** A Picture I Took - 2010 **

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Happy New Year everyone!!

I'll start it off...

Took this one today:

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Image Date: 2009:12:31 03:53:46
:p (I keep wanting to be OP for one of these "new year new thread" type mega posts) :(
 
Its not my best, but I figured I'd get in on this post nice and early since I just got my camera about 4 days ago!!!

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สวัสดีปีใหม่ (happy new year) from Thailand

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I think he is talking to me here...h



He is about to harass a pool of ducks down there now...hope he is not aiming at a Wood Duck since that's the first one I saw EVER in NYC.



My first Wood Duck shot...


I am the prettiest duck in this pond and am only one too...





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Downy Woodpecker



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Happy New Year all!!

Here's a few shots from my holidays to start off...

Wouldn't be Xmas without Granny's legendary biscuits. Mmmm...
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Back-lit Orange-Slice Macro
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Mad Science!
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Grandad's Wooden puzzle thing...
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Cool water drop!

One really cool-looking technique to use for these is to set up sheets of colored paper beside your drip-pan and fire a white flash into those instead of directly at the water. This gives the shot more even lighting, and you can use whatever colors you want to get some very interesting reflections - possibilities are endless!

I so want to start doing setups of these like you see in restaurant drink menu's where there's stuff splashing all over the place and everything looks like it would taste amazing. Need to set up a rig (maybe in my shower? :P) to start doing some more exciting splash photography. :D
 
Yeah I dont have an off camera flash yet (plan on getting a sb400 or sb600 soon) but I want to do that when I get one. I want to get a black drip pan and some colored paper, ill probably set it up on my kitchen table or something then just clean it up.
 
posting here for subscription purposes...i'll post something when i'm done with this flu!
 
darkhunter139 said:
Yeah I don't have an off camera flash yet (plan on getting a sb400 or sb600 soon) but I want to do that when I get one. I want to get a black drip pan and some colored paper, ill probably set it up on my kitchen table or something then just clean it up.
Click to expand...

You can probably still do this with an on-camera flash with some careful planning. Just have to figure out how to bounce it correctly to blast it onto the paper instead of directly onto the subject - should be able to rig a snoot with aluminum foil fairly easily that should work great for aiming the light from the on-camera flash.

Also, any kitchen pot or pan works to catch the water. If you're doing the light correctly, you don't even see the bottom of the pan, just the reflection on the water surface. To get consistent splashes, you just fill a plastic bag with water, suspend it over your pan, and stick a pin in it to start the dripping.

You may already know all of this, but here's some awesome Strobist articles on water photography and snooting that are fairly applicable. Have fun shooting!
 
Krenum said:
Very cool. Good job.
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Thanks!!

New years in Chiang Mai - at midnight thousands of those lanterns (people call them balloons here) filled the sky with fireworks to boot.

Not the best picture, but you try downing that much Sang Som and 100 Pipers and shooting free hand at night :)

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launching some of our own when we got home at 5am haha

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long night, I do like the lighting in the following one though:

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and if you'll allow me to indulge myself, a clean up of some of my favorite earlier shots:

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Dude! I had the most amazing idea last night on the subject of the studio splash photography: If I set up a splash rig in my shower, I can actually just use the shower head to cause huge splashes instead of having to set up the drip bag. Going to try using my plastic cutting boards as waterproof backgrounds/reflectors... Now I just gotta go pick up some cool-looking glasses or something and maybe some fruit to splash around... hopefully will have some photos incoming from this soon. :)


vsboxerboy said:
New years in Chiang Mai - at midnight thousands of those lanterns (people call them balloons here) filled the sky with fireworks to boot.

launching some of our own when we got home at 5am haha

and if you'll allow me to indulge myself, a clean up of some of my favorite earlier shots:
Click to expand...

wow - those balloon/lantern things are cool looking! I want one! How do they make them?
 
Thats an awesome idea. I am in the process of picking up an SB-600 from craigslist and I am going to make a nice setup and try them again as soon as I get it. Cant wait to see you're photos!
 
I am doing a 365 here is the picture I took today, I couldn't get outside and the lighting in my house sucked!

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I technically took this in 2009 but my wife and I didn't start telling anyone until this year...

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Well, my first attempt at the large-scale splash photos as mentioned above was a miserable failure. :p But I did learn a few very interesting things: I learned my bathroom and my cutting-boards are both way too small.

Trying to cram light-stands and camera rig into a space that small without getting anything wet in the process is a complete headache to say the least. I'm still trying to figure out how to make better use of the space and have enough room to work in there. The cutting boards I wanted to use weren't large enough to function as backgrounds like I wanted, so as a result, I had to zoom in too much and compositions were way off.

I also learned that water being propelled by a shower head still has motion-blur even when only exposed by a 1/16th power flash. :eek: I had no idea shower water moved at such a high velocity, or that there was anything that still blurred at such a short exposure time. Not sure what could have gone wrong in my few shots that were blurred, but I think I ruled out the shower head as a means of causing splashes.

To give myself a broader working stage and help tone down some bouncing light issues I was having, I picked up some black and white plastic tarps from home depot today, so hopefully I can make another go at this and get results a little closer to what I was envisioning.

Best results I got from last night's shoot were from just dropping fruit into the water and leaving the shower-head alone. :) This is the only one that was nearly decent looking. Hopefully better shots will follow as I continue to improve my technique...

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SilverMK3 said:
I technically took this in 2009 but my wife and I didn't start telling anyone until this year...
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Congrats!
 
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First - Happy New Year and New "Picture I Took Thread."

Second - Congrats to SilverMK3. Nice way to start the year.

Third, a few shots from this weekend:

1. An orange wedge abstract:
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2. Mum:
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3. Without the crazy backlighting:
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Ben, which program(s) are you using to do your PP? I'd hit those rings with a touch of sharpening to make up for the bokeh.
 
LR and PS.

I'll try it when I get home, I think I did Magic Sharp already.. I don't remember.
 
I downloaded the pic of the rings and did a sharpening brush in LR 2.6, and it really made them pop. I don't trust actions/presets that sharpen the whole image.
 
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