Under the Southern Cross - Night Photography

This past weekend we went back to Tassie on business. The place we stayed at was near the Freycinet Peninsular - Coles Bay.

The dominant geological feature are the Hazards, which a bit like Uluru are constantly changing. I was hoping to get shot of a strong orange sunset shining on the Hazards to bring out their natural red colour.

But there was cloud on the western horizon so no strong red sunset.

With a relatively clear southern sky I decided to go back 90 minutes later to get the Hazards as a silhouette against a starry sky including the souther cross.

This was the first night sky picture I had taken with the Canon 1D-X. My only prior experience was with my old 7D where noise is a real problem with higher ISO's.

I attached the Canon 16-35mm F2.8 wide angle lens. Set the ISO to 800 in order to get the exposure I wanted within 30secs. Anything greater than 30secs (with a wide angle lens) and you run the risk of the movement of the earth causing the image of the stars to be stretched rather than dots. At long focal lengths a higher shutter speed is required.

Getting a sharp focus is also a bit tricky in these situations (usually auto focus does not work in these conditions). I was using a gorilla pod which makes this even harder because you need to get down on your hands and knees to see through the view finder. So I use live view and zoom the image on the screen onto a bight star and manually focus. I have since bought a CamRanger which gives full functionality on your iPhone.

I used an aperture of F3.5 this allowed a stop over exposure for the image.

And here are the results.



Wow! I was blown away by the results. I have bumped the exposure up a fair bit in Aperture but this turned out heaps better than I expected.

See if you can pick out the Southern Cross.

Melbourne Street Walk

Street photography is not my strong suit. I don't like asking people for a model release and I guess I don't do enough of it to make a difference in my level of skill.

But none of these are reasons to not have a go. So at the encouragement from a mate and with the idea that there is safety in numbers we went into the Melbourne CBD where we both work for a street walk.

Had had ideas of the sort of shots we wanted and knew a few locations, but plans need to be fluid because the city is changing by the second.

We met at Federation Square on a Thursday night so there was plenty going on. It was a hot night in the low 30's (celsius) so lugging gear around was a bit uncomfortable.

I have a Lowpro slingshot which is fine if you don't fill it to capacity. So I lightened the load down to the 1D-X, 24-70 L 2.8, 70-200 L 2.8 II, 2X Extender III and the 16-35mm Wide Angle 2.8.

My mate had a spare Manfrotto Tripod so I used that.

We took some shots of Patrick Dougherty's Stickwork masterpiece but I couldn't get anything I thought was worth keeping.

From there we went to Hosier Lane famous for its graffiti. We spend 30 mins there lots of unique opportunities for photos. The lane is popular with photographers and can get busy - but we had the place to ourselves so we could take our time.

Here's a shot of the famous Joker. I like how the girl in the picture is lost in the graffiti, adding scale and mood. 

Other shots of Hosier La can be found here.

Next we went to the corner of Lt Collins & Swanston where often you will see street dancers but there was nothing there that night.

We did notice the moon rising over the city so after clicking the 70-200 and 2X Extender on we managed some nice shots of the moon.

A few metres further up Swanston St we came across some buskers who for two bucks were happy for us to take as many photos as we liked.

These guys were good fun.

Time was getting on so we took some shots of the museum but nothing worth showing here.

It was a good night and something worth doing again some time.

12 of 2012's favourite pics

So I notice a few photographer's putting together their best work of 2012.

It's a good exercise that requires a higher level of critique than looking through shots from a particular event.

You also get a chance to review how you have progressing in the craft over a 12 month period - hopefully to be encouraged by a growth in both the taking and the editing of images.

Because I rate each photo at the time of processing my job was a bit easier.

I wanted to reduce my choice to 12 of the best but also maintain diversity in the images.

My choice of 12 also tells the story of my year.

So maybe not my best work but my favourite images of 2012

Here they are in chronological order.

View from the Top - Mt Haleakala, Hawaii pre-dawn 

This photo was taken on a trip to the Melbourne Zoo with my mate Mark who sadly died in 2012. We shared a love of photography and he is sadly missed.

From my backyard with a Canon 7D and a 100-400mm f4-5.6 L IS lens and a 2x Extender III. ISO 200 at 1/80th f20 - The image is cropped.

A lucky shot on the first outing with the Canon 1D-X on burst. Bird catching a fly.

A nice shot capturing a young musician at my daughter's school. Nice low light performance of the Canon 1D-X

I like this pic for several reasons. 1. It shows that photo opportunities are everywhere - this one in the middle of an industrial area near a railway underpass. 2. It tells a story of good and evil.

This would have to be one of my very favourites. The November 2012 Solar Eclipse at Port Douglas.

2012 Para Olympics - London

White Rhino at Werribee Open Range Zoo

I just like the light in this shot and it was a move away from my normal editing which tends to bump saturation up. This one backs it off to nice effect.

Cradle Mountain Tasmania

At The Bay. Dawn pic of the Hazards at Coles Bay Tasmania. A beautiful part of the world.

Tasmania - Photographer's Heaven

OK not exactly heaven but given that both Tasmania and the real thing were created by the same being maybe its not as much of a stretch.

My wife is from Tassie so we get back there a bit. This was the first trip with the 1D-X.

Tassie is busy during the summer break, tourism being Australia's smallest state's largest industry.

... and why not. Tassie has simply wonderful and diverse scenery all in a relatively small package.

I like to think of Tassie as a mini version of New Zealand. It has everything New Zealand has except the glaciers all on a smaller scale. The mountains are not as high, the rivers not as wide and the towns not as big, but in its own way Tassie is almost as spectacular as its easterly neighbour.

This year it was so busy that we seriously couldn't hire a car. We tried all the companies and were happy with any 3 door hatch or even a ute but nothing. Finally Mrs Gazza finds a vehicle which we just had to make do with.

a BMW Z4
Pic Specs: Canon 1D-X / Canon 24-70mm f2.8 L / ISO 200 / f2.8 / 1/125

So we were stuck with this little baby for a week and loved it.

Our trip involved a stay in Devonport where the Ferry terminal is and my Mother-in-law. I managed to slip out for a few shots. Got this nice one of the Spirit of Tasmania leaving for the evening voyage back to Melbourne.

Pic Specs: Canon 1D-X with 16-35mm f2.8 -- ISO 2000, f2.8, 1/15

And this one near a local Poppy farm.

I like the desaturated look on this one giving it a slightly dated look.
Pic Specs: Canon 1D-X with 100-400mm L IS f4-5.6 -- ISO 200, f.5.6, 1/320

I love my Mother-in-law but we thought it would be nice to have break so we went the Cradle Mountain for a night.

On the way stopped to get  a few pics of Mount Roland.

Mt. Roland.
Pic Specs: Canon 1D-X with 16-35mm f2.8 -- ISO 100, f5, 1/160 with Polarizer.

At Cradle Mountain we got some nice pics. Here. Both afternoon and morning shots but the morning was clouded in and I wasn't happy enough with them to publish.

Then for the next 2 nights we stayed at Coles Bay near the Freycinet Peninsular and equally picturesque part of the world.

There are a few views of the Hazards Here

All my Tassie pics from this trip can be found at this link

Enjoy - I did.

Total Solar Eclipse Photography

I recently had the fantastic experience of being able to view and photograph a Total Solar Eclipse. The November 2012 Eclipse from Port Douglas in Australia.

A little bit of basic info:

A Solar Eclipse is when moon passes between the Sun and Earth casting a shadow on a part of Earth. This shadow follows a path from usually from west to east because from the observer's perspective the Sun is moving faster than the moon. The Shadow is moving at thousands of kilometers per hour across the surface of the earth. It takes approximately 2 hours for the shadow to pass completely over a single fixed location on Earth.

Earth's orbit of the Sun and the Moon's orbit of the earth are not a perfect circle rather they are elliptical (oval shaped) enough so that the apparent sizes of both the Moon and the Sun change. Sometimes the Moon is closer to Earth appearing slightly larger and able to completely cover the the Sun (a Total Solar Eclipse) sometimes the moon is further away and appears smaller than the Sun and does not completely cover the Sun leaving a bright ring. This is an Annular Solar Eclipse.

OK - So what about getting a photo?

The key is to plan well.

The Nov 2012 Total Solar Eclipse was going to take 2 hours from start to finish.

I was hoping to get 5 key shots.

• First Contact: - The moment just after the moon appears to enter into the sun. 5:44am
• About half obscure when the moon covers about 50% of the sun. Approx. 6:15am
• Second Contact: - This at the moment just before Totality when the edge of the sun shines through the edge of the moon. This creates a phenomena called Bailey's Beads or the Diamond Necklace. 6:36am
• Totality: - The point the Moon totally obscures the Sun. From 6:37am to 6:39am
• Third Contact: The moment the Sun begins to appear from the other side of the Moon. This creates a similar image to Second Contact. 6:39am

The NASA eclipse website was my starting point. There you can get a schedule of the up and coming events complete with dates, times, locations and maps.

From there I planned a trip to Port Douglas where a work colleague has a unit (condo). Port Douglas was closer to the center line of the path of the shadow and therefore Totality would last longer (2 mins).

One of my big surprises was how popular a Total Eclipse is, according to the local media over 60,000 people came to see this one. This is 4 mile beach at Port Douglas - It is never this popular at 5:45am.

Four Mile Beach Port Douglas

So Tip 1. - Plan ahead.

Next was to think about the gear to take:

I took my Canon 1D-X - its my only body so no debate there. I will say that if you have 2 bodies take them both. There are some interesting shots in the eerie lighting during totality and wider focal lengths. So one on the tripod and one on your shoulder.

The lens I used was a Canon 100-400mm F4.5-5.6 L IS lens. I used it with a 2x Extender III. I used to have a Canon 7D which has a crop sensor (1.6x crop factor) This makes the 400mm focal length on the 7D the same as having a 640mm lens on the full frame 1D-X. To increase the focal length of the 100-400mm lens the 2x Extender gets me to 800mm.

This makes a tripod essential kit for eclipse photography.

Tip 2. Take a tripod.

You also need a filter. I had two but ended up only using one. I have a 77mm circular Black Polymer filter from Thousand Oaks which I didn't use. Instead I use a home made filter using some BAADER AstroSolar Film this should be available from your local telescope supplier. It was interesting to me that traditional camera stores don't carry solar filters. A word of caution. Originally I used this film for the transit of venus earlier this year and made the mistake of taping the film to a clear Cokin filter so I could use my P Series Cokin filter kit. Bad Idea! The film and the filter reflect on each other and you get a double or ghosted image. (See pic below) So this time I made a filter using cardboard tubing and made a cap that fits over the lens. The reason this system works better than the 77mm threaded filter is that during totality you need to remove the filter and shoot with no filter. A threaded filter will take more time and you might lose the shot.

The Black Polymer filter gives the sun a very yellow look while the AstroSolar film give the sun a pinkish to white look.

June 2012 Transit of Venus - The ghosting is from using AstroSolar film over a clear filter. A lesson learned the hard way. 

Tip 3. Get a solar filter and test it before hand.

Planning done, gear packed, tickets booked, alarm set, location scoped - all set.

We were staying 2 mins walk from the location I planned to use. I arrived at about 5:10am before sunrise. Already people were gathering but our part of the beach still had plenty of space.

During the eclipse the lighting was going to change dramatically - I'm using a tripod with a lens that has image stabilisation so it needs to be turned off. (Using IS with a tripod has the opposite effect of moving the image during the time the IS is becoming active.) I chose to use shutter priority (tv) and set the shutter at 1/250th - I would have liked to be faster but with the changing light I would have been under exposed in the darker moments.

The 1D-X allows you to set a maximum ISO and although it is a very capable low light camera I prefer not to let the ISO go over 6400. - Check.

During the eclipse I am continually altering the exposure from under exposed 3 stops to over exposed 3 stops.

The biggest unknown and uncertainty during the shoot is clouds but I knew from my venus transit shots that this might actually give the shot some extra character - which ended up being true.

To top it off - providentially - we had no cloud right at the time of totality and got some great shots.

During Totality the filter comes off and you can shoot without risk of damage to eyes or sensor. I was shooting at f11, ISO 3200 & 1/250th -3 ev

Totality is an amazing event without a camera. You can see the stars and there is this eerie silence, your brain is sending messages that something is weird. If possible everyone should try to experience at least one Total Solar Eclipse in a lifetime. The group next to us had flown in from the USA for this event and obviously didn't share my Christian beliefs, their reaction was to express a desire to sacrifice a chicken. Well thankfully our feathered egg laying friends survived at least until Col. Sanders caught up with them.


The second half of the eclipse was mostly clouded over so I packed up fully satisfied with the results.

So how did they turn out?

Check out the results at this link. vitamirus.me/Eclipse

Here's my favorite.

What I learned about cheap studio lighting for beginners

First a disclaimer,

I don't know much about flash photography and after reading this (if you get to the end) you might be in whole hearted agreement.

But I wanted to record what I learned in putting together a cheap lighting setup for a portrait and group gig my daughter and I need to do.

First my gear: I have: A Canon 1D-X, Canon 580 EX II Speedlite. I also have a selection of lenses that should do the job. My daughter has a 60D and a 320 EX Speedlite.

What I didn't have: A backdrop, any way to defuse the flash light and a way to trigger the flashes off camera.

I don't really like portrait photography. I guess this is mainly because I'm not that good at it so I didn't want to spend a fortune on stuff that I might not get a lot of use out of. The short part of a long story is that this shoot is for my other daughter's dance school and parents are expecting a semi professional result so certainly wanted to give this my best shot. (no pun intended).

After searching ebay for a background I settled on a 2m x 2m frame and white background. I'm hoping to get a high key look by overexposing the backdrop with a Speedlite behind the subject.

Lesson: Be skeptical about buying stuff on ebay. I usually am very careful but for AUD 36.00 I thought not much to risk. Sure enough the frame was as expected cheap but functional. The backdrop was about 1.5m x 2.0m nothing like the picture on ebay and next to useless. I agreed with the seller to a AUD 10.00 refund and I keep the backdrop. So for AUD 26.00 I have a 2m x 2m frame. I paid another  AUD 33.00 for a much larger background that will curve at the bottom.

Next I bought an umbrella setup from DCW (Digital Camera Wharehouse) http://www.digitalcamerawarehouse.com.au for AUD 175.00 It's a pretty good setup that allows you to mount hot shoe flashes on the stands and reflective umbrellas to defuse the light.

I wanted a left and right flash to light the subject and another light for the background. I already had the 580EX II and my daughter's 320 EX so I bought (again on ebay) another 320 EX to match my daugther's. These Speedlites can act as a slave not a master. The Flash cost AUD 209.00

I still need a way to fire the Speedlites so after some research I settled on a Yongnuo ST-E2 remote trigger. This is a rip off of the Canon trigger at half the price. There was some concern that the Yongnuo would not fire the 320 EX but I couldn't see any reason why so I took a punt (that's a bet or gamble for my non-Aussie readers) and bought it. Well it fired the 320 EX fine but would not sync properly with the Canon 1D-X I found out later that the unit does not work with the 1D-X or the 5D Mk III. The seller willingly agreed this was reason enough to take it back and agreed to a full refund. The Yongnuo unit was AUD 132.00

Plan B. I thought I'd try the Hahnel Tuff TTL transmitter / receiver. My setup though required 3 receivers which was starting to push the budget. So an idea formed in my ignorant brain that I could use the Hahnel to trigger the 580 EX II in Master mode and as Master it would trigger the 2 Canon 320 EX's. I called DCW twice to ask if this would work. One said "yes" the other "no" so that wasn't going to help. I took another punt and put down the AUD 156.00 for the transmitter receiver kit. Sure enough it works fine. The Hahnel fires the 580 EX II which is set to master and in turn fires the 2 x 320 EX's. An added bonus with the Tuff TTL kit is that it takes AA batteries the same as the flash units. Job done.

The 580 EX II seems to blow out the background for the high key effect which is what I wanted so we are all set for the shoot.

In the end I got a background kit, new Canon 320EX flash, 2 strobe umbrella lighting lit and a wireless trigger system for AUD 566.00 - I'm happy with that.

So what did I learn?

1. eBay is OK for buying gear but a reasonable element of skepticism is required. Buyer beware.
2. The Yongnuo ST-E2, although a good unit that seems to work as designed, does not work with the Canon 1D-X. The flashes will fire but are out of sync so its is effectively useless for 1D-X owners.
3. The Hahnel Tuff TTL transmitter works well and I can confirm if one of your flashes can act as a master then it will fire other slaves so you don't need more receivers. I cannot confirm that you get all the E-TTL functionality across the system so advanced users may not be satisfied. So far I am.

I'll let you know after the shoot.

Memories are important

One of the things that's keeps me taking photos of people is the thought that one day that memory will be important.

I've had two occasions in the last week that have reminded me of this.

1. My youngest daughter turned 18 so it fell to me to put together a slideshow of her first 18 years for use at her party. As I am putting this together I'm reminded of the many occasions where I didn't take pictures and could have.

2. One of my very good mates died last week, the funeral was yesterday. Cancer took him far too early. As far a funerals go this was one of the most uplifting I have been to. During his last months we spent a bit of time together and because of our mutual interest in photography we often had our cameras. I regret not taking more photos of him. It's not a very blokey thing to do - taking pictures of your mates. But from this vantage point that was a short sighted perspective - He was much loved and will be missed. Photos are helpful in revitalising memories and grieving well for those who have passed.

So don't be shy - take your camera, use it and store up memories of your loved ones.

I also gained a new appreciation for the face recognition features of Aperture. It was useful to be able to quickly find photos for use in celebrating his life.

There's a good article on this topic on DPS today.