Category: photography
A quick visit to: Daytona Beach
Posted by Kristian Golding on March 26, 2019
SpaceX Falcon Heavy test flight
Posted by Kristian Golding on February 6, 2018
Some scavenger hunt photos
Posted by Kristian Golding on June 27, 2012
I recently participated on a photo scavenger hunt on Google+ arranged by the awesome Chrysta Rae. Â The idea behind the hunt is that you have about a month to take photos of ten different subjects. Â The use of Photoshop/Lightroom is encouraged, although I didn’t explore heavy editing that much. Â Â You cannot use photos you’ve previously taken – they have to be taken during that month. Â At the end of the month, Chrysta compiles the photos from everyone (500 people are in the group, with about two-thirds of that participating), Â and the photos are judged (Chrysta is not one of the judges, of course).
I ended up taking six photos, and of those, the two below are the only ones of mine that I really liked.
The above photo, “balloon”, is of a water-filled balloon popping. Â Here is a dump of the text I wrote alongside this photo in the hunt: shot with my Nikon D90 on a tripod, wired remote control, remote flash on another tripod, and my favourite lens – a 50mm prime. Â I situated the flash to the right of the shot. Â I was standing behind the flash, holding a long stick with a pin in one hand and the remote in the other. I tied the balloons to a plant hanger and situated the flash and camera to focus on the bottom of the balloon. Â Then it was just timing… and a whole pack of balloons and wet feet. Â I was really aiming to retain the shape of the balloon – it’s amazing how many completely-not-a-balloon shapes came out. Â The remains of the balloon had flown outside of the shot, as I gave the water a little time to settle and drop down before the shot was taken. Â You don’t see the stick-and-pin (or my hand) I used to pop the balloon as they’re behind and above, and also outside the flash focus. Â I processed the shot in Lightroom – Â mainly just sharpness and contrast adjustments, with a bit of oomph to the black levels.
This second photo, “smoke”, was of Adriana blowing smoke with flash situated behind and to the left of her. Â I made minor adjustments to black levels and a graduated exposure filter was used to even out the brightness levels (which originally decreased from bottom left to top right).
You can get in on the action by circling Chrysta on Google Plus:Â https://plus.google.com/u/0/113977984500465768287/posts
Signup for the next hunt is on the 29th of June:Â https://plus.google.com/u/0/113977984500465768287/posts/RB3kz8bAtXp
The very hungry caterpillar
Posted by Kristian Golding on December 28, 2011
I recently couldn’t help but notice that one of the shrubs in our back garden had been reduced from something like this:
To this:
I thought that my mind had wondered while spraying for weeds a few days prior, and I’d accidentally killed most of it. However, while out watering I noticed something about the size of my little finger clinging to the side of one of the newly bare stems.
It’s the caterpillar of an Io moth. I was fascinated by the spines (which are actually poisonous, but not greatly) and the brown and white stripe running along the length of the caterpillar. Luckily it was early enough in the morning and wasn’t in a rush for work, so unpacked the monopod and macro lens and set to taking some shots. It ate most of the shrub, the least it could do was pose for me.
A few more shots can be found here.
The interesting part is that I currently don’t know where it is. I did see it on an adjoining shrub at one point, although it hasn’t left a trail of destruction. My only guess is that it has made a cocoon down near the base of the new shrub. I’m sort of hoping it is a male, as it will fly away to try and find a mate and then I won’t have to kill offspring. The female however tends to remain in place, waiting for a male to arrive (in moth form life lasts for only a day, so things have to happen fairly quickly), and that means things could get messy when I bring out the killing spray. Â But I’ll try and get some more photos first.