I Like Dat

What You Lookin' At?

Dragonfly Wing

Withering Beauty

Insert Fitting Title Here

No Editing Whatsoever

Those water droplets look just a bit too perfect, but I assure I haven't edited this photo at all.

Leaf-Petal

Abstract

I realize that this reflection of trees in dark water is not particularly visually pleasing nor would the taking of such a photo require incredible skill, however I find it a rather interesting photo in the way light and matter are distorted by the vibrating water.

Exploration

A bunch of weird insects venturing out from their eggs.

An Experiment With Exposure

This photo had a fairly short exposure time, but I managed (whether accidentally or deliberately I can't remember) nudge the camera to the side a bit during the exposure time. The weird greeny-gold cloud at the bottom of the picture is a coin spinning.

Can't Hide Forever

Dreams

Love That Pink

Flowers Fallen

Spectacular

Butterfly Wing

Who knew that butterfly wings were the inspiration for Minecraft?

Wingardium Leviosa

What you see is the morning dew caught on a spiders web. I just love the fact that it looks like the drops are floating, and also the focus is pretty good.

Ancient Mysteries

 

This picture is really a lot about the angle of the shot. When I took this picture, I was very satisfied, because I'd wanted to get this sort of picture for a long time. It holds an ancient magic, that can never be explained.

What the...?

I assure, I did not do any editing whatsoever on this photo. I got this picture by shining a red laser into the lense of my camera. I had a feeling it probably wasn't very goood for the camera, but I didn't care a whole lot for that camera, and I've got a new one since. I thought it created a pretty darn cool effect. This is my first step into the world of abstract photography, if you can call it that.

No, It's Rounder

This is one of my favourite pictures. To get that perfect focus on a perfectly circular drop of water, on an appropriately hairy leaf wich holds the water in place, is rare.

Sky On Fire

I like this picture very much, because the the soft sunlight sets the clouds on fire, giving them an almost heavenly look. I have not edited this picture at all.

Ripples to the Sand

This is a picture I took when I was on holiday at a beautiful little island resort. I was trying to somehow capture the water meeting the sand, in a beautiful way. I tried a few different angles, and then had a try at just taking the picture directly from the side, and it worked well. I love this picture because it puts the water and the sand on the same level, allowing the viewer to see a sudden but at the same time gradual change from sand to water. I also like the pristine focus on a portion of the water.

Moonstar

I took this picture on a beach, on the east coast of Australia, at night. It's a fifteen second exposure, making the moon look unnaturally bright. I really like the focus on the sand. The light on the water also adds a lot to the picture. Because it's a fifteen second exposure, all the waves have churned together to become a still, flat sea.

Something Different

This a an electric-acoustic guitar. I'm trying at the moment to expand my skills, and get better at taking pictures other than just nature close up. So, this was a bit of an experiment, which I thought worked out quite well.

Ixoras

These flowers are called Ixoras. I wish more humans had names like that.
I really like the focus here, it's crucial to the beauty of the image. I like the way you can't at all tell what the background is, because it's so completely blurred. And here I'm trying to take a step back, and take the picture a bit further away from the object than I usually do.

More Gerberas

This I really like because the focus is just on the tips of the petals of the gerbera that sits in the foreground. I also think having another gerbera in the background gives the picture more beauty.

You Don't Need It All

This is a Gerbera. Something I like about this picture is that it doesn't actually show the whole flower, and it's not all in perfect focus. But where it is in focus, it looks almost perfect, pristine.

Apple Art

The focus isn't quite perfect on this, and wish that the lighting could have allowed for the red of the apple to be a bit more...rich, and solid. The reflection of light on the surface of the apple is unfortunate. The background isn't exactly fitting. But all round a nice picture. Taken on a Sony A550.

Three Bucks

This is a thirty second exposure I took, using a Sony A550. I particularly like the focus on the two dollar coin, and the way it kind of glows. And, yes, I actually got it balancing on top of the fifty cent piece.

Plasma Filaments

Been rather busy lately, so I haven't posted in a while. Here's an extremely cool picture (well, I think it is). Now, I assure you, no editing was done on this picture after I took it. This is a picture of one of my fingers pressed against the glass of a plasma lamp. If you don't know what a plasma lamp is, look it up.
The focus on this picture is not fantastic, but I still really like it just because it's an amazing picture.

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.

Focus On The Clutter

This is a picture of a type of jumping spider in the family Salticidae. These are very interesting spiders that have excellent vision and are able to jump large distances to capture prey or escape. I didn't know that information off the top of my head, I emailed an Entomologist from the University of Queensland, and asked what sort of spider this is. I took this picture on the wooden frame of a mirror. This picture was originally zoomed out a lot. But I thought it looked better up close where you can see all the details, so I cropped the picture to this zoom. I love the detail of this picture. The way you can see the little hairs on the legs and the fangs, the six visible eyes, each separate joint on the legs. Such a small creature, but a truly amazing creature, and one of perfect design. As for the bad things about this picture, well, the focus on the main part of the spider is very good. But the focus to the left and to the right and on the back of the spider isn't very good. As I've said on other pictures, it's too blurry. But it's important to note here, as I've said on other pictures, areas to the sides and the back of the main subject of the picture should (generally) be a bit blurry so as to emphasize the focus on the main part of the image (in this case, the main part of the picture being the front half of the spider) but here the focus, I think, is too blurry. Notice that the focus on the wood to the sides of the spider is the same as the focus on the back half of the spider, that's not good, the back half of the spider is more important than the wood, the wood is just the background. The back half of the spider is less important than the front half of the spider but more important than the front half, that is why the front half is in so much better focus than the back half. The back half is more important than the wood and therefore there should be slightly better focus on it. Now, I should say, when I talk about that stuff about where the focus should be and all that, I don't really know the rules about getting the right focus in photography, I'm just saying what I think is best judging on my experience with photography, I'm saying that I think this is how you should handle your focus (within photography of this sort, that being macro/super macro photography) in order to make the picture look as good as you possibly can.

A Leafy Incline

I'm not sure if pictures of water are getting a bit boring, but I couldn't not put this picture on my blog. I think the focus on the edge of leaf in the bottom-left corner of the picture is quite bad, I think that it should be a bit blurry, so as to make the focus on the middle of the photo stand out more. But here I think the focus on the bottom-left corner of the picture is a bit too blurry. The main focus is on the middle of the picture, and that focus is good, it fits with the rest of the picture, and the focus becomes blurrier and blurrier as you go towards the edge of the picture, which is good, because it emphasizes the focus on the middle. But I think, in the middle of the picture, just above the biggest lump of water, the focus goes blurry very abruptly, and I would say too abruptly, it should get slowly more blurry, not just suddenly jump from perfect focus to completely blurred. I can't quite say what I like about this picture, it looks kind of like one of those wallpapers that are already there when you install an operating system on a computer. Oh, did you notice that little bubble of air in one of the droplets of water?

A Gold Flooded Sky

I cannot decide weather this picture would be better with or without the aeroplane in the picture. Anyway, this picture was taken in Singapore airport, it was taken through the window of one of the lounges where you sit and wait for your aeroplane. I very much like how the light of the sun reflects off the yellow on the ground very nicely. One thing that really annoys me in this picture is the dark thing in the top left corner of the picture. Something about the picture that I could not have changed is about the trees. Just below the sun, where the trees rise in height, I think the trees get too close to the sun (in a 2D perspective), the sun should be more isolated from the trees. And the trees at the far left of the picture are to indistinct, I would have liked better focus there. But apart from that, this is among my favourite sunrise/sunset pictures.

Caught In A Web

I very much like this picture, the perspective is unusual, and it almost looks like there's a pane of glass that the water droplets are sitting on. But no, those droplets of water are caught in a spider web. Now, first for the criticisms. The focus on the bottom left corner of the picture is too blurry. I think it should be a bit blurry, so as to make the center of the picture more the focus of the photo, but here it's a bit too blurry in the bottom left corner. Also, although I haven't edited this photo, it looks a bit like a 5 year old tried to edit it and was on for about 5 seconds and then he was called away from the computer. What I mean is, there are little bits of the photo that look as if they don't really fit, as if they were taken from another picture and added in. As for the good things about this picture, the focus on the middle of picture is close to perfect, and the focus gets slightly more blurry as you go towards the outside of the picture, which emphasizes the focus on the middle of the picture.