An Important Background

This is a Chrysanthemum. One thing I particularly like about this flower is how at the base of the petals, the edges of the petals fold in. This is caught very nicely in this picture. Also, the base of the petals have a slight yellow-green tinge, which - I'm guessing - is due to the green colour of the centre of the flower. The focus on the petals at the far end of the flower is very nice, the focus on the petals nearer to the camera is a fair bit more blurry, which is good, but I would say it's the slightest bit too blurry. I really like the background in this picture, it makes big contrast with the Chrysanthemum in the centre of the shot. It's a very dark, sort of forest-like background, it's rich and a very nice contrast with the central flower, except for a couple of other Chrysanthemums that are just opening.

Monkey Magic

I took this picture using a Nikon D3000. I was at a zoo, and managed to snap this through the gaps in the cage. The exposure was 1/20 of a second, and the ISO speed rating was 400. This picture isn't quite perfectly in focus, which annoys me slightly, but it was the best I got. I like the way the monkey is looking away from the camera, it gives the photo an interesting affect. That branch coming in above and to the right of the monkey gives the picture a nice look in terms of perspective. And the background is comfortably blurry.

Zen and The Art of Motorcycle Photography

These are (I think) mostly Harley Davidsons. I've put a sepia effect on this picture. I was going to post a colour version but it seemed too bright, and too vibrant. Putting the sepia effect on it gives it an old fashioned look. The perspective in this picture is very important. Also, the trees in the background (combined with the sepia effect) give the picture a peaceful feel, as though the picture was taken in the middle of nowhere, almost like it's a painting.

What Light Reveals

This is one of my favourite pictures, I've been wanting to post it for a while.
This ring, in bright light, isn't very attractive. But here, in this soft, genuine light, and at this distance, the intricate design is shown more clearly, and the brilliance of the stone set in the ring is much more pronounced. In most of my pictures that are taken at this sort of distance, I like the main part of the image to be in good, clear focus, and then I like the picture to grow less and less defined as you go towards the less important parts of the image. But here, the ring quite suddenly comes into focus just as the metal is starting to thicken (as it goes up towards the stone), and I like the effect that results. Also, the scratches on the wood give the picture a defined look. I didn't put any effects on this picture, it is not edited in any way.

Perspective, Focus, and Reflection

I'm not sure what type of frog this is. I really like the perspective in this picture, the focus on the frog is quite good, and the reflection of the sky in the water is quite attractive, also the murkyness of the pond gives the photo a homey feel.

Flying In Sync

I think I took this picture a little to far away from the birds. The focus isn't quite perfect, and that smudge on the screen is rather annoying, it's a smudge on the lens of my camera.

A Bronze Sky

 The clouds in this picture are amazing, they're what catch my attention. What's bad about this picture is that, it's slightly crooked, and slightly off centre.

Rolling Hills

I've put a shadow effect on this picture, it was a bit too bright for my liking originally. In this photo I really like the way the hills sort of tumble over each other, and also how the shadows of the clouds overhead drastically change the shade of green on certain sections of the landscape.

Shadowed Park

 

 I put a slight darkening effect on this photo, because I felt that that grass and the lighting would look better if it had a warmer, glowing look about it. I like the fact that the focus on the trees isn't quite perfect, it gives the picture a soft look.

A Spiny Leaf Insect

The is a picture of a Spiny Leaf insect, of the species Extatosoma. To get the species and the name of this insect I emailed an entomologist working at the University of Queensland (UQ). The focus on the insect isn't quite perfect, but it's good enough. The level of focus on the background bush is fitting I think, reasonably out of focus in the far background, and better in the close, but not anywhere getting as sharp as the focus on the lower parts of the insect itself.

Mid-Air Murderer

I'm not sure what sort of spider this is, but guessing from the golden colour of the legs, I think that it's a Golden Orb spider. I took this picture in the back yard of a house in Sydney, Australia, Golden Orb spiders are common in Australia. The lush green of the vegetation in the background adds to the shot, and also the sun shining onto the spider pronounces the gold colour of the spider's legs.

A Mock Orange

This is a Mock Orange, but it's not orange. The flower in my blog post titled "An Uncertain Illusion" is also a mock orange. I really like the nonexistent (well, not quite nonexistent) focus on the background, which turns the little bit of light into separate pale, slightly translucent spheres.

One thing that particularly irritates me about this picture is the right most petal of the mock orange, it's too blurry, and it obscures the centre of the flower. Also, the bud to right of that flower petal is too blurry as well. But all in all, this is one of my favourite pictures of a flower.

A Deep, Dented Blur

This is a picture of a water strider on the surface of a very murky creek. These creatures fascinate me, the way they rely on the cohesion and surface tension of water to survive, it's truly amazing, and I find it hard to believe how anybody can believe that a creature so extremely intricate and detailed as this one could possibly be formed by the process of evolution. Anyway, back to the point of this blog. I'm beginning to realize how extremely important the focus in a photo is, when I got to type into a post "what I like about this picture is...", I always think, "oh, it's the focus, again." And so it is with this picture, but, of course, that's not the only major point. Also, the rich, lush green colour that results from the reflection of the trees, combined with the deep, brown colour of the water. Coming back to the focus, the main point is how it's all blurry and not quite visible (in fact, so blurry it irritates some peoples eyes), and then suddenly there are those little dips in the water, the dents created by the pressure of the weight of the water strider on the surface of the water. But, if you zoom in, you'll see that the focus on the water strider is not perfect. But I don't think this is my fault, I was holding the camera extremely steadily, it was the vibration of the water and the constant movement (you can hardly ever get them to stay still) of the water strider. So, yes, there are my views on this picture.

A Lush Green

Well, I have been on holiday for about a month, and so didn't get a chance to post, but I'm back. I got many, many, pictures while I was away, and hopefully many of them will be appearing on this blog in future. This is not one of the pictures I took while I was away, I took this quite a long time ago, in mid 2010. This is one of my pictures that I took using a Canon Power Shot A470. One of the things that I absolutely love about this picture, is, of course, the focus. But also I like the leaf itself, it has such a brilliant green hue. The focus is very nicely defined and the focus on the leaves is contrasts immensely with the focus of the background, which is, of course, what I want. A few things that could have been better about this picture: You may notice that on the biggest leaf, the focus decreases as you go towards the point of the leaf, that's good, but I think it gets blurry too quickly and so by the time you get to the far edge of the biggest leaf, its too blurry, it's almost as blurry as the background, which is bad. Also, on the little leaf, to the right of and just under the biggest leaf, I think on the right edge, the focus is a bit too blurry. For the three tiny leaves in the bottom-left corner of the picture, I think they are too out of focus. Oh, and one other thing that I just noticed, on the biggest leaf, on the edge that is nearest to the bottom of the picture, I the focus is not quite enough. But apart from all that, I do like this picture.

A Wireframe Volcano

I love this picture, the way it looks a lot like a volcano. I took this picture in the front yard of a house, it was fortunate that the yard hadn't been mowed for a while. It's amazing how the spider web is drenched in dew, if the dew hadn't been there, the web would be practically invisible. I very much like how the sun lights this picture, the light of the sun reflects of the droplets of water that outline the web giving a bit of a shine, and the light also gives the grass a very bright shade of green. That blade of grass sticking out of the bottom-right corner is very annoying, the picture would have been better without it. I like how the focus gets blurrier and blurrier as you move towards the top of the image.

It Just Doesn't Seem To Fit

I haven't been able to post for a while, sorry about that (to the few who ever look at my blog) . I took this picture in Melaka, Peninsular Malaysia. I'm not completely sure, but I think I took it in the late afternoon, I may have decreased the shutter speed as much as I could (making it darker), but I can't quite recall. What I like about this picture is its depth. Because lower parts of the mosque poke into higher parts of the mosque (from a 2D point of view), which gives a weird look. In fact, it looks like two different photos put together, the tower in the background being from one picture, and the corner of the building and the windows above it being from another picture, an interesting effect results. But I assure you, this is one picture, there was no photo shopping or shafting together two different photos, this is the original photo. Another good thing about his photo is the clouds in the sky, it gives the mosque a sort of dominating look, and the dreary and gloomy looking weather affects the building in a dark way.