Project 52 by Bill S (ktuli)

[BJ Denning]

BJ,

In a word, my trick is.... Patience.
...

- Bill

Knowing the effort behind the shot makes them all the more impressive. Thanks.

[ktuli]

Knowing the effort behind the shot makes them all the more impressive. Thanks.

I understand what you're saying here (and I appreciate the compliment), but really... we're all doing this because this is something we love and enjoy. So yeah - it might look like effort, but it sure is fun.

- Bill

[FrankMi]

I fascinating series to complement your P52 endeavors. I don't have the equipment or skill to be able to provide any effective feedback but I have been watching your progress with keen interest for some time now. Well done!

[ktuli]

I fascinating series to complement your P52 endeavors. I don't have the equipment or skill to be able to provide any effective feedback but I have been watching your progress with keen interest for some time now. Well done!

Frank,

Thanks! Always nice to hear folks say they enjoy those photos... most people usually give me the 'Gross!' or 'Creepy!' responses... If you do notice any areas that could use improvement, don't hesitate to mention them. Just because you're not shooting macro like this doesn't mean you might not see something I overlooked. I'm always open to constructive criticism.

- Bill

[ktuli]

I feel these are a bit sub-par for me, but this little guy was not very cooperative, and unfortunately, it appears that all of my jumping spiders have vanished (I suspect chased off by wasps). His metallic skin made it terribly difficult to get a good exposure.







- Bill

[ktuli]

Took some more fluorescence photos of another jumping spider...



- Bill

[ktuli]

Ok - this week's lesson is one of patience (sort of). I've waited 3 weeks for these shots. I think I am a little premature as the babies are not ready to leave the webs (though the mothers have been released because they have not been sitting directly on top of the babies any longer and they both looked like they could use a good meal). I have some higher magnification shots that I'll share soon once I manage to get the rest of the set processed (been needing to really limit my time on the computer recently due to some wrist pain).





I previous posted a shot of the mother of that second batch on the spider thread.

- Bill

[ktuli]

My father-in-law recently made this model of Dan Webb's Golden Submarine remake of a 1917 race car. This model is about the size of a Matchbox car and has some really intricate details. When he asked me to take some photos of it, I figured I'd approach it like a regular car shoot and see whether I could make it look almost life-size in the photos...









Well - it is a break from the spiders for a little bit at least...

- Bill

[ktuli]

The Wilds is a large wild-life center about 2 hours from my home in Pittsburgh. They are associated with the Columbus Zoo in Ohio and they manage to keep the animals in a much more natural environment by providing much larger tracks of land and mixing of the animals than is possible in a normal zoo.

I spent the day with my Sigma 150-500 lens on and managed a handful of decent shots. Here are two I converted to B&W...





The second is by far my favorite of the two (and probably of the entire day!).

If you are interested, I have a poll going on my blog to see which version folks like of the zebra shot - either color or B&W. It can be found here: http://www.ktuli.com/photography/node/348

- Bill

[ktuli]

Playing a little catch-up here... Some shots from the recent Vintage Grand Prix in Pittsburgh.





- Bill

[ktuli]

Finishing getting caught up here with a couple shots from a recent nature walk...







- Bill

[Geoff F]

The way that spider holds it's front and second legs together reminds me of Pisaura mirabilis; but I don't know if they are found where you live.

They are also known in the UK as the Nursery Web Spider because they build a 'nursery tent' to protect the newly hatched spiderlings. As the second photo.

What is it on the upperside of that damselfly? Mites or just water droplets?

[ktuli]

The way that spider holds it's front and second legs together reminds me of Pisaura mirabilis; but I don't know if they are found where you live.

They are also known in the UK as the Nursery Web Spider because they build a 'nursery tent' to protect the newly hatched spiderlings. As the second photo.

What is it on the upperside of that damselfly? Mites or just water droplets?

I will have to do research on the spider species. The spiderlings there are from a different spider though (see below). The spider above also had spiderlings with her, but I didn't get any good photos of them.

As for the damselfly, it is dew drops on its back. I wanted to get closer, but it wouldn't let me.

Here's another of the mother spider of the babies above...



I found 3 different sets of spider babies that morning - it was pretty fun.

- Bill

[ktuli]

Ok - as usual I am playing some catch up. I took a trip to California this week (Week 33), so the next couple weeks will include shots from that trip - mainly because it is taking a couple weeks to process them all, and I haven't been too good about getting out to take more during that time... then again, I am learning a lot on PP techniques, so I guess that falls into the spirit of P52!

So here goes...

First up, an intentionally "over-exposed" shot of the beach. I certainly don't think I "nailed" this shot, but I still kind of like it and figured I'd share.



Next, a long telephoto shot of a sea otter. This was with my crappy Tamron 70-300 which I really want to get rid of. So auto-focus isn't sharp, DoF could have been better (I had a 1/2000 shutter speed, so I should have traded some of that for DoF), and the optics just aren't wonderful, but it is a sea otter, so...



And finally, a semi-nice sunset shot. The shot was actually a bit of a challenge - juggling the camera, shooting in live-view mode (no tripod, and I didn't want things to get wet anyway), plus holding the flash for a tiny bit of fill. For more information and some other versions, feel free to check out the post on my blog.



Stay tuned.

- Bill

[ktuli]

OK - continuing with the California trip photos. This week, we'll focus on the time I spent at Hearst Castle. Not to over-do the shameless self promotion, but if you're interested in more photos, check out this blog post.











- Bill

[ktuli]

Elephant Seals!









- Bill

[ktuli]

One of the key pieces to my California trip was a visit to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. We've been talking about going there for years.

This is by far my favorite shot from the visit:



The whole time at the aquarium (and Hearst Castle in week 34) was a challenge in low light photography. In the end, I went with a super high ISO (sometimes up to 12800!), so I'm now learning as much as I can about Noise Reduction techniques....

- Bill

[Geoff F]

That certainly looks good for such a high Iso setting. Knock a 0 off your setting and I still start to get nervous.

[Nicola]

Bill
honestly, It's long since I had a look at your project 52... and I'm now viewing and viewing again this beautiful stream of picture! congratulation!
I can't fancy what is coming soon....
( PS please not one more ugly-spider picture! or I won't sleep! )

[ktuli]

That certainly looks good for such a high Iso setting. Knock a 0 off your setting and I still start to get nervous.

Geoff, thanks. The cuttlefish shot is actually done at ISO 6400 (the highest ISO on the 7D unless you kick on the High ISO option to go to 12800). Interestingly enough, all of the noise reduction is done only in ACR! I looked through my "Adobe Photoshop for Photographers" book by Martin Evening, and he said that almost all NR can be done in ACR, so I've been trying that approach. It does soften the image a bit, but so far I am pretty pleased with the results. At least for web sharing, it works. I haven't tried printing any yet, so we'll have to see how that goes.

Bill
honestly, It's long since I had a look at your project 52... and I'm now viewing and viewing again this beautiful stream of picture! congratulation!
I can't fancy what is coming soon....
( PS please not one more ugly-spider picture! or I won't sleep! )

Nicola, thanks for viewing and the kind comments! As for ugly spider photos, I'm not sure what you mean by that... I only post beautiful spider photos. Actually, I still have a bunch of photos from our visit to Yosemite National Park to share from this past trip (processing is taking me forever on these photos!), and I have a scuba diving trip coming up in October, so you just might get an extended break from spider photos here for a bit.

- Bill