Macro Shooting

I tried doing a macro insect shot today.  Only to realise its so difficult.  So what is so difficult?

1.  Patience.  I do not have much patience.  Also today, its a walk with no stop.  So I couldn't stop and look for insects to shoot.  So ended up, I shoot these instead.

2.  Next difficulty, is to find INSECTS!  Throughout the journey, I only managed to spot a grasshopper and thanks to my colleagues, I caught some shots of a spider.

 

3.  The spider is so difficult to capture.  1st it moves around so quickly.  I had to keep focusing to catch it. then some shots came out blur! next, the flash kinda blinded the spider.  Every time the flash fires, the spider jumps.  Got to switch from my D2X to my D700, bump up the ISO and shoot without flash!  then the mirror slapping sound from the shutter also makes the spider jumps!  I wonders how the pros capture these insects.

Well, this is my 1st trial on insects.  Will find time to do more in future...

Cheers

What should I write now?

After my car shoot, not too sure what else I can write... maybe time to write my first "love", photography.  When I was 15 years old, somehow, I wanted to be a photographer.  However, I am quite a shy person and wasn't able to gather crowds for shoot.  So most of my shoots are candids in nature.  At age 15, I was exposed to a Nikon FG loaned to me by technically considered as my mentor (or shifu).  Thereafter, I also "pai seh" and decided to ask him sell me his Nikon FM and a 50mm lens.  There's the start of my photo journey.

However, my Nikon FM shutter got stuck and could not afford the money to repair it.  My hopes kinda shattered but was saved by my teacher in charge.  He lent me his Minolta camera and I continued helping out in photography during my secondary school days.

After my secondary school, I lost touch of photography until I bought my 1st digital camera, a Sony Mavica that uses a floppy disk.

Few years later, I thought of moving to videography and ended up buying a video camera but using it more in photo mode.  Silly right???

Then, I decide to invest in a DSLR.  Having used Nikon in my early years, I decide to invest in a D70.

Using the D70 coupled with the kit lens 18-70mm f3.5-5.6.  I took this shot with my good friend also using the same combination then.

The sky was so beautiful and most of my friends could not guess that I took this shot in Singapore.


Then, few months later, again with my good friend, Sam.  We decided to go take sunrise!  We woke up at 5am, got myself prepared and cheong down to Changi Broadwalk with Sam.  We met at 6am and waited for the sun to rise.  I manged to take this shot using my Nikon D70 coupled with a Tokina 12-24mm f4.  This is my favorite shot!


Years later, I upgraded from a Nikon D70 to a Nikon D200, eventually added two D300 and finally now I am having two D700. 

What happened to my D70, D200, two D300 now?  All sold...

During one of the events, I managed to hop onto the Singapore River and managed to pick up this shot using my D700 with 24-70mm f2.8.  This is my favorite combination until my 24-70mm started to peel.  Anyway, this is my next favorite shot I took.

Till we meet again, see what else I can blog on...

Thanks for spending your time on my blog.

cheers

Ivan