Birds

Birds are a favourite subject of mine. What I don't like so much about it is having to wake up so early to get a decent photo of them. But many weekends while living in Ottawa I would go to bed while the neighbours were partying so I could wake up at 530 and ride my bike down to Dow's lake to get there just after sunrise. The serenity of being surrounded by only birds in the early morning is unmatched.

Unfortunately, for our little friend in the photo above, tree swallows do not typically feel the same way about me. At Dow's Lake, they have a number of these bird boxes setup for the tree swallows to nest in, and earlier in the year they have this brilliant blue hue so I try to get as close as possible. Male tree swallows will viciously defend their nests as a group, and with every step closer I take they will buzz my head more and more, eventually they will start hitting me, and usually at that point I take it as my cue to vamoose! They will usually chase you for about 500 feet or so to make sure you are gone. I think they began to recognize me after a few weekends as well, as I would often pop straight into the clearing and immediately start getting buzzed. I usually try to pinch off a couple photos before they start actually hitting me!

Show me your favourite bird or wildlife photos you have taken!

Diving at sunset

Diving is something I have only begun to do in the last couple years but absolutely love it. I don't get many opportunities to go, but every time I have has been one of my favourite experiences of my life. If you have never gone scuba diving I highly recommend it. It is both a very tranquil and mind expanding experience.

I went to Mexico diving in June this year and every day since I have been back I have missed diving. It came to a head a few days ago and I just had to put all the equipment back on. You can't see it in this photo but I have the BCD, a steel tank, the mask and whole octopus (with regulator on). It was heavy, hot and uncomfortable but I had a lot of fun with this photo.

Flowers

Everyone I think starts taking pictures of flowers. They are easy to make look good and in the summer readily available subjects that don't move very quickly!

This is a photo of an Evelyn's rose from my mother's garden. She takes great pride in her garden and it grows from year to year. Being back at my parent's after finishing my Masters' has really blown me away how much is has grown since I was last here.

For this photo I took it at noon, on a cloudless day, so everything was coming out blown out and way too contrasty. To fix this, I grabbed a reflective umbrella, put it on a lightstand and used it to block the sun, now I had the flower in the shade. I then grabbed a firefly beauty box (a new light modifier I have been having fun with recently) and put it just outside the frame. I got this very nice light with it.

It was shot at f/16so I could get the shutter speed low enough to sync with the flash. Despite every one on any internet form warning to never go above f/8 or "you will get soft photos from diffraction!", I think it came out alright.

How do you take photos of flowers?