Funny Bunny

On behalf of the very lovely Sarah who is busy right now:

Bunny

20mm, f3.2, 1/13, ISO-400

I was given free range to select my favourite from a selection of bunny photos and chose this one because I like how it was framed with the top of the ears cut off. I used my rudimentary Gimp skills (god that sounds awful) to clean up something dark in the back of the photo, other than that, this is straight out of the camera.

Next choice was this one:

Bunny 2

20mm, f3.2, 1/15, ISO-400

I like the positioning here, with Herr Bunny looking into the centre of the frame. Maybe the red mat he's on could be positioned slightly differently, but all up I think it works, and the colour is a good counterpoint for the green.

Comments and critiques for these two and mine always welcome.

Hippie Food

Another frantic month with little time to grab the camera, but some weird inspiration in the kitchen. Here's my literal take on the subject.

Tofu Kitchen

20mm, f2.8, 1/50, ISO-400

In camera B+W because I'm still to lazy... busy to Gimp around with it

Around the same time, I was staring aimlessly into a pile of beans and thought, "where do hippies get their protein from if they won't eat meat?"

Peace love and mung beans

20mm, f2.8, 1/25, ISO-400

The idea with this one was that I was oddly taken by the light, (which was just provided by the ceiling downlight), which seemed to make everything look really clean. Well, I couldn't really explain it then either, so I photographed it, hoping to capture it, and came up with a shot that probably belong on a tin of (hippie) beans. Maybe it could be cropped differently, (to make it more abstract, say?), or maybe it's just another poor showing from me this month.

Next up, I'm posting for Sarah.

August = Shooting from the Hip

Hi All,

Thanks to Paul for 17, the Radom topic generator for has come up with "Shooting from the hip", so off you go get out there and blaze away, but still not to late to post some Tofu knitting bunny huggers.

Cheers,
Richard B.

Come on you TOFU KNITTING BUNNY HUGGERS !

Hi All,

Some cracking efforts this month. All the way from stuffed fluffly bunnies to beer drinking Kangaroos and Samuri sword wielding Tofu knitters.

So any more this month, how about from any of you lurk'ers out there ?

Expect I'm about to get silly bussy (due date is on 5th) so first one to pick a number between 1 and 30 will decide the topic for next month and I'll post it ASAP.

Cheers,
Richard B.

More bunnies to hug

So there I was in Dubai Mall. For once, camera in hand. Ironically, the shop was not "Lapin" (which is French for rabbit as any fule kno), but about two doors down. No grief; indeed actual approval from the nice lady in the shop, to take photos.

Nikon D300s
Nikkor 18-200 @ 80mm
1/30s & F/5.6
ISO Auto 1600

Shot with available light, this cute stuffed rabbit is poking out of a carrier bag as if it's about to be taken home and hugged by a small child. I wanted to blur the otherwise possible distraction in background, and I think I achieved this. The subject is a bit central, but a crop to put the rabbit to the left would have lost great chunks of carrier bag, and the subject would have been looking out of frame if it had been too far to the right. So bullseye it is. Tweaks are limited to cropping and just a little colour enhancement.

The light streaming in from the shop front looks, and indeed is, natural daylight.


Nikon D300s
Nikkor 18-200 @ 170mm
1/30s & F/5.6
ISO Auto 1400

This one is hopefully reminiscent of the shelf in a nursery. The huggable stuffed bunny is next to something "ABC"; as indicative of childhood as anything else available. I did not set anything up, which is why the irritating picture frame is in shot. Post-processing is limited to cropping, abut of colour palette enhancement and a small rotation.

The light is almost all artificial tungsten shop lights.


Nikon D300s
Nikkor 18-200 @ 112mm
1/30s & F/5.6
ISO Auto 560

This luminous rabbit should be suitably disturbing for small children.

Illuminated by tungsten house lights plus lit from within.

With all the shots, I used ISO Auto to control shutter speed to 1/30s in order to hand-hold the camera. This avoids both camera shake and the tripod police.

Random one for Critique - Burj Khalifa

Trying to make up from my poor effort this month here is one from the Burj K that I finaly manage to stitch together and do the PP on.

. (Double click for large image)

EXIF
Canon 350D
Sigma 10-20mm lens, at 10mm
f11
1/13 sec with +/- 2 stops ev brackets for each.
ISO 100
2 images accross bottom then 2 up for the Burj K

Stitching and HDR blend done in PTGui pro and then rest in Photoshop.
The top left and right corners (black sky) which couldn't stitch are a photoshop painted in. Then just a small straighten, couple of little tweaks and sharpen in PS.

There was a lot of humidity and sand in the air and will blame some of the poor optical quality on that (when zoomed right in).

Critique, Comments and Questions welcome as always.

Cheers,
Richard B.

Bunnies (for Paul)

Dear All,

Don't feel worthy at all this month, however here are my efforts.
These are feral rabbits in the Ranches.



EXIF
Canon 350D
Sigma 150-500mm at 500mm
f5.6 cheap glass
1/50 second on monopod
ISO 800 really pushing it



EXIF
Canon 350D
Sigma 150-500mm at 500mm
f5.6 cheap glass
1/50 second on monopod
ISO 1600 pushing it to much

Anyway that all for now folks, as always C&C and any other abuse welcome.

Cheers,
Richard B.

TNBHCGABTB - Steven's efforts

Sorry folks, off to bed after a weekend away and an ealry start tomorrow so no great commentry here but you can see a write up here.  and here are the shots:

Here is what I think of nature conservation

Nature - its great for driving over

Although some times it can be photogenic:

Paul's: With no rabbits

Tofu-knitting bunny-huggers... Well, I thought about this and decided that one interpretation was a theme of environmentalism. And seeking to emphasise the 'environment' rather than the 'mental' side, I took this:

Nikon D300s
Nikkor 18-200 @ 170mm
1/200s
F/5.6
ISO Auto

Nice bright colours to attract the environmentally responsible. It works too. As you see, at least one of the bins is full to overflowing.

I waited until the sun was low in the sky so that there would be some shadows, not that rectangular boxes offer much in the way of texture. I also shot the image low and close-cropped so that the blurred background was an unobtrusive plain wall in a fairly neutral colour.

While I was there, an actual environmentally responsible person turned up and posted a handful of newspapers for recycling.


Nikon D300s
Nikkor 18-200 @ 52mm
1/250s
F/4.8
ISO Auto

This was a quick candid shot, so the framing wasn't good; I missed the back of the car. The irony of going to recycle old copies of 7DAYS in a two-seater over-engined sports car was not lost on me. Every little helps, I suppose.


Enough of the environment. There is a different interpretation for this month's subject. As tofu is perhaps perceived as Japanese (at least in my house it is) I present an actual Tofu Knitter.

Nikon D300s
Nikkor 18-200 @ 48mm
1/30s
F/4.5
ISO Auto

Shot hand-held with available light at a well-known emporium of Japanese-style fast food, I was looking for a shot with the chef's hands blurred with the rapid movement associated with knitting tofu. Of a score or so attempts, this one had the man's face in focus with his eyes open and his hands suitably blurred. All the movement was done in camera. There is some PhotoShop: the background of square tiles was not quite parallel with the photo frame, but a little Free Transform sorted out that issue. I think the fan is a distraction, but it's real and authentic, and anyway I made a right mess of trying to clone it out.