Camera Labs

Had a bash at photographing some butterflies today and got a bit too "up close and personal" for comfort with some birds:

Important Notice: Viewers of a nervous disposition should keep a safe distance from their screen when viewing the last image as a shockingly loud shirt is featured

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Mark
Nikon D300 / Sigma 10-20mm / Nikkor 17-55 f2.8 / Nikkor 18-200mm VR / Nikkor 50mm f1.8 / SB600 Speedlight
Mark Amy Photography
My Squidoo lens - Images of China

Nice shots Mark!

PS - is that you at the end?

Thanks Gordon, yes that's me. Thought it was about time I put my face to my name.

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Mark
Nikon D300 / Sigma 10-20mm / Nikkor 17-55 f2.8 / Nikkor 18-200mm VR / Nikkor 50mm f1.8 / SB600 Speedlight
Mark Amy Photography
My Squidoo lens - Images of China

Gordon, good job you don't do your videos with a shirt like that

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Roy
EOS 350D, 40D + BG-E2N, EF 24-105mm f/4 L IS USM, EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro USM, EF 100-400 f/4.5-5.6 L IS USM, 430 EX Speedlite




My Fotopic

Nice shot Mark !
I liked the 3rd pic - the small DOF makes it stand out quite well - though I think it was slightly off-focus. Or maybe my eye-sight not up to standard.
The colours are amazing though - any processing done ? or is it Just Natural from the camera. !

DavidL

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Nikon D7000 and a bunch of Nikkors

Hi David and thanks for your comments, I love the DOF on the 3rd one too. Yeah it's not as sharp as it could be. I was shooting continuously in the hope that one would hit the mark and they were moving and flying here and there so quickly that it was hard to actually pin one down and this one came the closest.

Sadly the colours didn't come naturally, I increased saturation and contrast in Photoshop.

You mentioned in my other thread that Sanya was your ancestral home, I'd be interested to hear more about that, have you been here before or does the connection go very far back? I have a friend from the UK who came here 15 years ago and she said that the main beach, Yalong Bay was just a beach and there were no big hotels. Today, the Sheraton, Hilton, Marriott etc are all here! Fortunately commercialism hasn't gone too wild though and the whole place is still quite unspoilt.....for now!!

Anyway, back to the butterflies, there's a place here called Butterfly Valley which I'm going to visit in the next day or two and it is supposed to have the most beautiful species of butterflies so that will give me some good practice on DOF and focusing.

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Mark
Nikon D300 / Sigma 10-20mm / Nikkor 17-55 f2.8 / Nikkor 18-200mm VR / Nikkor 50mm f1.8 / SB600 Speedlight
Mark Amy Photography
My Squidoo lens - Images of China

Hi Mark
/Off-topic
Hainan Island is the birth place of my grand-father,
unfortunately I have not been there... yet.. and my 'roots' are all blurred..

I was hoping you can see and share the 'show' with me / us here in the forum..

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Nikon D7000 and a bunch of Nikkors

(off topic - Roy, I actually do have a shirt a bit like that! Maybe for the next video...)

Went to this place called Butterfly Valley yesterday and had a pretty disastrous time with my pics I took about 150 and could only use very few of them because I was concentrating on DOF too much and forgot about shutter speed. I was taking pics and looking at them afterwards and even zooming in and they looked fine, but as soon as I uploaded them, blur was obvious.

I wonder, how do people compromise between DOF and shutter speed? I left my camera on aperture priority and only later realised that as I was shooting moving objects....and these butterflies wouldn't stay still for a second!...that I should have used shutter priority instead....stupid!

Anyway, here's the few sharpest ones of the butterflies and a lizard I saw:





[img]http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2091/1862621167_aa644ae321.jpg[/img









I tried the "more vivid" setting on the camera as I always seem to be increasing saturation and in processing I just cropped and increased contrast.

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Mark
Nikon D300 / Sigma 10-20mm / Nikkor 17-55 f2.8 / Nikkor 18-200mm VR / Nikkor 50mm f1.8 / SB600 Speedlight
Mark Amy Photography
My Squidoo lens - Images of China

Phantastic Mark!
Learn from your own errors. You'll never forget those...

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Thomas (beware: Nikon-fanboy and moderator!) My Lens Reviews, My Pictures, My Photography Blog
D800+assorted lenses

Great Shots Mark
Dont worry about making mistakes - we all make them
Some like me - tend to make them more often than not

Looks like a wonderful place to go for a relaxation vacation !

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Nikon D7000 and a bunch of Nikkors

Those are great shots, even if you only kept a few.

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Graham
Flickr

Thanks for your feedback, your encouragement is much appreciated and needed

I'm happy to report I had a more successful day today shooting monkeys! New thread to follow......

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Mark
Nikon D300 / Sigma 10-20mm / Nikkor 17-55 f2.8 / Nikkor 18-200mm VR / Nikkor 50mm f1.8 / SB600 Speedlight
Mark Amy Photography
My Squidoo lens - Images of China