Tag: Capture

by Leland Richardson on November 10, 2021 0

Toshiba Camileo S30 Review

Toshiba’s Camileo S30 camcorder records 1080p HD video in the H.264 format to SDHC/SDXC memory cards. The $179 camcorder features a 3-inch touch screen display and 8-megapixel still photo capture. Full specs for the Camileo S30 can be found here.

Toshiba Camileo S30 at a Glance

The Good: Slim design, good features for the price

The Bad: Touch screen can be unresponsive

Video Quality

The Toshiba Camileo S30 records 1920 x 1080p video in the H.264 format via an 8-megapixel CMOS sensor. It has additional options to record at 720p at 30 frames per second (fps) or at 60fps for capturing fast-moving subjects.

The video quality is definitely passable for a budget camcorder. You’ll notice a bit of over-exposure in bright sun and high contrast areas, but otherwise the S30 holds its own with other low-cost models on the market.

The S30 does offer a video light, which isn’t typically found on models at this price point. It’s useful for closeups but doesn’t have much power beyond that. Plus, it’s placed almost directly where your finger wraps around the camcorder, so you’ll have to be careful to nudge your finger down before activating the light.

In addition to movies, the Toshiba S30 can snap 8-megapixel still photos. However, most of the shots I snapped suffered from a good deal of blur, even when holding the camcorder steady.

Toshiba S30 Optics

The S30 does not offer an optical zoom but there is a 16x digital zoom. However, like all digital zooms, the quality degrades as you use it, so it’s better to avoid it all together. There’s also digital image stabilization, although it’s ineffective for the stills and only marginally useful on the video.

Design

The S30 is one of the few upright camcorders left in the market. At .75 inches, it’s slimmer than a pocket camcorder and has a larger, swing-out LCD display (3-inches) not found on pocket models.

However, it’s a bit larger than some of the smaller models on the market – at 2.3 x 4.3 x .75 -inches. Nevertheless, it’s quite portable.

The controls of the S30 are clustered on the slender body of the camcorder, although they are responsive. At the top is a large shutter button, followed by a lever for the zoom and controls for menu and the video light. Flip open the display and you’ll find large buttons for power (opening and closing the LCD also powers on and off the camcorder), switching between photo and video mode and web button for uploading videos from the camcorder to the Internet when it’s connected to a computer.

Feature Set

The Toshiba S30 has a nice set of features for a camcorder at the price. There’s a motion detect mode, which will begin recording when the camcorder sees motion. There’s also a slow motion option, which will record lower quality video at slower speeds (good for capturing baseball swings to view on the computer but not great for viewing on the big screen). A pre-record function will start recording a few seconds of video before you actually press the shutter, to help you catch all of the action. Finally, a time-lapse feature will capture short bursts of video over pre-set intervals so you can capture change over time.

Menu & Display

The nice thing about the Camileo S30 is its large, 3-inch display. It’s a touch-screen so most of the camera’s features are accessibly through there. Unfortunately, while the menu icons are large enough, the display isn’t all that responsive, nor well executed. Each icon needs a double tap to enter a specific function and sometimes it’s difficult to tell whether you’ve turned something on or off. There are enough features on the S30 that you’ll need to scroll down on the screen with a flick of your finger, but it often takes several flicks to get there.

On the plus side, once you press an icon once a text description of what it is will pop up on the display, but the process of navigating around the menu is more clumsy and time-consuming than it should be.

Memory

The S30 records to SDHC and SDXC memory cards (up to 64GB) which provides ample storage for your video-taking needs. It contains 128MB of internal memory, which is enough for about a minute of HD footage, so a card is a must.

Toshiba Camileo S30: Bottom Line

If you’re in the market for a good budget camcorder, the Toshiba Camileo S30 is a nice choice. Unlike some of its pocket camcorder competitors, it has a larger, swing-out display, which makes it easier to frame your videos. The menu interface needs improvement, and you shouldn’t be expecting ultra-high quality high def recording, but the S30 makes up for it with a nice feature set and a slender, portable design.

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by Leland Richardson on October 30, 2021 0

13 Ways to Engage the Photographer in Your Kids!

Kids are fearless when taking photos. Their creativity knows no bounds. But one of the most common questions moms ask me goes something like this, “How do I give creative direction to my kids, so I don’t end up with 100-plus photos of the family dog?”

Anyone relate? Your child gets a hold of your smartphone or camera, and you end up having endless photos of your hardwood floors. Never fear; there is an artist in your child that just needs a little direction. With Blaze and Pascaline’s permission, I’m sharing a handful of their photos along with Thirteen Ways to Engage the Photographer in Your Kids!

1: Set Your Child Up for Success

Before handing the camera over to the kids, set the camera settings to P (Portrait Mode) or A (Aperture Priority Mode). Either of these shooting modes will help soften the background while keeping the subject/object in focus. Depending on your child’s age, explain what the camera setting will do and have them try it out on flowers! If your kids are going to use your SmartPhone, encourage them to take photos near a big window so they have the most light possible for best results!

2: Defining Details

Defining Details is one of the key-story telling elements that I coach moms to capture in my book. But kids can do this too! The next time you have a special event or holiday, hand the camera over to your child and ask her to capture close up photos of all the special details, like Pascaline’s Dirt Cups with Worms at their lemonade stand! Depending on your child’s age, take the challenge up a notch and encourage them to get “as close as possible” to the object.

3: Copy YOU!

This is one of my favorite photo exercises to do with the kids. I take a photo, and then I show it to Pascaline and Blaze. They have to take the same photo I took. We don’t do this all the time, but when I am wanting them to experiment with where they put the sun in their photo, or how much empty space they leave in the frame, or where to stand to compose the shot, instead of giving them a big lecture, I ask them to copy me. Whether it’s blurry, dark, too bright, doesn’t matter. On a subconscious level, they are practicing all the wonderful basic elements of composition by trying to replicate what I’ve captured. Mimicking the masters is an old practice that we do in piano, violin and painting lessons. Photography isn’t any different. Blaze took this photo when he was five years old on a trip we made to Angkor Wat, Cambodia at sunrise. Click here to see the second photo down on a previous blog post from Cambodia. That’s the one Blaze was trying to copy.

4: Favorite Things

Give your child the assignment to capture 10 of his favorite things! This is a wonderful exercise to have him do every six months! You’ll find yourself smiling at what takes priority in his life right now. Six months ago it may have been trains, now it’s his Legos. And then there are those items that remain their favorites, no matter how much times goes by, like Blaze’s Ba-Bas.

5: Experiment with the Camera’s Picture Effects Mode

This is always a funny one for kids. Point-and-Shoots, SmartPhone apps, or DSLRs all have Picture Effects that you can now play with to alter your original photo. One of Pascaline’s favorite is to use the “partial color” effect on her SONY NEX 6. She can choose to have everything in her image be black and white, except for one color — like orange — to bring out the BEST side of her kitty!

6: Favorite Places

Encourage your child to take a photo of their favorite places around the house or outside. This can be their bedroom, mom and dad’s big bed, that cozy spot in front of the heater where they like to get dressed in the morning, or the neighbor’s yard. At the end of our block is an older couple, both grandparents, and for some reason the kids LOVE playing in their yard. I’m not sure if Pascaline meant to, but I LOVE how the neighbor boy has a Japanese bandana on with the neighbor’s Japanese maple behind him! You never know what they are going to get!

7: Photos of Mom and Dad

Time to get a dose of your own medicine! Your kids are going to LOVE this challenge! Think of all the thousands of photos you’ve taken of your kids — now it’s their turn. Give your child the challenge to capture mom and dad doing something they do every day. Encourage them to be sneaky, like spies! This makes it even more fun! And don’t worry about whether or not the photo is blurry. Some of my favorite, most inspiring photos are the blurry ones that the kids have taken.

8: Kid Self Portraits

Kids, especially at the grade-school age, love to take self-portraits. Ask your child to take six different photos of themselves throughout the day. They can take the photos in the backyard, in their bedroom, but challenge them to make each one different whether it’s a silly face, serious face, or a different room. Don’t worry about fingers getting in the shot: that too documents their stage of childhood!

9: Their Shadow!

Kids LOVE to see their shadows grow in height, especially as the Winter’s end draws near and days become longer. Give your child the photo challenge to capture five different photos of their shadow, and be as silly or tall as they’d like!

10: What Makes Me, Me

Ask your child to take ten photos of specific things that show who they are, and what makes them unique in the family. Kids love to highlight how they are different than the rest of the family!

11: Siblings Self Portraits

This is another personal favorite! I LOVE to challenge my kids with taking “Sibling Self Portraits”. The only rule, they can’t look at the camera. That simple, little rule helps enforce the idea of ignoring the camera when mom brings it out, as well as creating the cutest results! Pascaline held the camera down low and shot up for this photo of her and Blaze at the beach.

12: Play with Fun Lenses

Our kids love to experiment with lenses as much as we do, especially SONY’s Fish Eye lens that curves all the corners. To help ensure good care of your lens, set parameters, like a time limit and certain room, so your kids can experiment with a fun lens but not stress you out in the process.

13: A Day in the Life

Give your kids the photo assignment of capturing different photos that represent “A Day in the Life.” For little ones, they can take a photo of their meals, the park, their bed before bedtime. Older kids especially love this exercise! They fearlessly take photos of everything they do and feel throughout the day, like the satisfaction of convincing mom to get frozen yogurt! I guarantee you will be so entertained by their photo results! Want more photo prompts for your kids?! How about if Elmo and I help ever week between now and May! Sesame Street and I have teamed up to bring you and the kids a special photo challenge each week for the My World Photo Contest we are doing! Keep reading for more details!

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by Leland Richardson on November 22, 2019 0

Which Microphones Should You Invest In?

Almost everyone likes to capture the moment. Parents like to capture their children from newborn until they are adults because it is a precious moment that they will not return. Moments can be well preserved into a beautiful memory with today’s digital equipment such as smartphones or video cameras.

Video images can be exciting, dramatic, beautiful, or shocking, but the image is only a part of the picture, so to speak. Good, clean audio can make or break a production. Background noise, hiss, muffled vocals, distortion or other factors can all make a good video bad.

We all know that audio is captured through a microphone, but without going so far as to hire a sound engineer to join us on shoots, what can we add to our setup to ensure decent audio quality?

Let’s take a quick walk through some of the basic microphone types, and why we might want to use them.

Built-In Camera Microphone

This is probably the least desirable of the options, and video pros and enthusiasts alike will talk down about the relative merits or drawbacks of the built-in microphone, but listen to yourself on this one. While the audio quality is not going to be great with a built in microphone, it might be all you need. Filming your kid’s soccer game? Taking a camera along on an evening stroll? It’s important to assess the application of the final video to determine what’s worth bringing along. If you’re doing something where the final video doesn’t need great audio, and the time and hassle of attaching an external device will take away from the moment, just toss a camera in your bag and be done with it.

Of course, if a bit of nicer audio is going to make a difference, maybe you’d consider bringing along a simple…

Shotgun Microphone

Sitting atop of the camera is the proud shotgun microphone.Highly directional, a sensitive shotgun microphone should make a substantial improvement over the camera’s built in mic. This said, a shotgun will generally be a fair distance from a subject, so be thoughtful of the mic’s capabilities as they relate to the project at hand. If you’re shooting an interview, you’ll want to get close enough to make the speaker’s voice the dominant sound by a large margin. If you’re filming the soccer game, you needn’t worry as such.

Shotgun mic’s come in a variety of shapes and sizes, with prices ranging from around the cost of a case of beer, all the way through the stratosphere. Most camera stores will let you test out a couple of them to see how they work on your camera, but YouTube will be your true friend in this case. Head there to hear the results others have captured using various shotgun microphones.

Boom Microphone

Like the shotgun mic, the boom microphone is a directional microphone designed to work better than your camera’s internal microphone. Mounted at the end of a long pole, the boom mic will either be placed on a stationary stand or moved to accommodate a scene by a special operator.

The real benefit of a boom mic is that it can be positioned to capture excellent audio from a close proximity to the subject. No wires or devices will be visible on camera. This is a bonus.

Of course, closer is better, and nothing gets closer than a…

Lavaliere Microphone

A lavaliere, lapel or lav microphone is a versatile microphone designed to clip to a subject’s lapel, shirt or other garment. The idea is that a lav mic can be hidden, and it will sit closely to a subject’s mouth, delivering clear, crisp vocal audio.

There are wired and wireless models on the market now, with options at nearly any price point. The value of owning a wireless lav mic is proven every time you want to put a subject in front of the lens. The difference in audio between this and other options is clear, and the ability to achieve clean audio without the assistance of a boom operator is a true plus.

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by Leland Richardson on November 5, 2019 0

Sony DSC-RX100M II Review

The Sony DSC-RX100M II Cyber-shot digital still camera is a 20.2 Megapixel digital camera. It comes in black and it is a very nice looking camera that has a very ‘high end’ look. One of the main things that the Sony DSC-RX100M II is aimed at achieving is ‘ultra sensitive artistry’. With this digital camera you will be able to capture every exquisite detail with this compact Cyber-shot thanks to extraordinary light sensitivity, image quality that will take your breath away and beautiful background defocusing. This is all due to the newly developed 1.0-inch back-illuminated CMOS sensor and F1.8 lens.

Features

The key features of the Sony DSC-RX100M II digital camera include a 1-Inch 20.2 MP Exmor R sensor for getting those extreme low-light shots as well as a 3.6x zoom bright F1.8 Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonnar T lens. Other key features are an ability to easily connect to smartphones using Wi-Fi or even NFC and also a new Exmor R® sensor that has the same adaptive noise reduction technology that is featured on the flagship SLT-A99V.

Additional features include the PRO Duo™ / Pro-HG Duo™ media Memory Stick, SD, SDHC and SDXC Memory Card recording media types. The Sony DSC-RX100M II also features a 3 inch tilt-able LCD that can be titled downwards to 45 degrees as well as upwards to 84 degrees. The 1,229k-dot Xtra Fine monitor can display scenes extra clearly even under conditions where there is bright sunlight shining on it. Yet more additional features of this excellent and award winning digital camera include the ability to make Full HD movies at 60p/60i/24p. The movie mode also features the AVCHD™ codec for delivering amazing picture quality.

Additonal Information

Other features include a high speed auto focus which will improve the speed of the focusing as well as the sensitivity as well as ‘Auto Object Framing’ which helps to give your photos a professional look. More features of the Sony DSC-RX100M II digital camera include ‘face detection/registration technology’ which enable the camera to automatically detect up to 8 individual faces and this feature can even prioritise children or adults.

Thing You Need To Consider

The Sony DSC-RX100M II features Sony’s Exmor R sensor and f/1.8 Carl Zeiss glass which helps it to capture detail in low light conditions. It also has a highly sensitive ISO of 12800 as well as Wi-FI sharing. Not to mention the lightning quick AF which can focus in just 0.13 seconds. It is already an award-winning camera that has been greatly improved.

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by David Burgess on May 24, 2018 0

Portrait Photography Tips ~ Use A Canon Rebel T3i For Portraits

How To Take Portraits (For Beginners)

GREAT NEWS!!
You do not need a professional digital SLR camera to take awesome portraits.
You can get super portraits with an inexpensive (cheap even) DSLR camera. In fact, if you own a Canon Rebel T3i, you have in your hands an excellent tool for portrait photography.

The technology that Canon has built into its newest Rebel cameras is improved by leaps and bounds over what was available even a couple of years ago. Combine this inexpensive digital SLR with a even a so-so Canon Portrait Lens, and you have a combination that will get you some great portrait shots as well as lots of happy feedback from those you photograph.

Getting Ready To Take A Portrait

Begin with the basics.
Portrait Mode The first thing you MUST do is take your Canon Rebel T3i off the Auto setting (a gasp is heard from the crowd)..

Really! You might get lucky and get a decent portrait in auto mode, but if you want the best results, you will have to take drastic steps.

There are two choices here. First, you can use the Portrait Mode supplied by the camera, or you can use Aperture Priority (Av).

Since the simplest way to get started is to use the Portrait mode setting, let’s start with that.

Set your camera on Portrait Mode. See the picture on the right. When you do this, your Rebel will automatically use the largest aperture available for the lens you have attached to the camera.

Photo by RebelT3iOwner

Say What?? (I am psychic; I know what you are thinking.)

Don’t worry. You don’t even have to know what an aperture is if you use the portrait mode.

The next thing to do is compose and take the shot. When you review your shot, you should see that the background is blurry. That is the sign of a good portrait.

So what if your background is not blurry? Well, here is how to make the background blurry.

First, use a lens with a longer focal length and step away from your subject (you can also accomplish this by using the zoom on your lens at its highest setting – on the kit lens, zoom to 55mm).
The second way to help out your background is to move the subject of your photo farther away from the background. In other words, put more space between the person you are photographing and the background. Do not have them standing with their back against a wall, for instance.

Using a tripod
If there is plenty of light, you can usually have good success with hand-holding your T3i, as long as you use good camera technique. However, using a tripod is never a bad idea for a regular portrait.

Tip For Getting Great Shots
Take shots when your subject is not expecting it. Most of us announce the timing with “Say cheese.” But if you want natural expressions, try taking spontaneous shots. Or, take several shots in succession after you do the “say cheese” thing. One feature that is enabled when you use Portrait Mode is Continuous Shooting. So, if you just hold down the shutter button, you will be taking up to 3.7 shots every second. Try it. You will get some surprisingly good shots that way.

Portraits Using Aperture Priority

Feeling adventurous? Try this.

Using Aperture Priority for Portraits When you take a portrait shot with you Canon Rebel T3i in Portrait Mode, the camera does all the thinking for you, including aperture, shutter speed, ISO.. all of it. That’s why the settings on “that side” of the dial are called Basic settings. The camera does all the thinking; all the photographer has to do is select the basic setting.

The settings on the “other side” of the dial are called Creative settings. This simply means that the photographer can take more control of what the camera does on a particular shot.

Taking portraits works very well when you choose the Av, or Aperture Priority, setting. Once in that position, simply select the “f-stop” you want to use (f-stop basically means Aperture setting). The one thing you have to remember here is that larger numbers mean smaller apertures and smaller numbers mean larger apertures.

Basically, you want to set your f-stop at the smallest number you can for the lens you are using. If you are using the kit lens (18-55mm), and you zoom to the 55mm length, you will choose f/5.6. Your Rebel will not let you choose a number any smaller than that. If you are shooting with your zoom lens at the 18mm length, you can choose f/3.5. This is because the lens has a variable aperture (the smallest aperture changes as the lens zooms to higher focal lengths).

OK, enough of the geeky stuff. Why would someone want to use Aperture Priority rather than Portrait Mode?

The simple answer is that there are those of us who believe that having as much control of the camera as possible gives us better final results (pictures). In aperture priority, you can set your own ISO in order to increase the shutter speed. You can also change the exposure compensation to add more or less contrast to the image.

Finally, and this is a real control thing, you can shoot in RAW rather than JPEG. If you choose to do this, you will definitely have to do some post-processing of every image in some photo editing program like Photoshop.

The intent of this article is not to be an entire photography course, so, let’s suffice it to say that if you want to venture into the realm of learning more about photography, use Aperture Priority. At least use it when the stakes are not too high. You can possibly mess up a photo op and not get the picture, so maybe save your experimenting for times when you can patiently learn how Aperture Priority works.

The photo above was taken using Aperture Priority. The light coming from the window gave some interesting effects. Using Portrait Mode gave would not allow me to take this without a flash, another reason to try Aperture Priority.

Photos by WRasku

Portrait Lenses For Canon

These lenses will go a long way toward making your pictures look GREAT!

Recommended focal length for portraits is about 75mm (plus or minus), but on a Rebel a 50mm lens is roughly equivalent to that because of something called the “crop factor.” So, any one of these lenses will qualify as an excellent choice for your future portraits.

Portraits With Props

Add Interest to portraits by adding unexpected items.

Canon Rebel T3i Portrait Sometimes you can get a great shot that grabs lots of attention by simply adding a hat or scarf. Simple things add so much interest if used in a way that develops a story along with the excellent quality of the Canon Rebel and the portrait lens you choose.

Recently, we were browsing in a downtown gift shop that had lots of hats, scarves, jewelry, and other great photo props. We ended up with some pictures that we normally would not have even thought to shoot.

..don’t stop after you get one shot. It sometimes takes a little time for the subject to start to relax..
Let your subject use her imagination when it comes to props like this. She will know what looks good on her (and, more importantly, she will know what she does not want to be seen in). The subject will also feel more at ease if he or she has some input into the setup of the shot. This can work very well with children as well as adults.

And don’t stop after you get one shot. It sometimes takes a

little time for the subject to start to relax and get into the mood. Also, don’t hesitate to show her (or him) the photos you are shooting. When she sees how good the pictures are turning out, she will be much more enthusiastic about the idea.

Another excellent way to generate excitement in this type of situation is to bring together two or three people who are friends. They will feed on each others excitement and enthusiasm.

You can even get good portraits in public places. In fact, this type of photo can add much more interest than using a standard photography background. Photographers use this quite often in senior portraits when the take their subject to stand by a tree or a covered bridge, but you can do the same thing at a restaurant or public square.

Photos by WRasku

Pet Portraits

Love taking pictures of your best friends?

Pet Portrait With Canon Rebel T3i Pets could be one of the most popular portrait subjects. After all, don’t we all love our dogs, cats, turtles, parakeets, etc, etc?

Yes we do!

The problem is, sometimes our beloved friends do not know how to cooperate.

In situations where getting the pet to look in the right direction, or just stay in one place long enough for you to get the shot, you will need a couple of things.

First, you need patience. Chances are you will have to take quite a few pictures before you get The One.
Someone to help you would also be helpful. You can enlist the help of another person who in intimate with the pet. (This is especially true if you are doing this for a friend, and the pet is not your own.)
This is where a good, fast lens comes in handy. Point and shoot cameras may get some good pet photos, but your Canon Rebel will shoot rings around a point and shoot in this situation, simply because you can choose the right lens for the shot.

Some other things that can help here are treats and toys. Most animals (even cats) respond to goodies. They also show interest in their favorite toys.. see the picture of Colby here.. he was looking intently at a treat.

Photo by WRasku

A Nifty Trick For Pet Photos

Pet wide angle portrait

Take a pet photo with a wide-angle lens.

This is Colby again. He is not the best model – hates to have his picture taken when he knows it’s going on the Internet. He’s so vain.

I did this with the kit lens at the widest focal length – 18mm. I got up really close – as you can see, his nose is out of focus, but the eyes are sharp. Sharp eyes are what separates an OK picture from one that has the possibility of being a WOW picture.

What happens in a picture like this is something called distortion. The lens distorts the actual image so that it looks a bit wonky. It will not make your wife (or husband) look like a super-model, but it’s fun for animals.

This one is not in the WOW category, but I was dealing with a moving target. You can take this technique and use it with your own pet. Farm animals like pigs and cows work perfectly with this method. Your fans, friends, and family will love it.

Using Your Canon Rebel T3i for Self-Portraits

Getting a bit lazy here. Rather than write about self portraits, I made a video.

With the Canon Rebel T3i’s articulating LCD, you can see yourself before you take the photo. All you need is a cheap remote shutter button.

Portraits That Tell A Story

The Canon Rebel T3i can capture the action.
Action Portraits With A Canon Rebel T3i Great portraits are not always a result of someone sitting on a stool in front of a photography backdrop with the camera man saying, “Cheese.” You can use a good digital SLR like the Canon Rebel T3i to capture some nice candid portraits like this one of the guitar player.

The truth is that your subjects will love the pictures when you are able to capture the personality of the moment. As the viewer looks at the photo, there is a story that emanates from the picture, or maybe it will be a question. But in either case, the picture gets the viewer involved, and that is one of the signs of a good photo.

Photo by WRasku

Use A Fast Canon Portrait Lens

Wide apertures help to blur the background.

Use A Fast Canon Portrait Lens Notice how the background is blurred in the photo above. The way that was accomplished was to use a Tamron 28-75mm f/2.8 lens set on Aperture Priority with the aperture set to f/2.8. This not only guarantees a blurry background, but it also gives you the fastest shutter speed possible in an indoor situation.

Nothing is worse than taking a killer picture of a great subject and having it totally messed up by some distracting background item that you didn’t even know was there.

Sometimes you can’t avoid background clutter, but you can blur it out using a wide aperture lens. One desirable feature of a Canon Portrait lens is a wide aperture.

Of course, it may also depend on the focal length of the lens to know whether an f/4.0 lens is wide enough to get that blurred background. If you can secure a lens with f/2.8 as its widest aperture, you will pretty much guarantee a nice blurred background.

Photo by WRasku

Edit Your Canon Rebel Portraits

Post processing adds punch to a photo.

Canon Rebel T3i Portrait Cropped Almost all digital photos can be “helped” with a little post-processing. You don’t need the most expensive photo-editing software to do this either. You can even use free online photo editing sites like GIMP or PICNIC to get your portraits looking good.

Sometimes all it takes is changing to black and white or a bit of cropping to make your portrait a real show-stopper.

Photo by WRasku

Keep Your Canon Rebel T3i In Plain Sight

Don’t be shy!
Don’t be shy with your Rebel T3i When you are at special events, you are in prime territory for portrait shots.

This shot was taken at a Civil War Re-enactment. These guys love interacting with their audience and having their photo taken. They will also give you all the details of their costume. It is very enlightening and rewarding.

The thing that will hinder you is your shyness. Even if they say “no,” which they won’t do, the worst thing that can happen is you don’t get to take their picture.

On the other hand, it is always a good gesture to ask if you can make their picture. Asking permission will not only get you the great photo, but you can also use it online when you have their consent. As a gesture of gratitude, you might even offer to send them a copy.

Group Portraits are awesome when there is a theme. At the Civil War demonstration, these gentlemen were very cooperative for the photographers. Then I took the picture into my editing software to add a vintage look to the photo. So much fun!

Photos by WRasku

Take Family Portraits

Family photos with Canon Rebel Every year, I use my Rebel for family photos that end up on or in Christmas cards.

This is one of the ones that was chosen.

Here is the data for this picture:
Camera lens: Tamrom 28-75 f/2.8
Mode setting: Av (Aperture Priority)
Aperture: f/2.8
Shutter speed: 1/320sec
ISO: 400
Focal length: 42mm
Flash: off

In-camera Effects

Edit Your Photos Without Expensive Software

There are several Canon T3i in-camera editing effects that you can use right in the camera. Once you select an effect, the software will generate a separate file so you don’t lose the original. Essentially, you can create many photos from a single shot.. without a computer!

The effects are:

Grainy Black and White
Soft focus
Fish-eye effect
Toy camera effect
Miniature effect

Example of Grainy Black and White

Example of Fish-eye Effect

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by David Burgess on May 9, 2018 0

The Artists of the Old West

Capturing the Wildlife (and Scenery) of the Old West (Recent West, Too!)

When explorers started their journey from the Eastern United States to discover the Western United States, they encountered Native American cultures and communities and wildlife they may have never imagined.

They encountered various Native American groups such as the Lakota Sioux and Blackfoot, the Comanches of the Western plains and mountains, and the Apaches, Navajo, Pueblo tribes of the American desert Southwest, to the groups of Pacific Northwest tribes such as the Bella Coola, the Haida, and the Kwakiuts. Most of the time, their encounters were friendly… although many times misunderstandings caused later conflict.

The explorers also encountered the numerous critters of the Wild West–grizzley bears, wolverines, timber wolves, antelope, moose, elk, deer, skunks, porcupines, great horned owls, flying squirrels, bald eagles, turkey vultures, and other critters.

In those days, photography wasn’t yet well developed (sorry… bad pun)… so those in their exploratory groups who had any art skills wound up drawing a lot of what they saw in their journals. Some of these artsts came to more fame because their art was so realistic and dramatic. And many more modern artists came into the field to further this capture of images from the wild west.

This Squidoo lens explores some of these artists and provides links and resources to more information on these amazing folks.

Charles M. Russell by the Bay…. eBay, That Is

I was born in Montana — and my adopted Grandpa, who normally worked as a logger in the deep forests of the Montana Northwest (near Kalispell and Flathead Lake), was also a wilderness guide for hunters. My Grandpa had some wild stories about his adventures in the Montana boonies–many of his stories were unbelievable.

One of his wilderness guide “clients” when Grandpa was younger was an artist named Charles M. Russell. And he had an original painting by Charles M. Russell in his living room that illustrated aspects of some of these adventures (the painting he had depicted some Native Americans going after a grizzley bear). (Grandpa Lloyd also had a huge bear rug on the floor of his living room–I used to play on it when I was a toddler and still remember it.) He also had some paintings by other western artists decorating his walls in other rooms of the house. His house was a veritable museum of animal trophies (most of the animal had been used for meat) and western art and other decorations. Maybe it helped that Grandma was a member of the Flathead Indian Tribe–Grandpa had an “in” with the backwoods of Montana.

You may find your own Charlie Russell artwork here for your own western-themed office, den, home, or cubicle!

The early wilderness and explorer artists created their work in a rough way…

Sometimes they had to make their own tools, inks, and surfaces…
The Mountains of the American West – Aspens and PinesCarrying art materials on the long journeys in the early days wasn’t easy… and having the right tools for drawing sometimes meant having to make them on the spot. Some charcoal from a campfire or the carbon from a lamp was used to create a drawing tool or ink. A tanned hide of a deer, elk, or antelope may have been used to make a flexible, foldable surface for the artwork. Pigments from the wildflowers, tree barks, and different mineral-content clays may have been used to create the various inks and paints. But most of the travelers most likely also carried their journals…. handing books of blank pages on which they could capture their notes as well as their impressions of the striking scenery, events, animals, and people they were seeing.

Athough some of the first wilderness old-west artists were Charles M. Russell and Frederic Remington, later artists carried on their tradition of capturing the adventure of the American Wild West.

Elmer Sprunger by the Bay… eBay, That Is…

After World War II, Elmer Sprunger came to Bigfork, Montana to live and work. His experiences with the wildlife of Montana became the theme of his drawings and paintings. And since my folks and I also lived in Bigfork, Montana for a while, we got to know Mr. Sprunger and his family. My Mom and Dad were teachers in Bigfork–and probably got to know Mr. Sprunger through his kids at the Bigfork school.

No matter how they met Mr. Sprunger, my folks developed a friendship with him such that they were able to acquire some of his paintings. Mr. Sprunger passed away in 2007– but he has left his legacy of beautiful wildlife paintings and drawings for others to enjoy.

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by David Burgess on April 27, 2018 0

The best camera for sports photography

Improve your action images with the best camera for sports photography

The best camera for sports photography will improve your sports and action images no end. If you are looking for the best camera for sports photography you have come to the right place since this article focuses solely on the best camera for sports photography as well as all the lenses and accessories you are going to need to capture those awesome sports and action photos.

Sports is an excellent subject to photograph but due to the speed and fast nature of sports capturing those stunning images can be a real challenge. If you want to increase your hit rate and the number of “keepers” you need the best camera for sports photography. This is obvious, but what is the best camera for sports photography? Carry on reading, and you will find out.

So, if you are looking to improve your sports photography and need a new camera make sure you read this article before parting with your hard earned cash.

When choosing the best camera for sports photography there are a couple of key things you need to consider.

Sports and action photography is fast and quick moving. In order to increase the number of usable images, i.e. your hit rate, you need a camera with a high burst rate. The more photographs you can take in quick succession the higher the chance of getting the shot.

Full frame digital cameras with a high burst rate are very expensive and can cost several thousand dollars. Many people simply don’t have this amount of money to spend on the best camera for sports photography, or can’t justify spending this amount of money on a digital camera. Fortunately, there are some very good crop sensor digital slr cameras with burst rates that offer great image quality and are far more affordable. If you want the best value for money, and want to get the most bang for your buck these crop sensor cameras are the ones to buy.

If you want a camera specifically for sports and action photography a digital slr camera is the only digital camera you should consider, so don’t even bother investigating point and shoot cameras or micro four thirds and mirrorless cameras.

All the major camera manufacturers sell at least one digital SLR camera that is ideal for sports and action photography, so there is something for everyone. For the best sports photography cameras take a look at the products below:

Best camera for sports photography – Canon eos 7d

In my opinion the Canon 7d is the best camera for sports photography for the masses. The Canon 7d is tough, durable and, what I consider bulletproof. The magnesium body and seals ensure it is dustproof, waterproof and shockproof, which makes it ideal out in the field

The Canon eos 7d

The Canon 7d has an impressive 18MP sensor that allows you to capture high levels of detail and images that can be blown up real big. This makes it possible to crop and enlarge every photo taken, which is ideal for subjects that you consider “too small” in the frame because they were just a bit too far away for the focal length of lens used to take the photograph.

The Canon 7d has an impressive 8fps burst rate that allows you to fire off loads of shots all in one go, so you will never miss the action again. Just remember you are going to need to have plenty of spare and make sure you have some backup batteries.

The Canon 7d is affordable and the best camera for sports photography for budding sports photographers on a budget. The Canon 7d is an awesome camera and I highly recommend it, and it is for the reasons above I consider it the best camera for sports photography.

Best camera for sports photography – Canon 1DX

The Canon eos 1DX is the flag ship of the Canon dslr range and when you look at the specifications of the 1DX it is easy to see why, I mean 18MP full frame sensor, dual-digic 5 processors for a staggering 12fps burst rate, tough magnesium alloy body and an ISO range of 100 – 51,200 (which is expendable to 204,800) is jst some of the features.

Whilst I don’t own a Canon eos 1DX I have been fortunate to use one and I can say it is an awesome camera. The 1DX is bullet proof, the burst rate is something else (although it does eat memory cards), and the images it produces are exceptional, but would I pay the $6,000 + asking price?

If I were a professional photographer and could make a living out of sports photography I would, but as I am not there is no way I could justify the cost. Buying the 1DX is one thing but then there are the lenses to go with it. The 1DX doesn’t have a crop factor so if you need a lens over 400mm you are going to have to buy a lens extender (which is not ideal for sports photography because it leads to a loss of light and hence slower shutter speeds) or spend a few thousand bucks on a long reach lens, such as the EF500mm.

The Canon 1DX is a camera for professional photographers or enthusiasts with exceptionally deep pockets. A cheaper alternative, and one that is best suited to enthusiasts.

Nikon D7000

A popular camera for sports photography

Best camera for sports photography – Nikon D7000

The Nikon D7000 is a popular camera with sports photographers and it is easy to see why. The first thing you will notice about the Nikon D7000 is the build quality, which is superb. This is a tough and durable camera that is built to last, which is a good job given sports photographers spend a lot of time out in the field.

With a 16.2MP sensor the Nikon D700 is a powerful camera that is capable of capturing some stunning sports images that will impress family and friends. Sports photography requires a lot of cropping and with this impressive sensor it is possible to get 100% crops and still get excellent image quality.

The 39 point auto focus points helps to ensure the Nikon D700 finds the target, locks on and stays locked on and it does this very well. The Nikon D700 has a fast Expeed 2 processor which is essential for sports photography. This sensor allows for 6fps, so you can fire off a lot of images in quick succession, which is vital to ensure you don’t miss the shot.

One of the best things about the Nikon D700 is the twin SD card slots, which means you don’t have to faff around swapping over memory cards and can continue to capture the action as it unfolds instead.

Overall the Nikon D700 is an excellent camera and therefore has to be included as a best camera for sports photography.

Top Sports lenses for your digital slr camera

Capturing awesome sports and action photographs requires more than the best camera for sports photography. Oh yes, if you want to capture the best sports photographs possible you also need the right lens.

When capturing sports photographs you are likely to be quite far away from the action, therefore a long reach telephoto lens is needed. If you want to “freeze” the action and still get sharp shots you also need a fast lens, which allows you to keep the shutter speeds up.

There are plenty of great sports photography lenses available for all brands and models of digital slr camera. It doesn’t matter whether you shoot a Canon, Nikon, Pentax, Sony or Olympus, there is the perfect sports lens for your particular digital slr camera.

For some of the best sports and action photography lenses currently available check out the lenses below:

Best Canon lens for sports photography – Canon 100mm – 400mm L IS USM

Canon 100mm – 400mm L IS USM Lens

My most used lens for motorsports photography is the Canon 100mm – 400mm f4.5 – 5.6L IS USM lens, which is awesome. This lens is tough, durable and built to last. This lens is also fully sealed, which means it is weatherproof making it excellent for out in the field. This lens isn’t particularly fast but then given the affordable price tag this is to be expected. Besides, the image stabilization technology is awesome and helps to ensure tack sharp shots each and every time.

One of the best things about the Canon 100mm – 400mm is the push/pull zoom which makes it super quick and easy to change between focal lengths. With this lens it is possible to zoom right in close and personal or pull back to capture more of the background.

The image quality of this lens is simply superb and it is possible to capture some awesome images. If you want the best sports photography lens to go with your Canon digital slr camera the Canon 100mm – 400mm f4.5 – 5.6L IS USM lens is the lens to buy.

Top rated Nikon sports lenses

If you shoot a Nikon digital slr camera there are a few long reach zoom lenses available to buy, although the best (and most popular) are detailed below.

nikon 70 – 200 2.8

nikon 80 – 400nikon

nikon 300

Top rated Sigma sports lenses

Canon and Nikon branded tele lenses are expensive however there is a cheaper alternative, which is a Sigma lens. Sigma lenses are tough, durable, well made and the image quality is very good. Sigma produces lenses that will fit both Canon and Nikon digital slr cameras, so it really doesn’t matter what you shoot.

For the best Sigma sports and action photography lenses check out the products below, all of which are worth looking in to if you want to buy a Sigma sports photography lens.

Sigma 70 – 200Sigma

Sigma 150 – 500 Sigma

Sigma 120 – 400Sigma

An essential bit of kit of sports photography

The Monopod
Sports photography with big zoom lenses requires some support, otherwise you are going to experience camera shake and get some blurry photos. There’s no doubt about it, a tripod is the best type of camera/lens support you can buy however a tripod is not ideal for sports photography. Focusing on a moving object using a tripod is nigh on impossible, besides most sports venues prohibit the use of tripods.

The best camera/lens support for sports photography is the monopod, which is an upright pole that screws in to the bottom of the camera or the lens ring. The foot of the pole is place on the ground, hence providing a support for big and heavy lenses. The monopod is small (when collapsed), light and easily transportable, which makes is a doddle to carry around all day long. The monopod is a simple but very effective product that doesn’t cost much but will improve your sports photography photos no end.

Compared to other types of photography monopods aren’t expensive however it does pay to get the best one you can afford. Cheap monopods are heavy but made out of inferior materials that tend to flex and bend once loaded up with a heavy camera/lens combo. The best monopods are made out of carbon fibre and these are both lightweight, but most importantly strong.

Manfrotto are well known for making top quality tripods and their range of monopods is equally as good and the 680B is one of Manfrotto’s top rated monopods. This monopod is very strong and can easily support the heaviest of camera/lens combinations. I always use a fully gripped 7d combined with a 500mm prime (a seriously heavy set up) and the 680B can easily cope with this and never bends or flexes.

The weak part of all monopods is the joints, however this is not the case with the 680B . The joints on this monopod are second to none. The isn’t the cheapest monopod but it is worth every cent.

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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

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
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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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