Shots Using a Crude DIY Mini White Studio

For nearly six months I have been going on without a proper working speedlight as mine was burnt out. Thankfully the speedlight has been fixed and two days ago I went to pick it up at the Nikon service centre, and my SB-600 came back working like new again.

Which means I can start exploring other types of photography, ones I haven't tried yet.

One of them is white studio.

Of course, I have not the resources to go and rent a white studio for photoshoots, so I constrained the scope into capturing small objects in closeup shots.

And for that purpose, I made myself a DIY mini white studio.

The results of the shots taken in the the mini white studio:

I realize I might need to work out more on how the objects are lit in order to get a consistent infinite white background. For my first ever few shots I think they turned out ok. What do you think?

As for the mini studio, this is how it looks like:

As I said, it is quite crudely made, but it served its purpose.

What do you think of the shots? Any suggestions for improvement are very much appreciated!

[Wordless Wednesday] Frozen Cherries

Cherry covered in frozen rainwater. Ann Arbor, MI (Winter 2007)

[Mellow Yellow Monday] Dandelion - Taraxacum officinale

Yellow dandelion (Taraxacum officinale)

Photo taken at Cameron Highlands, Pahang back when I first started taking photos using a DSLR. I think it is obvious how inexperienced I was back then. The focus in this photo is totally off.

Click here for more Mellow Yellow Mondays.

Dandelion [Mellow Yellow Monday]

Captured this during a bicycle trip in the Botanical Gardens in Shah Alam, Selangor.

I really miss the days when I did a lot of closeup shots, hopefully this won't be the last of them this year.

-ihsankhairir-

[Photo] Jungle Cockroach

A few weeks ago I joined about 60 or so pre-college students for a hike up a mountain, which presented me with ample opportunity to capture images of wild jungle insects.

One of which, is a jungle cockroach.

EXIF: 1/200s, f/22, 35mm with a macro converter, ISO 800, on camera flash with wide diffuser

I hope anyone with expert taxonomical and entomological knowledge can help me identify what species this is so I can properly label and tag the photo.

From the basic anatomy of the bug I can definitely say it is some kind of a cockroach, with different color markings and shades as compared to the urban counterpart.

Like the common cockroach it also has long antennae but somewhere along the antennae there's a band of white marking, as you can see in the photo above. The legs are spiky / thorny like the cockroaches we commonly see.

I shall share other jungle shots I managed to capture in my future posts.

[Wordless Wednesday] Knotted Single Strand of Hair

Happy Wordless Wednesday everyone!

[Macro] Red Weaver Ant as Charon

A red weaver ant worker (oecophylla smaragdina) carrying another dead weaver ant. Photo was taken during a group outing with the organisers of MY Challenge 2011.

Chasing around this fella wasn't easy. Apparently she was rushing to wherever she was going with the corpse in her jaws.

Photo was taken using a D60 and a Nikkor 35mm f/1.8 with a macro converter attached. An SB-600 flash was fired to freeze the movement and some editing was done in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom.

Charon is a figure in Greek mythology who ferries souls across the rivers Styx and Acheron to the world of the dead.

Related articles

• [Macro] Red Weaver Ants Swarming a Lizard 
• [Macro] Angry Red Weaver Ant 

[Macro] Red Weaver Ants Swarming a Lizard

I took this photo last weekend when I joined a photo outing organized by the folks at MY Challenge 2011.

One of my students, Chien Teng, saw a  swarm of red weaver ants (oecophylla smaragdina) dragging a dead lizard up a tree to their nest. I of course, being some snap happy photo hobbyist fond of shooting these insects (as evidenced by my multiple posts about them) braved through the countless bites by these ants on my arms and legs to take macro shots of them at work. One of the results is the photo above.

I used a Nikkor 35mm f/1.8 lens with a macro converter attached so that I can move the lens closer to the subject, which also means I was very vulnerable to attacks by the same swarm that killed the lizard.

I particularly like this shot because of one detail: One ant was dragging the lizard by the eye.

I look forward to your feedback regarding the photo above. Hope you like it as much as I do :)

[Closeup] Pewter Statuette of Guan Yu

Closeup of a 2-ft tall statuette of Guan Yu (also known as Guan Gong), a Chinese army general who served under the warlord and eventual first Emperor of the Kingdom of Shu, one of the Three Kingdoms.

This statuette is made of pewter and is on display at Royal Selangor in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

[Macro] Angry Red Weaver Ant

Red Weaver Ant, originally uploaded by ihsankhairir.

Via Flickr:
Reverse lens macro of a Malaysian weaver ant on an asphalt road surface

Macro shots of the red weaver ant (oecophylla smaragdina) is relatively easy because when they feel threatened, they stay still, lift up their abdomens and open up their pincers. This is part of their effort to look bigger and more threatening, and to scare off predators or competitors.

The only thing I had to worry about was the potential of a swarm of these ants coming to attack me. The red weaver ants bite strongly into your skin or clothes and almost never let go, even if it kills them. So strong are their bites, sometimes when you try to remove them by pulling their bodies, their heads might come off but still attached to your skin.

For this macro shot I did not use a macro lens, but instead I reversed an 18-55mm f/3.5 - 5.6 lens to achieve the magnification and shallow depth of field.

Injured Ant

For the good part of an hour, I was down on my belly like a lizard, prowling upon six-legged crawlies not to feed upon them, but to immortalize them in photos.

I perchanced upon a large ant with an unusual walking pattern. As if it was helplessly wandering around looking for something, or running away from an unseen predator.

I roleplayed myself into becoming this peculiar ant's predator, pretending that the ant was scurrying away from my predatory eyes (or rather eye, because DSLRs are not stereographic/stereoscopic).

Capturing this oddly wandering ant proved rather difficult, as it was really hard to anticipate its movements due to the unpredictable and random walking pattern.

After almost half a hundred shots, and reviewing them on the computer, I realized why this ant was so oddly peculiar.

It was injured.

I don't know how it happened, but somehow, the ant got a small shard of glass stuck to the tip of its abdomen.

Assuming ants can feel pain, I felt sorry for the six-legged creature much later.

I had a feeling that this ant did not survive the day. For an insect so dependent on the strength of swarms and the support of its colony, there was no way an injured ant could have survived the day.

The ant must be so unlucky to have been pierced by that shard of glass. Who would've thought that a broken piece of glass could hurt something as small as an ant?

-ihsankhairir-

P/S: For another closeup of an ant:
Angry Red Weaver Ant

Wet Dragonfly

The morning was a wet one, it having rained the night before. I spied around for subjects to shoot, and just next to my shoulder was this dragonfly resting on a leaf.

Since it was morning and the sun wasn't too harsh, I was able to shoot this dragonfly without too much overexposure on the surroundings. I tried my best to make sure I can capture the details on the eyes, the torso and some of the wings, especially the dewdrop on its right hind wing.

I like photographing dragonflies for a few reasons. First, they are big, bright and colorful, so you don't need to be too close to capture the beautiful details. Second, they are not easily frightened, probably because they are predator insects, so as long as you don't disturb them or touch them, they'll stay in that one spot. Three, their flight paths are predictable --- they will stop and stay at the same spots after they've flown around the area, so you can actually expect where they will land next if you've observed one long enough.

I hope you liked these dragonfly photos I captured a couple weeks ago. For other dragonfly photos I captured in the past, you can visit the following posts:

Re-chasing Dragonflies (July 2009)
Insects Mating After Feb 14th (February 2010)

Comments and/or critique are welcome!

Riverside Spiders

Walking along the brook in Batang Kali, I couldn't help but notice the spiders that made the wet, splashy riverside environment their home.

This spider lives on a piece of branch that fell from a tree into a river. This tree branch is right in the middle of the river; most of the branch is underwater and the spider made the part of the branch that is above the water its home. I was thinking about why this spider chose such dangerous site for a dwelling, since the water can easily sweep the spider away and drown it should the branch shift position or move due to the raging current or  outside interference by humans or animals.

You can see how risky this location is for the spider; the rushing water is just a few inches away.

This is a very small spider that made its home at the end of a very tall grass reed that grows on the river bank and extends into the middle of the river. It seems that the area above the surface of the river is a good place to catch insects that breed in the river or habitually fly over the river surface (such as damselflies and mosquitoes).

...

I still have some pictures of other riverside little creatures that I'd like to share, so I hope you enjoyed this installment of spider photos ;)

Insects Mating after Feb 14th

The day after February 14th, we went for a family getaway in Batang Kali, Selangor where my uncle owns a piece of hillside land that includes a brook / river creek and a riverside shack.

Most of the family, after having breakfast, went for a dip in the brook and literally stayed there till evening. I joined them for a bit before grabbing my camera and traversed along the brook looking for small creatures to shoot. And I got a few that I liked.

Dragonflies Mating

I saw a pair of dragonflies flying around, one chasing the other, so I followed them until they stopped and landed on a blade of grass. The dragonfly in front started to attach the tip of its abdomen on the neck of the second dragonfly.

After that, the second dragonfly attached its abdomen tip onto the underside of the first dragonfly...

Hard to say which one's male and which one's female. I'd say the one behind is male. Notice that they form a kind of heart shape in the process. The nymphs are conceived in love!


The Mating Water Striders

Capturing any decent pictures of the water striders was really hard. I had a hard time focusing on any of them due to the small size, the amazingly clear water (made the AF focus on the objects in the water) and their superfast and sudden movements. I spotted an extraordinarily large one which wasn't as fast as the others, and it wasn't until I took a picture that I realized it wasn't a large water strider, it was a pair of water striders mating!

You can kind of see how the weight of the both of them bend the surface tension of the water.

They also dance along the surface of the water while they're at it!

...

I have more pictures of other brookside insects, but let me save those for another post. In the meantime, I hope you enjoyed this one as much as I enjoy sharing them with you.

Water Drops Like Glass and Jello (edited with a how-I-shot-it)

I was alone in the office (yet again) a few days ago so I hunted on the net for some photography ideas. Then I came across a forum that was discussing waterdrop / droplet shots, so I decided to try my hand at freezing falling drops of water.

So here they are, numbered and titled. I think that I should start titling my shots to give it more value and meaning, and also to make it easier for people to refer to.

Which ones do you like the most?


#1 - The Sinking Bowling Pin



#2 - The Young Thought Bubble



#3 - The Dying Maelstrom



#4 - The Bigheaded Chess Pawn



#5 - The Hungry Water Hole



#6 - Casper Looking for a Friend



#7 - The Suicidal Obese



#8 - William Tell's Target Practice



#9 - Nessie Comes Out to Play



#10 - Tilt Twenty-Three and a Half Degrees



#11 - Bob Wins an Award



#12 - Flaring Cold Fusion



Titling these shots was much harder than taking them!

EDIT:


Taking these shots require good timing and definitely a DSLR. This is because a DSLR have less to no shutter lag so you can time your shots right. Using a compact point and shoot camera is still possible, but you have to really know the timing of your camera's shutter lag and take the picture a bit earlier than the water drop.


I used small apertures (f/11, f/16, f/20) for these shots for larger depth of focus. All of them were shot at 1/200s shutter speed. Slower shutter speeds will result in blurring due to subject movement (the water drops and splashes) and camera shake (unsteady hands, unless using a tripod). Since the fastest response time for my flash is 1/200 seconds, I had to use that shutter speed to freeze the shot. A faster shutter speed will result in the flash firing after the shot was taken , which serves no purpose.


A pro would use manual focus and a tripod but I used AF (autofocus) and handheld the camera. I held a plastic spoon at the exact location where the water will drop and lock the AF, remove the spoon and timed my shot and pressed the shutter exactly when the water drop reaches the pool of water in the mug. It took quite a number of shots, and the 12 shots above are the ones I really liked.

Knotted

So many friends and family tying the knot this month. If I were to go to all the weddings I'm invited to, I'd have four or five free buffet lunches every weekend for the whole month.

Just this last week, I went to three out of four friends' weddings, the one I missed was because the reception was too far away and going there meant that I'd have to miss the other three. Sorry Ayu, I know you had a wonderful time anyways!

Speaking of tying the knot, here I'd like to share with you a (not so) recent photo I took of a knot.

Care to guess what that is?

An electrical cord?

A wire cable?

A fishing line?

Actually, it's a strand of hair.

A strand of hair, knotted in the middle.

No it's not my hair, because it's quite long in its entirety. I found it on a white tiled floor, so I used an off-camera flash and reversed my lens to get a closeup shot of the knot on the hair.

It was my first time getting a closeup shot of a strand of hair, so getting it in focus manually wasn't that easy. I had to make sure no wind was blowing so that the hair wouldn't move, so I had to turn the fan off. The room was small and cramped and the windows face east so it was hot without the fan blowing. I only took a few shots until I was satisfied with the results, and then turned the fan on, causing the strand of hair to be blown away and disappear.

...

On another note, it feels great to be back to blogging again; I haven't been blogging for a week and felt so at unease that I had to resume my regular postings today, even though I still have much to do work-wise.

Are you glad that I'm back blogging? I hope you do. Because I'm looking forward to hearing from you all again!

Caterpillar Closeup

I am glad that I discovered my interests in photography. Ever since I started picking up the camera, especially so since I got my Nikon D60, I realized that I paid more attention to the oft missed world of the minuscule. Those of you who have been with my blog for a while would know how much I like taking pictures of small creepy crawlies (to the delight and also dismay of some). My hobby has opened my eyes to the almost invisible, mostly ignored, and largely unnoticed minute details in the world around us. Sometimes I feel sad that most of us would miss seeing the beauty in the small things. We can discover a lot from viewing the most mundane things up close. And sometimes, creatures we regard as creepy or ugly can reveal their true beauties when we scale ourselves down to their size and try to see them eye to eye.

I was walking around in my apartment when I almost stepped on this little green caterpillar. It wasn't a big squishy caterpillar that one might find featured as a grub delicacy in some foreign place. It was pretty small, less than an inch long and definitely thinner than a satay stick. I picked it up from the white tile floor and set it on a thin stack of white paper. And of course, I ran over to the trusty ol' camera bag and grabbed my arsenal to shoot this little bug.




The little bugger was hard to photograph. It kept moving and wriggling and turning its head to different directions (probably trying to find its way to the edge of the paper). Because I used the reverse lens technique, the caterpillar's movement meant that it gets out of focus easily, and I had difficulty keeping it in focus. Out of the many, some are pretty decent and shareable. One of them is this side profile of the caterpillar. To tell you the truth, I'm not even sure where the eyes of this caterpillar were. What I noticed is that it's got some strands of hair sticking out from various parts of its body including the head. The hair strands were sparsely distributed, unlike other hairy caterpillars. Maybe this was a youngin', soon it'll grow a full body of hair and closeup fanatics like me would keep away from it for a change.




Here's one where you can see the 'face' of the caterpillar. I still am not sure where its eyes were.




Another perspective on how small this caterpillar was: you can actually see the thin side of the white paper for size reference. The white paper was a normal printing paper. Grab a printing paper and look at its thickness. Now look at the picture. You'll get a rough sense of the size of the caterpillar and how small it was.

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I suddenly am reminded of the story where King Solomon's (Sulaymaan A.S.) troops were passing through the Wadi Naml (the valley of the ants, if I'm not mistaken) and how the King made sure his troops would avoid stepping on the small insects. This story tells us to appreciate the lives of Allah's creatures no matter how small. And that collateral deaths, no matter how insignificant the people/creatures killed may seem to be, should be avoided to our best efforts.

...

Have a wonderful day, everyone! Hope you liked the pics. And sorry to those who don't.

Re-chasing Dragonflies

This is a repost of my old entry from last year. Mr. Jemsen asked me in my last post if I have any dragonfly photos and I actually do. Closeup dragonfly photos coming up! (italicized font indicate 'flashback')

[Start flashback]

...

I took a stroll around the lake near the engineering building and saw a couple of dragonflies hovering above the grass... luckily I have a camera on hand so here you go... more pictures of bugs... this time, dragonflies.

So it started out with noticing a dragonfly perched on a blade of grass... (see below)

So I went in closer for a better shot...

Closer...

This was as close as I could get before it flew away. Next thing I knew there were a couple of these beautiful creatures hovering around me. I guess they got accustomed to my presence already.

A shot of another dragonfly, I think I used the camera's flash and -2 ev for this one.

Screwed around some more with the camera's settings for this shot. I like how the colors came out.

There were countless failed attempts at snapping these insects in flight, the most you would ever be able to see is a brown blur in the middle of the photo, so I'm not including those. If only I have in my arsenal a camera fast enough to capture these flying arthropods in flight...

...

[End flashback]

Comments about these old closeup photos are welcome!