Bits & Pieces, A Wide Variety Of Photos

See that de-focused baby chair handle? That's what makes this picture work, the one with only the baby is not even half as good.

I just realized that I don't have to wait until I have a large post or review ready to post it, so I decided to start right now, I will show some images in this post that have nothing to do at all with each other, just some photos with captions, I hope you enjoy it.

I have been using the camera less and less the last couple of months and my posting rate has been too slow, there are several reasons for that:

• I have started a new job in a new company and it's taking most of my time and concentration.
• I decided that I have to spend more time with my family (i.e. less time in front of the PC).
• My main computer now is a desktop, which I am too lazy to sit in front of for a long time.
• I lack inspiration and time.

But I am snapping out of it (by it, I mean, the photographer's block, you know what a writer's block is, right? I thought so), I started by looking at my lightroom catalog (mainly the old 550D pictures) and decided that I had to post some of them here, so there you go.

55W H7 Bulb, 60mm Macro, f/8, 1/250, ISO 400

I will start with my recent shots first, I was bored dead at home and decided to shoot anything, so I brought out my three Canon speedlites, put them to manual mode, half power and pointed all of them at the ceiling with two of them slightly towards the walls. I got out my 60mm Macro since it opens up a lot of possibilities because of the close focusing distance, I started looking around for any small object to shoot and I found that H7 bulb that I had lying around.

A Happy Friend, 85mm, f/2.5, 1/125, ISO 1600

And that's one of my friends that I visited recently, shot with the 85mm at f/2.5 since I didn't want to completely wipe his face. Light was an on-camera bounce flash pointed behind my back to the side (bounced from a purple wall, but was easily fixed by shooting in RAW).

Old Man - Full Picture, 50mm, f/4, 1/200, ISO 100

Old Man - Crop 1, can you see me?

Old Man - Crop 2

Ahhh, I miss that lens, the 50mm f/1.8 II is one wickedly sharp lens, if only it had a nicer bokeh, a better auto-focusing mechanism and a better build quality, but otherwise, it is the lens, best bang for the buck.

iPhone 3GS, 60mm Macro, f/6.3, 1/4 sec, ISO 100

iPhone 3GS Crop

I remember when I first got my macro lens, I was shooting extreme closeups to see how many hidden details a macro lens and 18 megapixels can reveal, this is one of them, we were taught that one pixel consists of three colors, red, green and blue, now I believe them.

Sunset in Sudan, f/8, 1/20, ISO 200

A lovely sunset shot outside my apartment in Khartoum, Sudan. Shot with the 18-55 kit lens.

Foggy Morning, Smart Village, f/4, 1/320, ISO 100

This was shot on one of the foggy mornings at the Smart Village where I used to work before, I saw the fog and decided that it would make very good pictures.

Biker, f/4, 1/2000, ISO 100

One of my favorite shots of a full biking day, I went along with around 25 bikers to shoot their meeting, I might post about it later, but this picture especially works in B&W because of the old style of the bike and the rider.

Little Girl, 50mm, f/2.8, 1/2000, ISO 100

You don't always need artificial light sources to get good pictures, shot in very harsh sunlight, the whole idea was to give her back to the sun and to meter for her face and not the whole scene, a slight vignette also helps.

Huh? f/6.3, 1/160, ISO 400

Total artificial lighting, one strobe on the white wall at the back, also giving the rim light on the right side of the photo, and one key light with a shoot through umbrella.

Yellow Cups, 60mm Macro, f/4, 1/40, ISO 1600, hand held, as usual

A shot that I took for one of the mini challenges on dpreview, the theme was yellow, I find this picture striking for some reason.

Out Of Focus, f/1.8, 1/25, ISO 400

I was playing with my Olympus Zuiko 50mm f/1.8, it is a manual focusing lens and I was shooting a street full of cars, rounded out of focus lights look really attractive to me (not this same picture, but usually they do), maybe because I was deprived of them with auto-focus point and shoots?