oh mr. sun, sun mr. golden sun. pls. shine down on me.

its been very cold these days….

xoxo

Wayside Finds 091 by =rav777 on deviantART
not my work.
Beautiful photograph here. The droplets really stand out, crystal clear. Amazing.

Well my blog has been idle for quite awhile. But I’ve been quite active taking photos. So in an effort to revitalize things here I’ve joined the project365 group on Flickr where you take a picture a day and you “try” to post there soon afterwards. Now the idea is to post it here on the blog as well.

Day 1: Water droplets on the reflective contoured metal surface of an art sculpture in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

Web site: www.robhuntley.ca
Click on the image to go straight to the same image on my website.

Diving Bag to keep flash unit dry

Picked up an underwater case the other day, so I can now place my light around or even in the water. This is also my first time testing out the ST-E2 unit. I have been staying clear of these infra-red unit for the reason that it won’t work as well outdoor due to sunlight. But for something that you need to adjust the power constantly or work in a fast past environment, then this might work for you. It did take a bit of time to adjust the ratio until I got it right.

This is one of my favorite pictures I have, just based on composition, but it was very hard to bring out the colors in this and edit it well. This photo was done on film and then scanned in and then worked.  It was a very dark photo and I had to do a lot on it.  But I just love the objects in the picture. This photo was taken at a market in Alicante, Spain.

Here is another photo from Spain, that was taken at a castle.  I took it with a cheap Olympus digital point and shoot, but it was a good shot! I was able to catch the droplets of water as they fell in front of the camera.

A woman coughed right down my throat. She opened up and let loose, and my mouth was open. Ack! I swear we’re fluid-bonded now.

My parents taught me to cover my mouth whenever I coughed or sneezed. Everyone I knew, my friends, my parents’ friends, church acquaintances, covered their nose and mouth every time.

When I was older I learned that epidemics like tuberculosis and influenza killed millions from the turn of the century to World War II. My parents heard tales of contagion from parents and grandparents. Everybody knew someone who’d died.

Diseases are spread by droplets sneezed or coughed, and breathed by another. Parents no longer make kids cover because tb and other plagues are not in the news. Recent immigrants don’t shield coughs. Thus we see drawings of covering sneezers in restrooms, buses and doctor’s offices. The new wrinkle is to sneeze into your sleeve, not your hand.

Swine flu fears reawakened interest in teaching children and adults to cover coughs. If you’ve taken public transportation during the winter, you know the crucial nature of this public health campaign. Once or twice I’ve moved away from an open consumptive hacker. When I can’t get away, I hold a scarf over my nose and mouth. This also serves as a reminder to them to cover.

I would rather die of embarassment than to sneeze or cough without screening. My auntie and grandmother must be proud time I cover. It’s plain good manners.

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I finished my exams over a week ago, so I really don’t have any excuse for not updating.

So without further ado, here’s what I missed:

365.021 – Not Bright Enough

Why this?

Today, after so much procrastination, I realized that I wasn’t as smart as I though when I finally did start studying for my paper. So I took a picture. I mean, I’ve already procrastinated, a few minutes for Day-21’s shot won’t kill anyone.

365.22 – The Cosine Of Pi.

Why this?

Today’s paper was Statistics. This is Trigonometry, but it is close enough. I wanted a CSI-type shot, the kind that says “I’m a terrible actor who most probably doesn’t know what the hell he’s doing, but I just hope the lights, camera and the green-ish color-correction will make me look good, and with a bit of luck, seem like an expert”. Now substitute the word “actor” with “student” ;P

265.023 – Suspended In Time

Why this?

Yesterday’s paper was, how do I put this delicately — Fucked. That left me moody and uninspired today. So I walked into my bathroom and shot the tap a couple of times until it shed tears; then I shot it again just for kicks

365.024 – Pencil & Paper

Why this?

You’d think that with a generic name like “Pencil & Paper”, they would be an interesting story behind this shot; but no. It was the morning of my Maths/Calculus exam and I was studying for it. Fun fact: I’ve had this mechanical pencil for close to two years now. Not impressed? Well if you knew me, you would be.

365.025 – Sole

Why this?

Over at my DPS 365 Flickr Group, the week’s theme was “Collections”. Being that I don’t collect anything, I decided to shoot my footwear. The shots turned out really terrible, so I shot my favorite sole instead. And in case you’re wondering, I didn’t have a paper today.

To be continued…

Plain and simple just decided to make a mess tonight…. Guess I’d best go and mop up now before someone slips in it…

Saya ni akhir2 ni mmg kemaruk sungguh. Nak kata takde keje byk je kerja rumah, kain bertimbun, kena masak lah tapi time budak2 tdo ini yg saya buat..Sabau aje lah noo..

Sesiapa yang berwuduk saat ingin tidur dan meminta supaya ALLAH berikan kebaikan dunia dan akhirat pasti akan di kabulkan - HR Tirmizi. Sunat tidur dalam keadaan berwuduk.

Saidina Uthman bin Affan riwayatkan bahawa Nabi SAW apabila berwuduk, beliau membasahi janggutnya-HR Tirmizi

Sesiapa yang berniat mandi (untuk solat jumaat) kemudian pakai pakaian terbaik & wangian lalu solat jumaat, dosanya akan diampun hingga jumaat berikutnya- HR Ahmad.

Perbaharui wuduk tiap kali bersolat krn padanya terdapat banyak fadhilat. Hadith: Sesiapa yang berwuduk dalam keadaan suci, ALLAH catatkan 10 kebaikan baginya- HR Abu Dawud.

Hari tu time baby2 saya yg 3 org tu (termasuk bapak baby) tgh tdo lagi saya kuar sorang2 amik angin sambil tangkap gambar daun..daun2 ni antara fav subject saya..walaupun kering tapi sgt cantik pada mata saya Kalau dapat amik gambar autumn kat Hokkaido mesti best..erm rindunya hokkaido..walaupun bercampur baur dgn kenangan pahit tapi masih rindu nak kesana..nak sgt menikmati keindahan alam di sana..menyesalnya masa tu sy tak minat ambik gambar nature mcm ni..asik amik gambar diri sendiri je. Nak gi jalan sana byk habis duit pulak..huhu

Setelah bersolat Nabi SAW mohon ampun (astagfirullahalaziim) tiga kali - HR Muslim. Dalam riwayat yang lain, Nabi adakalanya beristighfar 75 kali sehari

 After wasting so much memory and time… finally … i was able to get some snaps the way i wanted to shoot… It is taken with Nikon 300 + Nikon 50 mm lens (reverse mount) … i had difficult time in tuning with the manual focus…i wasted around 100 pictures to get some good shots…

Dont keep wiping ur monitors…..I havent applied any noise reduction.. because of reverse mount ther are some noticable noise…

Here are few of them…. Please give your comments…

Using a Infrared Light Beam Trigger (Schmitt Trigger) With a Delay Circuit

The above images were taken for a school project.  A droplet of milk was dropped from about two feet into a glass of milk, colored with food coloring to add some interest.  A Schmitt Trigger and a time delay circuit was utilized to capture the resulting splash at different stages.

DIY – Building of a Infrared Light Beam Trigger

In order to photograph any unobservable high speed event, some type of device must be utilized to determine the precise moment that the event occurs.  This device must then trigger the photograph to be taken (in this case triggering the flash).   For the purpose of this project, the easiest way to accomplish this was through the use of an infrared light beam trigger.  This trigger used an infrared light beam that when broken (i.e. a drop of milk passed though the beam), triggered a flash unit to go off.   Here is a schematic of the circuit that was built.

However,  a time-delay between the activation of the trigger and the resulting flash was needed to insure the droplet was in the predetermined area to be photographed.  Consequently, a variable delay circuit was added allowing fine tuned control over the precise moment to be captured.  Here is the schematic for that circuit.

The resulting circuit was then placed in a PVC case with an arm attachment.  The arm attachment featured a  component (PVC fittings) that allowed a syringe (used to form the droplet) to be aligned in the correct position relative to the infrared light beam trigger mechanism. Furthermore, the trigger device  included controls for trigger sensitivity, and delay time.  A 3.5mm jack was installed to accommodate connecting a wireless flash trigger.  This allowed easier placement of the flash unit and provided a way to trigger multiple flashes if necessary.  Also,  the original design used a separate phototransistor and infrared LED.  This setup, while allowing larger objects to pass through the light beam, proved not to have enough sensitivity and could not be triggered by a liquid droplet.  Therefore, a electronic interrupter was used instead and provided the necessary sensitivity.   The following pictures show the finished product.    This circuit is available as a kit from http://www.hiviz.com with step by step wiring instructions that are easily followed and require no soldering (the separate interrupter is also available and comes with instructions).

Other Equipment

Some specialized equipment was used to capture the necessary images.  This equipment included a Canon 5D full frame digital camera, a Sigma 500 DG Super Speedlight, a focusing stage (micro rail), a sturdy tripod and an electronic release cable.  Furthermore, the Canon MPE-65 1x-5x macro zoom lens was used to get extreme close up images of the event (any macro lens would work).

Taking the Picture

First, before trying to photograph anything, the sensitivity of the trigger had to  be adjusted.  This was accomplished by turning a variable resistor (pot) until the flash would trigger when a drop passed through the infrared beam.  Then the delay was adjusted – another variable resistor – until, as the droplet reached the desired stage, the flash went off.  This took a bit of trial and error to get right, with some experimentation needed to decide exactly where to place the flash.  The exact adjustment of the delay depended on what stage of the resulting splash was to be photographed.  To take the actual picture, the camera was placed in bulb mode with the release cable connected.  The shutter was held open and the droplet dropped.  Once the flash went off, the shutter was released.  Total darkness was unnecessary as normal ambient room lighting had no observable effect on the photograph and helped with focusing and operating the syringe used to create a droplet.  The flash was set to manual mode and had to be set at 1/8th power or less to freeze the motion without  motion blur.

Just could not think of an apt title for this one, so had to settle for something lame in the end, but hey… let’s just hope that no one actually reads the title anyway… Hmmm… Well I guess they might now that I’ve drawn attention to it… Well stop reading now and pretend I never mentioned it… Well, when I said stop reading now, I hope you didn’t actually stop reading then, or you’d have missed the bit when I said “pretend I never mentioned it”…. SO… Start again… reading that is….

Pretend I never mentioned the title, and just study the shiny droppy things…. Now you can stop reading….

Phew…. Got away with that I think….

This fall, 2009, was more of fun than photography… but still managed to get some get some pictures that are worth sharing. Here are some…

It took some time to find this perfect color changed maple leaf. Placed it against the paved road and clicked. Nice contrast and uniformly lit sky worked for this.

Red leaf on tar

For the next one, I took the leaf and placed it against the dry leaf stems. Did some “photoshoping” to unsaturate the background. The result is this:

Red leaf on dry stems

Next one is related to the topic but not specific to the season. The water droplets fallen from the tree above our parked car had formed a beautiful pattern. Again, an overcast sky made it easier on the sensor and very less photoshoping yielded this:

Water droplets on red metal

water slide!

We ordered the water slide for Willie’s party on Saturday and they ended up leaving it here all weekend so of course we went on it every day! haha this is Willie making a huge splash in the pool at the bottom (:

I got an email today…….

My picture Morning Jewels submitted into the Planet Earth category of the Digital Camera Photographer of the Year competition has attracted the interest of the pre-selection team. They now like to be able to see the high-res version before they start the shortlisting process.

I’m very happy now, hope can respond to them in these few days.