Bad knee & photography

I think i have now badly injured my already injured knee/leg. I went for a 3 hour shoot-out. Wore knee guards but this evening things aren’t that great. The ache has radiated down my leg. The bruise is there meaning there might have been internal bleeding/ My left knee is also aching up.

Anyway, on a brighter note, i think the macro’s much better.. see flickr.

I’m now learning to control the strength of the flash by adjusting the exposure on flash, rather than on camera. Thus I think I will be able to hold off getting a ring flash for a long while.  Most i know just shoot using the flash on auto mode which imho, will not give you good photos because no two lightings outside is the same eash and every time you shoot an insect.. Auto is just too harsh. Another thing, its always important to get the shot right so as to minimise any photoshopping. I rarely like to touch-up the photos. If you have to touch up a lot (i.e. more than 5%) means you should just toss the photo out.

Macro/close-up photography = what to kit up?

I’ve been shooting macro for a while now. Most people just wear their regular clothes, any type of footware and stuff. Other than the usual macro lens, flash and bag, here’s a short compilation of what I use and bring along for macro/close-up photography.

1) Long pants – important to protect your legs from insect bites and the occassional fall (i fell through a bridge once and had my leg stuck in it, good thing i had the pants on and it protected me from futher injury. I had a week long huge bruise from that).    The pants has to be dark coloured as it’ll always be dirty. Beige might be good too to blend with the sand.

2) Top - long sleeves are important too. You don’t want to be a walking mosquito buffet, do you? And you won’t want to get dark under the hot sun. Wear cotton as you WILL sweat a lot especially if you are shooting for more than 2 hours. Colour of top/t-shirt doesn’t matter, the mosquitos will bite you anyhow.

3) Footware - Don’t wear flip-flops. I tried it and its not practical. I prefer sneakers or my waterproof crocs. You have to protect your feet from snake, centipedes and other insect bites. And mud!

4) Towel – a must have to wipe off sweat, protect your neck from the sun and mosquitos.

5) Plastic sheet – in case you have to sit on the wet ground

6) Knee pads – VERY important as most of the time you will be kneeling on hard surfaces. Don’t buy those meant for skate boarding as they are unsuitable. Buy those that comes with 1/2 inch paddings.

7) Pepper spray – for protection against unwanted “friendly” passerbys. One can never be too careful.

8 ) Wet wipes – important after you shoot. For cleaning up.

9) Tripod – for low light that needs slow shutter speed shots

10) Mosquito repellant – Numero Uno important!

11) Cream for itch - You’ll need it after you have been bitten by the mosquitos

12) Spare change – Keep some money in your camera bag.

13) Spare battery and memory card - remember to charge them and that the cards are clean of photos

14) Sunscreen – you will need it if you are shooting during the day.

15) A regular, light lens - if you want to lighten your load, just pack the macro lens and one other smaller lens, eg. 50mm just in case.

I think that’s about it!

Tuesday . . . la la la

I don’t know why this damselfly kept moving its butt but it was as if it was doing yoga.

Waterlily with bees

Busy bee

My Sunday so far

Not bad… took a few shots. I like this one. Shot handheld. Had to wait in front of a bush to get this shot. Image’s uncropped. Best go to flickr for a bigger image lah.

If you look hard on the right foot of the insect, you’d see a smaller insect there too – don’t know what its doing there lah.

Red dragonfly

A red dragonfly resting in-between meals

Damselfly laying its eggs

damselfly laying eggs

I shot this on Sunday
Got as close as I could. The lens was just inches away from the water.
I would have loved getting a eye-to-eye shot but its impossible to do unless i don’t mind getting wet.
This damselfly was laying its eggs in the water. You can see its “end” and a bubble, which i think its the egg (but the bubble shot is in another photo).

I enjoy photographing damselflies. They are such delicate little fellas.
Its amazing what details God has put into His creations.

And the colours…. fantastic!