As promised: Otter-shots!

These were taken with the Sony Alpha 350k

With the Minolta 50mm, f/3.2, 1/250, ISO 100, Auto focus


Minolta 50mm, f/1.7, 1/160, ISO 100, Auto Focus

In retrospect I think I would have done this a bit differently if I had time; it's a bit dark and less sharp than I'd like. I think moving to a smaller aperture but a higher ISO might have helped, but I was wary of noise at the time. There's a bizarre glowing edge on the bottom of our sea otter - not entirely sure what caused that or how to eliminate it in the future.


These were taken with the Canon XTi

Using the 18-55 Canon Kit lens @ 27mm, handheld 1/13, flash on, Manual Focus


Using the 18-55 again this time @ 39mm, ISO 400, 1/400, flash off, manual focus


Finally, back to the 350, with the 50mm lens again:

f/1.7, 1/800, ISO 100, Manual "focus"


Message Edited by Graham on 05-06-2008 12:12 PM

It's indeed one of the BEST months to start taking pictures as we can see the first leaves, first flowers etc...

here are some of my favorites

Klaus - wow, fantastic... I'm incredibly timid when it comes to asking people if I can take their picture. Any suggestions on how to approach it?

smclean - love the composition of that shot.

It's hard to ask strangers if you can take their pictures... especially when you're way out of your element in a different culture and appear like a "rich man" with a camera strapped around your neck.  I've had some good luck in taking video.  I managed to capture a cerimonial unwrapping of a girl's grandfather's bones in Ifugou province (Philippines) and took lots of footage of women planting rice, etc.  But some cerimonies are more sacred than others.  When I was stupid, I happened upon a little village of huts just before nightfall (we were camping a couple miles away at the time).  Things were lit with torches, and when the people involved saw us, they screamed and started running after us with very large Bolo knifes.  Obviously they were just trying to scare us away (and probably laughed their heads off after), but I literally pissed my pants while running away.  Luckily the camera didn't get wet.  My wife was alone with me, and she ran faster than I did! LOL

Some of the most precious photographic moments I "could have taken" were while in shanty towns.  People even living in pretty horrid conditions are a proud lot, and view people with cameras as rich invaders who want to make fun of them, or show the world how crappy their lives are.  What makes these places great photographic subjects is because of the paradox.  Nearly everyone you see is smiling and happy, against a backdrop of crowding, extreme poverty (not the Canadian kind!), and have literally nothing.  They're lives revolve around where to get rice to feed their children the next day and water they can drink.  I'd love to do a photographic contrast against unhappy, snarling people in North American cities compared to the former.  But unfortunately I just can't bring my camera there.  However even if you have to leave your camera at home, I'd recommend such a venture.  It's a real eye-opener and really makes you think.

For what it's worth, taking pictures of people isn't against the law. You've just got to hope they don't mind too much

Skyhawk - have you seen the picture of the starving boy with the vulture walking around him? It won photo of the year a few years back...very touching photo.

Fair enough.
In North America, though, that holds true
Unless you're on private property, everything's fair game.

As for the picture, here ya go.


He had said he had to follow the boy around for a few hours waiting for the perfect composition. Nobody knows what happened to the boy as the photog left promptly, and upon returning home committed suicide not long after.

That's a very emotionally difficult thing to see. I'm not sure I'd be able to take that shot - but given the impact of it not taking the shot might be the wrong thing to do.

I shot what I thought was a rather artful picture of the most opulent hamburger I've ever seen in my life tonight. I'll post it later as posting it right now seems completely insensitive and the thought of the juxtaposition with the picture above makes me incredible uncomfortable.

I spent some time taking these this evening. This is also my first foray into HDR.

Sony A350K, 15 second exposure, f/6.3, 70mm focal length, Shutter Priority, ISO 100



Sony A350K, 2 Second Exposure, f/5, Zoomed through from 18mm to 70mm, Shutter Priority, ISO 100


Sony A350K, 5 exposures from 1 second to 5 seconds, 60mm focal length, ISO100. 5 shots were processed and tonemapped by Photomatix Pro 3. This is the first HDR image I've produced that I've liked. I'm still not great with this process, but I liked the results of this one.


Message Edited by Graham on 05-08-2008 01:28 AM