One of the most challenging macro shoots ever

So, once again, I took my camera out for a macro shoot on the weekend.. something I love doing all the time. But I soon realized that I live in Canada and that wind is always high in these planes :). But that day, wind was extremely high and thus almost thought of giving up and going back. That seems like the only option since everything was swinging from one side to the other. But later decided to soldier on and take at least one good picture of one bug just for coming out to shoot. But this day proved to be one of the most successful days ever. Ended up with dozens of pics of amazing insects within the hour.

The reason for that success was the wind itself. It was so high, that almost all the bugs were holding on to something firmly instead of wondering around freely. This left me with sitting ducks (just an expression), but the problem was with focusing. Then I realized that everything moves in an abstract pattern. What I ended up doing was focusing on something (needed few tries in reality) at its base location (in-between gusts) and then once the focus is locked, waited for the wind to bring back the leaf/plant with the bug to its original position.. then snapped away. (Of course this meant full manual focus)... This imporvisation payed off as you can see from the results below.

Please do note that all the pictures on this are copyrighted. Comments and feedback is always appreciated.

Thank you!
Akila.

Some of the remianing pictures from the soccer shoot from last week

Decided to post some more results from last weeks shoot in order to distribute them among the team members and for others to enjoy. Pic heavy...

All pictures are copyrighted.

Thank you!
Akila.

One hour macro shoot

Found a small window of opportunity to do a small macro session last weekend and manage find about 6 different insects in that short period of time. The high success rate was due to many reasons (as I believe).

1. The season of summer is always rich with insects.
2. I have grown an awareness on how to look for insects in busy environments.
3. I just got lucky :)

Its always important to start your shoot earlier as much as possible in the day. This is because most insects would be resting in one place at this time and this inactivity helps to take multiple shots of them easily. But the flip-side is that when they are still, they are pretty hard to detect... since most of them have good camouflage which is essential for existence in their own environments. In this particular shoot I barely missed that window and most insects were starting to get moving. Macro hunts may end with disappointment at first.. but in time you will grow the understanding of where to look for what. If you are starting out, flowers are a good place to start. Personally not a big fan of bees.. but all kinds of predators and prey as well as gatherers will come there. Try to pick the best looking flower and play the waiting game. I usually play the other way completely.. I go hunting!

Here are some of the shots of two special insects I met. (first time with a damsel I must admit)

Please note that all copyrights are reserved for all pictures in this blog. 

Comments and questions are always welcomed.

Thank you!
Akila.

Sports photography - Things to look out for

I got the official green light over the weekend to shoot for the Graduate Engineering Society (GES) soccer team (Engineering United) in action this season here at Western. Overall it was a great experience and the guys in the team were amazing to watch and photograph.

From a photography point of view this had multiple challenges to tackle and would like to first give a small analysis on those before getting to the action shots. I will go over two of the main ones in a bit of detail.

First and foremost challenge was with light. Light is a key element in photography and due to the late in the evening time of the game, it proved to be a bit of a tricky situation. The amount of light was changing continuously and adjusting the exposure during a game filled with action was difficult. Then again the color cast/temperature of the light was also changing. At the beginning of the first half, it was completely golden daylight and by the start of the second half, it was completely artificial light with a blue cast. So, the mixture of light is something to look out for as auto white balancing (which I don't trust) can not keep up with it. You can always correct for white balance as post processing, but I personally do prefer to get it right (or close) in the camera itself. This approach specially pays dividend when shooting such an event where you are gonna create dozens if not more exposures.

Apart from framing the shots, the next major challenge is in focusing. All the players were constantly in motion and therefore it was a job for focus tracking. But yet again with fading light, autofocus mechanism would spend more time focus hunting back and forward rather than tracking anything in the scene. Therefore, for this shoot, I decided to go full manual in both camera settings and focus to obtain a higher percentage of usable shots. Using manual focus also helps as you can be a step ahead of the play by using your intuition to predict where the ball is gonna go. Easier said than done of course, and personally I do believe I need more training on the technique.

As for composition, most shots were action/fast moving shots, so would have a main subject and few surrounding him (attacking the ball). Having the soccer ball in the shots help to guide the viewer and make it easy to enjoy the picture... Also some complementary details can also help. For an example, a part of a goal post would aid in a shot of a goal keeper.. or a referee watching something keenly can imply a foul just about to happen etc...

All in all, an amazing experience and would like to say "Go Engineering United!" .. And would also bring you some more games in the future.

Here are some of the interesting shots... (More will be provided to team members in due time via e-mail)
Lets start off with the blue team...

 Stretching up for the game.

Its pep talk time...

 In action..

Sequence shots always work with action.

Undying emotional support.

 Waiting for action to come his way...

Bringing out the tricks... 

Kicking it hard and long.

 Call it as he sees it.

No point protesting..

 Its hand shakes all around in the end.

Hope you like it.  Comments are welcomed and pics are copyrighted.

Thank you!
Akila Mike.