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.

White Seamless

For those who saw my refference to Zac Arias on the technique I used on the lone thought shot (light bulb in black) here is the link.

http://www.zarias.com/?p=123

A great trick for giving the look of a large endless wall set.

Cheers,
Richard B.

LIGHT: Paul's offerings

I stopped off in Ajman on the way back from a Barracuda run. Having spotted the funfair, I went into the mall for a snack to kill time until it was dark enough for some photos of fairground machinery. Remembering to bring the camera was a good move; what was less good was forgetting a tripod. Therefore a lot of my photos were wobbly, and the offerings below, although strictly hand-held, were abetted by my leaning against solid objects. All of the long exposures involved multiple attempts at various exposures. Aperture priority throughout, cranked down to allow long exposures. Most success seems to have come with a stop or two of under-exposure.

Octopus Merry-Go-Round
Nikon D70S
Nikon 28-200
31mm 1/3sec F22
Hand-held

I confess to some use of the 'clone' tool in this one to get rid of a hideous light fitting. I rather like the hint of the Etisalat golf ball silhouetted against Sharjah's light pollution and picked out by red beacons. The curious coloured smears are the ride itself: a large grinning caterpillar snaking past.

Rollercoaster
Nikon D70S
Nikon 28-200
125mm 3sec F22
Hand-held

I remembered my tripod for this next one. Unfortunately a trip through Festival Centre mall was sufficient to chill the camera, and I spent half an hour in the humid Dubai evening waiting for condensation to clear from the camera's innards.

I rather like the blurred reflections, although it is of course impossible to get a ripple effect in the water and still catch the movement of the rides.

Funfair and Reflections
Nikon D70S
Nikon 28-200
48mm 3sec F27
Tripod

A bit of lateral thinking here. Light as in 'not heavy' rather than 'not dark'. Although the way the birds stuff themselves they're generally not very light! The three finches show successive stages of take-off.

Light as a Feather
Nikon D70S
Tamron 200-400
230mm 1/250sec F5.6
Hand-held

Light

Hi All,

Here are my offerings for light.

I was thinking a bit literal with these and yes a few electrons were hurt in photoshop for these.
As for the subject I guess you could say the light bulb of inspiration hit me ;-)

"Reverse Thinking"
This the one image then worked on in Photoshop, priciply the INVERSE command. As this was shot agaisnt a black background it all went to white except for the light of the filament and dirt / highlights on the bulb. I also added in a inverse radial gradient fill and some manual painting to add the vignette.

EXIF :-
Canon 350D, 105mm Macro
f2.8, 1/250 sec, AP mode (-0.7 ev)
Shallow DOF to allow back ground to go black.


"Lone Thought"
This image shot is actually just the size of the light bulb and then I have used photoshop and Zack Aries technique of seamless white paper to extend the background 400%.

EXIF :-
Canon 350D, 105mm Macro
f2.8, 1/250 sec, AP mode (-0.7 ev)
Again shallow DOF to allow back ground to go black.


"Detailed Thoughts"
As I had the macro out, couldn't resist a close up.

EXIF :-
Canon 350D, 105mm Macro
f11, 1/2 sec, Manual mode
Off Camera flash above bulb at full power, then shutter speed adjusted to ballance the light.

All comments, Critique and abuse welcome.
Any question just shout.

Hope you like,
Cheers,
Richard B.