PHOTOGRAPHY BLOG

The famous French Aerobatic Team - the Patrouil de France - were in Malaysia last weekend. They thrilled the crowds with their aerobatic flying skills. Unfortunately it was a very hazy day. The cloud base was quite low and the Team couldn’t show the full range of their act. Nevertheless many people had a wonderful time although the weather was not kind to photographers. I shot quite a few lemons but managed managed to save a few.

Here is a digitally panned picture of one of the Alphajets landing, click the image for a bigger size photo.

The famous French Aerobatic Team - the Patrouil de France - were in Malaysia last weekend. They thrilled the crowds with their aerobatic flying skills. Unfortunately it was a very hazy day. The cloud base was quite low and the Team couldn’t show the full range of their act. Nevertheless many people had a wonderful time although the weather was not kind to photographers. I shot quite a few lemons but managed managed to save a few.

Here is a digitally panned picture of one of the Alphajets landing, click the image for a bigger size photo.

I have a bit of time so I thought why not share my workflow for creating a digital pan with fellow POTY members - especially the newbies to Photoshop. This is a very straight forward technique. To the PS experts out there I say, “Come on. Share your image processing secrets. Let’s all enjoy the pleasures of photography in all its various shades..”

This is the start image. Dull, boring and ordinary. Shot in RAW with a Canon 10D and the Image Stabilizer equipped EF100-400 f/4.5-5.6L, at f/5.6, shutter 1/500 sec, focal length 400mm, and ISO 200…. Full Article.

Taking a perfectly good camera and submerging it in the ocean may seem like a crazy thing to do to most sensible people. I’ve questioned my sanity more than once doing exactly that. So why risk a perfectly good camera and an expensive one at that, which may eventually become yet another paper weight? Well the reason is to hopefully capture that perfect moment under the sea and show people (typically non-divers) what the underwater world is like with all its strange and beautiful creatures.

To be a good underwater photographer, you have to be a good scuba diver. Imagine trying to take pictures in a weightless environment. Your subject may be swimming above you one moment and under you the next. The photographer may also be on the move if there is any current or your buoyancy is not just right.

The first crude underwater images were taken in the late 1800’s. However modern underwater photography really began in 1957 when the first waterproof 35 mm camera was invented. Jacques Yves Cousteau, although not the actual inventor, presented the idea to a Belgian named Jean de Wouters who designed the camera. In the early 1960s, Nikon acquired the license for the production of the amphibious camera, which they called the Nikonos. A series of rubber o-rings when lightly greased keeps the camera waterproof. Any compromise in the seal and the camera will flood. I personally know this because I have flooded 5 cameras since I started taking pictures underwater. All Nikonos cameras are rangefinders, In other words, you do not focus the camera but have to estimate the distance and then set the approximate distance on a set of calipers located on the lens. This takes a bit of practice, because things appear bigger and closer underwater than what they really are. About 2 years ago, Nikon discontinued the Nikonos. The last model was the Nikonos 5, which was in production for over 15 years. There are several other manufacturers that sell underwater cameras most notably Sea & Sea. However none of these cameras are considered by serious underwater photographers usually because of their limited depth ratings. The Nikonos had an approved depth rating of 130 feet although many divers have gone deeper with their cameras….. Full Article.

Last winter, I went backpacking in Bangladesh, and stayed for two weeks in the remote village of Panchuria. To get there I took a dilapidated bus from Dhaka for 5 hours, a ferry to cross the mighty Ganges for an hour, another bus on the other side for three hours more, then a three wheeled rickshaw for 16 kilometers, and finally a short walk across yellow fields of mustard to reach the hut of my host. I was really tired, but what a sight greeted me, and I have to share it with you. It was yellow as far as the eyes can see, with the monotony broken only by the occasional palm tree :-

Most of Bangladesh is the low laying delta of three mighty rivers originating from the Himalayas - the Ganges, the Brahmaputra (or Jamuna) and the Meghna. Every year the country is lashed by rains from the Bay of Bengal, causing massive flooding which often kill hundreds of people. But the floods deposit fertile soil on the land, and Bangladeshis harvest rice in the summer and plant mustard in the fallow season in winter. So in winter the countryside is a beautiful yellow, a little like the rape fields in temperate climes. Incidentally, that scraggly palm tree, second from the left, produces a syrup which is cooked to make brown sugar. And the palms often host wild bees which make a lovely and fragrant yelow honey from the mustard flowers.

Here is the father of my host, an imposing figure who told me he was once in the Pakistani Army serving in the North Wetern Frontier Region, during the time when Bangladesh was East Pakistan. I thought he had a very kind face, and I couldn’t imagine him pointing a gun in anger at the enemy…. Full Article.