning the concept. The execution process took even longer time. I clicked my shutter buttons hundreds of time before getting the shoot that I really wanted. Among those of hundred pictures, I edited ten of them and submitted as my assignment.

In order to enhance the feelings of innocence and cuteness, I decided to decrease the clarity level of the photos in post-processing stage. I also soften the color so that it looks more artistic. Compared to my other works, I spent relatively longer time to work on this project, about three hours before completing the whole post processing stage. I managed to submit this assignment before the deadline, I once again I was pretty relieved to get beyond pass marks for this work.

Apart from this theme, I also managed to create other five sets of photos from this photo shoot. I’d like to share some of them in Squidoo whenever I have the time.

Some tips to help you finding good concepts in photography

Concept is also an important thing
Photography is not only about technical aspects. It is also about concepts and ideas. Sometimes, those ideas play more important role rather than the physical qualities of the photos. Thus, if you want to take great set of pictures, be sure to prepare a good concept. Note down any idea that you have in mind on a piece of paper. Try to select which one is the best, and correlate it with your resources. What I meant with the resources are your subject, your camera, and of course your skill as a photographer.

Discuss with your friends
Sometimes you may find a state where you can’t find any good concept at all. When this thing happen, it is the time to stop thinking and go outside. Have a nice time with your friends, and don’t hesitate to ask for their help, directly or indirectly. I personally find that having a casual chat with my friends in Starbucks can be a great source of inspiration. Listen to their story, their experience, and you might intentionally find a good idea for your photo shoots.

Meditation
Meditation and relaxation is another great way to find idea. The key of this method is to relax yourself, sit comfortably, and try to focus your mind on one thing. Breathe slowly, and don’t be stressed. Think as if you are in the middle of a jungle with no one around. I usually find that my mind becomes sharper after this meditation session and it is easier for me to find a good, fresh idea for my photography works.

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by David Burgess on April 26, 2018 0

Sweetheart, My Photography About Long Distance Relationship

My photography project

“Sweetheart” is one of my favorite photography project that I did about a year ago. The concept is simple but the result is very satisfying (at least, for me as the photographer). The process of the photo shoot itself is also very fun. It took about six to seven hours to complete the shoot, but I enjoyed every single second of the work. Not only a set of photos, I managed to create four photos with four different concepts.

In this article, I’d like to show some of my work in a photo set titled “Sweetheart”. This is a set of pictures about a girl who visits her long-distance boyfriend for a short time. I deliberately didn’t put the boyfriend figure in the photo, as I want the viewer to feel that he is the boyfriend. Please let me know your opinion about these pics.

Behind the scenes

Actually, I didn’t plan to create this set of photos. My real intention for this photo shoot is to work on my course assignment, which is about “a girl and an apple” (I also published a lens about it. Feel free to check). At that moment, the model just arrived in the location of the shoot. I tried to established a rapport with her, having small conversation, re-explaining the concept, when suddenly I realized that she wore perfect outfit with the interior in the room. Thus, I decided to take some photos of her when she just arrived at the location. I gave her no instruction, just asked her to continue what she was doing. Surprisingly, the photos turned to be very good.

As I explained in the intro, this set of photo is about a visit from a girlfriend. Thus, I tried to emphasize the romantic feelings by making the color tone to be softer and warmer. I took only about fifteen photos, and surprisingly all of them are very satisfying. From those fifteen, I decided to publish five of them in this Squidoo article.

Let me tell you a brief story about the model. She is one of my old friends in college and we have worked several times for a photoshoot. One day, she called me, asked for my help to do some shoot for her portofolio. Amazing timing. The moment she called me, I was just given an assignment from my course to submit a photo shoot work. Hence, we arranged a place and decided to do one full day work.

The atmosphere of meeting with an old friend and good weather really elevated our mood. We managed to create more than two hundreds photos on that day. I post processed about hundred of them, divided the pictures into four or five categories, and submitted the best for my course exhibition. Although these photos are probably not my best, they are definitely the most satisfying that I have ever created so far.

The photoshoot went very smoothly. I used my favorite Rebel T3i, a tripod, and two different lenses. I also experimented with newly bought lens filter which I used to create the warm, soft color tone. We went straight for three hours work, took an hour lunch break, then continued for the next for hours.

Some tips from me

They might be useful if you want to do a photo shoot

Play music
Good music could help you and the model to be more immersed to the photoshoot. It is also very useful to help you find the mood that you wanted for the photos. It works best, especially for amateur models who don’t know how to pose. Just play the right music, and it will help them a lot in posing in front of the camera.

Take your time
No need to be in a hurry. Make sure that you establish a good rapport with the model before proceeding to the real work. If you can talk to the model and make her to be more comfortable working with you, then it is better. However, if you feel that you are not a good talker, just greet her. You need to interact with her not only during the shoot, but also before it.

Be sure to enjoy your work too. Don’t hesitate to take a break whenever you or the model feel tired. No need to be in a hurry, as I believe that it is better to take ten good photos in a good mood rather than hundreds of photos under extreme pressure.

Take a photo in RAW format
Be sure to set your image quality in your camera in RAW format. It will help you a lot in post-processing stage. I had a very good photo shoot at my early period learning photography, where I was able to take more than fifty great photos. However, I forgot to set my camera in RAW format, which I regret it very much.

So, before starting a photography project, make sure that the image quality in your camera is in RAW. Be sure to bring more than one memory card, as this format will take a lot space in the memory storage.

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by David Burgess on April 26, 2018 0

Soccer is My Life, My Experience Taking Photographs of Live Soccer Match

Pride, Fight, and Glory – A Story of a Soccer Match

As a big fan of soccer (we call it “football”, but I use the term “soccer” in this lens to avoid ambiguation), I was very happy to get the chance to take photograph of live soccer match. It was a final match of International Students Tournament in Hyderabad, a clash between two countries, Iraq versus Somalia. As I had no experience taking any photo in a live sports match before, I found this opportunity was challenging because I had only two types of lenses which were not suitable for taking picture of a sports match. At that moment, I didn’t have enough money to buy a new lens, then I decided to do whatever I could do with those two lenses. In the end, the result was very satisfying. I was able to capture the drama of the football match, as you can see in this article.

The Background Story about Soccer and My Life

The reason why this sport insprires me very much
The Warm-Up Session of Iraq Team

I remember my first live soccer match I watched on TV. It was between England versus Tunisia, in a preliminary round of FIFA World Cup 1998 in France. Since that match, I spent my childhood by looking up to those famous soccer stars such as Ronaldo, Michael Owen, Gabriel Batistuta, Dennis Bergkamp, and Zinedine Zidane. I dreamt to play alongside them, scoring a lot of goals and securing glory.

Among all of those great players, my favorite was Gabriel Batistuta. He was a very strong striker from Argentina. Batistuta was very dangerous and could easily convert a chance into a goal. He had very powerful shooting power and very deadly as a striker. Batistuta was named as “Gladiator”, and feared by most defender in the world. I was literally crying when I heard his decision to retire from soccer in 2005.

After the retirement of my favorite player, I start to be able to enjoy soccer more thoroughly. Maybe it is caused by the fact that I am no longer rooting for any particular team or player. Since 2005, I enjoy football purely as a spectator, not as a supporter.

Soccer and Photography

Two things that I really enjoy in my life
A pride supporter of Somalia

I was a committee member of Foreign Student Association (FSA) Hyderabad in 2012. As I have some knowledge in photography, I decided to use my skill to contribute to this voluntary association. The association runs a lot of events for foreign students in Hyderabad, such as graduation party, workshops, and sports matches.

In November 2012, FSA held a country-wise sports tournaments. I was lucky to be in Hyderabad at that time, so I could record those amazing moments in the tournament. The photos in this article were taken during the final match of the tournament between two strong countries from two different continents, Iraq and Somalia.

Although it is called “soccer”, actually it was only a “mini-soccer”. The field was only half of the real soccer field, and there were only eight players including the goalkeeper for each team. I used two of my best lenses (standard kit and fifty millimeters lenses) to take pictures. As the zoom magnitude of this lenses are very limited, I should stay exactly on the sideline in order to take good pictures. It was very challenging, but I really had so much fun.

The match ended with 1-0 victory for Iraq. The winner’s celebration was very great. The players and the supporters danced together and sang a song in Arabic. The best moment was when the captain of the champion received the trophy. They took the trophy, passed it from one player to another, and gave it to the supporter. It was almost like a world cup winner celebration. Luckily, I was able to take some of good photos before, during, and after the match.

Tips to take photos in a soccer match

The Runner-Up Use a tripod and zoom lenses
This is the correct way of taking photos in a football match. You need to have a tripod and a good lens with great zoom magnitude. This type of lens is called as “tele-photo lenses”, and the price ranged from two hundred bucks to two grands. It would be better if you can also get a tele-photo lens with image stabilizer, as it will make your photos to be less blurry.

Set your shutter speed as quickly as possible or leave it to your camera
Fast shutter speed means that you can “freeze” the action. With fast shutter speed, you can capture a high quality image in a sport competition. If you are not sure about the adjustment of the shutter speed, just set your camera in “Sports Mode”, and it will automatically do the work for you.

Shoot in continuous burst mode
It means that when you press and hold the shutter button, the camera will constantly take photos and will stop only if you release the button. The number of frames that could be captured per second depends on the type of camera. The more expensive the camera, the higher the number of frames can be captured in one second.

Don’t forget to capture the moment outside the match
The drama of a football match is not only about the events on the field. You can also capture a great photograph of various objects outside the field. The supporters, the officials, coaches; sometimes they are even more interesting than the soccer match. Thus, remember to point your camera to the opposite direction of the field.

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by David Burgess on April 26, 2018 0

Persian Band Concert

My experience taking photographs in a live concert

Taking photograph of a live concert is not an easy work. You need good camera, good lenses, and good position near the stage to be able to take the best pictures. One of the assignment in my photography course was to take good photos of live music concert. Considering the fact that I didn’t have those great equipments, I decided to come to a music concert that was held in a small auditorium. Thus, the distance between me, the stage, and the musician won’t be too large, and I could take decent photos with my fifty millimetres lenses.

The concert was held in one of the university in Hyderabad. The performers named”Persian Band”, a group consists of Iranian and Indian musicians. In this article, I would like to share some of the best photos that I successfully took during the concert. Please kindly give me your feedback and comments.

About the concert of Persian Band

It was a small, but very memorable concert
The concert of Persian Band was held in April 2012, just a week before the deadline of my concert photography assignment for my diploma course. I found the concert as a perfect opportunity for a beginner photographer like me to sharpen my skill. It was impossible for me to take a photos of a band who performs in big venue, as I didn’t have appropriate zoom lens to take a good close-up photos. Thus, this concert was my only hope to complete my assignment.

Luckily, the organizer gave me a journalist seat, a place near the stage which allows me to take good photographs. They even said that I could approach the stage if I need better angles. As the size of the stage was not very large (approximately only ten by twenty meters), it wasn’t a big problem for me to take the photos of the concert.

The Persian band consists of three members: two female vocalists, three guitarists, a bassist, and a drummer. Three of the members are from Iran, and the rests of them are from India. The concert lasted about one and half hour, and during that much period I focused on taking close-up pictures of each band member. I wanted to take some photos from different angles and want to make the viewers of my photo feel the music within the photos. The images that I took should look dynamic and dramatic

Taking the photographs

It is not as easy as it seems
Believe me, taking photos of a musician performing on stage is not as easy as taking photos of a model. You need to always put your eyes on the viewfinder and be ready to click the shutter button on the right moment. When you miss the best moment, it is gone forever. I almost couldn’t enjoy their performance because I was too busy with my camera, struggled to capture the most memorable moments from the concert. However, judging from the audience’s big applause, I thought the band performed very well.

I also had to move a lot, from one side to another. Sometimes, I missed a good moment because I was on the move and was not ready to click my camera. Sometimes when I got the perfect angle and moment, I missed the focus point so the image was very blurry. Indeed, it takes a lot of hard work and efforts to be able to take good photographs of a live concert.

Fortunately, I managed to take around twenty good photos. I submitted those images as my assignment in my photography course. Some of them (which I couldn’t publish on this lens due to copyright issues) were selected to be featured in a local magazine and exhibited at a university exhibition. Based on my experience, I strongly suggest all beginner photographers who read this lens to go to a small concert and try to take as many good photos of the performers as possible. It is a very challenging task, but when you successfully accomplished the task, your skill and confidence as a photographer would significantly increase.

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by David Burgess on April 26, 2018 0

Peacock Pictures Including the White Peacock

Peacock Pictures, Facts and Gifts

Peacock Pictures and some interesting facts are included here. I took these pictures with my 8 year old grand daughter during a morning hike. The White Peacock is one I hadn’t seen before, and we were lucky to see many magnificent male peacocks fanning their feathers while doing the mating dance.

Peacocks are sacred birds in many parts of the world, as well as the National bird of India. The peacock that most of us know for it’s beautiful coloring of the eye feathers is called the India Blue. This is just one of several kinds of peacocks, and the exact opposite is the all white peacock.

The images here will show both male and female peacocks, as well as answer a few basic questions about Peacocks including why the male peacock is the pretty one. Besides the Peacock Images, there are links to other photos I have taken of nature.

Male India Blue Peacock

Peacock Feather Facts

The Male India Blue Peacock’s feathers are close to 5-6 feet in length when they are mature.The juvenile male is almost as drab looking as the female, as the tail feathers haven’t fully grown in yet. It takes about 3 years for a peacock to mature.

Peacocks have several kinds of feathers besides the eye feathers. There are 3 main sets of feathers:

1. Eye Feathers– these are the ones that are on the tail (train)

2. Wing Feathers– the striped or molted ones on the side

3. Sword Feathers– they are part of the tail, the tall wispy ones

Besides these are the beautiful feathers on the neck area, and the top feathers on their head. But mostly it is the eye feathers of the peacock that people collect. They use them for crafts like masks, earrings, and many other things. Peacocks lose their feathers once a year.

Watching several males from young juveniles to the older males they really reminded me of junior high and high school aged boys…trying to outdo each other for the benefit of a group of girls that acted like they could care less. In some of the peacock photos here you will see a few female peacocks not paying much attention and the male peacock just strutting his stuff.

The male peacock will strut around in full display,fanning his beautiful display of tail feathers, but if there are no females he will strut for the other males, it really is both beautiful and laughable.

What Do Peacocks Eat?

Wild or Domesticated Peacocks, what do they eat?
Peacock images taken by Kathy McGraw

Peacocks are part of the pheasant and turkey families and are used to foraging for their food.

Peacocks eat just about anything that is small and crawls from the insect world like ants, ticks, bugs, worms, termites, scorpions and mice. They also eat flowers, plants, grains, and berries. Peacocks have also been know to like cat food (dry) and chicken feed.
White Peacocks
All White Peacocks
White Peacock Picture by Kathy McGraw

White Peacocks have the same feathers as their counterparts except they’re just white.

Many people think the white peacock is an albino, but it’s not. Albinos have pink skin and eyes, but the white peacock has blue eyes. It is also believed they are rare, but again this isn’t true. There are probably more in captivity than in the wild, but they aren’t rare. Also some people believe that the white peacock is magical. This one, I can’t prove or disprove as everyone has their own beliefs as to spirituality and faith.

After following several peacocks around the ranch, we noticed a white peacock in the distance in one of the cages that was fanning his tail feathers, so we rushed over to see it. We were barely able to get this picture before he stopped fanning, and put his feathers down.

White Peacock Feathers

White Peacock Dry Erase Board
The White Peacock is beautiful if you’ve never seen one. No, it doesn’t have the coloring of the India Blue, but just appreciating the difference, and the conversation of “Have you ever seen a white peacock” makes this a great gift.

Peacock Fanning his Trail of Feathers During Mating Season

Male Peacock Fanning his Tail Feathers
Peacock Picture by Kathy McGraw

Why is the Male Peacock the Pretty One?

Male Peacocks have beautiful coloring while females are drab
Female Penhens blend in Image by Soleil

In the animal kingdom most males are the colorful ones, or the ones that have something extra like big antlers on bucks, and huge manes on lions. Why is this? And why do the male peacocks have the beautiful tail feathers while the females do not?

The most important reason the male peacock is prettier is for survival of the species. Males strut their stuff and show off with strength or wit, but it is the female who does the choosing. If a female is interested in selecting him she will let him know and then they mate.

The drab coloring on the female peacock helps her blend in with her surroundings while she is protecting her eggs which usually take about 28 days to hatch. Peacocks have to avoid their natural predators and the male can fly into a tree as he doesn’t have to worry about the eggs or chicks, while the female does.

Peacock Jewelry

Beautiful Jewelry With Peacock Themes
Peacock Necklace This genuine 925 Sterling Silver Peacock necklace, with gemstones and box chain, is just one of several peacock themed jewelry items that show off the majestic image of the peacock. Peacock feathers are what give these jewelry pieces their colorful charm.

More Photos by Kathy McGraw

and her grandchildren
I love taking photos and am still trying to figure out how to do them digitally. Most of my cameras are film, with all the lenses and filters. My grandkids also love taking photos and I am so amazed at the eye that a couple of them have. The peacock images were all taken during a morning photo shoot where the youngest and I went out at 5am to get pictures of the sunrise. We did get some amazing shots, and had a wonderful morning. Many of the photos in all of my writings have some of the best memories. And to me, that makes a great photo 😉

I hope you enjoyed learning a bit more about Peacocks

Leave your comments here
My Grand daughter and I had a wonderful time taking these peacock pictures. She is 8 years old, and both of us spent a beautiful morning taking photos in the desert, and these peacocks were just one of the subjects we found that morning. You will notice the lighting…early morning shadows, but that’s as good as it gets when you are visiting somewhere.

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by David Burgess on April 26, 2018 0

My Summer Fashion Photo Shoot

Capturing the Beauty of Summer Through Photography

“An Ode to Summer” is my latest photo shoot I did in May 2013. The idea of this photo shoot was to show the warmth of the summer. I wanted to juxtapose the warm sunlight, the beauty of nature, and a pretty girl. There is no complicated or philosophical theme as it can be found in my previous photo shoots. I just wanted to present the beauty through the pictures, and let the viewers enjoy the picture as they are, without having to think hard about the meanings behind them. I have to admit that doing this type of photography work is refreshing, as I found that this type of photo shoot was more like to be an activity to have fun. Thus, I would like to share some of the photos through this lens, and hopefully you like them.

The Preparation

I didn’t prepare too much for the concept of the photo shoot, as I just want to create beautiful photos without any complicated story or themes. I just went online and browsed some references from professional photographers. I also met the model, Sunny, two days before the shoot. She is a very nice and smart Chinese girl. Sunny studies B.Com in my undergraduate college and I know her through my Bhutanese friends, whom I worked in previous photo shoots.

The idea of the photo shoot and the name of the model (Sunny) suited very well. Somehow, working with Sunny was very fun. I told her about my plan and she gave a lot of idea for the photo shoot. She acted not only as a model, but also as a director, style designer, and she tried to see the concept from the photographer’s point of view. If you find a model who is able to do this kind of things, then you are very lucky as working with the model would be more fun.

An early morning summer day

I departed from my apartment at 4 o’clock in the morning and we started the photo shoot exactly at 5 AM. The location of the photo shoot is at Hussain Sagar Lake, the biggest and most beautiful artificial lake in Hyderabad. We decided to do it in the southern park of the lake, where there is a beautiful park with pretty trees and flower.

Unfortunately, we missed the sunrise. However, the sun rays was perfect for photography. It was very soft and made everything looked shiny. I took some photos near the beautiful tree, with the beautiful lake in the background. The model seemed to enjoy the photo shoot very much, and it made me feel comfortable to work with her. We took about one hundred photos in two hours, then decided to take a break. We worked for another one more hour, then decided to call it a day because the temperature started to raise and made us sweating.

After the photo shoot, we had breakfast at McDonald (we had to wait for about an hour because it was still closed) and decided to watch Iron Man 3. I reached home right in the afternoon, and had some three hours sleep before editing the photos. This work was indeed one of the most enjoyable photo shoot I have ever done.

Photo Shoot Tips from Me

Some more tips I learned after doing this project

If you live in tropical country early morning is the best time for photo shoot
I realized this fact just after I did this photo shoot. In the morning, the weather is very cool and relaxing. The natural light from the sun is also very beautiful and soft, and it is not too harsh so you may not even need a reflector. Moreover, the fresh air will increase the mood of you and your model, so both of you can perform better. Just be sure to have a nice sleep if you want to do photo shoot in early morning.

Be friendly with the model
Of course, without crossing the boundary of professionalism. Plan a meeting two or three days before you work together, just to understand better about her. If you think that you are good at making friends, try to be friendly with her. Believe me, it won’t hurt, and even will make you perform better in the photo shoot.

Explain the model about your concept and idea
And don’t forget to ask for her feedback. She might have some brilliant idea that you didn’t even think. If it is possible, discuss also about the wardrobe that she is going to wear, the accessories, and how you want her to pose for the photos.

Enjoy your work
The most important thing in photography (and any other arts) is to enjoy what you are doing. By enjoying the process of the photo shoot, you will realize that your photos will appear to be more “lively” and there is “soul” inside the photos. Thus, people will love your photos more.

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by David Burgess on April 26, 2018 0

My Photography Assignment, Close-Up Portrait

My Photography Assignment Project

In this lens, I want to share some of my earlier project as a photography student. I joined a short course in this field about a year ago. My first assignment was to create a set of photos mainly focus on the close-up face of the subject. I found that it was quite interesting and fun assignment. I spent only about two hours for the photoshoot and another two hours for the editing part.

For this project, I submitted around twenty photos and I decided to share some of them in this article. I remember that my teacher gave me compliment for some of my works. Some of them were even also exhibited in the annual college exhibition. Please let me know your comments and opinions related to my work, as I believe it would help me to take much better pictures in future.

The concept and ideas

As this is one of my earliest assignment in photography class, I was instructed to focus on the technical aspect. My teacher wanted me to learn the basic concept of portrait photography. Thus, he asked all of the student to really pay attention to the focus. The focus must be on the eyes. The composition should be interesting, and we could use any post-processing software that we love.

I decided to create something more surrealist. I decided that for this assignment, there will be only three dominant color: black, white, and red. I was greatly inspired by Natalia Varzina’s works during working on this assignment and somehow she influenced me in a lot of aspects of this photographs.

My teacher told me that there should be at least two different expressions captured in this project. I decided that two of them are confusion and anger. I also experimented with different angles and perspective before finally being able to find the best angle that I wanted to capture. The process of the photoshoot was quite fun. It was considerably quick compared to my other shoot, as it took only about two hours, including the tea break time.

At that time, I was very inexperienced in working with model. I just instructed her to do the basic expressions such as smiling and frowning. During the two hours of work, I managed to capture around one hundred images. Among those, I selected the best twenty and edited in Adobe Lightroom.

The editing process was also quite fun. I was pretty relieved that I got the focus well. I decided to use manual focus, and since it was my first work where I fully used manual focus, I was kinda afraid that the result would be disappointing. As I mentioned before, I only included three major color in the final result of the images. All images should be in black and white, with little addition of red to make it more surrealist.

I submitted the work right after I finished the editing process. Although this assignment was not my best work, I feel pretty happy about them. I managed to get “pass” mark, and my teacher even complimented some of my photos. Somehow, working on this assignment gave me great spirit boost to create better photography works in future.

Some tips

I have several tips that might be useful for you, based on my experience:

Enjoy every moment of your work
This is the first principle that is applicable for any kind of work. In photography, you need to have passion and sincerity towards your concept. You should be able to enjoy every moment you work with your subject. By enjoying your time, you would be able to create some photos that is not only technically good, but also has strong emotional value in it.

Learn from the expert
My teacher told his students that we should spend at least a good one hour per day to take a look at the best works of professional photographers. By doing that, we would be able to learn the technical aspects as well as improving our eyes sensitivity. One most important thing, you should enjoy the learning process so that it has maximum effects in improving your skills.

Manual focus
From this photoshoot, I learned that manual focus works best for portrait photography. It may be difficult to adjust the focus at the first time, but once you are getting used to it, everything would be easier. Manual focus is always better than auto focus, as I believe that human eyes is much better than the artificial focus points in the most expensive camera in the world.

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by David Burgess on April 26, 2018 0

My Macro Insect Photography Tips & Experience

Tips for taking better photos of Inesct

My Macro or close-up insect photography experience is quite memorable for me. Today I would like to share those memorable experiences as well as some macro photography tips for beginners with you all. In fact I like taking picture of nature. As you know insect is part of our nature so once I was thinking to take some pictures of various insects.

With my Sony camera I photographed some insects photos that I have taken from around my home boundary environment as well as from other places. I will explain to you everything else when, where, how I captured all these insect photos.

What type of camera do you use usually? Is it a DSLR camera? If it is then make sure you have a good opportunity to have great photo shoot of tiny insects. Learn about photography and be like professional ones.

I hope you are going to enjoy all the photos I have posted here. I think some of these insects that I have captured are very familiar to you. Though you can separate them seeing their color, behavior and lifestyle. I did not photograph all these insect pictures in a short period of time. I took time, rested and slept!

To get all these photographs I needed enough time. My macro insect photography journey will not be ended because it just has started. As I am bookworm, here in this lens I have recommended some books related to insects. Let’s know about them since they are part of our nature. They help us to balance our Eco system. Enjoy my macro insect photographs!

I am a photographer but not a professional!

Do you like taking picture of many objects such as nature, faces, flowers, birds, river, trees? I personally like the subject photography. I have started taking picture of things from a long time ago with my camera, that was as a gift for me presented by my dad.

That camera had broken up, now I have a nice SONY camera. With this one I have photographed all these insects pictures. I did not zoom in-out my camera when taking all these pictures, that’s the main key characteristic of these photographs.

Well, I am just a non professional photographer. My friends say I am a good photographer though. What do you think of me? I think I still have to improve, have to learn photography tips more from others who take photos regularly.

I do want to shoot great photos of everything I see in this world. As I am an amateur photographer please if you don’t like these photos, I am sorry then. I tried my best to show you. I still don’t know whether I would become a professional photographer but I don’t think of being professional right now.

I just want to take photos and if I want to share photographs with you I would share them in the future as well. I hope I will not dissatisfy you with these pictures. Have fun!

Macro Insect Photography Tips – How to Capture an insect?

My top 10 tips that would help you to take awesome insects photos
As I told you before that I am not a professional photographer, it is just one of my hobbies. Though I would like to share some tips on how to take picture of insects. Actually macro or close-up photography is interesting. I like it very much. Don’t you? However, lets see the useful tips.

1) You have to have a nice camera and set your camera in recommended settings. Prefer Canon, Sony, Nikon, Panasonic DSLR cameras in order to have perfect quality photo.

2) You have to be interested in macro insect photography. I know having interest about something else will lead you to achieve your mission.

3) Don’t be afraid of any insect. If you be so then you even can’t reach toward an insect as a result you never can shoot better insect photo.

4) Be cautious every time you capture an insect photo. I guess you should always remember this tips because insects could be dangerous except butterfly.

5) Focus on an insect and have a great photo shoot. Sometimes it is hard but never give it up.

6) Try to reach closer toward insects before you take a shoot with your camera.

7) You have to be creative, so use creative angles most of the time.

8) Use proper lighting techniques if you need.

9) Sometimes Zoom in and out but I don’t care about this!

10) Finally, you need a macro lens in order to take nice close-up insect picture. I did not use a macro lens while taking my all these insects pictures.

Caterpillar

This is a caterpillar and it is totally different than the following one shown below. I captured this photograph just right after raining hard on July 13, 2012. I found this creature in our backyard.

At first I was looking at it for few minutes then decided to take some shoots. I thought it would be great to memories this dangerous caterpillar even when she is not existed next to me in the future.

I knew it was dangerous caterpillar so at first I searched a little stick. Really that stick helped me a lot while capturing.

What a cute caterpillar!

Is not it a cute caterpillar? I don’t know what you think but I say it is cute.

I found it in a sunny day in my garden. I did not have any gloves so I took a little stick and I gave her time to climb up so that I could capture her well.

Actually I was succeeded and that’s why now you see a nice picture of this caterpillar. I must tell you that I captured this one in this year winter.

A cute Caterpillar but Dangerous

Is not it a beautiful caterpillar? Very bushy right? Please just don’t touch it, even if you accidentally touch it then consult with doctor.

I am not kidding, don’t forget to consult with doctor! When I was a kid I accidentally touched one just like this caterpillar, indeed it was very painful for me and my parents brought me to doctor immediately and doctor did his job, I recovered soon though. Thanks god!

Caterpillars of Eastern North America: A Guide to Identification and Natural History

Do you want to know about Caterpillars? i guess It is great when you have some books on Caterpillars. If you want to research about Caterpillars then find some books from the market and get the best one which would help you to know many unknown facts of Caterpillars.

Black and Yellow Color Wasp

There is an interesting story behind this picture. On 05 May, 2013 I went to my uncle’s home.

Actually he (my uncle) invited me to attend on my cousin’s birthday. They have a beautiful garden, my granny takes care of it much.

I did not forget to take my camera because it was my cousin’s birthday so I needed to capture those great moments. I took many pictures on that day and the one I like most is this insect photo.

In fact did not think of photographing insect there but somehow while I was walking in the garden I found this guy. So who cares! I captured some great pictures of this beautiful wasp.

Best Cameras to Photographs Insect

I took all these pictures with my Sony Camera
I don’t switch camera brand much. In fact Sony is the best camera producer that produces cool cameras for us. I am a very much loyal customer of it. I have never dissatisfied, it gives me great customer value through using its product.

Look below, there are the top 5 cameras I recommend to use in order to take macro photographs of insect, flowers, birds, nature or other tiny creature. You don’t have to worry about these quality, they are highly recommended but you have to choose the camera brand and price only. I hope you will be able to get yours. Please read all the reviews before purchasing them.

A caterpillar which is very colorful!

To be honest I have never seen like this type of Caterpillar before until I saw this for the first time on that day when I found this.

I am actually talking about the last year, when I first discovered this creature.

At first I thought it was something but not an insect later I asked my dad and he told it was a one kind of Caterpillar. I have no idea, how to explain this caterpillar!

Best Termite Control: All You Need to Know About Termites and How to Get Rid of Them Fast

Termite is a harmful insect in this world. Are you having problem how to control termite? Do you want to protect your home from Termite? Do you want to know 3 simple natural ways of controlling Termite? If so then i guess you need to know some very useful information.

Praying Mantis

I was amazed once I found this insect.

I don’t know its name until some Squidoo lensmasters have helped to recognize this insect.

Thanks to those lensmasters who told me its name! Yes now i know it is a praying mantis.

I captured this photo last month (November) of this year 2013.

My brother first discovered it and then called me to go there with my camera.

It was a great moment for both of us capturing an unknown insect.

A Happy Dragonfly!

I was very much happy taking this wonderful picture of a dragonfly. I really wanted to take some pictures of dragonflies and my dream came true one day.

It was a sunny day and it was a perfect day for dragonfly to enjoy its trip near my flower garden. I captured this in 2012, I have never ever thought that it would be very easy for me to capture some amazing photos of it.

It was actually very easy and I did enjoy my time while capturing this beautiful dragonfly. Even though I was very cautious! I like the head of this dragonfly, it is like a pilot!

Dragonflies and Damselflies of the East

I like taking dragonfly pictures. This is for what i have taken some great photos of it. Today i have shown some of them here in this lens. If you are interested to explore about dragonfly then you have to read books.

I have found this while visiting my uncle’s home

I already have told you about a wasp that I captured from my uncle’s home on his son’s birthday.

I did not only take wasp picture but this dragonfly too.

I was curious very much after taking the wasp picture and was finding some insect.

Luckily I found this dragonfly and captured it at once.

The Illustrated World Encyclopedia of Insects
Having an insect book at home as collection is not a bad idea. I have got a book based on insect which was presented by my uncle as my birthday gift.

Useful Insect Link List

Insect
Learn everything you need to know about insect.
Bugs, Bug Pictures, Insects – National Geographic
National Geographic is a great source of learning about wild life such as insect. Get more info, watch videos and articles on insect.
Insects – Kids Science Videos, Games and Lessons
Your little kids may be interested to know about insect so visit this site to help them learning on insect.

Black Color Butterfly

It is a Beautiful Butterfly!
Once I was telling Tipi (Former Squidoo Lensmaster) that I had missed talking picture of a black color butterfly on a particular day.

Yes I missed the black color butterfly that time but after 2 or 3 days later I found one, not far from my flower garden. I do think what I captured was great since everyone of us like seeing Butterfly and its picture.

“Hello Tipi, I did it finally! I was very glad and excited to capture this nice butterfly image. It was such a sunny day that I saw many colorful butterflies in my garden.” – takkhis

Butterflies & Moths

Who does not like butterflies and moths? I think everyone does like them. It is a beautiful creature that has colorful wings and they delight us with its beauty.

Yellow Color Butterfly

Look at this picture right now! What have you seen?

A beautiful yellow butterfly and its shadow, right? I am proud to be the owner of this image.

I thought it would be flying before I capture it but I was a lucky man on that day, in fact it did not fly.

It was steady in the place it sat so that made me crazy to take this photo. Sometimes it is hard to find yellow color butterfly!

A Spider – It looks great!

Are you afraid of a spider? Some spiders are dangerous some are not.

The one you see in the picture is not a dangerous spider. I touched this spider with my fingers. I used to read spider man comic a lot but now I don’t read it much but still enjoy reading new spider man comic.

I took this photograph last year in 2012 with my precious Sony camera.

There was a bamboo fence and this is where I found this spider. Honestly I used this photo as desktop wallpaper on my laptop.

Spiders

This is a great book!
Do you like spider or want to learn more about this creature? If so then you must have to have book on spider where you would find useful information. I am not afraid of spider, what about you? I know many of you are afraid of this creature.

Small Ant on a Red flower
I don’t know the English name of this flower but here it is popular and we like the flower color, it is very red in color.

One day when I was watering my flower plants I suddenly saw this small tiny ant on a flower.

Suddenly I ran toward my room and got back to my garden with my camera. I did not take much time to photograph some picture of this tiny creature. This occurred in January, 2013.

The Life and Times of the Ant

Ant could be a tiny insect but it is a hardworking insect. If you are interested to learn about all type of ant’s family then you can read this book.

Two Mosquitoes – Please don’t disturb us!

There are two misquotes on the marigold flower! I think they were resting at that time.

I photographed this in the early morning when I have a passion to walk. I walk everyday in the early morning and sometimes I take camera.

If it is rainy, just I don’t take it. To be honest I have never ever thought to capture this dangerous insect! However, I am proud of this photo because every time I look at it, I start laughing and think “how is it possible”!

Mosquito: A Natural History of Our Most Persistent and Deadly Foe

Mosquito is one of the most dangerous insects on earth. We must protect our body from mosquito bites. Millions of people die all over the world from malaria, yellow fever. If you want to know about this dangerous insect then look at the following book i am going to recommend you.

A Dangerous Wasp

Would you like to shoot a wasp just like the way I did? It was not easy for me.

I found this at our main gate, maybe it was wounded or something like that. I was afraid of this while getting closer to it because it has a stinger! Are not you afraid of wasp?

I am afraid of it and try not to get closer but somehow on that day I intended to photograph of this dangerous insect. Actually I did it and happy now for that.

Solitary Wasps: Behavior and Natural History (Cornell Series in Arthropod Biology)

As you know there are two categories of wasp, one is social and other one is solitary.

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by David Burgess on April 25, 2018 0

My Black and White Photography Tips

Capturing the Beauty in Monochrome

Although most of the time I take photo in color, I sometimes also enjoy shoot in black and white. It is probably not as strong as color photo, but there is always classy, elegant, and romantic feelings produced from monochromatic photos. Thus, I would share some of my recent works in photography. All of the photos in this lens are in black and white, taken from different occasions and photo shoots. I also want to give some tips based on my own experience in taking monochromatic pictures. Please let me know about your opinion on my works, so I could improve my skill as a photographer.

When Should We Take Black and White Shots?

It’s all about timing
Based on my personal experience, I rarely set my camera in black and white format. I prefer to shoot in color, then later turn the image into black and white by using post processing software. However, there is a time when I want to do something more challenging, by immediately set my camera into monochrome mode so that I can directly take black and white images. The question is, when should we do it?

Street Photography
You may want to purely take black and white photos if you do street photography. There was a kind of unwritten rule among purist photographers that street photography should be taken in monochrome. It follows the example of the father of street photography, Henry Cartier Bresson.

Practically, turning your street photos into black and white can give more dramatic feelings, especially if you want to show an irony, sadness, or paradox in the society. Be sure that there are not too many objects in the frame so that the viewer can focus on your main subject.

Portrait
A normal portrait can look boring. Thus, to make them to be more interesting, you can turn the photos into black and white. It will make your portrait cooler and more elegant, especially if you can edit the shadows and highlights on the subject’s face. It would be more dramatic.

Creating black and white profile picture for your social network page is also a good idea. I always do this thing, because personally I perceived that people who put monochrome photos as their profile picture are more professional, wiser, and classy.

When you don’t have good source of light
Lack of good source of light in photography means that you have to increase the sensitivity of the camera (ISO). It means, you will have more “digital noise” in your photos. The noise can be visually reduced (if later you don’t have plan to edit the photos) by shooting in black and white.

Sometimes, when you find it to hard to focus your camera with auto focus (and you are not in possible moment to adjust the focus manually), you may want to set your camera in black and white photo as well. Blurry and out of focus photos umostly look better in black and white rather than in color.

When We Shouldn’t Convert Our Photos into Black and White

When your photo looks better in color
This is the simplest rule. If you are in a place with beautiful, colorful flowers, warm sunlight, and your model wears a dress that goes very well with the colors of the scenery, don’t shoot in black and white. Monochromatic photos tend to look colder, and if you want your images to look warmer you should keep it in color. Think as you are an artist because photography is just like painting with light. Then, decide which type of image would look better.

When the contrast between the subject and the background is too low
For example, when your subject wears light-colored plain dress (for example, yellow colored dress) and she stands in front of a plain, white background. You might want to keep the photo in color because if you turn it into monochrome it would look boring and not captivating.

When you shoot images for the sake of documentation or use it to complement factual news
If you shoot for an event, for example an annual day of your college and you want to publish it in college magazine later, don’t convert your photos to black and white. Although it may look more beautiful, the photo won’t seem factual. This is because the readers of the magazine see the photo as the complement of an article or a report of an event. They want to know how was the event, the real condition, and of course they prefer to see it in color. If you want to keep a documentation of important live events, such as wedding and birthday party, it is also better to shoot the image in color.

Tips to do black and white photo

Learn the basic concept of post processing software
Creating black and white photos means that you need to work a lot with the post-processing software. Thus, I recommend that you learn the basic concept of it. You don’t need to go for courses, just try to do some experiments and understand what will happen if you increase the contrast or decrease the brightness of the images.

Try to increase the clarity if it is necessary
In some of my black and white photos, I prefer to increase its clarity to the maximum level. It gives more visible detail to the texture of the objects, and can make you photo appear to be more impressive.

Vignetting
“Vignetting” is giving a shadow borders in the edges of your photos. It’s like framing your image with shadow. Sometimes, black and white photo can look more dramatic and better if you do this thing. Some software such as Adobe Lightroom can do the vignetting just in a second, and later you can adjust the intensity and volume of it for the best result.

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by David Burgess on April 25, 2018 0

Lotus – My Photography Work with Mirrorless Camera

Capturing the Beauty of Lotus

Lotus is one of my first project in the world of photography. When working on this project, I don’t even know some most basic terms such as exposure, aperture, or shutter speed. I merely worked with my instinct and try to manually tweak the lighting. I was very surprised to find out that the result is not as bad as I thought. However, I found a lot of weaknesses that should be improved in my photo. Through this lens, I would like to share my experience working on one of my first photography project. Hope you will enjoy it. I am looking forward for your feedback and comments.

The Concept of “Lotus”

The idea behind the photo shoot
The idea was actually very simple. I wanted to finish this project assignment as soon as possible. The lecturer assigned me to work with Pema, my beautiful friend from Bhutan. At that time, I was very busy with exam preparations and my final research. Thus, I wanted to do a project which I could finish in one day. I didn’t think I am good at poetry or painting, so I decided to do photography.

Surprisingly, this project was my first step to the world of photography. Because of this photo shoot, I developed an interest to photography and digital art. I finally found my passion to create something beautiful for the society.

The title, “Lotus”, came from the translation of the model’s name, “Pema”. “Pema” is a common name that we can find in Bhutan. In Bhutanese language (Dzongkha) it means “lotus”. I also borrowed some concept from a Pearl S. Buck novel’s titled “A Good Earth” where there is a very beautiful character with that name. As I had no experience working with a model before, I just told her to dress with something that can make her look mysterious, beautiful, and graceful at the same time.

The Photo Shoot

My first experience as a photographer
As I already had the concept, at first there was only one thing in my mind: to finish this work as fast as possible. I still had a lot of things to do, and I felt that this thing kind of slowed me down. I didn’t expect that later I really enjoy working as a photographer.

As I arrived in the location, I immediately started my work. During the first ten minutes of working, I felt an excitement that I have never experienced before when making a painting, writing a poem, or in any other art related activities. At that moment, I realized that I fell in love with the world of photography.

The next two hours of working was very fun for me. I enjoyed the moment when I framed the model into different scenes, took her photos from different angles and composition, as well as directed her to pose to fit with my concept. We tried different locations and outfits, and I even did some experiment with some simple properties that I found in the location, such as books, playing cards, and mirror.

I worked with my Sony NEX-3 digital camera, which I am very satisfied with its performance. It can take beautiful images, almost as beautiful as DSLR camera and significantly more stunning compared to point and shoot camera. It also can be operated easily and requires very less knowledge in the world of photography. I set everything in “Auto Mode” as I was really blind about the basic concept such as exposure, ISO, aperture, shutter speed and so on. Later when I have complete understanding of those terms, I found that the image quality of “Auto Mode” for this camera wasn’t disappointing at all.

I completed my work in about four hours, with ten minutes break every hour. I spent about three hours to do little work with post processing. The result was satisfying. We got an “A”, and later some of the photos were featured in Bhutanese Girl Fashion Page.

Tips and thougts to do a photography with mirrorless camera

From an amateur point of view
Don’t hesitate to get a mirrorless camera
Because of the price that is significantly higher than point and shoot camera and slightly lower than DSLR, some people prefer not to buy this type of camera. Believe me, getting a mirrorless camera is a good investment. The image quality is comparable to DSLR, and it is much easier to operate. Moreover, it is cheaper and smaller. So, if you want to take good photos but don’t want to learn too much about technical aspects in photography, mirrorless camera is a perfect choice for you.

Use tripod
The image stabilizer in mirrorless camera is not as good as in DSLR, so using tripod during the photo shoot would significantly improve the quality of your photos. Some cameras such as Sony NEX series also hard to hold (as their center of gravity is in front part of the lens) so that you can get blurry and shaky images if you don’t use any tripod.

It is okay to use the “Auto Mode”
Especially if you are a beginner and don’t understand about when you should use flash, or when you should lower the ISO. The Auto Mode works very well in most of digital camera. Maybe later when you started to understand about some photography concepts, you can do experiment with Semi-Auto Mode or even completely Manual Mode.

Be confident
Although you have very less knowledge about photography, be confident that you can create good photos. Be confident with your camera, no matter how bad it is the quality. And, be confident to your model, trust her, and keep believing that both of you can create a good artworks. Believe it or not, this kind of positive thinking will influence the quality of your photos.

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