Nikon D700 - Light Painting (Night Photography)

We came across this bunker at Malabar, using Google maps, whilst searching for interesting places to shoot in Sydney.

Malabar Bunker - In Daylight

We checked it out during the day time to make sure that the bunker would be an interesting subject and it didn't disappoint. The structure was covered in graffiti both inside and out. It was definitely suitable for some light painting experiments.

Inside the bunker - Entrance

Inside the bunker - first floor

I am glad we checked it out in the daytime as it made navigating to the bunker much easier at night. Here are some of the shots from our light painting experiment.

Malabar Bunker - (Back view) Painted in Portrait

Malabar Bunker - Painted in Portrait

Malabar Bunker - Painted in Landscape

The top floor was "painted" using a Canon 430EX wrapped in purple cellophane and the second floor was "painted" using a Nikon SB-800 with a green gel over the flash head. The external walls of the bunker was "painted" using another Nikon SB-800. The camera aperture was set to f/11 with an exposure time of 3 minutes.

There were 4 of us split into 2 teams, one team would be taking the shots and "painting" the outside of the bunker whilst the other team was up in the bunker "painting" the two floors. The results were satisfactory for first timers and we learnt alot .

Lessons learnt for next time:

1. Turn head lamp off before walking around and ruining the shots.
2. Make sure that when the flash fires it is not aimed towards the camera lens.
3. Bring some real torches with more lumen so we can focus!
4. Get some proper gels instead of using cellophane for the flashes
5. Probably fire the flash with less power or less frequently when "painting" the external walls
6. Increase the exposure time so we can get extended star trails

It was a lot of fun, everyone thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. We have already started making plans for another light painting shoot. All the other guys that weren't that keen to come this time are now chomping at the bit after they saw the results.

Nikon D700 - Macro Photography

I visited the Mt. Tomah Botanical Gardens in the Blue Mountains yesterday with some photography buddies. The aim of this shoot was to improve our macro photography. This is the first time I have teamed the Nikon 105mm with the D700 and I have to say I am very impressed with the results.

The weather wasn't the best as it was raining intermittently for most of the day. I shot most of the afternoon in the drizzling rain after lunch. I was wet and cold and so was my camera equipment.

Two of the Canon buddies called it quits when the rain started and headed for shelter. Their excuse was that they didn't want the precious Canon 5D to get damaged. I reckon it was them that didn't want to get wet!

They reckon the 5D did not have weather sealing and didn't want water in their cameras. I always assumed that the Canon 5Ds

were water resistant. The other two Canon buddies didn't seem to let the wet weather bother them too much.

Anyway the Nikon D700, 105mm macro lens and SB-800 flash all survived the ordeal.

I am amazed with the sharpness of the Nikon 105mm macro lens. I bought this before the VR version was released.

Click here for more macro photography at High ISO.

Click here if you want to see more of my macro shots.

Govetts Leap, Blue Mountains

Here are some photos from my recent trip to Govetts Leap in the Blue Mountains on Good Friday. Not a great idea in hindsight since took us over 2.5 hours, hours to get there as there was a heap of traffic on the road. The trip normally only takes about 1.5 hours. It appears lot of people were trying to get out of Sydney during the Easter break.



We started off at Govetts Leap lookout and then went for a quick hike along the Cliff Top track. It was quite a challenging hike for a very unfit person like me.







It was very tough climbing back up those steps. Finally got back to Govetts Leap at around dusk. Just in time to get the shot below.



If you are interested you can checkout more of my shots here.