Photo of the day

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Still life Photography with a few fruits.

This is the result of having 2 peaches an apple and some time in my hands. For this image I used a Canon EF 50mm 1.4 set at F8. The ISO was set at 100 and the speed at 250. The lighting was pretty simple group A was a Canon 580EX with an umbrella to the right of the camera and Group B a Canon 430EXII also with an umbrella to the left of the camera. The flashes were on ETTL II instead of manual. The master unit was a Canon 580EX II sitting on the camera hot shoe it was only used as a transmitter to the other 2.  The ratio was set at the highest I could 8:1.

The picture was then cropped a bit and with Photo Shop did the last touches.

If you have any questions that I did not covered here, or like to share some images feel free to post. I’d encourage anyone to ask questions or suggest a topic to future postings.

Thanks for looking.

Alex Elias

Peaches and apple.

Peaches and apple.

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Still photography.

Here is the picture for today. Last night I did not have a lot to do and decided to head to the fridge and see what was in it. Found a basket load the beggies  and shoot some pictures. The image  was shot with a Canon ef 50mm 1.4 @ F8 for a good depth of field, ISO 200 and speed 1/125th 

The lighting was done with 2 Canon speedlights set to manual mode. A Canon 580EX was on a stand to the back and right of the basket shooting through an umbrela. The second was a 430EX to the left also shooting through an umbrela. The ratio was about 4 to 1.

still life photoggraphy.

still life photoggraphy.

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Leo Carrillo state beach.

 

 Like one would expect at a Malibu beach; or most beaches for that matter, there were some surfers. I must say “since I never surfed in my life” this are some gutsy people. Without knowing how much control over that board one really has, I doubt I’d feel comfortable walking through those rocks to be at the mercy of the waves. That is really what motivated me to take this picture. The surfer walking between the rocks with his board, ready to meet his body (top right corner)

The time was 7:38 PM there was about 30 minutes left of light and these guys are going to make sure there is no light at all before they have to get out of the water.

The lens used was the Canon Ef 70-200mm F2.8 IS. Iso 100   F3.2   speed 200.

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The following 3 pictures show how the lighting can make the picture and also here comes the aid of the tripod for those low shutter speeds. In two of the pictures the sun was in from of me and in the other one it was behind me creating two totally different moods.

Canon EFS 10-22mm @10mm ISO 100 F18 Speed 1/5th.

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Canon EFS 10-22mm @22mm ISO 100 F8 Speed 1/15th.

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Canon Ef 70-200mm F2.8 IS. Iso 100,   F8   speed 1/60

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 I was waiting for some action to give these pictures some punch along with some sense of movement and dynamics. The camera was sitting on the tripod close to the rocks in  the front; the idea was for the water to hit the rocks and with a low enough shutter speed get the feel of movement I was after.

Canon EFS 10-22mm @10mm ISO 100 F18 Speed 1/8th.

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Canon EFS 10-22mm @10mm ISO 100 F18 Speed 1/13th.

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Leo Carrillo beach picuters with a tad of color

Keeping with the same subject but with a touch of color now.

This trip did not yield many seascape images with dramatic clouds and colors, since they weren’t there. The sky was pretty open; extremely open, I must say, giving that unflattering lighting. I have checked  the tides chart the day before and one of the low tides for the day was going to be a few hours prior to sunset and right into it.

Since I did not find my inspiration up in the sky, I turned my attention to the rocks, sea stars, and things around me. Interestingly enough there was a whole lot more in there than I have imagined.

For this location, I would say that a macro lens would be a good candidate since there are all kinds of elements filled with texture, colors and interesting patterns; there are so  many things begging to be photographed up close. Also a wide angle can prove itself invaluable in places like this offering very dramatic views.  After the day was over I thought that a small reflector would have helped a bit in certain places where shadows were pretty dense and these handy collapsible disc can do wonders opening up shadows and also they can be use as a diffuser when the sun it’s hitting the subject too hard.  Another item to seriously consider is a  tripod since it can turn this session into a very rewarding day.  More on this tomorrow

 As I was walking about the tide pools, I saw this nice looking fellow waiting for a photo session. I didn’t need a whole lot to get excited over this colorful sea star; so I grabbed my macro lens Canon Ef 100 mm 2.8 screwed a circular polarizing filter to it and the session begun.

The camera settings ( should anyone care to know ) were as follows. Camera is always in raw . Manual mode, Iso was at 200 F 8  speed 1/125. I dialed the exposure down by 1/3rd to keep the details within the histogram and to saturate the orange a bit more. After the capture Photoshop cs3 assisted with the final touches here and there.

 

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Here are a few more shots of these friendly but very quite little creature.

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Not to far from my new colorful companion I saw another potential super star, so we invited him or her to join the party. Moved the rock where it ws glued to and arranged it next to Mr Orange seat star. Settings were roughly the same, just closed down the lens a bit to F11 speed 100 and no EV (exposure value) compensation.

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Came on and joint the sea star party…

After several shots with the 100mm lens; guess what? one more star joined in. Then I decided it was time to add a bit of salt and pepper to this. It was time for the fun lens; yes, the fun lens. The one that can fit all kinds of things inside the little rectangle (that is the  sensor I’m talking about) Canon EFS 10-22mm. This is one of those lens that can make the magic happen, turning a boring image into something  pretty interesting. This will fit all 3 stars and put a different flavor to them making them, for lack of better word the stars of the picture.

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After a while of mingling with the stars, my interest shifted to an old, rather plain looking sea weed.When I got closer, I guess what saved this ragged looking fellow, was the fact that the sun was setting and hitting it low and backlighting it creating nice shadows and reflections, thus revealing great texture.

There we go again to Mr back pack to change lenses. This time Canon Ef 70-200 2.8 IS. stretched the lens to 200mm F 4.5 speed at 1/25 ISO 100  and be stealth holding that beast. I set the DOF (depth of field) rather shallow directing the attention where the texture is.

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California beach picture of the day.

Here is the picture of the day. Since I got a beach picture of my daughter as the introdution let’s make it the topic of the week. Summer it’s gone, but for those of you hard core beach lovers you still have a good few weeks (maybe more) of nice beach weather.

The shots here are from Leo Carrillo, which is located in Malibu California. The place is fantastic.  Someone like me, who’s not much of a water creature and rather enjoy taking pictures more than  getting in the water will love this place. It has a lot to offer for the family activities and for me… the photographer. When the tide is low, there are a number of water pools and even a few caves making it ideal for picture taking. There is a lot of marine life and interesting topicts to spend more time than my wife and kids we confortable with, the real truth though… I run out of available light.

I would like to make a second trip before the climate does not help any more.

If you, yes you reading this blog have any beach pictures that like to share, please do.  

This was a shot of my daer family. I did not think color added much value over here so I decided to shot these images and turn them to black and white. Some thimes I like to put a mid to long tele on the camera and shoot from far. Here I used my Canon 40D with a Canon ef 70-200 F2.8 IS

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The use of a wide angle in this case a Canon efs 10-22 mm  also makes for an intersting view

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This is another shot done with the ef 70-200mm . It gives the subject more  room to breath and not feel bother by me.

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Here is the last one for today. I’ll post some color for tomorrow.

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Hello world!

This is going to be my first time blogging. I hope I can make this whole thing work, and create a conductive and positive place to hung out.

My whole idea behind it is not only to share images, but also to share knowledge, ideas, creative use of Photoshop and more. I hope to learn from you, and who knows; I might benefit someone with a bit of what I know.

For the past 20 years I’ve been involved in photography mainly as a hobby. I took classes and read numerous books regarding different topics.  In recent years I made the switch to digital and never looked back.

I currently use a Canon body, lenses and flashes. What can I say, I am truly sold on Canon (no disregards to other brands in any way) Canon was my camera (I must confess I wanted a Nikon FM2 at the time) and some how ended up with a Canon AE1 Program.

Alex E

Here is a picture I took in Leo Carrillo  California.Meditating