Cherry Blossoms

I've always loved these trees because of all the beautiful blossoms it gives every year. The problem is all the little red "cherries" that fall at the end of the year and cover the place. This was taken earlier this spring while everything was in bloom.

Exif Data
Camera: Canon 5D mkII
Aperture: f/1.6
Exposure: 1/2000
Focal Length: 85mm
Flash: Not-Fired
ISO: 50
Post processing included conversion from RAW, and unsharp-mask

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Family Photos Explained

Last week I had some time to go out with the family to take a few photos by Dows Lake with what was left of the tulips. It was late in the evening with a setting sun casting a wonderful golden light on us and the surroundings. This of course is the golden hour for photography, and the best kind of light for portraits and landscape photography. It is my preferred time of day to shoot in, but of course you need to know how to use it to your advantage and how to balance the light on your subject and the background. So I thought I would write up this post to explain how I handled the light with the two examples below.

In this first shot I wanted to get the tulips in the background to give me some colour, but I wanted them out of focus so that your eye is instantly drawn towards the subject, my daughter. Using my 85mm f/1.2 lens I could have completely opened up the aperture (f/1.2) to really blur the background (see my aperture tutorial for more info on how this works) but since I was fairly close to her I knew that if I did that very little of my daughter would be in focus as well. I therefore decided to stop down to f/3.5 since in my experience with that lens it gives me a suitable amount of depth of field, while still producing a very pleasing bokeh (blurred background). With my subject standing in open shade there was still a decent amount of light available so that I used ISO 100 to give me the cleanest photo with no grain, while still giving me fast enough shutter speeds. With aperture and ISO settings selected I metered the background to give me a correct exposure shutter speed value of 1/320th sec. To provide a bit more contrast in the subject's face I also setup an off camera flash in high-speed sync mode to the my left, which was in the same direction of the indirect sunlight. To match the colour of the setting sun and warm up the colour of the flash I covered it with a 3/4 CTO gel, and set my camera's white balance to 4600K to keep some of the warm orange tones. Other than converting the camera output from RAW to jpg, this shot is basically straight out of the camera with no added post processing.

Exif Data
Camera: Canon 5D mkII
Aperture: f/3.5
Exposure: 1/320
Focal Length: 85mm
Flash: Fired off camera
ISO: 100
Post processing included conversion from RAW

The second shot has a somewhat similar setup. I needed more depth of field since there are three people in the shot, so I stopped down to f/5.0 giving me a very sharp focus for all the girls, yet still slightly blurring the background. The sun in this shot was coming in from behind the subjects giving a very nice rim lighting, so I needed to expose for the background (shutter speed of 1/320 @ 100 ISO) and use my flash to bring the girls back from becoming silhouettes. The flash was setup on my right, and I again used a 3/4 CTO gel to match the golden sunset colour and high-speed sync. White balance was again set to 4600K to keep some of those warm tones. Other than converting the camera output from RAW to jpg, this shot is also basically straight out of the camera with no added post processing.

Exif Data
Camera: Canon 5D mkII
Aperture: f/5.0
Exposure: 1/320
Focal Length: 85mm
Flash: Fired off camera
ISO: 100
Post processing included conversion from RAW

Daffodils Timelapse Video

Just a quick little timelapse photography video I did of two daffodils opening. I used my old Canon XTi that was modified to use the 400plus firmware which has a built in intervalometer. I photos at 2 minute intervals for a total of 82 shots. Play it in 1080p full HD glory and enjoy this timelapse video!



Exif Data
Camera: Canon Digital Rebel XTi
Aperture: f/10.0
Exposure: 1/50
Focal Length: 41mm
Flash: Not-Fired
ISO: 200
Post processing included batch exposure adjustments, cropped 16x9, create timelapse video @ 15fps

Pink Flowers

Today's shot for the "Photo a Day" project is called Pink Flowers

Exif Data
Camera: Canon 5D mkII
Aperture: f/8.0
Exposure: 1/100
Focal Length: 200mm with 2X TC (400mm)
Flash: Not-Fired
ISO: 800
Post processing included conversion from RAW, and Johnna's Memories of Sunshine action

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Plenty of Gold

Today's shot for the "Photo a Day" project is called Plenty of Gold

Exif Data
Camera: Canon 5D mkII
Aperture: f/7.1
Exposure: 1/320
Focal Length: 185mm
Flash: Not-Fired
ISO: 400
Post processing included conversion from RAW, and unsharp-mask

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In The Spotlight

Today's shot for the "Photo a Day" project is called In The Spotlight

Exif Data
Camera: Canon 5D mkII
Aperture: f/8.0
Exposure: 1/1250
Focal Length: 200mm with 2X TC (400mm)
Flash: Not-Fired
ISO: 800
Post processing included conversion from RAW, and levels adjustment

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Purple, Yellow, and Green

Today's shot for the "Photo a Day" project is called Purple, Yellow, and Green

Exif Data
Camera: Canon 5D mkII
Aperture: f/8.0
Exposure: 1/125
Focal Length: 200mm with 2X TC (400mm)
Flash: Not-Fired
ISO: 800
Post processing included conversion from RAW, and high pass filter

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Gerbera Daisy

Today's shot for the "Photo a Day" project is called Gerbera Daisy

Exif Data
Camera: Canon 5D mkII
Aperture: f/8.0
Exposure: 1/100
Focal Length: 85mm
Extension Tube: 20mm
Flash: Fired off camera (E-TTL)
ISO: 50
Flash Cord
Post processing included conversion from RAW, cropped 4:3, and unsharp-mask

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Tiger Lillies

Today's shot for the "Photo a Day" project is called Tiger Lillies

Exif Data
Camera: Canon 5D mkII
Aperture: f/5.6
Exposure: 1/60
Focal Length: ~50mm Lensbaby
Flash: Not-Fired
ISO: 2000
Post processing included conversion from RAW, and levels adjustment

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Purple Flowers

Today's shot for the "Photo a Day" project is called Purple Flowers

Exif Data
Camera: Canon 5D mkII
Aperture: f/2.8
Exposure: 1/250
Focal Length: 173mm
Flash: Not-Fired
ISO: 400
Post processing included conversion from RAW, rotation correction, levels adjustment, and unsharp-mask

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Lily Pad Flower

Today's shot for the "Photo a Day" project is called Lily Pad Flower

Exif Data
Camera: Canon 5D mkII
Aperture: f/6.3
Exposure: 1/1250
Focal Length: 157.5mm with 2X TC (315mm)
Flash: Not-Fired
ISO: 160
Post processing included conversion from RAW, cropped, levels adjustment, and unsharp-mask

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All Lined Up

Today's shot for the "Photo a Day" project is called All Lined Up

Exif Data
Camera: Canon 5D mkII
Aperture: f/5.0
Exposure: 1/30
Focal Length: 105mm
Flash: Not-Fired
ISO: 1000
Post processing included conversion from RAW, and unsharp-mask

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The Smells of Summer

Today's shot for the "Photo a Day" project is called The Smells of Summer

Exif Data
Camera: Canon 5D mkII
Aperture: f/1.6
Exposure: 1/4000
Focal Length: 85mm
Flash: Not-Fired
ISO: 125
Post processing included conversion from RAW

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Wild Flower

Today's shot for the "Photo a Day" project is called Wild Flower

Exif Data
Camera: Canon 5D mkII
Aperture: f/3.5
Exposure: 1/1600
Focal Length: 140mm
Flash: Not-Fired
ISO: 200
Post processing included conversion from RAW, and contrast adjustment

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Wild Lilies

Today's shot for the "Photo a Day" project is called Wild Lilies

Exif Data
Camera: Canon 5D mkII
Aperture: f/3.5
Exposure: 1/2500
Focal Length: 160mm
Flash: Not-Fired
ISO: 200
Post processing included conversion from RAW, and unsharp-mask

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Pink Rose

Today's shot for the "Photo a Day" project is called Pink Rose

Exif Data
Camera: Canon 5D mkII
Aperture: f/6.3
Exposure: 1/250
Focal Length: 50mm
Extension Tube: 12mm
Flash: Not-Fired
ISO: 500
Post processing included conversion from RAW, levels adjustment, and unsharp-mask

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Wild Irises

Today's shot for the "Photo a Day" project is called Wild Irises

Exif Data
Camera: Canon 5D mkII
Aperture: f/10.0
Exposure: 1/500
Focal Length: 200mm with 2X TC (400mm)
Flash: Not-Fired
ISO: 250
Post processing included

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Clematis

Today's shot for the "Photo a Day" project is called Clematis

Exif Data
Camera: Canon 5D mkII
Aperture: f/7.1
Exposure: 1/80
Focal Length: 50mm
Extension Tube: 12mm
Flash: Not-Fired
ISO: 500
Post processing included conversion from RAW, and levels adjustment

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Colour Me Purple

Today's shot for the "Photo a Day" project is called Colour Me Purple

Exif Data
Camera: Canon 5D mkII
Aperture: f/1.8
Exposure: 1/250
Focal Length: 85mm
Flash: Not-Fired
ISO: 320
Post processing included conversion from RAW

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Orange Orange Everywhere

Today's shot for the "Photo a Day" project is called Orange Orange Everywhere

Exif Data
Camera: Canon 5D mkII
Aperture: f/5.6
Exposure: 1/250
Focal Length: 50mm
Extension Tubes: 68mm
Flash: Not-Fired
ISO: 800
Post processing included conversion from RAW, and healing tool

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