Lunar Eclipse Viewed from North Borneo on 10th December 2011

This was my first attempt to capture the Eclipse of the moon. The Total Lunar Eclipse on December 10, 2011 will be visible in its entirety from where I was in Sabah, Malaysia.  These were pictures taken from the front yard of my home using a Nikon D7000 and Tokina AT-X 340 AF-II 100-300 F4 which translates to 160-450mm on a DX camera.  The sky was clear with patches of low altitude but fast moving clouds and steady westerly winds.

 

  A quarter eclipse - exposure taken from the bright part of the moon at 8.52pm.

Half eclipse - Exposure taken from the bright part of the moon at 9.24pm

Half Eclipse - Exposure taken from the darkened part of the moon at 9.21pm

Full Eclipse with the darkened moon with a reddish glow at 10.30pm.

Insects in My Garden

I purchased my used Tokina ATX 340 100-300 f4 zoom lens online and had it for 2 weeks now.  I read so much good reviews about this discontinued lens.  This lens full frame FX lens which means on my DX it is equivalent to 150-450mm f4 lens. It is heavy and built like a tank a far cry from my Nikkor AF 75-240 f4.5-5.6D plastics which came bundled with my old Nikon F60 camera. Optics wise, the following shots which is not photo-shopped or in anyway enhanced will bear witness.

Today I made another attempt at photographing that elusive black and blue spot butterfly and another one brownish-orange around my garden.  I have been standing still among the flower pots and plants for a minute or so with camera in hand, when I saw a pair of dragon fly flying about.  Took a few hand held shots and non-flash but I was disappointed with the results as the shadowed portion of the insect was too dark.  Except for these two shots

 With exposure compensation, I got the exposure underneath the body right but I lost the details on the over exposed leaf surface.  But nevertheless I like the shadow from the dragon fly.

 

 The shots were better after I used the tripod and fill in flash with a lambency diffuser.

 

Just before I decided I had enough shot, suddenly the butterfly I was waiting for came. The butterfly was a difficult subject because any sudden movement would cause it to fly away. This where the advantage of the long Tokina lens which I can take shots of the butterfly from 2 meters away.

 

The matt black wing against a bright sunlight was a difficult shot to make. I had to increase exposure to get the details on the wings which cause the greens to fade.

Well, one thing I am very sure now.. this is one lens which I intend to keep.

The Critical Minutes

When there is the sun, it is always bright outside than inside a building unless of course an artificial lighting is introduced.  And artificial lighting will usually be or never be brighter than the sun. Then it strikes my mind, since day turned into night and night tuned into day, there must be that time of the day where the deep colour of dawn or dusk matches the exposure of the inside of a lighted building.

In most cases of my point and shoot photography, time of day was never an issue.  It is what I saw, I like and then I shoot. This time it is all about time and planning.  I woke up early well before 5.00am, after my solat subuh, I drove like crazy to my desired location, a mosque about 10km from home. Why a mosque? Well, it's about the only building with lighted interior at this time. I reached there, stopped by the road side at exactly 5.20am. and took this shot spot-metering the lighted interior.

Still got a bit of blue sky and lighted interior, but this picture it was taken from the roadside.  A few minutes earlier would have been a dark blue sky.  I need to go over the fence and take the shot without the fence blocking the lower part of the building. But there was a drain and I need to go to the main entrance and walk back to the same angle of view which requires me to drive and park the car and walk a hundred metres or so.

While I got to the desired spot it was already too bright and lost much of the blue spectrum. Increasing the exposure to match the interior would over-exposed the sky. Took several shot but I managed to capture the birds in flight when I was just about to pack.

I had another underexposed shot to capture the orange spectrum but in the process loses the details of the mosque lighted interior.

All in all, the window of opportunity was less than 10 minutes for right exposure I was looking for. It was getting brighter by the minute and as I walked back towards the car it was already too bright but I had this surreal shot of a floating mosque.

After I got home and upon reviewing the photos, I realised I made one BIG mistake!.  I had the ASA set to 800!.  After all the rush, dragging my tripod and remote trigger I ended with a grainy photos ..

Trying out a Cheap Lens

I bought this Opteka 500mm f8 mirror lens from a local guy selling camera accessories online.  It was just a curiosity rather than a need.  It was not an easy lens to use.  For a 500mm without any kind of stabiliser forget about hand held shots. A camera stand and a remote release is a must for this lens.  This pictures was taken from the Kinabalu Golf Club in Tanjung Aru, Kota Kinabalu Sabah.

Despite using a tripod, this is not a sharp lens and contrasts a bit low.

At maximum infinity focus is a blurry and you need to turn back the focusing ring back a bit to get the focusing right.

Contrast is on the low side and appears hazy.

Depth of field is shallow and the out of focus foreground has weird out of focus effect of the mirror lens.

This is a very light lens and easy to carry around.  It is only slightly bigger than a 18-105mm Nikon but it is much much lighter.  However the lightness and a f8 maximum aperture means I still need to carry the extra weight of a tripod.

The focusing turn is very limited and very difficult to focus.  You need a super sensitive fingers to rotate the barrel in minute fraction at a time. Forget about action shots on this lens.

My opinion; don't be an idiot (like I have been) wasting good money with this lens.  It is too soft and lacks details.  It is simply not worth the RM500.00 I paid for it.  I had a better result cropping the picture with my old plasticky Nikon AF75-240mm f4.5-5.6D lens.  If  I really need a long lens, my 300mm zoom lens (on my DX will translates to 460mm), which is almost 500mm has superior optics.

Pulau Mabul Escapade

I was waiting for my flight to Tawau when I bumped into Datuk Douglas. He was taking an earlier flight to Tawau while I was going to the same destination but via Sandakan. It was through his kind gesture that he invited me over to his Sipadan Dive Resort in Mabul, Semporna and to spend some time fishing. As usual, it was an opportunity for photogrphy for me. As I was nor prepared for a Island trip I had with me my Nikon and a standard zoom lens. If only I had broght the polariser..

 

Aerial View of Mout Kinabalu

It was my usual monthly trip to Tawau to my Plantation.  However this time I purposely took the indirect flight from Kota Kinabalu to Tawau with a stopover in Sandakan at 7.00 am,  I know the flight to Sandakan will fly past by the Mount Kinabalu and hopefully the sky will be clear for the intended shot.  I checked in online the night before and chose a seat 2nd row from the rear to avoid seating next to the wings.  From the ground it appeared to be misty but as the aircraft reaches above 5000 feet the sky was clear. Twenty minutes later I started taking th shots of the mountain.

It was still dark and a distance away when I took the first shot of the mountain.  I didnt really know what to expect due to the unfavourable view of the mountain from the ground.

As the aircraft climbed the view becomes clearer with spots of cloud.  This was the view with the populated main road from Kota Kinabalu can be easily seen.

The mountain as seen from the southern face while moving towards the eastern face.

View from the eastern face of the mountain.  The town of Kundasang is clearly visible at the centre of the picture.  The clear white dot is the Perkasa Hotel.

The center of the picture is the Kundasang Golf Course.

These pictures were taken using Nikon D7000 and 18-105mm Nikor.  The picture is not sharp despite taking at high speed to avoid shake and f8 aperture. I think this was due to the concave window shape of the turbo prop aircraft which adds distortion to the zoom lens.  I presume using a wide angle prime lens with polariser filter would get me a better details and contrast.  

Mount Kinabalu Sunrise

This picture was taken at dawn before and after sunrise just several hundred meters from my house.  I was testing the dynamic range of my 2 weeks old Nikon D7000 which I bought for my birthday.

Early dawn before the sunrise.

The dynamic range was well controlled with the gradual hues of the mountain well defined 
at the same time not overexposing the lit up skies.

When the sun peeks from behind the mountain, the bright light reduces the contrasts of the shadows
but it's still visble. My older D70 would just create a black silhuette of the mountain.

A tricky shot with the camera facing the sun, the green of the grass is captured instead of just plain silhouettes.