A Bit on Duck Photography

Maybe not too exiting but this is what happened today (Sunday 1 May 2011) in my part of the World.

"The Early Bird Catches the Worm" that is how the saying goes.  But has anybody told YOU what bird that is because I can tell you that it is NOT a Yellow-Billed Duck in Africa :-)

As and avid "Golden Hour" photographer I headed out, just after 6 am, to the pond where I was going to take the best duck photo`s ever !!!!

On my way I got a nice sunrise.  Not too spectacular.  Not too shabby.

Arriving early I set up my Giottos tripod with the a Giottos MH7001 Ballhead strong enough to carry the E-3, ZUIKO 50mm - 200mm Pro zoom and a ZUIKO 2X converter.  Draped the lot in camouflage and settled down to wait.

And what a wait it turned out to be.  Bird photography, specially duck photography in the wild, is not for those without bag of patience :-/  As I was wearing a camo cape, made by my lovely wife, I started out standing.  Got tired of that and sat down eventually ending up horisontally on my back, listening to the Mourning Doves and a few other invisible feathered specimens.  After about 80 minutes the first yellow-billed duck made her appearance and true to the female form immediately started chatting.  I tried to get up but the movement, and maybe the absence of other ducks, was too much for her and she promptly left again.

I then decided to stand around not knowing that it would be another hour before two of the desired yellow-billed ducks eventually decided to turn up at the pond where yesterday I saw no less than 8 of them.

In the mean time I observed the wakening of dragonflies from their dewy slumber.  Quite amazing to say the least.  The seem to wake up in stages.  Then I was surrounded by a great number of them begging to be photographed.  Now you can imagine with my setup only ones that were like a little bit further away could be photographed.  Here is one that I like more than the others as it is not the "standard" view.

 

Here are a few photo`s from my happy ending "ordeal".  Must mention that they kept me busy for a while :-)

And THEN......

A nice and unsuspecting BONUS !!!!

Hope that you enjoy these.

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Free Image Copyright Name Integration with Olympus E-5 :-)

Olympus not only design and built excellent cameras they are on many fronts also the "innovators" like Live View that was immediately copied by the likes of Canon and Nikon.

Again it seems as if a little but profoundly important innovation has passed most (ALL?) reviewers of the E-5.

This is the ability to at the time of taking a picture your copyright details may be immediately embedded in the EXIF data of a photo.

It is possible to embed the photographer`s name and a copyrighted name into the camera which will subsequently be embedded in all the photos taken with that body.  The really nice thing here is that one has 63 characters spaces available to do this making it very easy to not have to enter cryptic names that one cannot remember yourself.  In my case I can enter my full name and surname with spaces and still have 48 characters left (including spaces) for a copyright name or description.  This is accomplished with 2 fields dedicated to "Artist Name"  and "Copyright Name"

Upon editing the image the data is automatically transferred to the "new" image.  The only time that this does not happen is with "image overlay" and with the "playback + multiple" operation.

Very useful I`d say ;-)

Some musings or ramblings on Digital Camera Choice and such

In the Good Old Days of Photography, well when was that?, it was much more easy to choose a camera and lenses than today. Nikon, Canon, Pentax, Minolta, Olympus and a few others. Most lenses were “prime” and propriety with a few “pirate” lens makers such as Sigma, Tamron and Vivitar.

A serious photographer would not be seen dead with anything like a pirate or zoom lens.

All that has changed..........

Though a few camera manufacturers have fallen by the wayside and Sigma and Tamron has graduated beyond producing “pirate” lenses the choice of camera models have increased to such an extent that nobody can claim that there is not a model suitable for them.

Olympus alone currently offer 29 different camera bodies which include no less than 18 “Point-n-Shoot”, 5 Mirroless interchangeable bodies and 6 “current” DSLR bodies.

Bewildering to say the least.

On their website Olympus call their Point-n-Shoot models “Digital Cameras” and have 4 categories covering 18 different models. These sporting 3.6 X to 30 X Zoom, freeze proof, shock proof, crush proof, HD Video, up to 10 frames-per-second shooting, GPS, Dual Image stabilisation and Eye-fi compatible.

Image compiled from various sources.

The PEN bodies offer 5 variants with 7 Micro Four Thirds lenses and adapters for Four thirds lenses from the DSLR range to be used on the mirrorless bodies.

Image compiled from various sources.

Then, just to make matters worse, the DSLR E-Series offer 6 “current” bodies including the newest flagship model, the E-5. To suit about every pocket, added to this are 8 “Standard”, 7 “Pro” and 6 “Top Pro” lenses with increasing prices to match. The flagship E-5 DSLR Body with the flagship ZUIKO Digital ED f 2.8 300mm lens will require an investment of $8699.98

Image compiled from various sources.

As if all this is not bewildering enough, even for the average amateur, the post-processing possibilities that can be done on the pictures just taken, just boggle the mind. It seems as if digital photography has made photography more difficult rather than easier :-/

But...

There is help and support at hand.

The internet not only offer porn but luckily also so many photography tips and forums and user groups that photography becomes a field so vast that the preference and needs of any photographer from absolute novice to pro will find the answer to a “difficult” question without having to even leave their home :-)

Olympus E-5 DSLR Reviewed by DPREVIEW.COM

As I`m of the personal opinion that DPREVIEW Staff are biased towards Canon, Nikon and Adobe Photoshop the following verdict pronounced over the Olympus E-5 really surprised me.

Screen printed from DPREVIEW.COM and then cropped.

I would just like to know how many people actually use these so-called high ISO Settings.  In the "good old days" of photography very few photographers ventured above 400ASA unless they wanted a specific result such as "graininess".

or ...........

Maybe I`m wrong :-/

Might the following statement be true?  "People use high ISO settings just for the sake of using these because it is available and then complain about the result because we are a culture of "moaners"?

It seems to me that poor performance at higher ISO settings has replaced the megapixel debate as the choice of argument.  Just like with most software available only a fraction of the capabilities of a camera system is utilised and few photographers have the inclination or time to try and use most features on a routine basis.


My selfish tirade aside the verdict is still good and in the ball park with most other DSLR cameras out there.

My own verdict to follow soon.  BTW I AM biased TOWARDS OLYMPUS.

NEWS ! NEWS !! NEWS !!!

14th April 2011

I`m happy to inform you that I have received a free license from imatest to use their lens testing software for use on Olympus and Olympus Compatible Lenses.  These lenses will still only be used on OLYMPUS DSLR and OLYMPUS Mirrorless Bodies.


A GREAT THANK YOU to imatest