Got a photo to share today from my small point and shoot camera.

It is still one of my favorite photos, and it goes along with yesterday's photo.

Technical Data: Canon PowerShot SD800 IS Digital Elph at 9.11mm, 1/20 sec at f/4, ISO Auto. No post production. Georgia Aquarium, Atlanta, GA.

I just love the silhouette of this whale shark with the rays of light shining around it.

It makes me want to go diving.

Soon.

- Bill

First off, this is not a great photo. It actually is a fairly bad photo. It has a major flaw with it.

Contrary to what this photo looks like, manta rays do not eat whale sharks (unless you're making a B rate sci-fi movie).

The problem with this photograph is known as a convergence or merging.

Basically, when I took this photo, I wasn't paying enough attention. My focus was all on the manta ray (and sadly even that isn't even in focus!).

I did not notice the whale shark entering into the background, and wait too long before tripping the shutter.

The result? A photo that makes it appear that the manta ray is trying to eat a whale shark. Trust me - like I said, that just doesn't happen. Both animals actually eat plankton, or basically small marine animals that aren't any larger than a quarter. Tiny shrimps and other small marine animals that float in the water.

I am going to make up some excuses for myself here...

First, all of the animals in the photograph are constantly moving - this is probably the biggest reason for convergences like this. When you have multiple subjects constantly moving and you are tracking to track one of the subjects, you sometimes lose track of the others and this can happen.

In addition, this photo was taken at the Georgia Aquarium's Ocean Voyager main viewing window. A 23 feet tall by 61 feet wide by 2 feet thick sheet of acrylic (currently the second largest aquarium viewing window in the world) in a darkened room. Multiple factors that all team up for difficult photography.

But in reality, none of these are excuses for converging subjects.

Keep an eye out for this in your own photos and try to avoid it. Definitely don't let it happen with stationary elements in your photos. It is distracting, and quite often ruins photos.

Technical Data: Canon EOS Digital Rebel XT, Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 II at 55mm, 1/15 sec at f/5.6, ISO 400. No post production. Georgia Aquarium, Atlanta, GA.

So enough beating up on my own photography for a bit... now I am going to babble a bit about the trip itself.

This particular visit to the aquarium was our second trip. The first time the aquarium did not have the manta ray. However, this second time, we were scuba certified, so we took advantage of the aquarium's Journey with Gentle Giants program.

Yeah, some might call it cheating, but Anya and I have gotten to swim with whale sharks, manta rays, hammerheads, and a ton of other stuff. And as fascinating as whale sharks are, I've always loved manta rays.

During our dive, there was a point at which the manta ray swam no more than a couple feet above me. I managed to roll over on my back and swim underneath it and watch as it glided through the water above me. Has they not had strict rules about touching the animals, I could have easily reached up and ran my hand along its belly.

On one hand, I wished I could have had a camera with me, but on the other hand, I am glad that I didn't so I could just experience the dive.

But underwater photography is something I'll be getting into more and more. Now if only someone would donate a couple Ikelite housings to the cause...

Ok - that is a long enough post for today. I'm going to wander off to look through a new Coral Reef photo book I bought over the weekend.

Enjoy the remainder of your weekend (or here's hoping your Monday is starting off smoothly).

- Bill

This is one of my favorite photos. I've submitted this image to multiple compeitions. Most recently, it has been accepted into the The Photographic Section's 2010 Annual Photo Salon for its traveling gallery, and for final judging in George W. Glennie Memorial Nature Salon 2010.

I've been waiting to share this photo since I didn't want to use up all my best photos too quickly. But I figure now is a good time...

Technical Data: Canon EOS Digital Rebel XT, Tamron 180mm f/3.5 Di SP LD 1:1 Macro, 1/100 sec at f/5.6. ISO 400. No post production. McConnell's Mill State Park, Lawrence County, PA.

Why This Photo: I love macro photography. Given the chance, I'll shoot something tiny like this little jumping spider over most other photography opportunities nine times out of ten. The story of this is kind of amusing and I'll give more of it a bit further down.

What Works: Focus is dead on right on the spider's eyes. The catchlight in the spider's eyes is a nice effect. The composition, including the slight tilt work well also.

What Doesn't Work: The depth of field could have been a little deeper and focus could be a tad sharper.

This shot was taken hand-held. I don't think I had a tripod with me that day that would have been able to support the camera with my Tamron macro lens attached. Besides, this spider was crawling around on a wooden railing right at the mill at McConnell's Mill State Park.

Remember what I said about preferring macro over almost every other style of photography? I was sitting on the ground by the railing overlooking Slippery Rock Creek Gorge, right next to the gristmill, and just upstream from a very picturesque covered bridge. There were plenty of people coming and going on the overlook, all of them quickly snapping shots of the stream, mill, and/or bridge and then wandering back off.

Most everyone either ignored me or just gave me a glancing confused look wondering what in the world I could have been taking photos of. Only one person asked what I was so interested in, and thought it was pretty amusing that I would be focusing on such a tiny little spider.

With the weather warming up, I'm looking forward to things like spiders appearing again and giving me something to shoot. I saw a tiny tiny spider on my walk home from the T yesterday, and I was so excited by that.

I know - I'm weird. But either way, what do you think of the photo? Leave me a message and let me know.

- Bill

We went to the zoo today. I really like zoo trips.

Today's trip was specifically to try out the new Sigma 150-500mm lens.

Technical Data: Canon EOS 7D, Sigma 150-500mm f/5-6.3 APO DG OS HSM at 500mm, 1/660 sec at f/12.9. OS Mode 1. ISO Auto. No post production. Pittsburgh Zoo and PPG Aquarium.

Not too shabby, huh? Ignore the focus, I was a bit off most of the day. But the reach of this lens was pretty nice. Being able to zoom in so close to subjects like the lions and tiger at the zoo was a big reason for picking up this lens.

And then I threw my 2x teleconverter into the mix.

Technical Data: Canon EOS 7D, Sigma 150-500mm f/5-6.3 APO DG OS HSM at 1000mm with Kenko Teleplus PRO 300 "DG" AF 2x Teleconverter , 1/660 sec at f/12.9. OS Mode 1. ISO Auto. No post production. Pittsburgh Zoo and PPG Aquarium.

Pretty awesome, no?

The lens really needs to be tripod mounted at 1000mm, but I found that I was able to take some nice shots handheld at 500mm with the Opitical Stabilization turned on.

I had a nicer shot of the tiger, but it was when I was having even worse focusing issues. I really wish this set had come out nicer....

500mm

1000mm

I have a couple more photos worth sharing from this trip, and maybe a bit more of my thoughts about my new lens. I was starting to think I was getting some buyer's remorse on this lens, but after today's trip, I think that is all gone now.

Now I'm looking forward to more zoo trips. So here's hoping the nice weather gets here soon so Anya and I can take some long weekend trips to other near-by zoos.

- Bill

"Get used to it Marge, from now on we're going to spell everything with letters" - Homer Simpson.

Let's talk a little more about the new lens.

It's full name is Sigma 150-500mm f/5-6.3 APO DG OS HSM

So what do all those letters mean?

APO == Apochromatic - which means uh... well... it means we'll let wikipedia explain

DG == Digital [Some Word that Starts with G] - which according to Sigma basically means the lens is "ideal for Digital SLRs" and have "large-aperture lenses with wide angles and short minimum focusing distances".

OS == Optical Stabilization (which apparently is a word I always misspell the first time I type it) and was discussed a little here

HSM == Hyper Sonic Motor. This means the motor is driven by ultrasonic waves and it makes auto focusing, precise, silent and high-speed.

All those letters add up for a really nice lens. And as you can tell by the photo, a very large lens.

I spent the day thinking of something that would work well to compare the lens to, and I thought of a soda can. Well, it turns out that the only soda can we have in the house is from the last can of Fruitopia we have left. We need to restock, but that's a whole different story.

These shots are of the lens at its shortest length without the hood attached. But I included the hood to give an idea of the width of the lens at the front.

Impressive. Intimidating.

It looks like the plan is definitely to get to the zoo this weekend, so hopefully I'll have some nice photos to share from that.

- Bill

So after clicking refresh on the UPS tracking page for my new lens all day long and being presented with info that didn't make it look promising that it would be delivered today, it finally showed up around 5PM. I do have to say, this lens is very nice.

Big. Heavy. Kind of intimidating. But very nice.

So one of the cool features of this lens that none of my other lenses has is Optical Stabilization which is Sigma's term for Image Stabilization (if you're a Canon person... or Vibration Reduction if you're a a Nikon person... or Vibration Compensation if you're talking Tamron lenses... you get the picture - and with any of these features regardless of the name, it should be a little sharper (sorry, bad pun)).

So naturally I wanted to see if the OS was worth all the hype.

At 500mm without OS

At 500mm with OS mode 1

At 150mm without OS

At 150mm with OS mode 1

All shots were taken at f/6.4 but the 150mm shots had a much longer shutter time for whatever reason (I wasn't looking to take quality shots, so I wasn't trying for perfection).

On a normal basis with a lens at 150mm, I have no problem holding the camera steady myself. With this lens, it simply is too heavy and bulky to be able to do that with the same level of ease.

I am, however, extremely impressed with the effect at 500mm.

The OS motor is semi-loud. Much louder than the auto-focus motor which is labeled as a HSM (hyper-sonic motor). The AF motor is near silent.

That's it for tonight, but I'm sure I'll post more about this lens in the coming weeks as I play with it more. I think the idea of a zoo trip this weekend has been kicked around already...

- Bill

As promised, I'm trying to get back on my normal routine. What would be nice is if all this snow outside would finally melt and everything else could start getting back to normal.

I keep waiting for things to start really melting. I keep shoveling out the parking spaces in front of our house.

Eventually it all will melt...

And when it does, I think things like this will start appearing.

Technical Data: Canon EOS Digital Rebel XT, Tamron 180mm f/3.5 Di SP LD 1:1 Macro, 1/400 sec at f/5. ISO 400. No post production. Taken in our own backyard.

Why This Photo: Anya does such a great job with the flowers and plants in the yard, and that gives me plenty of subjects right within reach any time I want. So I was probably just out in the yard wandering around and decided to take a photo of this flower (Anya will have to comment to let everyone know what kind it is).

What Works: Focus is tack sharp right where it needs to be, and soft throughout the rest of the photo. Depth of field is almost perfect. Composition is pretty strong. Color representation and exposure levels are very well done.

What Doesn't Work: Honestly, there is very little that I find "wrong" with this photo. Perhaps the center of the flower should be a little lower in the frame to land closer to one of the hot spots at the convergence of the thirds.

I can't wait for flowers and bugs and all that stuff that comes with spring to show up soon. I love wandering around our yard - usually with the macro lens attached - taking photos of things I see almost every day but being able to present them in very different ways.

Maybe that's the lesson I should learn from this photo. Maybe I need to just look a little differently at my current surroundings (even if they are covered in snow) and find something to look at from a whole new perspective to make something mundane into something exciting.

Leave me a comment. Let me know what you think of this photo. Let me know any tips/hints you have for finding that new perspective to look at things from a fresh view point. Or just commiserate about how you're tired of all this snow too... And then scroll down further and vote on the photoshop job on the dive photo.

- Bill

PS: Oh yeah - new lens should be here tomorrow! So exciting!

Today was one of those days. Just a horrid Monday.

And the fact that the only color outside my window at work is grey. Lots and lots of grey.

So just a quick post today to remind everyone what a sky with some color looks like...

I did get some good news today, though. I got an email from Adorama saying that my new Sigma 150-500 is shipping. So hopefully before the end of the week I'll have a new toy to play with, and some photos to share from it.

One of these days I'll get back to a normal routine. Till then, enjoy the sky with something other than grey in it.

- Bill

Normally I hate modified photos. In particular, I hate modified photos when you can tell the photo has been modified.

One of the presents Anya got me for Christmas was a copy of Photoshop Elements. At first, I wasn't sure whether I would use it much.

With my recent venture into entering various competitions, I've found the need to use it a bit more.

We have some photos from our dive trip to Cozumel, and I love them as photos, but their color isn't necessarily spot on.

So I modified the following photo to see if I could make the colors closer to what I remembered them to be like. Take a look at the original and the modified version below, and vote for which one you like better.

Unmodified

Modified

---

Unfortunately, I forget what exact changes I made (something I will try to be a bit better about recording in the future), but I know that I darkened the photo and adjust the contrast slightly. I also modified the colors slightly to remove a bit of the blue color cast that is typical of underwater photography.

The colors in underwater photography without a ton of flash is usually not accurate since the spectrum of light drops off the deeper you go. Did you know that? That is one of those things you don't really think about, but you learn when you get scuba certified.

Anyway - vote for which version of the photo you like better, and leave a comment to back up your vote.

- Bill

Ok - so I've been slacking and missing a bunch of updates. I have good reasons though - really I do!

Recently I've been working on getting some photos selected for several competitions coming up. This is something new for me, but I am hoping that it will also help me improve my photography. Currently I have four different competitions I'm getting stuff ready for, so I'm a little overwhelmed.

To help myself keep things in order, I decided to keep a log of what I have submitted to what competitions, and what upcoming deadlines I have. If you're interested, head over to the Competition Log and check it out.

If you know of any photography competitions, please mash on the Contact link and send me a pointer to it.

I've also signed up for an ice hockey clinic, and so I've been spending a chunk of time researching some gear I need to pick up. Plus there's that whole Olympics thing. Plus a recent addiction to watching The Office.

But I'll try getting back on track - promise.

- Bill