Chews Lane

I've lately not used my Tamron as regularly as I want to. My macro photography is just taking too much time. I really still like the macro's I can take with the Tamron and a +2 or +4 diopter on the front, but, nothing beats the sharpness and magnification you can get with a dedicated prime lens reverse mounted to your camera. (have a look over at Teach me Photo).

So, now for the conundrum I find myself in, what should I post to my Tamron blog. Well, this image taken of Chews Lane in Wellington just after sunrise will have to suffice. It is not the snappiest, most awesome photo I've ever taken (not that I shoot National Geographic quality at all), but I love the richness of the gold colors with the cold blue of the lightening sky in the photo.

Oh, before I forget. This funny thing in the front left of the photo, is an electronic device that plays a video inside with audio to explain the history of Chews Lane. you should really go and visit it just to have a look see for yourself.

Canon 600D, Tamron 18-270mm f3.5-6.3 Di II VC PZD. Focal length 23mm, Exposure 1/250sec at f8 +2/3EV, ISO 100, Focus auto, VC on, Flash none, Filter none.

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Row Boats

On my Mana marina trip my main aim was to try and make the most of the late afternoon sun. I deliberately shot multi exposures on the day, mindful that I may need the help of some slight HDR to get the most of my pics.

For shots like the one below, where the sun was just off the shot, I've found that contrast and color saturation was OK, but still not to my liking and tweaking the images in Lightroom also did not get the result I was after. For shots where the sun was in the shot the situation was even worse. Through the help of HDR I could take an average looking photo, and turn it into a version with slightly more detail, saturation and contrast, with highs not blown out like on the original.

So the lesson learned is that if you intend shooting in difficult light, set your camera to auto bracket at +-2 stops. If the shot at normal exposure disappoints, you can pass the three (or more) bracketed shots to your favorite HDR tool, for some slight image processing. So, yes, HDR can be a nice tool, to create some stunning effects, but it can also be very useful in getting the most of subject matter not typically used for HDR processing.

Canon 600D, Tamron 18-270mm f3.5-6.3 Di II VC PZD. Focal length 18mm, Exposure 1/160sec at f8 +2/3EV, ISO 100, Focus auto, VC on, Flash none, Filter none.

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Sealion Wellington

The Sealion Wellington, hull completed in 1946. Owned since 1990 by Mr. Ian McIntosh and currently based in Wellington harbor. I am sure, due to the character of this vessel, many amateur photographers and visitors to Wellington have taken photos of this boat. And yes, how could I not join the fun!

Canon 600D, Tamron 18-270mm f3.5-6.3 Di II VC PZD. Focal length 42mm, Exposure 1/200sec at f8 +2/3EV, ISO 100, Focus auto, VC on, Flash none, Filter none.

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Kay Dee

I love the performance of the Tamron lens in the 20mm to 50mm range. Even better is that with a quick snap of the wrist you are at 270mm ready to pick out details far off. This versatility is what makes me pic this lens almost every time I got out. Even my trusty Canon 50mm f1.8 Mk II is starting to gather dust due to the Tamron!

On my visit to the Mana marina I took two shots of Kay Dee. One at 35mm and the next zoomed in at 270mm. Enjoy!

Canon 600D, Tamron 18-270mm f3.5-6.3 Di II VC PZD. Focal length 35mm, Exposure 1/640sec at f4.5 +2/3EV, ISO 200, Focus auto, VC on, Flash none, Filter none.

Canon 600D, Tamron 18-270mm f3.5-6.3 Di II VC PZD. Focal length 270mm, Exposure 1/125sec at f8 +2/3EV, ISO 100, Focus auto, VC on, Flash none, Filter none.

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The Heart of Mana Marina

I just love panoramas. This one is a four shot panorama taken on my recent Mana marina trip. What I find interesting is how the wall I was standing on, came out in a heart shape on the panorama. Click the image to view a higher resolution version.

Also, please visit my friend's blog. He is really talented, and since this is his first blog and first time at sharing his photos, your support is important: AWOE Imaging

Canon 600D, Tamron 18-270mm f3.5-6.3 Di II VC PZD. Focal length 18mm, Exposure 1/320sec at f8, ISO 200, Focus auto, VC on, Flash none, Filter none.

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Mana Boatyard

A visit to the Mana Marina just before sunset yielded a lot of nice photos. To make the most of the rich light I deliberately shot most of my photos with +-2EV bracketing. My intention was to use HDR to see which photos could benefit from HDR in post processing.

The image below is such an example, where a little HDR created a nice effect. (It is a pity that the downsized image here does not do justice to the original.)

Canon 600D, Tamron 18-270mm f3.5-6.3 Di II VC PZD. Focal length 18mm, Exposure 1/200sec at f8 +2/3EV, ISO 100, Focus auto, VC on, Flash none, Filter none.

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Thirsty Gulls

Behind the Te Papa museum is a pedestrian bridge with a small stream dammed up beneath it. The seagulls and ducks really like the fresh water and there is constant activity of birds bathing and drinking water.

The images did exhibit some chromatic aberration abound the birds and the cement background. initially I thought this was due to deficiencies in the Tamron PZD, but my friend took the exact same photos using the 18-55mm and 55-250mm Canon kit lenses and he had the same CA problem. Oh, well, nothing a little post processing cannot fix. The Tamron PZD gets more fun to use as days goes by, and because I do not have to swap lenses as often I end up getting more shots than if I had to rely on my kits lenses.

A quick tip, when shooting birds try and keep the shutter speed high, even if that means dropping to a faster ISO.

Canon 600D, Tamron 18-270mm f3.5-6.3 Di II VC PZD. Focal length 270mm, Exposure 1/200sec at f8 +2/3EV, ISO 100, Focus auto, VC on, Flash none, Filter none.

I've left a bit of CA around the seagull on the left for you to get an indication of the impact the bright white feathers have on the darker background.

Canon 600D, Tamron 18-270mm f3.5-6.3 Di II VC PZD. Focal length 142mm, Exposure 1/200sec at f8 +2/3EV, ISO 100, Focus auto, VC on, Flash none, Filter none.

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Super Massive Wellington Waterfront Pano

What do you get if you combine 14 photos of 18MP each into one super massive pano?

Well, the answer is simple, a 26k by 4k pixel image. For non computer geeks, that is 26469 by 4528 pixels in one image! Count them one by one and you will get a total of 119,851,632 pixels. Yes, that is a 119 million pixel photo. Uhm, also, that file has a 1.5GB footprint on my computer's drive, yikes!

What can you do with such a big image?

Maybe someone just happening to be on the lookout for an image to print on a city block size billboard, will venture onto this page - hahaha, I wish ;-)

I've shrunk the image down so I can post it on the blog, but believe me, it does not even start to do justice to the detail in the original. I've also included a crop of a tiny portion of the image just to give you some indication of the resolution of the main file. See if you can spot where the crop comes from.

Canon 600D, Tamron 18-270mm f3.5-6.3 Di II VC PZD. Focal length 46mm, Exposure 1/160sec at f8, ISO 100, Focus auto, VC on, Flash none, Filter none.

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Midnight Sun

I went out for a lunch time walk, just to rest my eyes from a tough morning at the office. My 600D came along to enjoy the nice weather. This photo is a hard lesson learned. I had a work colleague with me and did not have much time to look for shot and frame shots. So the 8 or so images I took, were taken in typical happy-snappy holiday mode.

With this image I did not keep track of my zoom and f-stop and the resulting image had pretty much everything in focus. So what to do. I really liked the little boat but with all in focus the main subject got lost in the clutter. Off to CS5 to hone some post processing skills. I am by no stretch of the imagination an expert on CS5, so it took me a lot of time of careful masking on multiple layers to get a realistic background lens blur. I hope you appreciate my efforts. Maybe one day the owner of little Midnight Sun will pass this blog to enjoy my quick snap of his property.

Lastly, I need to just point out again what a pleasure it is to shoot with the Tamron 18-270mm VC PZD. While walking and chatting to my friend, I could easily zoom to max or go all wide to make sure I can take the image I need. Of the 8 pics I took, a couple was at full wide angle and one was at full zoom. With my Canon kit lenses, this would have resulted in constant lens changing - which would not have been possible and would have meant even fever photos. So top marks to the Tamron for versatility!

Canon 600D, Tamron 18-270mm f3.5-6.3 Di II VC PZD. Focal length 184mm, Exposure 1/160sec at f8 +2/3EV, ISO 100, Focus auto, VC on, Flash none, Filter none.

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Vespa Super

Close to where I work, someone parks their fantastically beautiful and full of character Vespa scooter every day. Nothing really in taking the picture other than dodging pedestrians on the sidewalk. These days people do not have much sympathy for amateur photographers.

Post processing was focused on giving the photo a classic, almost postcard look by playing a bit with background saturation. My aim was to try and accentuate the green of the scooter in contract to the gray and cold cement building in the background.

Canon 600D, Tamron 18-270mm f3.5-6.3 Di II VC PZD. Focal length 23mm, Exposure 1/80sec at f8, ISO 400, Focus auto, VC on, Flash none, Filter none.

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Civic Square Wellington

The wind was howling today during lunchtime when I went out with a friend to take some shots in Wellington. There is really a lot to capture and I will make this a more regular lunch time thing for sure.

So, back to this image, it is a 4 shot panorama taken handheld. Stitching was done in CS5. I am still a CS5 noob - coming from using The Gimp. I had to perform some warping to get a straight horizon.

Let me offer some tips for shooting panoramas:

• Choose a low ISO. Since you will be doing a fair bit of post processing, it is best to start off with as little noise as possible.
• This one is very important. Set your camera to automatic and take a light measurement on your main focus point of the panorama. Note the f-stop and shutterspeed.
• Set your camera to manual mode and dial in the f-stop and shutter speed to make sure all your shots match in exposure level.
• Make sure you take all images on the same zoom level.
• You may refocus, but try and keep your focus point at the same distance.
• Use a tripod, else make sure you use image stabilizing when handheld.
• Shoot vertical. A number of vertical (portrait) photos will stitch best into a horizontal (landscape) panorama.
• As you take your shots, make sure you have at least 20% overlap between shots.
• Quick Cheat - if your camera has focus dots in the viewfinder, try to have one of these dots track the horizon as you rotate to take the images.

Canon 600D, Tamron 18-270mm f3.5-6.3 Di II VC PZD. Focal length 18mm, Exposure 1/320sec at f8, ISO 100, Focus auto, VC on, Flash none, Filter none.

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Stained Glass

It takes amazing skill, patience, time and design to construct these windows. Hats off to the artist! This shot was taken on my Old St. Pauls trip a while ago. I just love the colors, resolution and detail.

My quick tip for shooting similar pics:

• Make sure you have a sturdy tripod.
• Set focus to manual.
• Set image stabilizing off if you have that function.
• Go for slower ISOs - ISO100 or ISO200. Stay away from noise.
• Use a remote trigger cable. Your finger on the trigger button can introduce vibration which may very well result in a loss of sharpness.
• Try and focus on the main subject. In this case it was easy to pick the left eye as the focus point.

Canon 600D, Tamron 18-270mm f3.5-6.3 Di II VC PZD. Focal length 184mm, Exposure 1/8sec at f20, ISO 200, Focus manual, VC off, Flash none, Filter UV, tripod.

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In my eyes

Another jumping spider variety I would guess. I was amazed to see when I did my post processing, that if I zoom in on the spider's eyes, I can see my reflection in his eyes. How amazing is that! Those are small eyes, but still enough light is reflected back to contain a whole image of me holding the camera.

I must say, if spiders could have a personality, this one would have quite a good sense of humor. He kept on jumping onto my lens just before I could click to take the image. Kind of fits his looks as well. I am mad about his little fringe. I will go to the local library and see if I can get a book on insects in New Zealand.

Else, quite a precarious pose with the spider on the side of a wooden wall.

Canon 600D, Tamron 18-270mm f3.5-6.3 Di II VC PZD. Focal length 270mm, Exposure 1/80sec at f13 +2/3EV, ISO 800, Focus manual, VC off, Flash none, Filter UV and +2 diopter.

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My Fly is Open

He he, so actually its "open" for all to see.

Got home today and I just had to walk around the garden to see if any insects would like their photos taken and you will not believe how many nice pics I got. Sure, at such magnification, shooting without a flash and handheld, meant I had a lot of out of focus photos to delete. But, the keepers were worth it. Oh and the three sandfly bits I've collected during my 45 minutes outside, will also be worth it. (Why those little buggers like my blood so much I would not know!)

With that said I must say that I have pretty much found the area of photography I enjoy the most. Yes, landscape photography etc. is also a lot of fun, but nothing compares to the detail and colors you can capture at high magnification. Also, this is an area the naked eye have very little insight into.

So, let me introduce you to my fly. :-) I have absolutely no clue whatsoever what species this is, but let's not allow that from distracting us from enjoying the pics. Images are crops, with mostly noise reduction performed to get rid of noise artifacts due to shooting at ISO800. (Please will someone sponsor me a DSLR that can handle higher ISOs with less noise!)

Canon 600D, Tamron 18-270mm f3.5-6.3 Di II VC PZD. Focal length 270mm, Exposure 1/80sec at f10 +2/3EV, ISO 800, Focus manual, VC off, Flash none, Filter UV and +2 diopter.

Canon 600D, Tamron 18-270mm f3.5-6.3 Di II VC PZD. Focal length 270mm, Exposure 1/80sec at f10 +2/3EV, ISO 800, Focus manual, VC off, Flash none, Filter UV and +2 diopter.

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Old St Pauls Wellington

Another photographic trip with my mates over and done with. This time we went to Old St Pauls in Wellington (http://www.historicplaces.org.nz/placestovisit/lowernorthisland/oldstpauls.aspx). This is a wonderfully rich in wood building. A photographer's dream!

Most of my photos were shot with +2 exposure bracketing which on the Canon 600D means 3 shots. These were pulled into Photomatix for HDR processing. Needless to  say I am very pleased with the results.

Back to the Tamron 18-270mm f3.5-6.3 Di II VC PZD lens.

Pros: This lens were very useful since it allowed me the ability to take shots ranging from full wide angle to nicely zoomed in, without changing lenses.

Cons: All pics were shot using a tripod, but for the first hour I forgot to switch off the VC!! Nooooo. So many lost pics. On my big screen I could clearly see the blur caused by the VC.

Regarding image stabilizing. The Canon 18-55mm kit lens is better at managing IS on a tripod. However, I would recommend switching off IS using a tripod even with a Canon lens.

So here are some images to enjoy, while I plan my next trip back to the church to re-take those missed shots.

Canon 600D, Tamron 18-270mm f3.5-6.3 Di II VC PZD. Focal length 18mm, Exposure 13sec at f10 +2/3EV, ISO 200, Focus manual, VC off, Flash none, Filter UV, 3 shot bracketed at 2 stops.

Canon 600D, Tamron 18-270mm f3.5-6.3 Di II VC PZD. Focal length 50mm, Exposure 10sec at f8 +2/3EV, ISO 200, Focus manual, VC off, Flash none, Filter UV, 3 shot bracketed at 2 stops.

Canon 600D, Tamron 18-270mm f3.5-6.3 Di II VC PZD. Focal length 35mm, Exposure 8sec at f8 +2/3EV, ISO 200, Focus manual, VC off, Flash none, Filter UV, 3 shot bracketed at 2 stops.

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Spiders Spiders Everywhere

Wow, I've had a lot of fun the past two days. Any insect that ventures into my house by implication is eligible to pose for my photos :-)

Here are some images of spiders snapped using my Tamron VC PZD with a +4 diopter on. Note multiple photos where taken at varying focal depths and combined using image stacking software to produce a single image with good depth of field. Also, I am still getting used to the image stacking software, so the resulting images are not yet to my liking, especially the background on the last one. All images are crops.

Canon 600D, Tamron 18-270mm f3.5-6.3 Di II VC PZD. Focal length 270mm, Exposure 1/10sec at f13 +2/3EV, ISO 200, Focus manual, VC off, Flash none, Filter UV and +4 diopter.

Canon 600D, Tamron 18-270mm f3.5-6.3 Di II VC PZD. Focal length 270mm, Exposure 1/10sec at f14 +2/3EV, ISO 200, Focus manual, VC off, Flash none, Filter UV and +4 diopter.

Canon 600D, Tamron 18-270mm f3.5-6.3 Di II VC PZD. Focal length 270mm, Exposure 0.3sec at f14 +2/3EV, ISO 200, Focus manual, VC off, Flash none, Filter UV and +4 diopter.

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Mr & Mrs Prickly Spider

Worked from home today and my wife was outside busy in the garden when I heard her calling me. She almost had a little spider fall on her. I rushed back inside to grab my camera to take some pics of the creature. This spider is only about 1.5cm long in sitting position and about 2cm I would guess in walking position.

Shooting was not easy, since I had to take the images standing plus I had a +4 diopter on to get close enough to the tiny thing. Later in the day I found another spider outside, and only after downloading those images to Lightroom did I see the two spiders must be from the same species. My guess would be the bigger one is the female and the smaller one the male.

Please add a comment if you know what these spiders are called.

Due to the small size of the spider all pics had a small amount of sharpening added and all are crops from the bigger original pics.

Canon 600D, Tamron 18-270mm f3.5-6.3 Di II VC PZD. Focal length 270mm, Exposure 1/50sec at f18 +2/3 EV, ISO 800, Focus manual, VC on, Flash none, Filter UV and +4 diopter.

And the Lady of the house. She was hanging upside down  outside almost at ceiling level. This one was difficult to snap.

Canon 600D, Tamron 18-270mm f3.5-6.3 Di II VC PZD. Focal length 200mm, Exposure 1/50sec at f16 +2/3 EV, ISO 800, Focus manual, VC on, Flash none, Filter UV and +4 diopter.

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Berry Bonanza

I love strawberries! So when my friend told me the local supermarket had stock, I immediately got in my car and came back home with three punnets of strawberries. 2.95 punnets for eating, njummy, and 1 strawberry for taking photos.

All photos were taken with a +4 diopter on my Tarmon PZD. Lighting was using my custom lightbox (see earlier post) and 23W globe. All images overexposed by 2/3 EV. No sharpness added in PP.

My first try was with a red wine glass filled with Sprite Zero (I know, wine lovers will have me executed for such sacrilege!). Next time I would rather try plain water and a small fish tank. Note, the bubbles made the strawberry move around in the glass. It was quite challenging to shoot a moving berry :-)



Canon 600D, Tamron 18-270mm f3.5-6.3 Di II VC PZD. Focal length 110mm, Exposure 1/80sec at f5.6 +2/3 EV, ISO 800, Focus auto, VC on, Flash none, Filter UV and +4 diopter.

Next up just a simple shot on a shiny grey card. Note the pretty decent image quality. This time around the strawberry was not going anywhere :-) Vignette added in PP for effect.

Canon 600D, Tamron 18-270mm f3.5-6.3 Di II VC PZD. Focal length 59mm, Exposure 1/100sec at f6.3 +2/3 EV, ISO 800, Focus auto, VC on, Flash none, Filter UV and +4 diopter. 

Below a 100% crop of the image above. No complaints from my side. Not a Canon MP-E 65mm, but for what I've paid for the lens and the versatility it provides, it will do.

One of my favorites from the shoot. Again nice sharpness, a simple vignette added for dramatization.

Canon 600D, Tamron 18-270mm f3.5-6.3 Di II VC PZD. Focal length 142mm, Exposure 1/25sec at f29 +2/3 EV, ISO 100, Focus auto, VC on, Flash none, Filter UV and +4 diopter. 

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Dahlia Diopter +4

Today was a good day, the local camera shop had some Marumi diopters (close-up filters) in stock. So I could not let a set stay in the shop, no, I just had to adopt them :-)

The image below is a quick snap of the Tamron 18-270mm VC PZD with a +4 diopter fitted. The shot was taken without a tripod. Note that the center part of the dahlia is less than 2cm in diameter. I cannot wait to see what this lens can achieve at +7 (+1, +2 and +4 stacked). Although I am pretty sure I will need a tripod at that "magnification".

Canon 600D, Tamron 18-270mm f3.5-6.3 Di II VC PZD. Focal length 200mm, Exposure 1/100sec at f14, ISO 100, Focus manual, VC on, Flash none, Filter UV and +4 diopter stacked.

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Itsy Bitsy Spider

Another post from our recent walk in the bush. This time not the best photo on its own if you ask me, but I really liked the detail the lens managed on the minute spider, keeping in mind this was shot hand held in a light breeze. I will let the pictures speak for themselves! PP included some sharpening but very little. As I've been posting mainly photos with no sharpening to date, I've thought it best to post a closer to reality shot, since most digital workflow will include some amount of sharpening.

Canon 600D, Tamron 18-270mm f3.5-6.3 Di II VC PZD. Focal length 270mm, Exposure 1/500sec at f9, ISO 800, Focus auto, VC on, Flash none, Filter UV.

100% crop.

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Here's looking at you

We went for a walk in the local "bush" today and I've managed to get a whole number of good shots. It is difficult to pick which one to post, so I will post a number of the top ones over the coming days. Since I've posted a number of flower pics recently, I think this little dragonfly is a welcome change.

This guy is pretty small and the day was windy but I tried my best to click in between light gusts of wind. No sharpening done, but black levels and saturation changed in PP.

Canon 600D, Tamron 18-270mm f3.5-6.3 Di II VC PZD. Focal length 270mm, Exposure 1/500sec at f9, ISO 800, Focus auto, VC on, Flash none, Filter UV.

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