Bull Island Seals Dublin Photo shoot

Bull Island is located just south of Howth, around a 10 min drive from Howth harbor. It is a nature reserve, so make sure to follow the rules listed there. In order to find the seals you need to park on the northern part of the Island (Second bridge if you are coming from Dublin)

Park your car in the sand parking lot, and get ready for a 20-30 min walk. Here is a quick map on where you will find the seals my location is marked with the purple marker.

For Olympus RAW file usage with GPS I recently discovered GeoSetter, great tool that can work with the .ORF files, write the .xmp card or directly into the file to accommodate GPS data. Highly recommended.

Funny enough this map shows the exact GPS location where I was located, but bear in mind that the tide changes, so that area could be covered with water any other day, but I have been there 3 times and the seals are always located on the northernmost corner of the island, but not all the time laying on the sand, which was the shot I was looking for. After a couple of tries, here is what I managed to get prior to this day..just a few head shots.

I believe that in order to get shots from the seals outside of the water there must be a reasonable amount of sun and a low tide, this last time I went was around 9AM, so I dont think the hour in the day matters that much.

My Gear:

Olympus E3

Olympus E30

Zuiko 50-200mm 2.8

Zuiko Teleconverter 2X EC-20

Hoya Polarizer Filters

Lowepro FastPack 250

Wind resistant pants and jacket

Wellies

After a good 30 minute walk,  and depending on the tide you will find the seals at the northeast corner, approach very slowly and be very careful of the sand. I misjudged some weed and sand banks and went right in all the way to my knees covered with weed,sand and I am sure smell liked shit.  Once you are 50-75 meters away from the seals lay down on the sand, take your gear out and start approaching them by dragging yourself trough the sand, if the seals see something taller or something similar to a human shape they will dive right into the water.

Take a few shots and get closer, make the seals comfortable, and then get closer again, if some of them get scared and dive into the water stop immediately, stay still for a few minutes and move again. I saw a group of 15-20 seals but as I got closer and the tide rose few and few seals remained.

Use your bag as a bean bag and start shooting, I used Shutter and Aperture Priority Mode, low ISO (100) and a polarizer filter. I tried some shots with the tele-converter but I thought I was sacrificing too much sharpness, so decided to get closer and also crop some of the images to close-in the seals.

Being gray seals, the metering system will struggle with the light measuring of both the harsh light reflecting on the sea and the dark features on the seals faces, so compensated with EV+1 to bring some details on the face, or try and fix on post processing.

Puppies are very curious so they are the ones that will be the most active and will get closer to you, but be careful in never getting between the puppy and the mom, as they will feel threatened. Also as some seals go in the water be aware always of where they are, they can come out behind you and you dont want to be too close, a seal bite can be very nasty and have lots of bacteria in their mouths that can cause a big infection.

I lost a very good shot of a fight between 2 adult seals. If you see a seal approaching another one, and their heads are close to each other,  one of them will open its mouth that’s the beggining, put your camera on burst mode and do some manual focusing as you will see a fight that will only last for a few seconds.

Always be mindful of the tide, if you think that the waves are getting closer and closer you are right. Usually the seals are on a spot higher than the tide, that means that if you are not careful you will end up on a little sand island surrounded by water that is rising, believe me I was stuck once and had to walk with water up to my knees hauling my gear, hence the wellies. Once you get home, clean your equipment right away, there will be sand between the extension part of your lenses and all around the buttons, even though the E-3 is weather sealed, clean this with an air brush as you dont want corrosion. For your bag, wait for the sand to dry and then shake all the sand off, there will be a lot of sand accumulated on the back area of the backpack that you wont see but once it dries it will come off rather easily. If you want to see the whole set of pictures visit my site at flickr here..

del.icio.us Tags: seals,Dublin,photo,photography,Bull Island,Nature,Olympus,E-30,E-3. sea lions,wildlife,Howth,Ireland

Photoshoot near Quirianopolis, Goias, Brasil

I managed to take a week off while in Sao Paulo to go visit the Fazenda Engenho São Francisco near Quirianopolis. Here are my tips and mistakes made while shooting pictures in a farm.

Here is the equipment taken

• Olympus E3
• Olympus E30
• Olympus Flash FL-50R (Very useful while inside a Barn)
• Sigma 30mm 1.4
• Zuiko 8mm 3.5 (great for cow and calf close-ups)
• Zuiko 50-200mm 2.8
• Zuiko Teleconverter 2X EC-20
• Zuiko 11-22mm 2.8
• ND Filters
• Small Table top tripod
• Hoya Polarizer Filters

Here was my journey:

	Ireland to Brasil
	then to Goiania and Quirinopolis in Goias State
	Fazenda Engenho São Francisco  (click on the link and zoom in you can actually see the cattle)

BTW for Olympus RAW file usage with GPS I recently discovered GeoSetter, great tool that can work with the .ORF files, write the .xmp card or directly into the file to accommodate GPS data. Highly recommended.

 

Most Important tip…

Always talk to the person that runs the place day in and day out. They will give you good tips around the behavior of some of animals, which ones are approachable, and which ones to be careful (I managed to piss off a cow with her calf and it wasn't pretty)

Learn beforehand what kind of animals will you get to see (in my case was mostly cattle but managed a nice surprise to see exotic animals.

For cattle, learn what type of cattle it is you will be seeing, behavior will change depending on the breed and how is managed by the ranch.

If you want cattle to get close to you, as I wanted a very low close-up shot of some grown cows or bulls you need to get into the containment area, get down or sit down on the floor and wait. Cattle can be very curious and only takes one to come closer, for the other ones to follow. Be very careful once they are close, sudden moves can make them jump (very high) and you don't want to get stomped or worse your equipment be crushed

Clothes: depending on where you are going, will vary your clothing, but regardless of weather bring very old dirty jeans. If you can manage some cheap boots do as well, as you have to be ready to step, kneel and sit on cow dong, piss and milk and dirt. Same goes for your camera bag, be ready for it to get dirty and gnawed by curious calves

Bring your equipment for landscape photography, either on hills or flat land ranches tend to be in open spaces and you can capture great sunsets, sunrises and cloud formations.

Get up early, not only because of the great light during that time, farm work starts at 5am the animals are quite awake and is the time before a lot of the cattle is being driven to eat at the grass lands. Also in the case of Brasil is when you can manage best to carry all your equipment with the sun.

If you get to ride a horse: Taking pictures on top of a horse is not so hard if you: a) Have IS on your lense or the camera 2) Shoot either using manual or at least shutter priority mode. The faster the horse, the faster the shutter speed if you want sharp images.

Find out what other ranches around the area you are visiting. We managed to visit a neighboring ranch that sells and raises exotic animals and manage to get great shots. They were very nice and let us walk inside the containment area and take our time on getting to know the animals and wait for the best shots.(So here is a free commercial  :) )

Also depending on where you are you might manage to view animals not very common to your area, I was very intrigued by Pipoca a cateto pork which tend to be very mean, except him.

Missed opportunities:

Some of the shots or things missed:

Not all the cattle behaves the same, while buying and marking some recently purchased cattle, a bull wouldn't come into the containment area, 4 workers chase after him but he managed to jump a fence of at least 1.5 meters, it would have been a great shot.

I should have brought my Manfrotto tripod I missed some good sunset and late opportunities because of not bring it. I have the 190X which is not too heavy but maybe I should invest on a gorillapod or at the very least a smaller tripod I can travel easier

I was so concentrated on the cattle, that I missed some good opportunities for portraits with the workers at the ranches. Brasilians tend to be very open on getting their picture taken and the clothes they wear are very distinct and interesting and could make great portrait subjects.

Same as above, make sure to take pictures for remembering the trip, take pictures with family and friends, not everything is about getting the best shot.

See the rest of the shots here

Macro (Flowers)

Shooting flowers (Macro)

Don’t start snapping the first flower you come across. Even if you re standing on a field full of them, take the time to seek out the specimen that offers the best photographic potential, wether that is due to the quality of the bloom or its location

Once you have found the flower in its prime, explore the subject from all angles to find the shooting position that delivers the best composition

While your flower will be the central subject if your image, the background will play an enormous  role in the final success of the photograph. In any floral image, the background or surroundings will fill a large proportion of the frame. This isn't just empty space to e ignored, its an integral part of the picture. Your key decision will be wether you want to capture the flower in content and therefore present a clear view of the surroundings trees, plants and foliage or wether you want to focus on the flower in isolation.

As a general rule of thumb a close up fo individual flower using a macro lens will demand an unclutered background so that nothing distracts from the shape and texture of the flower itself.

Direction

If you are shooting flowers have been shot with the sun falling on them from the front. The results gives highly saturated colors but an element of flatness in the picture, and texture will be sacrificed. Alternatively standing so that the sunlight hits your subject from the right hand side will mean you get more textural detail as the beams skim over the petals from an angle. You will get a more interesting though uneven shot. For an even more dramatic effect, opt for backlighting. With your subject positioned between you and the sun, the delicate nature, the spines, hairs and translucency of your flower will be emphasized because of the light shining trough the petals from behind. Ultimately this works best on subjects with a translucent quality, such as buttercups and poppies, giving an etheral effect. Keep the background darkest than your subject and take the meter reading from the shaded side of your subject for a more even exposure

Reflect and Diffuse

The type of reflector you use in your outdoor photograph will have different effect on the end result. Careful arrangement of home-make white card reflectors or professional reflector sheets will bounce crucial light back into areas of shadow to get a more creative and controlled end result

Using gold reflectors on the other hand will imbue a warm cast over the frame for a summery effect. For a particularly dreamy image, and to take the edge off bright sunspots so as not to burn out plate flowers, position a diffuser in between your subject and the subject to soften the lighting. Tracking paper acts as an efficient diffuser material, the closer your position to your subject, the brighter the appearance and the higher the contrast.

Use your knowledge

Your skills as a photographer will grow if you use your macro work win conjunction with another area, anywhere you have inside knowledge that gives you an insight into what would make a good image and the spur to work at it

Learn patience

Macro iis not the immediate gratification type of photography. There will be successes and failures but you lean from both

Equipment

Dont make equipment or lack of it an excuse. After all, you wll only need good lighting and Aperture Priority Mode.

Have respect

The welfare of living things is of paramount importance. Lean all you can about the things you photograph

Visit my pictures at http://www.flickr.com/a207001392

 

del.icio.us Tags: macro,photo,flowers,photography

Visit my pictures at http://www.flickr.com/a207001392

Tips on...<Travel, Creative>

Unforgettable Images..travel

Heading off the beaten track is a guaranteed method for limiting your chances of cliched travel images, but remember that in this day and age you would have to be very quick to snap something that hasn't been photographed.

Boosting creativity

• The use of unusual perspective is an obvious option for boosting creativity. Getting down low with a wide-angle lens of 24-42mm will give an extreme edge to any landscape, as will using a fish eye lens which will work to distort the trye dimensions of the scene in front of you
• Timing of photography is another key factor in determining the result image. You could for example wait for what is assumed to be a remote untouched location to become swamped in rush hour traffic and then shoot for impact.

In detail

• Homing in on small details is a superb stylistic point in many travel photography portfolios, whether it happens to be the people, a street sign, local product or something that springs to your attention just as you are about to the press the shutter button. Something as simple as a door knocker, a plate of food or even a ceramic tile provided it is photographed well and in focus, can reveal a lot about a different culture

Avoid the crowds

Get up early, the light is fantastic at sunrise.

Create a contrast

Always use a lens hoodon your camera lens. This way you will avoid flare and create better contrast in your photos, specially on hot sunny locations

Back Up

Remember to back up everything you shoot at least twice. If not you run the risk of losing your images.

Get involved

Aim to be part of your photographs specially when you are photographing people.Get them to react and relate to you and your personality and you will find creating unique pictures comes easier

del.icio.us Tags: creative,photography,travel