Sail Before Steam
A lone windsurfer eyes the competition on a grotty day off Stanley, Hong Kong.
Canon G3X at 220mm (600mm equivalent) iso400 1/320 f5.6. Cropped and tweaked in LR
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Tung Chung High-Rise
Thirty years ago, Tung Chung Wan was a sleepy village on the north coast of Lantau Island, Hong Kong. Then along came the new airport …
This block is one of many in present-day Tung Chung, a bustling new town of around a quarter of a million people a stone’s throw from Chek Lap Kok, HK’s international airport.
We nearly stayed in an airbnb in one of these, but in the end chose a more rural, bicycle-only village on Lantau’s southern side – half an hour on the bus from Tung Chung and another world. Long may it remain.
Canon G3X 24-600 equivalent optical zoom ISO800 1/800 at f8, 153mm equiv.
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Fireflies
July is the season for fireflies around our garden in the hills of Tuscany. Having shown them to entranced six-year-old granddaughter Mali, I decided it would be fun to photograph them. As ever, the Internet was a font of ideas and this is the result of my efforts.
Six shots taken with my Canon 40D with EFS 10-22mm lens at 22mm, mounted on a tripod with ISO set at 1600, each exposure 15 seconds at f4.5. All files pulled into PS and overlaid as layers. Block all layers (copy the background one first so it’s included) and set the blending mode to ‘lighter colour’. This has the effect of letting the bright spots through the layer pile while ignoring the rest of the images, which then effectively adds all the lights from the fireflies in each shot to the top layer Pretty cool – and Mali now has a lasting record of her magical experience.
Bumble Bee
Bumble bee on lavender filling her pollen baskets. Taken in garden at Gupole, Tuscany.
Canon 1DMkII with Canon EF 300mm 2.8 lens with Canon 25mm tube. ISO160 f8 at 1/800 Tweaked on LR
Hong Kong Eye
This Hong Kong version of the London Eye is currently (February 2015) attracting many visitors, along with the fairly wild fairground alongside it. The fairground is temporary, but perhaps the ‘Eye’ will be around for longer. For now, it certainly adds an additional perspective to the already stunning backdrop of Central, Hong Kong Island.
Canon 40D with Canon 10-22mm EFS 3.5-4.5 lens at 10mm. ISO 500 1/25 at f3.5. Frame as taken, exposure tweaked minimally in LR
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Phuket Praying Mantis
These fellows seem to follow me around. They are always in the garden or on the terrace at Gupole and yesterday, this guy was on the balcony sliding doors of our apartment in Phuket. He clearly knew that he made a good silhouette as he checked out the apartment, and he obligingly waved his front legs for me.
Canon 40D with a Canon 60mm EFS 2.8 macro lens at ISO 400, 1/1600 at f8
Cropped very slightly in Lightroom.
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Praying Mantis
A few minutes before I took this shot, this male praying mantis had been floating face down, legs sprawled, in the swimming pool. Whatever stroke he was trying, it wasn’t proving successful, so it was fortunate for him that I wandered past and fished him out. He stood in the sun for some considerable time drying out – you can see a droplet of water on his head behind the antennae – and he was only too happy to repay my service by posing for a few pictures. Just in case he thought it was all too much fun, I then moved him into greenery far from the pool.
Location: Tuscany, Italy
Canon 40D with Canon EF-S 60mm macro lens. ISO 160 f6.3 1/320. Tweaked in LR.
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Ghostly Venice
A busy afternoon on the Grand Canal in Venice is rendered eerily quiet thanks to a neutral density filter and a long exposure. Taken from the square by the Guggenheim museum, this location just down from the famous Accademia bridge (think Canaletto) is always buzzing with boats. The faint blur of one that passed during the exposure can be seen on the much-flattened water.
Canon 40D with Canon 10-22mm EFS lens at 15mm and a ND 3.0 1000x filter, ISO 100, f10 20 seconds
Waiting patiently
This dew-soaked little red spider is waiting motionless in its web for something tasty to arrive.
Canon 40D with Canon EFS f2.8 60mm macro lens, ISO500, 1/200 at f4
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Dewdrops
The misty Autumn mornings highlight the webs of the literally millions of spiders living in the woods around our house, each one busily constructing its own little world where it patiently waits for lunch to arrive. The trees and bushes are full of them, with the more enterprising, or maybe foolhardy, spiders slinging their webs across pathways or from one tree to the next. As the sun slowly burns off the mist, the webs light up a glistening display of water droplets on the threads. If there are millions of webs, imagine how many water droplets there must be…
Canon 40D with Canon EFS 60mm f2.8 macro on manual ISO500 1/1250 at f2.8
Full frame shot.
Location: Val Cerfone, Tuscany, Italy
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Welcome to the revamped dgcPhoto site, complete with a new theme and a new look.
I’ve been rather busy with other things for a while, so I thought a makeover was more than overdue. I hope you like it.
In many ways, the site is the same as before except that with the new theme it’s easier to navigate and more efficient to load. And the layout is far cleaner.
I’m currently using two cameras: the truly excellent Canon 90D I bought several months ago that is streets ahead of any other camera I’ve owned over the years, and a Canon 100D that I’ve had for a couple of years — a really lightweight little workhorse. I am also using my iPhone SE far more than I expected. The latest OS makes it an incredibly versatile camera.
Keep checking out the galleries; the old ones have been reinstalled and new ones are being added.
What were the ‘other things’?
Check out ‘My Novels’ here or in the menu above where a couple of clicks will take you to the world of ClarkeFiction and details of my seven edge-of-the-seat thriller novels and my wife Gail’s wonderful fully illustrated children’s books.
