Second Curtain Sync

Second Curtain Sync. What is this?. My speedlite 430EX manual says you
need to use slow shutter speed and set the flash to second curtain-sync.
You will create a light trail following the subject. The flash fires right
before the shutter closes. I decided to try hitting a piece of my chess
game and here are the results.




You can see the initial location of the chess piece and the final location after hitting it. another effect of this technique is that my hand and the piece I am using to hit the other piece become trasparent and you can see through them

What I learned from Costa Rica, part 3

One of my worries in Costa Rica was the humidity. I read that people bought ziploc bags to seal off their camera in their cool and dry A/C room before heading out in the warmer and more humid elements of Costa Rica.

Well, if you travel in November, there is little you have to worry about. In San Jose, we slept comfortably without A/C -- our room did not have A/C actually -- so there is no change in temperature and humidity to worry about. In Santa Elena / Monteverde, we had a fan in the room and again, there was little to worry about there. The air in the Monteverde region is moister than in San Jose but it was not an issue at all for my camera and lens when I stepped out of the room. I did get into trouble in the Cloud Forest though when I realized there were some water droplets on my filter. I blew on the filter to push the water droplet out but all it did was fogging up the filter. In the relatively heavy humidity, once the filter fogs up, it will not defog on its own. I had to pull out a paper napkin to wipe it dry. Hopefully, I did not scratch the coatings of the filter. Anyways, in Montezuma, we had A/C in the room but in the morning when I took my camera out, the outside air was warmer but was relatively dry, so again no problem there. The only time I ran into any fogging problem was in La Fortuna. We had A/C in our room and even at 6am, the outside air was warm and humid enough the filter fogged up a bit. I returned to the room for a few second to defog the filter and went back out. In and out a couple of times, and it seemed all fine.

My D80 is not weather-sealed but in November, Costa Rica was friendly to it. I changed lenses a few times -- on the road to Santa Elena, in the hotel room in Santa Elena, and on the ferry from Puntarenas to Paquera. No problem there. I did buy four ziploc bags. The only time I used one was when I waded and swam the waters of the lower Montezuma waterfall.

Fogging gives a nice effect by the way. Below is a photo taken with a fogged up filter around 6am in La Fortuna. I used flash and a big f value to darken the background. I post-processed it to increase contrast.

Sigma 24-70mm f/2.8 -- how sharp?

Well, I took a few minutes today to test this lens against the Nikkor 18-200mm VR II. Here are photos of the Nikon lens box I just took 2.5 meters away, handheld, 100% cropped. I used the built-in flash and a shutter speed of 1/60 secs at 70mm. The f/2.8 photo was taken twice ... same softness.

The focus is on the end of the letter 'r' of Nikkor on the Nikon box.

Sigma @ f/2.8:


Sigma @ f/4:


Sigma @ f/5:


Nikkor @ f/5 (maximum aperture at 70mm):


Sigma @ f/8:

What I learned from Costa Rica, part 2

When I was preparing for this trip, I was considering to carry my camera gears in my Lowepro Nova 2 AW camera bag. Unfortunately, the bag is simply too small for everything I wanted to carry. I had to resort to a lightweight backpack and used old lint-free sweaters to pad the content of the backpack. It worked well. The backpack has wide shoulder straps so carrying my camera gears around was easy. I got the backpack from the Becel Ride for Heart for raising a certain amount of donations. It was a simple, lightweight backpack. It is not meant for camera gears but because the nylon bag fabric is waterproof (except for the zipper line) I decided to use it for my trip. Thinking back now, I probably should have used something else.

What I need for traveling with my camera gears is a waterproof backpack with flaps covering the zippers. If I carry the backpack on my back, it is possible for some thief to unconspicuously unzipper the bag and remove its contents in some busy foot traffic though. Therefore, it would be necessary to lock the zippers to deter theft. However, locking the zippers means unlocking them before use -- too inconvenient. It would nice if the zippers face your back then. This way, it would be extremely hard for the common thief to unzipper the bag let alone see the zipper.

Is there such a bag out there?

What I learned from Costa Rica

I had in my backpack:

• 1.5kg tripod
• 1.05kg Tokina 80-400mm lens
• 0.585kg D80
• 0.560kg Nikkor 18-200mm
• the 0.350kg speedlight flash
• the vertical battery grip
• the original Nikon battery
• 10 x AA batteries (for the flash)
  
• AA recharger
• camera batter rechargers
• and other miscellaneous camera stuff

I got to use the tripod only once or twice. I brought the tripod along a waterfall trail but had left it behind with my dry boots and clothing in the corner of some rocks as I waded the water barefoot to get closer to the waterfall. I also brought it for the volcano tour but we were in a rush I could not use it properly.

I took the 80-400mm lens out only once to test it from a hotel balcony. I should have brought it to the Arenal volcano trip because there were some lava hot boulders tumbling down the side of the volcano, and because there was a Toucan in the far distance that could only be shot with the 400mm!!

The speedlight was useful. I used it many times. I also went through the camera batteries like running water, but I did not have to resort to the 5xAA backup batteries for the flash unit.

So, my backpack would have been a lot more comfortable (by 2.5kg) if I had left the tripod, the 80-400mm lens, and the extra 5xAA batteries home. For my next trip, should I or should I not bring the tripod, the Tokina lens, and the extra batteries? These three heavy gears tend to fall under the only-if's situations. Only if I had brought the 80-400mm to the volcano ... but I didn't because it was darn heavy and I did not expect to see a Toucan there!

Santa Elena Cloud Forest, part 2

Here is another shot with the Sigma 24-70mm f/2.8 in the Santa Elena Cloud forest.

Handheld, I propped against the railing of a wooden bridge. John and Andrew were on the bridge but soon, Andrew would get off it. The platform on the bridge became more stable. I took a breath and as I exhaled, depressed the shutter release button. I shot a couple of times. Both pictures turned out really good, even when shot at f/16 for 1.5 seconds.

Santa Elena Cloud Forest

I decided to switch my Nikkor 18-200mm with the Sigma 24-70mm with John on the way to Santa Elena / Monteverde. Most of my shots with the Sigma was sharp even in the Cloud Forests so I am happy with this lens.

They don't call them Cloud Forests for nothing. We were right in the middle of clouds so the air was misty and moist, everywhere. Without a hat, your hair would be totally wet. Without a jacket, your t-shirt would be equally wet. However, I could care less as it became intensely hot after 30 minutes of hiking in relative coolness of the shaded forest. I removed my jacket but kept my hat on, and hiked in shorts and a shirt.

I wonder how the pictures would turn out had I used the Nikkor ... gotta wait for John's pictures.

Sigma 24-70mm f/2.8

I met up with John who picked up my Sigma lens in Boston, on the way to Costa Rica. I finally saw the lens a couple of weeks after I purchased it. The wait was worth it. I like this lens. It is fast, and on a moving bus, VR does not matter -- speed matters. I shot quite a few photos from a moving bus on rough terrains so the speed was quite welcoming. It was also good in the lower light conditions of the Cloud Forests. However, when handheld in the morning light on stable ground, my Nikkor 18-200mm VR II will beat this Sigma 2.8 lens hands down.

Here is a photo I took of a hummingbird in flight. I think the 18-200mm would have done a better job but this shot with the Sigma is not bad. The settings were 70mm, f5.6, ISO400, flash on.

Camera hand grip, part 3

The ultimate test came from the trip to Costa Rica. The hand grip is a must for anyone hiking or walking about photographing people or nature for hours. I no longer had the fear that the camera would slip off my hand or my shoulder when carrying it around. Plus, I felt much safer that someone cannot easily snatch the camera right off my hand.

There are only two issues with the hand grip I bought though. First, it is not porous enough you'd sweat in it in a subtropical environment. Second, the tripod mount point is not flush with the base of the grip so the tripod quick release cannot be screwed on firmly.

Anyways, thumbs up for the hand grip.

Camera hand grip, part 2

Well, it arrived today. It looks ok. It's a simple design with leather on the outside and some nylon fabric inside. There are two straps, one for securing the hand grip to the camera and another for your thumb to pull the hand grip in.

Setup was simple. It came with some drawn instructions. However, I was hoping I could loop the hand grip strap through the same ring that the Nikon neck strap is looped through but they are too thick together. I had to move the Nikon neck strap to the ring of the hand grip.

Overall, I don't like the strap configuration. The second strap that your thumb feeds through lies between the back of your hand and the nylon material. It is a bit irritating that I can feel the strap so I rerouted the strap so it runs between the leather and the nylon fabric.

So, it arrived before my trip so Costa Rica will be a good test of this hand grip. I hope my camera does not attract too much attention ... given that the purpose of this hand grip is to allow me to hold it for a longer duration without getting stiff hands.

EXIF info in Firefox

I am always curious how photos were taken -- what settings were used ... ISO, aperture, speed, WB, etc. Flickr can show properties of an image but what about other services and other random images posted on the Internet? I use Firefox most of the time and I just came across this one neat tool for reading image EXIF online with Firefox:

http://ted.mielczarek.org/code/mozilla/fxif/

Give it a try. No longer do I need to download an image and load it in Irfanview or Gimp to view camera information embedded in an online image!

Oh, I just realized there are many other EXIF readers for Firefox ... you should run a Google search on "firefox exif".

Flash, again, part 2

I forgot to include the bounce card in my test. Well, I needed to reshoot my control.

Natural light:


Speedlight pointing toward the popcorn ceiling:


Speedlight pointing toward the popcorn ceiling, with a white bounce card:


Speedlight pointing toward the popcorn ceiling, with a white bounce card with a one-inch vertical black strip:

Flash, again

I needed to do some comparisons again to remind myself of what settings and what orientation works best when using the built-in and the hotshoe speedlight flash in combination with the dome diffuser.

Here is Cal Ripken, my bobble head, in natural light. (There was not much light outside this morning and my blinds were half open.) Everything looks as I see it with my eyes.


Built-in flash:


Built-in flash, with a diffusion dome held in front of it:


Speedlight, pointing toward my popcorn ceiling:


Speedlight with the diffusion dome, pointing toward the popcorn ceiling:


Speedlight, pointing directly at Cal.



Speedlight with the diffusion dome, pointing directly at Cal.



You might wonder what all the crap is behind Cal. Those of some of my camping gears that I will be taking with me to Costa Rica. The lens beside Cal is the Tokina AT-X 80-400mm.

Also, notice that I have popcorn ceiling so light does not bounce back as uniformly as if I had a flat ceiling.

My Nikkor 50mm f/1.8

Well, as of today, the Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 is no longer in my possession. It is in the good hands of a student. I hope he can make good use of it, and will very likely, as that is going to be his only lens.

Now, I am down to four lenses -- my trusty walkaround Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 VR II, my super-zoom Tokina 80-400mm f/4.5, my new super fast Sigma 24-70mm f/2.8, and an old Nikkor 500mm f/8.