Tyler Ingram Photoblog

Everyday one of the websites I visit is Flickr, not only to see my own photos (to see if people like them or how they might be using them etc) but to also see other people photos. I would say almost ever 20 minutes, my friends and contacts upload new photos so there is always something new to see. There is also always the Explore: Interestingness section as well.

Recently I have been looking at Pixel Works’ Photostream, particular the evening photos that use a long exposure. It got me thinking about heading out in the middle of the night to try and capture some long exposure shots of the neighbourhood. Last night was a decent night to test drive using the ‘Bulb’ setting on my Canon XSi. It was a somewhat clear sky, not cold and a slight ocean breeze.

Burrard Bridge - f/16, ISO 100, 45 sec @ 55mm

One of the most important items you need to bring with you when you try to do night photography is a decent tripod. Most tripods should do well but you do need a tripod. No one has a steady enough hand to hand-hold a 15 second or longer shot.

Inukshuk - f/16, ISO 100, 120 sec @ 32mm

I previously mentioned using the ‘Bulb’ setting. Digtial SLRs should have this setting, but if you don’t you should probably have at least the ability to do up to a 30 second exposure.

The term “bulb” is a reference to old-style pneumatically actuated shutters; squeezing an air bulb would open the shutter and releasing the bulb would close it. According to the Focal Encyclopedia of Photography - [Wiki]

When you set a digital camera to ‘Bulb’ (which is typically found by decreasing the shutter speed as low as it goes), it will keep the shutter open as long as you hold the shutter button down. You will probably need a cable release which will help lock the button down so you can take as long as an exposure as possible. This will help minimize any camera vibration while mounted on a tripod.  A possible solution if you do not have a cable release (remote cable shutter) would be to set the self-timer, that way you’re hands are not on the camera when the shutter opens.

English Bay - f/16, ISO 100, 120 sec @ 55mm

I stayed out for about 30 minutes playing with various exposure lengths. I started at about 15 seconds going as long as up to 2 minutes. The star-burst effect on the street lights happen depending on two factors: f-stop and aperture construction. They happen when light leaks through the aperture blades on your lens.Remember, set your ISO as low as it can go, which in my case is ISO 100, this will reduce noise of grain on your photos. You will probably want to crank the aperture down (larger number, smaller hole) to get more of the landscape in focus (greater depth of field).  This will also force you to take a longer exposure as there will be less light for the sensor to read.

I asked if Pixel Works used a star-burst filter for his lens to get his particular star-burst effect but he just used an f-stop of about 16. Due to the construction of my lens (EF-S 18-55mm IS) against the one he used for his Nikon D200 (17.0-50.0 mm f/2.8) his star-burst effect has more beams radiating out from the street lamps. I think it makes for a cooler look.

What I have been wanting to do for a while now is head out to Stanley Park (the Coal Harbour side) to sit there and photos while the sun goes down, using the Vancouver skyline as my background.  With Summer approaching this would be a later in the evening thing as the sun seems to set around 8:30PM now.  I have seen some pretty impressive evening/night shots of Vancouver and want to have my try at it too.

That’s the question I am putting out there. I bring my camera out with me almost all  the time. There have been too many moments where something happened, or I thought would make a good photo, but I did not have a camera with me. Typically I have my Apple iPhone with me, but the quality of the camera just doesn’t make me whip it out and take a photo.

Last night we hit up Denman Street for some dinner and then walked over to English Bay. Was there opportunities to take photos? There are always things to take photos of and I am always trying to think of how I can take photos of the same thing but in a different way.

HR MacMillanSpace Centre & Planetarium

English Bay

English Bay - First Beach

The evening was pretty hazy as a weather front starting moving in. I processed the above photos as single exposure HDRs in Photomatix, and played with the curves a bit in Photoshop. Being a Monday, English Bay was relatively quiet. It it was later in the week, or a weekend it would have been a lot busier.

Highly cropped Harbour Seal

While Robyn and I sat on a bench near the Inukshuk just letting the world pass by, I noticed in the water a black object bobbing up and down. It was a harbour seal looking around seeing what was happening on land. Perhaps he smelt the food that people were BBQing nearby. He showed his head a few times and then must of taken off. I see the occasional harbour seal on my seawall walks, perhaps one day I’ll get a photo of one sunbathing out of the water.

So, do you carry a camera around with you? Which one? Are you like me and bring a dSLR with a favorite lens? Do you load up your camera bag with most of your gear and lug it around? Do you have that compact digital camera stashed in your purse or pocket?

Granted, these photos aren’t the greatest actions shots of larger birds in flight, but they don’t look too bad in my opinion.

I still don’t think they aren’t that bad for being shot with my EF 70-200mm f2.8L IS lens and then cropped using Adobe Lightroom. There is some noise that is noticeable (to me anyway) which is odd for being shot at ISO200. I am curious how my photos would turn out if I had myself a EF 100-400mm f4.5-5.6L IS lens. If only I could afford more gear!

I am definitely bringing my camera gear with us on our 2-week vacation to Vancouver Island in late June. We’ll be camping 2 nights in Tofino, then 7 nights at the cabin on Hornby Island and then 4 nights in the city of Victoria. Either way it will be fun and I am sure I will have a lot of photos to share! Until then, I’m going to try and get out in the sun as much as possible with my camera!

The weather has been pretty good lately, save for the occasional rainy day, but I have managed to get out and go for a couple 3-hour walks around the neighbourhood. Well alright a 3-hour walk around the neighbourhood, isn’t really the immediate neighbourhood, though who is keeping track?

I have not done any proper HDR (high dynamic range) photographs in a while so I thought I would try to capture a couple of scenes around Vancouver on my walks as best I could without the use of a tripod.

The following photos are all 3 exposure HDRs processed primarily with PhotomatixPro.

#1 - Howe Street - Looking south up Howe from Canada Place

#2 - Vancouver Train Yard - Shot from the little area between Vancouver Sun and Waterfront Station

#3 - Port of Vancouver - Shot from Canada Place. My favorite cruise line (Royal Caribbean) also in the photo.

#4 - Small waterfall - Near the Vancouver Aquarium

Overall I really enjoy creating HDR photographs. Sometimes they don’t turn out, other times they do turn out. I find they usually turn out best on partially cloudy days, but not overly cloudy that the colours look too dull. The clouds I also find help to create a better mood within the HDR photos as well.

What do you think? Have you tried your hand at creating HDR photos? How did they turn out?

I also just totally noticed something out of place! I uploaded 1024 pixel wide images, where normally I would upload at 800 pixels wide. This skews the aspect ratio of 2 of the images up top (#2 and #3), which is ashame as they look a bit distorted here on my photoblog. It would be an awesome addition to Flickr if they offered 800 pixel wide images. Currently they only offer 500 pixel and 1024 pixel wide images for use else where on the internet.

Not only did I capture a Juvenile Bald Eagle over at Spanish Banks the other day, but I also manage to capture an Adult Bald Eagle snatching a fish dinner from a Great Blue Heron. Alright, so it’s not totally captured in photographs but it was a pretty spectacular event to witness. Too bad, it would have been epic to capture all digitally! That’s right, I used the word EPIC in a blog post!

Step One: Ensure your target has a fish

Great Blue Heron starts feeding on his recently caught fish dinner.

Little does the above Heron realize but he’s been stalked by an Adult Bald Eagle that Robyn said has been circling above for awhile. I didn’t know it because I was too busy photographing the Heron trying to eat his fish.

Step Two: Dive bomb target from above in Stealth Mode

Eagle swoops down and snatches the Fish right from the Great Blue Heron’s mouth!

Unfortunately I did not capture the actual stealing of the fish. Not much the Heron can do but just shrug its shoulder and find some other fish dinner. The Eagle took off the moment it stole the dish dinner.

Step Three: In one swoop grab fish and take off at high speed! (Not that your target can fly as fast as you of course)

Step Four: Ensure victory while eating stolen fish mid-flight. Chuckle to yourself.

The Adult Bald Eagle ate the fish mid-flight, which I have recently learned is something they do often to avoid other Eagles trying to steal their food. He went back to circling high above us.

It was a pretty cool event to see unfold in front of our eyes. I’m glad I caught it somewhat on camera. I ensured my camera was set to AI SERVO and IS mode was set to Mode 2 which is horizontal or vertical movement image stabilization, great for panning shots.  Not the greatest of detail in the Eagle or Heron, but with my 70-200mm lens at a pretty decent distance off, they aren’t horrible.

I’m going to go through some of the above photos again in Lightroom and see if I can bring out a bit more detail in them. A buddy of mine at work suggested I work on the second photo a bit more and it could be print worthy. What do you think?

Have you witness Survival of the Fittest in nature before?