May 6 - Super Moon 1

This was supposed to be the super moon weekend, when the moon is closest to earth and would appear the largest. However, there was heavy cloud cover for the whole evening.
This was shot just past 2:00am. 
Canon EOS 550D 18-135mm lens
ISO 400, 5 sec. exposure, f/14.1

Day 9 (Additional) Night Photography

It rained the night before, just when the moon was full. But last night the skies were clear and my son and I took the opportunity to take some night shots.

Moon Shot
Canon EOS 550D
1/500 sec., f/14
ISO 400
135mm focal length

Top:  The moon was so bright. Cropped from 18mp to 1200x800.

Taking a Shot at the Moon
Canon EOS 550D
1/40 sec., f/5.7
ISO 400
64mm focal length

Second: My son, Kenneth taking a shot of the moon. He uses a Nikon D80, with a 70mm-300mm lens. Yup, he uses a Nikon and I use a Canon. He also has more lenses, courtesy of my brothers who use Nikon D90s.

Night Clouds
10 sec, f/3.5
ISO 400
19mm focal length

Third: Night clouds. This was tricky and I don't think it worked out well enough.

Day 8: Light Rain

2012 366 Days 366+ Pics Project

Day 8: Light Rain
Canon EOS 550D
1/40 sec., f/5.7
ISO 800
135mm focal length

It rained for practically the whole day. I waited for it to stop, but unfortunately, it was already evening and it was still drizzling.

This was shot in the early evening. No flash, just a flashlight. Seriously, I use flashlights most days. This time, I only had one assist, Darwi, and I was able to use only one flashlight.

Again, because the picture was dark, there’s not much for processing. I cropped it a bit, making the water drop a bit off center.

There are days, that all I want is a prime lens, 50mm, f/1.8 or better.

Day 7 - Ready for Occupancy

2012 366 Days 366+ Pics Project

Day 7: Ready for Occupancy
Canon EOS 550D
10 seconds exposure, f/10
ISO 400 
18mm focal length

I had some problems on the post-processing on this one. The light was from a strong amber streetlight, on a yellow ochre painted house. The sky was a bit cloudy, with a waxing moon (about three-quarters). 


[Tech talk follows. You can skip this part.] I do my post-processing on GIMP, and usually limit it to adjusting the levels. I'm not sure if I could have gotten better results with the Canon RAW file editor. The MacBook needs to visit the shop. I think it's a hard disk problem. But I digress.  


This time, I had to adjust using the curves as well. If you're familiar with the tools and the pictures, you can imagine that the histogram would be high on the dark end, with the red spread thin from up to the highlights. The green and blue would be spikes on the shadows and that's it. You need to adjust the curves on the greens and blues to get the dark blue sky. Otherwise, the black sky would blend with the top of the house, resulting in an invisible roof. [End tech talk.]


I am learning a lot about my camera and what it can do. In an ideal world, I would have used a wider lens. The 18mm on a Canon EOS 550D is roughly equivalent to a 2mm on a full-frame DSLR or a 35mm film SLR. For this kind of a shot, I would have wanted a wider lens, bordering on a fish-eye. Like any photographer, the wish list is very long and keeps getting longer. [End of more tech talk.]

I don't blame the equipment, in fact, I am pushing my camera to see both my limits and the camera's as well. This is the edge of the envelope as far as this goes.


This house was finished before Christmas, but the owners have not yet moved. This is the same site as the bulldozer pic I posted a while back.

Day 5: Venus

2012 366 Days 366+ Pics Project

Day 5: Venus
Canon EOS 550D
10 sec. f/5.7
ISO 800 18mm focal length

I was trying to frame the star (I think that's Venus) between the branches, and the electric post.

366 Days, 366+ Pics, Day 1: Aftermath

Canon EOS550D
1/60sec.,  f/5.6
ISO 200 18mm-135mm lens at 18mm.
Fill flash used. Manually focused.

 Around 12:40am of January 1, the firecrackers have died out, and almost nobody else was out on the streets in our subdivision.

Since we don’t live in the metro, the smoke was a lot less than what we were used to. Supposedly, there was also less fireworks this year. Considering that we live very near the firecracker capital of the Philippines, that’s a big improvement.

With my son, Kenneth, we went out to take shots of fireworks. I forgot to bring my tripod and had lousy shots of fireworks. Kenneth had several good ones. He’s had some practice these past few weeks.

At the street corner, the trash we found was mainly from a judas belt and several flares and fountains. Looking at this pic, I definitely see that I have a lot of work to do before I can be satisfied with my shots. Oh well.

Moon Rise and Lightning: Studies in Night Photography

I was trying to catch a glimpse of the moon Tuesday night, but for some reason, I always fail to get a picture of the moonrise. It's always cloudy when the moon rises, and I have to wait a while till the moon gets to clear the clouds. Around 9:30pm when the moon was about to clear some clouds, there was some lightning on the western sky and this was quite a show. I felt the moist air from the potential rain clouds getting nearer, and I thought that the thunder was getting louder, but it didn't rain that night.

Here's a time lapse view of the western sky. There was some lightning while the shot was being taken, but, sadly, I am not yet that good a photographer to take a picture of the lightning.

I will continue my studies on night photography, to perfect my technique. I'm taking the time to learn individual techniques, from shooting subjects to lighting concepts, and up to post processing on the computer. I am taking it slow, as there's no need for me to hurry.

For now, I just wish I had a polarizer, and a remote control.