Showing posts with label twitter. Show all posts
Showing posts with label twitter. Show all posts

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Barn Swallows (Hirundo rustica)

I decided to take some photos of birds in flight at Coyote Hills Regional Park to practice taking photos of fast moving objects. Here are the photos I took. Coyote Hills Regional Park is a East Bay Regional Park located in Fremont, CA. The area is a salt water marsh with a lot of waterfowls and other animals. I sometimes go there because the birds there are easy to spot as there are no tall trees or foliage in the park. The following photos are of the Barn Swallow (Hirundo rustica).

我最近拍了一些鸟正在飞行的照片。这些照片是在 Coyote Hills Regional Park 拍的。这个公园是在加州的 Fremont。今天这些鸟叫 Barn Swallow。

Full Resolution Photos and Prints: If you want to see full resolution photos or buy prints of any of the photos you see, they are up on my portfolio for viewing. To see my best Coyote Hills Regional Park photos, use this link. To see my best bird photos of 2012, use this link. For all the photos taken in 2012 in Coyote Hills regional Park, use this link.

Message From The Photographer: Hello guys, sorry about not posting recently. I have been very busy with school work and haven't had much time to spend on my photos. In fact, these are the last of the photos I have ready to post. The rest of my photos are still in RAW format and I like to do some post processing before I post them. Now that we are done with the bad news, here are some good news. On Friday, from 6 AM to 10 AM PST, there will be a space shuttle fly-over at the NASA Moffet Field near Mountain View, CA. I will be there to take photos of the event. I'm pretty sure this will be pretty cool for many of you guys. If you don't know about this event, you can read about it here. Too lazy to get into the details here on the blog. 😂 I'm a photographer, not an article writer. LOL I will do my best to get the photos processed and up on this blog the same day or the day after. 😁 Alright, enough with the message, let's continue to the photos.

When I shown this photo to my friend, he thought it was a fish... I would have cropped it all the way, but I thought the clouds in the background made a good effect for the photo. 


Photography Tip: For photos of fast moving objects, set your camera on Shutter Priority Mode (Tv) and set your camera to take multiple shots. In Shutter Priority Mode, you set the shutter speed and your camera will set the corresponding aperture to make sure your shot is correctly exposed. If the values flash in your camera, it means correct exposure can not be reached (generally underexposure). To fix the underexposure problem, either slow down your shutter speed or boost the ISO. If your camera offers focus tracking, use that too (it is AI SERVO on Canon cameras). Your first few shots may be blurry, you may only have 1 good shot in hundreds of shots. The thing is practice makes perfect and even professionals will screw up on fast moving objects. The thing to remember is if a shot looks bad, take it and look at it and see how to improve the next time you try to do a similar photo. Photography is hard to master and will take time, sometimes even your entire lifetime! It's not an overnight thing and you shouldn't feel sad over a ruined shot. I'm saying this because I often do get sad over a ruined shot, but the thing is, don't look back the past, just look at how you can do better in the future. This not only applies to photography but to daily life too. :)



This is all the photos I have for today! I hope you have enjoyed these photos. I will try my best to get some of my photos finished processing. Don't forget to check back on Friday or Saturday for those Space Shuttle photos! (If you don't know what I'm talking about, you probably missed my message above. If that is the case, you can scroll up and read it.) Please don't forget to share my blog posts with your friends! If you would like to get notifications next time I post, you can "Like" me on Facebook or follow me on Twitter and Google+. These links can also be found on the top of the right sidebar.

Friday, August 31, 2012

American Whitewater Expeditions

Remember the star trails I did last time? If you missed it, you can see it here. Here are the other photos from my camping trip. Obviously, I did not bring my camera along on the rafting trip, so there will be no photos from that. These photos was from around the campsite. I took both regular and HDR photos there. I hope you enjoy viewing these!

If you want to see my star trails, you can see it here. There is also a tutorial on how you can do star trails on there too.

Full Resolution Photos and Prints: If you want to see full resolution photos or buy prints of any of the photos you see, they are up on my portfolio for viewing. See my best photos from that trip here. See all of my photos from that trip here.

There were some baby ducklings in the pond near the campsite.
边上一个池塘里的小鸭子。

The duckling in the back was slightly blurred.  

Can't tell if this was due to bad focusing or high ISO, but I thought the slight blur made a great effect for the photo. I suspect the blurring was bad focusing. Should have used AI SERVO on my camera instead of ONE SHOT.

Another shot of the ducklings.

 American river, and a house in the background. I thought the golden color of the sun as it was setting for the day looked great on the house. 

A photo of the sunset in Placerville. This was taken after the rafting trip on the way home.
在回家路上拍的日落。

The rest are the HDR compositions I made. In my option, they weren't very good subjects for HDR. LOL Please enjoy.

This is the pond the ducklings was swimming in. I don't think they are in this shot.

A shot of the American River. A 5-stop neutral density filter was used for the shot. 

HDR composition of the house and the river. This time zoomed out a bit. 

This is all the photos for this trip. I hope you have enjoyed viewing those! Again, if you haven't checked out my star trails photo and instructions on how to do one yourself, you can see my post here. Please don't forget to share my blog posts with your friends! If you would like to get notifications next time I post, you can "Like" me on Facebook or follow me on Twitter and Google+. These links can also be found on the top of the right sidebar.

Wednesday, August 29, 2012

What's In My Bag...

I noticed I have only been posting photos recently, and wanted to change things up a bit. For this post, I will be showing you all the photography equipment I have. :) This is most of my equipment and I usually carry all of it with me when I go on vacations to far places. I will usually skip over a few items if I'm only visiting nearby places depending on what I feel like shooting that day. I bring most of them to farther places when I visit because I don't know what to expect! No reviews of the products will be given here, but you can get an idea of what I bring and maybe what you are missing in your photography equipment collection. :) These photos do include the new 600EX-RT flash I purchased recently.

The first photo is of most of my equipment. My camera, tripod, and 1 of my lenses are not in the photo for obvious reasons.


Equipment listed in the above photo (Starting from the left):
Surprising how I can fit that much inside such a small camera bag right? LOL So now let's move onto the things that was not in that photo because I had to use my camera for that photo. The last 2 photos was taken using my Samsung Galaxy Nexus.


Equipment shown in this photo:
Here is a photo of the whole tripod with the camera on top. Photos also taken with my Samsung Galaxy Nexus.


So there you have it, most of the equipment I use and bring along for a photo shoot. :) It is very heavy. LOL Even though I have so much equipment, I can still quickly remember where I put it and quickly locate it in my bag. Sometimes I do hunt around a bit, but I usually don't. As a photographer, it's good to memorize where you store everything so you don't miss the perfect shot! As of right now, I actually don't have any space in my bag to store the flash. Not sure what changes I'll be making for that, but I bring most of these equipment along when I go on trips to far places. I most likely will probably just strap my flash to the outer part of my camera bag, the same way I'm storing my camera filters... If you read carefully, you'd know I usually cheap out and buy 3rd party equipment for all the parts that DO NOT affect optical quality! I never cheap out on lenses, batteries, or flash equipment... It's a very good money saving tip. :) Please don't forget to share my blog posts with your friends! If you would like to get notifications next time I post, you can "Like" me on Facebook or follow me on Twitter and Google+. These links can also be found on the top of the right sidebar.

Sunday, August 19, 2012

Caterpillar

Hello fans, I'm sorry about the delay in photos. I have a good friend of mine visiting from China, and I have been taking him to different places, and it has been extremely tiring for me, so I never really got time to do a new blog post. Also, college classes start for me soon, so you should expect more delays like this. I am taking quite a lot of classes. Sorry!

So... Let's get started with today's intro... I have 6 caterpillar photos for this blog post. I found this caterpillar in my front yard. :D How cool is that? So, as all of you know, I have 2 parakeets as pets. I usually pour their poop bowl at the bottom of the cage in my front yard. This leads to a lot of their food being grown, and they sure love fresh food! So, as I was harvesting some for them, this caterpillar fell off one of those and landed on the ground. I picked it up with some leaves from my orange tree. LOL You should never pick these up with your bare hands. It will give you a rash. I thought it would be nice to try some macro shots of it (not real macro). Anyways, sorry for the high amounts of noise in the photos, I didn't have a flash and I don't have a macro lens, so these photos have been heavily cropped. The quality isn't too bad though. It was done with my Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8L II USM Ultra Wide Angle Zoom Lens. No extension tubes were used. The white areas on some of the images is where the shade ended and the sun was shining, so exposing for the shade has washed out the bright areas of the image. I have put all the almost all in focus photos first, and the rest of them are slightly out of focus. If you ever tried macro photography, you'd know what a pain it is to focus on the shot!

Full Resolution Photos and Prints: If you want to see full resolution photos or buy prints of any of the photos you see, they are up on my portfolio for viewing. See my best backyard photography photos from 2012 here. See my best insect photos here. See all of my backyard photography photos from 2012 here.

I know it looks dead in this photo, but it's not. I never knew caterpillars can play dead so well! 

I'm not sure if this caterpillar is still alive... This plump and juicy caterpillar is exactly what the 5 robins that hang around in my front yard loves to eat! XD

I should try looking harder for these types of things in my yard. It looks so cool up close. :D I should find another one once I get a pair of extension tubes. 



I told you guys last time I will post something cool! Isn't this cool? :P Well, I thought it is pretty cool. I'm pretty sure it's cool for you too, unless you are really scared of caterpillars and worms. I hope you have enjoyed this post. Please don't forget to share my blog posts with your friends! If you would like to get notifications next time I post, you can "Like" me on Facebook or follow me on Twitter and Google+. These links can also be found on the top of the right sidebar.

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Plasma Ball

I know this isn't much but, the other day, I was wondering what would happen if I did a long exposure shot on my plasma ball. Here are the results. Looks pretty cool actually! I'm sorry if I let you down in the post. I promise I'll have more better photos still to come. I would have skipped over these, but as I said before, the Yosemite photos are going to take me a long time to look through and process, and I still would like to post new photos up on here while I'm doing that. So, I hope you don't mind some filler photos. :/

Full Resolution Photos and Prints: If you want to see full resolution photos or buy prints of any of the photos you see, they are up on my portfolio for viewing. See my best backyard and at home photography photos from 2012 here. See all of my backyard and at home photography photos from 2012 here.




I hope you have enjoyed these cool photos. Again, sorry for the short post. :/ I promise there will be better photos next time! Please don't forget to share my blog posts with your friends! If you would like to get notifications next time I post, you can "Like" me on Facebook or follow me on Twitter and Google+. These links can also be found on the top of the right sidebar.

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

200 Blog Posts Celebration!

It has been about 2 years since I started this blog and started sharing my photos with the world. I am happy to say that I have now posted a total of 200 blog posts so far (201 once this one is posted). I would like to take this time to thank all of my fans out there that made it happen and helped me keep doing what I do. There was a period back then when I was about to give up on photography, but one special fan of mine, found me on Facebook, and told me to keep posting because my photos are amazing. You know who you are. ;) If it wasn't for you, I would have probably abandoned this blog then along with my hobby as a photographer. I would also like to thank the people who purchased things on Amazon through the Amazon Associates links I have all over this blog. The money I make from those ads do help me quite a lot in covering the costs of maintenance and for my photography equipment. It is your guy's work that help me buy storage space to store all these photos in. I guess that is all I have to say really, I am not very good at these things sadly. LOL So I hope all of you will continue checking out my blog and enjoy viewing the amazing photos I take!

If you are new here and enjoy my photos, please do take note that I have fan pages on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. You can "Like" or Follow on any of those and you will get notifications as I post up new photos. You don't have to if you don't want to, but I'd appreciate it if you do. :) If you scroll up and look on the right side bar at the top, you can also find the links there. 

我这个博客已经有两年了。两年前我在这上面个全世界的人看我的照片。我高兴的跟我的粉丝说我已经写了两百文章了!我很感谢有这么多人来看我的照片。我的中文没有那么好,所以我没办法翻译所有的英文。

I'm not about to let the blog post stop here. Here is some of the best photos I have taken so far all these years. :) Well, I already picked out my best photos before posting them on this blog, but I guess you can call these the best of the best photos. If you want to "slideshow" through the photos in the post, just click on the first photo and the slideshow feature should be brought up.

下面是我拍的一些最好的找片!

Full Resolution Photos and Prints: If you want to see full resolution photos or buy prints of any of the photos you see, they are up on my portfolio for viewing. You can visit my portfolio here.

Glacier Point at Yosemite National Park. 
Original Blog Post Date: May 25, 2010

Sunset in Central Park
Original Blog Post Date: May 27, 2010

Forget-me-nots (Myosotis latifolia)
Redwood Regional Park in California.
Original Blog Post Date: June 6, 2010
Original Blog Post Link

Jellyfishes at The Aquarium Of The Bay 
Pier 39 in San Francisco, CA
Original Blog Post Date: July 30, 2010

Sunrise over Mono Lake
Lee Vining, CA
Original Blog Post Date: August 17, 2010

Bisons at Yellowstone National Park
Original Blog Post Date: October 7, 2010

Jenny Lake in Grand Teton National Park
Original Blog Post Date: November 30, 2010

Twin Falls County Centennial Waterfront Park
Twin Falls County in Idaho, CA.
Original Blog Post Date: January 14, 2011
Original Blog Post Link

Golden Gate Bridge
San Francisco, CA
Original Blog Post Date: January 26, 2011

California Saxifrage (Saxifraga californica)
Quarry Lakes in Fremont, CA.
Original Blog Post Date: March 20, 2011
Original Blog Post Link

Squirrel eating cracker
Central Park in Fremont, CA.
Original Blog Post Date: November 16, 2011

Sunset during Half Moon Bay mega low tide.
Half Moon Bay, CA
Original Blog Post Date: December 3, 2011

Fall Leaves
Alliance Redwoods Conference Grounds in Occidental, CA
Original Blog Post Date: December 6, 2011

 Squirrel
Arroyo Del Valle Trail in Pleasanton, CA
Original Blog Post Date: December 11, 2011

Turkey in flight
Near Del Valle Regional Park in Livermore, CA.
Original Blog Post Date: December 15, 2011

Steller's Jay (Cyanocitta stelleri)
Lake Tahoe, CA
Original Blog Post Date: January 2, 2012

Lake Tahoe, CA
Original Blog Post Date: January 6, 2012

Lake Tahoe, CA
Original Blog Post Date: January 7, 2012

Lake Tahoe, CA
Original Blog Post Date: January 7, 2012

Lake Tahoe, CA
Original Blog Post Date: January 7, 2012

Lake Tahoe, CA
Original Blog Post Date: January 10, 2012

 A squirrel standing erect.... Literally.
Arroyo Del Valle Trail in Pleasanton, CA.
Original Blog Post Date: May 5, 2012

Northern Mockingbird (Mimus polyglottos)
My front yard
 Original Blog Post Date: May 27, 2012
Original Blog Post Link

American Robin (Turdus migratorius)
My front yard
Original Blog Post Date: May 30, 2012
Original Blog Post Link

Black Phoebe (Sayornis nigricans)
My back yard
Original Blog Post Date: June 29, 2012
Original Blog Post Link

4th of July Fireworks
Foster City, CA
Original Blog Post Date: July 5, 2012

Sunset over Foster City
Original Blog Post Date: July 8, 2012

Western Scrub Jay (Aphelocoma californica)
Point Lobos State Reserve in Monterey, CA.
Original Blog Post Date: July 10, 2012
Original Blog Post Link

Point Lobos State Reserve in Monterey, CA.
Original Blog Post Date: July 16, 2012

Monterey Indian Paintbrush (Castilleja latifolia)
Point Lobos State Reserve in Monterey, CA.
Original Blog Post Date: July 14, 2012

George's Birds
Fisherman's Wharf at Monterey, CA
Original Blog Post Date: July 29, 2012

Fisherman's Wharf at Monterey, CA
Original Blog Post Date: August 4, 2012

Wow! What a long blog post! As you can tell this post has already gotten a bit long and out of hand. I had more great photos I wanted to add to this post, but I had to skip over or you'd have trouble loading the article on your computer! HAHA Well anyways, thank you guys for your support. If you are new here and enjoy my photos, please do take note that I have fan pages on InstagramTwitter, and Facebook. You can "Like" or Follow on any of those and you will get notifications as I post up new photos. I hope you have enjoyed this special post, and as always, please keep checking back for new photos and also please share my blog posts with your friends! 

Copyright Warning: These photos are some of my best and most popular works of art. Unauthorized usage and reproductions are strictly prohibited. Please contact me here to purchase prints and negotiate photo licenses.