Lonely

I’m lonely. Can you be my friend?

ISO: 100 Exposure: 1/100 sec  Aperture: 3.7 Focal Length: 26mm

Bokeh effect

Always Hang On

Never give up on yourself

ISO: 100 Exposure: 1/125 sec Aperture: 4.0 Focal Length: 14.9mm Flash Used: Yes

Still Early

Waiting for me to arise and go for a early morning jog.

 

ISO: 200 Exposure: 0.7692308 sec Aperture: 3.0 Flash Used: No

Having Fun

My niece and I having fun with self portrait. Nice lighting effect.

ISO: 800 Exposure: 1/8 sec Aperture: 3.4 Flash Off

Climbing The Beanstalk

My name is not Jack but I’m climbing the beanstalk to see where it lead.

ISO: 250 Exposure: 1/80 sec Aperture: 4.0 Focal Length: 65.6mm Cropped

You can see some fine hair on the plant as well as on the grasshopper. For more amazing close ups, you can get the DCR-250 teleconverter lens from Rayno. It is quite cheap and you can get amazing picture like the one here.

You can get the DCR-250 here.

Green Green Grass Of Home

Inspired by a slug, I wanted to see how is the view down there. They look a little like corn fields.

Shows that macro is quite good for the FZ28. Also slight bokeh effect

First Attempt At Photographing Cars

I saw a nice car parked right in front of me today. Having not touch my camera for a few days, I thought hmm, there’s a subject and so I sneaked sort of shyly and started to shoot the Porsche.
Here are a few shots I took plus that is not really okay if you want to photograph cars like the pros to produce what you see in car magazines . I learned this later after looking at the pictures at home that photographing cars take quite a bit of skill plus setting up the car in a nice location and post processing. I didn’t have that option and the light from the overcast and hazy sky made everything worst. If I find the time to do PS (or GIMP which I used) to clean up the background and add a more exciting sky, I sure it would look better.
Here are some shots mostly just cropped and perhaps a bit of tweaking.

ISO: 100 Exposure: 1/160 sec Aperture: 4.0 Focal Length: 7.2mm

ISO: 100 Exposure: 1/500 sec Aperture: 2.8 Focal Length: 4.9mm

When all fail, you can always shoot details of the car instead of the whole car.

ISO: 100 Exposure: 1/200 sec Aperture: 4.0 Focal Length: 35.6mm

I wonder if the owner noticed a slight scratch on one of his rims or that the bolts are rusty?

The stuff I learned online besides setting up the car in the right location free from distractions are:

1. A polarizing filter (polarizer) is good to have when shooting cars to remove unwanted reflection.
2. Proper lighting (when shooting the engine or interior) is required i.e. use the flash.

I intend to get the proper filter soon. If you plan on buying filters, I suggest you get decent quality filters. Why put cheap filters in front of expensive multicoated glass and ruin your photos?
Here is a good site with tips for photographing cars.

Tale Of 2 Cameras And More

Here’s a short write up when selecting my FZ28. I wasn’t looking for a great digital camera. I was actually looking for a decent camera that could also do video with decent sound recording. After using google and reading tons of write up on Amazon and else where, I came across the Canon SX5 IS. The Lumix FZ 28 never entered the fray.

By the time I went looking at retain shops near me, the SX 5 was no longer sold. I was late by about 6 months. The SX10IS is newer brother to the SX 5 (then) but the price was out of my range. Hand holding the camera, I realize the fella is huge. The shop assistant tried to point me to the newly launched Sony HX1 (never introduce any Lumix). But I didn’t like Sony’s memory stick, so that was out.

Back to some more googling and flickr’ing around and it seems the FZ got good reviews. While the Canon SX10IS has its strengths, the most important (to me) being the flip screen, the fact that the FZ28 is lighter (read wife factor) & cost less finally swung my decision in favor of the FZ28. Btw, while I prefer having the flexibility of AA batteries, getting them would set me back even more compared to the FZ28.
Don’t get me wrong. The SX10 is a great camera and recently replace by the SX20.

Dang, this is turning to be a camera comparison post. Any hooo, the FZ 28 is not perfect. It has its flaws.
But I found it was great when shooting cats!

ISO: 100, Exposure: 1/160 sec, Aperture: 4.0 cropped

Update : At the time of writing this post, the price of the FZ28 has become higher than the SX10 or even the SX 20.

Flower Power

While taking a walk around the neighborhood. I saw a similar yellow color shot from MS wall paper and thought I try a similar shot. I took this shot by simply aiming the camera from the flower bed & shooting.



ISO: 100, Exposure: 1/500 sec, Aperture: 5.6

Photo is slightly touched up via Picasa

Late Adopter

I finally got myself a digital camera. Okay, so I'm a late adopter. Don't matter. I bought a FZ28 prosumer camera. Some called them bridge cameras.

They are a bridge between a SLR or a dSLR in this case and P&S (point and shoot). We can talk more about gear later.

Here is a self portrait of the FZ28.

From Project365

ISO: 400, Exposure: 1/3 sec, Aperture: 3.6, Focal Length: 17.4mm

The FZ28is available here