Sydney Opera House III

I don't usually use filters, but all throughout my trip in Sydney, the sky was incredibly drab and grey all the time. In this case, I digitally applied a light graduated filter on the sky to make the scene more interesting. As for the shot, I noticed this guy in a red shirt walking about and waited for him to get into just the right position and snapped this shot. I also walked around the area to find some unusual angles to take a picture of the Opera House. Taking a good picture sometimes seems accidental, but actually requires a lot of patience and observation on the part of the photographer. Nikon D70, AF-S Nikkor 12-24mm f/4

Piping hot

A street performer playing bagpipes in Australia?! Shot slightly cropped. Nikon D70, AF Micro-Nikkor 60mm f/2.8

Sydney Opera House II

The view of the Opera House from my hotel window. Unfortunately, I was only in Sydney for about a day and a half, so there was little time to walk around and explore. Nikon D70, AF Micro-Nikkor 60mm f/2.8

Sydney Opera House

A view of the Sydney Opera House from a public pool/restaurant near Luna Park. Nikon D70, AF Micro-Nikkor 60mm f/2.8

Scariest

Those eyes! They keep following me! Geez man, I'm gonna have nightmares about those eyes. Nikon D70, AF Micro-Nikkor 60mm f/2.8

Scarier

Didn't think the last picture was scary? How about this one? Nikon D70, AF Micro-Nikkor 60mm f/2.8

Scary

Isn't this the scariest thing you ever saw? In fact this whole amusement park, called Luna Park in Sydney has some rather disturbing images. Unfortunately it was too late in the day to go inside. Nikon D70, AF-S Nikkor 12-24mm f/4

Catching some air

My best skateboard shot from a number of shots taken on a recent trip to Bondi beach in Sydney, Australia. I turned on the flash here to help fill in the shadows in the face. Nikon D70, AF Micro-Nikkor 60mm f/2.8.

Tiger orchids

My father has had a lifelong interest in orchids and has a number of really interesting ones in his garden. This one, I think, is called a Tiger orchid. The thing about this orchid is that because of its long, spindly petals, it's rather difficult to shoot a really nice picture of it without making it look inconsequential in the overall shot. I shot a number of these pictures, each time thinking about the angle and the background before finally hitting on this particular composition. I realised early on that there's no need to include the complete flower in the shot -- as long as a good portion of it is in there, it's good enough. I think what makes the shot is the little curved petal at the top which is repeated by the slightly out of focus flower in the background. Nikon D70, AF Micro-Nikkor 60mm f/2.8

Red on white

This shot worked rather well I thought. The D70's 3D Matrix Metering coped rather well this the exposure in this shot, I think, properly exposing for the white and red flowers without underexposure. Shot slightly cropped on the right. Nikon D70, AF Micro-Nikkor 60mm f/2.8

Magenta flowers

Not sure what these flowers are called, but again, they were tiny -- smaller even than the smal cactus flower in the previous post. Shot handheld with no tripod. Nikon D70, AF Micro-Nikkor 60mm f/2.8

Cactus flower 2

While the last picture was of a large cactus flower, this one is a small one, with the flower only as big as my thumb nail. I shot this picture using a tripod and used the Depth-of-field preview button on the camera to check the area of focus -- something I very rarely do in general photography. However in this case, it was very important to get the flower just right while still throwing some of the background out of focus. Nikon D70, AF Micro-Nikkor 60mm f/2.8

Cactus flower 1

My dad's garden is just filled with all kinds of interesting plants and flowers and usually during Chinese New Year in January or February, the plants are in full bloom. This is a cactus with some huge flowers as big as my hand. Nikon D70, AF Micro-Nikkor 60mm f/2.8