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.

Paul's UNIFORM...

...and just for once, nothing from the back catalogue.

I went out with the camera over to Dubai Mall with deliberate intent to find something Uniform to shoot.

Sweeties

Nikon D300s
Nikkor 18-200 @ 80mm
F/5 1/30s
ISO 1000 (ISO Auto)

Mindful of the Tripod Police and their ilk, this close-up took some timing. I had to wait until all the security guards had turned away from the uniform colours of M&Ms. The shot is tweaked slightly in Photoshop to remove converging verticals.

Sweet Security

Nikon D300s
Nikkor 18-200 @ 120mm
F5.3 1/30s
ISO 1000 (ISO Auto)

This is one of the many security guards. It's a worrying trait: a shop that sells multi-coloured sugary happiness needs high-profile security to ensure that nobody takes any photographs of the merchandise. I don't really understand it either, but here we are, with a uniform standing in front of columns of uniform sweets.

Photographically, this was tricky. It was shot from some distance away, and the guard is lit from behind. There's no opportunity to use flash at that sort of distance, and getting the guard correctly exposed blows out the background colours. So I got the best compromise I could and then selectively boosted the guard's brightness in Photoshop post-processing.

As with the other shot from the confectionery store, I set the camera on ISO-Auto with 1/30s as the minimum shutter speed, and used aperture priority. It's a useful trick where tripods are forbidden and there's not much light. The camera jacks up the film speed until 1/30s is possible.

Shabab

Nikon D300s
Nikkor 18-200 @ 29mm
F/4 1/50s
ISO 200

Two groups of young gentlemen, all wearing the same attire. It was going to be these or else a group of hoodies, but the latter is Not Coming In Dubai^TM this time of year. Luckily, not a baseball cap in sight. Shabab, incidentally, is Arabic for Boyz or possibly Yoofs.

As with other shots taken in the mall, I had to be quick off the mark, so composition was adjusted afterwards in post-processing.

Frangipani

Nikon D300s
Sigma 50mm macro
F/3.2 1/250s
ISO 200

Do you like the uniform flowers? They do smell nice too. This was just an excuse to get out the Nifty Fifty and play with the macro. I shot this one late afternoon in the hope of getting some reasonable shadows, and cropped it close in the camera.

Time - A Wet Play Time

Ok, I am going to openly admit right off the bat that this is a VERY spurious link to the subject of 'Time" but I have decided to name this "A wet playtime" if only so that I can use it for the homework:

Then in the Global Village carpark early this morning following the three days of rain in Dubai.  As usual comments and criteque actively encouraged, and if I think of anything better before the end of the month I'll post that as well.

Movement - Richards Attempt

Hi All,

It's that time of year when there is nothing left to do but trawl the Mauls, however, at least this weekend there was some point. I was able to do this assignment, hope you like.

Dubai maul is famous for tripod police and being very anti photo, no tripods, no flash (it's "professional equipment") etc..
Therefore all of these were hand held and used photoshop to give me the balance of slow shutter speed and detail in the divers.

Close up
Shutter priority.
1/200, F4, ISO 400
Canon 350D, Sigma 17-70 Mancro
Hand held (tripod police !)
Pop up flash for fill.
Only very minor photoshop :-
- Smoothing the dried water drops on divers head.
- 2 degree tweak and minor crop to make horizontal.

Stood Back
Composite image.
Shutter priority
1/13, F4, ISO 100, Slow shutter to capture the falls.
1/200 sec, F4, ISO 400, Fast shot to capture the diver.
Canon 350D, Sigma 17-70 Mancro
Photoshopped to bring together, also :-
- Smoothing the dried water drops on divers head.
- Masked levels on the diver.
- Cloned out a complete diver top right as it badly effected toe composition.
- Cloned in small section at bottom where falls didn’t fill the frame and a small pebble that was sticking out and effecting flow.

Flying
Composite image.
Shutter priority
1 sec, F36, ISO 100, Slow shutter to capture the falls.
1/200 sec, F8, ISO 400, Fast shot to capture the diver.
Canon 350D, Sigma 17-70 Mancro
Pop up flash for fill.
Photoshopped to bring together, also :-
- Smoothing the dried water drops on divers head.
- Masked levels on the diver.
- Cloned out the stand on divers belly.
- Filled in small section at right and bottom where falls didn’t fill the frame.

Flying serious Photoshop.
Same as flying but also added about 8 varying layers of movement blur.

As always comments, critque and any abuse welcome.

Cheers,
Richard B.