Fagan Park - Macro Photography

I decided to go out last Wednesday morning to take my newly modified macro rig for a test run. I just added a Manfrotto quick release plate so that I could quickly add and remove my D700.

It was a cold and windy day today not conducive for great macro photography. I managed to get a few shots before the wind just got too much. Unfortunately, winter is not a good time for finding bugs to capture.





The D700 is still twisting on the rig. I need the 200 PLARCH-14 anti-twist plate from Manfrotto to remedy this.

Click here for more shots from Fagan Park.

WSID - Test and Tune Day

EC organised with WSID, Eastern Creek, for a photo shoot at their latest test and tune day. Its opened to the public and for a $110 you have access to the track all day or until your engines blows.

We all met at gate 14 at 10:00 am, after we paid our entrance fee we were directed to the Top Fuel cafe where we were met at the entrance by a lovely PR lady from WSID and were told what we could and could not do. The mains ones were:

1. Not to hang over the concrete walls
2. Keep out of the way of the pro photographers

After we signed our lives away we were supplied with media IDs and a neon "media" vest so we could be easily identified. Luckily the PR lady also supplied us with ear-plugs, well some of us anyway.

Wow! it was awesome being so close to the action, it was sooo loud and acrid smoke from the burnouts filled your lungs. You could feel the pressure hit on your chest from the mini explosions from some of the competitors' engines during high revs just before they launched off the start line.

Burnouts - Smell that rubber!

Some of the launches were incredible

This is something I normally wouldn't be interested in doing but since EC went through all that trouble I thought I give it a go. I have to admit I did enjoy myself but I am not sure if I would like to do this all the time. I wouldn't mind doing the Karcher Nitro Championships meets though!

Click here for more shots from the Test and Tune Day at WSID.

Nikon 14-24mm with Cokin X-Pro Filters

Got up nice and early on Tuesday morning to get some sunrise shots and test my brand new Cokin X-Pro filter system. I left at 5:00 am to get to Turimetta beach by 6:00 am before sunrise so I could capture the beautiful colours of the pre-dawn sky.

I spent the last couple of weeks making an adapter, out of "PE" pipe, for the Cokin universal adapter to attached to so as not to scratch the lens hood of my Nikon 14-24mm. I used a Cokin X-Pro 121 Gradual Grey G2 (ND8) for the test.

Here are the results..

14mm@f/22

HDR - 14mm@f/9

Vertical Panorama HDR - 14mm@f/16 - consists of a total of 15 separate shots

Just before sunrise - 16mm@f/10

I am please with the initial test results. There is no vignetting at 14mm which is good news. Additional tests required to see if vignetting occurs at 14mm when I stack 2 filters together.

Click here for a larger views of photos.

Click here for more Cokin X-Pro test shots from Warriewood Beach.

Click here to read more on DIY filter rig for Nikon 14-24mm

Infrared Photography with Nikon D700

I decided to see if my D700 was suitable for IR photography. I used my old Nikon 18-70mm, which is a DX lens, as it had right size thread for my Hoya IR72 filter at 67mm.

I set the CWB using the PRE, by aiming at the "green green" grass. All the shots were exposed for 30 secs anything less didn't seem to cut it. I got mixed results with the D700.  It is definitely less sensitive to IR than my D70.

It was quite a cloudy day and during the 30 secs exposures if any one of the many clouds moved and blocked out the sun the shot would be ruined.

All Saints Anglican Church - Parramatta

All Saints Anglican Church - Parramatta

I processed all the shots in Photoshop by swapping the red and blue channels. I will have another go at it on a less cloudy day and see if I get better results.